"Interview with Isora Sosa, how a triathlete lives and trains in Qatar"

Isora Sosa was signed by an elite cyclist team in Qatar

 

A few weeks ago we contacted Isora Sosa to ask about her signing on the first Qatar Women's Cycling Elite team, the "Carbon Wheels". Now we want to know a little better how is your day to day in Qatar, combining work, training and how life is there.

Hi Isora, how are you? In addition to running in the cycling team, you are an outstanding triathlete, for this 2016 as GGEE you are qualified for the 70.3 World Championship. How are you going to combine cycling and triathlon?

Yes, after competing for 10 years in short distance triathlon in the Canary Islands, and participating for several years in the sub23 and elite Spanish Championships, when I arrived here I decided to do my first half Ironman.

I ran the Bahrain 70.3, and despite having suspended the swim segment, which hurt me greatly, and did not fit into my plans to qualify, I took a place in the World Cup this year in Australia, in the 30-34 age group.

Well, I will combine it, as I can, with work and rest, almost all my free time I will dedicate to training. It will be hard yes, but I'm excited.

I think the best formula will be to keep the swimming that I already have to give hard to the bike and the race on foot. All training and cycling competitions I can do will come great for the triathlon, because so far in the races that I am participating, are criteria and races not too long or more than a day, which, those 75-100km what I do, is a training of absolute quality, in which I work at high rates. In April it is likely that he will race in Tour de Thailandia.

With the race on foot, I will be focused on preparing an 10.000, until the month of May, where I will focus on preparing the half marathon. 

You've been living in Qatar for a while ... Could you tell us how a trainer and triathlete lives there?

Yeah sure! Well ... living in Qatar, combining work with the hard workouts we have to do, is not easy.

In my case, my work as a coach to date, has been tremendously complicated until I found my site. At first, considering that I came to Doha without work, you knock on the door in some places where you want to work or assemble something and the answer is rather null. When you arrive without contacts, it is very difficult to access good offers and job opportunities regardless of the curriculum you have, so it becomes a fundamental task to socialize and be seen by all sites that have to do with your profession. So, I started creating my own web page (www.isolifestyletraining.com), and looking for my own clientele, which has been going quite well for me so far, while I've been doing some interviews looking for something that suits my expectations. Today, I am on the verge of getting a job at Aspire Academy, one of the best sports research and development centers in the world, as a swimming coach, after having gone through a rigorous recruitment process.

And as a triathlete it has been harder if possible. It cost me horrors to adapt to cycling in Qatar.

 

 

Qatar is a country where it is very hot ... How do you organize to train? What would a typical week of training be like?

As you say in Qatar it is very hot. I have taken it better than other people because I come from the Canary Islands but, it is also true that I prefer a lot of heat than a lot of cold.

During the months of December, January and February we have very good temperature to train but from there, the heat starts and from June to October the hell starts!

For swimming, we found a pool in the tower of some friends, near ours with 17m, which has 25m where we can train. It is a recreational pool, not sports, where we depend on not having many people bathing or children jumping on you. We also have two private beaches, in the urbanization in which we live, where we swim in the sea less the summer months, which is impossible, because the water is very hot. Finding other facilities with swimming pools is complicated because, either we have 1h on the way, they are very expensive or they are only for men.

To ride a bike we are also very limited, since you can not go outside and just shoot. The traffic is very dangerous and when we go out to make a route it has to be on weekends, Fridays and Saturdays in Muslim countries, in which the traffic loosens and we always go with a large group escorted by one or two cars that we hire paying an amount. All those who practice cycling in the country, we gather in large platoons in which you can choose, according to your level or purpose of that day, go below 30km / h, to 30km / h, to 35km / h or to more than 35km / h average speed.

Normally it is always the same route, doing a round of 100km that you can shorten or lengthen 20km and always flat.

To shoot during the week, it has to be in one of the three closed circuits that we have, not traffic but safer, doing laps between 17 and 20km. Now the months of February and March have authorized us to train, at the International Motorcycle Circuit of Losail, once a week.

As a general rule, we shoot at night with lights and on weekends bike trips are on 6: 30am in winter and 5: 00am in summer, due to high temperatures.

To run we have it easier, removing the inconvenience that, there are 5 months in which you have to run on an indoor track or on tape because it is impossible to run on the street with tremendous heat and humidity, not even at night because you do not You can breathe and dehydration would be immediate.

Arriving at the 50 degrees centigrade, for more adversity, there is a month in summer, in which Ramadan is celebrated, in which we can not eat, nor drink, nothing in front of anyone, except at home during daylight hours, out of respect for their religion, and establishments are closed (restaurants, coffee shops, ...). All this makes it very complicated and very hard to train in Qatar, but the desire to continue doing what I like is stronger.

A week of mine, not volume, would be: swim 15.000m a week, 300km bike and 40km on foot.

A few days ago you disputed the WTS of Abu Dhabi as GGEE, where you were the best both in the general and in your group. How was this experience of competing in GGEE in ITU tests?

 It was incredible!!! Competing in ITU events is always special, because normally the organization is exquisite and because you can share experiences with the world elite and with people who come from all over the world. On top of that, winning there was the most brutal feeling I've ever had. You set goals, challenges, dreams, etc. to fulfill, always within the possibilities of each one for various reasons, and achieving them is the greatest satisfaction you can have!

And you were also sharing the experience with the boys and girls of the Spanish team. What memories do you get from them?

Yes, of course, I was there leaving all the energies that were left to encourage them hahahaha 

I take back a very pleasant memory of all of them, Vicente and Mario had already had the pleasure of meeting them many years ago and they are both great stars, as well as Fernando and Carolina very friendly as always. They appreciate your encouragement very much and are surprised to see Spanish faces so far away hahaha

Already classified for the 70.3 World Championship ... What are your triathlon goals for this 2016?

Well, the most important competitions for me at this moment, will be:

The first World Series in GGEE at Abu Dabhi in March, winning the GMC Series of sprint triathlon and the Aspire aquatlon series, which consist of 3 tests and I lead, in both, having won the first two, the Olympic Triathlon Pearl in April, maybe participate in another World series in Yokohama (Japan) in May (this will depend on the budget) and already in September the 70.3 World Championship.

In your Qatar sports project, do you have any sponsors?

Well thank God yes. In the Middle East it has been much easier for me to find sponsors, who have given me a fundamental hand, especially when arriving to start, to continue practicing sports at a high level and to feel that such effort and dedication is rewarded in some way.

I would like to thank Taymory greatly for the support received from the minute one, from whom I have received an exquisite treatment and for whom I feel protected, to Sailfish for tremendous material and confidence, to Compressport, ONrunning and Xtenex for choosing me as their brand's ambassador in Qatar, to Carbon Wheels Bike Shop for supporting me in everything related to cycling, to Dados Beauty for its excellent massage and beauty treatments every time I need them and especially to Tribike Lanzarote for being the first to trust me and supply me of the similar airplane that I carry (Cervelo P5). Thank you so much everyone!!!

Thank you very much for sharing this interview with our readers who have been able to know how a triathlete like you lives and works in Qatar. We wish you many successes to the team this season, and to you personally send you a lot of encouragement.

You're welcome, it's been a pleasure for me to tell you how my life is now, here in Qatar. I wanted to thank my partner Aday Álvarez, because with his support I feel that everything is possible, my friends and my family.

I hope that this will help people to value more the good conditions in which they can train in Spain. Courage with all the challenges that you propose ahead, perseverance is often the key to success to fight against adversity.

A greeting.