TrainingPeaks interviews Tom Danielson

Dirk Friel from TrainingPeaks interviewed Tom Danielson, pro cyclist on Team Garmin Chipotle and TrainingPeaks member just before Tom left his Boulder, Colorado home for the 2008 Tour of Missouri. Tom shares how his shoulder shattering crash exactly one year ago at the 2007 Vuelta a Espana completely derailed the start of his 2008 season. Tom says, "it's been a constant battle coming back from this injury, but one of the things that has helped me the most is using the TrainingPeaks software." So, with the help of TrainingPeaks, some serious time on the bike, and lately, a very busy race schedule, he is coming into form. And with a 6th place finish (first behind the breakaway) at the US Pro Championships in Greenville, South Carolina on August 31st, Tom's results are proving the benefits of his training.

In the interview, Tom describes what he changed in order to build his confidence and bring his fitness up to the form required for a top finish against the best bicycle racers in the U.S. He says, "I didn't have any sort of checks and balances to see how I was going. I could see I was getting a little better in training, but I didn't really know and in races I wasn't getting any better. Using TrainingPeaks I was able to go back to the drawing board and say: 'OK, my weight is what? My threshold power is what? And what times am I doing up these climbs?' Then I could quantitatively assess [my fitness] each week and see where I was at." "Graphing it, looking at it, analyzing it each day I had seen my weight decrease and US Pro [Championships] was where I actually believed in myself and in a race I could see all my training improve."

Watch the full interview here:

Dirk Friel from TrainingPeaks interviews Tom Danielson, pro cyclist on Team Garmin-Chipotle