February 7, 2005
Brian Sheedy
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Welcome back to www.EnduranceRadio.com. Thanks for joining us for another interview today.
We’re going to be speaking with cyclist Brian Sheedy. He’s a pro cyclist on Advantage Benefits and Endeavor Pro Cycling Team, and we’re going to be talking to him about his plans for 2005, some of the training he’s doing right now down in Tucson over the off-season, but his season is starting up shortly.
The Race of the Day today is the bike road race at Camp Pendleton on Saturday, March 5, 2005. You can find out more about the Camp Pendleton Road Race by clicking on the Race of the Day link right below the link to this audio interview.
Brian thanks very much for joining us today, I appreciate your time.”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Thank you. It’s great to be talking with you.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “So how long have you been a pro cyclist?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “This will be about my fourth season racing professionally. I’ve been racing in the professional field since my first year of cycling, six years ago.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “How did the 2004 season go for you?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “It went pretty good. I was almost in semi-retirement because I raced for the Navigators Pro Cycling Team my second year and I got injured pretty bad. I actually had 13 crashes, broken scapular, broken clavicle, three plates, 28 screws, three concussions and stitches in my eye, so I actually took a little time off.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “What do you attribute that too; just being super aggressive out there or what?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “It’s a very demanding team. They asked a lot of me and I wasn’t afraid to do what they asked and I put myself in some pretty bad positions, and then I also had some pretty bad luck too. The year before I crashed once, and the year after I crashed once, and the year after was because of a mechanical.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “So it just happens to be that this past year was a tough one for you?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Yes. The 2002 was and then the 2004 I starting making a good come back and it was a pretty good season. I didn’t really train much in the off-season but when the races came I came out and I did pretty well. I think I was the 13th American at US Pro. I plan on improving on that a lot this year. I’ve already logged a lot of miles, a lot more miles than I ever have at this time and I really never stopped training since the end of the season so I’m actually way way way ahead of where I’ve ever been before which is pretty exciting.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now you’re in Tucson right now doing some training. How long have you been there?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “I’ve been here for about three weeks, and it’s beautiful down here.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “I’ll bet. Is your whole team there training together?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Yes, theres eight of us here right now; we have a 10 man team. We have two Australians and they’re both in Australia right now but they’ll be coming in March.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Talk about what a standard day looks like for you.”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “The first thing I do is 20 minutes of core strength, and most of us do that all together in the morning as a team. A couple of the guys do 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening too, but pretty much regularly we do it at least five days a week together; and then get a little coffee, have a little cereal or some breakfast, and then we head out riding. We’re usually on the bike about two and a half hours after we wake up.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Where is it exactly in Tucson that you train?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Yesterday we rode seven hours and we rode out to Kip Peak, and we rode to the top of Kip Peak and back. I think we ended up going 130 miles. We’re been going up Mount Lemon a lot, and pretty much all over. I’m kind of an adventurer and some of my team mates like to stay on the same roads, so sometimes I branch off on my own.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “And that’s pretty much a standard day in terms of distance that you’re riding?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “No, usually it varies. I have a coach, Mike Carter, and he’s got me on a pretty structured program where some days I’m riding two hours recovery on the power cranks, and then another day I’ll be doing six or seven hours, so roughly my average week, the last two weeks has been probably about 25 to 28 hours a week. I’ll keep it there for another couple of weeks before I bump it up.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now being on a team, do they choose for you what events you’re going to participate in and do you have any leverage yourself as to what you want to do independently?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Yes, I actually have some leverage as the team co-captain and the team stage race and GC leader, so I can pretty much say, ‘This race really suits me, I’d like to do it.’ It doesn’t do the team a lot of good to send me to races that I can’t excel in so it’s better if they understand that. If theres a race, if it’s a real tough race, those are the races that I do well in, those are the ones they’re going to try to get me to and try to get support for me at those races.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “How many will you participate in in 2005?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “I’ll probably do around 90 races. I’ll probably do at least that. Last year I took it fairly easy and I did at least 80.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “When do you start traveling and you won’t stop until when?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “My first race starts in two weeks in Phoenix, so we really don’t have to travel far to that, but then the west coast wing starts in March out in California. I left right after Christmas and I won’t be back in Michigan, where I’m from, until at least after Tour of Georgia at the end of April.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Will you be going to my hometown, Redlands, for the Redlands Bicycle Classic?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Oh yes, we’ll be there for sure.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Excellent.”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “I’m going after the pro-log.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Are you?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Yes, that’s my kind of race.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “What is the toughest race you’ll think you’ll do this year?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Probably the Lancaster race, I mean the stage races are the toughest probably because they’re just day after day, but the toughest one day race, and my kind of racing is the Lancaster race in San Francisco Grand Prix; those ones are definitely the tough guy courses.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Because of all the hills?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Yes, they’re just relentless. The teams that show up to those races are just the best teams and they put in their best riders. The courses are just relentless, which is beautiful.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “I get the feeling you kind of favor that, you like the challenge of the hills and it doesn’t bother you.”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “It bothers me, but I like to believe it bothers the other guys more. Yes, definitely the harder the course the better for me. If its just relentless up and down, up and down, a lot of turns, lot of accelerations; if its raining, if its sleeting then its my kind of race.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “How do you stay at a peak level for so many races over such a long period of time?
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “I think the coaching is going to help me a lot, but then just having a good base training in the off-season, and I was doing a lot of other activities, like running and cutting firewood so that I would be a little more well rounded, and now I’m putting in longer miles and I think that’s going to keep me solid throughout the season. Some of the younger guys in the team are really really strong and when I’m having bad days I expect that they’re going to be right there to take my place.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “When you’re training as a team are you doing any type of interval training as well, or is it pretty much just long distance endurance?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “I’m doing interval training actually. It’s not super intense but its really really big gears. My coach will have me do 60 minutes of a 65 cadence at 160 – 170 heart rate, which gets to be very straining, even at 30 minutes it gets hard and at the end of an hour its just grueling; that’s basically riding around in a 53-14 to a 53-11 based on the terrain and just turning over the big gears, and those are really the intervals. Sometimes he’ll break it down to seven minutes times three and I’ll do 50 cadence out of the saddle on Mount Lemon. He’s got me doing a lot of different intervals, but they’re not like VO2 max intervals. Right now I’m just trying to increase my LT.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Now if the hills and inclement weather and that sort of thing is your strong point, what do you feel is your weak point that you’ve always having to make sure you’re working on?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “That’s a good question. I’m kind of an all arounder. I can do just about everything. If I have a weakness it’s the crits. I can still race pretty competitively in the crits. I guess definitely my weak point would have to be the field sprints and the criterions. Getting in position and staying in position and fighting against the bigger, stronger guys in the crits is definitely pretty abusive and pretty taxing on the mind and body.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “How much of that would you say is a mental game of just not giving up?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “It’s totally mental. I mean those guys are such scrappers and its not like the little can’t be in there scrapping it out too because you’ve got guy like Robbie McQuin who is a real small guy but he’s just really tenacious, he’s a badger you know, and if you have that kind of mental tenacity you can go up against the big hitters.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Does the intimidation start before the race even begins?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah definitely, especially depending on the course. If the course doesn’t suit me than I’m just kind of like, ‘Oh great, this is going to be a bummer. Its going to be a tough day out there,’ and theres other courses where if it a criterion and theres tons of corners and they’re tight I know its going to be strung out and hard, then I’ll smile about it and I’m hoping that its going to rain too.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Do you guys set up goals for yourself in terms of what would be the criteria would a successful season, obviously as many wins as possible, but do you break it down even more than that?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Personally I have goal races that I want to excel in and I peak in, but I really stay away from saying, ’I’m going to win this race,’ or, ‘I want to be on the podium in that race,’ because in cycling anything can happen. You can have a mechanical, you could have a crash, you could have a bad day or theres a break away up the road and theres nothing you can do about it. If I put all my goals in one race or a couple of races, you know, its just self defeating in this sport. If it was another sport I could have more tangible or quantifiable goals, but in cycling it’s so hard to win and theres so many odds against you.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Nutrition wise, I wanted to ask you about that. When you’re performing at the level you are and you need as much energy as possible, do you really see a difference if you get off on your nutrition plans and how much of an effect do you think that has your performance?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Oh yes. If you’re not eating good then it can add a lot of stress to your training and racing and you don’t recover that well. Usually if I’m getting over-trained and I’m actually getting stressed that’s when my diet takes a dive and then it just multiples it.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “Are you guys living in a dorm environment so that you are able to coordinate meals together?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “We’re actually living in a house. Theres seven or eight beds here and it works out real well. Probably three days a week we’re cooking for the whole team and we cook healthy. When you go grocery shopping and you all get groceries together it’s really inexpensive and ends up being a better night for us than actually going out somewhere and spending three times as much money. We get to eat healthy and comfortable. But then on the other nights we’re just eating our own thing. The refrigerator is packed with various things, it’s crazy.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “I bet with that many people in the house.
Now one last question to finish up here. How did you get on the team? Do they approach you or did you get yourself on that team? How did it work?”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Actually I had a little bit to do with starting the team. I brought some sponsors. Tom Schuler and I, who directed the Saturn Team, we had been communicating since last March and he knows the Endeavor sponsor and I know the Advantage Benefits sponsor, and also Bissell from Bissell Vacuums and we just talked about trying to make a mid-west pro cycling team and it would be really unique. It took a long time to happen but it happened and it’s beautiful. I think its going to be the greatest team I’ve ever been on and the guys just really click and the sponsors click. So that’s how I got on the team. I just had a little bit to do with putting it together actually.”
<<Tim Bourquin>>: “That’s a great way to do it.
Well listeners can of course go to Brian’s team by clicking on the link that’ll be right below the link to this audio.
Brian thanks very much for your time I appreciate it.”
<<Brian Sheedy>>: “Thank you Time.”
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