USA Cycling National Team Member, Adrian Hegyvary is a force to be reckoned with on the track and on the road. The self-coached cyclist sat down with us to discuss how he plans his training based on his upcoming competitions.
USA Cycling (USAC): How do you and your coach set goals and incorporate them as part of your training program?
Adrian Hegyvary (AH): I don't have a personal coach, so my goal setting is more internal. It's easy to set and focus on big, long-term goals. They're more glamorous and tend to get all the attention. The mid and short-term goals require some more dedication. Generally they take the form of goal events where I know I want to be at my best for that period. One method I use to remind myself of those events is the goal setting function in TrainingPeaks, which gives a countdown in weeks to the next peak event.
USAC: Tell us about your training schedule and how it varies from week to week?
AH: My training in-season is very circumstantial. In the last six months I've only had a total of about 8 weeks where I wasn't at a competition or a training camp. During track camps the intensity and specificity are much higher than during a road block. So when I'm going back and forth between disciplines, the focus is always on making up ground from whatever I haven't been doing. After Track Worlds at the end of the month I have only a few days until my first 200k road race in Belgium. So for sure I'll be looking to stock up on the road miles during the next block!
USAC: What metrics do you use to ensure that you are on track to hit your goals?
AH: I follow the TrainingPeaks values pretty closely--CTL, ATL, Fatigue, TSS, IF, etc. I have power meters on all my bikes so it's very easy to quantify all the work load I accomplish on the bike, and where it's coming from. One of the newer metrics I've started following is my heart rate variability throughout the day and overnight. That's given another dimension to my training load and recovery that I'm still learning to implement.
USAC: How do you adjust your training knowing that you have a big race coming up?
AH: Nearly every race I do will have some degree of taper beforehand, either volume, intensity, or both. It all depends what I've come from, the type of event, and what's happening afterwards. The balance lies in being sure I'm rested enough for the event without being too stale or closed up. Tracking performance through training I think we all have a good idea of what kinds of days we come up from and what kinds of days just make us tired. So it generally comes down to just repeating what I know works for the given circumstances.
USAC: What advice would you give to someone who is looking to set up a training plan for the first time this season?
There are no silver bullets, and no training plan is the single "correct" answer. There are many different ways to get to the same point in your fitness. However, following any plan is generally better than following no plan at all. Trust in the process, do the work, monitor your progress, and you'll almost certainly see results in the long term.
Adrian is married to fellow cyclist Rushlee Buchanan of New Zealand. To cheer Adrian and the rest of Team USA on, follow him on Twitter and don’t forget to follow #apeldoorn2018 on social media February 28th-March 4th to get the latest updates on the UCI Track World Championships.
