Altitude Training Camp in FRANCE (Pyrenees Mountain) On The Highest Track In Europe- For HS only

Just saw this on Milesplit. Very Cool !

Do you have a camp for non high school athletes? Would be interested

Sounds awesome.

I won't lie, athletes aren't going to get much value in this camp. It'll take at least 2-3 days to adjust to the time zone difference, and it takes months to adjust to altitude. Depending on how high the camp is, chances are you'll get a bunch of athletes who are going to struggle, big time with that adjustment.

Like we said on our website, this is much more than a running camp. We will be racing in a couple of meets, touring the Southwest of France, going to Andorra and Spain, taking French Classes, going to the beach on the French Riviera, visits some 2,000 fortified castles, etc... Even from a running perspective, this is more about the running experience than simply just the pure benefits of altitude. The International Altitude Training Center we are staying at is at 6,000 feet, which is high but not extremely high and allows athlete to quickly adapt. This location also allows to train alongside with all the pros on this coveted track. Farah, Rupp, Mekhissi, Kowall, Radcliffe and many others are usually spotted there. I agree, just a couple of weeks in altitude per say might not make a huge difference. Running with Farah or Bosse or Mehkissi on the track and eating dinner with the pros even night might.

We will also focus on qualitative training, lead by national team coaches, which is a bit different than the american way of coaching, and we believe that it will benefits a lot of athletes.

In the end, would love to offer a 2 month altitude camp, but I doubt that would get much traction, so the concensus is that a couple of weeks in altitude is better than none. Why do hundreds of runners go for a couple of weeks in colorado to train in altitude then? It's about the experience and not purely the mere benefits of altitude :)

Julien

Shaffles15 wrote:

Do you have a camp for non high school athletes? Would be interested

I was thinking the same thing, sounds like fun to this fat old hobby jogger.

Great question! Not this year but we will next year!! Probably looking at creating two runnings camps for adults. One for advanced runner and one for leisure runner where we would go run in the morning and viist a winery in the afternoon type of deal.

I welcome any ideas you may have for the "adult" camp next year

Honestly as a high school sophomore right now, this sounds amazing. I'm obviously not going to do it for sure because the money and everything but I really will think about this. I just wanted to let you know that I'm a high schooler and this really does sound great. The only thing that I would be confused about is the skill level of the people going. I'm at about 19:00 for the 5k and was hoping I wouldn't get left in the dust on the easy runs if it were just going to be 16 or 15 minute runners.

Thanks a lot for your feedback Highschooler1245.

We will make sure to highlight that runners don't necessarily need to be fast to join the camp. It is literally for everyone (and btw, 19min 5k isn't bad at all for a sophomore).

Please contact me directly for scholarship options as we have a small scholarship program for our camp.

julien@runningabroad.org

THIS IS AWESOME

Waht would you say is the main highlight of this trip Julien?

I saw on the website you had a $250 discount for early bird if I sign up before April 25th AND a group discount a $250 person if I sign up with 4 other people. Right?

Can I combine those two offer and get $500 off?

Hi Tim,

Unfortunately, you cannot combine both discount. So either you sign up before April 25th and get the $250 off OR if a group of 5 ppl sign up together, they would get the $250 off for each person.

Julien

Julien@runningabroad.org

Julien Running Abroad wrote:

Great question! Not this year but we will next year!! Probably looking at creating two runnings camps for adults. One for advanced runner and one for leisure runner where we would go run in the morning and viist a winery in the afternoon type of deal.

I welcome any ideas you may have for the "adult" camp next year

Suzy Favor would be a great speaker for the "adult" camp. I'd definitely come up with $600 for that.

Hi Jacob,

As for the main highlights, it depends on what you are into. Some will think training alongside the prod in the Mountains of France is the best, some would think that competing in France is, while some other would be most excited by the French lessons and all the visits we do, including Andorra and Spain. Some might also be happy to be away from their parents for two weeks :)

All the key activities are listed on our website, as well as a detailed day by day schedule. Keep the questions coming!

Julien

Thank you Julien. That sounds super cool

What's your fastest and slowest campers/interested camper you got so far? Just want to know

quote]JackOTrack wrote:

What's your fastest and slowest campers/interested camper you got so far? Just want to know[/quote]

Hi Jack,

So far our fastest interested runner has a PR of 15:36 for the 5k. On the other end of the spectrum, we have a couple of runners in 19:30 and some girls running 2:44 on the 800m.

There is really a place for everyone. The fastest runners will not run by themselves as our professional runner and coach, Martin Casse, will do the work-out withe campers (he just ran 3:39 1500). The slowest runner will also have people to run with. Of all our staff will do the runs!

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Would it be possible to accommodate taking online classes while there?