LOG BOOK.Hugo Hay: "I have already gone to Asia, China, for my first selection"

Hugo Hay will participate in his first Olympic Games.The 24 -year -old athlete, from Bressuire and based in Belgium, agreed to tell the atmosphere that reigns in Japan, his preparation for the race, and how he saw his first Olympiad.Several times a week, he will deliver to Ouest-France and extension his logbook.

For his first episode, he returns to the latest preparations before departure for Japan, scheduled for Thursday, after a period of assimilation of the jet lag and climatic conditions, without forgetting the health constraints.

"The excitement of the departure is not too mounted because of the constraints.There will not be the magic of the games, so there is less excitement upstream.But I know that once I am in Japan, in the Olympic village, it will go up, necessarily.But I expected more.It would have been stronger with normal games.

«We have almost 24 hours of travel, that does a lot»»

The protocol is strict.We must do a test for less than 96 hours and less than 72 hours in approved laboratories.It is not done everywhere, so we had to do a little road.All with specific papers to fill out.And in addition, with France, we had a D-10 test.It was not compulsory but it was to be sure, in case there is a positive, it leaves us time to return to the logistics level.We can go later.Afterwards, there are papers to fill out, two applications to download with things to fill on it to have all the QR codes, and to be sure that once you arrive, you can give each check-up all the information requested forthat it goes as quickly as possible.It will be super long, between two and five hours.We already have 10:30 a.m. flight.Me, I am leaving from Brussels, so I have the train to go to Brussels, then the train to go to Roissy.Waiting, the plane and then again for waiting.And from Osaka, where we land, up to Kobe, 1 h 30, so it's still a bus behind.We have almost 24 hours of travel, that does a lot.

You also have to prepare for the jet lag.It is seven hours ahead in Japan.At this level, it's been two weeks since I set up an anti jet lag plan.I'm not someone in the morning, so it was difficult, I had to put it really before before.The goal is to wake up earlier and earlier.But gradually to adapt your biological clock, without doing too much.We have to find a balance because we are on a large phase of work.If you start to sleep less, or alter your sleep, it's not good.This Thursday, I get up at 5:45 a.m..I went to bed around 8 p.m..There, we are really at the end.

I would have liked to do it a little more, but on Saturday, I was doing the hare on a competition.We were running at 8:30 p.m..I couldn't, already, shift myself too early.If I fell asleep at 8:30 p.m. on other days, that means that I was doing a competition at that time, and there, it's not going at all.So there is also what came into account.

« On a acheté des lunettes où tu peux changer les verres»»

We also bought glasses where you can change the glasses.In the morning, you put the blue glasses to have blue light, and you light a small LED that is above the glasses.This allows you to awaken and maximize things in the organic clock, wake up your body and not just have hours to lift.You shift everything in your body, and then you put the tinted glasses which are orange glasses, as on the laptops.This allows you to shift and fall more easily asleep.Therefore shift sleep as well as the glasses to optimize.

In addition, what we are going to do in terms of travel is to eat as soon as possible when you arrive at the airport, to get as soon as possible on the plane and sleep as soon as possible behind.Then we wake up around 4 am because it will be 11 a.m. in Japan.Like that, we can take the pace directly.It's going to be a little night on the plane but it will allow us to get tired by having already saved five or six hours of lag.We will have one or two days when we will be in the gas, but not too much either.I arrive at 6 p.m. (local), except that we will not have slept a lot, and time to do all checks at the airport, we will not be at the hotel before 11 p.m..We hope to sleep directly, like that if we fall asleep directly and we get up around 9 a.m., we will be almost wedged if we will have already won two or three hours before leaving.

There are also tests.It was quite addictive and it adds a little stress because you have to do all the papers, and the PCR tests, you must have everything.You are a little afraid of the positive test.As usual, but there, as it is the games, you are a little more afraid.Afterwards, it will be the on -site procedures.We will have salivary tests every day or every day to be sure.But it is at this price that there are games.

« On fait déjà très attention à la bulle»»

We don't want to miss them, but if I had been positive for the qualifying competition, it is your games that can fly.There is necessarily pressure, even before.But it is certain that compared to a competition where there was not the qualification at stake, even if you want to run, that these are big meetings, this is nothing compared to that becauseYou tell yourself that you can miss the games, and that they will be intransigent in addition.

The preparation was important.Saturday, I did the hare, it was a little more training.And Tuesday, I did my last big session.We did it at 9 a.m. because we were woken up at 6:15 a.m..Everything went well, confidence is maximum because I have spent very good sessions from my internship in Saint-Moritz (Switzerland), I am in good shape this summer.Afterwards, there is bound to be fatigue because we arrive at the end of the cycle.That’s why you have to anticipate the lag.The goal will be to regain juice and try to assimilate it as much as possible to be able to overcome next week and be really fresh to start the competition.

The bubble will be present in Tokyo but we are already very careful.In Saint-Moritz, we were between group athletes, we stayed between us.We had a test before leaving, we were very careful there.Also Saturday, we were very careful.People asked us to make selfies, we asked them to respect the distances, to put their mask.My roommate left because he saw his girlfriend last week and there he sees his customers for his work.So he left me the apartment.And apart from those who go to the games, I have been training on my own since last week, because there is no point in taking risks.There, I wanted to go to the sauna but I will just make a hot bath for the assimilation of the heat.I don't want to go to the swimming pool because there are people, it's too hot for the virus but I don't want to take a risk.

« Le but est d’essayer d’arriver le plus acclimaté possible»»

Heat is a deal that had to be taken into account.The Japanese climate is hot and above all very humid.That's it, we had to take into account.For that, we did thermoroom, with training in rooms where it was 35 degrees and 75 % humidity, or more or less.We had to get the body used to, see what a cooling strategy it was necessary to put in place to decrease it and how to assimilate.There was also sauna, hot baths.We did carpet training with a lot of clothes on us, in Saint-Moritz, because we did not have thermoroom.The goal is to try to arrive as acclimated as possible, knowing that it is impossible to be totally.At the same time, that's why we will have the internship in Kobe, for assimilation and that the body gets used to that.The first two or three days, it will be hard.We hope it remains like that the evening when it is not very hot and where the humidity is not too high.It is 27 degrees in the evening, for the moment, during times when I will run, and 60 % humidity.So it's still acceptable, it's not extreme.

These are not conditions that I know a lot.We don't have the opportunity to have competitions under these conditions.Afterwards, it will not be extreme.There will be no big failures.We will just have to be careful.And there, it is good that in Belgium it is beautiful, a bit like in France, because it allows to sweat a little.Monday, he was moist, so it was good.

In the end, we all leave ten days before.I go two days ahead of Jimmy (Gressier, the other French present over 5,000 m).I will not be with any half-founder.There are some who left on Tuesday and others who leave on 24.We adopted this strategy, while Jimmy preferred to wait, which allows him to finish his training cycle in Paris.These are full of small details to which we are meticulous.I am not the strongest physically, so if we can catch up everywhere what I miss, is it always taken.

I have already gone to Asia.It was in China, for my first selection.It was the first time that I was taking the plane (laughs).It had made me a big trip, in addition the TV did not work and I had not dared to ask because I did not understand, in short.It had been very, very long.I had assimilated the jet lag, with the same strategy.There, it went well.I hope Asia will smile at me again.It's cool to go so far, to go to Tokyo.The only concern is that we will not be able to visit...»»