6 hours sleep a night, 60 hour work weeks, Ironman training. I don’t get it.
I don’t know.
On the one hand, people over inflate their training and work hours, and under inflate their sleep hours.
On the other hand, I’ve been in her shoes, “working” and training about that much, so it can be done, but it leaves a mark.
She’s only 30, perhaps has another couple of years before the HPTA axis starts gyrating off center and the stress fractures come.
6 hours sleep a night, 60 hour work weeks, Ironman training. I don’t get it.
I lived that schedule, only working more and sleeping less… from 2006 to 2016. And mostly held it together. Only partially alienated my family. Mostly excelled at work. Got faster but not nearly as fast as I wanted to be. My coach told me point blank, that my work schedule was preventing me from making athletic improvements, but it did pay the bills.
During my last triathlon in 2016 I realized that I was just tired. Vowed to not ride my bike for a year and didn’t miss it a bit. I raced one tri in 2017 on residual fitness.
It’s been nice getting an extra hour or two of sleep every night since I didn’t need to get up to swim. I’ve run a modest amount of miles and stayed in shape. But, I’ve finally got the itch to get back in to tri and have signed up to race next summer.
ETA: yes, I’m dumb.
Good for her. The article seems somewhat balanced compared with some other write ups I have seen.
Yep. Numbers are so subjective. OC behavior, maybe. Dumb ? Let’s say excessive for most people.
Energy levels are different for every person. Energy expenses are so different in any jobs both physically and mentally, it’s hard to draw a line.
I know when I finish a day where I spent 8 “rush” hours on my feet preparing food for hundreds of people, I can’t have a decent quality workout either running or cycling.
When I’m doing office (sitting) hours, bring the intensity, no problems.
Louis 
good for her for the dedication. hopefully once she turns pro and is not working her normal job full-time she’ll get a bit of rest. I hope new triathletes don’t read that and think that’s the sort of schedule they need to do to do an ironman. I’ve been lucky in that I have been able to choose jobs where I don’t need to work long hours on any consistent basis. I work from home now and still am not interested in putting in huge volume for my training.
good for her for the dedication. hopefully once she turns pro and is not working her normal job full-time she’ll get a bit of rest.
there is nearly zero correlation between “turning pro” and a positive income stream… unless you mean she’ll just have the financial flexibility to work less and train more for awhile.
good for her for the dedication. hopefully once she turns pro and is not working her normal job full-time she’ll get a bit of rest.
there is nearly zero correlation between “turning pro” and a positive income stream… unless you mean she’ll just have the financial flexibility to work less and train more for awhile.
Yes and then financial stress can compound itself. I do admire her tenacity, and she obviously is very talented, but this sort of thing won’t work out for another 999/1000 triathletes. I have a feeling in 10 years she will have some regrets about burning the candle at both ends. As an aside, it is always interesting to watch athletes convert from work to sport full time. I have talked about a few over the years, insanely talented, like Lionel talented, but many of them ended up getting injured pretty quickly and then flushed out of the sport. Being a professional athlete for her should look like more sleep, and hopefully she doesn’t fall into the trap (pressure) that becomes overtraining and burnout.
good for her for the dedication. hopefully once she turns pro and is not working her normal job full-time she’ll get a bit of rest.
there is nearly zero correlation between “turning pro” and a positive income stream… unless you mean she’ll just have the financial flexibility to work less and train more for awhile.
she’s going from working 60 hours a week to one day a week. so if she now has an extra 48 hours a week that previously was taken up working hopefully she can take some of that time to get more sleep.
good for her for the dedication. hopefully once she turns pro and is not working her normal job full-time she’ll get a bit of rest.
there is nearly zero correlation between “turning pro” and a positive income stream… unless you mean she’ll just have the financial flexibility to work less and train more for awhile.
in January she is turning professional. Not that she is giving up her day job entirely. She will still be employed one day a week.
Well the article says she’ll be working one day a week come January… so yes it can be assumed she’ll work less and train more for awhile…
good for her for the dedication. hopefully once she turns pro and is not working her normal job full-time she’ll get a bit of rest.
there is nearly zero correlation between “turning pro” and a positive income stream… unless you mean she’ll just have the financial flexibility to work less and train more for awhile.
in January she is turning professional. Not that she is giving up her day job entirely. She will still be employed one day a week.
Well the article says she’ll be working one day a week come January… so yes it can be assumed she’ll work less and train more for awhile…
Right, which is a personal and professional choice… unrelated to “going proâ€
I would argue that instead of training more (assuming she’s honest about her training hours) she should just sleep more and see how that goes for awhile
I would argue that instead of training more (assuming she’s honest about her training hours) she should just sleep more and see how that goes for awhile
Her training really doesn’t seem all that crazy. And working from 7 til 5:30 is a pretty normal schedule (and a 55hr week, not 60).
90min in the morning, bike commute, swim/run in the afternoon, and longer sessions on the weekends. Seems like if she wants to go pro, she could replace that commute time with a bit more structure and maybe some intensity. But volume seems to mostly be there already, probably ~20hrs?
Fitter Radio recently interviewed her. Episode #290. I thought it was a fun interview. Worth a listen. I didn’t think her work and training load came across as dumb but it blows my mind how people can work long hours and still train that hard. It’s difficult enough with ‘normal’ work hours! It sounds like she had a huge amount of support from zwift this year so hopefully she is on the right track to be successful as a pro.
She’s likely underestimating her sleep hours. She’s probably 6-7 hours during the week and 7-9 on the weekend. I have a similar sleep schedule though I have been trying to get 7 hours during the week this past year.
Even if she isn’t underestimating it, I do think some people can operate with less sleep than others. Swimmers for example, have been waking up at the ass crack of dawn since middle school or high school. Not many people can function with the schedule swimmers have. They get used to operating on very little sleep and still perform well (at sport, in school, and still have a social life). Don’t get me wrong, there is always a fine line and at some point it can have negative affects. That line is different for everyone though.
I think calling her dumb isn’t really appropriate. She destroyed the women AG field so she’s obviously doing positive things. I think she has a potential to be similar to Lucy Charles… win the kona AG race and then podium as a pro. My prediction is that we will see on the pro podium within 5 years.
It’s that “I can do it all†flex. One can do this temporarily till it crashes down.
How many papers do we have to read about how important sleep is for long term mental and physical health and performance?
If you have a desk job it’s easy to train after a long day. I’m cabin crew so my days of work are usually at least 10-13 hours with the occasional 7-10 hour day. 90% of it on my feet, walking, pulling/pushing 400lb carts, 10-30lb atlas boxes, etc. It’s actually quite a physical job. After those long days on my feet, it’s hard to train well. Even after a trip, my first workout at home is usually a moderate ride or swim. Day 2-3-4 at home I can really get after it.
How do you know she’s only doing this schedule in the 3-4 months lead up to a big race?? People always brag about their big training weeks, how much they training, and how little they sleep. But no one really mentions or cares about what happens after the race or in the off season. Her training has likely been very scaled down and with a lot more rest since kona. That’s the time to re-charge the batteries (mentally and physically) in order to set you up for the demanding training leading into a big race.
I don’t see anything wrong with what she’s doing (at least what’s been put out there in public) as long as that schedule is in the weeks/months lead up to a race. It’s definitely not sustainable 365 days of the year but I highly doubt that’s the case with her. She would have been burnt out wayyy before kona if she was.
I have to increase my sleep hours while at the same time increase my training hours, otherwise I get sick.
Training outside is important. Every time someone says they just train inside it annoys me. And I’m a guy who got demolished by an SUV.
Did they say how much she trains, could not see that number. Once you have a look at the numbers she is doing exactly what heaps of other hard working AG are doing, she is very good at it.
This looks like any FOP hard working AG who bikes and runs most days fitting it around the schedule they have and lifting volume on the weekends. No mention of kids or a partner.
Her 60 hour work week is not supported by the article which has her working 7 to 530, with rides in and back, getting changed showered factored in.
Great runner
Everything about the Zwift tri academy is cringe AF. Was glad to see Lippert choke in Kona.