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.

Season memories – Chapter III

Coming back to Finland and having practically only road miles in my legs and starting the serious study on my dissertation, I simply couldn't prioritize the track champs at all. Admittedly, I had not been in time trial position for ages either. So I did what I could, and rode. Anyway, the weekend was highlighted with a solid team pursuit performance with the guys. Sincere, but late, thanks to Hiski, Janne and Juhana. Well good team! We did a good ride and won the event.

TP start.

Then it was just a matter of slotting in some training whenever I was not studying. In the mean time, I managed a weekend off everything normal at Levi. There I was with my road bike and friends from my skiing times. One seriously good weekend! We rode a bit of hills on the first day and then chunked in a solid 140+km ride from Levi, to Pallas, to Ylläs and back. After that, it was all back to studying – with some exceptions as in races.

Thursday next week, I did the lengthiest effort so far covering 260km and averaging 35kph. It perhaps wasn't the optimal prep for the 10k time trial and road race in Lieto on the weekend, but there a purpose for it, I promise. In Lieto, I enjoyed a solid time with a sub par performance, which I expected after Thursdays effort. However, a solid time was a reason for happiness as it signalled, that the aerotesting and position tweaks were working and effective.

Warm-up close-up.

On Sunday, I took a sort Devil may care attitude for the race as the course was flat and a sprint finish was expected in the cards. That was because of my sincere lack of sprinting ability just as well. The flat course was challenged on the day by wind though. I jumped to the first break with one other rider. We ever got to 70s at max and were eventually brought back at early stages. I sat on the back and tried to get some energy in. On the feed zone, at the mid point, a large breakaway went and I thoght the race was over. For my surprise (I'd guess not only my), the break never went far and was brought back 20k from the finish. Moments earlier I had decided to give a full go if and once the break is back. It worked and I was away, but struggling, with one guy. We managed to stay away, my companion was signigicantly stronger and I was second - and still struggling. During the race I had problems with nutrient ingestion (read: I tried, but couldn't eat) and hence, the struggle. Such a good weekend overall.

Starting in Lieto.

There was once race left then. A 20k time trial in Säkylä on such a beautiful course right next to lake scenery. I was going well and in control. I had a plan in working. Simple, but effective: Negative splits. In essence, I was spreading my effort by starting smoothly and planning to dig deep after turn. The heavy rain came at 3km in to the race and I punctured (or rather my tub exploded) at 9,8 or so in quite a speed and staying up and control wasn't quite there for a moment. Again, in retrospect, I figured, that I should have skipped any race held in Säkylä. Once my race was ended due a thunderstorm, once I just had the most awful day and now a puncture. Never going there again, just kidding! The season started with a puncture and ended with one – loop closed.

Settling to race pace in Säkylä.

End of Chapter III and the competitive season 2014.