Fitness Testing at The Achilles Running Shop

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

I arrived at the Achilles Running Shop in Mentor fully equipped to conduct fitness tests on their staff.  We’re doing some work together to include fitness testing, and seminars to include topics like, well, running of course, Survival Workout/Paleo Diet stuff and whatever other creative things we can devise to provide their population with health and fitness information they might need to improve their fitness routines and lives.  I’ll be working with their staff and my partner, Bob Iafelice, MS/RD.  He may be the most fit nutritionist on the planet and is the only guy I know that walks the talk 100% of the time.  He can be very inspirational and is as knowledgeable as a person can be on his area of expertise.

Let’s call the people I tested David, Kyle, Nick and Kris to protect their privacy and because that’s what their names are.  David and Kyle are both avid runners who have competed for many years, though they’re both in their early twenties.  Nick is a high school runner at Chardon who placed fourth in the Ohio Cross Country State Championships this past fall and then qualified to the Foot Locker Nationals where he took 30^th in the country…and he’s only a Junior.  Kris is the wife of Mark Mendeszoon, owner of the store and my sports doc. 

All four were in excellent shape and by no means, a snapshot of the average American.  Their body fats were low, their aerobic scores were high (except Kris whose workout routine does NOT include very much cardio) and their muscular endurance fluctuated based on the routines they followed.  All scored extremely well for overall fitness and all had at least one area upon which they could improve if they were looking to maximize athletic performance (well…maybe not Nick).  And here’s the thing…they don’t really need to change anything since they’re routines are keeping them in good shape, but if they should be looking to excel in an area or sport, they now have the baseline of information against which they can measure their improvement.  More importantly for me, they now have a clear understanding of what the test entails and how it could benefit a potential client.

Bob had joined me towards the end of the testing and we discussed our ideas of how the Paleo Diet and Survival Workout could benefit the average runner.  The discussion continued until the store was ready to close and by the time I returned home and had some dinner with Holly, it was beyond my training time again.

Well…two days off in a row is pretty unusual for me, but it feels good.  I’m looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow, though.