Interview:
Rachel Heal Pursues New Goals at Games
7th February, 2006; Interview by Larry Hickmott
>Rachel's Website: http://www.rachelheal.com/
To compete at the very top, winning medals at events as prestigious as the Commonwealth Games, takes a very dedicated and talented athlete and on Valentines Day, February 14, one such person will be on the plane to Australia -- Rachel Heal. I recently met up with the England and Great Britain rider to do some photos here in Warwickshire and took the time to discuss how her preparations for Melbourne 2006 are going.
Right: A glorious moment in Rachel's career -- a Bronze medal in the Manchester Commonwealth Games.
This season is a big year for Rachel as she not only returns to an event that has provided her with her most significant result to date, but post Games, Rachel then flies to America for the road season riding for a team called Victory Brewing. Her immediate focus is though the Commonwealth Games and she admits that with it being a month away, there is still a lot of training to be done.
"I'm doing a mixture of training now consisting of a lot of time trial work, some pursuit work and then some longer road rides to keep up the endurance work."
It's the admission that Rachel is doing Time Trial work that takes me by surprise a little. In the latter part of last year, Rachel was doing more and more track work and in December was fourth in the Manchester World Track Cup for the Women's Pursuit event. Now, she has taken that event against the watch onto the road as well. 
"Time trials is something I have never really focused on" she explained. "My previous experience with them has always been a stage in stage races, the nationals a couple of times but it has never been an event I have dedicated myself to. So that is probably the biggest change for me. The biggest thing I have to learn is how to suffer and what level of pain I can sustain for the half an hour that the race is going to be."
Right: Rachel proving to be a model subject in the studio.
The time trial for Rachel will be one of two road events she expects to ride in Melbourne, the other being the road race where she won a Bronze medal at Manchester 2002. And then there is the Pursuit as well on the track. "I think the likelihood is that I will ride all three as the timing of them fits in really well as they are all spaced out so you can ride all three without having to sacrifice one."
Reading the diaries on Rachel's website and you can't help but notice that part of her training away from the track requires some heavy intervals up climbs with a reputation for pain inducing efforts. Cat and Fiddle anyone? Asked if doing these climbs is to prepare for a hilly Commonwealth Games Road Race, Rachel replies "no, the race at the Games isn't hilly so the training is more about making a sustained effort and keeping my hand in on being able to climb. The focus though is more now about being able to put out a sustained effort on the flat."
As an example of the program at the moment, Rachel says that this week includes split sessions on most days. The day after we spoke, she was due to complete a couple of hours in zone three on the time trial bike in the morning and then a specific time trial effort in the afternoon. Then, the next day, another split session of roller work in the morning (in front of the TV she admits!) and then on the track in the afternoon.
The roller work she says, is simply to give her a chance to do some high cadence work to help her legs get used to spinning again. The roller/track session is then repeated the next day before a four hour GB squad ride follows the next day including a few ascents of the Cat & Fiddle where riders do their own individual efforts.
Right: Rachel may like the red of England but here she is wearing some clobber from a company called 'Billabong'. Fair dinkum Rach, how Aussie can you get!
Summing up a typical week, Rachel admits that there isn't a lot of hours in there adding "my training now is much more about intensity than volume although it does seem to be high intensity for a long time!"
Going back four years, I put it to Rachel that I expect her training differs a lot from the weeks and months prior to 2002. "I probably know a lot more about what type of rider I am now" she says. "I went into 2002 with no expectations, knowing I could finish top 10 but a medal before the race was 'wildest dreams' rather than an expectation."
"It is though going to be a tough race out there. This year, two of the medallists from the World Road Race Championships in 2005 will be there (Nicole Cooke (Wales) and Oenone Wood(Australia))."
Rachel says though she has never trained as much as she is now thanks to the program put in place by Great Britain Women's Coach Dan Hunt. "We're learning how much training I can cope with, and I don't think I have cracked yet but I have been close!"
With that increase in intensity and volume comes the need to rest and for that, Rachel calls on the DVD player to help her through the rest period which she admits is not easy as she has to force herself to do it. "I'm naturally not very good at sitting on the sofa because it feels like you're doing nothing but in reality it is just as important as the other parts of the training on the bike."
Victory Brewing
Post Commonwealth Games, Rachel intends to head for America although that may be delayed slightly by a trip to the World Track Championships which at the moment is only a possible option for her. Her American team she says have just had their team training camp which she wasn't able to attend because it would have interrupted her training with the travelling and jet lag. However, Rachel does say that she is in constant touch with the team and a provisional race program has been set for the coming year.
As well as the new clothing, Rachel also showed off during the photo session we had her new Specialized bike which is a women's specific design (Ruby Pro). The carbon bike equipped with Dura Ace and Cane Creek components (among others) certainly felt light and meets with the approval of a rider who last season was racing Colnago's and before that, Trek bikes.
Right: Rachel's colours for this year in America riding for Victory Brewing.
"I took the bike out to Majorca for the second Great Britain team training camp having never ridden it which is very unusual step for me to take. Ernie (GB mechanic) though set it up with the same position as I had on the Terry Dolan I was riding and it was fine. It's the first time I have ridden a women's specific bike and there was some apprehension but I think within 10 minutes of being on it, it felt quite natural."
Rachel has now put a lot of miles under the Cane Creek wheels the bike uses and is busy getting in the final preparations for the Games at home before boarding the plane for Oz with the rest of the Women's squad. What Rachel does when she arrives down under will depend on whether she gets a ride in the Sydney World Track Cup where there is only one place with three riders in contention for it.
Although she is unsure whether she will get a ride in Sydney, she does look back at the Manchester World Cup with fond memories. "Having done a PB (Pursuit) by 3 seconds at the Nationals, I was then trying to take more time off that again and having done some more specific work, over weeks rather than years, I enjoyed the World Track Cup experience. Riding Sydney would be another step forward again given the chance."
My thanks to Rachel for her time and I remind everyone that you can keep up with what Rachel is up to on her website, http://www.rachelheal.com/.
Time to stop and rest the legs during a ride in Warwickshire on her new bike from Specialized, the Ruby Pro carbon job with Cane Creek and Dura Ace.
Further Information:
