RACE PREPARATION
As Alex prepares for his ocean racing, pre-race training/preparation becomes a very important factor to his success at sea battling the elements both physically and mentally. Select an option below to find out more about Alex's psychological, physical and sleep preparation.
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INFORMATION
Psychological Preparation
The majority of the psychological work is done in an area sports psychologists call 'State Management': how can you adjust your mental state to optimise your response to the ever-changing environmental conditions?
Ken Way (Sports Psychologist) mentions during his sessions with Alex that, "There's no doubt that an event like this will take all competitors on an emotional rollercoaster. They can expect to experience the full range of human highs and lows - for example: excitement, euphoria, boredom, loneliness, anxiety, apprehension, etc. And often these emotions will be experienced against a back-drop of extreme fatigue and tiredness".
The work Alex and Ken Way undertake is designed to arm Alex with some powerful mental techniques for ensuring he can instantly become highly-focused - allowing Alex to make the right decisions whatever conditions prevail. This is important since fatigue, tiredness and most negative emotions would normally disrupt the decision-making process.
"I am really impressed by Alex's exceptional motivation. Indeed, he is one of the most confident and motivated sportsmen I have ever worked with. His inner-belief is exceptional and he now has some great mental strategies to make him even sharper and focused when the going gets tough."
With world-class sportsmen you get used to experiencing 'natural goal-setting' abilities. In Ken's opinion Alex is not only a 'born natural' at applying goal-setting principles he also manages to generate a significant level of self-belief in respect of these goals whilst, at the same time, acknowledging the real risks associated with such high risk ocean events.
"He's not just a world-class sailor - he truly is world-class in the mental department too!
The majority of the psychological work is done in an area sports psychologists call 'State Management': how can you adjust your mental state to optimise your response to the ever-changing environmental conditions?
Ken Way (Sports Psychologist) mentions during his sessions with Alex that, "There's no doubt that an event like this will take all competitors on an emotional rollercoaster. They can expect to experience the full range of human highs and lows - for example: excitement, euphoria, boredom, loneliness, anxiety, apprehension, etc. And often these emotions will be experienced against a back-drop of extreme fatigue and tiredness".
The work Alex and Ken Way undertake is designed to arm Alex with some powerful mental techniques for ensuring he can instantly become highly-focused - allowing Alex to make the right decisions whatever conditions prevail. This is important since fatigue, tiredness and most negative emotions would normally disrupt the decision-making process.
"I am really impressed by Alex's exceptional motivation. Indeed, he is one of the most confident and motivated sportsmen I have ever worked with. His inner-belief is exceptional and he now has some great mental strategies to make him even sharper and focused when the going gets tough."
With world-class sportsmen you get used to experiencing 'natural goal-setting' abilities. In Ken's opinion Alex is not only a 'born natural' at applying goal-setting principles he also manages to generate a significant level of self-belief in respect of these goals whilst, at the same time, acknowledging the real risks associated with such high risk ocean events.
"He's not just a world-class sailor - he truly is world-class in the mental department too!
Physical Preparation
Alex has been developing his physical abilities since June 2006, with personal trainer Shaun Biddulph who's impressive resume includes being full-time personal trainer to Ellen MacArthur in 2005 as part of the OC Group.
Find out more about Shaun Biddulph HERE
A majority of Alex's physical training helps test his anaerobic and aerobic fitness, balance, lung measurements such as lung and underwater weighing which allows for the calculation of body fat content. Energy levels can be calculated every day from his weight and fat content changes and the nutritional content of his provisions.
A typical physical training session with Alex consists of:
- Starting with a warm up session which requires Alex to perform a number of stretching exercises to help reduce muscle stiffness, as well as simple jump exercises to increase body temperature.
- Free weights (non cable assisted weight lifting) to help strengthen the forearms, biceps and triceps which in turn will help Alex tackle his rigs when under great pressure.
- Simple ball catching also plays a role; it is important that Alex's physical reflexes and catching skills are at their best, it only takes one small slip and Alex's life could be in the balance.
- Circuit training, this is the best time to find Alex at his most competitive in the gym. Circuit training is an excellent way to simultaneously improve mobility, strength and stamina. The circuit training format utilizes a group of 6 to 10 strength exercises including push up's, sit up's and crunches and they are completed one exercise after another. Each exercise is performed for a specified number of repetitions or for a prescribed time period before moving on to the next exercise.
- The training sessions usually finish with a cool down period using similar exercises to the warm up.
Alex has been developing his physical abilities since June 2006, with personal trainer Shaun Biddulph who's impressive resume includes being full-time personal trainer to Ellen MacArthur in 2005 as part of the OC Group.
Find out more about Shaun Biddulph HERE
A majority of Alex's physical training helps test his anaerobic and aerobic fitness, balance, lung measurements such as lung and underwater weighing which allows for the calculation of body fat content. Energy levels can be calculated every day from his weight and fat content changes and the nutritional content of his provisions.
A typical physical training session with Alex consists of:
- Starting with a warm up session which requires Alex to perform a number of stretching exercises to help reduce muscle stiffness, as well as simple jump exercises to increase body temperature.
- Free weights (non cable assisted weight lifting) to help strengthen the forearms, biceps and triceps which in turn will help Alex tackle his rigs when under great pressure.
- Simple ball catching also plays a role; it is important that Alex's physical reflexes and catching skills are at their best, it only takes one small slip and Alex's life could be in the balance.
- Circuit training, this is the best time to find Alex at his most competitive in the gym. Circuit training is an excellent way to simultaneously improve mobility, strength and stamina. The circuit training format utilizes a group of 6 to 10 strength exercises including push up's, sit up's and crunches and they are completed one exercise after another. Each exercise is performed for a specified number of repetitions or for a prescribed time period before moving on to the next exercise.
- The training sessions usually finish with a cool down period using similar exercises to the warm up.
Sleep Preparation
Sleep deprivation is an important issue to address as, in extreme cases, it can lead to accidents such as groundings, vessel failures or navigation errors. When suffering from lack of sleep a person can suffer from a feeling of drowsiness and fatigue, weariness. Increased irritability, memory lapses, decreased initiative, judgment ability and decision-making are all symptoms of a lack of sleep. Extreme cases can lead to hallucinations.
To help understand just how little sleep a skipper actually gets during a round the world race, we can turn to the Vendee Globe, in which sailors only get around 3 to 4 hours sleep in a 24 hour period making the negative psychological and physical effects of sleep deprivation a real danger.
Therefore it's extremely important that Alex prepares himself for this huge undertaking. Sleep preparation does not only take place a month prior to a race, but as with the VELUX 5 OCEANS, it needs to be addressed at every stop (Gate) of the race. Alex will need to continue to keep to his sleeping schedule so that he does not falter when he returns back to the sea to start the next leg of the race.
Therefore, sleep training techniques (known as Polyphasic sleep strategies) allow for sleep to be reduced with no adverse affects to performance. It involves taking regular short naps (20-30 minutes every 4 hours). REM (deep sleep) is the essential part of sleep that the body needs for body and mind recuperation, normally not achieved until 60 minutes of sleep. By forcing the body to wake up after just 20 - 30 minutes the body is starved of REM, when this continues the body adapts and after around 21 days as soon as the nap starts REM will occur.
The training is easier said than done! Alex starts with 30 minute naps at 0000, 0400, 0800, 1200, 1600 and 2000. At times it can become a very frustrating time for Alex, and a lot of sympathy goes out to Luke Alderson a long time friend who has bravely taken on the role of sleep support. Waking Alex up after his short naps can be the most dangerous time for Luke!
Sleep deprivation is an important issue to address as, in extreme cases, it can lead to accidents such as groundings, vessel failures or navigation errors. When suffering from lack of sleep a person can suffer from a feeling of drowsiness and fatigue, weariness. Increased irritability, memory lapses, decreased initiative, judgment ability and decision-making are all symptoms of a lack of sleep. Extreme cases can lead to hallucinations.
To help understand just how little sleep a skipper actually gets during a round the world race, we can turn to the Vendee Globe, in which sailors only get around 3 to 4 hours sleep in a 24 hour period making the negative psychological and physical effects of sleep deprivation a real danger.
Therefore it's extremely important that Alex prepares himself for this huge undertaking. Sleep preparation does not only take place a month prior to a race, but as with the VELUX 5 OCEANS, it needs to be addressed at every stop (Gate) of the race. Alex will need to continue to keep to his sleeping schedule so that he does not falter when he returns back to the sea to start the next leg of the race.
Therefore, sleep training techniques (known as Polyphasic sleep strategies) allow for sleep to be reduced with no adverse affects to performance. It involves taking regular short naps (20-30 minutes every 4 hours). REM (deep sleep) is the essential part of sleep that the body needs for body and mind recuperation, normally not achieved until 60 minutes of sleep. By forcing the body to wake up after just 20 - 30 minutes the body is starved of REM, when this continues the body adapts and after around 21 days as soon as the nap starts REM will occur.
The training is easier said than done! Alex starts with 30 minute naps at 0000, 0400, 0800, 1200, 1600 and 2000. At times it can become a very frustrating time for Alex, and a lot of sympathy goes out to Luke Alderson a long time friend who has bravely taken on the role of sleep support. Waking Alex up after his short naps can be the most dangerous time for Luke!