To Salt Lake City

I just had to write a post as I'm on my way to Salt Lake City. Just a while ago I landed to Las Vegas. It was really cool seeing the casinos and the city from the air. And on top of that the desert and the mountains all around surrounding and it was just the moment of dusk and everything showed up in red and orange color. Just astonishing view. And the most surreal feeling to put y foot down in this soil.

So this city actually exists for real and not just in movies and games! Three hour stay but I guess I'll keep myself cool and stay at the airport, gotta see the city on some other trip.

Last time trials at the Pettit

So yesterday concluded the series of time trials at the Pettit Ice center, US olympic training facility. I raced 500 ending with 38,7 and 10,4 opener and after a long time 3000m slowing down to 4.35,29 which still is my record. The videos below hold the first and last 100m of my 500m skating. There are still mistakes that have to be improved, but the way is up.
Especially my corners have taken a huge improvement during this season, for many reasons and now finally it starts feeling like there is some sort of routine noticeable on them.
The 3000m showed the problem now causing every distance to fail, lack of endurance. I may have tolerable physique on bike and by running but my stamina on ice is drained way too rapidly. The technique may have its own part to loss of power, and I admit that, but there is only certain amount you can train on technique and even though I have not reached the top yet (one never does) the skating endurance cannot be disregarded. This side will be fixed during the summer training. Luckily I have been blessed with the best possible coaches I could ever imagine back home in Finland and here in the US.
Next week I will leave to Salt Lake City on Wednesday and the races will begin there on Friday. Video blog coming up when I reach Park city until that,
Stay tuned!

Tempos, Friday off and Harlem Shake

Soooo after a days rest and massage the tempos did not go as I wanted 28,4 and 28,7. But that's life. Tomorrow will be a fast day with 500m race in the morning and then the top moment of the week 3000m.

Today I took part into a Harlem Shake video that is a funny video spreading on the internet with different people making their own versions of getting crazy around certain music. It was some fun time with my skater friends. Making parents proud, here you can find the video, me in a Finnish skinsuit.

Harlem Shake froedtert

No stress Tuesday and tempo Wednesday

After a long and busy January in Finland I felt a need to have a day off from training here in Milwaukee to break down and release the stress that I had built. So I did absolutely nothing for the whole day. What it does for me when I sleep long, eat late breakfast and drink morning coffee until one in the afternoon, is that I get really tired and start spacing out for the whole day which is in a way not such a nice feeling when I'm more used to being sharp from the moment I wake up to the moment when I go back to bed. But I can feel that I really needed a day like that. And okay I had a massage in the afternoon so it was not a complete "sit and stare at the wall" -day.
Today I will do couple of tempos in the afternoon. I tried the complete pilates program composed by a friend of mine this morning taking contrast with the constant flow of movement of pilates to the hard painful workouts that I normally do. And I can tell it is worth it for an athlete to learn how to be super relaxed and feel strong at the same time!

Hah, a dream come true

Ice training twice today with morning technical six lappers easy and then around ten accelerations from 200 to 400m in the evening. And then at the end of the training I got to sit on one of my idols for skating, Shani Davis. He was doing six lappers keeping the laps even so I sat behind him and my Taiwanese skater friend for six laps of 31's.
All the guys here are wondering about my admiration on him but coming from Finland those six laps already made this trip worthwhile. To see and feel how patiently he is able to skate.
Tomorrow will be a day off with massage so Wednesday with tempos is something to look for.

Sunday brings the rest

As always Sunday is a day off from training. I saw yesterday the local AHL team Milwaukee Admirals play against Charlotte Chargers and they lost 8-2 but it was fun seeing live ice hockey first time this year, also there was a local band called REO speedwagon who were big in the 80's performing after the game. After travelling and training few times last week yesterday's race was really good. For the first time after November I found the way to enjoy skating. Just stopped thinking, relaxed and let the flow take over. What came up was the best times on slow ice for this season 38,4 and 1.18,18 which though still 3seconds away from my personal best on fast ice, is still the best time I have skated on slow ice in a while.

Jet lag has caused some loss of sleep but I'm looking forward to the next training week and the tempos and next Saturday's race. I will skate 3000m for the first time in 4 years just to try and prevent my training companion from getting ahead of me in season final races. It is also good warm up for the next week when I will race 10 times during 12 days. First 5 races in Salt Lake City, and then another 5 in Calgary. Have to make sure I eat enough!

I attach a picture from Saturdays 500m to the end. Enjoy the coming Skiing holiday in Finland and see you all my Finnish skater friends in Calgary!!

Gonna do some skating..

Just getting ready to go on the ice. Hopefully You saw the second video blog update yesterday. So today's training is just a race preparation, few laps, few accels and few starts and then done. Racing tomorrow, just wanna feel the flow of good skating today. I've been contemplating on finding the flow from each and every sport and try bringing it to your appearance. There's something in the so-called lifestyle sports like snowboarding, surfing, down-hill biking to be taken into regular team and individual sports. More about this another time, now on with the skating!

Second video blog in.

Sorry for the noise in the background.

Back to training

Okay well it is 4 in the morning so fighting jet lag just a bit. Two ice sessions already behind and the feeling has been quite right. It really feels easy to skate when you get feedback from the ice and it actually slides and the blades behave as they should, curving neatly on both straights and turns. Today some more ice and tomorrow race preparation and races coming in on Saturday! Yesterdays tempos were alright considering the past few days with travelling and little sleep, the fastest lapper was 28,3 so better than when I left in December. Lets just see how the things will be next. Also booked my flights already to Salt Lake city on 27th of February for races between 1st and 3rd of March, flying through Los Angeles so a new airport experience coming in. Then leaving on 3rd to Calgary for the Oval Finales and flying there is a small Tour De America, first from Salt Lake to Portland and then from Portland to Seattle and after Seattle finally landing to Calgary. Getting familiar with American airports, soon visited them more than any airports in Europe. But take care and Happy Valentines day to all my friends!:)

ps. and those who feel lonely, just think it prepares you for the future since sometimes it's even worse to be around people, so if you meet your true loved one tomorrow, think that this might be your last day completely alone- try to cherish that moment and feeling too.

Back in Milwaukee

Long day yesterday first with flight from Helsinki to New York. Then the original flight from New York was cancelled because of bad weather but luckily they rebooked me to a new flight leaving three hours later. Also the new flight left from La Guardia airport and not from JFK international so I got to experience New York rushhour by taxi changing airports. It was a long day staying awake for 26 hours straight but I felt that again it worked and I woke up feeling pretty good at 8. And as always as I had to spend some extra time wondering around I got to meet few good people on the way and chat for a while and learn new things for example about the trading markets in China, how an orchestra leader thinks when he has to prepare for a new performance and what to do if you wish to make it to Broadway musical. Such is life, always something good and new because of things not happening as you expect.

Boot camp pt.2

Sitting at Helsinki-Vantaa airport at the gate where my flight leaves in one hour. The feeling is unreal. Last month was definitely something I hope I won't need to repeat any time soon.
Though ice training was really good with my Finnish coach and skater friends. So ahead of me is a 8 hour flight first to New York which is surviving from snow storm and then transfer flight to Chicago.
Tomorrow will be the first ice day and racing already on Saturday with 500 and 1k.
Last time Milwaukee was filled with completely new things to me but this time I know what I'm getting myself into. So lets see if I'm closer to ape or a man. Can I learn from my mistakes in training...hmm even apes learn so I guess not learning would make me a duck, or a trout. Nonetheless stay frequent for posts from now on for a month!

"Every failure, is one failure closer to success."

First videoblog

First videoblog up! Check it out.