Tips for a kid-happy Ski Holiday

We all enjoy the moment it’s time to get the suitcase out of the cupboard and start packing for our highly anticipated holiday. However, for families heading off for a ski holiday, the packing process is essential for ensuring that there aren’t any tears during the holiday (and it’s not the kids tears I’m talking about!) Pre-kids our skiing holidays were very different, most involved epic days on the hill followed by après-ski and a good soak in the bath. With kids our days are Continue reading →

5 ways Duct Tape can save your ski adventure!

Following on from our recent blog ‘How Duct Tape Saved My Adventure‘ in which our adventure cameraman Keith Partridge, explains how he helped patch up a crashed aeroplane with a trusty roll of duct tape, we came up with some other ways in which duct tape can save the day during your time on the mountain. 1. Saving your modesty   “Oh dear!” Not sure that even duct tape will make this look any better, however it would seal the hole and allow the skier to Continue reading →

How Duct Tape saved my adventure

When he’s working in Chamonix filming our fitness programmes, Keith Partridge, the World renowned cameraman is travelling the World making adventure films and getting into a few difficult situations! However, for anyone that knows Keith, he never travels without a large roll of duct-tape in the bottom of his bag. Many a time during filming we’ve heard him say “I’ll get the duct-tape” so it doesn’t surprise us that in a remote part of Venezuela, when things went very wrong, by having one specific essential item Continue reading →

Play the Zwift game to overcome cycle training pain!

Get serious about your cycle training and have fun at the same time with Zwift! As most committed cyclists must now know, the most efficient way to build fitness for performance on the bike, particularly during the winter is to use an indoor turbo trainer and follow a power based structured training plan. However like many others the tedious and painful reality of suffering for hours, going nowhere has prevented me following this path to progress. In any one winter I probably would use my Continue reading →

Skiing With Drones On The Slopes

Shout it from the bin, from the chair-lifts and tows, “This years must have fashion accessory is here to capture your every turn in ultra dynamic high definition. Helmet cams and selfie-sticks are just so last year. Now it’s the turn of the drone.” Our technologically accelerated world has showed us all manner of marvels. The GPS driven ski speed & distance app for the mobile phone has been with us for a number of years promoting the hard and fast. The helmet with on-board Continue reading →

My New Buddy The Kettlebell

It has been a very busy summer with far too much time spent in front of a computer and not enough time out and about having fun. Looking for a quick workout fix that I could indulge in at the end of the day or even in a short break away from the desk and under the influence of a Tim Ferris podcast interview with Pavel Tsatsouline, I purchased a set of kettlebells and embarked on Pavel’s Simple and sinister programme. As someone who has Continue reading →

Be Safe and Lightweight with a Mini Mobile Phone

On entering this magical world of Ultra running you learn that weight is important and imperative when you think of the number of the strides you’ll be covering in an event. These days everything is ultralight and now it’s turned to your mobile phone as well. In most trail races participants must carry a fully charged mobile phone with your emergency numbers pre programmed. However our mobile phones come in all shapes and sizes and weights. I had heard about a mini size mobile phone Continue reading →

Top 5 Tips To Consider When Buying Your First Trail Running Pack

There’s just over two weeks to go until the OCC and over the past few weeks I’ve been upping the altitude and kilometres and it has been causing a few niggles. My knees have been giving me some problems so I booked in with Neil for a physio consultation (yes, even his wife has to book herself into his diary to be seen!). I obviously went in for my knee diagnosis but Neil had other ideas: “When did you sprain your right foot?” “What?” And then I remembered that a few years ago I Continue reading →

Step Up Your Training With The Compex Wireless

Who’s heard of Compex?  Have you considered using electrical muscle stimulation in your training programme?  Well if you’re serious about your training read on! What is electrical muscle stimulation? Neuromuscular electrostimulation (NMES) is a clinically proven, non-invasive, non-addictive means of muscle rehabilitation.  Physiotherapists have been using it for many years after injury, surgery or disease.  In sports medicine, NMES is used for muscle strengthening, selective muscle retraining, and the control of exercise related fatigue, soreness and oedema. The principle of electrostimulation is very simple and precisely reproduces Continue reading →

Trail Running Gear Shopping Part 1 – Sports Watch and Heart Rate Monitor

So I’ve finally gone and done it ………………. I am the proud owner of a heart rate monitor and watch and I love them! For many years I have pushed off the time consuming, research-loaded, slightly geeky world of buying gear. My issue with sports watches and heart rate monitors was basically down to the perceived time involved in acquiring all the data. Why on earth would you want to spend 4 hours training then get home and have to spend yet another 4 hours analysing Continue reading →