She lives!

Oh wow, how time has flown. As of the last post, everything came to a stand still pretty quickly as we all know. And with it, my training was also paused. For years. I had no motivation to keep training with all the races being cancelled, but I did start hiking, and did only that for a couple years mostly.

I’d always wanted to visit the National Parks in Finland, and COVID gave me the perfect excuse to finally start my project to visit them all. I think I managed to visit 11 parks during the first year once I started in July. I did mostly day trips, but I’ve done so far 3 bigger through hikes. First one was Karhunkierros in 2021 that I did alone during autumn, the next year we did Kevo canyon route with a friend, and then I did Hetta-Pallas alone in 2023. I love Lapland. There’s just something with the big wide views.

Morning mist on Karhunkierros. Day 2 starting at Taivalköngäs.

Kevo Canyon at the start of Day 3 of the hike.

Lunch break at Hetta-Pallas route. Day 2 on the way to Hannukuru wilderness hut.

In October 2023 I got interested in running again (of all things, haha!). I was volunteering at a marathon race, and got to thinking that it would be fun to also run someday. And well, why not start straight away? I started a couch to 5K running plan, then started another for 10K. And quickly after that my triathlon training started up as well, and I found myself at the start line of 2 races that summer!

But then came the curve ball. Just when I had joined a triathlon club to really start training, I got an injury days after my last race. I slipped and fell down, and that tore my left ACL. Luckily I was able to get a surgery quite quickly, and the healing could begin before too long.

The snacks after the surgery were so good, haha. They told me to mark everything I wanted, so… Give me all of it, haha.

But still, that put a stop to everything for a while, and recovery was slower than I would have liked, but slowly I got better! First a little walking and swimming, the carefully we added easy spinning workouts. In May 2025 I was allowed to run a 5K race, and got a new PB. Finally broke that old one from Miami! After that it was only getting better. I got another PB for 5K in September, and also a 10K PB in October. It also helped that I started my weight loss project in January 2025, so not only was my knee getting better, I was also losing weight which helped with that and my general wellbeing as well!

I finally also started training properly with my triathlon club in September 2025, and it’s been amazing so far. There’s been times that my knee has been bothering me a little still, but luckily rest has been enough to get through those spots. I did need to get an MRI in November because it was hurting so much that I could barely walk, but luckily the reconstruction was okay. There is some scarring in the operated area, and the orthopedist thought that it might be what’s bothering me. If necessary, we can remove some of it with another surgery, but luckily it hasn’t been necessary so far. I don’t want anything to stop me from training, haha! I’m training towards my first half distance triathlon. The journey has been a great one so far. Almost 8 months of training is behind me, and about 4 months to go to the big day. This is very exciting and I’m starting to get so nervous, haha! But yay that the race season is starting soon. I have a sprint and olympic distances scheduled for summer as well before the half. A half marathon starts the race season in 3 weeks. I can hardly wait!

Running in the Tropic

I’ve decided to dedicate 2020 to running. I think I’ve said it before as well, but this time I’m really going to go through with it. Or that’s the plan anyway! I was hoping to set my sights on my first olympic distance triathlon this year (hence the need to work on my running a little more as well, among other things), but because of the family’s race calendar it looks like we’re going to mostly skip triathlon races this summer. I hope I can fit a couple of sprints in there somewhere, but this year it looks like I’ll be working on my running, and crewing for the ultra runner in the family.

With that in mind, I already ran my first race this year! And in warm weather, too! I love winter, but I don’t really like running in temperatures too close to 0℃. That’s why I was very happy to take a week off work and make my way to Miami for the marathon weekend!

Cycling in the Dolomites

For a couple of years now, I’ve been entering the draw for the Maratona dles Dolomites in Italy. There was just something about the Granfondo that had me hooked and I wanted in. I was lucky enough to be one of the 5,000 people selected to take part in the race (out of 32,400 people who had pre-registered for the draw). As happy I was to be selected, I was unable to take part in last year’s race. Luckily the organization let’s you withdraw and transfer the fee for the next year, and that’s what I did. And am I glad that I did. I had the most perfect active holiday last week!

Winter Paradise in Iceland

I realized a couple of weeks ago that I never remembered to write about my second trip to Iceland that I did in January 2017! It was the second photography workshop I ever did, and it was also a trip organized by Erez Marom, as was the Land of Ice workshop I did in 2016.

So, even though it’s been an year, let’s see if I can remember something of the trip. If nothing else, you can see my favorite photos from the trip, haha!

A Night to Remember

Summer vacation is here! Lazy days, warmth, training for yet another triathlon race, and… a sudden surprise trip to London to see Adele? What? O.o

Because of unforeseen and very unfortunate circumstances that had fallen a friend, I found myself holding two tickets to see one of Adele’s Wembley Stadium shows (!!!!). After a mad scramble for hotels, flights and yes, even the one friend to share the night with, I found myself leaving work on Wednesday, June 28, and making my way straight to the airport. London was calling!

Race report: Vanajanlinna 2017

Time flies, and before I knew it, it was race day. My very first triathlon; I was a nervous wreck 😀 It’s always so much easier if you’re doing something for the first time with a friend, but there I was. About to do something nobody in the family has done before, and that apparently also includes the extended family.

750 meters never looked so long. Can you spot all 3 buoys?

Wonderful world of swimming

I love swimming. It’s a fact that has surprised me during the last few months. It’s also one of the reasons I suddenly find myself focusing on only that, and why my cycling rides are not so frequent anymore. I’d rather jump into a pool than go for a ride – a problem I need to fix soon, as I haven’t really gone out on a proper ride in a long while, and my first sprint triathlon is fast approaching! 🙂

#triathletewannabe

The title describes me now pretty nicely, I think, haha. Swimming is slow, biking is on vacation for now because of flat I haven’t fixed yet, and running is quite slow as well. But you gotta start from somewhere, right?

Summer memories

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a chance to visit Italy during the summer. It’s one of those places I’ve always wanted to go, and now I finally did! It was a moment’s decision, haha, which is quite surprising, but great!

Quick Rewind

Well. It’s been quite a long time since my last post. As you can probably guess, work got really busy. Overtime, late nights, angry phone calls from customers, stress. The whole deal. But you just gotta do what you can, and hope it gets easier after a while. Of course, after 6 months of applications after applications, seeing the end gets harder and harder while the pile of certificate applications only seems to rise higher and higher. Hopefully we will have a normal situation by March, haha! Just in time for spring rush.