THE SHEEP FARMER
BEING ONE OF THE UK’S MOST SUCCESSFUL AGE-GROUP ATHLETES IS TOUGH – ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE SHEARING SHEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT. WE MEET IRONMAN AGE-GROUP WINNER RACHEL HALLAM…
There are many assumptions about farmers but one that’s safe to repeat is that they work long and often very anti-social hours at specific points during the year. For sheep farmers this is shearing and lambing and, in spring 2016, just weeks before Ironman Lanzarote, Rachel Hallam, 32, was in the thick of it.
“It’s incredibly difficult to train in March because we’re lambing and it’s so time-consuming,” says Rachel. “My dad and I do shifts and I usually take nights. I fit in training where I can but the animals are the absolute priority and I won’t get more than two or three hours sleep.”
Despite the extra challenges, Rachel finished first in the F30-34 age-group and eighth overall in Lanzarote. Although Rachel knew she was in good shape, her emphatic age-group win took her by surprise.
After a DNF on the run at October’s Ironman World Champs in Kona, Rachel bounced back with an age-group win at Ironman Cozumel and another eighth overall. That result means she’s already booked her place at Kona in 2017. Here are Rachel’s age-group topping tips…
TIME-CRUNCHED ADVICE
The strength and fitness gains from manual work are an excellent base for Ironman training. My coach, Mark Livesey (trainxhale.com), describes my training as ‘Farmfit’ as opposed to Crossfit. I have to make sure I spend between 10-15 hours per week running, cycling and swimming – occasionally peaking at 20 hours.
To do this I’ve installed a turbo trainer and a treadmill in one of the sheds and I’m up between 4am and 5am to get a training session in before first light. Then I find time throughout the day to fit in a second training session.
The key is to make sure you’re prepared to get in a session whenever you can. If you have an unpredictable job with irregular working hours, you have to be ready to throw on your trainers or jump on your bike whenever a chance presents itself. I also catnap a lot: it’s become a real skill. If I sit down for a few minutes I can be off and getting in a good 20 minutes.
WORKING MINDSET
My job is tough but I think it’s made me the triathlete I am. As children, my brother and I didn’t go on family holidays because my parents couldn’t really leave the farm. So we just spent lots of time in the Chilterns and my dad dug us out a 10m swimming pool so we were always on the go.
We all can often hate our jobs at the time (I do with mine!), but it’s satisfying once you’ve got through it. And that’s my mentality with Ironman: you see that the job there is to get to the finish line and you just have to get your head down, switch off and get on with it. And it’s the same for me with sheep-shearing: you switch off and suck it up. 220