Basmla Elsalamoney shares insight as a Muslim triathlete during Ramadan

Words by Basmla Elsalamoney, Egypt.

Basmla Elsalamoney, a triathlete representing Egypt, is a member of the ASICS World Triathlon team,

“It’s all about adaptation.”
Basmla is a part of the ASICS World Triathlon Team, she was been recently selected for the ITU Scholarship where she trained at Alicante University under the direction of coach Roberto Cejuela and just returned one day before it was the lockdown in Spain, since she has been back, she trains with the national team and follow the guidance of the technical director of the Egyptian national team Ahmed Salama. “All the sessions we do is with a video conference,” she said.

Muslim Triathlete in Ramadan and Lockdown
It is the holy month of Ramadan for the Muslims, a month when all the Muslims are fasting for around 29-30 days for 17 hours per day. As a Muslim it’s hard to skip this fasting, only for some few reasons you can, but normally you cannot, people around the world usually wonder how it could be for the athletes, how they train and what they do during this month, so we have selected one of our youngest triathletes to get closer on her daily routine, to know more about her, she is Basmla Elsalamoney from Egypt, and she will tell us more about how she trains during this month.

The beginning
Let’s first know more about her interesting journey with triathlon. And how she started triathlon and what it means to her. Basmla is 21 years old triathlete and the winner of the 2019 African Games, the elite women, she was born in Gharbeya, Egypt, she started as most of the young Egyptians with swimming, she was motivated with her brother, Basmla won her first ever national medal in swimming an age of 11 years and spent more 6 years competing at the top level in swimming, she took part in more than 200 swim races and earned around more than 50 medals, at age of 17, Basmla got bored of swimming “I am a kind of a committed athlete who trains faithfully, I felt like I do huge effort every day, and improves a little, it’s really so boring to give all you have and then after being in top three most of the time, you start to finish in 4th and so on” Basmla said.

New life
Basmla gave a lot to the sport and felt that she has more to give but did not know what to do “I was dying inside, I felt like I have nothing to do with my swimming career and it’s not the way that I wanted to end my sporting life” she added. Basmla looked up for another sport, until she heard about triathlon from her previous swim coach Mr. Mark and she started to search where she can train this sport, unfortunately, this sport was not in her hometown, so she kept searching until she found a group on Facebook “Egyptian Triathlon Community” “I texted the admin of the group to guide me where I can start, I have no idea what triathlon is! But at this time I have noticed a big growing for this sport in Egypt” she said
It was back to 2016, Basmla did not know that the admin of this group is a coach himself, “I received a message from a young girl, who was bored from swimming, after knowing her records in the swim events, I was so excited to meet her, I asked her some questions, and I told her it will not be easy to start a new sport at this age, and I found that she is excited much” her coach Ahmed Salama said. It was not easy at all to her, she felt of the bike twice in her cycling skill test “She have a better swim time than any other female triathlete in Egypt, and during this meeting, I have touched a spirit of a warrior, in my position, I cannot judge about an athlete from only one meet, so I give her one month to train and to see where she will go” he added
Basmla also said “It’s embarrassing to fail twice off the bike, but I was like, come on Basmla you cannot let it go, I don’t want to go back to spent my whole day again in the swimming pool” She said

The new beginning
After two months Basmla won the 2016 Sharm El-Shiekh Triathlon Pan Arab Championship, the junior women title and one week later she got the title of the 2016 ATU Aquathlon African Championship, Basmla was living in another city 120km far from the coach, she used to come twice a week for training in the capital with the coach, “it was so hard to let her train alone in such a beginning, I needed to see her in front of my eyes” he said.
Basmla kept training till the end of the year and won another two big local races in 2016 one of them was an Olympic distance, at this time her coach saw that she could be ready to fight for the new flag in Africa, she spent 2017 training and gain more experience about triathlon, with local races and AG races, Basmla took part in 23 races between November 2016 and April 2018. It was like a big rehearsal for what is coming later on. She also got the second place of the 2017 WTS Abu Dhabi – female standard distance AG overall, “I felt like that triathlon is a new opportunity to me, I felt like progress in triathlon has no end, you can progress in total time, in skills, or any discipline, triathlon became my life” Basmla said.
In the end of 2017 Basmla moved to study and train in Cairo, and take it for real. In April 2018 Basmla got ITU points from her first ever elite race, the 2018 ATU Sharm Triathlon Sprint African Cup “My coach told me, it’s your time, and it is a very important opportunity that come only once” Basmla said, Later during the same month Basmla won the junior women title in the 2018 African Championship.

The dream just started
Basmla spent 5 months training well and getting ready to gain more ITU points for the new flag, in October 2018 Basmla showed up her skills by winning the bronze medal of the 2018 ASTC Aqaba Sprint Triathlon Asian cup with a solid run and the best run record in the event, Basmla competed in a lot of races in the past 18 months and got more ITU points with 5 medals in the continental cups, Basmla also won another two African duathlon championships in 2018 and 2019.

The comeback
After she have reached a great level by the end of the first Olympic qualification period, and was ready for the biggest goal of this season, Basmla have experienced her hardest day in her life, with unexpected accident during her cycling training, and then she was stopped for a total of two months without training in May and June 2019 and she had “A Partial medial meniscectomy and ACL Repair” surgery during this time. “Thanks Allah, that I am still alive, my bike have been destroyed and went down of the car, I got many injuries and bruises, I want really to thank the ETF and the ATU president Mr. Ahmed Nasser he was the first one to visit me after the accident and Dr. Ashraf Sobhy the minister of the Youth and Sport for all the help and support they did to me” she said.
Basmla returned to the swim after 3 weeks of the surgery, “We took it step by step, I did not know that the surgery was the easiest part of it all” Basmla said
Basmla knocked every door to get better with two rehabilitation sessions per day, at the last week of July Basmla was able to return to running again, she was running at a pace of 7-8 minutes per km, Basmla had withdrawn from many races during this time, even the 2019 African games, her coach saw that she could race this one by the end of July. Her coach has registered her just one day before the deadline, “I saw the start list and I see that she could race this race healthy” Her Coach said.
After the bike has been destroyed Basmla used 800$ cost bike. No one expected that she could win, the target was just to earn some ITU points and secure the situation, she went for top 5.
Basmla surprised everyone and won the title of the elite women in triathlon at the 2019 African games. “I may not be at my best shape, I was really far from my normal performance, I don’t know how I did it, all I know is that I have been working not hard but working as much as I can with the physiotherapists to be able to train and race again, and that was the gift from Allah, when you try your best, Allah gives you the best” Basmla said.

Basmla also studies dentistry, and she is in her third year. “Definitely it’s really hard when you study or work beside your training at this level, but unfortunately, sport is not a profession in my country, so you need to study to be able to get a job when you finish your sporting career, and I hope this changes someday.” Basmla said

How it looks in Ramadan
On the other side of the world, it is not only a lockdown due to the COVID-19 Situation but also Muslims are in their most important month of the year, it is Ramadan.
All Muslims around the world are fasting now, it’s a fasting of no foods, no water or any kind of nutrition, they don’t eat at all every day for almost 12-17 hours, depending on where you are in the world from the dawn to the sunset.

There are so many religious reasons for fasting, but the most important of them, is that Muslims can feel and experience how the poor people live, so they can give more and help them, and also it’s a time of the year for making your liver and different body organs to get cleaner from the toxic stuff, Muslims are not only fasting from foods, but from all the bad behaviors, words and so on.

There are so many religious reasons for fasting, but most important of them, is that Muslims could be feel and experience how the poor people feel, so they can give more and so on, and also it’s a time of the year for making your liver, a3da2 and your body get cleaner from the toxic stuff, Muslims are not only fasting from foods, but from all the bad stuff, words and so on. And they have two meals during every day, Lunch which is just after finishing everyday fasting and one just before its start, you are also allow to eat during this time between the two meals.

Basmla in the lockdown and Ramadan
Basmla used to train in Ramadan in the past years, “it’s important to keep yourself active and keep your training; you cannot break your season” Basmla said
Basmla and her coach found a way to keep it up in this month, “it’s all about adaptation” her coach said. Basmla tells us how she trains in Ramdan.

The most important thing during this month is the time management, I feel like the system of this month is helping you a lot, as you are eating everyday at the same time, I may add extra one meal between the two to keep my metabolism higher. There are like 9-10 hours between the main two meals, so I add just another one, in Egypt we are not allowed to train outdoors or in clubs as all the clubs and centers are still closed, so I keep everything indoors, in this month, my training schedule is very sample, I train 2-3 sessions per day, the first one is just before the end of the fasting within one hour so that it ends by 18:30. I start between 17:15 to 17:30, the easiest session of the day is done during this time, which is one of the following, 45-60’ easy indoor cycling, it could be only recovery, aerobic or isolate and speed skills, high cadence, P-Rehab session, core and strength, mobility or flexibility. I do Yoga sessions and different kind of cardio as well. The most important thing is that, if you are not well trained before Ramadan, so don’t train for more than 30-45 minutes, max is 60 minutes, and as I have mentioned it should be easy, at the beginning of this month start step by step, you may start with 30 min and add 5 more minutes every two to three days, it’s so dangerous to do any hard workouts during the fasting or early in the day.
After the first meal of the day within 3-4 hours I do my second session of the day, and it can be intervals, thresholds or sprints and also the long session which last for more than 60 minutes up to 2.5 hours, then I can do another session after it directly, depending on my training schedule. It was the same thing I do if it is not for the lockdown.

Basmla is a part of the ASICS World Triathlon Team, she was been recently selected for the ITU Scholarship where she trained at Alicante University under the direction of coach Roberto Cejuela and just returned one day before it was the lockdown in Spain, since she has been back, she trains with the national team and follow the guidance of the technical director of the Egyptian national team Ahmed Salama. “All the sessions we do is with a video conference,” she said.

A sample of my weekly schedule during Ramadan

First session starts on 17:15
Second session starts on 22:00

Monday
Rest day or Yoga, sometimes very easy bike session

Tuesday
Session 1: 5-60’ Mobility and Strength
Session 2: 75’ Indoor Cycling Interval

Wednesday
Session 1: 40’ Core Stability
Session 2: 60-90’ Endurance Cycling

Thursday
Session 1: 60’ P-Rehab with Yoga or Flexibility
Session 2: 80’ Speed skills (A kind of some drills or very short intervals such as 3x(8x1’)

Friday
Session 1: 40’ Core Stability
Session 2: 60’ Aerobic or Speed Skills (A Kind of cadence session or roller)

Saturday
Session 1: 50-60’ Mobility and Strength
Session 2: 75-30’ Threshold Cycling

Sunday
Session 1: 40’ Core Stability
Session 2: 2h Endurance Cycling

Third session on Thursday or Friday could be a sort of cross training like kick-box cardio or a different type for 50’ minutes. Sometimes I end the days with swim stretch cord 10-20 minutes session or sometimes it can be at the end of any strength session depending on what we have every week, this is also how I keep it in non-lockdown Ramadan.

Basmla shows how she trains in Ramadan, visit TriathlonLIVE.