Over the weekend, Welsh Triathlon Development Academy were up in North Wales for the second of their training camps this season.

The focus was on nutrition, both knowledge and practical, as well as swim technique using video feedback.

We started the camp with an ‘alternative’ form of yoga to get the athletes warmed up. This included some single arm foot wrestling, balloon balance and unicorn hoop throwing.

The athletes then took the reins on cooking their own breakfasts, including omelettes and flapjacks, under the supervision of our Nutritionist, Natalie Allen. The aim of this was to educate the athletes from a practical perspective in order to help them to apply this when they go home or go onto University. Natalie also led a workshop on how to fuel around and recover from training in order to optimise both health and performance.

We then headed to Bangor for an aerobic swim set alongside getting video footage of each athlete to analysis back at Plas Menai. In small groups, we analysed each athletes video to find some small areas to improve on and to highlight what is already being done well.

We headed to Bangor once again on Sunday morning. The swim set was a mixture of drills to focus on the technical areas we identified from the video feedback and some short, hard reps to get the athletes working hard! Everyone got stuck into the swim set which also featured a variety of relay type reps to add in some competition.

A break from training during the middle of the day allowed the athletes to go through an athlete health workshop with Natalie and the coaches. This helped to highlight some of the key areas to be aware of as young and busy athletes trying to balance three sports.

We finished the camp with a trail run in the beautiful Newborough Forest in Anglesey. Thanks to the Perrin family for leading us on some amazing routes through the forest!