The racing season is on.

Quick update of the results from the major races so far:

NC U23 Time-Trial: DNF
NC Omnium: 4th (Disciplines: 1-6-9-2-9-2)
NC Team Sprint: 3rd
NC 1km TT: 1st (Outdoors PB: 1.08.00)
NC Team Pursuit: 2nd

Today I got my first champion's shirt in kilo. I'm simply happy. If someone had told me about this kind of day during the spring I'd have laughed. Back then I was only hoping to get back to my bike. I can't really describe the way to this moment.

We also won silver, and I mean won, in Team Pursuit. Biggest cheer to boys - Juhani, Juhana and Mikael Thanks, it was a real pleasure riding with you guys!

That's what has happened so far. Things are looking good towards Shenzhen.

'Life is the only thing worth living for.' - Chien-Ju

Training day.

'Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.' -Hsin Hsin Ming

Time trialling versus golfing?

After the first very intensive training phase I had couple days to recover and finish up the four week block in pair's time trial Nats. I paired up with Juhani and we enjoyed a good performance in terrible weather. I even had to remove my visor after only 15km, cuz I didn't see a thing which may be hazardous when slipstreaming, eh? The rain maybe slowed everyone down a tad bit, but anyway the winners were clear! Congrats Aki and Mikael. We ended up placing 5th, which we were happy about considering us being total time trial amateurs - or at least I was as the race was only my second during last 7 or 8 years... Long time anyway! All in all, fifth place in 54km ride in 1h15mins wasn't a bad results at all.

Changing shifts. (c) TeeCay

Earlier on the week I also rode my first kilo for a long long time and the performance was pretty much okay. I lacked the top end of it, but managed an easy 71 secs with training wheels, which lead me to conclusion that I'm on the right path. After the time trial I had a long ride, which made altogether 4+ hours before the rest day. And golfing I went. I played nine holes in Kurk Golf with my father in morning sunshine. I managed to birdie one hole and hit couple more decent shots and some worse. Who cares? We both played to the buffer zone, which made a nice round even nicer. In other words I scored 48, which is a decent result for me.

To answer for the headline, I'd say that I like golf, but I better stick on riding my bike. I think it is fair to say that I'm better on my bike than with the clubs. I'm certainly sure that my swing isn't good enough to earn any money... ;)

From now on were approaching the precomp phase of training, and the efforts will become more intense towards the targets. Better rest now to be ready to hit the efforts. See ya on the bike!

'To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.'
Chuang-Tzu

Daily basics.

Since successful trip to Kauhajoki I've been training loads. Loads of efforts are now bagged, but as I see my schedule there are even more waiting for me. Everything seems to be in order at the moment: I'm having good time on my bike, training is going as expected, sun is shining and the doctors told me that my appendix can be removed after season – good news! Some training then:

Besides all the sport related stuff I've started working on my dissertation. It is gonna be very interesting work. Also some of my friends had their grad parties. Congratulations to Victo, Joppe and Tom (the only party invitations I got, cheeeeeers!). Well done boys, as you see, the world is wide open for you now with that bloody cool hat!

As we have gradually increased the training loads on the daily regime, we've noticed that we gotta come out with some recovery methods. So here are some: cold bath (as I don't have a proper one, we filled our rubber boat with cold water), swim or a beer that serves as a special treat – altogether is the best to me!

'Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought' - Basho