Here’s the latest instalment of Inside the Ride, where we catch up with Naveen John, a national champion and seasoned racer with experience across the globe—from collegiate racing in the US to kermesses in Belgium and elite competition in Asia. Naveen shares his journey, the challenges he’s overcome, and how working with Holohan Coaching has helped him refine his training, push his limits, and achieve some of his best performances to date. Dive into this insightful Q&A for a firsthand look at the mindset, dedication, and coaching approach behind his success.
What inspired you to take up road racing?
I stumbled into amateur racing thanks to a friend who dragged me into it. I got into road racing around 2008 in college, in the Midwest US, while meandering through my undergrad in Electrical Engineering. Collegiate racing turned into non-collegiate racing, which morphed into returning home to India to chase a National title. That evolved into racing kermesses in Belgium, a one-year stint in Australia with a Continental team, representing India at the World Championships once, competing in a couple of Asian Continental Championships, and a whole bunch of bike racing in between. Now, I consider myself "institutionalized," in the words of Red (Morgan Freeman's character in The Shawshank Redemption).
What were your main goals when you started working with Holohan Coaching?
My 3 primary goals were:
To try a different approach to winning my National TT and RR titles (for the 10th and 2nd time, respectively).
To improve my 4K Individual Pursuit time on the track.
To podium at a 1.12B kermesse in Belgium.
While these were my goals, I’ve always been more obsessed with the process—understanding that there are 100 ways to get from point A to point B. What I value is learning about these different ways and what I discover about myself, people, the sport, and the world in the process.
How would you describe your cycling journey before joining Holohan Coaching?
Before HC, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some world-class humans in their capacity as cycling coaches, interspersed with periods of self-coaching and experimenting with a sample size of n=1 of just me. In my most recent bout of self-coaching, I noticed that my ideas and approaches were getting stale and I was falling into the trap of doing too much. I had learnt in the past that doing more does not always equate to actually getting stronger and faster, or even staying healthy. I had exhausted what I felt I could learn through self-coaching, and I was looking for a fresh perspective—another way to skin the cycling training cat.
How has the coaching approach, including experience and science-based methods, impacted your training?
After more than 15 years of racing at the amateur and elite level, I was seeing diminishing returns from simply adding more volume and intensity. Like many self-motivated athletes, I was doing too much—too much base, too much VO2, too many interval days, not enough tapering or proper off-season downtime. Working with Holohan Coaching helped me to objectively and externally regulate the most important part of training: recovery. This has been the biggest positive impact on my training—it’s enabled me to hit my best climbing performances, some of my best TT performances, my best CP20, and a strong consistent run in 1.12B Belgian kermesses this past summer.
Could you share an example of a specific training technique or workout that made a difference?
There isn’t one single workout, but the biggest shift has been in discussing the intent behind each session or block of work with my coach. This has helped me connect physical sensations (RPE) with physiological concepts like LT1, LT2, and CP. Having a deeper understanding of why we’re using a particular training modality builds trust in the process and boosts confidence in my preparation. That said, a specific, session-level game changer for me was applying coaching advice on focussing on my CHO/fueling and getting more disciplined in the execution of Z2 /base aerobic days. It reminded me that when base is done right and not over-cooked with too much high intensity, then all the stuff you build on top comes quicker, builds higher, and expresses itself more predictably.
What are your “non-negotiables” with your coach?
I believe that a successful coach-athlete relationship is based on honest and open communication. Communication builds trust, and if you don’t trust the plan you’ve laid out towards a goal, then outside (or internal) noise can easily drown out the signal. At that point, things start to break down.
What’s been your biggest challenge, and how did coaching help?
My biggest challenge has always been doing too much—pushing for that extra hour, extra rep, or extra intensity session when I probably shouldn’t. It comes from a place of self-doubt that all athletes deal with. The danger of having strong internal motivation is that you sometimes need someone to hold you back, and that’s where coaching has helped me the most.
Was there a “breakthrough” moment when you realized coaching was making a real difference?
Ultimately, the proof is in the racing and performance numbers. Seeing my best results and lifetime best power numbers in both racing and testing is as real as breakthrough moments get.
How does coaching give you the necessary tools to succeed?
Coaching allows me to detach from the thought spirals of planning my own programming and instead focus on other areas of growth. It helps filter out self-doubt and outside distractions, keeping me focused on what truly matters – executing the plan.
What improvements or achievements have you seen since starting the programme?
I set my best climbing performance on a local berg, called Nandi Hills – the most attempted climb/KOM in India. It’s sort of my personal benchmark for progress.
I came close to my goal of a Belgian kermesse podium, finishing 4th in a winning break with some elite racers.
Set my lifetime CP20 power at the end of my Belgian summer racing block.
Hit some of my best power at the Indian Nationals TT and TTT (back-to-back days), then backed it up a month later by winning the National Games ITT.
How has cycling influenced other areas of your life, such as work, health, or mental well-being?
Cycling has always been more than just racing and results for me. It’s the one thing in my life that is fully in my control, and it always has a perceptible positive impact on my mood and outlook. Riding every day is non-negotiable, even if it’s just a casual spin around the block.
What’s your favorite part of the training program or routine?
The Endurance and Recovery days – those are the days where I have enough mental bandwidth to process thoughts, solve problems, triage/prioritize my big-picture to-do lists, and generate the impetus to take action on things I’ve perhaps been putting off.
What keeps you motivated?
My goals motivate me, but even more so, the process of working and problem solving to those goals – learning about myself, about training, and about ideas I don’t yet know exist.
What’s next for you in your cycling journey?
I want to check off some track goals, keep racing at the highest level I have access to outside India, squeeze out those last 4-5% of performance on my power-duration curve, and translate that to placings on the results sheet when I can.
What advice would you give to someone considering structured coaching?
Do it—but only if you’re open to letting go of some of your training baggage. We all have biases about what works based on past experiences, but that can actually hold us back from improving. The opportunity cost of not trying a new approach isn’t always obvious. Be open to learning and trying new approaches.
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