Phil Sheehan
Who do you race for?
Finchley Racing Team.
How long have you been racing?
Had a brief taste in 2004, encouraged by my good friend Toks. My first race was at Hillingdon and thought I'd won it, but didn't realise there was one more lap to go so my attack came a lap too early :-) I ended up ninth and could barely walk for three days afterwards.
I got to 3rd Cat very quickly and then resumed in 2005 guided by the late, great John Ibbotson. I got to 2nd Cat that year and have been a Cat 2 ever since.
What type of races do you do?
To use Facebook parlance, it's been a case of "Random Play" up until this year. I work very irregular hours and days and more often than not I don't know what shifts I'm doing more than two or three weeks hence, so I've always just raced crits and any EOL road races I can manage. This has made setting goals difficult. This season's a bit different as I now have a baby daughter and it's spurred me on to train efficiently, book specific days off work and pre-enter a number of road races between now and July, when I go to cover the Tour de France for the BBC, and generally pull my socks up.
Basically, I'm avoiding doing too many chippers and concentrating more on quality road races in the Eastern region.
Where do you race?
All over the shop before - from Portsmouth to Milton Keynes. It was always a case of quantity over quality before. This season it'll be mostly Eastern Road Race League events.
Briefly describe a typical training session.
Well, I'm a fully paid-up powermeter afficionado these days so my bread-and-butter is 2hrs sweetspot on the road and threshold work on the turbo. That said, I don't have what I'd call a typical training session as I mix things up a bit. All I'll say is that before I had a powermeter I'd be vague with my objectives and just ride, ride, ride. Now it's more about nailing key sessions and ensuring plenty of rest so I can tackle the next key session as best I can... not always easy when you're a new father. This season I've worked specifically on improving my ability to ride harder for longer. In previous years I'd just ride a couple of hours or more and chuck in a few short hard intervals or sprints, but never really had a good handle on how I was doing or what potential I had.
What are your goals this year?
First and foremost, enjoy my racing - whatever takes me away from my wife and daughter needs to be worthwhile. Secondly is to place well in my target races and be strong in the month of May for the Divisional Championship. Third, and this one is for Toks, is to win a race - I owe you one, mate! Fourth, try and get to 5w/kg.
What have been your best races so far?
Tough question. I've lost count of the races where I've been close-but-no-cigar. Racing is a beautiful, bittersweet thing - you can do well and feel a sense of achievement and still be left with the gnawing "what if" feeling in the back of your mind that keeps you coming back for more. Most satisfying race, I suppose had to be with my new teammates in the ERRL last year, where we attacked and attacked and attacked. Eventually we snapped the will of the bunch and got two of our guys into a three-man break on the final lap. They stayed away - just - placing first and third. I then took fourth with a sprint from a long way out.
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