Steve Lalley

Occupation:  IT Manager
Primary Sports: Running, cycling, downhill skiing & the occasional triathlon.

I’m just an average guy who likes to stay in shape. I’ve been a runner since the 6th grade. It was the one sport I was really decent at! I actually love training just for itself, so will be focusing on that this year.

In the past I really didn’t calculate my recovery time effectively. I had set rest days of Monday and Friday and in between I exercised even if that meant I needed more rest than those two days provided. A couple of times I have been so out of gas that I could hardly run or cycle but did it anyway because well you have to train. I was wrong. I’ve gotten my legs so locked up due to overtraining that the bike ride that day was and effort with every pedal. I was wrong and should have bagged that ride. I ended up going to an Active Release (ART) specialists to recover from that as I caused muscle damage to my quads I could not release on my own.

Having read the book The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery: Rest, Relax, and Restore for Peak Performance, I was really starting to understand the need for rest. But I still needed a tool better than perception alone. I then saw an article on heart rate variability (HRV) somewhere and was intrigued by the science and that measuring with ithlete didn’t cost an arm and a leg!

I use ithlete to help me mange my training and stress levels during the year. I don’t want to be a fit but unhealthy athlete I want to be a very healthy person.

Following the daily workout recommendations allows me to say yes to an additional rest day or easy day with no guilt. Despite my improved performance since using ithlete if anything I’ve reduced my training time per week (to around 6 hours). So I am training less and improving more! I feel better. If I’m feeling tired and ithlete confirms it I rest or just do an easy day. I am also faster than when I trained hard all the time.

I believe ithlete is a great training tool for guys like me, looking to stay fit and healthy because it is science based, easy to do and a good price.