Stephen Murray leads the break during last Sunday’s Cycleways Cup in Navan, Co Meath. The Waterford man has made huge improvements on the bike every year and judging by his display last weekend he could be on for a very good season (Picture: Sean Rowe)
Stephen Murray has switched from Dungarvan CC to Strata3-VeloRevolution CC for the coming season and has already notched a very good result with 5th in the Cycleways Cup last Sunday.
The Waterford man is only in his fourth year racing but has made huge improvements every season since he started as an A4 rider in 2011.
He’s now very much established amongst the top A1 riders; going toe-to-toe with some of the best last weekend for over 110 kilometres out front in the breakaway.
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He rode the An Post Rás for the first time last year and has plans to return to the race in May, which explains his significant training load this winter.
He trains by himself the majority of the time purely because he’s pressed for time and hasn’t any to waste. He’s self-employed and manages to get out during the day and work around his training.
Here he outlines the training he did last week, prior to heading for Navan.
- Name: Stephen Murray
- Team: Strata3-VeloRevolution
- Date of birth: 02-07-1985
- Weight & height: 75kg, 5ft 10inches (180cm)
Training goals this time of the year
Build as big a base as I can. I’m no different to anyone; I train hard because the standard in Ireland is very high now. To win demands a lot of sacrifice.
General goals for the year
The Kerry Group Rás Mumhan is my big goal. I want to be in peak shape for that in a month.
The An Post Rás also demands huge fitness and that’s another goal – as well as all the other big races on the calendar like the Shay Elliott, the VisitNenagh Classic, the Des Hanlon and the Suir Valley Three Day.
Murray has competed in cyclocross during the winter months to keep in touch with his race condition (Photo: Dc Images)
Monday
Rest day. Total rest today.
Yesterday I rode the Lacey Cup in Tralee and though it was only a short race in comparison to some of the other events it’s always a hard race.
I managed to get 7th there - sprinting for 5th.
Tuesday
This was a 4 hour endurance ride near where I live. The roads around here are great for training, even if the weather wasn’t today.
I ride the climbs at tempo with 30 minutes of tempo in the fourth hour.
Tempo riding is at the upper end of aerobic efforts, so fatigue will set in much faster. Again, this is all just to build endurance.
This base of fitness is essential so I can go into the higher training zones with more ease in the coming weeks.
Wednesday
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This was a hard session of two and a half hours with two sweet-spot efforts of 20 minutes at around 330 watts.
These efforts are harder than tempo sessions but below threshold sessions.
It was a good solid spin and I had an average speed of 33.8 kph which I was happy with.
Murray, second from right, sprinting for 5th place in the season-opening Lacey Cup in Tralee last Sunday week. He would finish up 7th behind Paidi O'Brien on the far left and Robin Kelly on the far right.
Thursday
I was under pressure for time so it was just an hour on the turbo; a threshold building session.
The 60 minutes was broken down into a warm-up of 20 minutes at 280 watts.
This was followed by six minutes at 380 watts and then four minutes in zone 2, repeated four times.
Friday
Nothing. Total rest day today.
Usually I try to get some foam rolling in after a hard session but not today.
Saturday
I just managed over three hours with an hour of that at the upper end of tempo split into 2 × 30 minutes at around 300 watts.
I knew I was racing on the Sunday but I wanted to get a hardish day in beforehand.
This is what needs to be done training for the Rás and Rás Mumhan.
You sacrifice races at the weekend by training hard right up to the day before the race.
Sunday
I did 110 kilometres up and over at around 320 watts, in the breakaway.
This was a solid training day!
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