Biathlon World Cup in Kontiolahti:)))

How could I describe the week... Awesome, marvellous, hectic, stressy, warm, cold, new experience, new faces, super athmosphere, nice views, cute guys, tuff races and extreme excitement...!!:D How come..

We arrived to Joensuu on Monday afternoon after trip to Otepää. at 4 o'clock I had to be already at the airport welcoming Canadian team as a Chief of Attachees:D of course my other attaschees were there as well, but anyways I wanted to do my job well:)
The same pattern continued the next three days as we welcomed team in the afternoons, arranging things in the hotels and so on.. I started mornings by "chief" meetings @8am and was training mostly in the afternoon with other athletes, until Friday! I thought our coaches had put me to the lists as a reserv.. Cause Sarianna had been a bit ill and 5th named girl Annukka was at that point in Pokljuka! But no way.. As you know Mari got some fever and "everybody" thought I could replace her.... But this small mistake, not being on the list and IBU-rules. No start for me!! From this point I could forget skiing and I continued as a attaschee and working for dopingcontrol, picking up the athletes from the hotels etc...

Never mind, I had a wonderful weekend:) Getting to know more people than what I would have done as an athlete. Racing on the hometracks would have been great, though!! I enjoyed my job, and last night's delivering of drinkingtickets..:D hehe. I don't tell who and what and how. I just say what happens in the parties, stays in the parties:D School started at 8am on Monday.. was really a horrible back to the reality^^' walking straight from the *** to the university.. with a dizzy feeling "I should be somewhere else":D Somewhere else.. could have been Holmenkollen. Would have been brilliant But it didn't really surprise me that they took there only a few.. maybe next year we will have only 2 places in the WC:D LOL. nice job^^' Luckily there will be some changes within two months...

My gorgeus little brother got his first chance in World cup!! He shot nearly perfect, only one penalty. Unfortunately he got some "sting" in the lungs during the second loop so the skiing was not normal.. Anyways, I'm proud of him:) He will get some new chances next year too, I'm sure!!:))



Now it has taken two days to recover from the weekend^^' I think I still need a couple of days to be normalfit:D This weekend I'll be working as a skiteacher, next weekend we have Finnish Champs in cross-country here in Kontiolahti! I have sprintrelay and relay in the program:)
Straight after these competitions I'm heading to Sweden!! Biathlon Swedish Champs in Lima... and then I'm probably continuing to Östersund to celebrate Easter:)) Looking forward....

Thanks all my biathlonfriends from last weekend! See ya within a half year again.. :))

xox

European Champs, part 3

What did I tell last time?.D since I wrote here last time had passed only 10 days.. but I've been "working" and running around the clock since then so excuse me for late updating:)



European Championships in Otepää ended with sprint and pursuit races in the lovely weather! Sunshine and minusgrades made me smile, although my own races were far away from satisfying level! In Sprint i got 1+1 penalties and ended up to the place 34.. my uncourageous skiing didn't bring me up on the lists. But there were at least one good point in that race, the last loop was fastest and only there I could try a bit harder skiing^^' you know, lactat can kill... 0_o

Anyways after three races I was already exhausted.. I was back to the hotel not earlier than 5pm. And what says our "genious" teamleaders (Not my own coach!!) "Everybody must be at the stadium for medalceremony at 7pm! wise move.. after race no time for rest, no finnish on the podium and outside -9!! great! And no other athletes from other countries there if not necessary!! I was refusing this foolish order but went with the others.. No wondering about the effects to Sunday! Other nice business from this armyleader. Come to knock our roomdoor at 7.30 am, when knowing we have a race in the afternoon..just saying " oh girls did I wake you up? lunch starts at 11am.bye!.. " If we had already known... Cause we didn't have any properly teammeeting either! we just found out the facts ourselves!! And just finally to mention, our leaders didn't understand a word in the teammeetings^^' LOL. I just say a word: disaster.

So on Sunday we had pursuit. I just have the same speed all the races! you know.. I could have skied 10 races one after another without a pause^^' anyways shooting was okey, except first standing! I thought I would be going to the place 11.. but they showed me the place 30!! last time they didn't fill it.. so from this steep small downhill I had to break fast to the last place and I think that scrambled my mind. Summa summarum, at least I got a lot of experience in these competitions. What i needed most was my relaxed skiing! these 100 weeks in the freaking cold weather didn't help either.. Anyways.. Now I'm on the road again:) unfortunately there are only few races left...




We left the city straight after pursuit so there were hardly no time for farewells.. pity! damn coaches! Luckily I saw a couple of mates here again in Kontiolahti World Cup..:) I missed some athlete's party, though.)

that's the next subject,) oh mann....

European champs, part 2

Greetings from the lovely sunshine!!! I just ended my best classic training this year! -3 and the superior tracks:) loving it!

What comes to the relay yesterday it was a pretty much fighting from the last place. Even though with better shooting we could have managed to reach even better places. This young team will get a new chance, though...

So penaltyqueens skied 5 times 150meters extra loop what doesn't really help when we loose already in skiing!! I myself managed to drop all the targets, using 5 reservbullets to hit my 2 misses^^ What comes to the weatherconditions it was snowing but temperature falling to -3c. Skiing is all the same! where the relaxed good technik? where's the hard-pushing girl what we've seen earlier this winter? dunno, only thing what I can do for the rest of the races is to focus my mind on shooting and not trying to try more what I can..

So tomorrow off we go for Sprint and then probably pursuit!.) Yesterday there were athelete's party, but for me it was only a small visit to the local pub and then I went quite early to the bed^^' good girl!

Finland got 4th place in mixed relay! Congrats.! My perfect-shootiing little brother skied the second fastest legtime and was amazing! :)) Proud of him, and also others in the team..!

Wish me luck, now's the time for the last chance to show....

..

European Champs in Otepää!

Here we are again!!:) Since end of July there's a lot of snow and the city looks a bit different, quite sleepy actually!
We travelled by bus all day on saturday to get to Helsinki and then continuing to Tallin and Otepää in the afternoon on Sunday. Luckily we got the best hotel in the town and at least food is something eatable.. (compared to some previous meals during the years.D)

Day 1.
Anyways racing started on Tuesday with Individual race. It's been snowing/raining already a couple of days, temperature just above +0 c! In the morning before start it was also windy and the new snow falling made a light "glue" under the skies^^' But I felt better than last weekend in -20c!:) So startnumber 3 and off we go. In zeroing the wind was calming down a bit and also snowing seemed to stop. Well, during the next 15 minutes it started to snow heavily.. and it got thicker all the time during the race. The tracks were soft and not really helping my poor skiing. It was like a repris from Hochfilzen. Only the tracks were not yellow ones.D

I shot 1+1+2+2 which was absolutely too much! For me it was like a lottery on the shooting range when the wind was blowing strongly. I ended up to the place 40 what in this case didn't satisfy me, nor my coach. And if I would try to not to fall down in the biggest downhill on the last loop helps a lot to get better placements^^'
It didn't prevent the top girls to make a good performances, though! Congrats German team!! Klasse!
So what can I do... More training. My season will be pretty much over after these champs so I'll try to show my best in tomorrow's relay and the weekend's races. Sprint and pursuit will be also on the program..:)

The weather getting colder and they have even forecasted some sun to the weekend so I'm excited!.) Thumbs up again.. I haven't lost my hope^^')