Who the heck was Gill Bates?

To that question I can only answer from my side. Firstly, maybe it is worth to open up the reason behind this particular topic – so, why I ended up even trying to answer this question was triggered by my very own thoughts today, hence the header. I shall open that incident in detail later on.

Generally, the thoughts vary in between the session depending on factors such as the type of the session and so on. In other words, if it is more about base endurance type of stuff my thoughts at least wonder around more than during intervals and not to even mention gym sessions. However, there are general pathways that the mind goes, which is practically always the same.

Pathway 1 is the neutral one. You feel ok, but not quite sure how it all will turn out, so most of the time you just try feel your legs and how they're working. Then comes the comparison to earlier similar work outs and interpreting the data on the small screen attached to the stem. ”Last time I did this and that and now this and that”. There is also occasional thoughts of something that just has been going on lately or some planning ahead.

Pathway 2 is the invincible one. You feel superb that day and stare at the screen in amazement and don't want that to end. Again, the comparisons come into play in a way that you just think how much you have developed and more importantly how much you will develop. These sessions are often the breakthroughs for motivation and so on. During these rides the occasional thoughts are rare as you just flow through the day and wish the same form to continue and you may even start daydreaming.

Pathway 3 is the miserable day out. The feeling is utter crap. You continuously try your legs out and at first think that ”Ok, it's gonna turn alright after an hour or so.” - yet, it doesn't. You just keep staring at the numbers and curse. The cursing continues as you just keep checking the time and realize that there still three hours left and the feeling ain't getting any better. Now the occasional thoughts are just normality and boy, they definitely are not of the inspiring nature.

Still, each and every workout ends the same: ”What will I eat when I get home?”.

Despite the pathways are quite clear, the occasional thoughts are the ones that actually make all more interesting. The just tend to come out of the blue and be whatever. Now let's go to the incident of the day. I was doing 54^th minute of a 60min base interval and the thought hit my head:

”Was it Gill Bates or Bill Gates to own Microsoft?”

Have a good day!

About backing off and giving it all.

Quit the mumbling and do your efforts. I did say that a dozen times to myself last Tuesday, but in fact, I just couldn't do my efforts. Eventually I backed off from that one training session, which was preceeded and followed by endless debate whether or not to back off, whether it was giving up or not. It was first time for long, when I simply couldn't do what it said in the program.

To me, there are two types of backing off. One acceptable, one not so much. I think it applies as far as those acceptable backing offs ain't becoming a daily routine – I'm sure you know what I mean. If it is one odd day out, it is alright. That day I just couldn't I deliver and it could see it and feel it, but still I started every single effort to see whether I could do it. And then when I couldn't, I did back off but not before I was clearly out of the effort. However, the day I just decide I feel bad and back off, someone is to kick my ass – big time.

The reason behind the odd day, as I later found out, was in my eating, or better, the lack of it. I had eaten too little between the training session, which then lead to empty tanks and at last dropped power output. Hence, the backing off. Problem solved, and today a modification of that very same training session was no problem and after that I had an apple pie to start my recovery. So good.

Otherwise, it has been very windy, but good. Training has been well and no major problems. Just gotta keep on the good path, but today a welcomed day of rest! Coffee, chill and more coffee.

Spain in photos.

Ride.

Ride more.

Get lost in the middle.

Then ride again.

And a bit more of riding.

Road block.

On a family hike.

Checking it out...

...then consult.

Vamos Torre.. and my favourite ever leftie!

Obviously my view of Spain in photos is a little bit biased and twisted, even I admit it.

Lots of water has flown...

...since the last update. I thought it would be nice to start with some nonsense like that, as I have really dismissed my blog lately. So be it.

At the moment I'm back in Spain and training is fully on again, not to say that it wasn't during my stay in Finland. So the last days before Xmas here were tough or even tougher from where we dropped the overload a bit for the Xmas week. Then came a week long track training camp in Lithuania to finish up the current base block.

Christmas time was really good. I did get all the training bagged and also there was time to relax properly to get ready for Lithuania. And for my joy, I managed not to put weight on during the Christmas by eating well enough (i.e. Not so much candies and chocolate in our household)f Training wise I was trying to impress people on my XC-skis to get to Tour de Ski and myself I was left a tad bit disappointed as I never received that call – if only I had had slippery enough skies, I wonder. Realistically though, I had good time skiing as it wasn't as nightmarish as I had prepared myself for, so I got some good base hours outdoors. I did also some training on turbo not forget about pedaling.

In Lithuania all went well. I managed to pull the scheduled sessions from top to bottom, which was a good enough reason to have a recovery week afterwards. Altogether 18 hours and something active time on bike on a velodrome was a solid performance. And I think that other guys went pretty good aswell. As we came back from Lithuania, I sat some two days just watching sport from television before going to Tahko for some work and freetime. Freetime in this case mean getting on alpine skis and hitting some gates just to see how lost I was. In slalom: as lost as always (yet sharping the edges could have helped), in parallel slalom: could have been more lost (same explanation as for slalom) and last in giant slalom: I think I managed well enough (as one of skiers at Tahko did my skis). All in all, it was good to be back at Tahko, despite it being only for some days. Then some training at home, some TV-sports and a flight back here to get the wheels rolling again.

And sorry for not being active at all. Tomorrow is a rest day (it looks like it), as the winds are blowing 50+kph in general and exceeding 80kps in gusts. And as for the rest day, I will make a photo update. Today was 40+ and 60+, which was hardly manageable. At least it felt so when I rode a flat river bank at 15kph and was at 260W...