The next big step

I've been bit cryptic of what's come for me and that is because it has been relatively unclear to me just as well.

Now though.

I have been admitted as a PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham from Fall 2016.

My PhD will be in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences. I will study and research the psychosocial factors in the use of banned substances. I am really appreciative of my opportunity to work with Dr. Ian Boardley. Dr. Boardley is internationally recognized for his work in the area. More accurately; what influences the decisions to dope, how does the attitude towards using doping products evolve during an athletic career and where are the crucial points in time, if one is to fall to use banned substances

This is something special for me. I am happy and ever enthusiastic to tell you about it. On personal level, it is huge. It is a big step towards what I aim to become one day. And maybe it is time to shed light on my dream in academia and sport.

One day my aim is to be perhaps the fastest doctor in the world.

It is easy to enjoy your coffee more, when you where you are heading.

Coaching, mentoring, training, developing the mind in Finland

At the beginning, I want to mention that the following views expressed are my own personal take of the topic.

The social media marketing is booming, blogging is booming, and the world wide web is a rather free playing field. What I mean to say is that it is perfectly acceptable (and bothering easy) to market and publish all kinds of stuff in today’s web-society. I'm keen follower of some social media channels and Internet portals related to my field – grossly or specifically.

I can happily state that the businesses for improving health and fitness are developing well and good. Many people want their share of it. However, this trend obviously has its pitfalls – in my honest at least. People today are not only looking for improved physique, but also the psychological side is receiving more and more interest. Hand in hand with this growth, I've seen more and more mental coaching services appearing with the most varying names and concepts.

Personally, I see this growth in interest as great thing. But then, the growing market of various fairly commercial 'mind coaching solutions' is certainly confusing. Having browsed some of the market offerings in Finland, I'm in many places still to understand the fundamental approaches and roots. In other words, what does the customer actually get? Is it just inventive slogans and mental cookbook recipes without any, or very weak, base in research and science? Another thing is the various certifications and accreditations on offer. So what, if you buy a few course days and an impressive diploma – is the certification a proof of some sort of expertise? Is the underlying competence really sufficient to work with real people? Are the end customers in good hands?

The field of coaching somebody’s mind is very sensitive. I did my MSc in Performance Psychology, and I've had the honour to study and work under the supervision of some of the leading professionals in the field. If I learnt something it was the ethics of dealing with minds of other people. Now I feel there are too many half-hearted operators trying to address the psychological sides of life endeavours – work, exercise, fitness, health behaviour, etc. I fear that people in good faith will ultimately suffer for their honest efforts to improve.

A major change.

This blog has been silent for a reason, I believe. For how long the reason has actually existed, I refuse to answer. I've come to a conclusion during this period. Yet I am not able shed light all across the whole conclusion, but partially I can elaborate on what is driving the change. The original purpose was to talk about my journey solely from athletic perspective, and the new purpose is to talk about my journey from a wider professional perspective.

What's more is that I can now safely skip the rest of my race of the late season and following medical saga (which is long and ongoing even without the slightest exaggeration). All I'll say is that the latter part of the season was actually pretty good, considering what was actually going on. It is all good know though – I am fit and healthy. Well, the fitness is a bit of question mark after such a long break from training.

Ok, back to the point then. What point? The point of perspective – the new journey. The new journey brings new challenges, the new challenges bring excitement. It keeps me going. Ok, I lost the point again.

The main content will be from my views on my profession in the field of performance psychology. Performance psychology is my passion and profession. It is a study of performance from psychological point of view. What are the components of performance? How can one be the best he or she can? The questions are endless and answers are complex, which makes it even more intriguing field of study.

In essence, I'll make efforts to write about stuff that is going on in the field and of course, my own views and opinions of certain matters I feel strongly about. And yes, please toss me ideas and ask questions – I'd honored and glad to write about them.

There is a certain driving force for this change and I am know waiting for an email to officially confirm it. The other reason is that it is actually quite dull to try and make time trialling sound like an eventful and dearly entertaining encounter. At its best it is freakishly controlled steady effort over a predescribed distance. At worst, you are sluggish or out of control or there maybe a blow of wind making things extreme. That was bit of an exaggeration, but see the point – I kind of ran out of adjectives.

In short, I'm on the verge of something exciting – a whole new journey and goals.

Nearing the season end.

Despite several efforts to find a good target for the autumn, there was none that I could justify rationally. I mean to say, that there would be loads of stuff I'd liked to have targeted. But then comes the second thought and the voice of wisdom (aka. my mum), and you soon come to the conclusions. Frankly and surprisingly for this season, I've actually managed to be the voice of wisdom myself just as well.

”Hey, that's interesting and should be good autumn project”

”Yeah bud, that really is good, but...”

”It is, but...”

”But... what?”

”There are certain things just to consider before pursuing it, and now that I think of it – it may not make sense in wider perspective. Ok, so I'll just concentrate on the Finnish races on the hand and then head for next season.”

Once you've gone through this time after time in your own small (or large) head, you soon realize that there couple good races left and then it just is over to the coming season (which is miles away). The thing is, though, that since I missed most of the season form wise, I've only during last couple of weeks found some form and I feel it is a shame for the season to close. Things could be different.

Anyway, once I arrived home from Poland and had a weekend of testing – not racing. It was to race again. The plan was to travel to Oulu for 2-up time trial nationals and ride at Laihia the day before. To add to the bad luck, my pair fell ill and I only rode in Laihia. A great shame, but such things happen.

Laihia was very good for me, despite I felt relatively crap before. Yet again, it wasn't about how you feel, but how you perform. The course was a great and wind added a challenge. In my view, I went well to the plan, but perhaps the plan was slightly cautious again. I won the 20km time trial with a time of 25:51, which was very satisfying. Winning is always winning. Analysing the race file also added to the satisfaction and it is very good to forwards from that.

Next weekend there is another time trial in the schedule and Tour de Helsinki, which is part of National Road Series this year. I'm looking forward to have some good races on the weekend. To end this up, I figured that I'd add five of my favourite photos from the trip to the continent in random order that have a story behind (or kind of).

Solo attempt.

Bielsko Biala. A small town, with great bike shops. Yet we managed
to get completely lost there.

Finding my form. And rarely have I ridden such great TT course.

Losing the form, outright and absolute bonk. And rarely have I ridden
such a great road course.

Confusing, eh?
Lastly, I think the machine was pretty cool.
Even cooler was the purpose of using this; local gentlemen
came to have a beer and watch the race.

Photos 3 & 4 are courtesy of Jan Bubenik (http://ciklista.rajce.idnes.cz)

No better place than home.

So the trip ended, and so ended the roller coaster. Imagine a roller coaster that takes you to heights, takes a severe free fall to get up to speed and then, derails in the first loop – and does so in a spectacular manner. So was the ending to my trip.

We competed in UCI Europe Tour races in severe heat in southernmost Poland. In fact, official recommendation by some instances was to avoid physical exertion due to excessive heat. Of course, the racing was on. My problem wasn't the heat, it may have exaggerated my underlying problems, but definitely played no major factor. I was happy how I coped with it. Yet again I came to face my personal issues with criterium type of racing and harvesting season. The races were over before they really started from my part.

I have to state that I was about survive the initial surge in the first race, when it comes to the above mentioned challenges. I overcame the blocked breathing and found some ease in the back of the peloton, and then came the derailment. A guy in front of me slipped in a right hander and blocked my riding line. I was forced to crash since hopping on pavement and making a sharp right was not within possibilities. So, I hopped on pavement and quickly chose the best option to crash on. The options were a milestone, electric wire post, fence or bush. I opted for the bush and escaped with a scratch or two. However, one of them was bleeding and I was taken to ambulance, which was one of the most interesting rides I've ever experienced. I got my wounds checked and then was left at the finish line, where I finally found my bike as well. Lucky escape.

The second race was plain and simply over due to – yeah, you know it, and it is not worth describing. Frustrated and disappointed we drove home through the Baltic states. A day of feeling jet lagged was in the plan, but then it was back to basics.

Since, then I've tested and experimented with things cycling wise and there may soon be some good news on the professional front as well. More on that later though.

The rollercoaster continues

After two weekends of racing, it was again time to recover for two days and thus, refresh and replenish. It went fairly ok except that I never really felt refreshed and replenished. Nonetheless, I had good time visiting the terrain of WUC 2014 again and as a matter of fact, after the mountains I've done in across the border that hill felt... say reasonable. Then it was time for another high end session to prepare for the weekend of racing. It was good, and hard – maybe too hard I thought initially. However, retrospectively I don't think that was the case.

So on saturday morning we drove to Chudoslavice for Force Cup (Czech equal for the Finnish Skoda cup). A long race with one sharp climb in the beginning of the lap, which was supposed to be completed 15 times. My race was over within minutes of the start, but I managed to hang on for couple of laps in total. In fact, some people may know the feeling when you see the course, take a bit of warm and unconsciously (or consciously) understand that DNS would perhaps be the best of options. It is just ridiculous. But this should be no surprise, I hate criteriums – because I suck in them - and the race was ridden like one. 

For that there is a valid reason, which I can explain at some point - and most likely will do so. However, I'm not gonna promise that it is understandable, because despite having studied it myself – I'm relatively uncertain of my own understanding. In essence, I'm allergic to combine harvesters (Finnish: leikkuupuimuri), even if it was a John Deere. That is to say, that when the harvesting is on going – I'm again stuck with my asthma.

So, there I was standing in middle of the Czech conti and top end amateur teams waiting for the gun go off on conditions that suited me like... In Finnish I'd say: ”sopi kuin jalka paskaan., which means, in short, that even starting was questionable. There we went up the hill, and my ventilation got stuck within minutes of the start and that was it. It was one of those races, where you hope that a break will form and peloton will slow. I was so glad to see the big break going almost from the start, but it was too big and the riding continued like in crits – full gas or coasting. Surely not my piece cake and a sod DNF as a result. Also they ride these races here in a way, that likely leads to such fashion of racing.

The uncertainty took place and I was a bit moody on the way back. Amongst all the loathing I did discover something that could provide helpful. This race actually confirmed my suspicion of the harvesting seasons, which is dull. However, the feeling of hardness to breath during warm up seems symptomatic, which is good info. Anyway, we decided that I would start the next day again despite the apparent problems. And so we go to racing again.

The course was easier and field smaller, but still there was some good racing going on. On the first of six laps, I found myself in a lone break, which was taken down quite quickly. Then there were other lone breaks. Eventually, the race was decided in a finishing break of three guys (myself included) – the break was formed in manner that I don't agree with at all. It was rather embarrassing. Struggling with my lung function, my breakaway companion left on a hill and then it was a lone time trial to the finish. I was second, on the podium, and happy. Despite the hindrance, I managed myself well and rode a good race.

The events have been great. The atmosphere is enjoyable. The organization is superb in general. Racing is tough. And then a word of event sponsoring and prizes. They are handled generously and the prizes have varied. I'v had one trophy, t-shirt, pens, cheque for bike shop, cash, coffee cup, Birell non-alcoholic beer (which my mum took), Svijany special beer (which my dad took), a cake (which will be shared once team arrives here) and a shower handle – yes surely and certainly!

Then again, it has been about recovering for the UCI races in southern Poland. The temperature is on the rise, and it is not gonna be easy by any means. Hotness in combination with harvesting season puts on a question mark and all I can do is to give my all and try to be wise.

Czech rollercoaster.

I am writing this blog from Poland, from our accomodation in a village called Swieradow Zdroj (Yeah, I can't pronounce it) about my racing experiences in Czech after the U6 in Sweden. If you are confused, I reached my target. I like to begin with something at least mildly confusing. The reason for being in Poland, in addition to the fact that I like Poland, is simple - it is actually black and white, and it is called washing machine. That's why. Though, during my training rides I'm most likely to visit the Czech. Either way, I sleep in Poland, but have raced in the Czech Republic.

Now having clarified that, take another cup of coffee and read on.

Before going to the actual content, the racing here. I'd like to thank the organising parties of the races. Their heartful helpfulness and kindness. has made my racing actually possible since I don't really speak Czech. Ok, admittedly I know a word here and another there. For example, snidania is breakfast, indyka is turkey, and Pepsi Max is well, it is what it is. Having said that, that was basically all the polish I can speak and my Czech language is worse. So, I might have to even apologise to organisers a bit. There I've been, a Finnish fella stupidly standing with the license and some cash wanting to race. The rest has been up to the organisers to sort.

So, after U6 in Tidaholm I drove down to Wisla, Poland with my family. Wisla may ring a bell to some sports fanatics and it should. There is a Finnish coaching connection in there. There is a winter sport in, which you load speed, time your jump and have a majestic flight to make the perfect landing – ski jumping. There was a guy from Wisla, who was pretty darn good at the sport. His name was Adam Malysz – a legend of the sport. His legacy is apparent in Wisla, countless hills and juniors training.

And now the racing bit. First up were the Czech open national champs for amateurs in time trial in Dobratice. The course was an undulating and twisty one – a really enjoyable and challenging one. Despite the ever increasing temperature, +37 at the time of the rice, I had a real solid ride. Not a blast, but very good. As we all love explanations, here comes mine: my Argon is in Finland – hence, I was second. Honestly, I don't think it was all the difference on such course. One guy was just better on the day. Then we drove back to Wisla.

Second up was the open nats on road in Moravka. I ran out of adjectives whilst I tried to describe the route. It was simply amazing. Three lengthy laps with a small climb of couple kilometres and a certain bump to climb to finish. Well, not exactly a bump, more a mountain. The mountain goes by the name of Lysa Hora, the highest in Moravia actually. I rode a strongly, until I came to a complete stop. The climb to finish line was a total of 23km and the last 8km averaged around 9%. I believe, since I can't remember, that my stoppage was something like four or three before the line. I had the most epic of bonks for a while, I just slowed to a walking pace and crawled the remainings. It was an experience as such, but an educated guess (aka. My very own) suggested that it was due to dehydration and hungerflat. It is also highly within possibilities that heat exhaustion played its part very well. The temperature rose to above +40 on the hill. It was a case of snap, crackle and pop from my body. It just stopped and suddenly I was ridiculously slow. I'd laughed at myself, but wasn't able to. I don't really know what I could have done differently though and it took the best of three days to recover.

Next weekend, a week ago, I raced in a hilly (or maybe even mountainous) local race in Jablonec nad Nisou. A total of 92km included more than 2km of climbing over 12 climbs. The parcours was an absolute beauty. And after all, it was one hell of a race at the end. Rapid start, some high quick downhills, tough climbing, broken 53 chain ring, struggling on high cadence, a winning break, and lost it all in the sprint to the line and finished second and had the second podium of the season. I rode a strong race all aspects considered, but in the end it wasn't quite enough. Though, I have to say – it could have been.

Either way, that's it for this part. There is a part two coming up in a day or two, to duplicate the entertainment value. Also I'd guess that quite a lot of people may already have a hunch of what the next part is about. I dunno yet, though this promise is easy to keep since I have already done the typing. And having seen the amount of photos, I can already promise photo update (or perhaps updates) as well. Stay tuned.

Summer greetings.

The recovery wasn't straight forward. The crashes were followed by numerous and various issues hindering the progress. Asthma, illness, cold, asthma and so it goes on.

I'm not gonna go too much into depth of my races have been, most of them sucked and big time until lately. As the U6 stage race flowed forward in Tidaholm, I started to find some form day by day, but again with one exception. On friday's road stage, I utterly failed with my asthma medication and hence, my race was done. The time trial next day was sign of things to come, a solid performance for once.

Now I'm in Poland and have continued my racing spree in Czech. Tomorrow is the next one. Last weekend, I had my first races here. Those were the amateur nationals in which I finished second and 15^th. Either way, those races do earn their own bit of text since they were something I've harly ever experienced on bike!

Things are now well and good, and I'm progressing to finish my season on a high.

Recovery

It has been relatively frustrating two weeks since the accident in Turku. Not only the accident, but also my missing of the Scandinavian race tour. Admittedly I was on tour in Denmark as a team manager and jack-of-all-trades-guy. After I managed to get through my responsibilities of managing our great team and, most of all, driving with the convoy, I can only respect of the professionals – riders and staff. It was one hell of a job. Either way, we had numerous punctures and some crashes, which meant some work in the car.

I believe our team had a good trip to Denmark. Guys got loads of quality kilometers in big bunch and we had several guys finishing the races (which was target number one). Next year, we shall be stronger and fight more for the positions – ain't that right guys?

This week I've got back on my bike slowly, actually really slowly without slightest exaggeration. Believe it or not, one can ride bike or even Wattbike without the problem of sweating. It only takes some tricks and adjustments.

Here is a list of few:

-Accurately positioned fans

-Shorts without suspenders

-Perfectly cut base layer

-Couple feet of sports tape

-Bunch of Tena Ladies

Despite all, I haven't actually managed to do anything I would count as training. I'd perhaps call it riding bikes. Other than that, I have replanned the season, cleaned my room and other productive stuff (well, more or less). Actually more so, if I leave the hours spent browsing Ebay or other web store aside.

The stitches are to be cut off next week and I can get back to the real stuff. In fact, it is all good.

Another setback

The biggest disappointment hit me yesterday as I had the wound on my pelvis operated and found out that there will be no racing for me in Denmark. Nor will there be training for at least two weeks. We tried to make it ok for racing, but afterall racing now could lead to more serious problems and so on. Despite the disappoinment, I am travelling to Denmark with the guys. My role switched to supportive side.

There is no point in telling what is wrong or went wrong. The wound just got bad, and in all likelyhood it would only get worse by continuing riding.  It was a case of location and bad luck. Better to concentrate on replanning the season from now on.

I think that it has been slighty unlucky spring.

Taking another tumble

Down and out. I'm okay, kind of. My bike is not, definitely not. Well, second time on the line and second time down on tarmac. This time though it was more on the heavier side when it comes to crashing. Nonetheless, the good thing is that after a quick visit to hospital, I was on my way home. After a bit of bike inspection, which – by the way – was depressing, I'm lucky to be at home despite the rashes and aches. My bright yellow Vittoria helmet saved seriously lot, and now I need a new one. People, helmets are for good, and wearing them is also for good.

I've had a good, solid week of training leading up to the finale of the block, which was meant to be the race today at Turku. And as already told, it turned out to be a grande finale with less positive tone. However, I felt pretty good all day leading to the start. In the start, I felt good and the race was on. I rode well and again, felt good. Suddenly, I was down and quite being honest, didn't feel so good any longer. Racing accidents happen, although I hope I've taken mine now.

The major disappointment was the lack of first aid. I note, that I was not really in need of any special attention. The main issue to me was the first aid kit. I and other rider went to ask for first aid, they found a wallet sized kit with practically scissors and plaster. Also, when asked for a location to go, as in a hospital, the answer was along the lines ”Yah, we do have them in the city”.

Yesterday, I stood on the side, whilst there was some bike riding going on in Turku. I did not even plan to ride in the first place, so nothing drastic there. I'm planning to test myself and my ability to ride bikes properly this evening. The crash and disappointment hit me big as I've really been looking forward the races in Denmark and this, by any means, was not the preparation I had planned for. Now I'm asking questions, if my good to ride rather than how is my form. I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Taking a tumble

Picking some adjectives to describe the Finnish season opener held in Pori would be nervous, uneasy and disorderly – to say a few. I think I'm safe in stating I was not the only feeling that way. Nonetheless, first race is now done and I hope we have gotten the most fumes out.

The course was easy and weather wasn't a factor either. Those factors combined with the delightfully big pack of riders made a quick race. As an unwanted side it provided some serious crashes and tumbles during the race. We had a plan, which we all agreed upon. It seemed to work quite well, as the team was present in major moves and breakaway attempts. However, due to the aforementioned factors made the formation of a serious break practically impossible and as we went for the last lap, it was pretty much apparent that the race would be decided in a sprint to the line.

I made a smallest of gaps after last roundabout at 80km point, but never got far. Initially, it wasn't meant to be an attempt, but more taking the bunch to speed to avoid attempts. Then it all happened quickly, as it always does. I dropped a few positions into the bunch to recover for a moment and made space for our guys on their way to the very top positions in the bunch. It was touch and go. Myself and dozen others were down testing the tarmac. I survived remarkably unscratched, except my left hip, which took a hit. My walking looks funny and isn't easy for the moment – nothing too bad. And yes, the bike is fine! One guy from IK-32 took a serious hit and was left unconscious after the accident. Luckily, one of our guy, Pete - paramedic, was there and he took professional care of the situation until official race crew was there. Hats off! After all, Jouni came out with a broken jaw. So needless, but could have been a lot worse.

My race was over and I rolled to the finish to hear that we had a podium to begin with. Saku sprinted to third, but wasn't satisfied as: ”I had the legs to win!” Either or, to me there was more positives in our effort, and easy fixes can be found to take another step forward. Personally, I managed my race satisfyingly. Although, a slight disappointment was my missing of the finale – such things happen. My legs weren't nor good or bad, which was good after some hefty week of training. I'm quite happy after all, except my hip hurts and really looking forward for race to come.

Something new just behind the corner.

I can not say that one is about to take a step to the unknown just because the racing season begins – as I have done some races over the years. However, this season I'm in a new kit and with a team, which complements the header nicely. I'm meant to say that now the road racing serves some purpose instead of hunting promising breaks. It doesn't say that I'm done with my beloved hunt a breakaways, but it says that the hunt serves as part of a plan rather than a lone quest for luck.

Putting the commencing racing calendar aside, training has got back on track – well, more or less so this week. I've felt decent on my bike, despite the torrential weathers. Now, I'm not exaggerating, but during my last three training rides, I've taken four hail storms with some heavy rain as a sideorder. It has been, eh, a little too much for my liking. Nonetheless, the planned volumes have suffered. On the other hand, there has been some pretty intense efforts of getting the hell away from the storm. So, we are in balance.

Besides the training, I've been busy making plans and what I've discovered that I'm brilliant in making open plans without conclusion. So not a lot to go on about. Simultaneously, my father (aka. coach) has left me with total freedom when it comes to training as there is not so much in the plan but riding enough with occasional bursts of going hard. We will get back to the drawing board, when the races with a capital 'A' come closer. So far so good.

It is not that he has left me just riding. He has taken a bit of an engineering project with my equipment. I'm not saying building a bike, because it hasn't been that simple. I'm saying engineering, because I can put a bike together, but what he has been doing, quite honestly, is way, way out of my league. What this all means is that my time trial rig is under total reconstruction for this season and it is turning out to be a beauty with some amazing details. As much as I love my new team Felt, I love my Argon – I just can't wait to hit some time trials on it.

Combination of feeling unwell and frustration – and the consequence?

Pretty counterproductive, produces outright shitty feelings, causes unusually high consumption of dark chocolate and coffee – this all among other things. Leaving this exaggeration aside, I caught a stomach bug in middle of our team training camp and have not really trained since, which in other words means a period of roughly two weeks. At worst, my stomach was like balloon and I had fever. Now, I'm just bit sloppy and body feels sensitive for pretty much everything.

The camp, or the five days of it, was at least ok(ish). Nothing spectacular, but nothing too bad. However, an educated guess would say that the illness to come could have caused some symptoms already earlier. It was what it was, and now it is what it is. All I can do now is to increase the load and keep my head down and work to get things back to normal.

I was sort of hoping to make this post include plenty of joy, sunny pictures and so on. Yet, it does not. Anyway, the form was building nicely, and I believe the same trend to replace this momentary uncertainty after a while.  

Overall development

Third period of base training is just underway after a week of rest and recovery. Not quite total rest and recovery, but this time almost. I chose to exaggerate the resting week, because it is only the day after tomorrow that I'll hop on a plane to Alicante for the second training camp with the team.

Last block was solid – to the plan and no problems whatsoever. This is the way (knock knock, some might say or do). The block was highlighted by the skiing event, which was one heck of an experience as I wrote. Also, I managed to do my road season opener in the Finnish (or what was left of it) late February and actually managed well – a snap over five hours. As a conclusive remark, all the skiing, indoor training and on the bike outdoor stuff was effective in terms of overall development. Here I am tempted to refer to my profession as I want to elaborate on overall development.

--- If not interested in more thoughtful stuff, skip here ---

Ok, here we go. This is an extremely brief intro.

Training, whatever the sport, is not just about completing the planned activities. Obviously, it is more than. In addition to physiological response and development, training usually influences people in many aspects. Say, you complete a 3-week block of base training with something new added into it. After three weeks, one does inherently an analysis whether the training has worked or not. The keyword is the analysis: what did you plan to do, did you do it, how was it, what was good, what wasn't so good and the list goes on. Once answered sufficiently to the questions you are willing to ask yourself – learning can happen and future development benefited.

Secondly, training in cycling is often considered practically physiological. But it is not, it has a great impact of psychology. A good block of training can facilitate self-confidence, self-regulation, mental toughness and again, the list goes on. A good block of training should make a psychologically stronger athlete as well as enable physiological development.

--- Back to usual stuff ---

Why did I want concentrate on overall development? Simply, because I felt that the last block of training taught me lots. I experimented with new stuff, and found bit that shall be included in my training in the future. I also found stuff, that perhaps weren't that effective. Thus, re-testing before totally discarding is required after a bit of modification. Psychologically, I believe I learned bits and bobs. And as mentioned, physiologically it was good. This all makes the second block of base training satisfying and I am eager to begin the third block of the season.

I was planning to add photos to this update. However, as lengthy as this is, I don't want to make it any longer. And as I am not anykind expert in selfies or -elfieswith any letter in beginning, finding photos is tough and there is hardly any space on my memory card to save any selfies.

Not just another race report.

As I've mentioned in social media, I have – in seriously exaggerating terms – conquered other endurance discipline than cycling. It was crosscountry skiing, and it was a week ago. And yet, I don't think my shoulders have recovered, but that is already different story.

My team mates brought up the event, Hyvinkää hiihto, just in a middle of a general discussion and as I have been planning to participate in such mass event – I kind of took the bait. Main reason being that Hyvinkää was near and the date was suitable.

So, the weather on Sunday was clear, but windy with temperatures in slight minuses. I had also learned from Ville, a team mate of mine and a wizard in ski waxing, that in xc-skiing picking the right pair of skis and the perfect ski preparation is a key to success. Therefore, I spent my Saturday doing careful testing of different types of skis, ski waxes and the perfect grind. I think I found one. I picked the skis and prepped them with care for Sunday. After all, the choice was relatively easy. I picked my classic skis with the zero base, because they are my only skis.

On the morning of the event, I saw bunches of keen skiers prepping their skis with passion all around the start area and I didn't have to. Then, I went to the start and after first few kicks and pushes I made one heck of a discovery. My skis didn't glide too well, but they did so forwards and backwards, which wasn't such a pleasure to discover in a classic style event. I couldn't help, but laugh – and yes, but to do a raw push for the entire 40km distance.

The course wasn't so bad for such style. Not perfect, but not bad. The only thing is with a roughened base, the skis just don't work as they should for such style. So there I was, trying to glide with skis, that don't glide – hard it was. Nonetheless, I did my two laps of the course and finished the event anyway. I had good time, and I got what I wanted – good training and mass event experience.

To wrap this all up. I participated, I finished and for the next event I need to change my ski guy, in other words some expertise could help. So, the conditions and skis were against me, and me, my technique and condition was somewhere between terrific and amazing. What I'm saying is that the skis took my chances of having skiing event of my life. And in fact, that is not true. I had the event of my life, as I've never done one before and I learned lots. The importance of skis, position in the group, conditions and so on. Now, what you should learn from this never to blame yourself for unsatisfying performances – it is the equipment, conditions or someone else. And yes, I am just kidding.

About having courage to ride slow.

Riding slow, and now in terms of personal ability, has been pretty hard for me. Now I feel that I have somewhat succeeded in accomodating riding slow in my training to create polarization into my training. One hell of sentence of pretty much nonsense, wasn't it? Surely though, I've been missing that in my training. I learnt it during my first training camp with my new team.

Many of you may have noticed that I changed teams during the off-season. I'm proud to be riding for Finnfalz-Rush Racing and Cyclo Vision from now on. The reasons behind that were multifaceted, but simply put – it just felt the time to make some changes. Major contribution was thanks to my target and the apparent switch of them. I, consciously or not, kind of faded with my track cycling aspirations and fell for road events (with the great exception of criterium racing). The exact targets are taking their form slowly but definitely

So, I spent nine glorious days in Alicante with my new team and wrapped a good block of training in the warm sunshine in amazing company. The blokes are known as Kalle, Saku, Henri and Teemu. Don't ask for kilometres ridden, as that number is ridiculously low. If you want to ask for something, please ask for hours or vertical meters – that doesn't require exaggeration or an endless flow of explanations from me. And besides I told you, that I tried to ride slowly, eh? And hence the preference for counting hours rather than distance. Ok, this was explanations already, but I believe I came to a rather unclear point of what we did. We rode a lot, climbed a lot and consumed a coffee a whole lot (which is not the point though). Quality training time just as planned. And now at home – quality recovery time.

This blog, as apparent, became one pretty messed up flow of thoughts. A sort of brainfart as some could easily call this. I'm happy, if you understood this all. And even more happy, if you enjoyed reading it all. Welcome to my world.

Some photos by the crew:

Port de Tudons after some hill efforts

Font Roja

Espresso Solo at Relleu

Panorama from Font Roja

Riding along with Henri

New steps

Here is a brief recap since the racing season: I've worked, I've trained, I've done bit of planning, I've graduated, I've learned to like XC-skiing, I've considered almost all endurance events on two wheels sort of seriously (not really).

However, admittedly this blog on its current form is not actually what I'd like it to be anymore – I don't really know why - and thus, it is time to give it a fresh start now. I guess there are some reasons other that just ignoring this, which I've tried to first clear myself. Now that I understand those things myself (partially, at least), I can elaborate on them.

The big thing can be found from the short and particularly informative sentence: 'I've graduated'. The late blog was about being student-athlete. As much I'd like to be still one, as it would mean being bit younger than I am. As a disclaimer, I'm not exaggerating of being old now. I'm happy to have graduated and now it is time for new challenges. Riding has been tough during this so called winter. So there is generally not a lot to say about it. Still, things have notably changed as I have joined a new team. Now, I am happy and excited to ride for FinnFalz RushRacing during next season.

More about all this riding, target, goal, challenge stuff in the blog though. Stay tuned.