24 cities in 2 months!

It's been a long trip. But a fun one! This past week with 3 SL and 3 GS EC was ok. I didn't make FIS points but I did some good runs and proved to myself that I can still be fast. Even though mostly I've been disappointed. A real positive thing is that I sort of found my slalom again. I did a good run in Kirchberg and with that I got into the top 30 in the EC, making the slaloms a hell of a lot easier than with number 80. But unfortunately I then straddled in Zuoz and Oberjoch. But I think the number is going to stay still for the later EC slaloms this seasons!

Slalom in Val d'Isere. Zoom Agence.

Okay, so I went through my calendar a bit. Was curios on how many places I've been in the last 2 months! On the 22.11.10 I left home, and on the 22.1.11 I came back!

Helsinki - London - Denver - Silverthorne - Loveland - Aspen - Vail - Beaver Creek - Denver - London - Zurich - Val di'Sere - St.Vigilio - Alta Badia - Munchen - Istanbul - Dubai - Istanbul - Munchen - Kranjska Gora - Tarvisio - Kranjska Gora - Petzen - Tarvisio - Innerkrems - Zurich - Adelboden - Innsbruck - Innerkrems - Kirchberg - Zuoz - Oberjoch - Munchen - Helsinki

Ville with the baggage at Denver Airport.

That's quickly counted about 20 different hotels I've spent the nights at, around 40 hours spent in an airplane and 77 hours spent driving around in an Audi. Plus of course the shorter trips everyday. That's a lot of traveling! Nice to go home and not have to live out of a suitcase for a week. I can also change to another pair of Puma's! Had the same casual ones for the whole trip.. :) But this is my work and I enjoy it, even though it doesn't go as planned every day. 

Nala, my sisters and her husbands dog!

So now I'm going to enjoy being at home, give my body and back a few days to get better and then focus on the gym this week! 

See ya!

Mare

DH Andy's first points!

Our crazy Downhiller scored his first WC points on Friday in Wengen!! He put his run on his homepage www.andreasromar.fi ! Check it out! :) The first jump is pretty crazy, and not even crossing the finish line is easy!! Respect to those guys. From what I've heard he's considered as the most potential young Downhiller on the Tour! Cool to have a Finnish Downhiller again. Go Andy!

A step in the right way!

I was 8th today in the EC slalom in Kirchberg. I started with number 54, and with a mistake in the first I was 28th. Too far behind, it was really warm weather so luckily in the second I had the advantage and made a solid run. So for my slalom that's a step forward! I hope it's enough to start top 30 here in the slalom in Zuoz on Wednesday, but if everybody's here I'm for sure not going to. Then I just need to work myself up again.

After the race we drove here to Zuoz and it didn't really feel like winter on the way!! This pic is just before Innsbruck! It's not so fun to race in these kind of conditions but there's no idea complaining on the weather, not so much I can do about it! :)

Tomorrow there's a hilltraining here in Zuoz and then GS on Tuesday and Slalom on Wednesday! From here the EC turnee continues to Oberjoch in Germany with GS on Friday and Slalom on Saturday, then I   go home. It's been a long trip, and my back isn't really liking it and working with me at the moment. I hope it doesn't get worse..

Mare

Slalom and Icehockey with the Swede's!

Cool picture from the GS race here in Adelboden. Zoom Agence.


We stayed here in Adelboden for some training on the race slope! It's really warm now everywhere in Middle-Europe and here the slope is pretty hard still after the race so it was good training today! We skied slalom with Swede's and Chzeck's on the top part of the GS! It felt pretty okay.. There's also a Ladies FIS race, so we did the forerun for the 2nd run with Kalle. Was a really fast course and it was a lot of fun! Had a beer bet, and now I owe him one.. But it was a pretty big difference starting with Nr.1 than with Nr.74! ;) Felt so easy and was a lot more fun!

The start of the GS.

In the afternoon we went playing some 'easy' hockey against Jens Byggmark and Matts Olsson. Haha, it was easy for maybe 10 minutes… It was an exciting game with a lot of action and great moves! Or atleast we thought so, but even though Matts scored a beautiful own goal, we lost  13-15. The boys played good, but next year they won't have a chance.. Hehe!

Matts and Kalle cleaning the ice! 

I'm probably tomorrow heading back to Austria, going to race in Kirchberg's EC this weekend. Then Zuoz an Oberjoch. And after that finally home, been a long trip..

Marcus

Two nostalgic days in Innerkrems!

Innerkrems long last steep.

I trained two days GS here in Innerkrems, I haven't been here for many years and I got a little nostalgic feeling! When I was in the Junior Team season 03-05 we trained here a lot, and I have a lot of fun memories from here. Goofing around during training or afterwards, trying to do things the right way and have fun at the same time.  I still do that, but I think now I know how to do things the right way better than when I was young! Everything we did wasn't maybe so smart... We had a good team with a lot of talented guys. Peetu Kantola, Eetu Virranniemi, Pete Nyländen, Atte Penttinen, Tuke Kaukoniemi and Jonne Ruoppa are a few.. I think most of us thought of ourselves as slalom skiers, maybe except Jonne who was the crazy speedster, but we always had huge problems finishing slalom races! That got annoying in the long run, so then we turned in to GS skiers. :) It would be fun if the guys we're still here training here with me in Innerkrems! We had a good thing going on.

Pete, Jonne, Atte and me in a monument placed in a round-about in Gmund in 2004.

Pete, Eetu, Peetu and me in 2003. We are a team, of course we watch the movies together in one bed!

Anyway, tomorrow I'm driving solo to Zurich. Spending the day there watching the mens slalom from Zagreb, cheering on Kalle and Victor! Then I'm picking up Kalle from the airport Friday morning and then heading for Adelboden! Can't wait for that race, feeling confident with my old setup. Still need a little time to get used to how they work but I have a pretty good idea what I have to do.

Have a nice day!

Mare