“I’m somebody who actually enjoys struggling.”
Along with her pure power, Olivia desires to undergo, desires to do the work. She sees the ache of endurance coaching as a possibility for enchancment, not an impediment holding her again. Embracing that struggling has been a key ingredient to her progress as an expert, and it’s formed her coaching and preparation for her first WorldTour season.
“[2021] was the primary yr I’ve pushed previous ‘that is actually laborious, I can’t maintain on,’” she instructed us. Now, she says “I’m somebody who actually enjoys struggling. Within the entrance of my head is simply: Die. That’s the easiest way to coach. the ache received’t be eternally, however little targets can assist maintain you motivated.” For Olivia, these little targets are the beneficial properties made each time she challenges her limits slightly than succumbing to them.
“Pure racing; extra skilled.”
Olivia’s first European marketing campaign, as a part of pro-continental squad Rally Biking, was derailed by a damaged ankle, however she was nonetheless in a position to accumulate some racing kilometers on the high degree and expertise a life-style that’s centered on biking. “It’s pure racing,” she mentioned, “extra skilled. Like being within the workplace as an alternative of working from residence.”
By way of on a regular basis life, this implies Olivia was dwelling biking in a manner that she by no means had, even whereas she was profitable among the greatest criteriums outdoors of Europe; when it comes to the precise racing, this implies a better tempo and extra struggling.
“The European cyclists are so good with the ache of WorldTour velocity as a result of they’ve executed it so lengthy,” she instructed us, crediting the WorldTour because the catalyst for her struggling epiphany–and for shaping her method to coaching this offseason, which was separated from her season correct by “a stable 11 days off.”
“Know the way to observe.”
Since she’s acquired pure top-end velocity, Olivia’s offseason coaching is “focused extra round threshold.” That is to arrange her for the WorldTour circuit, whose races are at a distinctly totally different degree. “It’s like a crit for 3.5 hours or extra,” she mentioned, so her work is getting ready her to keep up a excessive degree for hours on finish, together with on climbs, whereas preserving her signature kick for the finale. 5-minute hill repeats, Units of over/unders, 15-20 hours per week at goal wattages–a coaching plan designed to “get the miles into the legs and increase these threshold home windows.
“If you happen to’re gonna be a great chief, you’ve gotta know the way to observe,” she instructed us, referring each to her eagerness to study from her veteran teammates and to the plain necessities of navigating a race at peloton velocity–after which holding wheels until the ultimate dash.
A lot of this preparation entails, after all, climbing; nevertheless, ORay has no angel-of-the-mountains ambitions. “There’s at all times gonna be somebody higher at any particular person factor. I’m by no means gonna win a mountain stage,” she laughed, including that she nonetheless has to cowl these climbs and troublesome levels with a view to be there for the sprints.
As for the place she trains in the course of the offseason, Olivia prefers using outdoors within the chilly, “with two pairs of socks and two jackets.” She gave the indoor sport a strive, doing Zwift Academy for a month in 2019. The decision? “I don’t like this.” Thankfully, Olivia is at the moment primarily based in Atlanta, GA, and Human Powered Well being is internet hosting a January camp in Portugal (final yr, Rally Biking had a winter camp in Moab, UT), so excessive climate and snow-packed roads received’t pressure her off the street and onto the digital circuit.
