OH! Magazine - Australian Version May 2018 | Page 8

( OH WOW )
had a great bike, and was happy with how
it was all going. At this point in time, I was
still racing motorbikes, but I had a pretty
scary accident during a race, and so I
ended up deciding to stop doing it, which
made my family really happy!’
‘I sold my motorbike, and bought a top-of-
the-line race bike (bicycle) with the money.
At that time, there was a retired Australian
representative cyclist by the name of Mick
Curran, working in the bike shop; and as
part of the package the store was offering
coaching with him. I decided I wanted to
find out what I was capable of, so I took up
the offer.’
‘Mick asked me what my goals were, and I
told him I wanted to win a local race, go up
to the next level in my club, and increase
my functional threshold power. He said
“okay” and inside of a month of training
with him I moved up to C grade from D
grade; I won C grade in a breakaway during
the last lap (which turned out to be my all
time favourite win in a race, ever!), and I
managed to increase my functional
threshold quite significantly. I was a bit
shocked. I needed a new goal – and a
much bigger and hairier one!’
If you're unfamiliar with the world of
cycling, you may not realise, but there are
no trophies in cycling; it’s all about the
jerseys. So the key thing in cycling is that
you don’t wear a jersey, unless you’ve
earned it, and you only ever wear it in the
context you have received it; that is the
protocol in this sport.
‘I’d heard the World Grand Fondo Series
had been going for a few years, and was in
Australia that year. The key to it was that if
you qualified, then you had to race and
represent your country. It’s basically an
amateur world event, so there are eligibility
requirements such as you can’t qualify if
you’ve raced in a pro tour in past three
years, and you have to participate in
specified races and achieve certain times.’
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OH! MAGAZINE ( MAY 2018 )
‘So I told Mick that I wanted to represent
my country and wear a green and gold
jersey; and he said “okay” again; I thought
he was taking the piss but in retrospect, he
knew I could do it. Of course, he also knew
the amount of work required to make it
happen.’
‘So I set myself the goal of four to five
years to achieve it. And I got it in two,
which I was ecstatic about!’
Oliver’s training occurred around the
schedule of his wife who worked shiftwork,
and the demands of his three kids, so
getting out to do three-hour training rides
were always a challenge. ‘I spent a lot of
time on the indoor trainer, but only
because I had to; you’d often find me there
at 11pm at night! But I also did my best to
make the conscious effort to involve my
family and others in this journey, as much
as I possibly could.’
Oliver’s official results saw him place
132nd in a road race of 170 competitors,
and he came 51st out of 54 in the time
trial. Now to any competitive athlete, these
results may not sound impressive, but
remember that Oliver’s goal was never to
be a world champion. His goal was to
represent his country; to wear the green
and gold. Which he did.
‘When I got to the races, my goal was
simply to start. I just wanted to be there,
on the blocks, rolling down that ramp. I
remember one off the best moments I had
was when I was ready to do the time trial.
I was in the car, wearing my skinsuit and
when I looked down, I saw that wrapped
around my legs were the green and gold
bands. And I knew they were mine, and I’d
earned them.’
‘I’d never done anything like this before. I
still can’t really believe I did it. I think I’ve
always felt I can put my hand to anything
and be okay or competent at it.
When you have a big, hairy audacious goal,
the key to achieving it is to break it down
into bite-sized, manageable chunks. When
you break down every session so it has its
own goal, then every one of those goals will
eventually add up to the sum of what
you’re trying to achieve. You don’t want to
forget the end-goal but you don’t want to
focus on it either.’
‘In my event, there were three climbs in
the main race. My goal was to stick with
the bunch to that first climb, which I did.
I’ve never experienced anything like it - it
was like a stage in the Tour – full pace for
30km. I then hit the climb and managed
to stay with the second group until we
reached the third climb, which meant I
achieved my goals.’
Oliver used a lot of self-talk to get him to
his goal. ‘In cycling they talk about the
dark places, when the pain is present. The
lactate is built up and you’re in there and
that’s why they say cycling is a sport of
suffering. It can go on for minutes or
hours, and to keep going and not stop, I
remember having to use self-talk a lot.
During training, I would say to myself “if I
got handed my green and gold jersey after
I finished this set, would I keep going?”
and of course I would, so I did. I would tell
myself repeatedly that “this is what it
takes to achieve the goal”, and that would
keep me going, even when I really didn’t
want to, or think I could.’
‘At the time I didn’t realise how far or deep
I pushed myself, but I can see now how
strong I became as a result. The bottom
line is, you are the only one who can work
out for yourself, what is coming up, what
needs to be done, and whether or not you
can do it. Only you can make it happen.
There’s no magic formula or wand; you
have to put in the hard yards, you must
know what you want, and commit to doing
what has to be done to get there.’
‘Whatever it is you’re doing, get yourself a
coach. Find someone who can help you.
They’ll make you accountable to yourself
and your actions, and they’ll help you get
where you want to go.’