My Learnings From Living On A Farm Training Camp For 45 Days

Before I kick off, Camp Kaizen’s first block of summer training camps are now done. I sit here typing this blog post, waiting for the rain to blow over so I can begin packing away our training facility before our return to the fam later this summer.

What an experience. What a set of training camps (we even squeezed in our first Hybrid Mountain Race!). Our first round of camps was just incredible and surpassed even my hopes and expectations. Over 82% of attendees said they will be returning and all attendees ranked their experience between 8-10/10 (62% of attendees said it was 10/10 and up there with the best experience of their lives). I’ve been blown away with the feedback. Memories have been made for life on Camp Kaizen, and that’s a very special feeling. Anyway, more of this in a future blog.

My personal bel tent is second to the right in the middle1

This entry is about my personal experience living on the farm training camp.

What did I learn? What surprised me? What didn’t? Read on to find out.

The proposition of living permanently in a bell tent on a working farm campsite for 2 months was intimidating. I had never done anything like this before and wasn’t sure how my body or mind would respond.

To my surprise, I settled in pretty easily. I think part of this was due to being so relieved to be away from the Kaizen deskwork and actually living the Camp Kaizen brand, as it should be lived. In amongst the landscape, training, and taking it all in every single day.

Learning 1 – Daily energy price tags

One of the most significant differences between life on the farm in a bell tent versus a flat in London is that pretty much every single human action which you take daily comes with a buy in – it needs to be earned and takes energy. Nothing is handed to you on a plate. Examples include going to the toilet – it’s a 100m walk from our training facility. Fancy a coffee? You will need to fill up the kettle from the water tank, fire it up on the gas stove, wait for the water to boil, and then walk another 200m to wash it up after. Maybe that second coffee can wait… how about taking the bins out? Yep, you guessed it, 100m walk there, 100m walk back. Final point – our on-site gym needs to literally get unpacked and packed every single day. This saves the kit from the elements and means that everything remains in top-quality condition. Put it this way, I won’t take Anytime Fitness for granted again!

The energy price tag on each daily task has given my life real purpose, starting right at the granular level. Every day is laced with small and meaningful actions, compounding to make each day on the camp hugely fulfilling.

It’s going to be strange going back to a life where these daily actions are… frictionless.  

Presenting the winning t-shirt after a day at the Mountain Race.

Learning 2 - The organic bar of soap

We have a beautiful stream next to our training camp. I love cold water and decided when I first arrived here that I would start every day on camp with a dip in the stream.  

After a few days of doing so, my good mate Nibbs recommended that I get my hands on an organic bar of soap from the nearby town of Keswick, so I could properly clean myself and maximise the morning bathing experience! Needless to say, I took his advice and next time I was in town, I picked up my first bar of natural soap – it was coconut flavour and smelt so good. At £5 it was bloody good value too.

From that day onwards, my morning cold plunges reached a new level of enjoyment. I don’t really use the site showers much, so this was my main opportunity to both energise myself first thing in the morning, and to clean myself thoroughly. The feeling of emerging from that icy mountain stream water, both energised and clean was, and still is, amazing.

There’s more still to come from this story though.

The bars of soap last about 3 weeks on average (they get a lot of use!), and before I knew it, it was time to pick up a new bar from Keswick.

And it was within this journey to pick up the soap, the careful selection of the chosen bar, the unwrapping on the morning of its first use, and then the eventual first use, which brought me so much joy and fulfilment.

I looked forward to the process of a new bar of soap so much.

It was a deep feeling of happiness.  

When living in London and Manchester, there were moments when I definitely lost sight of the “simple pleasures” in life. How can you blame me? When your daily outdoor exercise is a walk around the same mundane block, or a moody walk to the tube, it can be hard to find beauty and happiness in the “small things”. Instead, happiness and fulfilment often came from a big pay cheque, a new suit, or a big piss up (nothing wrong with this, or any of those by the way).

Although all the previous would no doubt still bring me much joy, the £5 bar of soap has completely recalibrated my perception of joy through both the material and the sequence of associated action.

The latest in a long line of bars of organic soap.

Learning 3 - Cold water

I already knew the benefits (purely my opinion and from my experience) of cold-water immersion. Back home before moving onto the camp, I cold showered every day and whenever I got the chance to cold plunge, I took it.

But the experience of living next to a flowing stream of natural mountain water and literally bathing in it every morning, come rain or shine, has turbo charged my appreciation for the power of cold water (especially in the morning).

I am deadly serious when I say this: at least 50% of the days that I wake up in the morning on camp, I don’t want to get in the stream. And I really don’t want to get in that fucker. I often catch myself in self-negotiations, coming up with excuses as to why I shouldn’t get in that day.

Here’s the trick - I never let those negotiations last and always get my arse in the damn water.

And I’m always glad I did.

After getting out of the water, I immediately feel warm and like a layer of cloud has literally been lifted from my psyche. All decisions made after the experience feel like they are being made with a crystal-clear conscience, and that energy and adrenaline carries me through the day. I also think that the water helps to accelerate my recovery from whatever training I have been doing, especially when I hit the natural hydro pool (the section of the stream which flows quicker).

I am yet to hear of another 2-minute action which has such a profoundly positive impact on your entire day – it really is like magic, and I mean that. But the daily buy in never gets any easier.

In the plunge with the lads during a recent training camp! You can see the natural hydro pool in the far left corner of the photo.

Learning 4 – Humans are built to endure

I’ve been re-reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelias whilst I’ve been living here.

Paraphrased, Aurelias says that nothing happens to any creature beyond what it is capable of enduring. You can take as much or as little as you like from this, but I have personally taken lots from it recently.

I’ve always been one to feel the cold and don’t particularly enjoy spending time in the cold. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have spend multiple days in a row (mainly in April) where I have felt cold.

And you know what, it wasn’t that bad.

And guess what comes after cold? Warmth, or the sunshine, and damn does it feel good.

Humans as species are built to endure, and I’ve loved pushing myself out of my own comfort zone over the last 45 days. My tolerance to the cold has improved too.

If it is endurable, then endure it.

Learning 5 - Training on the training camp

When I pictured myself living on a farm training camp, I thought I would be training 3 times a day. Non-stop, Rocky 4 style!

This hasn’t happened.

In reality, training on camp is much harder to work into everyday life than I expected. The small daily tasks which I discussed earlier, paired with the physical weight of running Camp Kaizen and preparing & running new training camps every weekend, really ads up. Before you know it, you haven’t found time to train yourself.

Add to this that the occasions where we have had days of consistent rain, meaning that our precious gym is practically out of bounds, due to being preserved for our up-coming training camps, and you can see how a 2-month long Rocky 4-style training camp has been tricky to execute!

The result of the above means that my training weeks often look something like the following:

UB strength – 1 session

LB strength – 1 session

Off feet conditioning session – 1 (often during a training camp if I could tag onto a programmed session)

Windermere marathon specific training run – 1

Additional runs – 2 or 3 (I lead runs on our training camps)

Looking at those stats, up to 7 training sessions per week isn’t too bad – I will take it!

One thing I will say. Even though my training volume is technically down from my old life, the enjoyment of each session is up. Every time I get the opportunity to train, I am grateful and make the most of it.

Also, weight sessions are so much grittier when you’re exposed to the elements. I will never forget my 1-degree Celsius leg day. Hopefully I don’t need to back squat in warm gloves again for a while…

The more these sessions take to execute, the more you gain from them. I love it.

Leading a Saturday morning run to the sauna during a training camp. a 13.5KM crowd pleaser.

Closing thoughts

There’s an argument that the last 45 days have been some of the best, if not the best, of my life. Have I changed? Maybe, maybe not. What I know I have done is lived through a complete recalibration experience. I’ve stripped it back to basics, lived hard, and loved (almost) every second whilst living at Seathwaite Farm & Camp Kaizen’s training facility in the Lake District.

And this is before we even talk about that thing known as Camp Kaizen itself.

I haven’t even left yet, and I am already looking forward to August when I return permanently again.

But for now, there’s work to be done on Kaizen back in London and Manchester.

Huge plans ahead.

Here’s to living.

George – Founder,