Looking forward and back

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Sunrise on one of the last skis of the year, from Hesten in Tingvoll.
Happy New Year! I’m back in the States for the New Years; I’ve been visiting family and friends in Vermont, New York and Massachusetts.
Two thousand and fourteen was a great year. I finished my master’s degree, started my PhD, and still had time to cram in all the adventures you’ve read about here. Here’s some of my favorite posts this year:
- Tops around Tromsø: post from a beautiful week spent skiing in northern Norway, despite the high avalanche danger.
- My foray into the world of enduro mountain bike racing.
- Race report from Ultrabirken 60 km trail race.
- The whole series about thru-hiking the John Muir Trail in July. If you haven’t read it, start here!
- Steve Peat and me: a week of facing my fears mountain biking in Spain.
So much for looking back, what’s in store for 2015? Due to my prolonged trip to California this summer, my running racing season in 2014 was basically limited to one race - Ultrabirken. This year, I hope to race even more. My current plan is to build speed (for me) into the spring, and race a half marathon in early May. I’ve never run the half marathon distance before, but I have a fast enough marathon PR (3:52 at Oslo Marathon in 2010) that I feel some pressure to post a good time. Currently, I hope to be able to hit around the 1:45 mark, but this goal may be adjusted as my training progresses.
From there I will build up to a full marathon, Nordmarka Skogsmarathon, in June. I ran this marathon in 2012, and love the rolling course on dirt roads through Nordmarka in Oslo. In 2012, I was pretty undertrained, so I think I can easily beat my time. An even loftier goal is to beat my overall marathon PR, but Nordmarka Skogsmarathon is not exactly a fast course, so I would have to be in wicked good shape.
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My lastest investment - a Nathan VaporShadow running vest for all the long runs I plan to do in 2015!
After considerable deliberation, I decided that I will focus the rest of my season on one ultra - UltraVasan 90 km in Sweden. The course is extremely flat (only 800 vertical meters in 90 km!) for a trail race, so I think it will be a good way to ramp up the distance and see what running 90 km is like. Really, my goal is to push my limits and run in beautiful places. I just use the races as a framework to kick my butt into shape!
Of course, I won’t be dropping all of the other fun stuff I do just to run! Audun and I are planning a ski traverse of some of the (in my opinion) most beautiful mountains in Romsdalen, Norway sometime in March, and we may take our mountain bikes to Scotland Highlands this summer. Needless to say, there’s plenty to look forward to.
In other news, I’m coverting to NTN (a different type of telemark binding)! I just got new boots, and they are bigger, stiffer and ready to rip!
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What are your plans and goals for 2015?
- The Wild Bazilchuk

Comments

  1. Whenever I read a post by someone with lots of goals I always feel like a slacker because I kind of make it up as I go along. You have a lot of interesting things to look forward to. The only thing I've planned is to hike about 360 miles of the Pct. But we will see as the year unfolds.

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    1. No one who does as much cool stuff as you do could call themselves a slacker! I just enjoy races as training goes, and I haven't been that organized about it until recently... so we'll see how that works out for me!

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  2. That's a really pretty backpack. You seem like a naturally fast runner, I'm sure you'll beat all those time goals without much of a problem!
    I'm considering hiking part of The King's Trail (Kungsleden) in Sweden this summer. It's in your corner of the world, have you done it?

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    1. I hope the goal times are realistic! I haven't done any of Kungsleden, it looks beautiful though :)

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  3. I'm planning to go to Iceland and climb some of the volcanoes. And snowboard more. That's about it so far. I can't imagine running 90 km, flat or not.

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    1. Imagining is the first step to doing, or something equally philosophical! Iceland is intense, excited to see some beautiful pics from there!

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