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For months now that feeling of ‘fitness’ has been an elusive creature. Deep troughs of fatigue have been briefly punctuated by feeling mediocre. Not since summer have the legs felt anything like good. So after finally loosing patience with the ‘finger in the wind’ method of training I decided to call on the services of a friend of mine, Filipe, a man who knows more than a thing or two about endurance training.
Filipe Salbany and Rob Griffiths run Athlete Service (www.athleteservice.com) based just outside Henley on Thames. They provide a host of services including Retul bike fitting and lactate testing, as well as being able to supply everything from a new saddle to full top of the range custom bike builds. But by far their most precious commodity is their knowledge of sports training.
Filipe cut his teeth riding for the Zimbabwean National squad before going on to compete internationally in running, swimming, and triathlon, lecture on sports physiology, and coach World and Olympic Champions.
Rob is an ex national and international rower who then switched to triathlon most recently finishing as the highest placed Brit in his age group in the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, the crème de la crème of Iron man events. Many experts have the knowledge but few have actually competed at the sharp end. When Rob and Filipe talk you listen. In essence they have the tools to help you go faster, more efficiently, and for longer.
So after drooling over various carbon fibre wizardry and dream bike builds it was down to business.
First up positioning. After the bike was set up on the turbo trainer within a handful of pedal strokes Filipe had already spotted I have bad flexibility in my right quad and hip flexor. There’s no hiding anything from this man! His knowledge of pedalling technique and positioning is world class and his demonstrations of the above make many pros look like average club riders. So after giving me a good talking to about my stretching routine or lack thereof he prescribed some useful stretches and pointers. Next up Lactate testing.
Lactate testing is truth by numbers. There is no hiding, no excuses, no drafting and no tactics. Just you, the numbers and someone with Filipes experience to tell you what it all means. In short it’s as we suspected. The numbers were awful. The diagnosis: Too much training at too high a level. Not enough rest. Not enough base building. And too much guess work. Oh dear! Whilst this was a bit demoralising it was not completely unexpected and at least now I have a known start point to work from. Filipe has now provided me with a training plan to take the guesswork out of my training and I now have a fair few weeks of slow base building to take care of. I just wish I had done this a long time ago.
So whether you are simply an average rider looking to improve or a seasoned racer looking to perform I would thoroughly recommend a visit to the guys at Athlete Service. It could save you a lot of time and heartache.
By the way they're also a Kinesis Bikes dealer so you really couldn’t ask for more;-)
Dave.
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