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Shift Work and the Triathlete

This thread is for anyone who is a shift working triathlete. I am a new EN member. I work rotating shifts that include 1 week of nights each month. My schedule has other bumps that hinder training, such as short swings from evenings to days. However, those bumps usually only effect the timing of my workouts. Nights on the other hand effect my general heath and ability to hit key high intensity workouts. For anyone who works the overnight shift, you know how hard it is to get any sleep. The sleep you do get is very low quality. Most weeks I work nights, my training goes into maintenance mode (low intensity general fitness) or rest mode.As I have gotten older, I'm 50 now the recovery period from nights back to being a day walker has lengthened. It normally takes me 3 additional days to get my first full night of sleep. I would really like to communicate with any other member who is a shift worker and learn how they deal with training. 

Ed

Comments

  • Don't know what to tell you except for the possibility that you could hack your workout schedule in such a way as to make every 4th week a 'step-back' week to coincide with those night shifts. And this off season, respect those weekly rest days. They began to seem like a beach in Aruba after a few weeks of hard work.
  • This is me all the way. I move my workouts around to compensate for night shift changes. I just wrote a little about it in http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/13535/Default.aspx

    I try to get the shorter workouts, (60mins) done in the am when i get home form work. I figure its only an hour. I move my biggest workouts to my days off.
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