Becky James stormed to silver in both the keirin and individual sprint earlier this month at Rio 2016 – and the 24-year-old has revealed how she used wearable tech to aid her preparation for the Olympic Games.
James used the FitBit Blaze fitness watch to track her heart rate in order to spot if she was fatigued from training or coming down with an illness, so she could arrive in Rio in peak physical condition.
“If my heart rate changes overnight by a couple of beats, I usually know it’s to do with fatigue or I might be getting a little bit ill,” she says. “It’s quite good to monitor that for my training.”
James also uses the Blaze to track her sleep – as a professional cyclist, the Team GB star aims for at least eight to 12 hours of quality sleep a night in order to recover properly from training.
On top of that, the fitness watch automatically counts steps. While most users might use that feature to ensure they are staying active through the day, James goes the opposite way when tapering for an event and she needs to stay as rested as possible. In fact, the British track cycling squad have become masters of the taper, always arriving at the Olympic Games in the best form possible to blow away the opposition.
“Whenever we’re going into an event or a taper, you like to do as little steps as possible, so I know I’ve stayed off my feet,” says James.
Check out the video above to see how James used the Fitbit Blaze to prepare for Rio.
