I am going to be in Italy from tomorrow (22nd) to next Thursday (29th). Meeting dentist and friends. If you feel like…well…call me.

can I be just happy today? I don’t have anything specific to say but I just want to remember that today I was really happy. Without any particular reason

Fusku

Today I start the Fusku dance course. Fusku is a kind of  dance very popular here in Finland: more and more people are dancing it in Lavatanssi.

A video to explain a bit better how it looks like:

My website about homemade pizza is almost done. The ebook is ready, I just need few more pictures.

I am just sorry that it’s all in italian but of course if you are interested you can take a look here. (Pizza fatta in casa)

And here there’s a blooper from the video I took to show better how to make the pizza

After following a link found on an italian blog I found myself married

It started from this video (but don’t forget to check the second video…that starts automatically so you need to stop it hehe)

and this is how I ended up married

If you need to find love let them help you (it will take 5minutes)
http://www.bjornborg.com/en/Love/

Helsinki City Run

Last saturday I took part in the Helsinki City Run, the biggest half marathon in Finland. For those of you that doesn’t know it, an half marathon is a 21.1km running-race.

I didn’t reach my primary goal: cross the finish line with a time between 1h40min40sec and 1h42min30sec. But second goal was satisfied: I was the 700 crossing the finish line on over 8000thousand partecipants .
Final time: 1:44:17

But to be honest I’m really satisfied and I had lot of fun. It was the first I took part in a official half marathon competition and yeah, as a first time I can’t complain

Thanks

I would like to take my friends, met during the route. Johanna, she was waiting for me in Töölölahti during the very first kms before going to work. Then Jere and Stippe, unespected, met around the 6th km. And Oliver, he followed me in different part of the race taking really beautiful pictures. And last Kaarina, she came to the Olympic Stadium but at the end we didn’t manage to meet.
And of course I need to thanks Pigi that re-introduced me one year ago to the magical world of running and Roberto Albanesi, we never met but I consider him my virtual  personal trainer.

Race Analysis

A short analysis about the reasons why I couldn’t make it to reach the goal I had when I started training.

In Italy, because of the training on hard condition, I injured my self on the right knee. So I had to skip 15days of training, all the central and most important part of my program. Now I will rest untill June, hoping that the knee will recover 100%.

The day before the race and the same morning I had some stomach problem. And even during the race I was suffering about it a little bit.

I didn’t sleep enough the week before the race. Tention before the race but also my fault, I should have focused better on sleeping more.

During the race I followed a good strategy. I was very concentrated and focused on the race the morning. Then I made a good warm up. I started slowly, without following the crowd that started really fast.
Half of the race my time was 51:31, perfect. The point is that I didn’t make to do the perfect second half. I run a bit slower the second part (52:57), maybe more for mental problem than phisical problems. The last meters in the Olympic Stadium I had a great sprint, so probably I didn’t use my energies properly during the race. I think I underestimate me cause I was worried not to be able to finish it. I had 2 small crysis but I managed to run the all time. Slowest km was the one between 17 and 18 (pease 5:16min/km), also because of a long really hard hill. Fastes km was the one between 12/13 (peace 4:38 min/km)

Two more aspects to consider: weather and my ipod.
Min temperature was 20degrees celtius, max temp 22celtius. It was hot, really hot, the all time. After training the all winter with the snow I wasn’t expecting this kind of weather but I manages anyway without suffering too much and my drinking strategy worked quite well (I drunk a bit at every stop but alwasy keeping on running).

About the music, no excuses: after few kms my ipod’s battery was empty. I spent an entire day creating the perfect half marathon playlist. Plus I couldn’t believe the battery was empty, cause the ipod was charged, so I tried couple of times to make the ipod work again and I think I lost couple of minutes + I wasn’t mentally focused on the race.

Km  Time
—————————
1     0:04:46   
2     0:09:34
3     0:14:30
4     0:19:22
5     0:24:19
6     0:29:16
7     0:34:11
8     0:38:54
9     0:43:57
10   0:48:50
11   0:53:47
12   0:58:36
13   1:03:14
14   1:08:12
15   1:13:18
16   1:18:27
17   1:23:27
18   1:28:43
19   1:33:54
20   1:38:55
21   1:43:55
21.1 1:44:23

Goal: 4:46/4:51
Real average peace: 4.56

Pictures are on my facebook account

Fight Club

Tomorrow it’s April 26th, an important day for me: i moved in Finland exactly 2 years ago, 26.04.2006. And after I’ve been living two years in Helsinki, I can say I still love it, more and more all the time.
And what about the language? Well…I start to understand more but I don’t speak that much…yet. So it’s time to make some changes.
Everybody who goes in Italy can easily learn the language in 1-3months. Why? Cause you can’t speak english in there, italians we don’t speak english.
So how can one learn Finnish? In a creative way, I’m going to be the one that doesn’t speak english.
From tomorrow it’s going to be like I don’t know any english. My first language will be finnish, even with friends. Clearly in the beginning it’s going to be hard but I believe that around the end of the summer…mmm…we will see

The rules of the Suomi Club

1. if I’m talking with someone who doesn’t know one of the 3 languages that I sort of speak (Finnish, Italian and French) then it’s going to be english
2. if it’s the first time that we meet I’m autorized to use english, just to explain who I am
3. With friends I can’t use english
4. I can use english just when I’m with someone for more than 1 or 2 hours during the same night…so at least there is going to be an amount of time in finnish.
   
5. these rules are valid also on the internet
   

Please help me

Pizza Recipe

The recipe to make pizza is really simple but there are some variables that I always forget to consider when I make the dough. After so many years of experience my conclusion is that you need 1dl of water for everyone invited. But the point is that this rule is valid if we are talking about men and that anyway you need to add 0.5-1dl for every italian coming (man or woman, doesn’t make any difference here!)
So, the basic for 3 persons is 3dl.
If they are italian, you need at least 5 maybe 6dl
But if they are finnish, then one needs to remember that they don’t know how pizza should be eaten so you have to put -0.5dl for every finn invited.
But I always forget this rule. Maybe I just want to pizza-civilize Finland: you can’t eat less than 1pizza each, this is a basic rule and it’s also the difference between kids and adults in italy – you are an adult when you can order and finish one pizza all by yourself!
More water means more pizza and I end up eating pizza the all weekend.

Mannerheim

I moved on road Mannerheim, still in Helsinki. I live in front of Opera now. And Cristiano noticed today that finally, after almost 2years and 4times moving, I have a oven again to cook my delicious pizza.

Fifty percent

August 29th, 2004 me, Daniele and Ivan came for the first time in Helsinki, Finland. Before definitely move  here I just came again couple of times just to check how cold was the winter. Anyway from the summer 2004 I have started counting the days spent in Finland and Abroad (Estonia, United States, Sweden, America, Vatican City). Today, December 6th 2007, my parents wedding anniversary and Finland 90th independence day, the days spent in Finland equal the days spent in Italy. So from now on I will be one of these people that talks about a kind of Italy that doesn’t exist anymore, except in my mind. I couldn’t say anymore that in Rome there is always traffic, no parking places, at the post office you have to queue and cars are parked in the middle of the street. This was the Rome that I knew. Something should have been changed, right?

Talking seriously: this 50% is a bit scary but it’s also a great satisfaction: I am still here.

Happy Anniversary