Sean Lacey is no stranger to hitting the WattBike at 5.30am and says success on the bike is influenced hugely by time management.
Sean Lacey is one of the strongest and shrewdest riders in the domestic peloton and you can almost guarantee he will have a big impact on any race he enters.
From his vast experience he usually knows where the race will be won and lost and he’s rarely found wanting at those key moments.
He’s one of very few top domestic men who can maintain his form right throughout the season.
When it comes to training, he is a believer in quality over quantity; one of the reasons he bought a WattBike during the off season.
Very often he’ll hit that at 5.30am.
Here, he lets us in on a recent training week that started with a weekend away in Kerry with his Aquablue team.
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General goals for the year
I’m trying to train as consistently as possible but I reckon not racing since the Rás last year will mean I won’t start the season with all guns blazing.
So for that reason I’ve set my goals for later in the year as opposed to looking at anything in February or March.
I’ll be targeting Rás Mumhan and the An Post Rás again but will also be going for the Classic League.
Gritting his teeth as the road goes up during the An Post Rás in 2011; Lacey hopes to target the event again but says his early season form may not be great following a long layoff from racing.
Training goals at the moment
I’m just trying to be consistent, getting out at the weekend and a few times during the week, but my hours aren’t high. I’m barely getting 10 at times.
During the week I get maybe a 90-minute or two-hour window in the morning and I know I’ve to make the most of it.
I find when you’re doing long miles you’re doing junk miles, so I’m all for quality over quality.
And as your life gets busier you start to realise how much better the quality is.
It comes down to time management. It’s a case of making the most of your spare time and maximising it.
When you’ve a young family there’s no messing; you warm up for 10-15 minutes, do whatever structure you need to on the bike, warm down, get off, start the day.
Saturday
Today was the first day of our winter training camp and we did six hours going over that third stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan.
They’re roads I know well having raced on them for so many years now but we wanted to meet together as a team and also take in the Coomanaspic climb that’s included in the race this year.
We did it last year in the Rás and it’s not easy, and we were riding back to Kenmare so it was a long day today.
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On his way to victory at the 2011 Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, a race he and Aquablue will hope to make their mark in again this year (Photo: Pat Doherty)
Sunday
Again, we did a long one; ending up with around five hours on the main roads.
We had planned to do stage two of Rás Mumhan but that didn’t work out because the roads were bad but we still got a long one in; over 120km so we were pleased with that.
Monday
Today was a recovery day.
After the two long ones at the weekend today was all about recovery so complete rest was needed.
Tuesday
Again, today was an easy day because I was tired from the travelling and the training at the weekend.
In Tour of Ulster action last year; a race in which his team cleaned up (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
Wednesday
Today I focussed on building back up my strength again.
The session was done on the wattbike and I was just pushing big gears for 90 minutes.
Low cadence, simulating riding up a climb in the big ring.
I do a lot on the wattbike because it’s usually in the early morning when I can train and I need to be around anyway.
Also, it’s a very reliable way of training.
Thursday
Today was a sweet spot session. Sweet spot is getting a balance right between intensity and volume.
It’s a medium to hard session. So that's 90-95 per cent of one’s threshold heart rate, where threshold is the intensity you can sustain for an hour.
I’ve never really done sweet spot stuff on the Wattbike so I need to be careful.
I’m not spending as long cycling this winter and I’m not sure what impact that will have on my season.
Friday
Completing the week was some tempo work on the Wattbike.
This is much harder than your average coffee spin but not so hard as yesterday’s sweet spot stuff.
I’m pretty tired now and I should probably do some foam rolling but I’ve no time for any of that other stuff like stretching or massages.
For me it’s cycling, shower and get ready for work.
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