Sprint tips from a master: “You’ve got to get psyched up”

Sprint tips from a master: “You’ve got to get psyched up”

John Priest is showing no signs of slowing down as he approaches his 50th birthday in July. The Lucan CRC was a fearsome rider in the late 80s and early 90s. And even now he is still well capable of handing out the beatings to the younger generation (Photo: Sean Rowe)

 

By Brian Canty

A few weeks ago we brought you the story of 50-year old Colm Bracken winning an A3 race in Bohermeen.

And yesterday, it was another man, John Priest (Lucan CRC), just a few months short of that half-century who did the damage in the Dunsany GP.

Priest says he only does 8-9 hours a week in training and suggests anyone racing as an A3 need not do any more than that.

“I hadn’t won a race in three years so it was nice to get back on the top step,” he said of yesterday’s victory.

“I’ve had plenty placings and seconds and thirds so it was nice to finally win.”

He says it takes a certain mindset, particularly as he’s a working man, to go up and contest a sprint.

“Today was a comic enough finish; a one-kilometre climb of 3 per cent. And then down a twisty descent and a sharp left-hand bend before the uphill finish, so it was complex enough.

“Position was the key; you needed to be second or third coming into the finish.

“Staying in the front coming up the drag and staying in position going down the descent; so you got 2nd or 3rd going around the last bend.

“You have to be determined to hold your position in the bunch. That was the key thing today.

“And I had a great help from my teammate (Graham Thomas) who closed down a few jumps in the final kilometres.

“You’ve got to psyche yourself up a bit for the sprint. I’ve often thought afterwards they can be dodgy situations.

“And you think ‘yeah that was dodgy’ but when you get in the thick of it you can’t have those doubts and you have to commit to it.

“You put that to one side and be confident in your handling and the lads around you as well, just be determined and I would say, ride assertively.”

His training to be able to be in the front is just as no-nonsense.

“I aim for 10 or 11 hours but in reality, I probably hit 8-9. I do a lot of high-quality stuff, a decent amount of intervals and a little sprinting and base miles.

“The recovery is the big thing as you get older; you need to be coming into the season having done a good solid winter block of training.

“And with the races then; what I find is keeping the training high quality and keeping yourself fresh pays off.

“For me, I would do longer intervals on a Tuesday. These would power training intervals on some local climbs of 5-8 minute efforts in a big gear in zone three.

“I’d do maybe 4 or 5 of them and with a warm up and cool down that takes about 2 hours.

“Then I do a club race on Thursday or maybe some sprint interval training, pure sprints of 10 seconds to 30 seconds or even up to a minute.

“I think when you have a good solid base that will keep your speed up.

Typical A3 riders

“The typical A3 races, they’re not more than 100k so I don’t think huge mileage is necessary.

“In the winter I’d do longer miles but if I don’t race on Sunday I’ll do 3/3.5 hours on a Saturday.

“I rather set myself to do those sessions and make sure I do them as opposed to going out every day and not hitting the numbers.

“I use heart rate extensively, never power on the road but sometimes on the watt bike in the gym in winter.”