Back-to-back training after resting

As I try to think about it right now having a hard time training good. If you can't say anything good then don't say nothing about it.

Those opinions and feelings go somewhere else but not into this blog.
Sooooo, we got back to training after few resting days and as you read last night it was an overkill. Then another workout today without weights or jumping and mainly just imitation and down-time in skating position. Actually about 30 minutes in the position. Tomorrow then a day off and the weekend will be again back-to-back as we train on both days. Hard workouts. Then next week we have another one of those VO2 Max tests here in Milwaukee. So expect some more results from by the end of next week. They have to be better than the previous ones of course. Otherwise I have to start doing something differently.
Oh yeah I measured my thighs yesterday and they've grown more than 2 centimeters in circumference. RAWWWW POWAAA!! I'll be posting a video on some jumps that we are doing at the training that's going pretty well.

Training like this is new and lately I've been more worried about it than excited since, and I'm not lying right now, it feels that each training travels on that fine line that I might walk out from the training with an injury or not. It will pay off for sure but it's scary as hell.

I have to apologize also if these updates lately have been somewhat under the weather but I also know that if I would be smiling and telling you how great I feel every single day, I would not train hard enough or push myself to that limit. As I now notice the mental limit is a lot harder to encounter than the physical, but at least I'm giving it all I have, and I will succeed to drain all that energy out. Fall to the level of an animal just to get it all out, and then come back reborn.

"Mensura hominis quae est potentia" - Plato

The measure of a man is what he does with power. So we'll look forward to seeing where my measure lies at...


- Jarmo

C'est la vie

"They didn't tell this on the course for life!"

Almost ran out of humour today when I was driving home from practice and looked at the clock. After 9 hours of work. Our training took 4hours today. Nice and easy running,jumping and weight lifting. Glad I'm so funny that I can keep my humour up even inside my own head.

So nothing more, nothing less but good night. Tomorrow only 9 hours and 3 hours of training, Jippikajej! "Do the happy dance..do the happy dance"

Los Angeles Memorial Day Weekend

Hello again,

Got back to Milwaukee few hours ago and I'm feeling really happy and relaxed. The trip to Los Angeles was a dream come true. Seeing some of the places in the city and especially skateboarding at the Venice Beach, the birth place of skateboarding, was just an experience I will never forget. Walking by the Pacific Ocean in Malibu and cruising windows open with music cranked up to Beverly Hills and walk on Rodeo Dr. A big thanks goes to my Friend Alex who drove me around and showed me all those places.

I'm keeping this update shorter and going to bed early but I wanted to upload few photos from the trip and share them with my readers. I'm getting back to training on Wednesday but I really needed these few resting days after just cracking myself in two last Thursday peaking the first six weeks of training for this summer.

 The Venice Boardwalk. Skateboarders all around though the boardwalk was banned from skateboarding. Just a cool never-grow old vibe to this area by the sea.

 Sunset in Santa Monica beach.

 That's the Venice by night before heading back to my hostel.

 Chilling in Malibu and walking on the beach with my friend :)

 Rodeo Drive. Designer shops all over the street and Nike World big Nike store which I had to visit!

View from my friends window in the evening before I left.

Too much, too fast, too hard?

Like the headline tells, there's no positive thoughts or posts for today. In a way. Going to Los Angeles tomorrow! Like a dream come true in certain ways. Long weekend because they celebrate The Memorial Day here on Monday.

But then today's agenda. The common mistakes with athletes having a good work ethic, a good coach and the time to train as much as you want are mainly listed in the headline. Well I only have the two first ones... But then what I wanted to talk about is the rhythm of training I'm going in right now and slightly the effects of it. Four days a week, three days off. My coach back home always told me, and I underline him on this one. "Training tired will not produce any benefit, it's more a sign of bad sportsmanship than a proof of your will power." There's a seed of truth to that since what I've been wondering lately is: If you train tired, as every athlete will at some point do, and in a way it IS necessary, but which part of your whole body you're training at that moment?

My guess is the head, the mental strength, the biggest motor behind everything we do. But training tired for mental strength in a race? I'm not going against or for it. So think about this. You're tired from your day job, but you really motivate yourself hard and you're able to make that week to the end and then rest on the weekend. You've trained of getting out of the bed every morning and working until four in the afternoon.

But then take another challenge, what if you're supposed to work over-time on one day without breaks, does it the help that you know how to get yourself out of the bed every morning if you have to push yourself now at this very day? I honestly can't give you an answer.

I find the same thing in sports. You go to the training, you work hard and motivate yourself. You do it the next time too when you're feeling slightly tired. Still when making your way to the practice each time, even when you feel tired and you're giving it again all you've got, does it actually make you stronger in a race? You know how to work when you're tired that's for sure. But do you know how to take everything out of your system and endure that huge pain at the end of race when you're really rested?

This is what I've been thinking lately while going to the training my calves already cramped up and pissed off at the training after the first interval because I can't go as fast as I know I can.

My coach tells that training tired is about training the muscle memory. And I might have to agree, maybe pushing all those movements and all that proper technique to your spinal cord is about training so hard that you take yourself, your head and your current muscle memory out of the game, exposing the nervous system for that impossible task to work in a right manner and work efficiently when pushed to it's knees, and by that making it learn something new, at the moment when you're too tired to hold up any of that internal resistance against your own body.

Now three days off. Thanks for reading.

- Jarmo

Something new and special for a change!

Apologizes for all my international readers! This post is only in Finnish but you can still enjoy the video in the beginning!

I'm just telling about the training right now, sixth week on and I'm getting tired. Next weekend I will have four days off though since I'll go for a visit to Los Angeles. Spend there few days skateboarding and seeing the city. Again coming from Europe visiting L.A. is like a dream come true, it's one of those places you won't even believe to exist until you actually go there.

Right now it's already 9 in the evening, I'm still sitting outside feeding mosquitoes and finishing this update. It has been really warm for the last few days 30 degrees in Celsius. The hottest it might get is around 37 so we're almost there. Luckily there's been a nice breezy wind blowing all the time so it hasn't been too hot and humid!

Making new updates after mini holiday so stay tuned for more exciting stuff!:P 

Post-Training in America

Hello again,

While writing this post I'm sitting in a bath tub taking a hot salt bath. It's supposed to relax the muscles down. Almost done with this week which will be the fifth training week in all. Training is getting quite a bit tougher but I also see myself enjoying more and more at the training while I'm at the limit heart beating over the second threshold and working hard. Training like this allows no slips so it's the arduous daily routine. Up at six, work at seven, train at five and sleep at ten. And eat in between. Week day or weekend. Though now I'm in for a small break from the daily routine as next week's Friday I'll be heading South to Los Angeles. Three days mini holiday. Skateboarding at the Venice Beach and seeing the famous Hollywood signs. My camera will be sweating and I hope I can post some pictures here too from my trip. But before that it'll be four trainings left. That's what rhythms the life now, and I think that's what I needed right now to move forward in my sports, career and in life in general. As with me the bad moments of last week are now only a memory and I'm driving full speed ahead. There's time for highs and lows. I'm dripping sweat here so probably getting done with this bath. Shower and off.

I've heard it's been nice in Southern parts of Finland and a bit cooler up North but keep the overall feeling relaxed and summer will come!

Stay tuned for a videoblog sometime soon!

Far away from home

Friday. Again. Yeah well it is both a curse and a blessing. Time to have few days off from work. Six weeks back and 18 ahead. 18 weeks to train and improve. The other side, 18 weeks to feel the loneliness of being away from everything.


A friend from Finland told me few days ago a good motto to follow up in life. "My home is where my heart resides. And I carry my heart with me all the time." Such you are never away from home. Your home might still be deserted from all that you are used to.

And there is a reason for everything, so even for this mental solitude of mine, there is a lesson to be learned. There is that fine line of enjoying everything, even the feeling of being sad and by that enjoying life more thoroughly. The good and the bad, the highs and the lows. Some days you're flying through the day with the unstoppable flow of life and the other days you're crawling in that mud and mist right by your feet. If you wish to jump over all the shit and see what's important, the daily routine just jump to the underlined text.

I enjoy the training here. I enjoy the work I'm doing. But I both hate and love the time I spend doing nothing. Cause it just reminds me of all the things that are not here. The difference that might be unseen to many people reading this is, to see it through my eyes. (Remember now I realize how lucky I am to be having all I have now. I'm living here with a family who has taken me part of their family, and I could never pay back all the things they've done for me. Maybe the only way would be to do the same whenever I'm older and capable of supporting someone I don't know but who I believe in from outside of my family. Allowing the good to move on.)

I'm healthy and ready to everyday work towards reaching my dreams. But I have always been one of those people, to be around other people and running around. Or then being completely secluded, either or the extremes are always the easiest to handle. But about looking it from my point of view. Leave where ever you live. Travel to the other side of the world. Start working. If you're an au'pair or an exchange student you're still far from home. But you're doing it to meet new people, to experience new things. If you're doing team sports you meet your team mates every day. You're surrounded by people. If you're training in an academy even if it's an individual sport, you're still seeing other athletes. Go somewhere where no one understands your language. Everything is different, nothings the same. Then be alone, and see how long you can keep your head together.
What am I doing? Waking up at six, going to work by seven, leaving work at four, one hour drive to training in traffic, training from five to eight or 8.30, driving 45min back to the house(I live 58km from the training places), dinner and bed by ten. Repeat. Social? Yeah what's that.

I always love to tell people who complain about their lives to do something about it. If you wish to be less lonely go meet other people, and for any other thing just take control of your life and do work on that matter. I really don't have options, the training is so hard I can't go out and meet other people, especially in Wisconsin where it's always about that God damn drinking. So as much as I'm secluding myself, my choices are doing it to me. I have my family and friends back home but the time difference makes it tough except on weekends.

So, I'm an adventurer, this is what I wanted. I enjoy my choices that I have made. Accordingly I suffer from those choices. Try to live your life so that you don't have to dream about being away all the time, because if you would go away for good, you'd regret it. Mark my words. 18 weeks and I'm done.
If you wish to judge me about complaining, remember that I'm complaining about being lonely and not about anything else.

This post was meant to take a weight from my chest. As a Finnish sport psychology said in a blog post yesterday that I read. Human mind already has all the methods to survive through daily stress and struggle. You don't need a psychology or a psychiatrist to get through that, to get through loneliness. After this flood I suspect that I will recover back to normal and be happy about all, forgetting this for a while, until it might come back.

The picture above is from a drive I got to do at work. They were burning the grass going along the road to prevent wild fires during summer, what causes those fires? Dryness and nature? Well maybe a lightning. But most often, they are caused by humans throwing cigarettes from car window... Lucky they don't have to do that back home yet.

Smile, that's what I do even when feeling as crappy as now.

I heard Finland won Russia today, I guess the guys are beginning to play well as a team. Hope I can catch a game this weekend!

Now we're getting to it.

So this time I will post just a text update. And probably mostly in English. Yesterday after the testing weekend we trained for the first time this week and it's starting to get more in-depth so to say.

The main reason for this post is to publish yesterday's training program since when I was younger I always tried to search google for any speedskater training programs and never found any. Non from any runner-up or professional skater. And of course yesterday I felt awesome to know I'm working hard but every single athlete is an individual and the results vary no matter who you are, even if you did the same workouts as me. So just read, analyze, over-analyze, bark or compliment. This is how I trained yesterday and I loved it.  Also this is for my own coach and people back home to know what's going on.

First we began by running 40 minutes, every 8 minutes something with more effort for 1 minute, first one was a running acceleration full speed, second, third and fourth were skating dry-land imitations and for the last one we ran again.
This was followed up by 4 times downhill 60m running sprint from skating start.
Stationary bike 20min
6 rounds of weights, including 20 reps leg press, 20 reps squats, 20 reps fast squats without weights, 20 1feet high box jump, 20 each arm bend over row and then topped of with bunch of core workouts in between.
Ending training with 20 minute stationary bike.
The whole workout took around 3 hours and is considered to be on the endurance side of our training.

Out of courtesy for my coach over here I won't be publishing all the workouts and programs here but just to get an idea how the training is getting down I wanted to do this post.
I hope if there's some junior skater looking for inspiration that stuff like this will help him/her out to keep motivated with this great sport!!

Today I had an off-day which allowed me to work a bit later and after that just enjoyed skateboarding for a bit more than 30 minutes, some pilates, easy core work and what more you could ask. Even home sickness does not feel as bad when you know you're working hard. Doing the stuff that you're supposed to do right now to get forward in life.

Enjoy the coming summer, and as I promised to a friend of mine, who did something I really look up to, I publish this video. This was in the newspaper in my hometown so some people might know about it and all my international readers won't probably get anything out of it but go with the rhythm and good chorus.

This is Joma - Lähikaupan tyttö And the story behind it. My this friend went to a close by grocery, saw a drop-dead gorgeous cashier woman. Well he had such a good crush on her that he actually made a song for her. The story tells that he did not get the girl, but MAN what move indeed. Appreciate women as they are. There's nothing better, except training. So now get on with your lives don't waste more time on this blog today! Thanks for reading.

Testi Lauantai!! Test Saturday

We met a doctor of human efficiency research center today for a VO2 max test.

Test proceeded this year with 3min stages compared to previous 2minutes. It was a good test, unlike previous years when I did it just before I started the training season again I now trained for three weeks before it. All tests are individual so these graphs are here just if one is interested and to show my coach home how I am doing at this point.

Haluan julkaista tämän loppupätkän Suomeksi. Työ, asuminen, treenaaminen ja ihmiset täälläpäin on mukavia. Olen siitä kiitollinen ja se on mahtavaa että näin hyvä tuuri on käynyt. Kuitenkin tahdon nyt vähän avata myös niitä asioita, joita ei pysty näkemään Suomesta käsin. Asioita, joita ei näekkään ennenkuin lähtee pois pidemmäksi aikaa. Ja niinhän se sanontakin menee, että matkailu avartaa. Kun olen kotona, ruoka on sitä mihin olen tottunut. Puhun sitä kieltä, joka sallii minun ilmaista itseäni monipuolisesti ja vapaasti. Meidän kulttuurimme sallii monenlaisen käytöksen, ei ole montaa asiaa, jota et voisi tehdä, tai josta et hyvällä selityksellä pääsisi etenemään.
Me Suomessa olemme äärimmäisen rehellisiä tunne-elämässämme, ja se on pelkästään hyvä asia. Siellä se monesti tuntuu siltä, että ihmiset eivät osaa arvostaa sitä mitä heillä on ja valittavat herkästi, mutta juuri tuo parku ja valitus, ja siitä huolimatta elämän eläminen. Niiden kultaisten hetkien löytäminen ja sen oman elämän toteuttaminen omasta näkökulmasta parhaalla mahdollisella tavalla tekee meistä niin uskomattoman ainutlaatuisia tässä maailmassa. Olen myös itse syyllistynyt kotimaassa siihen, etten ole osannut nauttia siinä ainutlaatuisuudesta, mutta seuraavan vajaan 5 kuukauden jälkeen osaan sen varmasti tehdä.

Joten ensi kerralla kun mietit kuinka paljon vituttaa kun näet jonkun jolla on paha päivä, ja joka antaa sen näkyä ulospäin. Aina voit kysyä ja keskustelu auttaa aina. Ja sen jälkeen saatat saada itsellesi vielä paremman fiiliksen ja sen ihmisen päivä saattaa olla pelastettu.

Joten mieti ensi kerralla tätä kun näet jonkun jolla on huono päivä. Kuinka paljon se harmittaisi jos kysyessäsi tältä ihmiseltä "Onko tänään huono päivä, mikä vaivaa?" Vastaus olisi "Minulla on kaikki hyvin kiitos" ja väkisin väännetty hymy. Antakaa tunteiden näkyä, se tekee teistä jokaisesta hienomman ihmisen kuin ikinä olisitte saattanut kuvitella.

Kiitos lukemisesta, palataan astioille.

- Jami