Ideally the week with trainSharp would have allowed me to see how they carry out their bike fits, aero testing and fitness testing. However, staff holidays and last minute appointments outside of the HQ for Jon meant that my week at trainSharp was not as busy and energy sapping as I had prepared myself for.
That is life and it has opened my eyes to how the working week can be like riding a bike. One week it can be all out, with not much time to think about much else, then comes a rest week and you almost have too much time on your hands.
Despite this, the week with trainSharp was thoroughly enjoyable and has allowed me to ponder over what my future work environment could potentially be. Although I haven’t done much, the environment in which the employees of trainSharp work really equates to my ideal work environment. Relaxed, friendly and very productive.
I don’t want to list out the days like other ‘bloggers’ might do as I feel that is very boring to read and can potentially turn off readers if done wrongly, so I will do my best to write about this week without making it into a list of “this is what I did…”
So here we go…
Monday flew by, had a blast learning new things from John Feeney, who he trains and what effects performance, heart rate etc. I personally found it very interesting and I couldn’t stop listening to what he said about the training effect.
Tuesday was good, got on with some work they set me on excel, quite important I may add. I doubt I can tell you what I was doing but it was basically combining all of a riders test data, so you can see what your power and development is over your time with trainSharp, and placing it on graphs to clearly identify your improvements.
The first part of the week, made me realise that I had to change up my feedback a little bit, and how I have been interpreting my training. It is amazing how trainSharp can adapt your training based on your personal feedback.
I should really rectify this to improve the training effect. Personally, I already like to know what my training is doing for my fitness, so any way to improve this is usually taken on board.
Another interesting point to this week was how the insoles, for your cycling shoes, are made. The machine is truly intuitive. Firstly, you get the person on the glass with the mirror underneath, to analyse how they stand. A blue light is used to identify where the pressure lies around the foot. What shocked me was how a minute change to the foot can release massive pressure from the toes and distribute the pressure throughout the foot preventing future injuries.
Jon and Callum, every time the subject comes up, say “everyone needs insoles.” (So if you are interested ‘click the pic’).
The later part of the week was much quieter for me. Although it was broken up, with a ride, with Chris McNamara and watching the national time trial championships on the main TV. (Spoiler Thomas Won).
This week has been great and the final day was a great way to finish off an eye opening week at a potential work destination if, of course, cycling professionally falls through and I get my degree in sports science. And just like that I have given you my life goals.
So on the final day Jon thought it would be good if I had a run through with the bio-racer virtual wind tunnel.
Another great idea to save money and time (and, if you’re lazy, effort). Callum and I tried and tested various positions on the road bike, to discover which reduces the amount of power at a certain speed. (I will be using said positions in my race tomorrow – which I ended up winning 🙂 (at time of publishing).
I think the last thing to say is thanks to all at Trainsharp they have all been very welcoming and all are easy to talk to.
A massive THANK YOU goes to Jon for giving me the opportunity to complete my work experience at Trainsharp HQ, down south, AND Paul for organising it. I am looking forward to the years to come training alongside trainSharp to develop my skills as a rider.
(Click on the photos for links of the respective booking: Bike fit; Virtual wind tunnel; Custom insoles)
Thanks for checking this out.
Over ‘n’ out.
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