Boat choice is a headache we could all do without and there is definitely no right answer, what might be right for you may not quite suit somebody else with your exact measurements, weight and paddling ability.

The first step in choosing a multisport boat is getting paddling! It doesn’t matter if it is in the sit on top your neighbour bought for her kids, your uncle’s sea kayak or your mothers Rebel, just get out there and establish a feel for what different kayaks feel like and what you like about the different characteristics of each boat. Don’t be afraid of taking a swim, it helps you to gauge what your upper threshold for (in)stability is, which in most cases has a direct correlation to boat speed.

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I mean how much can you really write about bike knicks that has not been written before. They are an acutely personal product; what works for some does not suit others. In the market there are huge swathes of either incredibly cheap and nasty me-too products or ludicrously expensive carbon-impregnated exotica.

Where do the iRULE SENSEI fit in all this?

In their own quiet corner I’d say; a spot where the thinking buyer sits ( in comfort ) and ponders value for money, comfort, style, difference and individuality. Because it’s to these kind of cyclists, critically assessing exactly this set of performance attributes that the SENSEI are so attractive.

SENSEI differ from the run of the mill because of the use of a multi-stretch Sportwool, the elegant enduro chamois and the iconic, patent-pending Pocketplex system.

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I was prompted to explore the wear and tear issues associated with bone mass upon hearing of yet another 40 something athlete having a hip replaced. Unless you have been astral traveling while reading this site you will have worked out by now that we are strong advocates of strength training for endurance athletes. Actually, we are also passionate about the more sedentary members of the wider populace incorporating strength training into their daily lives.

As you realise, muscle mass naturally diminishes with age and of course if you allow this entropy to spiral unchecked then you will increase the likelihood of relative fat increasing.

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I have seen countless supplements come and go. Many arrive with a huge amount of fanfare and hype and prove to be more or less worthless in the unforgiving lab that the real world of performance athletics provides.
Some, like creatine though, arrive, live up to much of the initial hyperbole and become regular fixtures in the supplement cabinets of many athletes. At other times, and even when we are heavily involved in performance athletics and sports nutrition certain things come in almost ‘under the radar’ and that is certainly true of two supplements that have emerged recently: citrulline malate and Beta-alanine.

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Why do we want to know our maximum heart rate (HR_max)?.Percentage of HR_max is often used as an indicator of training intensity. Testing HR_max is easy to do and can be done without expensive equipment. There is also a linear relationship between percentage of HR_max and percentage of maximum oxygen uptake (VO_2max). The percentage of VO_2max indicates the relative metabolic level of exercise. By using HR_max we are using the linear relationship between VO₂ and HR to predict the relative metabolic intensity of exercise. So why do we need to know our relative exercise intensity? It guides our training specificity, enabling us to focus on specific energy system. For example, as a general rule aerobic capacity is increased if we exercise above 70% of HR_max for a given period of time over a number of sessions per week. A training session aimed at improving aerobic capacity will require exercise intensity above this level. To train at our lactate threshold and improve our ability to process lactate quickly and efficiently we can use 85% of HR_max as a rough guide. However there are more accurate methods for determining lactate threshold

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VO_2max is a person’s maximal rate of oxygen consumption; it tells us how efficiently an athlete uses oxygen and can provide an indicator of an athlete’s capacity for aerobic exercise. VO_2max can also be used as an important training tool for prescribing exercise intensities.

A top male elite endurance athlete can have a VO_2max as high as 80 ml.kg.min^-1. Top female athletes have a VO_2max of about 15% less than their male counterparts and sedentary individuals tend to have a VO_2max around 40 ml.kg.min^-1. The gender difference appears to be mainly due to the higher body fat and reduced lean muscle mass of females and also their reduced haemoglobin concentration, which reduce their oxygen carrying capacity, however, other factors also affect VO_2max. Genetics can play a substantial part in determining athletes VO_2max however, VO_2max is also trainable and as such can be used as an indicator of the effectiveness of aerobic training.

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With the advent of more portable and cheaper blood lactate analysis devices, blood lactate measures need not be restricted to the sport scientist’s lab, or even to the sport scientist. These devices are typically a lot quicker in their analysis of results than previous devices such as the near archaic YSI. Previous to devices such as the Lactate Pro, samples of blood were drawn through a pipette and then placed in the machine to measure the blood. After some minutes, a figure representing blood lactate was given, while the testing continued. Over the last couple of years the Lactate Pro has made the taking of blood a lot easier and reduced time to results by more than half. Sampling is as easy as a would be glucose test, and measurement time is reduced to one minute.

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