The night-o series Kurko-Cup ended last week in snowy conditions and the hectic autumn is ending in any case. At the very moment (6.30 AM...) I am sitting at the office and starting the last workday before holiday, or in my case, before my training trip to Israel. For couple of times I 've been thinking if there is any sense with my breathtaking timetables and neverending stress, but I have now come to a conclusion: you can push on hard work for a day or two without negative effects on training, but I don't want that to become a habit. Since I have been able to execute almost all my daily plans, I consider that I have taken my first tiny step to handle with recovery.
Yeah, training is good. Both physical and technical preparations are now done. Physically I've done quite a lot running and some strength training, and technically I've been working with the terrain-analysis and o-thinking models. Basics are now done and over, and it's time to enter the real training phase. In Israel I have excellent conditions to do that stuff, without work- and studying stress.
I have no crazy plans (Guy's plan above looks maybe a bit crazy!) and I'll try to keep the speeds down in the basic trainings. The number of close-to-race-speed -trainings will rise to weekly 3-4 for the TC, but I'll do them so that it won't make me feel too tired. Meaning that I won't do too much training near lactate threshold and will use interval-type of trainings in order to maintain fast leg speed. And for this camp, I will make a come-back to the world of total heart rate monitoring. After a 6-month break in using HR monitor, it's interesting to see how my HR is in trainings, nocturnal recordings and in orthostatic reaction tests. Actually I've done, despite the daily rush, "pro-stuff" quite right lately: visits to physiotherapist, "human repairer" and ordinar massager. I counted yesterday that I am using some 450€ to these things monthly.
Team Finland's 1000€ for massages etc. and financial support for training-camps is nice addition for my athletics, but you always need own supporters as well. Especially now, when my situation is changing. My club, Vaajakosken Terä is of course important and for Terä's support I will work with our Skill School -project through the winter. Some of the negotiations are still in progress, but I can already thank Kyösti Kakkonen for support, and Veijo Mononen for making that possible. I appreciate. Noname will continue for sure and that's a great thing! As I said, couple of other things are still in progress, so I'll inform about them later. Finally, I want to thank Anttolanhovi for the great and long lasting friendship during the years!
Most likely small news will pop-up from Israel every now and then and at least training-diary with the maps will be updated as frequently as possible. Now it's time to wish you all a Nice Christmas and Happy New Year!
PS. Hopefully the snow-situation eases in Israel. My skiing training hasn't yet started, so I might be slightly slow in the first ski-o sessions. See Guy's photo from Israel on Monday below...
