In August I'm going to climb to the highest mountain in Finland, Halti. Well, some might laugh when I tell that it's only 1324 metres high but the point is that it takes about five days to reach the peak, 110 kilometres through the Lapland's wilderness on foot with the backpack on and everything needed with, a tent, a sleeping bag, a map, food.... maybe 20 kg gears.

Seven hours and thirty minutes later... the goal! I'm exhausted but happy :)

Tour de Lake Näsijärvi is going to start in two hours. If you don't hear anything about me tomorrow - I may be...
DEAD!

It's time to wipe out spider webs and check the bike. After ten days I should be driving Tour de Lake Näsijärvi (134 km) and I haven't yet started to practise. What the heck, practise is for those who don't have talents...



I'm gonna die there...I'm gonna die there...I'm gonna die there...

I'm thinking of booking myself in to the 32nd Pirkka Cycling Night Tour the 12-13th of June. The tour is 134 kilometres - by bicycle. Long ago (when I was still young) I drove the tour but in the daytime. They still have the event in the daytime too but driving the tour in the night sounds more challenging.

Today I lost 0.4 kg of my weight. I donated blood. They asked stupid questions like have you visited countries where you may have infected by malaria? Eh, yes (some). Have you donated before? Yes (they didn't ask if I did it in Cambodia). My haemoglobin was 161, so they took my blood anyway :)

Bad news (so far) is that they don't let me donate again during the next two months. I have to find out other ways to lose some weight. How much one kidney weights? I could give away one...

2500 steps in 1 hour 40 minutes...

Today I took really heavy methods in use. I returned to the stairs of Pispala. Those are the same stairs I climbed up and down when I practised the climb to Mount Kinabalu in March 2008. Today I climbed 2000 steps and amazingly I am not even exhausted! My physical condition is better than I thought :)



I'm also thinking about donating blood. 350 ml is about 0,35 kg! If I donate blood weekly next coming four months, it makes 5,6 kg in all. Hmmm... I still have to find out the way how to get rid of extra four kilograms.

P.S. 2000 steps is more than climbing up and down to Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur!

I've been on a diet for about two months now. I have managed to reduce my weight and my scale proves that I have reached the same weight I had one year ago when I practised the Kinabalu climb. I should be happy but I'm not. I'm angry with myself because I could not keep myself in good shape. During these two months, I have been hungry, tired, cranky, less active - shortly, I haven't been me.

I have still four months to achieve my goal. Time to time I feel I'm not able to do it. On the other hand, it makes me try even harder!

Today I burned zillion calories by the exercise bicycle. Tomorrow I will test my brand new alpine skis. Here you can check some previews...


Ouch, ouch, ouch...

My weight goes up and down like a rollercoaster. I have been hungry about four weeks now. Yes, I'm doing it again, trying to control my weight. I have promised (to myself) that I WILL lose some weight. In fact I did it maybe six months ago but because I'm not a person who chooses the easiest way I have increased my weight first (A LOT) and started decreasing from the beginning of January. I'll let you know when (if) I reach the weight I had last summer. I have stopped eating and practise almost daily with my exercise bicycle...

My weight project reached its goal when I managed to conquer the summit of Mount Kinabalu. I started my weight watching almost one year ago and so far I have lost 18,4 kg (40,6 lbs). Not so bad! Today, I returned to the Pispala stairs and noticed that 1000 steps went just like that and it felt good but meanwhile I wondered why I'm doing this. So, I think I should have a new target. What could it be? Another mountain, some precise weight limit or what - I have to figure out something. (In Pispala something came to my mind - Nepal. Meh, I'm not so sure)

I visited my doctor today. First of all I wanted an answer to my question about the number of estimated years to come. When is it the right time to call vultures? But it seems that vultures have to wait for some years before they can recycle my dead body. A female vampire sucked my blood and analysed what kind of stuff flowed inside my veins. It was red.
The doctor was pleased when I told that 17.3 kg (38.1 lbs.) including the lost blood had disappeared since April 2007. In fact he said I'm a healthy man. Wow, for the first time ever I had a "healthy" label in my papers. I almost liked him.

Secondly I needed an expert's medical opinion about my chances to climb up 4100 metres high mountain and survive. He didn't refuse my try. It makes me wonder if there are vultures in Borneo! Hah, I checked and found six species according to my bird guidebook. The doctor gave me also pills in purpose to prevent malaria. He gave me "Malarone" pills. I'm somewhat disappointed because "Lariam" pills gave me cool hallucinations when I ate them in Brazil. This new medicine is claimed not to have so bad side effects. Blaah, what's the point then?

Slowly but constantly losing my weight (16.0 kg = 35.3 lbs)

I'm proud of myself. According to my scale I've lost 15.0 kg (33.07 lbs.) weight. AFTER CHRISTMAS, can you believe that!!! At the same time I can feel that I'm in much better condition. I've continued my stair exercise and if I counted right I have climbed up 18380 steps. Hard exercise is not the best way to lose weight but it's good to practise physical condition too. I have still two months left before the real adventure begins.

You can laugh now, I bought those sticks! I still think Nordic walking looks stupid and ridiculous! It's amazing how many different kinds of sticks there are. I also learned that there are sticks and there are poles. Mine are Hi-Tech Titanium Telescopic Treckking Poles for higher altitudes and mountains! That is something different. Now I can practise my walking with those things and not become a laughing-stock. In fact I had to try them and spent two hours climbing a slalom hill nearby my home. It was quite fun and nobody laugh at me (it was dark and there was nobody else).

My scale gives me the weight which is now 14.3 kg (31.5 lbs.) less than it was last April when I started this lifetime (?) long period of weight watching. I'm proud of myself. I have also noticed that stair climbing can be addictive. Yesterday I had to go there again and I did 2000 steps up and down without feeling myself too exhausted. When I woke up in the morning I didn't feel any painful muscles this time. When I compare my feelings after the first stair climbing last Saturday, I felt big development happened.



I thought that maybe I should buy a Nordic walking sticks. Although it looks really stupid, it's an effective way to do exercise. Sticks also help a lot when coming downhill from the mountain.

1550 and some extra steps today! Did it five times, climbed them up and down. It's amazing how rapidly your body can adjust to physical stress. I found some new muscles (in my front thighs) but my lungs worked much better than yesterday. I think I will be a familiar sight on those stairs, meet you there if you happen to be in Tampere! Oh, I heard a story that's probably true. In Tampere there's such a custom that those mothers whom are pregnant and the estimated date of child's birth has gone over, they go to those stairs for climbing them and if I understood it right, climbing should start birth(?). I wouldn't want to be in the middle of those stairs when it happens! I haven't seen any pregnant women there yet, but should I learn midwife skills just in case!!! I also realised that other people might think when they see a roundish person climbing there in the darkness, that there goes another desperate mother...

One should not observe news. There have been some troubles in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), for the first time in ten years. That's so typical, my travel to Borneo will go via Kuala Lumpur. :( 

As I told you before I'm going to conquer a mountain next March. Mount Kinabalu (4095 metres) is waiting there if some roundish Finnish guy who have obviously lost his mind will really do it! Luckily, we have a thing called "sisu" in Finland, you can call it willpower or something like it. That's the main resource that helps me up. But I have to admit that some efforts should be made beforehand. 

Mount Kinabalu
 

 

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I will expose my darkest secret here! I have a SEWING MACHINE and of course a modest multitalented person like me, can also use it. Now, after losing about 15 kg (35 lbs.), my clothes are slowly becoming almost too wide. This is gonna become expensive for me! I have bought many new clothes, for example shirts, jackets, a coat and so on. Today I decided to fix my jeans smaller. Now I have a lot of extra denim.

 The first time ever I decided to add the music I'm listening to at the moment (sewing music!).

Some progress still going on with my weight watching project, -13.3 kg (29.3 lbs)