The rest of the week at Playitas, Fuerteventura

Breakfast was indeed all one could have hoped for and more!

Athletes, especially triathletes happen to be the fussiest bunch of eaters I know. Well, this breakfast had something for EVERYONE. Every kind of bread you can imagine, gluten free, rye bread, white brown and everything in-between. A smoothie bar manned by a guy churning out smoothies like no-body’s business. An egg area, for whatever kind of egg you would like! Omelettes, that Spanish thing I have forgotten the name of, like quiche without the pastry. My fave is the ‘make your own museli’ station which has load of different dried fruits and nuts. All kinds of milk, soya, even no lactose milk! And of course cooked breakfast including fried courgette and all kinds of strange stuff along with all the faves. Basically everything!

The staff also seemed to have warmed up a bit and have been helpful and friendly. Someone even kindly showed me around the apartments as I think that might be nicer (and easier for food etc) when I come back for the Challenge race in April.
 

This is pretty much the landscape!

 My thoughts on the bike course (The Challenge Fuerteventura bike route) is it basically has 4 distinctive parts;

Undulating

HILLY/mountainous

Undulating

Flat and fast



Hydrating on the beach!
 Nearby café with great
coffee and free Wi-Fi!

I think that hydration and feeding are going to be critical on the bike, its very hot and humid even now in December. The wind ads anew problem to the equation too, since taking a bottle to drink from, at the same time as a strong gust nearly sent me tumbling into a ditch!

I have found there is a wild cat feeding area in the hotel! Some very friendly kitties seem to mooch about here. This provided a nice distraction from the pain in my legs for about 5 minutes!
 

Dinner was as good as breakfast, everything you could hope for and lots of it! My only criticism is that drinks are pretty pricey, and they don’t let you take your own bottles in, even just water.
 

Day 2 and the rest of the week

Went for a little dip in the sea which was lovely. The sea temp is about 19 degrees centigrade. There were a few little tropical fish floating about, but after they had gone the seabed was pretty barron! Just black and volcanic! It’s a really good beach for OW swimming as there are a number of bouys fairly near the beach so great for sighting practice.

Off on the bike again after breakfast and I went on a short-ish ride down to the south. It must have been hotter than yesterday, but the wind masked that. I only realised how strong the sun was when I got back and saw my lovely red arms and crazy tan legs in the mirror!

I ran off the bike today…cripes! Windy and hilly made for a fairly miserable run…however I got some new tan lines. Ehem….I mean burn lines!
 

I swam in the evening in one of the later sessions, and now I know why no one swims then…it gets freeing! I couldn’t finish the session since my head was pounding and I started getting black spots in my eyes! 10 mins in a hot shower and normality was restored.

The pool is an extra EUR2.70 for an hour. It was really clean and 8 lovely wide lanes in the sunshine :) Very nice for someone who hates swimming.

One day I decided to try out the small fishing village adjacent to the resort. I went to a lovely restraint and decided sea food would be the best option given the nature of the location. I had a delicious meal, and cheeky EUR2.00 glass of wine! The dinner was lovely and on the seafront. Perfect place and way to unwind after an intense day in the sun! And it was really reasonable. The dinner was also accompanied by the local kitties, fine for me as a cat lady, but others weren't so keen!
 

Last day

I had a late flight which meant after checking out at 1100, I had some time to kill. I did a swim and sesh in the gym (which is free to hotel guests). The gym is large and really well equipped. Lots of eights and machines, plus all the foam rollers and thera-bands you would expect in a top-class gym. The staff kindly stored my bike and luggage for me so I was free to swish about the resort as I pleased. A bit of trg and a lot of book reading, and then it was time to leave :'(

Concluding thoughts

The resort is really clean and well set up for runners, triathletes and generally active people. The weather in Demember was lovely, not too hot, but sunny enough to top up the vitamin D levels and get a bit of a pre-Christmas tan! The staff were actually very friendly and helpful, I think they were just having a bad day when I arrived. The food is good and plentiful! The cycling is as challenging as you want it to be, but beware, its not called the windy island for nothing.

I would definitely go back for a week, or more of training. The long flight time (4h +) makes it a little too far for any time less than a week. Looking forward to being back for the Challenge event! And by looking forward....I mean totally terrified by the hills, the heat and the sheer enormity of 70.3 (for the Sprint and SD distance girl anyway!)



 

Shift Work & Training

I have been asked by a few people to share my methods/tips/coping strategies for training while doing night shifts and shift work in general...

The Background

Currently I am in a full time job where I work 12 hr shifts in an underground bunker. These are both day and night shifts. There are a lot of problems relating to shift work and lack of exposure to natural light. The first being sleeping and how that effects recovery for an athlete, but also other things like mood, motivation and willingness to train. 

Sleep

There are 3 main functions of sleep. 1 is to repair the body. 2 is to process food and restoration/recovery of the nervous system and 3 is the cognitive function of learning and memory.  Many now argue that sleep is mainly for the brain rather than the body.

"Sleep affects recovery, metabolism, hormonal balance, mood, and athletic performance. During sleep, the body secretes growth hormone, which aids in strength building and recovery from injury by stimulating the healing and growth of muscle and bone as well as the burning of fat. Sleep helps keep athletes mentally sharp, too, and is important for memory, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination as well as for learning and acquiring new skills."

So, all the good advice says get between 8 and 10 hours a night, which just aint gonna happen if your are on the night shift!

 

There is loads and LOADS of stuff on the internet about how bad not getting enough sleep is for you, disturbances in circadian rhythm (your body's natural rhythm)  etc. etc. so I wont go into all that, I am just going to share my tips about getting through it, and especially getting through it while still trying to achieve your athletic goals.

Training

Unfortunately you are going to have to adapt your training, and this might mean having more easy or light training days than you would ideally like. However this is better than trying to train at a really high intensity when you are exhausted, resulting in becoming frustrated and angry because you have had a bad session, or worse becoming injured. 

Day shifts 

These are long and tiring. I normally try and do a light training session before work (horrendously early) or after work. Anything more than that and I would be wasted and unable to do much in the following days.

Night Shifts & The Tips

1. Don't try and skimp on sleep in the day in order to maximise your daylight hours. It is really frustrating to spend the best bits of the day asleep and miss all the sunshine, but you NEED the rest. It is said you need an hour of sleep for every 2 hours awake, therefore after a night shift you have a 'sleep debt' which needs to be repaid. Set an alarm if you need too, but try and wake up naturally so your body had banked the sleep it needs. I have found moderate to hard training sessions achievable on these days in the afternoon.

2. Go to bed as soon as you can after your shift. Try not get distracted by other jobs which need to be done, this will likely wake you up and you will find it hard to sleep.

3. Get some decent black-out curtains, blinds or sleep with an eye mask. Personally I have thick curtains AND use an eye mask which make it really easy to get back to sleep again.

4. If where you are sleeping is noisy, and living communally is I can assure you. You can try ear plugs (the type motorcyclists use, or if you don't like putting things in your ears (I don't) try ear defenders.

5. Put a sign on your door if you can, explaining 'Shift worker sleeping' or something similar. This should dissuade people knocking on your door trying to sell you something, or something else equally unhelpful.

6. Keep your room cool, this makes it easier to get to sleep.

7. Don't get stressed if you cant sleep. Try reading a book, listening to calming music. I like to write a list of what I need to do when I get up, then I can see my goals for the day and allocate my time appropriately.

8. If you are hungry, eat something. It can be hard to not over-eat while on the night shift, but if you are starving when trying to get to sleep, you wont. I sometimes have a small bowl of porridge or a handful of nuts. Walnuts, almonds, cheese, rice, cherry juice and chamomile tea are all know to help stimulate sleeping.

9. Don't under-estimate the power of the afternoon nap! Although you should try to nap for 90 or 45 minutes (or factors of, e.g. 3 hrs). This is one full, or half of a sleep cycle. This will stop you waking up in the 'deep sleep' part of the sleep cycle. That is when you wake up and feel totally awful!

10. After nights I find I am extremely irritable, my mood is very unstable and I can find myself being easily distracted. I am aware of this and that alone has helped to enable me to re-focus on what I need to get accomplished on that day. However I have also learned to LET GO, if I miss a session, it is not the end of the world! This is my hobby, I'm not a professional and it should be enjoyable.

Days off

These might be in the week rather than the weekend, and depending on your family situation this will dictate how much time you can give up to training, but generally I make the most of my days off and get in some big sessions with long periods of rest. I also try to do as much prep as possible for my days at work. Doing things like food prep, washing and getting bags of kit prepared so I don't have to waste time in what can be busy and very long days.

 

My First Triathlon

I thought I would reflect on my first encounter with 'proper triathlon' (this I classify as one with an open water swim) was the Dambuster standard distance triathlon in June 2013.

This was also the first EVER time I had swum in open water, more of that later.

Pre race kit checking and packing
N.B headphones are for warm up
not for using during any part of the race

The day began horrendously early, 05someting I got up. I was at registration by 0630 and collected my hat, number and found my space in transition. There was a sticker on the racking with my number and name on, this made me strangely excited. I made numerous newbie errors here, the biggest being - no track pump! Therefore I just guessed what pressure my tyres should have been with a hand pump - oops. After getting everything in transition sorted (sort of) it was time to have about 10 nervous toilet trips and wait for the start!


Swim

The various waves of men were off first, with a beach start and frantic run into the reservoir. We lined up on the beach at around 0830, the klaxon went and we were off into the water. About 300m into the swim I thought "oh dear god, will this ever end?!" I thought about paddling my way over to the canoe, but then reminded myself of how much I had paid to enter, and how I would have to sit about for the rest of the day with a quitting cloud of shame over my head! Not an option. I did a few strokes of breast stroke and remembered some wise words which were given to me - breathe, relax, and stay calm. And I was off again in my finest front crawl (not very fine by the standards of other humans with the gift of sight). 

All ready in transition

I struggled out of the water in just over 30 mins, which wasn't too bad, then I remembered the swim had been shortened by 100m due to it being so rough. However there was not time to dwell on what had just happened. It was into transition.

I had practiced this a few times (on dry land) so I thought I knew what I was doing. However I had not expected to be quite so disorientated after the swim and SO out of breath. I remembered all the important points, kit off and INSIDE my own transition area, helmet on BEFORE touching the bike, number on, glasses on - and away!...Or not, after the dismount line my chain fell off! (Of course it would choose now to have unexplained mechanical issues) and now I am facing slightly uphill, trying to get my chain on, then get my frozen feet to start pedaling! Eventually all parts of body and bike were functioning as best they could and I was away. 


Bike

The bike route is beautiful, undulating and really interesting. At one point I forgot I was supposed to be racing and was just really enjoying being out on my bike. That was short lived though and before I knew it I was back in transition - now to the favorite part...

Run
The day had heated up considerably and the sun was raining down gloriously. The run route goes across the dam, out to a turn around and back to the finish. This provides a good opportunity to see how far ahead the competition are, which in some cases was very far! 

Coming back to the finish was amazing, there was a fantastic buzz and it was amazing to finish. 

The Aftermath I kept grinning to myself all the way home in the car (despite some agonising stomach cramp). I felt elated that I had conquered an OW swim, and the rest of the standard distance tri. 

The first but not the last!

P.S when I later checked my tires they were at 80psi!

T3 - Run --> home --> washing machine

Triathlon training weekend

Now I am desperately hoping this weekend of intensive training, feedback and coaching is going to give my training a much needed kick up the bottom! 

I only started triathlon in any serious way in this last year. I am really enjoying the variety of training, and almost bizarrely my running has improved. Maybe this is because I am not massively fatigued and burnt out from relentless running. And I am sure that swimming, although hard (and bloody awful in my opinion) it provides some nice 'off the legs' training.

Practicing good running form

Some really interesting points were raised about running technique, and how improving your form can give you big gains in time, without having to smash yourself stupid doing huge volumes of training or really painful high intensity sessions (you will have to do some though if you want to get faster - sorry)

We were really lucky to have some really good quality swim coaching from Swim Smooth - have a look at some videos on YouTube if you have no idea what I am on about. Some brilliant technique stuff, brilliant but also ridiculously difficult for those with bambi on ice like coordination! This was preceded by a nice off road run and followed by a couple of hours on the bike around the hills of Halton. 

Leda and some of the cyclists

Day 2 was lead by Jez and Leda Cox from howgoodcouldibe.com. Both former pros  (cycling and duathlon) came to dispense some brilliant advice on running, cycling (specifically bike handling) and training. One of the most important things for me, as someone who LOVES training, is the importance of resting; not only for the body but also for the mind. In theory you should then be refreshed to take on the next days session, instead of getting more and more tired, and more and more frustrated with the results.


Train Hard - Rest Hard :)