hpasila

[hpasila]

now that the uci has gone on record that armstrongs 2009 tdf biopassport

never made it to expert review

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/13931/Armstrongs-blood-profile-was-never-submitted-to-bio-passport-experts-after-May-2009.aspx

the question becomes was it incompetence or something far...

[hpasila]

Marathon Fever

I have had this idea of doing Stockholm marathon some day. And I just happened to look at their website yesterday and noticed that the event is filling up rapidly. They only accept 21500 entrants. Well, “only” is not exactly the right expression, but there’s less than 2000 spots vacant as of December 24, making it over 90% filled up just 3 months into registration. If I want to medicate my marathon fever and want to do it June 1st in Stockholm, I got to make up my mind very soon.

I think I will go but I will just allow myself to contemplate over the idea a few more hours. And I shall hope that others won’t beat me to the line before the registration ends. I believe that I have until the end of the year to sign in.

Stockholm Marathon starts at noon on June 1st. This would allow me for another 5 months to prepare. I believe that I could run through a marathon already with what I have ran so far this year. But that would be it, just to run it through. In Stockholm I’d like to do a little bit better than that but now is not a time to start planning for my pace. First I need to make a decision. To go or to not go? Two weeks after Stockholm Marathon is Jukolan Viesti, orienteering relay I have mentioned before. Just enough time to fully recover and prepare again.

Another challenge is to make a trip to Stockholm and take the family with me. Hotels are very much booked already and going far outside Stockholm is not an option especially if we choose to fly and not take a ferry and a car. I’d prefer flying if only we can find an affordable accommodation for a couple of days.

If I sign up, I will try to keep regular updates here in my blog on how I am doing with training. Now that I have started blogging, I think a project like my first-ever marathon would be a good source for entries. I will probably go because a goal like that would keep me even better motivated. I will give this some thinking over the next few days.

[hpasila]

I just had to stop on my run today for this scene. I thought it was a very pretty moment and very appropriate for the holiday season. This is quite close to our house and I pass this spot quite often during my runs. Quite lovely. Season’s Greetings

[hpasila]

Running again

After I quit cycling competitively, I have not really been active in sports. I’ve tried many times but I haven’t been able to keep it up, to make it a habit. Especially if you like endurance sports, consistency is the key. You got to keep it up to maintain and enjoy the sport. With a bit competitive mind as I have, I don’t like to not see progress in what I do. Or what try to do. It is an effort to try convince myself that I don’t have to do a lot of it (long workouts e.g. 4-6 hours at a time) and that I don’t have to be speedy as I once used to be. I’m still learning that.

Last spring I got a mission. I promised to take part in Jukolan viesti. It is the world’s largest orienteering relay held every year in different locations in Finland. It is something I did annually in my teens, since I was 14 years old so it is not a new race for me. It starts late in the evening around mid June and its 7 legs extend through the whole night. So there are usually 1-3 dark legs, requiring use of headlamp to manage out from the woods. Each leg is relatively long, the total distance measured from point-to-point is around 75-80 km. The shortest legs are about 8 km and the longest about 16 km. I had 1st leg this year. As it was about 13 km, I couldn’t just charge my lamp, put on my shoes and start running with 1600 other orienteerers. I had to train a little bit.

I started with running, very short runs at first and once in ever 3 days. Those runs didn’t have any resemblance with the concept of running. But it was something, an outing bit faster than walking maybe. I have always liked running, orienteering was my main sport in my teens so I was not new to running. I just had about 20 years since my last run! So the beginning was hard. But I forced myself to go out of the door somewhat frequently. Then came Jukola some month and a half later. I managed 10 km out of the 13 before I hit the wall. Damn. I didn’t like it. Then I told myself that next year I wouldn’t hit the wall. Since then I have kept running and am starting to really enjoy it. My average run now is probably more than 10 km and the longest ones are twice as much. Now I have been able to pretty much keep it with about 30-60 km per week. I don’t know if that is a lot or not but I am happy about my progress.

Mainly I go running at nights after we put our boys to bed and go out for 40-70 minutes. On weekends I try to do one longer run, 90-120 minutes. Running is so easy to go to, just change and go out the door. If I compare it to skiing or cycling, I have been running for 20+ minutes before I could have begun either one of those other sports I like. And in a 1-hour run I get a pretty good workout too. It is very effective. Take a cold winter night, full moon, no need for a headlamp, snow creaking underneath your feet and it just feels like you can keep on going, and going. Not many feelings can beat that!

I have gotten back into working out and that feels really good. I hope to be able to keep it up and show that in June in Jukola I can do more than just try to not bonk. Maybe even do a good leg for our team. I am even starting to think about my first ever marathon for next year. Or a couple of them. But before that I want to keep it up and log in many more kilometers. After all, my biggest fear is my ability to balance in between my family, my work and my workouts. In that order and priority. Recovery is also something to balance with. That’s where my sports background comes in handy, I have learned how to listen to my body and know when to stress it and when to rest it.

[hpasila]

Minnesota, part one.

I went to college at Bemidji State in Minnesota just as I was getting more serious about riding a bike competitively. Those years were really interesting as they included many coincidences that have affected my life.

I arrived at the school at the end of August 1995 with two huge bags and a bike. A mountain bike. Back then I had this cool looking shiny aluminum Marin full suspension bike with Manitou 4 suspension fork on both ends. Pretty unique design. Easton had a frame like that too, I don't know which came first.

My bike together with my luggage was left behind in Amsterdam and they didn't arrive until the next day. Of course, both of my bike's tires had bursted because I made a rookie mistake for not deflating them prior to packing. There was really only one bike shop in town, The Home Place Bike and Ski Shop and I took that relatively long walk down to buy some new inner tubes. Little did I know then what a huge impact that bike and ski shop would have during my years in town.

Next autumn I purchased my first ever road bike from them, it was a full carbon framed OCLV Trek 5000. I had no clue on how to ride a road bike but so I started. Less than a month later I was already in my first road race It was a 100 mile race called Headwaters 100. That day I fell badly for three different ways. First, I fell in love with road racing. Secondly, I fell for this particular event going through these undulating roads in Northern Minnesota, one loop with a good size of field attracting some good riders as well. There's a special story about Headwaters 100 but maybe good for another post. And third, I fell physically half way through the race. I got dropped. I had to dig really deep to get back and eventually I did and finished the race with the main pack. I was doing really well (for it being my first ever road race) but on one hill I got dropped purely because I was inexperienced. So I wanted to do better some day.

After that Headwaters 100 in September 1996, I knew that my chosen sport would be cycling for years to come. My mind was still in mountain biking but I very early realized that for getting fit I needed long distance easy to moderate pace rides, something that is not easy to do on MTB. Hence, I got a road bike.

But let's rewind back to me getting dropped. As I realized that 'holy crap, I'm alone behind the group with 50 miles to go' I didn't see any other choice than to try catch the group again. It is easier to say than do. But I was facing an awful long way to ride home, alone. I was lucky that the race was followed by maybe 10 service cars. Not so much for teams but for individuals who wanted to have service in case they needed some. Then and there I got a good lesson on drafting behind the cars. But I really dug deep and used up the strength I didn't have. And then some. That made me realize that I had an ability to push myself and not give up. Later on I found out that my physical abilities were not anything remarkable (for example my VO2 Max) but that I could handle the lactic acid pretty well. That probably allowed me to still be able to do ok against naturally more talented riders.

Even once I figured out that I was not actually built up to be a very good rider naturally, it never became to my mind to enhance my performance with doping. Hell, it didn't come to my mind that some of my rivals at the level I would soon to be would be on drugs. I was wrong. 

Although my college time was pretty uneventful and revolved around studying and riding my bike, it had a huge impact on my life. Living alone half around the world away from home is such a setup that it will define who you are for good and forever. One of the odd things which I meant by coincidences at the beginning was that I got a job while in Minnesota. You will never guess where that job was, I my hometown in Finland! That's not very surprising, I know. But it is, you need to know that I had never had any contact with this company during my first 22 years of life in this town of 4000 people before I moved to United States to study.  And I met these people in Minnesota. How's that for a coincidence?

[hpasila]

Aim Higher - Sponsoroi sataa urheilijaa

Facebookissa olen huomannut, että muutama kaveri on tykännyt kohteesta Aim Higher. En kuitenkaan tutustunut asiaan kuin vasta saatuani Aim Higher:lta sähköpostia tällä viikolla.

Näytti hyvältä joten olihan tähän tutustuttava lähemmin. Viestinnän ulkomuoto ja tyyli ylipäätään sekä www.aimhigher.fi -nettisivut antavat kuvan, että kyseessä voisi olla jokin urheilujärjestö. Sellainen joka nyt yleensäkin kerää rahaa urheilijoille. Katsotaanpa.

Kuvassa ylhäällä vasemmalla olevan logon käyttöoikeutta voi hakea. Sponsorointi alkaa pienille yrityksille summasta 850 €/a jos tekee 4 vuoden sopimuksen. Hinta on erikoistarjous, normaalihinta on 1000 €/a. Tuolla summalla saa oikeuden käyttää tuota logoa omilla nettisivuillaan. Mutta ei esim. omassa mainonnassaan tai edes omille asiakkaille suunnatussa viestinnässä. Ei oikeastaan missään ennenkuin noustaan maksutasossa ylöspäin, paljon. Ja tuo hinta on voimassa jos yrityksen liikevaihto on lähempänä haarukan 0 - 1.9 M€ lukemaa 0. Tuolla ylärajalla summa taisi olla 10 000 €/a. 

SportElite Marketing on tarkemmin ilmaistuna SportElite Marketing Oy, vuonna 2007 perustettu mainostoimisto. Äänivaltaa yhtiössä näyttää nimistä päätellen kantavan Seppälän sisarukset tai jokin muu sukukoalitio, Tero-Teemu, Jere-Janne ja Hanna-Maria.

Potentiaalisena sponsorina haluaisin tietää keitä nämä 100 urheilijaa ovat ja kuinka paljon sponsoroidusta summasta menee urheilijoille? Koska myös mainostoimistot ovat voittoa tavoittelevia yhteisöjä, summasta täytyy mennä tämän Aim Higher järjestelmän ylläpitoon, myyntiin ja markkinointiin sekä muihin kuluihin aika paljon. Lyhentämättömänäkään 8.5 €/urheilija ei vielä kovin monen urheilijan kohdalla merkitse mitalisadetta. Ei, vaikka tukijoita olisi tuhat tai jopa kaksi.

Nopeasti katsottuna markkinointi on ulkoasun puolesta hieman urheilujärjestömäinen. Se voi harhauttaa, ehkä se ei kuitenkaan ole tarkoitus. Tai sitten on. Konseptissa, jossa varmaankin on liiketoiminnan lisäksi ainakin jonkin asteinen vilpittömyysyhteys, ei sinällään ole ajatuksena vikaa mutta sen avoimuutta tulisi hurjasti lisätä, jotta siitä voisi tulla tärkeä urheilijoiden rahoituksen tekijä, hankkija ja jakaja. Nyt tästä pikaisesta taustatutkimuksesta jää kuva, että yrityksiä pyritään saamaan mukaan melko kevyin perustein.

Aim Higher voisi ainakin aloittaa vastaamalla seuraaviin kysymyksiin:

1. Keitä nämä sata urheilijaa ovat?

2. Paljonko yhdestä sponsorointieurosta jää urheilijalle käteen?

3. Miten tästä eurosta kuluihin ym. kuluva osuus jakautuu?

Vastauksia näihin tuskin saadaan, ja siksi kyllä tai ei -päätös on ainakin omalta osaltani helppo tehdä.

Aim Higher todellakin tähtää korkealle, sillä pyydettävät summat ovat yritysten kokoluokkaan nähden kohtuullisen suuria, antamatta sille kuitenkaan juuri mitään vastinetta. Käytännössä alatasolla maksetaan luvasta käyttää omilla nettisivuilla jonkun mainostoimiston suunnittelemaa logoa juoksijasta jolla on siivissä Suomen lippu. Ajatuksena Aim Higher on hyvä mutta konsepti vaikuttaa toteutuksen tasolla jo ollakseen vielä hieman raakileelta.

Toisaalta, voihan sitä löytyä useampikin yritysjohtaja, jolle kauniit kasvot ja Oral-B -hymy ovat riittävä peruste avata kukkaron nyörit.

[hpasila]

Confession

I have a confession to make. It is also important for this blog's timeline that I do it now and not later as it is also part of my character building.

I have cheated in my life. 

This happened one time and it did not produce the desired outcome. In high school, I cheated in my chemistry exam. I still got a very bad grade which made me realize that cheating was not my thing. And I have never cheated since, or before that. I can remember how bad I felt for doing it, right there in the classroom. It did not come naturally. Now it makes me happy that I almost failed the exam anyway. I should have.

I am a person that if I see a hole that would allow me to cut corners, I look elsewhere and go for a longer distance. I follow the rules and that's who I am.

Now you know more why I am very much an anti-doping person. And against every other type of rule bending, whatever it is in life. Breaking the rules really gets me started. 

As it did get me started with blogging.

[hpasila]

Who am I?

In order to start this blog properly I think I have to tell a little bit about myself first.

I am soon a 40-year-old finnish guy with a family of 4 and a dog, residing in southern Finland in a recently built home. We have two wonderful boys who mean the world to my wife and me.

I used to race bikes. I started with a mountain bike almost 25 year ago but I really didn't start to love the sport until about 20 years ago. Before that I competed in different sports, orienteering and ice hockey being the most notable ones. But in my heart I have always been an endurance sportsman. I just needed cycling to make me realize it for good. 

Eventually by bike riding evolved from woods to roads. Although concentrating on road, I still raced a few races every year on a mountain bike as well as a track bike. Funny enough, my best results come from track but also from racing mountain bikes. On road I was more of a supporting rider so personal success dodged me but I was lucky to be a part of a very successful amateur team so I enjoyed that very much. I think my background in orienteering (endurance sport) and ice hockey (team sport) laid a great foundation and let me find road cycling in which both are important.

Although not extremely successful, I like to think I became a pretty decent bike rider. I got to race with some great names from then and today's professional peloton. Those are good memories. I hang up my bikes at the end of 2002 season and haven't ridden much since then as other priorities personally and professionally have filled my life. However, I followed pro cycling for several years until I had enough of it for the lack of credibility of the sport in my eyes. It was not a level and fair playing field in my mind so I lost interest.

Now, after recent revelations regarding systemized doping in the sport since 90's, lots of pieces are falling in place in my mind from that era when I tried to be good in cycling paniaqua, as Tyler Hamilton put it. With bread and water. Just today I learned something new that directly touched me, but that's another story.

I am also interested in politics and endurance sports in general. Some other sports too. The quieter, the better. This year I have started running and I am getting better by the day and it feels good. I will need it next summer in orienteering practice, which I am also picking up after many years. In politics, I like to have an opinion but so far I have not acted on them although I am a member of a political party. Just to support for now but you never know.

If I left something out, it will come out later on. I'd like to create this blog so that in a way the story develops although some posts that are completely separated from everything will come out for sure.