TrainingPeaks member profile: Graham Anderson, cyclist

After racing track and cross-country in high school, Graham Anderson switched to cycling in college. “I joined the Brown cycling team my freshman year, and started out as an Intro category rider in the ECCC (Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference).  I sucked at first, but kept at it.  I remember seeing the ECCC Men’s A peloton for the first time at the 2007 Rutgers criterium, the rush of air as it went by literally knocking me back as a spectator, and decided then that someday I would be a part of that peloton.  It was so beautiful.”

Graham gradually progressed through the ranks towards his goal. “I raced B’s my sophomore year, where I discovered that I had at least some natural racing instincts and physical talent because I was holding my own in races despite only training once a week and sleeping only 4 or 5 nights a week because of my class load... I owe it mainly to the ECCC – the largest, best-organized, most-competitive, and most fun collegiate conference in the country!  There’s something about road-racing in 20 degree weather in March that is so wrong that it’s fun.”

Although Graham enjoys using TrainingPeaks to track his progress, he prefers not too focus too much on the numbers, concentrating instead on more traditional philosophies. “My training style is decidedly old school.  I believe in the theories of Arthur Lydiard: the long-term development of aerobic capacity.  When my training is going well and school doesn’t get in the way too much, I put in monster volume… I’m the kind of guy that will sometimes ride the trainer for several hours just staring at the wall... I know I may not be taking advantage of the newest training techniques, but I also think that what guys like Merckx and LeMond were doing back in the day has a lot of value overlooked by many racers today.”

Even without all the numbers and fancy devices, Graham finds that TrainingPeaks is a valuable tool that keeps his training consistent and provides unity for the entire team. “TrainingPeaks is an element of consistency in my training, since my personality and training style can make me be erratic and too non-analytical. I started using TrainingPeaks as a training diary so convenient that I had no excuse not to use it.  I also started using it to communicate my training to my teammates. Most of the Brown team uses TrainingPeaks in some capacity, and have the links to our public log on our Facebook pages, blogs, etc.  Since cycling training is much more individualistic than other sports, following our teammates’ TrainingPeaks everyday serves as a force of cohesion and motivation within the team.  Over winter break when we were training at our homes across the country, we could follow exactly what everyone else was doing.  When I forget to log my workouts, which is stupid since I have no reasonable excuse not to, my teammates always get on my case.”

“Since my training style focuses so much on how I feel and how I’m recovering, requiring daily decisions on what workout to do, TrainingPeaks lets me see trends and factors that I never would have discovered otherwise – weather, time of day, etc.  I also love the feeling of looking back on a week of training that seemed to go by easily, and realize that I had actually put in a monster amount of work (if only that occurred more…) I not only recommend TrainingPeaks to all cyclists, I essentially demand that my teammates use it for everyone’s sake.”

This year, Graham has moved up to Collegiate As, the category that he had dreamed of reaching. “I started racing collegiate A’s this spring.  My first two weekends I was getting dropped like a rock.  It was a real trial-by-fire doing that field for the first time, and I was really freaked out by lining up next to dozens of cat.1s, cat.2s, and even pros.  But then it clicked – I realized that I’ve done a lot of training too, that I know how to race like them, and that I could be one of them.  My individual time-trial results were putting me mid-pack, which was promising since I’m not a wonderful time-trialist and don’t have much aero gear.”

Progress often comes at a price, however, and Graham has certainly experienced his fair share of adversity. “At the University of Delaware weekend I was finally hanging in strong with the main packs… At the criterium, though, I went down to adjust the speedometer sensor on my fork which was knocking the magnet.  I should not have done that going 35mph downhill, because apparently one of my fingers snagged on a spoke, dragging my hand around a half revolution, until meeting the fork and going into the wheel.  I flipped over my bike, which got splattered in blood.  My teammate Joey on giving me back my bike: ‘Here’s your bike.  I washed the blood off of it.’ The aero spokes did a nice mutilation of the hand, and bones were sticking out.  I had surgery to put it back together, and am out of racing for another six weeks or so.  I’ll never live done the reputation of being the idiot from Brown who stuck his hand in the front wheel in a race.  I do not recommend doing that.”

Despite such experiences, Graham is still dreaming big. “I am hoping to be a Cat. 1 racer by next year, continue to lead the Brown team and mentor more of our riders into A’s, and perhaps pursue cycling as a more full-time endeavor once I graduate.  I know that this is ambitious, but I also know you can only achieve big things with big goals.”

Graham believes that the supportive cycling community of the east coast will help him along with his goals. “I’ve always said that while I come from Colorado, which is of course a great cycling state, I identify myself as a through-and-through New England roadie, Boston/Providence style.  We’re a special breed of insanity.  With the weather, the horrible roads, the traffic – it’s like we’re out to prove that we can ride, and even enjoy it, despite all odds.  I think the adverse conditions also make the New England cycling community really close-knit, inclusive, friendly, and supportive.  There’s nowhere else in the country that I would have preferred to have become a road-racer than in Providence.”

Comments

[Thaddeus Romansky]

Graham Anderson rivals Paavo Nurmi(i.e. "the Flying Finn") in sheer lunacy. That being said, he is one of the hardest working endurance athletes east of the mississippi.

[Nadia Fogel]

Hey, your post is great. Thanks for all the vivid descriptions. I'm a Brown Grad from 1985 (yikes), and I was just up for a visit showing the campus to my 11th grade son. I looked all over for a bike jersy (I'm doing NYC Nautica Tri and thought it would be great to train in), but no luck. But I thought yours looked pretty cool. Good luck in your future........hope to hear more about it!