Eve McCrystal is best-known as one half of the tandem pairing – with Katie George Dunlevy – that has won multiple Paralympic and World Championships titles on the road. The Louth woman is also a former national elite road race and TT champion and has won most of the biggest races in the country as well as representing Ireland many times. McCrystal also works full-time, as a Garda, and is a parent. It means she must juggle her training with the rest of her life, like most of us. She may have only switched from triathlon to cycling about a decade ago, but this piece really underlines how McCrystal, now in her 40s, has rapidly progressed in cycling via her work ethic and razor-sharp focus.
In this detailed interview she outlines her approach to winter training, and to her cycling in general. McCrystal discusses what she looks to achieve with winter training - and why executing her winter goals is essential, as she found out to her cost last season. In remarks that will really resonate with any cyclist with a full-time job and/or a family, she sets out how she manages her time and even her meals. She speaks about her determination to prioritise her training - including three to four hour rides indoors. At times McCrystal trains in her place of work from 5am, before her shifts start, and is a big believer in Zwift races to sharpen up. She says riders shouldn't complicate their approach to getting better on the bike, adding backing off is often more of a challenge than "ploughing on" with planned training load. This is a great insight - not to mention a really honest and open interview - into how a top rider combines the demands of the bike with the rest of her life; a must-read for anyone who wants to get more out of their cycling.
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When you wrapped up last season, how did you approach taking a break and then resuming training?
I took almost two weeks off when we didn’t get to race the World Track Championships in October (due to illness – Ed). Missing that meeting meant we didn’t get to finish on a high. But I said to myself ‘you still need to take that time off’. So, I had that battle with myself about not doing anything for a while, but I did it. I made myself take the break, as hard as it was. I took the time because I knew I needed it. And then I got Covid again but this time it didn’t hit me as hard. Generally, in the winter, I know I have to get the balance right between training, work and having a life. So I can’t have things too strict with cycling until about March. If I was going to have a night out, say on a Friday, well then I’ll go. But my training will get done as well. I know myself by now and I know I need that bit of freedom in life during the winter. But I will always make sure to get my training done. At this stage, cycling is just part of my life six days a week. I’ve built up that consistency over the last 10 years and cycling is now just part of my day.
Are you a rider who likes lots of miles in winter or short, more targeted, sessions?
After I got Covid (late last year – Ed) and recovered after a few weeks I was getting out and just peddling around. I didn’t get into structured training straight away. I just took my time. Aerobic volume trumps everything so I had to build up nice and slowly. I was just going out and riding my bike. I was out with whoever I was out with, you can have a chat. Mostly I keep my sessions to aerobic Zone 2 range. But now I’d work on different elements like higher intensities, different cadences - just to work on efficiency and keeping all those energy systems integrating well. But mostly it’s aerobic volume, about 12 to 15 hours a week. I was working yesterday and today. So yesterday I did 1½ hours cadence work in the morning and then I had gym in the evening. And today I only had time for an hour, so I only did an hour. But now I’m off work for the next four days and that’s where my volume will come in. I have myself built up to four-hour rides now and I’ll get those 3 to 4 hour rides done, and plenty of 2-hour rides. But on those shorter spins I’ll take in cadence work, spinning. Mostly I’m on my own. If I’m on my own I can train on my time. I tend to do the majority of training on my own or indoors. A lot of it is done indoors now over the winter, even my endurance sessions. I’ll do three or four hours indoors.
It sounds like you have your training schedule and you’d simply never miss it. Is that the case?
These are habits that I’ve built up over years. I say to myself ‘if I don’t do these three hours of indoor training today somebody else, that I’m going to be on a start line with, is going to do this training’. My confidence on the start line comes from this grind now; the work that I’m putting in now. And I’ve been around long enough to know that if I don’t do it, nobody is going to do it for me. You’re either doing it or you step aside and you don’t do it. But I enjoy it, I love it. It’s never a chore. If I didn’t do a session that was planned, I wouldn’t feel right - the house wouldn’t run right. It would be in my head all day, that it wasn’t done. You know, it’s amazing what (housework) I can do in half an hour (laughs) to clear the time for a training session. If you don’t get that specific job done at 9am you are going to miss your window for training because the kids have A, B, C, and D to do later that day. So it’s a case of just ‘get the work done and then you’re ready to train’. It’s like a military operation (more laughter). I often work at 7am and we have a gym in work so I was on the bike this morning in work at 5:50am. And at lunch hour, I can also do 40-minute gym sessions. And it’s the same at home. If I only had two hours for training, I could start that at 5am. I also try to sleep well, to get eight or nine hours. But it’s when we go to the training camps that I get proper recovery. At home I’m always on the go so I don’t get full recovery. There’s no point claiming I do; I know I don’t. But the camps are heaven for recovery.
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It sounds like a full-on schedule and certainly very little time wasted. Do you ever find you can’t cram it all in?
My kids are 13 and 14 now and they are into horse riding. So, when they are in school and I’m off work I can get training done. And during the holidays I could get the training done when they are up in the stables. They don’t know any different, this is what mammy has done since they were 3 and 4. And when I’m on the go, in work for example, I’ll have my meals in containers with me. You have to have that preparation because recovery is so important. When I won the TT at the nationals a couple of years ago, that was all to do with recovery because when the pandemic started there was nothing really else to do but recover in the evenings. Even in terms of preparing meals and having my containers that I can grab and go… if I didn’t do that today, I’d still get through today. But today is also about tomorrow, when I want to do three hours, or next Thursday when I want to do four hours. And if I haven’t eaten properly today, it messes me up for those days ahead of me. So I'm always trying to think ahead; thinking about what’s coming next week and what do I need to put into my body to fuel it for this week and for the big week coming up. And this is not just all about winning races. I love the whole process around it, that’s really what I love the most. And I’m also not afraid to have time for myself either. I think women just feel so guilty about taking time for themselves. You know, the children will be fine, the dinner will still be cooked, and the kids won’t starve. I just think it’s so important for women especially of my age, or with children; you just take that bit of time to yourself and it’s not always about winning. For me it’s about feeling really good about myself every day. People have challenges and I think it’s important to keep yourself fit, and your mind fit, and you can deal with challenges a lot better. It’s a lifestyle.
When you’re out on the road are you very rigid about sticking to efforts? Or would you ever throw caution to the wind?
No. If I go up a climb, unless it’s specific to an interval, the climb will be ridden at the power that I want to ride in. I’d use my gears to get up that climb. I never go up a climb as fast as I can, ever, unless it’s specified to do that in my session. I work on power all the time so I know where my power should be. I keep it in that Zone 2 range, try not to come out of it too much. Obviously if it’s a really steep hill and you’re sitting in Zone 3, that’s fine. But I would never, ever see a climb and go full throttle unless it’s specified for me to do so, which wouldn’t be this time of the year. It’s all aerobic volume at the moment. Whether I was training indoors or outside, I would do the same session, it wouldn’t vary if I decided to switch indoors for the day. Having said that, you have to adapt - maybe to the conditions outside, how you are feeling, what’s happening in your family that day. You have to learn that it doesn’t always have to be done 110 per cent. And that can be the hardest part for riders, holding back and adapting when you need to. But I’ll do that because I have a good coach who will pull me back. So I’d say the communication piece with your coach is so, so important. It is better to hold back rather than ploughing on and being the best hill climber in December, but come June, when you want to climb a hill, you’re not going anywhere and you’re wondering why. There is a time and place. This time of the year is just all about that aerobic volume, building that foundation.
That’s a theme you’ve mentioned a few times; foundation or volume. You like big winter miles?
If you look at last winter, so before the 2022 season. I first got Covid and it really knocked me. I missed weeks off the bike, missed an awful lot of training. And then when I tried to train (for racing) when I really needed to, I didn’t respond well. And it really took me the whole summer to get me flying. It was September, Rás na mBan, by the time I was back again and that was because I lost that volume during the winter. I was probably OK in the road races. You can get by in the road races by being a bit smarter. But you can’t do that in the TTs. And because I missed that volume last winter after getting quite sick, the power wasn’t there for nearly the whole season. I respond to those big long miles, hours in the saddle. It’s not rocket science and there’s no magic trick. It’s the easiest thing to do, but people are nearly complicating a very easy thing. It is just time on the bike. But I love how it makes me feel. I love that it’s keeping me a little bit younger. I love that I’m fit, and I have energy and I’m able to cope with things.
As we get closer to the season – both racing solo and on the tandem – how does your training change?
I’ll do things like sprints, that V02 work. I think it’s the worst kind of training for me, I hate doing it because it’s out of my comfort zone. I detest it (laughs). But I will do it, of course. And I might do a few Zwift races here and there. Those Zwift races really get me ready to race (on the roads) because it’s a 40-minute blast that you’d never do on your own. And at the end of training rides, maybe of three or four hours, I’ll also do a few efforts, sprints, that V02 work as we get closer to the season.
