Yesterday afternoon Wattbike were out in force at the Chelsea FC training centre in Cobham yesterday. The state of the art facility was opened in April 2008 and hosts the training centre for the First Team, Reserve Team, Academy and Community programme. We set up in the Academy Gym and introduced them to the capabilities of the Wattbike. They were especially interested in the ability to monitor fitness and balance in their players during recovery from injury. Some of the ways that they were wanting to use the Wattbike were new to us, including standing cycling, both facing forwards and backwards without holding onto anything. This would help to develop good balance whilst also developing the musculature around the injured areas. They were also very interested in the possibilities of demonstrating the impact of injuries on the ability to produce power, especially where a player may feel fine, but the underlying weakness is still there.
Of course there was also the obligatory power tests, Steve Hughes, pictured below had thet top score at over 1250 Watts.
Steve Hughes, Chelsea Academy Physio, testing the Wattbike
Today in Nottingham we were snowed in, well almost. Out of the window I have just watched someone do a Scandinavian Flick around the corner! I had to cancel or postpone three meetings today as I could not get to Birmingham on time, whilst I like the snow I would rather I could have made it. We have also had to rearrange our whole weekend, which involves travelling to Sandown for the Tri Cycle Run Show and up to Rochdale on Friday for an event at Falinge Park High School then up to Manchester again to have a stand at the Velodrome for a schools even on Monday! The biggest problem has been making sure that we have enough bikes put together to cater for all the events, but we have sorted that now.
The Tri Cycle Run Show should be interesting with the Wattbike featuring in the Cycle Zone where cyclists can come, try the bike and get some instant feedback. There will be some racing as well! Tri247.com have a short preview of the Wattbike at the TCR Show, titled Watt’s your biking like? Wattbike’s on show at TCR .
Also today we booked in an afternoon with the Chelsea FC Academy showing them the Wattbike at the end of February – although we will be spread thin on that day as well as some of us will be in Hereford showing the SAS the bike. Not sure if it is more exciting to go to the SAS or Chelsea FC!
