¡Hola, amigos!

What back so soon? I hear you cry (or perhaps groan). Yes indeedy, it may be the sea air sparking my creativity or more likely the opportunity to point out (gloat?) I am in Spain and not enduring the 100 mph guests knocking riders off bikes in the UK.

I arrived a few days ago and have so far racked up 13 hours chammy time and that wasn't all spent sat in cafés! To be honest they are the first few normal days since my accident. It isn't to say I haven't had some great days in the past 8 months but I've always had the feeling that I'd be doing something different had I not broken my neck. Pedaling out of Denia in the January sunshine feels like a return to the norm and it has been like therapy.

It isn't all the same, oh no! This my latest ever start to training having taken 7 weeks off starting mid November due to health issues. In previous years when I have sat it out in the UK until the New Year I have normally been doing some intense work on the turbo along with time in the gym so I arrive in pretty decent shape. This is me totally de-trained and it isn't an impressive site although hopefully it is a healthy one which was my primary aim. I've been the master of 80% for several years due to lack of an off season. What I mean by this is I always maintain a high level of fitness as I'm rarely not training for more than a couple of days which means I can always turn in an 80% performance from January to December however this also means I can't peak and hit 100% (or close to) at any point during the year. One of the things which got me through a 7 week off period was the idea that having a proper rest and subsequent drop off in fitness will allow me to peak properly in the future and achieve the levels of performance i know i am capable of. The concept is sound and well proven (I use it with coaching clients all the time) but I'm a bit s**t at following my own advice. 
Other exciting changes include:

• The opening of my new 'local'. No, not a pub. Café Ciclista brought to you by Train in Spain head honcho John Fegan. It means I only have to do about 300m pre-caffeine weaving before I get my morning hit.
  
• More on the coffee note....a drastic reduction in my caffeine intake (boo!). Bad for the Cortisol y'know. So less in the morning and none in the afternoon.
  
• No power test on the agenda which is normally something I'd chuck in as soon as I arrive in Spain. For those who don't know what a power test is, let me enlighten you. It is 20 minutes of eye ball popping, lung bursting, vomiting educing effort on the bike to see what the maximum wattage you can wring out of yourself at a given point in the season is. This number is then fiddled with to give you training zones to torture yourself with until the next test. For many years this was my sole determination of self worth outside of the competitive arena, not a healthy or helpful mindset and one I don't want to slip back into. There will come a time, when I'm happy that health is restored and I am injury free, that it needs to be done but that is several 1000kms away at this point.
  
• Riding roads I haven't used in ages just for the pleasure rather than because they are ideal for training. Todays grinch up the 'El Mirador' ('the view') is a good example. It is too steep for useful training for a triathlete and their is no chance of pedaling down which means wasted time on the bike. However this is the view from the top. Worth it eh?

So thanks for reading and hope 2015 is treating you well so far. 

Ciao

Ali