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The Power of Adaptive Recovery

WRAP is our new training methodology.

It enables you to get the best out of every workout, never become overtrained, prevent burnout, accelerate the rate at which you see measurable results, get the best out of your determination, achieve your goals and be prepared for every event that you target, and above all, achieve sustainable fitness and feelings of wellbeing.

https://cycleforfitness.com/…/adapt-to-perform-or-preventin…

If you would like to understand why WRAP will work for you, contact us for a no obligation chat

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Overcoming Barriers to Cycling

I was reading that the biggest barrier to people taking up cycling was fear of injury on our roads. So while the statistics show that the average cyclist would need to ride 1,000,000 miles before injury caused by another road user (by the way the odds of serous injury through collision with a pedestrian is on par with being hit by lightening) there is a fear culture that seems to have somewhat gripped our nation.

The stark reality is that 85,000 are dying prematurely in this country due to our sedentary lifestyles in the form of cancer and cardiovascular problems (obesity has recently overtaken smoking as the main cause of cancer). These conditions have also been linked to a worse outcome from Covid-19, with a shocking fact that in 2018/2019 , 25% of all hospital admissions were due to obesity related illnesses.

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Overcoming Barriers to Cycling”

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The Inbetweener Cyclist

While cycling solo is the norm for many people, there are joys to be had from cycling with a group or hopefully like-minded friends.

The advantages of riding in a group are both functional in terms of safety and having someone close to hand to help you in the event of you getting a mechanical issue, such as a puncture, and morale support when you are not feeling on top form.

Riding with friends is also good for building rapport in terms of gaining bragging rights by sprinting to the village sign or the social competitiveness of having the best time on a Strava segment or grabbing the “King of the Mountain” title on a local hill.

However, for this to be pleasurable, you need to be able to keep up with the group. There is nothing more demoralising than being dropped off the back of the group, especially when it is not even on a hill!

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The Inbetweener Cyclist”

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Cycling Snobbery

It’s been a few weeks since I put anything down here on the site, however as perhaps with the warmest days over in the UK, I wanted to take stock of a few points regarding how we perceived ourselves and new cyclists in particular.

If you follow or are part of the cycling fraternity then you’ll be familiar with the “Rules” (loving them or hating them), understand what N+1 means, the advantages of deep rim wheels, the importance of crank length and the pros and cons of tubes versus clinchers. Take a bow, you are a guru and possibly a cycling geek.

On the otherhand, if you are new to cycling, have no idea of what I just said above or really can’t be bothered with the technical stuff, treating your bike as if it was your car (if it squeaks or breaks, then take it to the shop) then you are probably dazed and may be even a little intimidated by the strange language cyclists use. That’s okay, I bet you get as big a thrill out of cycling as the geeks and snobs.

So what is the obsession with all the lingo that the “in crowd” use, and does it really matter ?

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Cycling Snobbery”

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Introducing Heart Rate Variation (HRV)

The UK Government, and others across the world agree that a population that is active significantly impacts the outcome of health related conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, respiratory diseases, certain types of cancers, and mental health issues. Building on my post from a few weeks ago, I came across a US study that shows that there is a direct correlation between changes in the time gaps between our heart beats (called heart rate variation) and the leading causes of death.

I have been an advocate of monitoring heart rate variability (HRV) for over 2 years, using this as a means to identify trends in my own health within the context of readiness to train. On days when my HRV reading are high, this indicates that I am well rested, my stress levels are low, the levels of muscle soreness are low and that I am ready to train at a high intensity. The converse is also true, on days when my HRV is decreasing, this can indicate an imbalance in my nervous system, usually caused by lack of sleep or overdoing the training (when doing particular hard blocks of exercise), or perhaps my immune system is taking a hit and I am at the beginning of the the onset of a cold….or worse.

Given the research, the impacts we see of Covid-19, plus my own experiences of monitoring HRV, I am now adding HRV monitoring as default into my coaching services.

When you sign up to any of my online coaching programmes or services, I will set you up (assuming you have a heart rate monitor compatible with the Ithlete App) and work with you during the programme to ensure that understand your baseline HRV and monitor it throughout the entire course. By measuring your HRV every morning, we will know whether you are ready to kick that workout out of the park, or take a more relaxing day if you need greater recovery time…or simply to reflect on what impacts you most in terms of quality of sleep, diet, stress levels, training load, etc.