Imagery is a psychological skill or technique that involves using one or more of your senses (see, hear, smell, touch, taste) to create or recreate an object, person, skill or experience in your mind. Imagery allows you to practice physical skills, pre-race scenarios etc, without actually having to perform them or be there (i.e. mental rehearsal).

Most athletes have probably experienced mental images to some degree. However, the ability to image will differ for each individual athlete. Take a moment now to think of your sport, a special person, or occasion perhaps a favourite meal or perfume. Do this now! Did an image flash through your mind as you thought of any of these?

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Cliff Harvey of FITNET writes: With most of the best thermogenic, fat loss and stimulatory products now banned in New Zealand and Australia, what can we expect to take their place? Is there anything that can take their place?

What is a thermogenic?

Put simply a thermogenic is any product that increases thermogenesis (heat production) in the human body. Heat is a byproduct of metabolism so when more heat is being produced this means that more calories are being used. This is in isolation from activity. Obviously this has had big implications for the fitness industry because if you are using more calories for no greater input of activity the result should be greater fat loss. Added to this is the fact that most thermogenic compounds are very stimulatory giving greater energy and decreased rates of perceived exertion and also have nutrient partitioning effects (greater utilization of fat over other fuels). The impact thermos have had on the industry is profound at it’s easy to see why.

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There are two main ways to manipulate intensity on the water. The first is to alter the effort you put into each stroke (by better body rotation, better blade orientation, thrusting hips to blade or greater blade reach at entry), and the other is the ‘rating’ of the paddling (a faster turn-over of the paddle with no increase in pulling effort). These are relevant adjustments for the first four methods.

1. CASTLES

These are good for developing exposure to higher intensity work - especially speed work. An example would be paddling at 75% max HR for 4 min then increasing the intensity to 85% for 4 minutes then drop back down to 75% for 4 minutes etc for a total of 24 minutes (ie:75% - 85% - 75% - 85% - 75%….), then paddle easy (65% max HR) for 10 minutes. Repeat the castle again for a 1 hour session.

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It’s very easy to be carried away with bike porn; lusting after lighter, more exotic and prohibitively priced machines and components. It can be hard to say no to such perverse desires. There is hope though for sufferers in the form of a MTB that is fantastically well spec’d without a rapacious price tag; it has enough quality to satisfy.

I purchased the Reiker Renegade Pro to use in 100 km MTB races. I was after something that was light enough without being frail, robust enough to deal with roughhandling and varying terrains and conditions and sported quality components that satisfied durability and weight constraints. (more…)

Andrew Cooksley, Michael Meryment, Fanny Lariviere and Kris Clauson answer questions put to them about teams: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

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Speed is dependent upon the amount of time it takes to cover a given distance. It is also closely related to strength and power. The greater an athlete’s muscular strength the greater their ability to produce force against a resistance. Power is how fast you can produce that force over a particular distance and is therefore a combination of both strength and speed and an optimal coordination between the two. Strength, power and speed are also inherently related because they are outputs of the same functional system, the skeletal muscles. When thinking of one component such as speed it pays to think about the other two components as well.

All this sounds great for sprint athletes, but what about endurance athletes? Although endurance events are about going for long periods of time at a steady pace they can also benefit from speed work. For example a cyclist will know that even after a 100km race the winning of the race will often come down to the final finish line sprint. During a long multisport race the ability to kick and drop your opponent off your tail can greatly influence who gets across the finish line first. Also remember speed is defined as the distance covered in an amount of time irrespective of how long that time is from a 10s sprint to a 12hr race. Increasing your average speed will get you to the finish line quicker.

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Cameron Carter writes: Living in Christchurch, I’m lucky to have 2 paddling spots suitable for winter/night training within 10min. For those without these luxuries, busy work hours, family and those not confident paddling at night, a kayak ergo is worth considering.

Why use them?

From a coaching perspective seeing workout results such as power, cadence, speed and, time would be fantastic in helping athletes maximize their training session efficacy A common problem in training is athletes undertaking a session just because it’s in their programme, there’s no point in charging through some intervals if you are only doing them slowly! If your body needs an active recovery session it needs it! Smashing yourself constantly when you are tired will just decrease the general quality of training and delay improvement. Due to the nature of most endurance athletes it’s hard to know when to carry out an easier session if a specific set is prescribed or whether to train harder in some cases. By having a system which displays key performance measures you can dynamically improve feedback in real time to your program and adjust things on the fly; not months after the fact; then the horse has bolted.
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