Valencian mountains

No text today, maybe tomorrow - too tired. As for today, I think these photos tell the whole story to begin with.

  

Tomorrow, I promise, it is gonna be flat.

Lying flat, doing nothing.

Sipping coffee, snacking occasional fruit, listening to music. Rest days are for good.

Training has been pretty decent. I've got plenty of good hours into my legs during the preparation phase, now one more week of this and then a sort of recovery week. After that I'll start training really. So far it has been mainly unstructured riding and getting ready for proper structured workouts, but now we are getting closer to the beginning of the real training season. Other than that, the weather has been very much favourable lately.

All racing is still far far away, but all in all the main idea is to train a lot, race a lot and have two peaks during the season. The two peaks have not been decided, neither discussed yet, but they will wrap around time trialling and pursuiting, as if everything goes as planned. I'm hoping to be able to race the weekend stage races in Sweden pretty much as they're pretty good trainingwise. But that's about racing then, it is still simply too far in the horizon to talk about.

Off the track completely, it has been superb to follow alpine results during past weeks. Guys are doing just great: 1^st, 4^th and 5th Europa Cup giant slalom, what do you make of that? Romar 16^th in Lake Louise DH world cup opener? Räsä started well placing 6^th in North American Cup opener? That is one hell of a start, keep it up!

It is all good!

Torre Pacheco Velodrome

We did spot a new (for me, not as in lately built) velodrome today. I just might bring my track bike here in the spring - the surface is a bit bumpy, but very well usable for some more intense intervals. Today I did a couple of laps and went to the beaches for some quick lunch and coffee. A good way to go for a rest day.

And today, after two weeks my training year went over 1000 kilometers and 40 hours. Sot, lets stay on that path!

Angry dogs make good training company

Climbing.

Towards San Miguel de Salinas

TT training.

Maybe the header is exaggerating, but the incident itself was intriguing. I was just riding up the hill, when I heard some pretty aggressive barking and the next thing I notice is that there is hell of a big dog running to me. I was kind of afraid so my solution was to be quicker than the beast. That's what I did, but the only thing was that I'm not the best of forms and the thought that if I hit the wall now, I will be eaten or something crossed my mind quickly. Luckily though, after a while in the pursuit the dog found something more interesting and left me alone, but still my steady pace effort was ruined – too bad.

Otherwise, training has been as good and solid as it can be. Some rain, some sun and good miles. Heart rates have been quite on a higher side yet, but now they are going down to normals. So, all is good training wise and I'm feeling fairly confident about the progress.

On the bonus side down here is the cost of eating out. Chinese dinner for two including appetizers, three main courses, dessert and a bottle of wine is 16 euros at the cheapest. What would think I'm eating here most of the week? Besides chinese food is just superb and occasional glass or two of wine does no harm whatsoever – it actually is good for me as if I believe my father, and why wouldn't I? And another good excuse for eating out is the fact that there is no dish washer in our house, and also that the hand wash we have sucks.

It is pretty much all good here.

PS. I didn't go to the coming season yet as the wheels ain't quite rolling yet, except the downhills. And honestly, I don't know too much about the coming season either. The only clear thing I'm looking forward to is progression at the moment.

Start your engines!

Greets from Orihuela Costa. First couple of days packed of the new season are in the bag. I should say they were somewhere between awful and horrible in a way. Yet again, first rides after the break are always the same: heart is racing, power is somewhere etc - so that was nothing new, absolutely nothing to worry about. After the first day off the legs eased up a bit and I felt better on the very same bike, which was pleasant. Today's ride was postponed by the heavy rain fall here, so it ain't all sunshine here. But luckily the rain should be gone tomorrow.

Anyway, the start has been alright maybe even encouraging as stated by my Powertap. As a big time side note: Thanks to Petri Hietanen at PHZ for fixing my wheel! I had never had a snapped spoke before my Powertap Heds and since then, let's say less than ten in a year. Now that Petri fixed the wheel, it works perfectly!

To clarify, I'm now in Spain and will train here practically over the winter. This was a possibility for me, which I and my family took. More accurately I am in Villamartin, nearby Torrevieja. We chose this place as it has access to hills and mountains, but also offers good proper flats for time trial training. Just graduated from Uni, no army and I am between studies – we decided to rent a house from Spain to get everything out of training during the winter months, now that it was possible. So far so good. The main plan for following weeks is to follow the guidance of Fausto Coppi. The legend once answered when asked why he was so good: ”Ride your bike, ride your bike, ride your bike”. Then after a general preparation we'll go to more structured training in a form intervals and all that stuff.

As you may also notice – the design of the blog has changed quite a bit. The current design is more or less permanent depending on my artistic inspiration – which ain't my strongest side. The change in the design hails from rest-day boredom and the feeling that it has been very same for quite a while and started to look older and older – time for a change. Besides; I haven't been on track for ages. Still, don't get me wrong – I'm still a track cyclist very much, but also do race on road a lot nowadays, and I simply thought that this photo looked fairly good in the header.

I'll go more into the coming season once the wheels are really rolling.

It ain't all sun in Spain.

Scratch to the new season and hangover recipes

Life is pretty weird – I didn't write a note here for ages, and now I'm here again inside a week from last update. Last time I wrote about last season. I didn't add too many numbers into it, but here is one: 750+. It refers to my training hours last season combined with uni work. Next year this is one of the numbers in priority – I want to get it up.

I'm feeling fresh. I don't think I've ever been as motivated as I'm now. It just feels superb to get back to training. The rough lines for coming season(s) have been set and I think it is the right path to go on. The main targets and races haven't been decided quite yet, but as time goes those things will clarify themselves. Generally, I'm not so much worried about the races coming up, but more on the training and progression. One thing I know for sure, next season will include hell of a lot work on my road and time trial bikes.

And yes, I'm waiting for the hangover feelings, when the freshness is the last thing to feel. But not resulted by an odd night out, more so by training. I do have an easy recipe for that: don't eat, don't eat and if you eat – eat something crappy like fries with milkshake. Two days of that combined with any training will most likely lead to a miserable hangover. Then again, that may not be the way to get the only relatively enjoyable hangover I know. Yep, fairly easy, but don't even think about doing that. Firstly, the hangover caused by improper eating and training is miserable. And secondly especially in my case, the moral hangover by to the idiocy of the whole concept would make it almost deadly. 

So, train hard and eat well, then take the hangover – the best recipe to me.

In a week I'm traveling to Spain (to the very same region) and will train there for some time. It is just so cool to have the possibility to train in the favouring conditions during the winter months. Flat road for time trials and hills and mountains to spice the road work – perfect. Not to forget the Serrano ham and Spanish red wine – even more perfect.

Quick wrap-up – Season 2012

My season 2012 has now been over for a good while, and the only reason for not updating hasn't been my laziness, more like the other way round. I've been super busy lately.

Early season in Spain

Anyway, here it comes. My season definitely had its highs and lows. It started in Wales, finished in Finland, but it was one hell of a year. The proper racing started in London World Cup, which was more of a personal over-reaction more than anything. From there on I had to concentrate on my dissertation at uni and the spring season in Britain. The spring time highlights, cyclingwise, were definitely the BUCS track champs in general – and solid performances across the field. Yet the biggest thing was that I had completed my degree and was only waiting for the results.

From then on I moved back to Finland and started my preparations for Nationals on road and track. The road nats in June weren't for me this year. Equipment problems, stomach problems and finally a crash – such a weekend. Yet, I felt that I had some legs. Then in the Omnium the form wasn't stricking but I managed to gain some solid rides in to my legs building the confidence on the way to my first stage race.

Porvoon ajot

U6 Stage race

In Sweden, I had a good week of racing and managed to finish nicely. Yet some problems distracted me from racing at my best and at the end of the race I caught a viral flu, which was a misery especially after the U6 Cycletour as the track nationals were on the door step. The week before the team sprint I touched my bike once, and then the next week two times or so. Not the preparation I was hoping for. I lost the form quite totally, but managed to scratch a good weekend medalwise. I won again the kilo and IP, but also added my first TP gold to it. Thanks to the guys in the team. The next weekend provided clear evidence of what sort form loss we were talking about, as I was really off the case in some time trials, but as we knew what was going on so it didn't matter too much. The power losses were quite visible.

The original plan was to keep on going until late autumn track races to do some results, but as it appeared the costs to do that were relatively high so we decided to wrap up the season, despite the promising form after Svanesunds 3-dagars and some track training. The power had built back to normal. Therefore, we decided to take a good break and go for the coming season, as I started to wander more and more on the coming years.

Hill prologue at Svanesund

Starting to get back in form

To sum the season up: Good solid season - I took major steps forwards, although it may not have been quite visible at all times. The major proof for me was that I was able to race a week long stage race without dying, but also the times I produced in BUCS track champs. There could have been plenty more to come, but I feel going for seasons ahead will be more beneficial for the future,

Training in Gent

Still no cycling beats the real big thing of the year. I graduated for university with a first class degree – that was the moment by far!

The next is season is on the door step already now. More of that will follow.

Life after Finnish summer racing season

After track nationals I raced two more time trials the next weekend, but apparently my recovery with viral flu was not quite sufficient and the result was obvious. After that weekend we decided to go back to basic training eyes on the coming up track races. Training has been rather good and even today it is. I've managed to pull out some pretty decent road rides and even better track sessions.

Now I've been on a road trip for quite a while (two weeks is a good guess from behind a glass of red wine). It all started in Sweden: a stage race in Svanesund. How eventful was that? Well, I'm not going to go to fully detailed analysis, but provide a good list. I was penalised for riding on the wrong lane on one lane street, pushed off the course in the criterium, challenged by two Valmets in the TT, dropped my chain in the TT, almost collided with another rider on my own side of the road in the TT and last but not least abandoned the road stage due to heavy rain (wouldn't have done that if I didn't have track season to look for). Yet, my form was okay - I was pretty careful with my pacing tactics and it was visible in results. Wattages were there in quite okay levels.

The we went to Gent for two days of mega good track training. Ok, in between I had a pretty decent core workout in Germany. We did maybe my best ever track sessions in Gent before leaving for Newport, it was two times 20mins and then six time 2000m flying efforts. In Newport I had my graduation ceremony and rode a kind of recovery ride around the old hoods. The university was good for me, and maybe I'll write about that a little later...

And now... I'm back in Belgium on the long way home. Next stop is Wittenburg for some work stuff and then finally home.

Track nationals

Resultswise it was perfect. Three starts, three gold medals.

On Friday I quite tense about the kilo, but managed to perform pretty well despite it felt the most awful I've felt for a good while. I died badly at 700m and struggled to the finish line just in time. On saturday I rode the 4km Individual Pursuit. In the qualification round as I was in the last pair, my only target was to qualify for the final ride, which went as planned. In the finals I improved my time a bit and won the second gold medal of the weekend.

The main day was Sunday. The day of Team Pursuit, which we really wanted to do well in. We had had solid training session earlier and the plan worked. Our team, me, Juhana, Niklas and Mikael, performed to the plan and the gold was our. It is such a special feeling to ride in a team and succeed in a team, especially with guys like that. We had good time in training and in the race. Big high five, to Niklas, who actually did his first turns on track two weeks earlier and learned to ride team pursuit inside three training session. Not everyone can do that, amazing!

The weekend was good, although the times weren't quite where I would have wanted them to be. No worries, as the reason behind it is clear. The illness and flu after the stage race affected my training pretty much. On the two week lead up to the races I managed five partial training sessions, which isn't optimal I dare to say. I didn't feel particularly strong so I'm more than happy to wrap up national season up with these results. I'm confident that as the autumn goes on and there are some opportunities to improve my times, I'm able to do it.

Some photos will follow later on.

The team spirit crew

Ok, this is ridiculously exaggerating as a header. Last Saturday we had the NC for three disciplines, only one of which I was in. The decision not to ride anything else was rather clear as after the U6 in Sweden and the illness I hadn't ridden my bike barely at all. I did two standing starts on Friday and completed my man two duties in the team sprint (or spirit?) on Saturday.

We had a good laugh doing the team sprint with three enduro blokes, and being the only with experience in team spirit at all. Our man one, Hiski, you notice him by his hugely muscular stature, did his job more than well. Well, not quite as muscular as some may imagine, but what the heck. Me with my sprinters (or chicken?) legs, as man two due, had a bit of a struggle with the illness, but at the end it didn't hurt such a short performance as much as I was afraid of. So there I delivered our man three, Mikael, to last leg of the rides. Mikael, with greater endurance and time trial abilities, was a natural pick for his role and therefore he was our strong finisher.

In the morning, I was sure that we will ride a straight up final, but it soon was apparent that there will be finals and qualifiers. We qualified third for the bronze final, which was fair enough. Our first team scored a national record by margin to the second team. Placing in top four was a good one for us, as it was the very first team sprint for us as a team. In the final we managed to improve our time from the qualifiers notably, as we managed the technical performance a tad better after one practice ride, and won a bronze medal, which after all coughing felt pretty good. It was first elite medal for Hiski, and first sprint medal for Mikael. I was all too glad to get a bronze and ride solid rides.

As a conclusion we could have done a bit better times, by practicing more together without adapting our training programs much, but we would stand no chance with the guys who train sprinting. All in all, this was funny project ending nicely on podium in third spot. Thanks boys!


Also, Juhana won his first jersey in points race! Congratulations, I'm proud of you!

U6 stage race

U6 Cycle Tour

Hey, I'm back home and I'm alive. My first experience in stage was a nice one – well mostly. Now that I'm home tired and caught a bit of a cold I can sum the trip up stage by stage.

Prologue

It was 3.4k ride with a hill to finish it up. I had absolutely no idea how to ride the hill, so I ended up sparing power for the misery of a hill climb and figured 200m before the finish line that I had plenty left in the tank. The ride was not a bad one, yet I was tad disgusted with my tactics. I finished 18^th and was ready to tackle the coming challenges.

Stage 1

I woke up to a hellish rain and summed the day pretty much up in matter of seconds: 147km + rain + gravel road is not gonna be such a beautiful day on bike. However, I was surprised how easily I was able to hang in the bunch and even closer to the end got into a small breakaway attempt, which at the end went nowhere. Then the misery began, I lost the nose piece of my glasses and all the mud, sand and everything went into my eyes and it caused a temporary blindness for the rest of the evening. An experience I don't wish have again, and after visiting local hospital I got some antiobiotics to the scars and bruises in my eyes, which helped. And oh, at the end of the day I got stuck behind a crash and was dropped. Such a good stage, ehh?

Stage 2

The longest one of all. It was 171km including a bit of a finish hill. In the morning, luckily dry and bright this time, I was yet unsure whether I was in a form to ride or even to start as my sight was kinda blurred still. We decided to give a go by hanging in the sun deck (end of peloton) and for my luck the breakaway of the day went quite quickly away and all the strong teams had their riders up there. At one part the gap was more than 10 mins and the peloton speeded up for quite some time getting the gap somewhere around 5 mins. At that time I still had no struggle, which I was more than happy with. Then there went some more breakaways up there and we just rode to the finish hill safely. There I decided to show up what a trackie without any capabilities can do. Honestly, it wasn't very much, as many can guess. I tried a long finishing sprint from somewhere around 600m away and died during the last 100m totally just trying to avoid causing any crashes.

Stage 3

My beloved criterium was on at Wednesday. Not much to say about it. I quite don't like it and hanging at the back in criteriums is a suicidal move in such race, but it is exactly what I did. I could hang in there for some time but then dropped back down to wait the bunch catch a lap. Yet somewhere in the middle my left crank got stucked, which certainly didn't help. I could say, that a top three would have been realistic without the crank issue – but it would be a lie and a bad one. I commited a suicide criterium-wise and got caught by that.

Stage 4

Hillyish and shortish road stage (75km) consisting of ten laps with a finishing hill. Tiredness started to feel and again I decided to hang at the back, which worked fine until last lap when the group was blown in the crosswinds. I decided to roll home easily and lost some time. I wouldn't like to mention the weather, but it wasn't on our side and now I'm sick.

Stage 5

Time trial with tired legs is always funny. We had an ambitious plan, which worked up to 10km mark, but the time trial still included four more kilometers so I died quite spectacularly. I got my best individual stage placing however and in terms of time differences it wasn't so bad afterall.

Good trip except the illnesses I got.

Giddiap boyo!

Despite the increasing fatigue and saying that I'm more of a track cyclist, one still has to go out on the road and try things out. These are the times when one has to try different things out – I mean cycling and trainingwise, not just different things, you know. Therefore in addition to the intervals that I always do, I'm riding the national pair's time trial champs tomorrow, and then it is time for some seriously new things to test in my training. I'm heading to Sweden to ride a six day stage race, U6 Dagars in Tidaholm.

I strongly believe that such a hard week of riding will empty my legs at first place, but also boost my form after recovery. Well, the first part is rather clear, but second objective remains to be seen. There is, anyway, two weeks to recover and adapt to the track. Also, it is something completely new, so there is far more to gain. Yet, my form ain't nowhere near ready for the summer, that time shall come after the trip to Sweden. I also really like to shake things up and see what works for me and maybe what may not. Then one day I don't have to be guessing between options as I pretty much know what's good for me.

After the trip, I'm back to track and my beloved intervals, but more about that after the U6 Dagars.

Steady going and some successes.

Training has been good lately. I've managed to put down solid sessions one after another. My legs are starting to feel more and more tired, but for a good reason. I'm quite happy with the current status of my training as I can do and recover from series of hard training sessions.

This weekend, to spice up the training, I rode in the national omnium championships. It consist of six different disciplines; three of those are ridden against the clock (for my liking) and three of those are ridden man against other fellas (not quite my thing). I got my first Omnium medal finishing second after two days of racing. A good friend of mine, Mika Simola, took his first national champion's jersey today – many congratulations Mika! My performances were reasonable and steady in all events. I tried to ride my ass off in every event, in which, I think I succeeded. I didn't skip one turn in the front during the weekend! Although, the real deal for me was the timed events, which as well were ok if not good considereing the current training load. Maybe I seemed to underperform timewise in the flying 250m in comparison to my earlier efforts, but as some great athletes say: ”This is just part of the process”.

The 4k individual pursuit was the most important event for me this weekend. It turned out to be the most technically solid performance I've ever ridden. For the first time I nailed the set timetable just as planned, which was a real joy for me. The time was okay aswell. The last discipline was the kilo, which was tough as hell, but still flat 69s was a good performance to wrap the weekend of racing up. The silver medal was a really really nice bonus for the weekend!

Ok then, say something about the bunch races... Well, the first target was to come out alive from each of the races, which I managed. Secondly, in each race I finished in top five, which pleased me. Thirdly (and most importantly), I rode my ass of in every race. ”Not bad”, I would say as a conclusion.

No time for a break now though. I'll keep on training hard and next weekend is the national champs in pairs' time trial and right from the finish line I'll leave for a ferry to Sweden to race in U6 stage race (six days of racing).

More success was last Tuesday, as I got the final results from university. It was probably one of my proudest moments to find out that I got First class degree (meaning an average of A overall) and an A15 from my dissertation. I can't really say how good it felt!

First races in Finland

It's been a while once again. Since the last update there has been events more or less worth mentioning. Say ain't so. Some time trialling, some road racing, good quality training and even some golf. And oh, I moved back to Finland!

Here I've started now four times since my move. I've been racing solidly (quite like), but nothing spectacular hasn't happened, unless one counts my appearance in the NC road race as spectacular... Anyway, one weekend consisted of Lousku TT and Porvoon ajot – it was good one trainingwise as I achieved exactly the outcome I was hoping for. Last weekend was the nationals. In time trial I had bit of problems with the tyres and even more so with my body. It was one of those days that nothing seems to work and yet you keep pushing. However, I've learnt from it and it is all good. On sunday morning I started in the NC road race, had problems with my saddle, crashed, survived, got back on my bike, chased the bunch, never got back to the bunch and then decided to come out of the race. Albeit, my form was okay, different problems hindered my performances. Life is... (add the first word that comes to your mind). Anyway, sincere congratulations to the winners and medalists!

The reason behind the mediocre performances is in the training phase. We just started to lift up the intensity as planned. Now after some days of good quality intense training I feel that it starts to come together well. The program has been set and it looks pretty, yet tough. Once I get through this cycle of training and recover from it – the form should be alright if not good.

One view of time trialling.

So there I was on the start line with bunch of good guys on Saturday and Sunday in the remaining BUCS champs. Results were not the thing last weekend, but more to get used to bunch riding and get some really tough training to close the block up. Outcome was perfect: on Sunday night I was kind of standing my left leg in a grave. Both courses were really tough ones and nor did any of the guys make it easy for me, even if I asked kindly for them to slow down or wait for me. I got dropped on both days, but then again – no expectations except good training – so no harm done there.

The racing in a bunch triggered some thoughts on my own views of cycling and some realizations. Some could argue that had I won or done very well in either of the races, my views would be different. Maybe, but I don't think so.

Yet I had good time doing the bunch races, but I didn't feel the same way as if doing time trials or track pursuits. Whilst time trialling I barely think at all, I just go for it. I stare at the power meter and push the pedals, endlessly. Similarly in pursuiting, once I put the funny looking helmet on, I'm on it - fully committed, I'm in my office in my kind of comfort zone. Some people have claimed, that the sport is for the stupids – ride for certain distance as fast as you can, too simple. I've also heard that time trialling is for people too afraid to ride with others. The thing in TT efforts is that I'm in control of whatever happens, and there is no excuses to my own performance, with the exception of bad luck. Obtaining the control is one of the hardest things in cycling. There comes also the name 'race of truth' that is sometimes used to describe time trials – as no less than every time the strongest rider of the day wins, that is the real deal for me. It is the simplicity and complexity of it all – going controlled in flat out manner. I love what I do, and that's good for me.

Now then, don't get me wrong, I have a huge respect for road racers (note: same applies to bunch races on track). But I just don't get the same feeling and commitment in bunch races. I guess that the major thing affecting me is the uncontrollability. I can't control others unless I can out ride everyone else by a margin, which never happens. People attacking, chasing, tactics – taking the control of situation and me trying to react to them – they are all beauties of road racing. But, I just can't obtain that all, in the same way some other people can't obtain the needs of time trialling.

One way or another; most importantly – Warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does. So, whatever discipline may be that you love, keep on it. For me it is time trialling and pursuiting.

Trying and testing, trial and error.

Now that I've been doing more volume based work, I've also had time to discover various and new types of training. I've discovered some new things that seem to work pretty nicely. I could say that without some testing continuous four hour rides would be at least a little bit dull.

My testing hasn't only been in close relation to the actual training, but also to improve my recovery. As a result I think I have found a near perfectly effective way to recover from hard days on bike. Lets call it a rest day activity. It takes roughly 4hrs to complete, it includes a bit of walking (very little), some concentrating and some swings. Yes, a round of golf, but not just ordinary one. I'm talking a round of golf with a buggy and chauffeur. It bloody works, as justified by my test. The round of golf (not a spectacular one) significantly improved my performance the following day. So, I rest my case.

Generally, I think that every now and then, it is actually good to test new things to boost up the training - no matter if it is an error or not. At the same time I also might admit that the round of golf probably wasn't such a big booster. Tomorrow we will see how this road block has worked out as I'll take my first starts in bunch races this year. Tomorrow will be BUCS Criterium and on Sunday BUCS road race. My legs feel kind of alright, but as I've been training quite hard past two days, you never know. The actual aim will be to see where I am going and stay out of trouble. If I feel superior in form, I might try something if I see a chance opening.

And as a side note, I also received some good, but yet funny news. A while ago I told about the BUCS 25mile race that I got DQ'd. Tonight I received an email with the official results sheet and I was third again, I don't actually know what has happened. Anyway, my time and winner's time were marked with a small star, which meant '* Riders Anton Aro and Nick Baker were not exonerated of the breach of Regulation 21 but the disqualifications were deemed invalid due to a technicality.' Something, apparently, has been happening behind the scenes. To me this sounds like a compromise, of which I'm not at all aware of. Again, I'll end up saying: it happens.


Furthermore, this is my 100th blog update.


And at the end some photos of my perfect method for effective recovery:

Note to self: Don't ever brag again.

That's what you get when you start bragging – I guess. So, I was supposed to start another well good three day set of training today, which I eventually did afterall, but the morning was quite promising. After a glorious morning, meaning sunshine and so on, I was ready to go out. However, I started to feel a unwell, funny and high at same time. It basically meant that I just waited for another hour or so, if my feeling would improved.

It certainly did improve, so there was no need to call it a day and take another day off. The thing was, although I was certain I could train, I didn't want to go out as if the unwellness came back and I would be somewhere between Abergavenny and Monmouth wondering as if I should try and ride home or what. So the decision was to switch to some interval training on my beloved Wattbike, whilst the sun was stills shining outdoors. I had my 'eat some cement and grow nuts'-moments during the session, as I watched the sunshine and kept the Wattbike humming. To those who are not so much into cycling training: Wattbike/Turbo/Roller training is probably the dullest thing there is after a while. Yet, I have to admit, I find very effective as well, so doing that is quite simply justified whether it was the dullest thing in the world or not.

Afterall, the session was pretty decent despite the starting point and the 'disturbing' sunshine. Maybe I just keep the good training to myself, as it seems that bragging doesn't end up too well. At the end there was no harm done, so happy days, maybe I'm going now out for a cup of tea to watch the sun settle.

A week in Welsh spring

Normally, I don't brag about my training here, and I will not do it soon again after this – or at least so I say. But now that I'm having a well earned rest day and spending it with good coffee, I just think it may be worth giving a word as the week was like perfect. It was solid 21hrs of quality training, including longer rides in the country side and some bit more specific efforts on my beloved Wattbike. From the beginning I've felt that the recovery week in Finland did the trick psychologically, and I've been fresh to get on it again. What really surprised me was the last session last night, as it just came out easily – whilst I was expecting a sufferfest kind of miserable Wattbike hangout. As a bonus the weather has finally improved and I got to ride the amazing valleys and hills here to increase the volumes.

To give an example what I do or did last week, I think this could be a good one. At first an undulating 2hrs on the road bike Then 15min break with something to eat, and then out again with TT-bike and an 60min sub-threshold effort, with efficient cool-down. Some of you may wonder why bother with changing bikes in the middle? The answer is within specificity of training. I have to admit that the effort itself was nothing, but riding an hour trying to control the heart rate – good training though.

Another thing worth mentioning is a target that I achieved. Since the first day here my target has been to get my portrait to the university's sport hall of fame. Now it is true as a consequence to the BUCS track races, and the photo session was held last Wednesday. It was a funny experience and the photographers (Documentary photography students) were such good guys and professionals. They made it easy for me, and for my surprise I found the experience as a funny one, as I normally fail each and every portrait taken...

Now, it is another week of high volume training and then we are back to increasing the intensities. As some of you may know, my time here is over in about two weeks and then I move back to Finland. There comes a time for reflection and flashbacks for my time in here, but the time isn't yet. Racing-wise, it is more about building and training now towards the nationals season in Finland. I'll be riding two more races over here, BUCS crit and road race, and then the next time I'll be seen with bibs is in Finland!

New training block.

Lots of water has flowed through and the blog has been silent. Say ain't so, I should have updated the blog.

Nothing too big has happened racing wise, except fourth in Bucs ten miler and DQ at 25 miler. Standard level races for me, nothing spectacular. And lets not go to deep in to the DQ, it was just a case of bad luck and two guys doing their best to win medals. Neither of us actually did, but he would have won and I was bronze. Anyway, he caught me as I was sparing energy and after turnpoint we were overtaking each other once in a while and afterall DQ'd – it happens.

Now after a recovery week I've started new block of training aiming towards summer races, but more about them later on. Now it is about building the base and we'll see later on about the races that are the targets.

Let's keep the wheels rolling.

The first 25 miler.

I was about to mention in the header, that it was a glorious one. Then I thought, that it quite wasn't and it would be a lie to state that. To be perfectly honest (another bullshit cliche), it was my first long time trial and it was a steady one. It wasn't even near dreadful, actually I quite liked it. As last week my body showed signs of tiredness, decided to take the race as a practice run rather than another all out effort. Simply because the following weekends there would be more important races and we didn't want to compromise my recovery. Such a good explanation for not riding flat out!

The race was held early morning near Horsham. It was quite chilly morning, but I felt good. The start was some four and half miles away from headquarters so I used that as a warm-up. I went to the start with other racers for the purpose of not getting lost. The way to the start was a hilly one, and I mean that. My initial thought was something like second guessing my appearance in such time trial and thinking that what hell was it all about. However, the course was tough, but nothing like I scared. This time I didn't quite have a full race face on as the purpose was more on the training side. The race face, according to my mum, is all about being grumpy, bad mood and complaining. At the same time I put in a way of concentration and mental preparation. It is just a sake of different perceptions. ;)

Anyway, as a solid training effort it worked out nearly perfectly. I rode as planned and the plan was to ride a controlled steady submaximal ride. The course was tough, but yet enjoyable with some hills and nine roundabouts – some real riding I would say. Only once I went too fast in to a roundabout and had a bit of action there. I controlled the pacing very well and didn't die at any point, so we succeeded in terms of what we were after. As positive surprise to add up, I managed fourth place in my category and had a bottle of red wine as a prize.

Now I'm getting ready for the BUCS 10 mile champs next weekend in Cambridge. Everything looks well good, if I forget about the weather and I just somehow think it is better to do so... I'm ready.

Recent action in pictures

Here we go then...

Coalville Wheelers 10m TT, 31.3.

Finishing strongly?

Cooling down.

Good Friday Meeting, Herne Hill, 6.4.

You know, there you should have...

In action.

Sizeable field, eh?

Mixing it up.

Chilling with Lewis.

Oxford City 10m TT, 7.4.

All out.

Dual carriage-way.

Online leaderboard.

(C) Paavo & Erja Aro

Keepin' the wheels rolling.

It's been a while, but yeah a pretty productive while. Last weekend I was supposed to ride two 10 milers, but ended only doing one. That was because below zero or around zero temperatures in the morning and I didn't fancy doing that with my asthma. On I went to play some floorball with the guys. However, on Saturday I did alright. The time wasn't there, but the power was. That's because the route was quite unconventional for a time trial. Anyways, I had a decent ride. Nothing spectacular, but still quite okay.

This weekend is another story though. Yesterday, at Good Friday Meeting I rode pretty much everything. I had such a nice day at Herne Hill velodrome meeting some friends and riding hard. As an inexperienced bunch racer the field around 60 riders in points, eliminations and scratch weren't my deal really, haha. Still I had the legs to try something out and I did. I didn't end up as a winner at the end, but felt that outcome was rather encouraging. No prize money this time, but I managed a PB on tarmac track in flying 200m. I've heard that is what counts. ;)

Today, I took part in the first conventional forth and back 10 mile time trial in Oxford. It was a decent ride, and I managed to pace it fairly well. It resulted fourth place among 80+ riders, but too bad I missed the price money just. And for those interested, my time over the 10 miles was 20.26.

This was just a quick update and for a promise; there is a photo update coming soon!

Castle Combe 10m TT

My first realization of yesterdays ride was that apparently 10 miles is quite a bit longer than 10 kilos. For me, it took 21 odd minutes to figure that out. I did my first 10 miler in Castle Combe motor circuit yesterday. The course was hard and my legs just weren't quite amazing. Not to exaggerate things, eventually I did alright.

All the same, it was five and a bit laps around the circuit to complete the ten miles. My first thought was that a race around relatively flat motor circuit sounds like a quick course, but as there was like five rhythm changes including corners and chicanes, which unfortunately is not my strongest ability, it was very tough go. By rhythm changes I refer mostly to hills, or in this case mountains, which were more like Col de Galibier or Mortirolo climb. Just kidding. In time trialling constant minor inclines are hard enough.

Now I've hopefully given enough excuses for not going as well as I hoped, I think it is time to give some data: I averaged around 45kph, 370+ watts and placed fourth. There were some decent riders in front of me, so I got some decent references. Besides, that was my first 10miler, so I really didn't know what expect or how to pace myself. After all, I was doing 10 miles in same(ish) pace than 10 kilos at best last season, so numberwise I was going quite OK.

It was second serious effort this season so far and I'm quite certain that after couple more outings I'll start to do one level better. I'm looking forward to that!

At last, I can't help but praise the Wednesday evening event. The atmosphere was so nice and the organization of event was really good. The thing that struck me the most was the toughness of the course, not to forget the safety measures. Closed racing circuit provided a beginner friendly environment for time trialling and it also provided a tough effort for more experienced riders. Only thing was that when I finished it was nearly dark, due to the time of the year. All in all, this is something I'd love to see and ride in Finland as well!

BUCS Track Champs

Today was racing time. I rode the individual pursuit and kilo in the British University championships. The schedule was tough and I knew it beforehand so that's no excuse. Anyway, this morning I went out for a solid wake-up ride in the Welsh countryside and felt pretty much alright.

The schedule was tight due to high number of entries. At the end of the day I found myself qualifying for IP and riding kilo and IP finals inside 45mins. Tough love, I say. In the qualifiers I gave my best and finished with 4.45.581 breaking my previous PB by nearly 4 seconds. Happy days, but my opponent in the final, Sebastian Pancratz, smashed us all by cruising a classy time of 4.35,726.

Next up was the kilo. I surprised myself by riding a new PB (1.07,026) and eventually winning the event. And there is always the if-factor, which in this case is that I could have gone under 1.07 if didn't have to overtake my pair. But that's just exaggerating. These things belong to the sport, and rightly so. Next up, after ten mins of catching breath, was the IP finals, which I entried with incorrect gearing and empty legs. No wonder Sebastian caught me, and honestly it could have happened with or without the kilo. Congrats Sebastian, that was some good class pursuiting. I was all too happy that it was over.

Overall, I really liked the event and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. Thanks for the organizers! Plus, it was cool to ride in my own neighbourhood. Tomorrow will be the medals ceremony and I watch my friend, Tom, riding in the points race and sprint. It is a shame that we don't have teams for team pursuit or sprint!

I got loads of confidence from today and our bit of experimenting with gears worked very well! I'm not telling what I did, but the main thing is that it worked. Anyway, tomorrow I already have to switch my focus to time trialling as next week has three ten milers to offer. Stay tuned!

Coming up: Spring races.

A week before the spring races begin, I'm starting to feel like it. I'm really looking forward to getting the bib on my back and going for it. Although, this block is more for building towards the bigger goals in the future, to raise the bar for next macro cycle, to see where I'm currently at – but still racing is always racing. I'm just curious to see how my form is now after winter season and looking forward to some solid performances and further development. There is quite a lot of time trialling in the schedule, to build up the power for individual pursuiting. Please, see calendar for more info about the races.

Now that the dissertation is gone from my mind, I'm lot less stressed and the distractions to training are gone. After handing it in on Tuesday I've had bit of funny moments of not knowing what to do, since there has been nothing that I should or would have to do. It's been nice, but kinda weird. It's not only been mental stress, but I've been feeling a lot better in general and I've been able to set some pretty nice training sessions. And besides life is far more enjoyable now!

As said, these races are for raising the bar, they are not primary targets. The primary targets are a way in the future and all this is just building for those moments. Those days will eventually come and then I will be ready.

It is gonna be tough couple of weeks, but it definitely is worth it. I'm looking forward to give my all and see how it all goes.

P.S. 10.000 visitors today, thank you!

News flash!

Lately, I haven't been too active on updating my blog and for that, I apologize. The reason behind it, however, is quite reasonable and understandable: I've been working all day long on my dissertation (opinnäytetyö) and have barely had time to for cycling.

Now to the news! It is all completed, done, handed in and so on. This feels amazing, simply amazing. It goes under the title of: Competitive anxiety and self-confidence among talented Finnish alpine skiers and impacts on the athletic performance. Altogether 76 pages around the topic – I've never done anything up to this scale

If anyone fancies a read, just drop me a message. I gotta warn though, that at times the text is fairly scientific, which is another way to say almost impossible to understand.... ;)

Stress relief is major. Now I can again concentrate on my training spot on as the racing season begins in two week. My calendar can be found by clicking here. Quite a hectic April coming up, but it is nothing compared to the stress this piece work caused. In terms of cycling it is all okay; nothing spectacular has happened and I haven't lost it too much during the distractions to training.

London TWC - vol.3 - The aftermath

To my family and friends: Thanks for the support!

Life and training goes on anyway. Now, couple days after things are set into context and I'm very much coming to my senses about it all. I've gone the 1k performance through and my training leading to it. I've lost my standing start understandably, but it is not easy to remember when I have the bib in my back. Naturally though, other attributes are going the other way, I mean upwards, which is good when considering the set targets. Sometimes it is ”good” to fail, just to realize where you are going – not to say that failing is nice by any means. Today though, the process is fully on again and after some testing I see myself comfortably in the schedule, but I just gotta remember to let the kilo go as big part as it has been for me earlier on.

The things to learn; Live the journey. Also keep eyes on the target, and don't get distracted from that. Accept the fact that I can't be in top form in all the races I do, and accept the fact that if you don't train something – you will lose it. I'm studying coaching, you see. Ha ha.

Now I'm back on my two wheels with great joy and motivation. We have tested a bit of new things and settings in my riding position and made some findings as well. It looks good, and it starts to feel good. As I will get my upper body flexibility to appropriate levels – that will bloody work.

Learn from the past,

Live in the present,

Dream of the future.

(Petteri Nykky)

London TWC - vol.2

I don't know what to say. I have no words.

I'm disappointed. I'm devastated.

Believe me, I'm am the first one to admit the failure and to take it on myself. I knew it was a gamble to take up the kilo with my current focus of endurance training. It just didn't work at all. However, I was confident as in the training sessions the flying efforts were rather alright, but the issue was the start. I never reached the speed and faded from there. The moment I saw my time was crushing, a moment, I hope, no one would ever experience, but I had to take it. To be honest, I think everyone should, but that is not the point. And believe me – that was one of the hardest split moments ever. No explanations needed, I know what went wrong or what was missing. Still, for me, it is hard to take this at the moment. I know that I haven't trained for the kilo at all, but I never ever would have thought that all the starting power is so gone, but that's how it is. There are things on the background, such as the current training phase and and non existing track time, that had their toll on the ride, but I'm not very much willing to talk about them.

It is a crisis just now. But tomorrow, I believe, that I can start figuring out how to come up stronger. Some one has said that the character is tested when one is put against it. And now it is my job to show some character, and come the longer spring races, I'll be stronger than ever before.

As you can imagine, I'm not keen on talking about this. I'll go this through, with the people close to me, but this is something I just don't want to go through again and again. That's why I'm writing this now here – not trying to hide anything, but to say it and put it behind.

There is no starting or stopping - only doing.

Everything has a purpose, even this, and it's up to you to find it.

A warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does

(Quotes from Peaceful Warrior)