Keep you and your business fit!

One World Cup, two Olympics and 9 Triathlons later the BattleAxe (BA) still has a head full of sport and fitness.  A couple of weeks back she even demonstrated the art of sprinting over a tai-line to a certain Brownlee brother!

Hours of selfless training have given the BattleAxe opportunity to think about her clients’ fitness.   Not the two that swam the Channel, the personal trainers nor even the rugby league team but the fitness of businesses she attempts (tactfully!) to keep under control.

Her Training Elves weren’t sure if all the deep breathing was because she’d just cycled up Smithy Place or sighs of despair about how out of condition a lot of businesses are that she encounters every day.  They suspect the latter…something about her muttering “plan, do, measure, repeat!”

Uploading her training session onto Strava (or was it FreeAgent?) she continued to chunter about how too many businesses don’t seem to know from one month to the next what their targets are let alone whether they’ve met them.  Then there are those that collect lots of numbers but don’t understand what they are telling them (is that raised heart rate symptomatic of blocked arteries or have they just posted a personal best?) or think they can win the game just by watching the scoreboard.  Worse still are those going “I got distracted again and forgot to look at my split times - I was supposed to be going for speed and I ended up at comfortable jog pace.  Great if I want to do a marathon but not if I want a PB time on my 5K!”.

The Elves relaxed when, performance logged, the BA was back to working out what needed to be done on the next outing – which part of the course needs more practice (that bend in New Mill is a killer!), how many seconds need to be shaved off each lap to get to her desired overall time.  Then off to run it past her coach to make sure the plan is challenging enough.  Btw, she sometimes wishes he’d trained as an accountant, then she wouldn’t have to draw so many graphs to get him to understand what the numbers mean!

This week her bike is in for service and winter tyre fitting to minimise the risk of falling off in the wet weather then off to a dance class to make sure that not only is she rolling-pin fit (no dropping it at the handover!) but also agile enough to deal with unforeseen difficulties on the course.  The other Brownlee is role model here – imagine: finishing line in sight and you suddenly find you’re carrying your brother over it (even if “he ain’t heavy”)! It must have felt like pulling jobs forward when a customer cancels a major order at the last minute.

Thankfully the muttering about “jerks” turned out to relate to associated “cleans” – core muscles engaged and lift!  After all, it’s vital to have a properly strong foundation to build on! 

This article appeared in Huddersfield Examiner Kirklees Business News on 7th December 2016 on page 14 Titked Fighting Fit