2015 goals: Think ICE

Inside Montenvers ice cave (Chamonix France) in June 2014.

2014 has been a fabulous year with Lavaredo Ultra Trail, Eiger Ultra Trail and Ultra-Trail du Mont- Blanc finishes. I also became the first and only finisher of our local Jättäri100 event.

What's more I was able to stay healthy. Except that I picked up some sort of giardia after drinking from what I thought was a clear Alpine stream during the first night of UTMB. In hindsight it was just some dirty water from the heavy rain earlier that night. Anyway this Nasty Thing suddenly hit me hard a fortnight after the race and tried it best to take me down for a couple of weeks in late September. I fought back and finally beat it. I took all the necessary lab tests and came out 100% clean and cured.

As a bonus there were fabulously successful holiday trips with TPjr to Chamonix (trailrunning, hiking, climbing), Barcelona (trailrunning, swimming, cycling) and Phuket (swimming, snorkeling, barefoot running).

Due to my Ironman-triathlon past, swimming and cycling were extensively used as an alternative ways to train and improve fitness. As a new sport for me, climbing was learned and practiced throughout the year - mostly indoors as we happen to have a world-class climbing arena in Helsinki.

Time to plan the 2015 mountain ultra trail running schedule. Transgrancanaria again in March (after a 2-year brake), Lavaredo Ultra Trail again in June, possibly UTMB in August again (lottery on January 14th). What else?

In Finland we have to deal with tons of ice when training through the winter. That gave me the idea to think ICE when setting goals for 2015:

• Impossible, 
• Courageous, 
• Extreme.

Now there's no need to take any unnecessary risks, but I think it's a good idea to stay creative, explore new things, and push your boundaries. Happy 2015 everyone, let's ICE it!