Carla Pregigueiro Vips coach "5 months, 15 countries and an Ironman 70.3"

Carla currently lives in Doha (Qatar) where she is finishing developing her professional career as a VIP's coach

 

Today we interview Carla Pregigueiro a Leonese native from Ponferrada who currently lives in Doha (Qatar) where she is finishing developing her professional career as a VIP's coach. Carla started teaching swimming classes to children in Ponferrada but her university studies were developed in three different universities: University of León where she graduated in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and graduated as a Physical Education Teacher; Pontifical University of Salamanca where he graduated in English Foreign Language and in the University of La Coruña where he made a Master's Degree in Sports Center Management.

During the university period, he combined the studies with a part-time job as a lifeguard, instructor of aquatic activities and fitness instructor and directed activities (spinning, toning, aerobics ...) in a sports center in the city of León.

When finishing her university studies, she opted for the branch of sports management, increasing her experience in this area as Technical Sports Coordinator in Valladolid (city where she lived almost 4 years) but currently, she lives in Doha and is a personal trainer of VIP's (as mentioned above), has also begun to take its first steps in personal training online through its website www.befitness.es, where is forming a great team of personal trainers distributed throughout the national territory (currently they are in Ibiza, Ponferrada, Santander and Valladolid).

Her favorite hobbies are practicing all sports (if she spent the 24 hours of the day doing sports, she has no limits in this aspect, since she can spend one day diving on an island and the next week being in the mountains climbing) .

He loves to put on sporting challenges (he recently managed to do the Iroman 70.3 in Bahrain, which we will talk about in this interview) but he already has in mind his next challenge "to cross deserts with his mountain bike".

As much for the life in general as for the sport, its favorite phrase always applies "You wish to have begun TODAY".

Good morning Carla, how are you? How are you? To start the interview we wanted to ask you what was the main reason why you decided to go to work in Qatar

The truth is that there is not only one reason why I came to Qatar, there are several reasons that pushed me to come to this Middle Eastern country, but I have to say that the main reason why I came to Doha , has been (like most foreigners who live here) a professional reason, since it is a country in full expansion and job opportunities are very broad, highly valued and very well paid.

I am doing a job that in Spain, I see very complicated that it came to develop it, since job opportunities are quite minor, if not scarce.

Another reason that pushed me to come to this exotic country of the Gulf, was a personal reason, since living in a country that does not present your same culture, who do not live in the same way, who have other customs, who speak another language ... favor your personal maturity, both in the area I mentioned above (professional) and personal area (you become a more tolerant person, you value your friends and family more because you are away from home, you value more the country where you come (because although it is difficult to see, in Spain we have many positive things), you make new friendships, you learn a language (if you are in a country where you do not speak Spanish) ...

Another reason to which I give great importance, is that Qatar, is a very well located country, connected to all corners of the world so traveling, it is very easy and for my travel, along with sport, are my favorite hobbies .

In general, these are the main reasons why I came to Qatar, which, I believe, have helped me become a better person, both personally and professionally.

Qatar is a country where it is very hot ... How do you organize there to train? How is your day to day?

Indeed, Qatar is a country that suffers high temperatures during 8 months of the year so this situation greatly conditions the way, hours and places of training.

The 60% of my workouts are indoor, depending on what it is that I need to train (I train in the gym, or in the heated swimming pools) or in the open air, but late in the morning, when humidity and high temperatures they allow you.

The truth is that I do not have much routine in my life, but the most frequent schedule is:

I usually get up at the 6 in the morning, breakfast and I'm going to train (it's the first session of two that I have every day or the only session of the day).

At the end, shower quickly and I'm going to work until lunchtime. How and if I have any more client or computer work, I usually finish it.

When I finish everything related to work, if I have it in the planning I do my second training session and afterwards, it is when I have my free time and I stay with friends (because in Doha, we almost always have some plan among the group of friends , that can be dinner, take something, go to a terrace, walk, movies ... etc) and when finishing the social plans, I usually dine and go to bed.

For your work you travel constantly in many countries, specifically in the last months of preparation of the medium. Iroman has traveled through 15 countries ... How was your preparation for the 70.3 IM of Barhein with so much travel? How did you organize your workouts?

Well, my preparation for IM 70.3 on the one hand was long (because I wanted it to be that way, because if at some point I lost a training session, I wanted it not to harm all the planning) and on the other hand it was complicated (since I knew that I was going to touch traveling through several countries and the ways to organize and availability of equipment to train, was complicated).

I started with the final trainings of June, early July under the coach Javier Celada located in León (if you all think, you are a coach hahaha, but I can not train myself so I opted for the online training service) .

At that moment of the beginning of training, I was in Spain on summer vacation and it was there when my madness began with training.

From the first moment I had to find a different form of organization, since I tried that in all the hotels and places where I stayed, they had a pool and gym and if it was not, at least have a sports center nearby with this type of services.

Also, if my stay was in the coastal area (I swam in the sea) and if the stay was long (I rented a road bike for bike training) but neither of these two things was an easy task.

I tried to get up early in the morning, have breakfast and do the established training session, if it was double, I had a session in the morning and another after lunch and if the session was a transition or long run, I would leave it for the evening, depending of the work schedule he had that day.

The days that hurt me the most were the days I was flying or traveling, since I was upset by the hours of sleep, rest and meals, in addition to losing a day of training (which ended up adapting it to my weekly rest day) but ... rest ajajajajaj.

During the trainings I suffered some crazy things, for example, when I was in Monaco, I rented a road bike (which by the way I met a boy, who is now my friend and with whom I could go out and train with the bike for the amazing landscapes of the Costa Azul) but to go for the road bike I had to run along the coast 12km to the rental store and come down the road with the bike without a helmet and without the appropriate clothes and shoes, it was quite reckless my part.

I also say that when I was in Italy, I went swimming on the coast and the weather conditions were not the most appropriate, it was very windy and it cost me to go back to my starting point, I thought that I did not leave, that fear happened and in Singapore humidity was extreme, and running on the street was almost impossible, I got very tired and dizzy from lack of oxygen, almost with feelings of suffocation.

The truth is that I have gone from one extreme to another in a very short time and the body, whether you want it or not, suffers and the adaptation period is almost non-existent when you are constantly changing your place of stay.

Honestly, it has been a bit overwhelming to go from one place to another and have to think about how I was going to organize myself, where I could train and what timetables I would have. My situation was funny because instead of looking for monuments in cities like a regular tourist, I was looking for sports centers and pools hehe.

And later, could you translate well all your work in the race? How was your mid-distance debut at Barhein's 70.3?

The balance of my debut at the IM70.3 in Bahrain has been very positive since to be the first to do and get off 5h30 ', without having ever run a half marathon in my life, without knowing how my body would respond with distances so long and without having any guidance or experience in these competitions having done as a long distance (if you can call it that) a single Olympic Triathlon and having trained for 5 months traveling through 15 different countries with the minimum resources to train , I think I have been able to capture very well all the work that my coach and I have been doing all this time.

I have to say that before the test I was very nervous, I saw it as a quite important, complicated and difficult challenge to achieve but thanks to my friends who were there (Sallya, Laura and vitaliy) for supporting me and my partner Guillermo, thank you To all the messages and calls received from my friends and family and to motivational videos that my colleagues from my previous job took, the challenge became a non-challenge and became one more test.

During the competition I felt very good in the water and on the bike, where I did not want to reach my limits so I did them at an easy pace, since I knew I had a half marathon ahead. But it was in the race where my head and my body came down, exactly at km 15.

It was at that moment that you have to think with a cool head and see and know what is the reason why you are doing this, I asked and my answer was "for myself, for self-improvement and fun" and This was what helped me cross the finish line with a smile from ear to ear.

It was an experience and a magnificent feeling, indescribable and at the same time suffering, but of course I would repeat it again.

In the face of 2017, are you planning to play more tests of this kind?

Sincerely, the two days after the competition (in which I could not walk jajajajja because I had some aches, overload and muscle fatigue all over my body), I said that I would not repeat the experience, but today, 4 days after the competition, I have to say that I have already been looking at dates for the next jajaajajajaj and I have two that look very good but it's not safe, it's something I have in mind, but not sure, everything depends on me availability with work and Of course, if I go, I hope to improve my brand since now, at least, I know how my body and mind respond.

The sport in general is growing a lot in Qatar in recent years, a few months ago there was the world road cycling and every year there is more important evidence in this country. How are you betting on triathlon there? What are the most important competitions?

Qatar is a country where sport is in full expansion, as well as having the largest sports center in the world, hosts competitions with a lot of category: one of the phases of the world of swimming, utramaratón, artistic gymnastics, motorcycles GP, motrocross , superbikes, master of Tennis, Diamond League ... etc and has hosted events such as the world swimming pool of 50m, world handball, Asian games ... etc.

With respect to triathlon we have a club called the Tri Club Doha who organize, in addition to group trainings, and team social gatherings, organize most of the events related to this sport: sprint triathlons, Olympic triathlons and aquathlons plus a foot race .

This same club, is the one who has been looking for ways to organize and close a collaboration with great organizers of this sport, to be able to do someday "IM Doha or IM 70.3 Doha". Hopefully it will be celebrated because I would not be more excited to perform this type of competition in the city where I live.

Thank you very much for the interview and for helping us to know more about the sport in Qatar.

Thanks to Triathlon News for giving me the opportunity to collaborate with your team.