does anybody out there train for Tri and have to work shifts??
I currently work two 7am-4pm shifts, two 3pm-12midnight and two 10pm-7am shifts followed by four days off, with the first day off in bed recovering from a night shift.
With a body clock all over the place does anybody have any tips. I have joined a local Tri club which has been a great help, but I cannot make all the training sessions with them and end up training alone. I am wanting to move up to 1/2 IM distance in 2004 but find most of my training is done alone.
I am swimming 2 miles in the pool in about 55 minutes, and can do a half marathon in about 1hr50, my bike leg is needing a vast improvement in the distance side of it.
Any ideas please???
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Might be worth hooking up with a bike club to get some more miles in. My club ride Wednesday Saturday Sunday. Wednesday is for the retired guys, but they still clock up scary miles !
One problem I have found is that with my body clock all over the place so is my diet, eating main meals at maybe four in the morning can't be good for me, and now it is winter sometimes I can go for days without seeing daylight!!!
Thnaks for the advice though cougie.
I think a few peeps have the same probs with no daylight - dark when you go in, and dark when you come out. I try and squeeze a run in my lunch hour if I can.
Good luck ! I envy your swimming ability - I'm only up to about 50 meters !
Im too on shiftwork, well my hours are 8-7am of which are 4 nights a week, but can be any from sun-sat.
I try and train hard on my off days, but sometimes that is not alway possible, have been doing nights for 3 years now, and still sometimes it catches me out, I always say its like having jetlag 24/7.
But the choice is mine, and sometimes it works in my favour, like you say when all are at work we can sometimes have the use of pools, gym etc, and less people are there during the day, rather than if we were to go after work if on days!
Eating is for me, is one of the most hardest disciplines when training and when working nights, ive found it extreamly hard to keep a good balanced diet.
People I seem to talk to seem to think that it would just be the same as working all day and working out after work, so why would it be different working nights.........if only they knew!!!
Hope your training go's well.
Has anybody ever read anything regarding shift work causing ill health due to throwing the body clock all over?? and can training hard and keeping fit help or hinder you?? I am guessing it can help you maintain a balanced body. I do know that shift workers can expect to die a good few years earlier, so that is something to look forward to!!!!!....
It's good to hear other people are working shifts and also find it hard to balance out. I work on a North Sea rig so I am away for two weeks at a time (but then I get two weeks off). During my time offshore I work nightshifts (usually about 15 hours), which is murder for the first three but after that it settles down. I have never been a triathlete but this year I completed two marathons whilst working like this. I followed the RW 4 training sessions a week training plan, which I adapted to my schedule, running 5 sessions a week whilst I was onshore and three a week (plus cross training) whilst I am offshore. This meant that in my peak training weeks I was running 90+ miles in just under two weeks onshore, but it was only for a short period.
I tend to train before shift at the beginning of my trip and train after shift towards the end of the trip when I am more alert. I have heard that shift work is bad for you and I can confirm that I have aged since working nights! At this time of year the lack of daylight is hard to cope with, I find that on the day I travel home my eyes are very painful with the daylight.
I am hoping to complete the Paris marathon in 2004 and better my time (went from 4:03 to 3:45 this year) if I can. My worst nightmare would be the rig treadmill breaking down, in which case I would end up fat and depressed!
Good luck to you all with your winter training!
get a decent turbo trainer, then you can train safely at any time of the day or night