Here We Go Again

It's about time to break the radio silence here. Training for the season 2014 has begun and the goals been set. I'm really looking forward to the coming race season! For now, I'll be spending a lot of time in this scenery:

Espoonlahti swimming pool

Cyclocross trails nearby

Esport Arena indoor track

Early Season Testing

Last season was the longest I've ever done before and quite honestly I was already feeling it a little when preparing for Hawaii. After Kona I really needed to take it easy for while. I planned to take two weeks completely off but just as I was getting back in the saddle I caught some bug which kept me out for another week. Following that I did four weeks of random exercising, nothing pre-planned, just doing what I felt like doing and when I felt like doing it. On the last week, for some reason, I felt like doing some benchmark testing in the form of Cooper's test, CSS test and Allen & Coggan's FTP test. I was surprised how well I had kept my fitness despite this very easy period. Here are the results:

Cooper: 3620m

CSS: 1:35 min/100m

FTP: 3.86W/kg (313W)

Only the FTP test showed a significant drop from the peak (4.4W/kg) it had reached during the summer. This is, however, quite easily explained by the little to no riding after Hawaii and a couple of kilos gained since then. In addition, even that result is on par with the one from last year from the same time so I'm not too concerned. I intend to improve, though, so I better get to work. The Cooper's result on the other hand was a clear improvement from last year's result. The swim then? Well, it is what it is, pretty much always the same.

In terms of CTL, Chronic Training Load, that I'm tracking in TrainingPeaks log with all of my training, my fitness declined from 116 to 63 during the down time. By the end of this period I felt my hunger for training coming back and I laid out a preliminary race plan for the season, next two seasons actually.

Star Navigation Towards 2015

While I feel I have some unfinished business in the Big Island, I won't most likely return there next year. There are a couple of reasons with the bigger one being the money the trip requires. It's hard for me to justify using our family's savings chasing my dream. The other reason is that again almost all qualifying races are sold out and I don't want to do just some race. The qualifier should also fit into my other race plans and interests. Therefore, I've decided to make a two year plan with the North star being Kona 2015.

My A-priority races for 2014 will be Finntriathlon (half-iron Finnish championship in July) and Ironman Mallorca in September where I will try to already secure my ticket to Hawaii for the following season. In addition, I'll put some more effort in having a good race in 70.3 Mallorca in May as it serves as a good rehearsal for both, the September's full distance race on the same course and my 2015 season opening race, Ironman Lanzarote, which is held roughly at the same time.

Between the two visits to the beautiful Balearic Island of Mallorca next summer, I have planned to race mostly in Finland as we are finally starting to have some decent races here as well. Having said that, I am intrigued by the 70.3 race in close vicinity to Nagoya, Japan, where I fly quite often. I could just get the Finnair direct flight out and back and have the trip done in 4 days. And of course there is also the relocated 70.3 World Championship race in Mont-Tremblant, Canada, in early September. With that, however, I'd be pushing my budget and schedule. Let's see how things will pan out. Finally, I'd like to finish the 2014 season with a clean marathon. You know, without the rather long "warm-up" that I'm accustomed to. There's one in Frankfurt that fits the picture…

As I said, 2015 will begin with Ironman Lanzarote which is a notoriously hard race and has on many occasions been cited as one of the hardest iron-distance races there is and it's also one of my bucket list races. I'm already looking forward to it! Another race from that list that I've planned to do in 2015 is Challenge Roth. These two races should have me ready come October.


So this is my project 2015. Let the preparations begin!