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

Hi Julien,

Do you have a brochure or something? My parents aren't going to look at the website so it would be better if ic ould have something I coul print.

Thks

Delete this thread please.

Hi Julien,

Just wanted to say congrats on the project. I wish I were still in high school and I could join the camp. You said you may open it to other age categories from 2018? Awesome !!

Cheers

BlaBlarun, we are about to finish up a brochure, we will integrate it into our webiste in a couple of days. i will let you know when it's up!

coolest camp. do i have to take the french class though? Can it be optional?

Would love to come. But a bit too expensive for my parents...

Dji3k wrote:

Hi Julien,

Just wanted to say congrats on the project. I wish I were still in high school and I could join the camp. You said you may open it to other age categories from 2018? Awesome !!

Cheers

Hi Dji3k,

Thanks for your message. we are actually going to happen a running camp for adults in 2018!! We welcome any feedback you may have on what you would like to see on this camp.

Julien

Awesome idea!

In my opinion it looks more like a camp for rich kids.

I love the "no sexual contact" rule. Haha.......good luck with that.

Sorry as a parent of teens I would not consider this camp and the cost is not the issue.

I don't know many parents who in this day and age will let their 15 year old daughter fly alone to Europe. If mom and/or dad accompany the child the cost of the 2 week trip is now pushing $7k to $10k depending on where mommy and daddy are staying.

Hi Run Doctor,

Sorry to hear about your concerns. We suggest having campers flying together as a group with friends if they can, and even better, with their coach if available. We offer aggressive discounted prices for the coaches going with athletes so that it reassure the parents and the athletes.

At the end of the day, we tried our best to have a secure camp with individual room, experienced and skilled staff, facilitate for US coaches to come, write daily email to parents as well as get the parents our phone numbers if they want to call us at any time. If you have suggestions on how to even make this camp even better, please let us know (honestly, please do)!

Julien

Good Stuff! Would love to come if I could afford it :(

Julien Running Abroad wrote:

Hi Run Doctor,

Sorry to hear about your concerns. We suggest having campers flying together as a group with friends if they can, and even better, with their coach if available. We offer aggressive discounted prices for the coaches going with athletes so that it reassure the parents and the athletes.

At the end of the day, we tried our best to have a secure camp with individual room, experienced and skilled staff, facilitate for US coaches to come, write daily email to parents as well as get the parents our phone numbers if they want to call us at any time. If you have suggestions on how to even make this camp even better, please let us know (honestly, please do)!

Julien

You are very naïve. Most coaches do not want their athletes being trained by other coaches. You have to understand most of us are very protective of our athletes and paranoid that our athletes will like a new coach more.

More importantly we have off season workout plans set up for our athletes and we don't want some unknown coach doing something completely against our training regime.

Also do you really think coaches are going to pay $4000 - $5000 to attend a camp and sit back and watch? Most coaches are lower middle class earners at best.

Travel as a group? Again very naïve. Do you really think 3 or 4 kids or even 2 kids from the same school or club are going to be interested in your program?

I don't mean to be a stick in the mud but I don't see North American kids being your target audience. Cost and distance is a concern I think you are better served targeting runners from Europe.

Are you sure this isn't just an actual tour of Le Tour de France?

I reviewed your website and I have concerns.

While it is very slick and pretty when I looked at your profiles red flags started flying.

All of your credentials are far from impressive other than a few of you were athletes. You have a husband and wife team with a small baby as organizers. Martin has attended some camps in different countries and claims to have met some famous runners.

Providing us with your PR's in the 800m means nothing in terms of your ability to provide a safe and efficiently run camp.

Coaching experience that is verifiable is needed?

Also for half your staff you only provide first names. Sebestien is your "professional coach"? Who the hell is he?

Khadija is a backpacker who loves to travel and has run a bit. Haley also loves to travel. Is this relevant?

This whole "project" leaves much to be desired. I just don't see parents dropping their kids off at the airport and sending to a small town in Europe and leave them in the hands of you and your crew.

Any parent who sends their kids to a camp let alone to Europe does their due diligence and you guys don't pass the sniff test.

Good luck you are going to need it.

Coach G, Thank for your feedback. Even in a patronizing tone, it's interesting to know that some coaches are so protective of their athletes that they wouldn't want them to participate in a program like this even if the athlete wanted to. I have been a HS coach for several years so I am fairly aware of how things works. For the July camp, most days are made up of mileage runs anyway , so the training wouldn't be much different from one coach to another. On our Website, we also mention that we can follow coache's direction if they absolutely want their athlete to follow their own direction. On another note, the young, progressive generation of coaches understand that all coaches are different and a couple of weeks with someone else might be extremely beneficial to the athletes. We also understand that HS athlete need to experience things and have fun while running.I know first hand the finiancial situation of coaches in HS, that is why we offer the camp for free to coaches who come as a group. We even offer to pay for their flight.Finally, we have several groups of more than 4/5 athletes from the same school already signed up. Very naive of you to think that all HS runners want to do during the summer is sit at home and do base mileage every day aroudn their home waiting for back to School ;) Thanks again for your patronizing feedback. We are doing just fine so feel free to move on if you do not like the project :)

Hello Running Abroad Team,

This camp seems like a great camp for me because I am looking at a fun study abroad for this up coming summer. I am 16 and I run the 800m in 1:59. Could my parents talk to you? They have a few questions they would like to ask you.

Is the best email to reach you the one listed on

www.runningabroad.org?

Feels a bit weird to reach out to a "contact" email info, so let me know if you have a personal address. It would be better.

Thank you,

Ralph

Hi Ralph,

We're very excited to hear about your interest on the camp! My name is Martin Casse, I'm a pro runner and I will be leading the group during the camp.

If you're looking to have fun while running, you're definitely targeting the right camp for you! Congrats on breaking 2min on the 800m by the way !! You'll meet few fast 800m runners up in the mountains !!

Julien and I will be happy to answer your questions and talk to your parents.

Here's my email address:

martin@runningabroad.org

Talk to you soon

Martin

To Concerned Parents of the world. Thank you for your feedback. We will incorporate more details on our website thanks to your comments. Our thoughts was to provide a full detailed Bio on our staff once we were contacted by interested parents who wanted to know more and keep those profile pretty short on our website for simplicity sake. Since you asked for info of our staff and questionned his ability to handle a camp, here some partial bullet point from our bio:Sebastien Gamel is our camp director. He has extensive experience in directing running camp as he has led and been the camp director of more than 15 running camps for various age. He has also led a running camp for the national youth team. He is a professional coach for professional runner and has led many of his runner to national championship and world championship. He is one of the most reknown youth middle distance coach in France. Martin Casse, our proffesional runner who will run with the campers, has led several summer running camp for the past few years in Toulouse with CA Balma track club and is now coaching a group of 12 athletes from age 15 to 20. He actually just organized a 2 weeks running camp for his group in Font-Romeu, with a similar structure to the one offered on our website. Two years ago, he was the main counselor on a beginner running camp for children aged 7 to 10.Julien Bousquet coached in high school at the University school of Nashville in Nashville TN and at Spain Park High School in Birmingham AL. He has organized all travel arrangements when going to "away" meets (Sleeping accommodations, transportation, meals. etc), and has led 8 athletes to win a state championship during his coaching career. He has also led a couple of runners to the New Balance National Indoor championship. Finally, he was the head coach and lead conselors for 3 different summer running camp in France in 2012, 2013 and 2015.We have already filled the majority of available spots on our Cross-country camp already, so we thank you for wishing us luck :)The Running Abroad Team

I ran with Martin Casse at the University of Texas Pan-American, now known as the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, a division one university located in South Texas. This guy is not only a world class athlete, but he is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to mid-distance/distance running. I also got to meet and spend time with Sebastian Gamel when he visited South Texas for a few weeks. They call him a professional coach because he has coached professional runners in France that have excelled at the national and European championships. He knows his stuff. Both these guys are genuine hard working individuals who have dedicated their lives to the sport that they love. If I was in high school I'd jump at an opportunity to be able to learn from them. Just talking and being around an athlete like Martin will open up your eyes to what it takes to be a great runner. To those who have signed up or are going to sign up, pay close attention to his habits and daily routines. Also, pay close attention to how he trains and takes care of his body. It's incredible what you will learn. It's a new camp, and some people seem to be expressing doubt and concerns in these guys, but I'm more than positive if you give these guys a shot you won't regret it.

Martin, Julian, Seb wish you guys the best from South Texas!