Are you new to Adventure Racing or looking to brush up on your skills? If so, check out John Phelan – The Bikefit Physio. He is running a limited spot workshop this coming January.

John Phelan BSc MSc MISCP, PS, it’s a non-alcoholic beer!

John hails from Dungarvan and is making a return, after many years abroad. He qualified as a chartered physiotherapist with a MSc from Leeds University in January 2009 and it was straight up to Glasgow to work with the NHS for five years. He made the move into private practice whilst living in Edinburgh. Returning home in February ’16, then began the journey of setting up his clinic, Life Fit Physio. John has a special interest in low back pain, tendinopathy management and physio-led bike fitting. He also completed a BSc in Nutrition at UCC in 2004 and offers a nutritional advice service at his clinic in Cork. He unwinds with mountain biking, adventure racing and mastering the art of home-brewing!

For any of the Quest adventure racers or the Ring of Beara Cycle participants, you might have seen some of John’s helpful videos around cycling and injury prevention.  He has always taken a light-hearted and informal approach to the videos and aims to do the same with his up and coming workshop.  The workshop is aimed at newcomers and improvers to the sport of Kayathlon or adventure racing, as it is commonly called.  It will be taking place at the new clinic, The Life Fit Studio, on the 26th of January 2019.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

Firstly, the location will be our new clinic in Ballygarvan, close to the airport in Cork.  It’s a perfect location to hold an event like this because it’s easy to get to, we have a cosy coffee corner for cake fueled chats and there are plenty of scenic cycle routes to choose from that leave directly from the clinic.

THE AGENDA, according to John!

The workshop is really a great opportunity to learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to cycling and trail running, but more importantly, the chance to practice these skills on a group cycle and group run.  If you wish to skip the bike ride, there’ll be an optional yoga class, led by Holistic Liv, at the clinic for you to take part in.  The day will finish with a Q&A session with the experts, but the night will start with a meal at Tequila Jacks Mexican restaurant in Cork!

3 tips before your first adventure race

Posture on the bike

9am, the gathering of the troops and the getting to know you’s.  “I’ve been on numerous workshops in the past where the social aspect was missing and you had people sitting down in their own groups or by themselves.  I guess I want people to feel like they are all part of one mad family of adventurers!”

We then have Oliver Kirwan, the race director from Quest Adventure Series, lined up to talk a little about Quest and what they have in store for us in 2019.

Following this, the first of the workshop lectures on bike set-up, posture and cycling technique.  This 45min talk will give you loads to work on with your bike and cover ways to improve your comfort and efficiency too.  After this, we do a quick bike safety check and then roll out for a 15km spin, with the focus on quality, not speed!  There will be three of us guiding the group, Jack at the front and Corey at the back, allowing me to move up and down the group giving feedback on your posture and bike handling.

Lunch is next and the Workshop café is the ticket.  It’s only 2 mins up the road! You can bring your own lunch to the adventure workshop and join the group at the workshop café to keep the family workshop bond working!

The Famous Workshop Cafe

After lunch, it’s back to the classroom for a chat on trail running and prevention of injuries.  This will also include a gait analysis session on someone from the audience. We will share tips on the art of ascending and descending hills and let you in on how best to avoid injury.  Off then to Tracton woods in Carrigaline to practice what we preached.  The aim is to car share our way to Tracton as it is 15mins away.

Once we’re back in the clinic and changed into warm clothes, we will finish the day with a Q&A session to allow you to ask any burning questions from the day.  Coffee and cake available for all, by the way!

For those who don’t want the day to end, dinner and drinks at Tequila Jacks restaurant in Cork city that evening!

Sign up to the workshop here: https://adventure-workshop.eventbrite.co.uk.

Looking forward to meeting you all on the day,

John Phelan, aka The BikeFit Physio.