A life in the day: Chris Hoy

I roll out of bed at 7.45, go down and put my coffee machine on. I love my coffee. I’m a fanatic about it. I make mine with fresh Arabica beans that I grind myself. While it’s on, I make fresh juice; I use two apples, one orange, one carrot and a bit of ginger. The fruit and veg is often organic, but not always. I have cereal with semi-skimmed milk, banana and honey.
I’ve bought a house just outside Manchester, close to the Velodrome where we train. I’m on my own right now, but my fiancée, Sarra, who’s a lawyer, will be moving down from Edinburgh to be with me soon. No pets: I’m allergic to cats and dogs. I can just about handle a goldfish.
It’s been an incredible year since I won gold in Bejing. The Games were so well organised, and I was happy with my form. Every race I was winning: 15 times in five days, I didn’t lose a race. The success of the whole GB team there got so much attention from the country.
There’s not been a typical day since. I could be having an airplane named after me, or walking out on to the pitch to present the ball when Scotland played the All Blacks. But if it’s a mid-season training day, I get to the Velodrome at 10. If I need to be fresh, I drive — I have a black Jaguar XKR. If not, I cycle the 20 minutes there; it’s a good warm-up.
In the gym I lift heavy weights for two hours to develop the muscles you need to be a sprint cyclist; my programme is written by Dave Clark from the Scottish Institute of Sport. I have a protein shake, which gets nutrients into your body quickly. Then I get lunch — a tuna or turkey-salad sandwich, beans on toast, or baked potato and salad — something easy to digest. Between mouthfuls I make calls and give phone interviews: it might be a cycling publication, a TV crew or local paper, sponsors or charities. Once or twice a day I talk to Charlie Reid, who handles my diary and PR.
I snack on energy bars during the day. I’m not on a strict diet: I might have a burger or a cake. It’s about moderation. But for six months before the Olympics, I didn’t have one beer or a glass of wine. If I had, and I’d stood on the podium and got second or third, I’d have wondered if things might have been different.
At 2, we go to the track centre. There’ll be from 3 to 20 team-mates training with me. I pick up my bike from the mechanics. It has my name on it; now it has “Sir” in front. It was incredible to be knighted for riding your bike, and a huge honour.
As a kid I loved bikes: that scene in ET when they’re on BMX bikes is what inspired me to ride. Now I see the bike as a tool. The rest is down to your legs, heart, lungs. Our bikes are carbon-fibre, wind-tunnel technology; they only have one gear, so I select the gear for the training we’re doing — say, acceleration or standing starts. We do a 20-minute warm-up on the track, which is 250 metres. The motorbike sets the pace. We start at 30 kilometres per hour, building up to 80 kilometres per hour. You train to produce lactic acid — the burning feeling you get when you work the muscles hard.
We stay on the track till 5. Training is painful, gruelling and monotonous. Some sessions leave you on your hands and knees, wanting to vomit, thinking you’re going to die. After others you have just a mild ache. Each session takes you towards your goals, such as the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year. The main one for me right now is London 2012.
I’ve just got back into training since my injury in Copenhagen in February. It was the worst crash of my career. I had a degloving injury [the skin became detached from the underlying tissue] to the hip, and I had to keep it immobile. Cycling is a low-risk sport generally; I’d broken the odd bone but never been laid off. It was frustrating, as my chances in the cycling world championships were blown for this year. But the way I see it, if it happened last year it would have been a disaster.
Around 5.30 I have some food to get me home. Three times a week I have a physio session or massage at the Velodrome. When you’ve pushed your body that hard you need to maintain it or it will break down.
I get home by 7 and rest, then have a shower. I cook dinner: stir-fried chicken or prawns with veg, or curry — fairly basic dishes. Sarra’s a good cook, though. Midweek I eat alone, but it’s not lonely. I’ve been with people all day, so it’s good to switch off. I’ll watch The Simpsons, The Sopranos, Top Gear or comedy. I love rugby and motor-racing.
I get ready for bed at 11. Brush my teeth, wash my face. If it’s cold I wear a T-shirt. I get into bed and relax by reading a novel or I listen to music on my iPod shuffle. I write out a list of things to do the next day; it helps me to sleep easier. I usually sleep well, though, and I can fall asleep almost anywhere: on a plane or on a train — but never on a bike.
Source:The times