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Why would you even consider training on a
Kickbike This
was the dilemma I faced when I first got asked to be the National Sales
Manager for Kickbike - I mean, to me it looked funny, so I was worried about what other
people would think of me, kicking around on something that looked like this.
But the Kickbike has certainly changed my life
The owners of Kickbike said 2 very smart things, and what I
found, amazed me. They said just try it for 3 weeks, and secondly they
said be serious about using kickbike as part of your training.
At that stage I was running 5 times a week, and
struggled with the odd impact injury. Between the ages of 24 and 28, I
had set my own PBs for 5km, 10km and half marathon, and hadn't been able to
match them since. I was using running just to stay fit, and I was also
cycling, both Road and MTB, most weekends to try and mix up the training.
So when the Kickbike came along, I was very sceptical,
and also wondered how I would fit it into a busy schedule. I
remembered the bit about taking it seriously, so I dropped my run training
down to just 2 runs a week, a 5km fun run on a Wednesday night and a 10km
fun run on Thursday night, and I also dropped one of my weekend rides.
Instead I went out on the Kickbike, and because of the area I lived in I had
not choice but add some hills into the training. I considered that it was
only 3 weeks.
To start with I found it challenging, I didn't have
to go too far before that tired trained feeling hit, but the recovery was
very quick. By the second week I had doubled my distances and the
third week I was feeling quite good about cruising around on my Kickbike,
I was actually quite enjoying it.
The amazing thing though, was that, because I
had reduced the amount of running and cycling I was doing I expected my
times to drop, however they had improved. Running twice a week I found that
I had taken nearly half minute off my 5km time, and nearly 1 minute off my
10km time. In just 3 weeks and only running twice a week. I was very
interested. My cycling also improved as I felt stronger on the hills and was
able to stay in the saddle longer. I
decided to try this Kickbike thing for longer. In the next 6 months, and at
the age of 39, I had taken nearly 4 minutes off my 5km time, and nearly
10minutes of my 10km time, and in the process, setting new PB's from 12
years earlier. In fact one weekend I thought I would try a half marathon
again, it had been a while. Again I set a PB taking nearly 8 mins off my
previous best time. Now my earlier PBs
weren't anything to write home about, but they were mine and they were the
best I had been able to do. Prior to getting the Kickbike on board I was
running 4-5 times a week was not even getting close to those PB's, and
I just had to put it down to age. So now I was playing on these funny Kickbikes and
only running twice a week and my times were improving all the time. The
difference for me was that I was able to get all my strength and aerobic
conditioning from a low impact exercise and then just do 2 conditioning
runs. The aches and pains almost disappeared and my training continued to
improve, instead of being regularly interrupted by injuries. I was
again really enjoying my training. I
wasn't suffering from the knee pains, shin splints, ITB and hamstring issues
that regular running had caused and this meant my training was better
quality. I became so impressed with the
whole Kickbike idea, that I had forgotten how funny I thought it looked in
the beginning, and what other people may have thought, and actually became
one of their biggest advocates and went on to buy the Australian business.
I am so sure that you'll get some benefit out of
training on a Kickbike, that I will guarantee you results if you use it
seriously as part of your training.
What is really interesting is that I now have 5 AFL
teams that have incorporated Kickbike into their training programs, because
they see the same benefits and results. |
Ph 1300 730206
