Joseph Breheny is spending the winter training in sunny Perth, Australia. The UCD CC man is full-time on the bike and making good use of the hours available to him (Picture: Sean Rowe)
Joseph Breheny (26) had his best ever season on the bike in 2015 and really showed what can be achieved with hard work and dedication.
Under the guidance of ex-professional turned coach Aaron Buggle, Breheny secured some top results and is keen to push on and progress further in 2016.
He trains every day in Perth; combining long miles with some serious intense intervals. But he gets in his fair share of coffee spins and trips to the beach as well.
Breheny says some may view this amount of training as too intense but without the need to work he has plenty of down time to relax and really recover from all the efforts.
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“I also know how to read what my body and legs are telling me and can easily substitute a session for a long, easy recovery ride and do that regularly enough so I’m not over-training,” he said.
Name: Joseph Breheny
Team: UCD CC
Weight: 66kg
Height: 175cm
Typical December training week
Monday
Today is usually a rest day but maybe I'll get in some active recovery for an hour and a half on the bike, depending on how intense the previous week and weekend was.
I focus a lot on stretching and hydrating, while cooling down the leg muscles at the beach is always a good option.
I alternate weeks between getting a massage and doing some Bikram yoga, just to keep everything in check.
I also go to a chiropractor once a month for an adjustment; I’ve had minor back problems from dislocating my T4 vertebrae in a crash a year and a half ago.
Tuesday
I join a spin called the Parker’s Hill Ride that leaves from the city at 8.30am.
It’s usually a solid tempo (maybe lower Zone 3) out to the base of the first climb in the John Forrest National Park.
Then it steadily cranks up to just below threshold until we reach John Forrest where we ride a hard pace from one end of the park to the other for around 10k.
There’s a regroup for a quick coffee here before the high tempo spin back home.
There’s also the option of extending the spin up through the rolling hills to Mundaring Weir and home via Kalamunda which can tack on another 1.5 hours.
The spin is generally a solid 2.5 hour affair.
Evening
I usually attend the Otoc-Vault training session at 17.30pm in King’s Park with coach Gordon Hindley.
This involves race simulation exercises on the small loop in the park which incorporates a 500m drag at 8% and a good bit of time at threshold.
While only an hour long, these sessions are brutal as the young talent emerging from Perth really like to stick it to us ‘older’ guys!
If I miss the morning session I’ll head out for a 2-3hour Z1/Z2 recovery ride to get the legs warmed up for the evening session.
Wednesday
Depending on how intense the training has been the previous night I do intervals in the late morning or early afternoon.
These are 4-6 reps of 4-minute max power efforts with 8 minutes recovery in between.
There is also an afternoon ride called WAR (Wedneday Afternoon Ride) which leaves at 14.30pm from the city centre and I generally try to jump on this ride to get a lift home after the intervals.
The spin is a pretty solid Zone 2/Zone 3 tempo but 'up and overs' at 60kph are not uncommon on a 12k tailwind section out to an area known as Shelley.
We conclude a 6k stretch with a monstrous sprint finish after which the pace drops to Z1 to allow for recovery and for any dropped riders to get back on.
It’s a pretty steady upper Zone 2 pace for the next 16k before the next effort.
This 8k effort involves a high speed followed by rolling drags to another relatively flat section with the final sprint finishing on top of a steep 300m drag just outside Freo (Fremantle).
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The next 5k are done in recovery zones before the pace ramps up again for the final sprint of the day on the road back to Subi (Subiaco).
This 10k effort is mostly flat with some minor drags thrown in and finishes with a race-ending high speed sprint.
The roll back to Subi for coffee is ‘hella chill’.
After coffee some guys like to do easy laps of King’s Park to clear the legs out.
Thursday
This is the second of the 2 Parker’s rides to the hills.
This time, the spin heads for Kalamunda via Welshpool Rd., a solid 5k drag at 8% a lot of local riders use for threshold efforts.
The 35k roll-out is done in upper Zone 2 or lower Zone 3 pace.
The climb to Welshpool is ridden at sweet-spot (lower Z4) and most riders take the opportunity to do strength efforts here.
There are a few more lumps and bumps before reaching the final climb to Kalamunda which is also done at sweet-spot or as an all-out race, depending on who is in attendance.
Coffee in Kalamunda precedes the spin home.
The spin can be extended heading out through the hills to Mundaring Weir and back via John Forrest, essentially the reverse of Tuesday’s ‘extras’.
The spin is roughly 2.5 hours long or 4 hours with extras.
Friday
I usually take this as an active recovery day and go out for a 50-60k coffee spin early in the morning around the river.
I do a lot of stretching and hydrate well.
A trip to the beach is a high possibility to cool the legs down before the weekend sessions and races.
Saturday
There are several spin opportunities for Saturday and Sunday.
The Old Papa’s spin leaves Freo at 6.30am and follows along much of the same roads that the WAR ride did on Wednesday.
The pace is slightly more relaxed than WAR as most riders cannot get out during the week with work and families.
But the effort sections are ridden hard and the sprints hotly-contested.
The spin takes you through Perth city centre along the river via Shelley and usually starts and ends with a coffee in Freo following the gruelling coastal headwind sprint finish.
Another spin option is called SPR (South Perth Rouleurs) run by the SPR club and leaves from South Perth by the river at 6.30am.
This is essentially a full-gas affair all the way around but it’s pretty easy to just sit in and coast if needed.
The route itself is relatively flat with a few minor drags.
There is another sprint finish in the waterfront heading back into Perth city centre and is a great place to practice using a leadout train.
Sunday
Otoc also run a training session on Sundays which usually leaves from somewhere in the city and heads out to the hills for strength efforts and hill climbing threshold efforts or as it’s coming up to Nationals season, TT and TTT sessions are also common.
This is usually a 3-4hour session but can depend on what extra kilometres are done after the set session.
Every few weeks there is a road race on, mainly crits this time of year, and I tailor my training to best prepare for the race.
While many of the spins are pretty full-on it’s easy enough to take it handy and sit on as there is almost always a regrouping after the effort sections.
But if you want to go hard then feel free to put your nose in the wind and drive the bunch on!
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