Eeva-Liisa Hakala

Working for sports and forests

From polar night of Lapland under the sun of Spain. Couple weeks sunny days for the beginning of this year  ? Why not! That what I was thinking when decided suddenly take the chance. I took part for team Finland National Orienteering Federation camp as a muscel maintanancer. It was camp for the youngsters (age 16-22) located at the southest part of Spain. We had some combained trainings and the same accommodation with whole Sweedish national orienteering team. That´s why it was also good chance for our youngsters to see how the professional orienteerers are training and living between trainings.

I´ve got a good experince since the 2008 from these sort of trips. Mainly I´ve been travelling with mtbo´ers. Now it was camp without bikes. It didin´t bothered me at all even it was different people. ´Cause orienteering people are always kind of same wether they do it by running, by bike or by skiis.

The new year is approaching... One more photo from this snowy nature in Lapland. And those lovey colors of blue! I had to leave from Lapland now. I got some other interesting opportunity to go for. So I´m heading to south. But I keep "living in Lapland" as one possible alteranative for the next years. Well, actually I don´t have any long time plans currently. I think that with open mind the next year can bring something great to my life  !

I had a nice time with my sister´s daughter. Works took quite lot from me but we had some time to spent together. Pulling a sledge and skiing was one of our activities. I think we both liked it, though baby was just sleeping when we were at outdoors  .

Btw. It´s hard to find a motivation for some school projects when there are so much better ways to spent your time. But I´ll do my best, in everything  . ´Cause everyhting got´s it´s time!

Since the last post I´ve been driving through Finland in different directions: from East to West, from West to East and from East to North. And what now? Some school things need to bee finished soon. After that I can more "seize the moment". Ideas and timetabels for my Spring or further life are pretty open. That´s why "seize the moment" goes for me greatly!

Last weeks the weather has been rainy and quite dark/ gray. I haven´t seen sun for a long time. But life´s not that bad! I just finished my practical training period. Now I´m suppoused to start planning my life a bit futher. Just don´t have energy for that, yet...

Needed something else to think about. What could be better way to relax the brains than some training? First kilometers on skis at this winter are now done. Even though, on 800 meter long track which has been made from last winter snow  . I forgot my watch to home and counting laps was way too hard. Like it often happens, I lost my mind to wandering around. So I have no idea about the length of my training. Just went easily with the flow  !

https://tanhuvaara.fi/

During this week weather has get colder in Finland. Before snow is coming I found couple place to visit. As I decided to give a winter brake for my bike it meant exploring places by feet. City called Sulkava has many places worth to visit. I took two of those for the same day. Firstly I enjoyed marked routes at Vilkaharju. On the route you will find some infrastructure from 2nd World War.

Next I went to see this rock called Pismalahden Linnavuori. It is also historical place. There´s been a fortre approximately thousand years ago. Remaining from that time there are pieces of a stone wall to see. At the top of the hill you´ll find a nice view to lake Saimaa.

http://www.visitsulkava.fi/fi/vilkaharjunluontopolku/

https://www.luontoon.fi/pisamalahti

It has come time to settle down for a bit. I started new practical training straight after arrived from Germany. First days were really exhausting. I was tired in every meaning of it. I didn´t had even energy to go for a food store. My mom came for a visit and saved me from starvation  .

There´s been a little back problem after last footbal game (3 weeks ago). Today I was finally ready for a bike ride. The nature around my current living area is so great  ! I rode some new roads for me and saw variety of nature spots. Now I´m feeling more energetic. I think I´m ready to face the tasks that are ahead before the end of this year.

Photo: Tuuli Lehtimäki

Mtbo Junior and Youth European Championships + mtbo World Cup. Those were the races held by Germany. Team Finland took part for there with almost 30 riders. So many youngsters need us to take care of all sort of things. Our team got three team officials. Also many parents had found their way to Germany to cheer up for the team.

https://2019.mtbo-deutschland.de/index.php/home-en.html

https://www.facebook.com/mtbofi/

It was very exotic weather. I had just and just enough clothes for me and some spare clothes for atheletes. Especially during realay the weather was hard for riders (few degrees, rain and wind). Whatsoever, I spent great time with my friends over there. Missing it already  !

Photo: Juho Övermark

We won yesterday the sesaon last game 2-0! Exciting game from the begining. My team game was bit confused from the start. It took time for us to get it better. 2-0 results tells the rest. We managed to keep the ball out of own goal, so it it was my first "zero goals behind me -game"  . But the most important thing was that we made two goals and got full points to home! After this final round my team got 4th place in women´s 2nd division. That´s a really good achievement from a small town team!

Results: https://www.palloliitto.fi/naisten-kakkonen?group=3 ;

And what about the next year? Can´t say anything for that yet. Team will keep going on, but will I be with it. It depends from lots of open questions in my life. Where will I live during next year? That´s one of the biggest question that prevents me to promise anything. But I enjoyed to took part for this team during this season. I´d like to improve my skills as much as I can and be part of football in future too. I also love to have this sort of training where you get easy hits that makes your bones and joints stronger  .