Bike fitter, cycling and fitness coach.

A bike fitter, cycling and fitness coach, Pat Leahy is an important part of the Balance Performance team and the founder of SpeedLab. He will not simply analyse you riding, adjust and work on your bike so it fits you better. Pat works you, the rider, into the best condition to get the most from your bike. Pat has over 25 years experience coaching endurance athletes. He is considered a leading experts in preparing athletes of all abilities for cycling, triathlon and Ironman events.

Services offered:

• bike fitting – a number of options available using Retül bike fitting systems. Advice for getting and then fitting a new bike, increasing performance, and reducing pain on your existing bike(s).
• cycle coaching – skills and conditioning. Event preparation.
• personal fitness training

Achieving Excellence

Pat is committed to his clients achieving excellence in the field of fitness training and athletic preparation for cyclists. He has helped a wide range of clientele from beginner’s to professional athletes reach their training and racing goals through sound scientific training. Pat is a full-time cycling and triathlon coach, a professional bike fitter and a former pro Ironman athlete. He  utilizes his experience as a competitive athlete with advanced theories of sports science and strength, endurance and conditioning systems.

Background

Pat is amongst a handful of people in Britain to have trained under the legendary Dan Empfield. By doing so he attained an advanced Fitting Institute of Slowtwitch certification in road and triathlon bike fitting. He has further advanced his bike fitting education gaining certification with Guru Europe and Retül (SBC UK). Pat has performed well over 3000 bike fits.

Pat has a BSc degree in Sports Science, a strong background in physiological testing and fitness training. He is a qualified American College of Sports Medicine Health and Fitness Instructor and advanced YMCA personal trainer.

SpeedLab shares the 360 degree approach that Balance Performance adopts in helping their clients. Pat Leahy can guide you  through all aspects of your endurance event preparation. Skills development, physical conditioning, equipment selection, equipment set up, nutrition and race day strategy.

The Early Days

In the early years Pat ran a successful personal training business specialising in metabolic testing for fat loss and sports performance. Pat is a former ITF TaeKwonDo champion and 4th Degree black belt. He ran a number of Taekwondo schools in SW London during his martial arts career. The schools at taught self defence, promoted good health and prepared combat athletes for competition. Pat still enjoys holding pads and using martial training methods with his personal training clients.

Whilst still teaching martial arts, but no longer competing himself he transitioned his own training towards Ironman triathlon. Pat utilised his sports science knowledge to test different training methods on himself and his first endurance clients.

His particular areas of interest to improve performance was using metabolic and field testing to attain correct training zones, using bikefit protocols to improve comfort and aerodynamics, and working with power to train and race on the bike. After 3 years triathlon racing Pat went from a 12.5hr Ironman to a sub 10hr finish. Before finishing he was competing for Great Britain and had attained a pro racing licence for Ironman and 70.3.