A lot of high school cross country runners across the state have familiarity with the running camp experience. For many, a team camp is part of their summer. For others, taking part in a camp experience means coming together with athletes from other teams and sharing a week together.
There are pros and cons to both concepts. Team camps tend to be smaller than their counterparts in hosted by colleges or other entities. Team camps run the danger of becoming a little inbred, limiting the influx of outside ideas. But, it is definitely easier to get to know everyone at a team camp, and the bonding that takes place carries over directly, or at least should, into the fall cross country season.
Still, for a very large number of high school cross country runners, there has not yet been a camp experience. Perhaps these individuals have not been able, for one reason or another, to take part in their team's camp, their team doesn't have a camp, or perhaps they don't really know what the camp experience is like and why they might at some point want to become part of that.
Earlier this week, I was invited to come and spend a day with the Jim Ryun Running Camp in Greeley. I've had several of those invitations from a variety of camps, but I decline more than I accept. A day out of my schedule is a precious commodity. But, I had more reasons than usual to accept this time around.
As part of my visit, I decided to spend some time documenting the daily activities of a running camp with an eye toward filling in a gap or two for folks who haven't yet attended a running camp. My goal in writing this article is to help make the decision to attend--or not attend--a running camp a better-informed decision.
Start of Day
The day typically begins early at a running camp. Anyone who goes to camp to sleep in will be, at least momentarily, disappointed. What you learn pretty quickly, though, is that the best things in life happen before 8 AM.
Many camps, and especially those in hotter climates (we are talking summer, after all) begin the day with a run. Where the heat is not as oppressive, camps might do a breakfast first, followed by some sort of group session or clinic to help things to settle a little, and then a run. But, you will look long and hard to find a running camp that doesn't involve some kind of group run before 10 AM.
While I've never done a team camp, I can't imagine these are any different than more general camps.
Following the run is almost always a learning session of some form or fashion. At the Jim Ryun Running Camp on Monday, campers had the privilege of hearing Dr. Jack Daniels telling them about VO2 Max and vVO2 Max, complete with intriguing stories of athletes Dr. Daniels had done studies with in order to learn more about how we enhance our body's ability to use oxygen.
Mid Day
Then comes lunch. I don't need to tell you about lunch. Everyone is hungry by this point in the day. Woe unto the camp that is not well provisioned with food, for food will be consumed in massive quantities.
The afternoon typically means some down, or free, time followed by some form or fashion of physical activity and perhaps another clinic session or two.
At the Jim Ryun Running Camp, the hour after lunch is affectionately known as FOB (flat on back) time. A few athletes balk at this "activity" early in the week, but most are fairly compliant by about day three.
Later in the afternoon, the activity might be ultimate frisbee, learning how to water run if there's an accessible pool nearby, yoga, learning GS (general strength) drills or plyos, or possibly even a weights session. General camps or college camps generally have an advantage here over team camps in that their location is typically carefully chosen (most often a college campus) to allow access to a wide range of things that include pools and weight rooms. Some, not all, team camps struggle to find that kind of access.
At Monday's Jim Ryun Running camp, athletes were divided up into three groups in the afternoon--one each heading for yoga, drills, and pool work. Later in the week, they would have the chance to rotate through those opportunities.
Former Colorado 5A #2 cross country finisher and Air Force WCAP athlete Matt Williams, now a physical therapist, also led an afternoon session touching on how the various muscles were used, and sometimes abused, in running.
Evening
Then, once again, massive quantities of food are consumed at dinner.
It's probably during the evening hours that camp activities diverge most noticeably.
I've been at camps in my experience where evening hours were more or less compete free time, with the stipulation that campers remain within a certain defined area. Other camps are much more structured. It seems almost every camp, though, incorporates a trivia night into one of evenings of the week. Other competitions might take place on other nights. If a camp incorporates a faith-based element, this will typically appear sometime during the evening hours, though it takes a variety of forms--sometimes even within the same camp.
Lights out typically comes somewhere around 10 PM. Usually, this is not accompanied with much resistance. The cumulative total of the day's activities has most people ready to hit the mattress and sleep soundly at a very reasonable hour.
Variety
Although team camps often do not run an entire week (or at least five days), most general camps do. In either case, there's quite often a "fun" day built into the camp experience. In Colorado, these days might include a whitewater rafting trip, a hike up a substantial summit, a visit to the Olympic Training Center (not my idea of a fun "activity," but I digress). Tolerance level of campers for activities outside of their comfort zone can sometimes become a limiting factor in these fun days. Not everyone cares to look down between their legs on the "home stretch" of Longs Peak as a camp activity, but some sort of challenging activity does seem to be in order.
After all, camp is meant to expand horizons, not shrink them.
There is almost always a camp photo to be taken. In general, this typically happens early in the camp experience. There are a number of reasons why this works better early in the weak than later. The Jim Ryun Running Camp took their camp photo on Monday. Athletes will be handed a camp photo before they leave.
Motivational Elements
Sometimes camp motivation comes the easy way. Sometimes it comes the hard way. But, one way or the other, camps need to run on time. If you show up late to an activity at the Jim Ryun Running Camp, you and your counselor will end up with a little extra upper body strength on account of your dalliance. Some campers develop a little more than others over of the course of a week.
The Sum of It All
After five days of running, plus activities, or four days of running plus activities with a fun day built in, there comes a culminating activity.
It's safe to assume that most everyone attending a running camp has a competitive bent, so the culminating activity usually centers around a competitive activity. It could be a race, the championship game of a week-long ultimate frisbee tournament, or the decisive bout in a large bundle of team activities spread out through the entire week.
At the end of it all, pretty close to everyone is tired, happy, and ready to go home and sleep 15 hours straight. Very few campers come to the end of the week disappointed in the experience. If the campers come home from a general camp, coaches are well-advised to lay off them just a little for a day in the training activities of the next week. All the more so if camp involved substantial travel for the athlete. Very few athletes train over the entire summer at the level of intensity they experience in their week at running camp.
The rest they get when they arrive back home is well earned, and most know a whole lot more about running than when the left home.