Travis Mohoney's Doha Diaries

Funky Trunks athlete Travis Mahoney has been in Doha taking part in altitude training with the Aussie swim team before the World Cup events in Dubai and Doha. See what he has been up to!

Hi Funky Fans,
So I am in Doha with the Aussie swim team for some intense altitude training and after a 14 hour flight out of Melbourne, we finally got here on Tuesday. Our base is attached to the Aspire Sports Complex, which is one of the most amazing facilities I have ever seen, better than anything in Australia or the US. Two full 50m pools, both 3m deep, then another 50m pool in the Aspire Dome across the road, which also has an indoor running track, multiple indoor basketball courts, indoor soccer pitch and a few hardwood arenas! It is 36 degrees here, which is pretty hot, but luckily we have over 100 channels and free WiFi in our hotel rooms for when we are not training!

Our rooms are currently set to an altitude of 2000m, which is a bit lower than what we will have by the end of the week, which helps to get adjusted. We are already being put through our paces with a swim session this morning, after having our resting heart rate, oxygen blood saturation, weight and hydration levels measured by the sports scientists at the centre. So I thought I would send this update through before my swim this afternoon!
It has been a crazy few days here in Doha as we continue with the intensive training regime in the simulated altitude conditions.

So as we do not have to leave our 'high altitude' rooms, all our meals, which are delicious, get delivered. After breakfast last Tuesday we spent 35 minutes on exercise bikes in the heat AND altitude chamber, which is fixed at 35 degrees making it a very sweaty experience! That afternoon we had another pool session with a stroke efficiency test followed by some sprint work. It was a big day and we were in bed by 7:30!

Wednesday morning's session consisted of max speed tests, a 25m swim, tests to work out how much of our overall speed was kick and pull, and finished with a 75m swim. The bike chamber was increased to 3000m and we alternated between heat and altitude conditions, the latter was by far the harder of the two.
That afternoon saw us get a 3D body scan, which looked very cool and is something we don't have access to in Australia so it was great to make use of the opportunity. We also were able to have some down-time and visit the local mall which is like a mini Venice, complete with canal and gondolas! It also had an amusement park with rollercoaster, log ride, laser tag, go-karts, ice rink and loads more, all under one roof! We all had a great, if very competitive, time at the go-karting.

On Thursday we got a Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scan which is like a giant x-ray of your whole body. It takes 7 minutes and you aren't allowed to move. Our rooms went up another 400m to 2700m and then we had the hardest pool session by far of the whole week that night.

I had a test of two 400m medley sprints with 30 second rests in between, as well as twelve 50m lengths at 200 pace and 100m sprints at 50 bbm. Yes, it was as tiring as it sounds so it was another early night for me.
Friday's pace was thankfully a lot slower than previous days with recovery pool sessions, more bike-work, a bit of Playstation and some more mall time. Phew!

Saturday was also not as tough but we had a lactate tolerance test which saw my levels spike to 14 after eight 50m lengths at full tilt. Luckily, we got to unwind by jumping off the diving tower a few times to then have 40 minutes on the bike, when I lost 1kilo!

Competition time is getting ever closer so will let you know how our Middle Eastern adventure continues!

Thanks, Trav.