Stephen Halpin is in the top tier of A1 riders in the country. And at just 62 kilos he can sprint very quickly indeed (Photo: Toby Watson)
From Skerries in north Dublin, Stephen Halpin turns 27 years this year and has always been a full-time rider. But things will change for him in 2015 as he is now working.
That means his training is largely based around his changeable work hours and it's no surprise to see he places an emphasis on quality over quantity.
As you can see from this recent training week, he incorporates a lot of sprints into his plan. With such a regime, it is no surprise that many of his wins have come from either bunch sprints, or sprints from a small group.
He does quite a bit of training on a Watt bike - a stationary trainer that feeds him vital information on how much power he's producing with each effort.
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How does your training stack up against this?
- Name: Stephen Halpin
- Team: Team BikeWorx
- Date of birth: July 16th 1988
- Weight: 62kg
General goals for the year
My goals for this year are a lot different than before because it’ll be my first season where I’m not a full-time athlete.
I owe a lot to Noel and Ciarán Kelly for supporting me in the team so I’d like to repay them with a stage win in Rás Mumhan, or a number of the Mondello Series races and also by making my mark on a stage in the An Post Rás.
There are a lot of races I’ve previously won that I would like to win again.
Halpin, centre, riding with the VeloRevolution team in last year's An Post Rás (Photo: George Doyle)
Training goals this time of year
I’m currently trying to maintain a decent base for my endurance and since the start of January I’ve started to work on my top end speed and threshold power.
I do my top end work on a WattBike we have in our gym at work.
And at the weekend I like to do longer, more steady rides.
Typical weekly routine
Monday
Today is my rest day and it has always been this way since I started to get coached. So it's just my normal day in work.
In the evening I'll possibly do some stretching if I'm stiff or sore after the weekend.
Tuesday
Since the New Year, Tuesdays are a very hard day for me. After work I’ll go down to the Watt bike in the gym and do 1 hour 30 minutes of pure intensity.
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At the moment I do 5 x 3 minutes where I start the first 30 seconds in a full sprint and then settle into my threshold for 2 minutes and then finish off the last 30 seconds with another full-gas sprint.
I take 10 minutes recovery between these efforts and do three sets.
Wednesday
I find Wednesday's the most boring session. It's a day I work on improving my threshold.
I'll do 2 x 20 minutes at my threshold with 10 minutes recovery in between efforts.
Depending on my shift at work, I'll try to get 1 hour on the turbo done before breakfast and then the threshold session after work.
In the colours of Bikeworx-Celbridge during a quiet moment last season (Photo: Amy-Norah Farrell)
Thursday
This is a session I actually enjoy. I'll do my sprint training on this day after work on the WattBike.
I'll do 10 sprints full gas for 30 seconds with 2 minutes recovery in between.
My sprint and 'punch' is probably my strongest point so I work hard trying to improve this.
Friday
Today is another rest day. Recovery is extremely important as that's when the muscular adaptations to the training I've done take place.
I'll do some stretching again if I'm stiff.
Saturday
The length of today's spin will depend on the weather. If it's not biblical I'll normally do three hours on my own at a good solid pace.
There'll be no intervals today; just a solid, steady pace for the whole ride.
Sunday
Again, today's ride will also depend on the weather but I'd always try to do my 3-4 hours with no interval work; just focussing on my endurance.
I was is a car crash earlier in the year so I'm behind on my normal endurance levels for this time of year.
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