Be Inspired

I have been increasingly involved with athletes taking part in ultra-endurance events such as the Transatlantic Way, Transcontinental, HT550 and even a successful Round the World Record attempt. These events put huge demands on competitors’, both physically and mentally and I thought it would be useful to write about my findings on how best to recover from these long ultra-endurance events.

When I was sitting pondering over a cup of tea the other day I started thinking about the various ways that I schedule workouts to meet the needs of the athletes I work with.

Some of the endurance cyclists I work with like to do cyclocross in the winter to keep fit, add some interest and enjoy a new challenge. One of the athletes I work with wanted to learn more about the background of the training I am setting. I wrote a lengthy explanation by email and thought the ideas might be useful to others, so I have included the details here.

Font Romeu Nature Trail former Killian Classik is a great weekend of racing with a bit of something for everyone!

Chatting a to a running friend who had completed her first 3 Peaks Race in the UK, her own experience resonated so much with my own; she hadn’t got her food intake right and felt she could have run far better had she fuelled better. As general guidance most articles and books I have read advise 30g to 60g of carbohydrate per hour, or 100 to 300 calories per hour if you prefer. However, there are many variables that come in to play

Chapter 7: Think better, perform better: Here are some practical techniques in sports psychology that can be used to make real gains in performance. Try asking yourself a couple of questions: What proportion of your performance do you think is due to your mind? What proportion of the training time do you commit to training your mind? My guess is that there will be a discrepancy between the two answers…

Chapter 6: Longer term (phased) training plans: Once you get into your sport more and more you may start to think about goals that are further in the future. For example you may have done some competitions this year and think it would be good to see whether you can do better next year. To meet these longer term goals it is a good idea to make a longer term plan for success.

Chapter 5 - Weight, diet and nutrition: The subject of this chapter involves three related concepts that are important to consider if you want to take part in competitive sport. Whilst you won’t achieve sporting success as a direct consequence of your weight, diet and nutrition, it is certainly true that not eating properly will reduce or even negate your chances of success.

Chapter 4: Keeping track of it all: You now have a goal and a detailed plan to meet your goal. You can access the earlier chapters of the ebook here if you want to review them. In my experience it is useful for many reasons to use some measures to keep track of progress, fatigue and various other parameters. Don’t be scared if you’re not very technically minded, as it's very easy and there are lots of free tools out there that you can use.

Chapter 3: The detailed plan: In this chapter we will briefly think about the psychological aspects of sport that can help you meet your goals. Then we will develop a day by day plan to reach your goal.

Chapter 2: How do I make my goal real? After Chapter 1 you will have: your goal (what you want to achieve at a certain time); a list o things you need to achieve your goal; what you can do in comparison to each of those needs; one physical need that is a priority; and one psychological need that is a priority.

If you don’t have these things you may want to go back to review Chapter 1 and put these in place, alternatively you can go on with this Chapter but it is important to do each step in turn to get a really solid plan.

Understanding how equipment works is both interesting and useful so I thought I would write an article explaining how bicycle power meters work and how they can be used, including some practical ideas about how to train with power if you don’t own a power meter.

I was first introduced to the concept of hypnotherapy in sport by John. John had used hypnosis with several clients to good effect, included Karen Darke (pictured above). John and I used the technique to enable me to become more focussed and positive when racing. I used the skills we had practised in hypnosis to good effect during the Dentdale Run in 2012 going on to win the ladies race, something which I never thought possible. It was this positive effect of hypnosis that inspired me to go on and become a qualified hypnotherapist myself in 2013. So yes, hypnosis can help you have a more positive mindset and achieve performance goals.

One question I often get asked is ‘how do I use my heart rate monitor?’ or ‘what are heart rate training zones?’ or ‘how do I set and use heart rate training zones?’. With this in mind, I thought it would be useful to write an article on what a heart rate monitor is used for, what you can learn from using one and perhaps more importantly, how can a heart rate monitor benefit your exercise and training?

So is cycling twice a day too much? In most cases, cycling twice a day is not too much. Many athletes train twice a day and there is no reason for cyclists to be any different. The important factors are the overall volume and intensity combined with fitness at any given time. In many cases, cycling twice a day can be very beneficial.