Simon Wegerif & Chris Boardman at the Triathlon Show

Simon Wegerif & Chris Boardman chat about ithlete and all things HRV

Back in March we visited the Triathlon Show at Sandown Park, London. The whole weekend was a great success and the ithlete team thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  We got to talk with many ithlete users and athletes interested in heart rate variability, have a look around the show and make some wonderful new friends. A personal highlight for Simon was meeting Cycling legend Chris Boardman (who was also happy to take an ithlete kit home)!

Triathlon Show seminar

Event organisers TCR Shows Ltd presented a fantastic seminar programme across the weekend. We were delighted when ithlete founder Simon Wegerif was invited to host a seminar on heart rate variability on the Sunday afternoon. For those of you who missed it we made an audio recording of the event and have put this with the presentation slides below for your enjoyment.

Heart rate variability; the new fatigue & recovery tool

The seminar recording is split in to two parts and takes a look at the following topics;

  • Training = Workouts + Recovery
  • So how much recovery do you need?
  • The autonomic nervous system as a measure of fatigue & recovery
  • An introduction to heart rate variability (HRV)
  • HRV scientific research
  • Increased HRV baseline = improved performance
  • Personalise your training; what works for you?
  • Practical tips in monitoring HRV

HRV and sports performance seminar pt. 1

HRV for sports performance seminar pt. 2

Competition Time!

Those who attended the Triathlon Show will know we ran a competition throughout the weekend so thought we would finish this post with a quick mention from Clare, our Triathlon Show competition winner…

“I was delighted to win an ithlete (app & HR belt) following our visit to the Triathlon Show as I now don’t have to share the one that we bought with my partner!  We have both found that the ithlete never lies!  If you have done too much, or you are ill, or if you are stressed out!, the ithlete will give you an indication of what shape you are in and whether it is a good day to train.

I had a cold recently and interestingly, on the first two days (as it was coming out) I got blue (good to train) readings but on day 4/5 I got very low HRV scores (breathing in through the nose was tricky!) and red (don’t train). I had stopped training at the onset but it looks as if I could have trained (not that I really felt like it!!) so next time I have a cold I might listen to the ithlete and do some light training at the beginning.  A whole week off is quite a long time when you are following a training plan so to be able to minimize this would be good!

The App is easy to use and informative and you can export the data.  I had a couple of set up issues but these were resloved with a bit of trial and error and great customer service from Laura and Simon.

Only downside: having the WiFi enabled on my Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo caused the App to get confused, disabling the WiFi and switching the phone off and back on got things working again.”