Lydia Boylan outlines the very demanding training that has made her national road race champion and an international on track and road (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
It might be the off-season for some riders but Lydia Boylan is not one of those. The national road race champion is currently in the middle of a heavy block of training with the second round of the UCI Track World Cup in New Zealand less than two weeks away.
Here, in our latest training diary, the Team WNT rider opens up on what it takes to be able to compete against some of the world's best.
It's definitely not for the feint-hearted.
Lydia Boylan - My Training Week
"I try to have my cake and eat it insofar as I do both track and road.
"This is great but it means I basically don't get an off season, though looking back on this year it hasn't worked out too badly for me.
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"My road coach is James Spragg with Dig Deep Coaching. I've been working with him quite a while now.
"And he seems to know all the right things for me to do to get in shape for whatever my next target is.
"My training differs so I'll outline last week's training here. I've just come home to Nottingham after the World Cup in Cali.
"The first couple of days I took a well-earned rest and didn't go near a bike and allowed my body to get over the jet lag.
"So I started again in earnest last Sunday."
Training goals at the moment
I'm in the middle of a road block so the goal at the moment is endurance.
During a track block there just isn't enough time in the day to get good endurance rides in so these road weeks are very important for building form and having the endurance to last a long race season.
Sunday
4 hours on the road zone 2. This is a pretty boring ride but it’s gotta be done.
I'm not naturally a steady endurance athlete so I actually find these rides pretty tough especially after a few days’ rest.
Monday
5 hours in zone 2. This is the same as yesterday, only longer.
The UK weather was pretty gruelling last week so it was another hard and long day in the saddle.
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After getting home and getting the recovery food in I was straight to the gym for weights and core work.
The key here is to work hard to build strength to turn over big gears in the team pursuit.
Tuesday
1 hour in zone 1 on the rollers with a high cadence.
Wednesday
2.5 hours with a 10 minute sweet spot effort followed by 7 x 1 minute efforts.
The 1 minute efforts were done as 45 seconds upper zone 5 and a 15 second sprint.
This session was to keep my top end ticking over during this endurance block.
It was particularly hard with the Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness from my gym session on Monday!
Thursday
4 hours in zone 2. Seeing a theme yet?
This ride was in very windy conditions and I was fairly wrecked afterwards.
The plan was to gym again but knocked it on the head....we're all human! I'll fit a gym session in tomorrow.
Friday
1 hour on the rollers again. (plus gym)
Next week I'll be back on the track again so it'll be back to the norm of above threshold efforts!
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