Revista de Medicina Desportiva (English) January 2019 | Page 4

Rev. Medicina Desportiva informa, 2019; 10(1):2.
Dr. J. P. Maia
Gonçalves
Orthopedist. Back
surgeon. Hospital da
Luz, Arrábida.
Vila Nova de Gaia.
You just finished the Ironman
race. What is this race about?
It is a triathlon race that involves
a 3,8km swimming in open
waters, 180km road biking and a
marathon of 42km. I just finished
in October 2018 in Barcelona.
Are you satisfied with the
result? By the away, what was
it?
Very satisfied, more... It is a dream
come true! It took me 11h35m to
finish the race. My goal was to finish
in less than 12 hours, so the goal
was greatly achieved. Even although
some drawbacks on the transitions,
like a problem with the zipper of the
swimming suit when I came out from
the water, that costed me several
minutes of suffering and without any
allowed forbitten help, the imponder-
able state of agitation of the sea, that
pushed us to the shore when we were
trying to get in the sea, and also the
fact it rained a lot during the bike
stage with a lot of accidents.
To finish this race, it is needed to
train a lot. How can you manage
your job with the training schedule,
so different from each other?
It is in this conciliation that success
lies, allied to a strong support and
comprehension of the family. I train
daily, but the tuesdays, that would
be the rest day, but since I have to be
in surgeries all day long (back sur-
gery), it is not a really rest day, and
sometimes I finished the working
day with more fatigue that with the
training day. Of these trainings, two
each week are combined trainings
(2 or 3 modalities) to simulate the
transition phases and for the body
to get used to them. During the week
days I trained late in the afternoon
/ in the evening, and on average it
2 january 2019 www.revdesportiva.pt
is about 12 hours per week, for six
months. It requires constancy, dis-
cipline, a lot of resilience and spirit
of sacrifice, and even during the
holidays I had bi-daily trainings.
I’m an associate of a triathlon club
with a lot of tradition, the AASM, and
the sharing of the experience from
the other more experienced athle-
tes, together with my coach Paulo
Adão, were important, especially on
swimming. The running training was
always together with the members
of my club called Cães d’Avenida,
whose support and company were
outstanding, mainly on those days
that I didn’t want to make fast runs.
Having there somebody to motivate
and to pull me was a great value.
The technical training was coordina-
ted by Marisa (Run4Excelence), very
scientific and structured. The cycling
training was always together with my
two adventurous companions, Miguel
Catarino and Rui Barbosa, under the
supervision of Filipe Cardoso, a for-
mer professional cyclist and owner
of the shop Grandíssima (this shop is
a hymn to cycling), which enchanted
for helping amateurs athletes.
And about the nutritional support?
How was you advised?
Nutrition is probably one of the
greatest secrets of the physical
shape. To recover between the train-
ing days and the trainings races it
is the more important variable. As
far as nutrition is concerned, I’m
oriented by Luís Miguel Silva, and
athete-nutricionist of BTT, that
understands our needs and, above
all, the difficulties to keep for several
months the nutritional rigor. The
schedule of the meals and the regu-
lar ingestion of food are rules very
difficult to be accomplished when
the job is an orthopedic surgeon
with a lot of imponderables.
... and how, when and what do you
eat during those 10 hours of race?
During the race the body needs to be
powered and hydrated with quality.
We can have the best engine and
chassis, but if there isn’t high-qual-
ity fuel, the machine stops: correct
carbohydrates, isotonic drinks,
protein on the right dose and, above
all, on the right moment, and these
are the secret ingredients. It is like
to prepare a menu that I stick on the
bike for better orientation.
It is said that during the preparation of
the race, even the low consumption
of alcohol disturbs the muscle
function. Is that right? What does
your experience say?
In fact, I always enjoyed to socially
drink a glass of wine, but during
the preparation phase for the races
of the last years (25 marathons
and 12 ultradistant races) I always
harmonize the low consumption
of alcohol with training. This time,
however, the goal was more auda-
cious, I had to be more rigorous and
I really stopped drinking alcohol for
the last six months. This resulted on
a capacity to recover faster after the
trainings and with much less muscle
pain.
Do you repeat the race? What is
your next challenge?
For 2019 I’m enrolled on a half-iron-
man, because I definitely became
a fun of the triathlon and to make
only half of the distance it is already
a real adventure with less physical
stress. The variation on the practice
of these modalities allows to keep a
better and balanced physical shape,
with less myofascial pain, which
quite often impair training and per-
formance.