Justin Ruiz in Haparanda, Sweden, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

I made it to haparanda, Sweden yesterday in the early afternoon. We
packed everything up from Pajulahti and took a bus to the airport in
Helsinki. After that we flew to a small airport in Kemi and got a ride
to Haparanda.

We are staying at a hotel called Cape East. The other two times that I
have stayed in this city we lodged at the Stadhotel which was in the
middle
Of downtown. However this hotel is located a mile or two out from the
city so we have to take a cab to town. Fortunately we have wifi at the
hotel in the lobby. Having Internet access is a great benefit. The one
challenge that comes with the host city is that there is very little
daylight here. By 2 o’clock in the afternoon it is already dark. It
makes for a long day and it is easy to be confused as to what time it
really is around here.

Last night to help pass some of the time I spent some time in a sauna
last night shown here in the picture above. This sauna has a
woodburning stove which heats it. There are three saunas like this
located outside of the hotel. Myself and a team mate started a fire in
one of the saunas last night but I ended up hopping into another one
that was much hotter. Making the fire was a lot of fun. It made it
feel like I was camping.

I got a little carried away in the hot sauna and put too much water on
the rocks that sit on top of the stove. My ears and the rest of my
skin felt like they were on fire and I had to step out for a minute
but it was fun. I am looking forward to that same sauna later tonight.

This weekend is kind of a bust because I won’t be wrestling. I hurt
myself in the tournament last wekend and won’t be competing thus
weekend. I am dissapointed but also
I understand that is part of the sport. Hopefully I will heal quickly
and be ready to wrestle again soon.

Justin Ruiz at the Vantaa Cup, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

Today I wrestled in the Vantaa Cup. Unfortunately for me things didn’t
go as well as I would have liked. I wrestled a Swedish opponent in the
first round of the tournament, and during the match I hurt my neck
and shoulder. I had one of the worst stingers that I have ever had in
my life. As I write this my hand is still numb and if I move my head
to the right or backwards I get shooting pains down my arm. Anyway
this slowed me down a little bit during my second match against
Ukraine, and I lost the match. After that match, I injury defaulted
out of the rest of the competition. Hopefully I will feel better to
compete next weekend and train some this week as well.

Even though things didn’t go as I had planned, I still feel that this
tournament was a good experience overall. I was able to polish a
couple of techniques during this week’s training as well as get in a
couple of good international matches. It is all part of the process to
be able to get back on top.

As far as the US team, we had some wrestlers do well. Dremiel Byers
won the tournament defeating Brandon Rupp in the finals. Chas Betts
won second place and we have several other wrestlers who are competing
this session who are going for third. There are also some good
wrestlers who are competing in the finals tonight. I am looking
forward to watching some good matches.

As a side note, from this picture it looks like I need to shave my
head when I get home. There is a litle too much shine on the top of my
head. Oh well.

Justin Ruiz in Finland: Day 2, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

Today I had the chance to walk around Helsinki. We walked to the 1952
Olympic Stadium and got to peek inside a little through a window but
the stadium itself was closed so I took a picture with the map of the
complex. While I was there I thought about all of the athletes that
trained for their entire lives to be able to compete in those games.
They were once doing what I am doing now. It was a very motivating
experience.

While walking through Helsinki I also saw a couple of buildings with
amazing historic architecture as well as visited a couple of churches
that were built a very long time ago. I took a whole bunch of video
but not as many pictures as I thought I did. I will take some more
tomorrow when I walk around tikurilla which is the town we are staying
in.

After walking around all day I went back to my room and took a nap. I
was trying to fight it but I just couldn’t resist. I hope that it
doesn’t through off my schedule for tonight. After the nap I got a
workout in and sat in the sauna. They have some nice saunas here. It
got so hot yesterday that I though my was were going to melt. Lucky
for me they didn’t.

Take care and fight for your dreams,

Justin Ruiz

Justin Ruiz and Family in NYC, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

This last weekend I had the opportunity to compete in the NYAC
international open in New York. This competition along with a Friday
night dual meet before the tournament was my first competition since
the 2008 Olympic Trials. It was a long road, well longer than I would
have liked, to get back on the mat, but I am glad to be back in the
swing of things again. My wife and daughter were both there to support
me on my comeback, and I am so glad that they were there. We had a
great time while we were there.

Now I am actually writing this post from Finland. There is the Vantaa
cup tournament this weekend, and next weekend I will be wrestling in
the Haparanda cup. It gets so dark here so early that I hope that I
can stay awake during the day. I should be in bed right now but I am
wide awake. This is so much fun to be doing this again.

One important lesson that I was reminded of this weekend is that of
reviewing your work and evaluating your progress. I took some time to
watch some film from the tournament today, and I noticed some things I
did well, however, I also noticed some thing that I need to improve to
be the beat in the world. If we don’t take the time to evaluate
ourselves, then we are really shortchanging ourselves.

Thanks for your support and I will be checking in throughout the week.
I wish you the best of luck and fight for your dreams!

Justin Ruiz