Paddling around in a Float Tube.

Fishing is my way to relax! It's the perfect way to get my mind off training and skiing, calms me down and just simply makes me feel good. Even better is spending good time with friends, talking nonsense and eventually catching some pike! 

Oge getting ready for a 3h fishing 'adventure'.....

... and 15 minutes later with the first pike of the day!

A happy fisherman after tying the score to 1-1! When fishing with my cousin Oscar we normally race about who gets the first, biggest and most pike. With him I also have a bet that after both turn 30, the one who has a smaller record pike has to pay for a fishing trip abroad for both! I was in the lead still a year ago but last October when I was in the hospital he caught a 13.9kg pike. So now I have some work to do.

On this trip we caught 12 pike. Oge 5, Mare 7. I think I'll be able to squeeze in one or two more fishing trips after Levi before we fly to the US. Then I have to wait for next year.

Looks like we are going back to business and leaving for training again on Tuesday. Levi is getting closer and hopefully we'll be able to train on the raceslope before the race!

Marcus

Tough weekend!

That was a tough weekend. I'm a little happy that the race got cancelled, but I'm not so happy about my first run! The conditions were really tough this year in Sölden and I didn't manage to get my normal skiing on that surface. I've always had problems going my way when there are sharp big holes on the slopes but luckily Sölden is the only race where it can get that bad. Or that's what I'm hoping! :) Coming over to the first steep I lost my line a bit, after that I just struggled holding on to it and couldn't at all just let go with a good line. So the result was bad, so was my thoughts and feeling after the run! That wasn't really what I had planned out for the day! But then I and a few other guys got a little lucky when they decided to cancel the second run and the race. So now the GS WC season starts again in Beaver Creek and that I'm looking much more forward to. Before that I think I'll ski two Nor-Am races in Aspen. Getting used to races and being in the racemode!

Isn't Kalle just amazing?! After such a long break from racing, and thinking about how his first week skiing looked like in Zermatt this season I really must say that I'm impressed! It was awesome to see him back on the races and I think he's going to be strong this year still. He's definitely one of the best and toughest skiers ever. It's just great having him as a teammate and good friend.

My body was quite finished after last week. Being sick and then racing in hardcore conditions is heavy so I'm recovering and resting a little the beginning of this week. Tommorrow I'll start training again and keep on until next week when we leave for Levi.  A tight few weeks of slalom coming up next!

Hear you soon!
Marcus

Race on!

Alright! Tommorrow it's time to race! My number is 37. Not really happy with that but not much I can do about it, just make it better for Beaver Creek!

 

The hilltraining today was fun but there was a lot of loose snow from the womens race so it wasn't easy! It's hard under so it'll be good tomorrow, but probably a little bumpy! Rock'n'roll!

Marcus

Arrived in Sölden!

Yeah! The race is getting closer all the time, fun that it's finally here. Been training and training and training now for too long. Time to do the thing I'm training for, racing!

But unfortunately this weeks preparation didn't go as planned. I got sick on Sunday evening and couldn't ski on Tuesday and Wednesday. I hate being sick on camps, or just being sick at all. Being stuck in bed while the other guys are up on the glacier skiing or in the afternoon playing football or doing something else is torture. Especially when you have a guy like Kalle as your room-mate who doesn't make it easier! But now it's over, today I was skiing and then we drove here to Sölden. I need to wake up my body and legs a little so tomorrow I'll do some speed and quickness training! 

On Saturday we have the hill training. We get 30 minutes free-skiing on the race slope after the ladies race. We get to feel how the surface is on the slope so we can make adjustments to our setup if needed and also just get to see the profile a little. Normally I manage to make 3 runs. I love the hill trainings, always so fun to cruise a little on the slope!

I'll let you know how it felt! :)
Marcus

The Boys in Tux '10

I'm not really a guy who's so good with computers, but I got inspired by Andy who's making cool videos from our camps so I decided try to make one with some runs from this week!

We're having the weekend off to relax and get our strenght back for an intense week coming up! Tonight we're going for pizza with Tanja and Sanni. Been a while since the whole team has been together eating out! Tomorrow we might go golfing, but at the moment it's snowing a little here in Tux. Have a nice weekend! Marcus

Perfect conditions!

The conditions are great here in Hintertux! The runs are around 45-50 seconds long and it's hard and icy from the first until the last gate! Perfect conditions for testing skis, I've already found the right model that I'm going to race with so now I'm testing ski pairs. Trying to find the fast ones! We're concentrating on quality runs, runs that are similar to how we ski in the races. At first we start with a good free run and warm up, then course inspection and then full gas on the first run! Today we skied with Kalle 3 runs and then our coaches made a new course, we made an inspection again and then the race was on! 2 runs on that course and we we're done. A good day in other words! The Young Guns, Samu, Victor, Santa and Andy skied a little more, they had a race day today. Seeing who get's the third spot in Sölden. We remembered with Kalle that there's hasn't been this good conditions before Sölden in many years, it's almost always really soft the last two weeks before the race.

This short videoclip is from our last camp from the first day in Pitztal. Filmed by Kalle, a nice morning at the office! Can't do anything else than just smile.. :)

Enjoy!
Mare

Hey Again!

I finally got my new site up and going! Took a while but I'm happy with the site. I also have a Facebook profile ' Marcus Sandell - Homepage'. I'd be more than happy to be your friend, just ask me, and from there it might be easier to follow my posts. I'm going to publish all of them as a link there also.

Since last time I wrote I've been on two camps. We were in Hintertux for a week, training GS and SL. The slope was really icy even though the weather wasn't so good. I found a good ice-setup fot my GS skis and it feels good. The slalom was really Rock'n'roll and it was good training for me considering my number is quite high.

Next camp we started in Pitztal. It felt a little strange to go back there and up to the glacier. But when I realized that there was almost one meter snow more than last year and that there was a piste going over the rock section that I crashed into I got more comfortable. But the surface was soft and we couldn't ski so we moved after two days to Sölden for some good training on the Icebox.

At home last week we had our press conference and some photoshoots. It was a busy and short week at home for me. Yesterday we went with Kalle to Sölden, we were supposed to ski on the race slope but the chiefs at Sölden decided that no one get's to train there. So we trained with the Yanks Ted and Bode on the Icebox. In the afternoon we moved to Hintertux, here we'll probably stay until next week!

Hope all of you have had fun and been well!
Marcus

New site is coming up...

Hi from Hintertux to everyone!

Arrived here yesterday, was raining pretty much the whole day and the clouds were really low. But when I woke up in the morning the sky was clear and it looked nice! Not so much people here on the glacier, felt so nice to go up without having to push and be pushed around when trying to get in the gondels! Really relaxed.. It was a difficult day on the slope but I got wiser again so that I'm happy for! We will stay here until Monday if the weather lets us. Our next camp is in Pitztal starting on the 28th.

I have some bad news too, VOX is closing in september. I got to know this information quite late, so I'm still finding solutions for my next site! Have an interesting thing going on and if it works I believe that the site will be really cool! But unfortunately it takes a little while so I will have a break on my website! But as soon I get my new page up and going I'll let you know, It will continue under www.marcussandell.com! You can find me there.. :) Today is the last day I can put any news and posts on this site, and it will still be up until the 30th September! So thanks for this one and see you on the next one!

Remember to enjoy!
Mare

Fysical tests!

Hey! 

We had our fysical tests yesterday. Sweaty stuff! But they wen't well. I managed to improve on what I have been concentrating on more and more since spring time when we had our last tests. Because I trained so much at the gym last winter and springtime, trying to get my power back I lost a little bit of my quickness and speed. So in the summer when I finally got my strenght to a good level I concentrated a litle bit more on stamina and speed, both of them improved so It was a good test for me!

On Monday we are leaving for Hintertux. Our camps are a little shorter now, also our stays at home. / days instead of 10. The season is getting closer! :)


Have fun!
Mare