Music has a power to hijack the identity and take over the life.
When I started in ’98, how music and cello was taught to me and the way I understood it, was that either something is great or it is not. I don’t remember much appreciation for moments of being in mid ground.When I finished my 5th university degree, soloist in the royal academy of Aarhus in Denmark – I started to notice couple of things. Up until that point I did not have any hobby, nothing that would come any close to a devoted relationship with the cello.
That year, after I graduated- I picked up a first hobby,
I chose triathlon. How great of a choice, since within the first year one gets plenty of lessons – triathlon teaches you entirely new relationship with your body.It is not possible to be an amateur in it just by one day standing up from a couch and deciding “I will do these distances TOMORROW” – there are no possible shortcuts, you just need to keep choosing long, often truly tough workouts, over and over again.I started in the fall of 2023 by joining the biggest triathlon club in Finland. I joined a special group called “the triathlon school” – and objectively looking, I was the worst “student”. Subconsciously, I just couldn’t accept that I committed to a hobby which demands me to go for trainings at least 4 times a week.
The intensity of trainings for the first months was very painful
to a much greater degree than f.ex. CrossFit (which I tried a year earlier and from which I resigned since it reminded me too much of another thing I was doing in my life).It took me between Oct 23’ till Feb/March 24’ to understand that it’s been so extremely painful because I was not consistent as other ‘classmates’ – I would be rebellious towards the clubs 4x week trainings and for months I would show up occasionally.This inconsistency, jumping into random trainings while others were gradually building up their bodies – was putting me in trouble, but I couldn’t imagine that the nature of having sports as a hobby – will demand me to actually stick to it rigorously.
Then in the first quarter of ’24 I decided to actually appear…
from now on, on all trainings – and even more than necessary. So I did. My body started to change, my mind and spirit started to change with it.I am a very curious person by nature, so by May/June I started to have 20h/week trainings. I felt indestructible. I knew my entire life the feeling of being semi in shape. But what’s the upper limit of how much training can I do?In July I did my 1/4th of triathlon: 0.5 mile (750m) swim, 12.4 mile (20km) bike, and 3.1 mile (5km) run. That felt superb. Next day, right away I trained heavily, and next days also.I was continuing preparations to 1/2 triathlon which was scheduled for a month later and Giro dEspoo (111km cycle) in between.
Then I started to notice that my body wasn’t healing in one spot.
Great meeting with a physiotherapist made me understand how some of my deep muscles didn’t develop at the same ratio as the other ones – and how I learned to compensate for it, “just to survive”.From March I learned to love pain which triathlon was ‘causing to the body through trainings – but as a rookie, I did not know which of the pains were borderline injuries. I had to resign from all of the distances and competitions that year.That experience – failing by choice in order to protect my health tough me much more, than if I would push “just to do it somehow/finish”. I am not a quitter, so this self-care action and further injury prevention was relatively new feeling to me.
Yet again, thanks to triathlon – I started to access an entirely new levels of dilemmas and choices
how I want to take care of my health. In all this – my cello playing started to change. My posture, my sound and relaxation on the string. My relation with instrument started to benefit from my stronger inner core.After quitting competitions for that season I committed to training with much greater respect to my body.In September I flew to lake Como in Italy and there I had first in my life triathlon camp with a biggest Polish triathlon club. This experience was fantastic.Long hours spent on a bike on Italian hills / mountains rewarded with good pizza and smiling community of fellow amateur triathletes, and top notch coach – who did not only impress us with his humility as a person and a leader, but foremost his accomplishments in triathlon and personality made one trust and bond with the group on trainings.The feeling after the camp was great.
Towards Christmas I started to have variations of a flu…
and eventually it got surprisingly with my health. I had to take a break from regular trainings for a few months.It was a bit sad to experience it – because I didn’t choose for it, but I knew that that’s what one just has to accept.Then, by Feb ’25 I knew I need a goal. I knew that in the future – it is full distance of triathlon, but I needed to come back to picking milestones along the way.So I picked 6th of April 2025 a marathon distance event, my first ever marathon.
To continue reading about my journey towards first marathon visit:
