Living Camp Kaizen - Life on a Farm Training Camp - By George
It’s coming up to 4 weeks living on our Camp Kaizen training facility at Seathwaite Farm, Cumbria. I thought it would be nice write a blog entry into what life is like living here every day.
For those who are on TikTok (I never thought I would be writing this), I am trying to document more of my day-to-day training and farm lifestyle stuff on there: kaizengeorge
The weeks here are broken down into 3 components:
Camp preparation
The actual training camps / events we run out of our facility
Post training camp / event
Our training camp in all its glory - from above!
Let’s go through each briefly.
Camp preparation
This basically consists of the following: Making sure that all camp attendees for that weekend know exactly where they need to be, when, and what they need to bring. I also need to ensure that our partners and vendors know the plan for that training camp. everything from allergies to who does and doesn’t want pineapple on their pizza for pizza night, to lunch pickups from the Glaramara Hotel. We also need to have a schedule nailed down with the Kaizen Staff for that camp, with different scales of difficulty built into the programme.
Oh, and the camp – it needs to be ready. Tents clean, intro packs ready, communal area ready to go, meat in the fridge. So on.
The lead up to the camps are exciting because me and the team love meeting new people and training together every weekend. So, it’s also that sense of anticipation and build up!
Getting the job done with my boy Nibbs.
Next we have the training camps themselves
These are the main event, and they (touch wood) generally take care of themselves. I’m lucky to work alongside an incredible team of capable professionals who ensure the weekends run like clockwork.
Our training camps always feel like the reward at the end of all the hard work.
Ultimately, our unique training facility, paired with hard, intentional, programmed training, and bringing new likeminded people together in an elite environment is a recipe for success. Even if it does rain!
Hard training during our Masters / 35+ training camp.
Our socials are absolutely stacked full of clips and photos from our training camps, so you can check us out to see more – camp.kaizen
Post training camp
Once everyone has departed the training camp on Sunday by midday, the mission is to get the camp back to normal as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there’s no shortcuts to achieving this… we’re talking tent checks, sweeping, cleaning dry cleaning all bedding, repegging, stock checking and reordering, and so much more. You can imagine.
This is usually a 2- or 3-day task and before you know it, Tuesday is here again and it’s time to get the wheels moving for the next camp starting on the Thursday.
Post camp is also really gratifying because you get to see all the social media posts from our camp attendees, where they share their experience of Camp Kaizen and thereby help to grow the brand organically. It’s really cool to see.
At the end of the training camp, all attendees sign the Kaizen flag and get a unique bag patch. Always a special moment.
And so, the cycle continues… I love it!
What do I get up to day to day beyond our training camps though…?
When we are running our weekend training camps, my priority is ensuring the camps run as smoothly as possible, over the weekends, I am 100% committed to my role on the camp, whether that be leading runs, picking people up from stations, helping with the BBQs etc. I wear whatever hat is needed and my personal training and routine always takes a back seat.
During the week, I keep it simple.
Wake up around 6.30AM (usually naturally).
Clean myself up then go straight to the stream for a 2-minute morning cold plunge, regardless of the weather. I must admit, I am looking forward to it warming up by a few degrees soon… I have a bar of soap and literally clean myself in the stream. It’s a beautiful and almost cathartic way to start the day.
Following this I will make a coffee (kettle boiled prior to cold plunge entry!) and run through my morning stretch routine. My body is an important part of Camp Kaizen, so I need to treat it with respect. Following this, I will have breakfast, which is usually a massive bowl of porridge (and I mean massive) with peanut butter, honey, a jaffa cake or two, some additional granola on top, you get the idea. This sets me up well for whatever the rest of the day entails. By now it is probably about 8.30/9AM.
I literally live on a training camp, so I train once per day (apart from super busy days/when training camps are running). Ironically, I probably train less then when I was living in London or Manchester, but there’s so much to do around the camp.
My priority at the moment is training for the Windermere Marathon on 14th June, so if I get a clear morning on my calendar (usually Tuesday or Wednesday), I will commit to a long run around a lake or two in the area. Today (19th May) I ran 31KM around Derwentwater. The weather was shite but it was a fun run.
Getting it done during the Buttermere Loop Challenge.
On top of this, I try to keep up with my conditioning on the ergs (aiming for 1 session per week), plus 1 lower body strength and 1 upper body strength session. More if I can. The arms won’t grow themselves.
Diet is… inconsistent. Convenience often taken priority, and I actually eat best when the training camps are running. We ensure that our camp attendees are so well fed with the best local produce and lots of it, so I just tag onto the back of that. It works out pretty well!
I always ensure that I’m properly fuelled for my training and optimise recovery with the right macro nutrient splits.
I live on the camp with my good mate Nibbs. Nibbs is a former combat medic in the special forces and is a great guy to hang out and train with. I’m not sure where I or Camp Kaizen would be without his incredible guidance and practical support. Shout out Nibbs.
It’s interesting living on Seathwaite Farm. At the weekend, it is a busy (but basic) campsite, and the most popular parking destination for those climbing Scafell Pike. I actually made a few quid the other day BBQing and selling off some of my leftover burgers to hungry walkers on the way down on Sunday. Everyone’s a winner.
Grillin’ up on a Sunday after camp.
The transition from tourist trap to working farm is wild and therapeutic. Come Monday, the campsite is absolutely dead. Just me, Nibbs, and the boys on the farm. Back to the peaceful serenity of the lonely valley and lambing season. The weekly cycles are brilliant and just feel so harmonious. It’s the perfect balance.
Hopefully that gives you some insight into a lived experience which I don’t think anyone else in the UK can claim to be doing right now.
Camp Kaizen as a business is gaining so much traction and momentum (and rightly so!), and I can’t wait to bring more people onto our incredible training camp to continue this journey.
See you all soon.
George.