Summertime is when biathletes work the hardest, because with the snow is a memory from the past and a goal for the future. They put on the physical and technical work that is needed to excel in the winter months. However, it is not just about training and focusing on the sport during the long and warm days of pleasant weather. Days off are just as important for the body and the mind of an athlete and today, Latvia’s Baiba Bendika is telling us about a very special “rest day” she’s had not long ago.

“Hi, everyone, it's June 27th! My day starts at 7 o'clock, but today I'm happy to wake up, because the first thing I get to hear are birthday wishes! Yap, turning 27 today!

It's actually a special age, because when I was younger I said to myself that when I will be 27 years old, it will be the real moment to succeed and fight with the "stars"… and actually I feel that I wasn't wrong those years ago and I really feel stronger every year!

This should be the day of celebration and rest, but you know, I'm an athlete, so training first!

Plan of the day is to do longer cycling training to finish my home training camp, if you can call it so as mostly I'm training alone! So, hoping that after some hard training weeks my legs will feel good, my plan is to celebrate my birthday with 127 km on bike!

There are not so many special routes in Latvia as it is in the mountains, but I always try to choose the roads where there’s less traffic! And when I cycle at home, there are mostly two ways I go, and part of this route I also use for rollerskiing, so I have done it quite a lot this year, but those uphills feels easier with bike!

Time passed quite fast even riding alone and my legs felt good, so I finished my 127 km training with average speed 27 km/h! Yap, quite a lot 27s for one day!

Next thing for today is packing, because tomorrow I'm leaving to my first mountain camp this season! It's never easy to pack when you have so many things you need to take and this time I have a new challenge: me and my coach need to put all bags and equipment in a regular car, as we two always easily get full a bus! That "constructor" part took more time than I was thinking it would and I was the last one to get to my birthday party!

But I am lucky that my dad is best home cook I know, and he got all food for me, my family and loved ones ready! Dad has not only brought me in sports, but also gave me passion to cooking! So, whenever there are some celebrations at home, dad is the head cook at home and sometimes it feels that he can make something from nothing! But we both don't like to stick to recipes so we both like to improvise with some meat and salads, which were also on my birthday table this time with additional Irish soup! So, it's sometimes hard to name the dish, but we know that it's tasty!

So, finally I could start to celebrate my birthday and spend some time with family before leaving for longer time again! 

Evening biggest action was shooting with arbalest: my godfather took it with himself because he wanted to use my shooting skills to do the zeroing for that arbalest, so it was nice to pop some balloons not just everyday black dots!

And best part of the day was to get my birthday cake! And I'm lucky also in this part, because my grandmother bakes the best cakes in world!

My "real" rest day is tomorrow but except getting massage and taking my sports nutrition for the camp, it will be just a lot of driving and sitting in the car to get to my favourite summer location in Italian alps: Bormio-Stelvio! I really love the mountains and this place is spectacular, and I also like the rollerskiing track and uphill routes there! But most of all, that place bought my heart with marmots, those animals are so cute and funny! That's the place where my little mascot marmot comes from, so it's kinda going home for him!

So, I hope you enjoyed my almost rest day, see you on snow!”

Photos courtesy of Baiba Bendika