Alexey Smirnov's blog

This Saturday I participated in a race in Tuusula, the place where I ran a marathon last year. Initially I was planning to run a half-marathon because this was the first race in year 2010. In addition, I had only one long run this year after which I felt pain in the legs and was not running for another couple of weeks.

So my mindset was configured toward an easy half-marathon until the moment when I arrived to Tuusula. But I will start with what I was doing on Friday. In the evening I had a check-up training session under rain after which my mood was between not running on Saturday at all or running a half-marathon.

However, on Saturday the weather improved and the sun was shining. I went to the bus station and boarded the bus to Tuusula. It was quite a low-cost comfortable trip in a tourist bus. It costs less than 6 Euros one way, 30 kilometers from Helsinki to Tuusula. I was astonished when I got off the bus and breathed freshest air and saw the cleanest sky. It is a kind of feeling when you arrive to a village after spending time in the city. And I thought – such a beautiful life, why should I spend half of the day at home? I should spend all my time on the road today – and I decided to run a marathon against all odds!

A marathon is always a challenge. But I have learned the lessons of the past and started the marathon slowly. Because of the nice weather lots of people were walking or biking. Many of them were also participating in marathon but as cheerleaders. Look at these nice posters in the hands of children. They are saying Hyvää which means Good in Finnish. The spectators make the run a lot more enjoyable.

The course goes to the town of Järvenpää – the town of Jan Sibelius and Joonas Kokkonen, the two famous Finnish composers. It was surprising to see an amusement park there. Besides the traditional carousels a helicopter tour was offered for only 60 Euro! It is well known that in big cities it costs a lot more, probably 300 Euro or so. Of course, I did not fly the chopper this time but if I were visiting Järvenpää as a tourist I sure would!

After leaving the town the course goes through countryside. At this time of year the trees are not green yet and there is no crops on the fields. However, the spring has definitely come and the last patches of snow are disappearing under the shining sun. It is very nice to watch the nature waking up after winter sleep, such an enjoyable feeling.

I have completed the first lap 21km in 2 hours 25 minutes, slightly slower than last year when I was running a marathon. However, then I felt crams in my legs because I have not adapted to the shoes yet. It is one of the best shoes you can get. The original price is nearly 150 Euros but I got them on a sale for 70 Euros. I guess their biggest advantage is that they treat your knees well – a typical problem of an experienced runner. Indeed, I should say that on Sunday my legs were in good condition, much better than earlier even after half-marathons. However, during the second half of the race I felt lots of pain in muscles and thus had to walk, not run.

De-hydration is another typical problem during the marathons. I was in the winter pants, I used to skate during freezing temperatures in this pants. I decided not to buy the sports-suite because I thought the weather will get warmer and I will run in the shorts. But for this race I definitely needed a sports suite, not the winter pants. This is why during the second half of the race I needed to drink a lot. Even though the water stations were available here and there I felt thirsty at thirty kilometers. Fortunately, there was a Siwa shop near the road. Another lucky coincidence was that I had money with me, but only 3 Euros. It turned out that the energy drink costs 2.99 Euros. This drink healed my legs, the muscle pain was gone and I was able to run again! I guess I was super-lucky on that day!

So I completed the marathon walking the middle part of it but otherwise running. The net time is 5:16:41 which is worse than what I thought of in the beginning but much better than what I was thinking during the race when my legs started to hurt. I thought I would have to walk the second half of the race in which case my time would approach 7 hours.

Overall, nice run in a joyful atmosphere. A tough battle to finish the race but this is a marathon after all, the sports of Gods! From now on I think I should try marathons every time. Because a half-marathon is a shorter distance I am always trying to beat my record which takes lots of effort. I feel a lot more exhausted after a half-marathon than after a marathon. Also a marathon gives a lot more satisfaction – not everybody can do it.

And I just did it! Again!

I would like to describe what I am doing on weekends in Helsinki. Life in a city is certainly different from the life in a smaller town or a countryside. One of the challenges of this life is to do outdoors activities or at least some kind of sports to stay in shape.

This is why I start my weekend from attending a swimming pool, or in fact a Roman bath at Yrjonkatu. The definition of start of the day is quite relative because I am going there typically at 2PM. Earlier during the morning I am reading magazines mostly Communications of ACM or listening to radio. Not so long ago I have discovered Radio Freedom which features prominent journalists such as Vladimir Kara-Murza as well as lots of independent analysts. They often express interesting opinions. One thing that I have noticed is their use of references to literature or books that they have read recently. They are trying to apply the lessons learned from those books to modern life. This definitely characterizes this radio as that of intellectuals.

Anyway, in the swimming pool I am practicing fsreestyle wimming. I am swimming 500-1,000 meters depending on further plans. As of now, I can swim arbitrary long distances but not very fast, pretty much as fast as I could do it in breast stroke. However, the idea of swimming freestyle is to swim faster. But my body is experiencing tough resistance of water I am basically making my way through it. Instead I guess I need to flow through it, integrate with the water. But that takes lots of practice. Anyway, I have bought a 10-time ticket that allows me to get to any swimming pool in Helsinki for 36 Euros.

Then after the swimming pool I spend a few hours reading. For example, last weekend I was reading Economist magazine which I like quite a lot. I have bought another issue because of the funny cover image. There was a special report on social networks. Its main points are:

• MySpace was most visited social network until last year Facebook attracted more visitors. This is because MySpace was focusing on music and movies, whereas Facebook built a platform for content sharing. As broadband Internet spread through the world people got more interested in their own content.
• Twitter is very different from other social networks because it is like a broadcasting framework, not content sharing. The latter always assumes a certain degree of privacy, for example only your friends can see your pictures. In Twitter everybody can subscribe to your tweets.
• So far social networks have been barely profitable because advertisers don’t think that people will click on ads placed on social networks. This is because people are concentrated on their or their friends’ content, not on ads. But the special report argues that people trust their friends’ recommendations most, thus an ad saying that your friend has bought product X will likely influence your decision.
• Many smaller enterprises are using Twitter to advertise themselves. For example one bakery was tweeting upcoming donut sales and soon got over 50,000 followers. Another example is using Facebook as a game distribution platform. A classical Cafe World game has attracted over 10 million players in just a week. This is because of Facebook’s status updates. When your friend says that (s)he has become a Pizza Tycoon you think you should also become one. The network effect takes over. Gaming industry has never seen such growth rates before.
• People are increasingly using mobile devices to access social networks. Most of these devices are GPS-enabled. This opens another avenue for advertisers: location-aware ads.

On Sunday I am going to a lake to skate. I am preparing for a ice-skating marathon which will take place in the end of February in Kuopio. It is a funny thing which I will definitely describe in another post if I take part in it. The idea is that you have to skate as much as 200 km! But of course there are smaller distances such as 100km, 50km, 25km, and 12km. I will try to skate 25km. Because I am using traditional skates, not speed-skating type of gear my speed is not that great. A speed skater can maintain a 30km/h speed during the whole 200km race. Last weekend I skated 15km on a lake at Munkkiniemi and my speed was less than 10km/h.

Last but not least, I got used to going to movies. There is a gorgeous movie theater near my home in Tennispalatsi. I have bought a group ticket that gives access to 5 movies, each priced at 8.5 Euros. This is quite a big discount, as a single 3D movie is priced at 13 Euros. So far I have watched Avatar 3D, Up in the Air, and Sherlock Holmes. All are gorgeous movies.

Last Saturday I visited Himos with a colleague of mine. This year winter started not very early. In fact, in November it was much warmer than usual, approximately +5 centigrade. But in December the chilly weather began with lots and lots of snow. During the last couple of years there was almost no snow during Christmas and New Year in Helsinki. I remember that when I arrived at Senate Square to celebrate the coming year 2009 it was cold but there was absolutely no snow.

This year we have already gone through a number of snow storms. In fact, a few of them lasted for quite long, a day or so. As a result I would say now there is over 1 meter of snow in Helsinki which makes it look like a real winter.

Because of that Himos opened very early this year. As I enjoyed it so much during the previous winter this year I decided to go there as soon as it opens. However, their web site was saying that only 1 black hill will become available on the first day, the other hills were blue and green, an easier level of difficulty. Fortunately, I had a colleague from work called Evgeni who have not skied before, thus I spent a fair amount of time teaching him how to ski. In fact, last winter I was teaching another guy and in the end of the season he was skiing black hills quite easily. During my career as a downhill skiing coach this is the third guy who is discovering downhill skiing with me. Should I open my training courses?

The difference from the previous year is that these days I live in Helsinki. From Tampere it was quite easy to get to Himos on a bus. It left at 8 AM from the central bus station and after a couple of hours was arriving to Himos right at its opening time. However, I had to wake up at 6 AM because I was living far from the bus station. It is a bit of inconvenience to wake up that early on Saturday.

Helsinki is located even farther from Himos than Tampere. One option was to take a train to Tampere and then a bus to Himos. But then I would have to wake up at 4 AM which is a heroic effort. Thus I thought of renting a car. On Friday I was researching the price of various rentals and on average it was 80 Euros for a day which was quite expensive. But I was lucky to find EasyRent whose price was only 44 Euros, twice as low as competitors. Their garage opens at 9AM on Saturday thus I had plenty of time to sleep.

However, I woke up at 5 AM in the morning on Saturday. In anticipation of a great day at Himos I could sleep no more. Thus after rotating in my bed for a while I went to EasyRent and picked up the car at quater to 9. I met with Evgeni near Kallio Church where the garage is located and went straight to Gustav Vasa highway that goes to Lahti. The way to Lahti is only 1/3 of the total distance. Upon arriving there we had to take route 24 to Jamsa which is not even a highway but just a out-of-town road with 1 lane each way and 80 km/h speed limit. However, I still enjoyed this 2-hour stretch because we had interesting conversations as well as nice surroundings. We even dropped at one hotel located 5km off the road. It was a big village house which nowdays is used as a hotel and a restaurant. There we got a total of 6 sandwitches as well as coffee for only 15 Euros. Food at countryside is very cheap.

We arrived at Himos at half past noon. One reason is that we were looking for a gas station for quite a long time. It is funny that there are very few of those on Helsinki-Lahti highway. Also we spent half an hour during our coffee break. Compared to travelling from Tampere it takes longer to get to Himos from Helsinki but on the other hand you do not have to wake up that early. Also it is possible to stay at Himos longer whereas the bus to Tampere leaves at 4PM when lots of people are still skiing during twilight hours.

We left Himos at 6PM because it was quite chilly. But upon arrival to Helsinki area we had fun trying to find Evgeni’s appartment in Espoo. This district is quite tricky to navigate. Evgeni was using his GPS but because of road work at one moment we almost left Espoo for Helsinki but fortunately after taking the last exit I found out that we still were in Espoo. After navigating through this beautiful town for a hour or so I arrived at my home at Vuorimiehenkatu in Helsinki where I was very lucky to park my car. I was so tired that I decided not to go to garage immediately, instead I went there on Sunday morning.

Overall, great trip. It is actually cheaper to rent a car to go to Himos if you share the car. And of course it offers a great amount of flexibility – you can stay at Himos as long as you want. With more snow falling nowdays I expect that Himos open every slope it has. I am looking forward to going there againg after that!

Russians managed to win the Karjala Cup. On Saturday two games were played in Hartwall Arena. During the first game Russians were playing against Swedish team, during the second game Finns were playing against Czechs. The tickets included both games and the price was 30 Euros which is quite good for a top-level international matches. I arrived to Hartwall arena shortly after noon and stayed there until evening. It was a great ice-hockey day with lots of music, cafeteria, and interesting games. I even felt jealous to the players, the real heroes of the day, the ice warriors.

I did not have much expectations of Russia-Sweden game. Earlier Russia was playing against Finns and they managed to win by penalty shots. On the other hand Swedish team was playing a very nice game against Czechs. During the first period the teams exchanged the goals. The game was very polite with no penalties at all. It happens very rarely in ice-hockey. It looked as if Swedish team was waiting for something. I guess their strategy was based on counter-attacks because they knew that Russians were tired after the previous game.

After the break Russians were playing 3-5 because of two players who got penalties. It was a very tough moment. Russian goalkeeper was doing 200% of his job but we survived! I was sitting across the Russian goalkeeper and was able to see those dangerous attacks closely. The Swedish team was just unlucky because several times the puck has hit the frame of the goal. After that Russians managed to score again while Swedish team was in power play!

During the rest of the game Russians dominated. The overall score 4-1 is quite impressive. Approximately 6,500 people attended.

The next game was very important for Finns because if they lost they would have ended up in the last place in the tournament. So the teams were very nervous and the game started with lost of penalties. Because of that Czechs managed to score very quickly! What a devastating beginning for over 10,000 Finnish fans! But then their team managed to make the score equal.

During the second period Finns scored a second goal in a very tough manner, the Canadian style. At that moment almost every player was at the pit of Czechs goal. Finns simply brought the puck to the goal in their hands. Then the referees reviewed the goal using video cameras and cancelled it! What a bold move in front of the angry fans! I guess the referees would have to stay in a protected area of Hartwall Arena should the Finns loose the game. But during the thrid period they managed to score a goal which gave them a victory with minimal score 2-1.

On Sunday two other games were played but I didn’t go there. They were also quite interesting. Russians won Czechs in overtime which allowed them to win the whole tournament. Great job guys, I really enjoyed watching Russian team. This time they delivered!

This year I am attending Karjala Cup which takes place in Hartwall Arena in Helsinki. The opening game of this year was Russia-Finland. In total, over 10,000 people attended this game which is not bad compared to previous years.

When I was in Tampere I went to another Russia-Finland game. Back then Russia lost 2-4. I had an impression that Russians were a bit tired whereas Finns looked very strong. This time it was quite the opposite.

However, the game began as a total disaster for Russians. After 10 minutes they were loosing 0-3. This is because of the failures in defence. Later on I found out that a few defenders were sick or injured. After getting such huge advantage Finns calmed and tried to slow down the game. However, after the brake Russians decided to try to save the game. It is worth mentioning that they did not look ashamed or puzzled or anything. They just did their job in a tough situation. They were looking a lot more professional than they did in Tampere last year.

The first goal of Russians was one of the best goals I have seen. The attacker was waiting patiently whereas the Finnish defender looked nervous and started making spurious movements and finally fell down. This is when the attacker gave the puck to another attacker who scored a goal. This goal shows the great understanding of ice-hockey and its intrinsic rhythm that Russians have.

Finns did not perceive this goal as a warning sign and continued to play normally. Sometimes it looked that they were tired. But Russians were trying to use every possibility to score another goal. They managed to score when Finns were playing power play! Two Russian attackers were near the Finnish goal while only one defender was guarding Russian goalkeeper. This was a risky attempt and Russians might have lost everything there. But they were lucky.

Score 2-3 was not changed until the end of the third period. But during the last minute of the game Russian attacker Morozov made an easy shot towards Finnish goalkeeper. And he let the puck go into the goal to the surprise of everybody! Finns were going to win this game and already prepared to celebrate but everything changed during the last minute! What a surprise! I still cannot believe that the goalkeeper did not catch the puck after a simple shot in the most decisive moment!

Then the overtime passed and Russians won the lottery of penalty shots. Gorgeous game indeed. The skill of ice-hockey play of Russians is questionable because Finns granted them two goals, the second and the third. In the former goal the Finnish defenders were helpless, in the other was the goalkeeper. But Russians deserved the victory for their desire to play good ice-hockey and fight and recover from initial failure.

It is tempting to put this game into a historical context. Imaging wild Russians that arrived to a civilized Europe. Initially the Finns who are the Karjala Cup hosts were able to push back the barbarians but then a Russian riot followed. As prominent Russian historian Edward Radzinsky once said

Beware of Russian Riot – not always meaningless but always brutal.

(this is a modified quotation of Pushkin, the original version is beware of Russian riot, always meaningless and brutal).

Likewise, this game of Russians was not always meaningless.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

Together with my German friends Thomas and Judith, I have attended an ice-hockey game between Blues and HPK. The score was like that in soccer, Blues lost 1-2. But overall the game was quite fun to watch because of sincere attempts of both teams to score more.

HPK, a team from Hameenlinna, a town with old castle were playing quite aggressively. At one point 3 players out of 5 got penalties. This happens very rarely in ice-hockey. The rules are such that the referees only deleted 2 players and the 3rd penalty was delayed. As the result, Blues were playing 5 players against 3 during lots of time. But they did not manage to score. Their inability encouraged HPK for even more aggressive play. During the game, lots of penalties have been assigned. Taking advantage of this is what Blues need to take a look at.

HPK was not much better in scoring. Quite often they got puck to the goalkeeper but the final shot was missing. Overall, however the defenders were good as well as goalkeepers. Often, they played the role of a 6th field player because they went quite far out of the goal.

In fact, Blues scored in the end of the 3rd period but the referees discarded that goal.

I have participated in a half-marathon in Espoo. It is one of the largest running events in Finland, probably next only to the Helsinki City Run.

The course goes through the forest as well as partly through asphalt. This is why it is called a Rantamaraton, or a beach marathon in English. The course is quite tough, it goes uphill quite often. Compared to a course in Hameenlinna which also goes through forests this Espoo run is a lot more difficult because of this.

Before the race I got new shoes with a big discount. I decided to try them out immediately. Initially they felt very light and comfortable but after half of the distance I found out that the feet were badly damaged because of friction. Then I started feeling the muscle jams. I even thought of retiring from the race but I managed to get to the finish line after walking the last few kms. But my time was still fair – 2 hours and 3 minutes, the same as it was the first time I ran in Seinajoki a couple of years ago.

What I really liked was the atmosphere of the city. It looked as if every resident of Espoo went out to streets to cheer the runners. This gives additional strength to the runners.

Another difference was the number of people. In the forests the paths are quite narrow, two people are barely able to share it. When several thousand people are trying to get through a narrow path the intense competition is inevitable. This is why a marathon and half-marathon are started off at different times and partly go through different routes. However, in the end the routes merge and then the number of people increases even more. On that day a lot of people ran faster than I because I had to walk a lot, but I have overtaken a few tired marathoners as well. This constant competitiveness did not allow me to maintain a normal pace. I was confused as of whether I was going too slowly when I was overtaken or that I was going too fast when I was overtaking. Knowing your pace is very important.

Overall, tough course and nice people but I did not have too much luck this time. And I guess this is the last race this season. This year I have done quite of few of those including a marathon and I am very happy. I did not experience any major leg injury this year. Looking forward to having more successful attempts next year!

Thanks to my colleague Thomas Moenike I have got this bike from Green Bike, a company that rents bikes during the summer and then sells them in the fall.

It has 3 speeds and a lock for the rear wheel. On the front wheel there is a light that I am turning on when I bike in the darkness. So far, I have enjoyed using this bike because of its large wheels and speed selection.

As I am getting used to living in Helsinki there are a few things that I enjoy almost every weekend. After the summer break the swimming pools are opening now. I found out that there is a swimming hall that resembles Roman bath right in the center of the city, a 10-minute walk from home.

When I was a student I once went to a conference in Italy. I visited Rome and visited Baths of Caracalla. But the construction in Helsinki is also quite impressive. On the first floor there is a swimming pool and two electric saunas. On the second floor there are cabins as well as additional bigger saunas. When I went to the swimming hall on Saturday morning only the first floor was open. Still, I enjoyed swimming in such warm water. I guess they make it warmer because otherwise people will freeze as soon as they get out of sauna.

After swimming for an hour or so, I am proceeding to the market square. In Helsinki lots of markets take place during the weekends. Various things are sold there including mushrooms, pancakes, fish, tourist souvenirs, etc. I eat a couple of pancakes or lettu in Finnish. With tasty gem and tea it is a perfect refreshment after Roman bath.

Then I read books for a couple of hours. These days I am reading novels of Anton Chehov and Clay Shirky’s Here comes everybody which I am actually done with and going to write a review.

Then in the afternoon I am taking a ride to Suomenlinna, a stronghold located on four island not far from Helsinki. The reason I am going there is because it includes a boat cruise and costs so little, less than 4 Euros. Suomenlinna was built in 1700s. The amount of work that people did without any automation is amazing. They used huge stones to build 10-meter walls at the perimeter of the islands. I guess the total length of their constructions is nearly 1km.

On Sundays I am exploring other museums. During the summer I went to organ concerts. But now the concerts are over. I have accumulated a big collection of organ music. Nowdays I am converting it to MP3. The bigger idea is to build a library using the Simile Exhibit widget. But anyway, last Sunday I went to Seurasaari open-air museum. In fact, I visited a similar museum in Suzdal when I was on vacation in Russia. But here they have more houses. I found out that one building was originally in Russian Karelia.

Despite the economic downturn our company has arranged a party this year as well. We have visited Jämijarvi, a cottage village north of Tampere.

As I have arrived from Helsinki to Tampere on Saturday morning, the first thing that I noticed was that it was much colder in Tampere than in Helsinki. Later on I figured out that whenever there is a weather forecast for Helsinki, the area near the Baltic Sea where I am living at the moment has much warmer temperature, usually 5 degrees centigrade more.

But the bus has arrived quickly, in addition I grabbed a cup of coffee so I did not feel cold. Upon arrival the people were divided into several groups. We were told that we would go through a number of activities. Our group has visited them as follows.

First we had to play Hanoi towers game with 5 disks. As I remembered the algorithm for solving this problem from high school the task did not present any difficulties for our team. We were able to move the disks in 2 minutes and 36 seconds. I thought we were moving pretty quickly and did not expect any other team to improve our result. However, later during the day a couple of other teams were able to do it faster, in part because they probably knew our time. But there were other people also who spent significantly more on solving this puzzle.

Next stage was arch shooting. I didn’t hit the target at all, the arrows went mostly up. However, later during the day I was able to make another attempt and it was more successful.

Then there was horse riding, a kind of break after two difficult assignments. After the horse riding we had a test drive on quadricycles. I learned how to switch the gears including the rear gear. These quads are actually pretty fast, especially when you switch to the forth gear. I guess riding on them is a bit like riding a horse because you have to hold it really tight.

Then there was a boy-scout kind of stage. We were asked to build a trap for animals. We have digged a hole and covered it with leaves.

Last but not least we tried to drive the RC cars. It was a lot of fun. We had to drive several laps trying to avoid hitting the obstacles. As our team was doing this exercise in the end, we knew the score of the previous teams and were able to improve on it.

Overall, our team finished third. Then we had nice lunch, then went to sauna. In the evening there was a concert of a rock band and after midnight there was a fire performance, a gorgeous show with fire eaters. I have posted the recording to YouTube.

Next day we were in a spa hotel and then during the afternoon we came back to Tampere. It was raining on Sunday and we were thinking all way long how lucky we were on Saturday. The weather on that day was sunny. It looks like everybody enjoyed this party with lots of fun, drinks, and food!