Back in Edinburgh.

Holiday times are more or less over now. This blog, is written from my cosy sofa next to Easter road stadium. Edinburgh seemed the same as I left it. Gym at CSE was still there. And I managed my way around Sainsburys – despite the magazine shelf had moved.

The camp in Spain carried on a very positive note until the very last couple days. One day I bonked – quite totally and after that I never recovered. The overall load was high as expected, but resulted in temporary overload (or overreach) as became rather clear when I got to Finland. As a concluding remark, the camp was good; riding, riding and riding until I couldn't do it anymore. The end just came two day too early.

Our flight to Finland was on 23^rd – not a single day too late. Over Christmas I just tried to relax and rest the overload away (and acknowledgedly, eat it away). Either way, after Christmas I slowly got back to training, which went okay from the beginning. To my great surprise, I found myself running and what made the surprise even greater was the fact that I didn't hate it. And after two miserably slow runs, I actually found that I liked running – only to some extent, though. To be clear, there are no plans whatsoever of changing sport, definitely not.

Then came the new year, which ended up being the most memorable. I spent with some good friends to begin with. We had quality time with the guys – training first, then having a good dinner, and having good time. That night I met someone very special, who turned my life around quite a bit – if not totally.

Training is starting to get proper again after taking a careful couple of weeks with the temporary overload. The weather here is fairly unpredictable and with all the uniwork, we decided to do some more intense stuff to wake up the power a bit, which we haven't really done for ages. In fact, it all started today with at test. It is unbelieveable how nervous can one be about couple of minutes on turbo trainer – I was comic more than anything. A grown-up bloke staring at the bike almost shaking – way to go, eh? Anyway, the test was eventually done and done okay. Nothing was really in our expectations, but just to clarify a baseline for the coming weeks' workouts. Now we have it, and I'm relieved the test is done. I mean, it seems just a personal issue I have with tests. The tests just stress and thus, annoy the heck out of me – without a rational reason.

But hey, it was a solid start after what was a little worrying time with my physical recovery. We are taking steps to the right direction again - leading towards the racing season and graduating with a MSc degree. Busy months to look forward to.

Train, eat, sleep.

Back in Edinburgh, the first semester was good and best of all – I've managed to hand all my work in. Autumn was enjoyable, but also tough at times with training commitments and uniwork. Too bad, I didn't really have time to explore the beautiful city of Edinburgh.

Early morning on 30^th November it was time to catch a taxi – to airport. Before noon the plane touched down in my beloved Torrevieja area to wrap up my 2013. Here I've got to follow the precious mantra. As it is, life on a training camp is quite very simple: train, eat sleep.

Let the photos do the talking, say no more.

First things first!

Monte Hurchillo

'5 down, 20 repeats to go'

'20 down, 5 repeats to go'

Tourism in Alicante. (I spent that time somewhere in rural and remote)

The way is up there.

A hairpin.

Giddiap!

"Anna juomaa!" - Mum always provides the best of services.

Puerto de La Carrasqueta

Uphill finish at Font Roja.

Cheers!

Empty jar of peanut butter.

Last time I wrote excitedly about how we gonna try out some things, but now, lets say, the excitement has been overrun with sheer frustration. I was feeling good after some test runs and we though: 'OK, lets see what we can do by adding a bit of a power block into mix for the races...' It did start well. Too well maybe? Then, I dunno if it was my mistake or just plain bad luck, I started to feel sore throat and cold. It may be that we took it too deep and I became vulnerable for a cold. It also may be that I simply caught it by a chance. Either way, this sucks. The races are looming and I'm lost in the good old middle ground. You know – you feel okay, but not perfect, but then on the bike you are way out of it. In a way, I would happily (not that happily really, but that's entirely different story) rest it away, but the as said the races are looming and we once made a decision to throw in a bit of specific training and see how it goes.

Then again, if you can't do it. Don't necessarily try. Like in many card games the early wins and gains, may prove to be significant losses at the end. I'm tempted to do some rethinking of the near future, as it may not simply make any sense to keep on digging the power, which currently is not there. It's kind of like empty jar of peanut butter – you just keep scratching the bottom hoping to maybe find some left overs and at the same time realize that there isn't any. Still pretty much similar solution goes for the training and the peanut butter. And there are always new races to look forward to – and it is not likely that Sainsbury's would run out of peanut butter. Also, if necessary you can replace the peanut butter with, for example, rasberry jam. Training wise, do what you can do rather than keep desperately trying hit the powers. In short, we are talking about adaptability and flexibility.

To follow my own guidelines I'm gonna make sure the peanut butter is really empty and replace it with jam. Then, do my mobility exercise plus uni work for the rest of the day or days, which helps with my training in the future. Still, this sucks. It is such a beautiful day and I can't do what I'd like to. But that's thinking in real short term. To keep things realistic, I do like to remind myself of the bigger picture and my long term plan – and dream big.

Ethiopian espresso and daydreams.

Ain't that something? Sitting on a cosy leather sofa in dim light at a back of Starbucks watching people hurrying with cardboard cups. You, yourself, just daydream and sink deeper to the soft sofa with a venti-sized cup of fresh steaming Americano made of Ethiopian espresso. That really is something. However, tomorrow it will be over, no longer time for that. In other words, recovery week is just about to be over, time to get back work.

Although, I'm not saying that this week has all been about such times. Definitely not, I've been following my gym program combined with some class rides and not to mention the uni work. It is a lot of reading, a lot and a bit more. I'm trying to scratch my head around the academic reading all the time I have the concentration. Luckily, so far I've been doing quite well and the first assignment is 99,9% ready to be handed in next Tuesday. Plus, I'm working on another one already. Gotta stay committed.

In training I've had mainly normal if not good days, except last Saturday. That day I found myself just about to cry on the road side by the Haddington hill. I was supposed to do some efforts up, but as it turned out – I didn't manage a single one. The three weeks were heavy in my legs and I was drained from the day before, which was one of the good ones. Hope the good ones keep coming. There is always, of course, the exception of the bit of bench pressing Steve makes me do (for a sound reason, no arguments). It doesn't make me miserable, but I suck at it. Though, I can honestly admit that by no means am I the same guy at the gym anymore that I used to be, when it comes any of the exercises. I guess there is, once again, the undeniable truth to be faced: if you don't do it, you lose it. What is more important to remember, that you deliver on bike counts. On that domain, we are doing okay.

In the next block there will be something bit different going as there are some races coming up in couple weeks time. The initial idea was to keep the training as it is, and compete with the form whatever it might be on the day. We figured out that it might be worth giving something different a go at this time after some test runs. At the time of writing I'm not fully aware of what's to come, but I look forward to it. It might (hopefully) shake things up, we'll see. They are not such high priority races, so now it is a good time for some experimenting. As the races, in near future nor further away, are not quite set yet, I can't give a full heads up on them. Stay tuned!

PS. That was quite some writing about really nothing but an ordinary week. Thanks if you managed this far!