Meet Marque Carvalho

At 44 years of age, having once been a competitive cyclist but with 13 years completely out of Cycling,Marque has recently re-found his love for the sport!

Marque lives in Trinidad, and works on a Rig, with a 28/28-day rotational cycle, of which 28 days are Rig based, and 28 days are off. Half pro you may say? Juggling work and family life doesn’t leave you with much time – the key is all about being time efficient.

In August 2015, Marque decided he wanted a cycle coach to provide him with the cycle training, advice and guidance he needed, so he got in touch with Rowe & King to see if we could coach him back in to the sport, with a few stated aims – the mission statement was;

Loose weight, stay healthy, be able to complete a 2-3 hour rolling terrain ride whilst feel strong enough at the end not to let his brother, Richard know how hard he had tried!

Over the last 4 month, Courtney, Rowe & King Cycle Coaching Manager has worked with Marque and his varying available time to train, with the aim of smashing Marque’s goals.

Marque’s weight loss has been consistent and power improvements have been notable, with the net result seeing significant improvements in Marque’s cycling ability.

Training had been going to plan up until Christmas, when Marque declared, out of the blue he wanted to do a local race – a step in to the unknown after 13 years off a bike!

10^th January 2016 – Marque is on the start line.

With no idea of how he will fare, the race gets underway and Marque settles in to the pace being set at the front. The final result see’s Marque place 7^th in his age category (40-49) and with the result ‘gratifying for all the work put in over the past 5 months’.

Here are a few Q&A’s with Marque on his journey back in to the sport, which has changed dramatically over the last 13 years.

 

What are the most enjoyable training sessions you do?

Big bunch rides.

 

What are the hardest training sessions Rowe & King give you?

The short turbo sessions – no pain, no gain. I am often on and off the turbo within 30 minutes – so extremely time efficient, but they hurt!

 

What did you do on your last rest day?

Missed my bike, had a massage and spent time with the family.

 

We hear you had an incident on your mountain bike last week…

I went for a ride in the desert in Egypt on my Mountain Bike, never been in dirt like that before. While making a slow turn to stop, lost the front wheel and ended up flat on my back, bike in the air, still clipped in…………my boss looked around, laughed and said, “oh yeah, you need to be careful in that loose stuff!

Most memorable day on a bike recently?

Completed my first road race in 25 years! I was 7th in my age group (40-49) and 40th overall. I didn’t have the confidence to attempt the bunch sprint (not too much legs either) but the end result has been gratifying for the work I’ve been putting in over the last 5 months.

 

What are you looking forward to over the coming months?

I’m looking forward to general improvement in fitness, speed and racing some more. Not having your coach see you often may be a problem to some, however working with Courtney Rowe across five international time zones has proven to be very effective for me. Life in general has changed for the better over the past 5 months.

 

Its been great fun working with Marque these last five months, where he is now firmly a cyclist once again! Click Cycle Coaching Services for information on the coaching packages Rowe & King offer.

 

 

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