40th edition Marathon des Sable by ultra-runner, Tom Charlick

The 40th edition of The Marathon Des Sable by ultra-runner, Tom Charlick 270km – 7 Days – 6 Stages – 1,500 Competitors How hard was it? Ultra-running suffers from a bit of delusion on the concept of difficulty, it is like I am somewhat numb to it. I think I put that down to how I […]

Lost Horizons domination by pairs winner, Jason Kon

Around 840km of Spanish gravel through the province of Soria, starting and finishing in the city itself. Soria is a beautiful but sparsely populated part of Spain and that remoteness is a huge part of what makes the event so special. You can ride for KM after KM on almost perfect gravel, surrounded by rolling hills, forests, mountains and huge golden cereal fields. At times, the landscape genuinely felt more like Tuscany than what I had imagined northern Spain would look like.

And that is one of the things I discovered about ultra cycling. I realised it isn’t just about getting to the finish. It is everything that happens along the way.

Returning from illness protocol

Coming back from illness can be a very frustrating process and really does take discipline.  Ultimately your goal is to minimise the amount of time you are unable to perform high quality training. We emphasise this because being on a bike and unable to hold power or running whilst coughing your guts up is not high quality training. Sometimes, you have to take more recovery in order to reduce the overall length of time you are unable to train with purpose.

Cycling Exhaustion Protocol

Use this chart to help you decide when enough is enough during high repetition sessions.  The goal with the exhaustion protocol is to ensure that your training remains high quality and that you are still hitting the right energy system i.e. anaerobic or aerobic.  Please note, some sessions might not be appropriate for implementing an […]

Do you really know what ‘FTP’ means?

WHAT IS YOUR FUNCTIONAL THRESHOLD POWER? Since the dawn of the online training age, we have become increasingly obsessed with data and metrics. None more so than our FTP. We wear it like a badge of honour, a badge that sometimes… maybe… possibly… every now and then, we embellish a touch… whoops! Something to bear […]

RIAK Know How – Upper body stretch routine

Dynamic Stretch Routine

To ERG or not to ERG

One of the most frustrating things about fitting in training around work and social commitments is having your favourite break-through session planned for the morning and then realising your assumed 90-minute slot is really a hectic 45-minute session followed by what feels like a 90% chance of stress induced pulmonary implosion as you leg it for the train minutes after a monstrous run set.

Post-cycle/run stretch routine

Training Your Energy Systems

Click here to download the Training Zones chart