The Kristian Blummenfelt Interview

On the podcast today, we are so, so grateful to have the Olympic gold medalist, Ironman World Champion, 70.3 World Champion, ITU World Champion, the first man to break 7 hours for an Ironman, and the current Ironman Pro Series winner, and the list goes on and on, Kristian Blummenfelt. If you've ever listened to the podcast before, you will know that Dad and I are absolute suckers for training and racing data, training programs, and anything related to the Norwegian Method. And so you can imagine that we were in absolute heaven for this episode. And we asked Kristian before the episode, are there any Norwegian secrets, uh, that we can't ask about, or can we ask anything? And he said he's an open book. He's willing to answer anything, and we could not have been happier to fire him with questions. So we knew this conversation would be good, but we were still blown away by his answers. And if you're a triathlete or just a triathlon fan, this is a must-listen episode, including a preview and his thoughts on the huge showdown this weekend between him, Jelle Geens, and Hayden Wild. The top 3 in the 70.3 right now are finally coming together, a battle of the titans. We can't wait for you to listen. So here it is with the Norwegian superstar himself, Kristian Blommenfelt. Kristian Blommenfelt, thank you very much for joining us. We really, really appreciate it. We just want to start by saying, how are you enjoying Australia and living and training with our very own TriVelo, uh, pro athlete Tom Page?

Yeah, so it's been, uh, quite good. I Got, uh, so I came straight from New Zealand, Taupo, and I would say I got the real Aussie experience straight away on my first run. So some kangaroos outside of the airport on my run, and, uh, and then, uh, yes, like the week here has been quite good. It's quite convenient to stay and train and, uh, with both Tom and Sophie and Both, it makes it more social, but also quite more convenient with, uh, uh, having someone who knows where to ride and run and get access to, like, easier access to track and pool and stuff. So, uh, yeah, that's been good. And as well, uh, the body has been recovering quite well from, uh, Taupo. Um, like, 2 weeks between a full and a half could be a little bit tight. Like, you never know really how the body is, uh, coping after an Ironman, but, uh, I think The fact that I run relatively slow, like I was cooked coming off the bike and I was sort of forced to go in like emergency mode and just sort of jog through because I was, I didn't have much left in the legs. So I was doing like a 4-minute pace rather than a 3:30-minute pace. So I think that was taking less out of the muscles and the legs muscle-wise. So I've been able to put in the track sessions that I wanted to do this week. So, uh, now I'm just hoping that it's enough to run with both Jelle and Hayden because it's a, it's a stacked field.

It really is. It's a, it's a big showdown coming up. I'll start with that straight away. So you, you said on a podcast that you were actually sick going in and no one knew that, um, before the race. And so that obviously affected you on the day and. I mean, it's hilarious to us that you run a, you know, a 2:49, I think it was, and that's super slow to you and everyone goes, oh, it's not that bad. But then comparatively, if we are 15 minutes off or more of what you can do, you know, 17 minutes off. Um, but that said, you jump straight into high-intensity training. So this 2-week gap, uh, you're feeling pretty good. You're fine to train straight away and train pretty hard.

Yeah. Uh, so I had like first, uh, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday quite easily, and then I ramped up with the main intensity again on Wednesday. So like the key sessions this week have been either some hundreds in the pool, 100-meter race pace, or 400s on the track. So the session has been on repeat, have been like either 2x10x400 or like I did today, 20x400 with like a minute rest. Just to get over pace, uh, because going into, uh, Ironman New Zealand, I didn't really do much overspeed. So using these 3 weeks actually to go above the 70.3 race pace, because I have to do the same next week, uh, preparing for Oceanside, because it's like, it's like short session that doesn't really take much or it doesn't drain me for a lot of energy, but it's sort of enough to sort of activate the muscles and also pump through the lung system.

Yes. Sorry. Um, what are you feeling when you're doing these efforts? When you've done these efforts many times over the last 5 or 6 years, do you feel different this week compared to— because you've been training for a half, for a, for an Ironman, and now you're jumping straight into a half Ironman. How is the feelings when you're doing those 400s? Does it, does it feel like, oh, I'm a little bit behind here, or I'm, I'm feeling happy with it? Yeah. How's that looking to you?

I would say it felt good straight away. So first session on Wednesday, so 4 days after New Zealand, I did a mix between carbon shoes and normal training shoes. And I was sort of pleased with how the pace came. Like I was imagining maybe 1:10 to 68 pace, but then I was able to do a 68 to 67, 66. And then the last two sessions I've used Carbon Shoes for, uh, both of them for all of the reps. And I feel like, um, uh, I'm able to get more and more into the comfortable rhythm. But of course, like, it's a very easy session to do, like, mentally, with a whole minute rest. It's almost like a 1:1 ratio between running and, uh, the, the breaks. So it's more like just to get more and more comfortable at the higher pace. And it's, it's, uh, it's also like significant higher than the expected race pace for, uh, uh, Sunday. Like I guess a 3:05 to 3:10 instead of the more realistic race pace, uh, and not a 2:50, but it's more like to, uh, compensate for the lack of, uh, higher intensity over the last 3 or 4 months. Because it's, I haven't really done much, 400 since, before Nice, I would say. So it's been a while.

Mm-hmm.

And so for those listening, you know, 66 to 68-second 400s is sub-3-minute K pace. Um, and so the theory behind that is to, is to get that top-end speed so that the, the race pace at 3:05 to 3:10 against the big showdown of, of Jelle and, and Hayden, which we'll talk about probably later in the episode, it feels more comfortable. That's the theory behind that, that work right now. And you'll keep doing that this next month.

Uh, yes, so it's more like getting a bit more quicker, like a bit more leg speed in, so to make it feel more comfortable going down again on, uh, uh, pace. And, uh, and as well, I'm sort of aware that I'm probably sacrificing a little bit, uh, capacity over this, uh, 3, 4 weeks because, uh, it's— the key has been like recovering and getting fresh enough for a session, but then also doing short enough sessions so I can do them often enough. So, uh, it's, uh, I'm probably, uh, my fitness on training peaks is probably dropping over the, the, the block I'm doing now. But, uh, it's an, it's enough time later on to catch up again on, uh, more extensive threshold sessions.

So is the bike looking similar where you are trying to do a little bit more speed? And we know from the age groupers that we coach, it's around 75% for Ironman of their FTP and it's. For the professionals, it's probably 80 to 82 to 83%, and in the half Ironman, it's more 90 to 94%. Are you doing something similar as you are on the running training sessions to pick up the intensity on the bike?

Yes. So I've done two hill reps where I've done like, uh, both I've done it in the hill to get, uh, even easier to activate the muscle fibers, and I've done, uh, 6 by 5 minutes where I've been doing 40 seconds well above threshold and then 60 seconds at threshold. So sort of all over and at, over and at, uh, just to, yeah, like, uh, blow through the system and also activate the muscles enough. Uh, so again, only 30 minutes of, uh, uh, total workload for each session, but it's, uh, Uh, really targeting the good muscle fibers, sort of waking me up. And I feel it's also, uh, a good way to like get progress throughout the week because I haven't done much of this training over the last, uh, almost 6 months.

And so how do you, how do you spread those sessions out? Uh, you said you had 3 or 4 days off. Are you, are you doubling up? Are you doing those bike sessions, those hard bike sessions and the hard swim sets and the run all on the same day and then an easy couple of days? Or are you spreading those out?

Uh, I try to put a bit of like blocks. I do like, uh, like, uh, at least have one easy day in between. So I can do 2 days of intensity and I can do one day easy. So it's like, depends a bit how I feel. Like one day I did a track session in the morning and then the bike intervals midday and then an easy swim. And another day I did the easy coffee ride and then track in the evening. So I've been sort of flexible and fitting it in Whenever, like, as long as I get like enough timing for it. Like the session I did today, which is Wednesday, could— I could have done it yesterday, but then I would feel the need to do another higher intensity either on Thursday or Friday. So that's also why I did it today and not, uh, yesterday.

So going into a race like you are on Sunday, are you really cutting back say from Wednesday onwards, what do you, what does it look like Thursday, Friday, Saturday? Is there, is there shorter, sharper stuff or just easier?

Uh, so I think, uh, for half, all I need is like, uh, 2 days or maybe that were sort of loading towards the race. So that's the Friday and Saturday. And naturally with Saturday, it's like pro panel, it's, uh, briefing, it's, uh, we are like in autograph signing stuff and, uh, and those things as well as checking in the bike is sort of makes it hard to get enough hours in. So naturally it's going to be quite reduced. So probably just 30, 40 minutes easy run, the same on the swim, and, uh, uh, 40 minutes easy bike as well. So yeah, between 30 and 40 minutes in each disciplines. And within those sessions, I might do like, uh, uh, at least on the bike, maybe do 5x1 minutes just to get the muscles activated again, and then the same on the swim, maybe. So do some, some, uh, short sprints and, uh, just to feel sharp. And, uh, 2 days out is, um, maybe a little bit more around LT1 and trying to get maybe 3 by 1 hour.

So the taper is so nuanced and, and your taper would have changed and gone through many iterations. Over the years and yeah, is that, what's the best combo you've found? Just the, everyone follows the same principles of, of kind of some short efforts to keep the body awake. You have tended to lean towards a little bit more volume leading in. So yeah, what's your iteration at the moment?

Uh, I think, uh, it's many ways to do it and, uh, it really depends on how I'm feeling, uh, race week because it's, it's, uh, I guess the art of getting ready for race day is to know whether it's time to push or time to back off. And, uh, I guess there's no, like, uh, copy and paste formula there. Like, uh, for so sometimes when I get to a place and I feel quite rubbish, I can feel that what I need now is maybe 20 minutes of threshold just to, uh, get the heart pumping and, uh, the legs going. And if I do a 20-minute threshold session, it's, uh, basically only 30 or 40% of a full session. So it's a good way to get the body sort of into the rhythm without really burning off too many matches. Uh, and other days I might think that, uh, it's too much and I just have to do some 1-minute activation, like 5x1 minutes or something, just to, uh, so, so, so I do change it quite a bit, I would say, depending on how I feel. And I think the key with the taper is like 2 days out you start carb loading, you know, like eating extra good sources of carbohydrates, uh, as well, uh, maybe a little bit of candy the evening before the race. And combined with, uh, reducing the volume over those two days, uh, yeah, just to be fully loaded with carbohydrates for race days, uh, uh, and also topping up with a lot of caffeine is enough to be race ready. It's, it's almost like, uh, doing a big, uh, training day in the weekend. Normally it's the same sort of buildup we're doing. Because, uh, uh, as long as we are fully loaded with carbohydrates and caffeine and having, uh, a little of, uh, uh, Morten on race day or in the training simulations, it's sort of, uh, yeah, it's very much the same as a big training day, the routines and the habits.

Sorry to clarify there, the caffeine load up, you're only talking about race day, or are you talking about some sort of caffeine load up pre-race day?

Well, I don't load up the day before, but like, uh, you can go higher, uh, race day. So maybe doing like 200 or 300 milligrams, uh, uh, in the morning before race and then adding on maybe another 200, uh, in the race over a half. And, uh, we could maybe reach 400 to 500 milligrams on a training day. Uh, and for an Ironman, maybe up to 800 or 900 milligrams, but we wouldn't do like a loading of caffeine the day before because it's really impacting the sleep. So, uh, I could do opposites. So for recovery day, try to go extra low because that's also forcing me to feel rubbish and then it's forcing me to sort of slow down a little bit. And, uh, then when I do another caffeine, uh, high dosage the next day, then I'm bouncing back again. And that's also maybe a good way to force your body to feel good for the weekend and not for the training sessions, uh, in the middle of the day. Because that's also like a tricky part when you're racing back to back, because you, you might go to a race weekend and feel sort of average. And then, uh, from Monday to Friday you feel awesome again when you are into your rhythm. And then you may be a bit too high on caffeine and then race weekend come again, or race day come, and you feel 90%. So, uh, you better sort of taper for the weekends.

I didn't, I thought it might have been some, some top secret Norwegian method of, of pre, preloading with caffeine that we'd never heard of going, that doesn't actually make sense. But, but that's still interesting. I didn't expect to get on a caffeine subject today, but that seems like a pretty high average daily amount, let alone the race day amount is, that is monstrous. Um, is that because you, you find the performance benefit from caffeine in training so worth it that it's that it's that high? I feel like that's quite a high average amount.

Uh, yeah, I just often more, more is more. And so certain points, uh, but, uh, yeah, like, uh, I do try to balance it to not take too much because it also affects the sleep. So trying to get enough to get the benefits in training. Like, uh, you have some athletes who only do it for race day, and I think they are losing some of the training benefits because, uh, by using it in training session, you're also not just feeling better, but you're going a few percent quicker, which is also, uh, a bigger training load, which you also need to recover a little bit harder from afterwards.

Yeah, that's fascinating. Is that daily, uh, is that race day 800 to 900 milligrams got anything to do with some of the stomach issues you've been having, do you think?

Nope, I don't think so. Good.

Well trained.

I think, uh, so I had a little bit of stomach issues in, uh, Taupo, but I think that was maybe because I was too high on the grams on the bike and I didn't drink enough water. So it was too thick mix. Uh, and then I grabbed like a Coca-Cola on the bike aid station and drank it maybe a bit too quickly. And then I had the bubbles and yeah. It didn't work well. And, uh, after, after I was able to empty it after 10K on the run, I felt better again, and it was quite easy to take in more carbohydrates.

That makes sense.

But just, uh, just quickly going back to Talpo, when you had the one arm of the extension, uh, unavailable to you, was that a really impacting imbalance for your ride? How did, how do you feel that impacted your yeah, you're having tension through your back and, you know, holding the bars differently. Did that impact you a lot? I know you're dismissing it as not using it as an excuse, which is brilliant, but did it have much impact?

I think what had the most impact was that I couldn't see my computer and I couldn't shift to like an ideal gear over 160k because, so I had the shifter that's shifting up. Was on the right extender. So then, of course, like I tried to keep the same gear for as long as possible. And maybe when I should shift down one gear, I'm avoiding doing it because I know that soon it's going to be rolling down again. And, uh, so, so I'm probably riding a bit too much at 80 cadence and then 95. So maybe that was costing more, like in terms of, uh, back issues, I didn't feel it in the back, uh, at all. It was more like, uh, in the last, uh, 40 or 50K when you're getting a bit like this, yeah, I'm tired mentally, that I had to be aware that I didn't have the pole there. And, uh, as well, it was quite good, it was the right one that, uh, came off because, uh, I'm quite dominant on my left arm, I would say. Like, that's always the arm I'm putting down first. and I'm always taking the right arm off first. So it was the easiest arm to, or the, to, to lose.

The, the small silver lining. Uh, look, this, yeah, we want to, we want to keep diving into this, this whole period because, uh, the whole triathlon world is buzzing with your racing calendar right now. The fact that it's, it's 4 races, 2 Ironmans, 2 Half Ironmans across 6 weeks. Everyone's asking, how's he doing it? Is it too much? You've given us great insights so far between race 1 and 2. So what's the plan for the training schedule and the recovery around the rest of the month and the 6 weeks? You know, do you keep trying to just recover from the race, get your high-intensity work in, kind of that format you explained before? Is that the entire goal between races?

Yeah, so after Geelong, it's like 6 days, I think, until Oceanside. Then it's a sort of sacrifice, bleeding off some hours in the training. So I came in to New Zealand, the Ironman there, with a lot of hours in the bank. So I focused, I was focusing on getting as many weeks as possible above 30 hours a week and focusing on mainly long extensive threshold sessions. So I did like some 10x2Ks on the run and like 90 and even a session at 2 hours where I tried to be around threshold on the bike or just below. So I tried to stretch it as much as I could before going to New Zealand. And then I have done the week until Oceanside to sort of be able to bleed off some hours and some capacity. And then it's 3 weeks from there until. Texas, and then the plan is to be very specific on the bike. So as much RMP pace on the bike as possible and not do too much, uh, threshold. And on the run, I think it will keep, uh, doing threshold sessions. And the same for the swim, from threshold to above threshold.

It's always been interesting from a coaching point of view, Christian, where we've had athletes tapering for a really big race and then 2 weeks later, they've recovered and they are in great form 2 weeks later. So this could be a silver lining for you, New Zealand, preparing for an Ironman and then having, you know, a short period into a 70.3, then another 70.3. You could actually perform really well. Um, and it will be really interesting to see how you do feel. Do you feel okay for this Sunday? Are your legs feeling Quite good.

Yeah. Legs are feeling pretty good. And I do agree, like, because what people often forget is that a race in itself, and especially for half, when you're doing like 3 and a half, 3 hours and 40 minutes of race pace, you're also having a very solid training day. You're sort of tapering or being very rested before the race, and then you're hammering it on race day. And just the stimulus of doing that, boat and the bike and like swim, bike, and run can lead to like an improved performance for the next one. So hopefully the race stimulus I'm getting on course on Sunday here in Geelong is going to help me in Oceanside. And there is also like, I'm getting enough extensive sort of threshold session or stimuli from the races. So that's also maybe why I can do less specificity in between and just keeping the body going.

So glad you agree with that point because it's, um, it's for you. I've heard you say that, you know, you are turning up to every race to win. You never wanna turn up and, and not win cuz that's the goal when you're competitive. But you've also, you're also acknowledging coming to this period that, um, it's not your A race for the year.

Yeah.

The A race is Kona. And so mentally, uh, we have a lot of our athletes, um, They kind of avoid races unless it's their A race, cuz they, they kind of think, oh, maybe I don't wanna turn up, it's a B race or C race, I'm not in form, I don't wanna show up and not give my best result. Um, how do you deal with that mentally when you're on the world stage and, and you wanna win, but you, you might know that these 4 races you're not gonna be in absolute peak form for, you still wanna win. It's this whole balancing act. You're here to get the Ironman Pro Series points, still not your, your biggest races for the year. How do you balance all that?

I think, uh, it's hard to try to get the best out of yourself even when you're not 100%. And even when you're racing a world championship, you might not have the best day. And like in Taupo, when things didn't go to plan, it's still a good way to experience like how to solve it in the best possible way. Like when my handbar came off, then I could, in the beginning, what should I do then? You know, like then my strategy was just to ride with the group and sort of just stay in it and just hope that I had the run leg coming off the bike. And when I came off the bike, I felt garbage. Then it's more like, okay, how can I try to run for— when I sort of realized I couldn't run for the victory, maybe how can I pace myself to potentially get on the podium? And when I realized I couldn't, that then was more like a survival. Uh, but yeah, I think it's more to take those learnings you can take from the races and then, so it's even easier when you really have to perform to put it all together.

And you, your, your, the whole Norwegian method, you know, you re— your whole squad really started to, to work off, you know, energy, you know, getting the energy balance right and making sure you're getting enough energy in. And, and that applies on a whole weekly scale and macro pro scale, not just per session, you know, everything around the energy required for the training and racing. And what you just spoke about before with caffeine plays into this where, um, you've gotta be able to, to train well, perform well in training and racing. But when you're on a schedule like this, you know, sleep patterns get disrupted, time zones. You're, you're not in your home environment, you're not in your normal training environment, so eating becomes more difficult. How do you, how do you manage to get that right?

Yeah, so it's a balance. So it's not just about one single day, like, uh, when you're doing the biggest day, I will be in energy deficit and then I will catch up on more calories the following day when I'm doing less volume. And the same counts for sleep, uh, like doing the time zones adjustments, uh, traveling from Europe to New Zealand to Australia and to Oceanside, which Oceanside is probably going to be a little bit rough, and then to Texas. Like, it's more important to put that into consideration, like how I'm training. So being balanced, probably some days I will be only sleeping, uh, 5, 4 or 5 hours, uh, when I get to Oceanside. But then how do I get as quickly as possible into the rhythm I need to?

That's absolutely brilliant.

Sorry, I was just gonna ask about the jet lag and how, how you would cope with that. Do you try to get to the time zone immediately you land, uh, into LA, or are you just trying to get as much sleep as you can? How are you managing your time zone changes?

So there is about getting into the time zones that we need for race day, simply because I feel the stomach needs a few hours, no, a few days to get into the same rhythm too. Because one thing is that I might be able to wake up like 7 o'clock in the morning, but if my stomach wants to go to toilet, 12 o'clock, middle of the day, then, uh, uh, it's okay for the days leading into the race, but on race day, I need to be able to go on toilet before the race. And, and stuff like that is something that the body just needs, uh, uh, a few days to get into.

And so zooming out a little bit, uh, you know, you spoke about the big volume you were doing leading into this period and, and the first Ironman. And then in this period, it's a lot of just racing, recovery, short work to get that, that speed up. And, and you mentioned you probably lose a bit of fitness. What do the blocks look like for the rest of the year? You know, how do you, how do you, what are you separating? Are you going back to, yeah, base phase and, you know, post-Texas, um, to Kona?

Yeah, so it's sort of an all-half mid-season break after Texas. So I do like 2 weeks where it's probably going to be 40% of typical training, maybe 12 hours for that the first 2 weeks after that. And then I will build up again almost like it's a new season. And doing a lot of volume again, going into Challenge Roth, which is a race I will do for the first time in July. I think it's 5th of July. And I haven't sort of written into the details yet, but depending on how the race goes in Texas, I might need to fit in another Ironman depending if I want to have a real shot for the Pro Series. And, uh, if not, I will do a block of higher intensity after Roth again, sort of the same as I've done after New Zealand, just to keep the VO2 max a little bit higher and the top-end speed before going into a new, uh, threshold block going into Hawaii. And then I will probably, uh, 3 weeks out from Hawaii, start being more specific or do more specificity.

Will you have a high altitude camp in that period? Will you be looking at heat? Yeah, what are you, what things are you looking at to do for your Kona preparation?

Yeah, and as well, typically when we do the blocks of threshold, which is typically like 4 to 5 weeks long, then we like to also be in altitude. So we're looking at being either in Font-Romeu or in Andorra. We've been to Font-Romeu every year for the last 10+ years in the summer and it's a great place, but maybe a bit, it's getting a bit too busy now with a lot of athletes. So we're looking at maybe going to Andorra instead, but, uh, yeah, in the French Pyrenees, uh, in the mountains there at around 1,800 meters of elevation. And, uh, yeah, I find it quite nice to do the threshold training there. Like, uh, it doesn't affect my power too much and, uh, Uh, it's, I do tend, or I do feel like I'm getting good response from it too. I was also actually supposed to do altitude, uh, going into, I was attending to do altitude going into New Zealand, but then the center was fully booked in Sierra Nevada. So, uh, I lost that camp unfortunately, uh, but I think it was, uh, okay because I was then able to practice more crosswind cycling in Lanzarote, which was maybe better for the bike handling skills.

I was going to ask you, between you and, uh, Gustav and Kasper, who's actually deciding what to do each week individually? Are you just doing your own thing, uh, with your program and getting together for some sessions, or how is it looking these days?

No, we have a quite— so we have like the same weekly schedule, so like easy on Monday and Friday and then, yeah, track Thursday and intensity in the pool on Tuesday and intensity on the bike on Tuesday. So the weekly structure is the same. And then typically if we're doing a threshold session, it doesn't— like, it's not a big difference if it's 8 minutes or 10 minutes intervals, or if one guy is doing 8 by 10 and another one is doing 6 by 10. Like, we can still do the different session with each other, then, because we also find it easier to do the training with each other. So it's better to sort of find like a compromise there to where you can do as much as possible together. But if I feel I need to do VO2 max and they feel they need to do threshold, then we might split up like in, like when we're done with the warmup and we might meet up again for the cooldown and we still have the flexibility of doing different sessions. But it's also nice to be at a session with someone else. Even though we could do this different track sessions, we're still meeting up for the warm-up and we still have to sort of go through the same struggle even though it's a different session and it feels like we're still doing it with someone else even though I might do a 7x2K run and they might do 3Ks or 1Ks or something different, but it's still like feeling that we're doing it together.

It's good to have, uh, some competition in training, but it can also be detrimental because if you're pushing yourself at the wrong time. Um, but I can tell you Tom's done a few training sessions with you since you've been there, and he told me the other day that he was in the lane beside you at the swimming pool, and he swam his best hundreds that he has for 6 months just because he was swimming in the lane beside you. So it's super motivating to have a shared training session, but not all the time, is it? It's a hard, it's a hard line between pushing yourself too much with the others around you and staying in your zones. How are you, how do you deal with that if someone's in better form and you feel the temptation to follow their paces?

I think it's more if someone is in better form, that is more the joy that we can stay behind and follow, and that's more like a luxury. It's worse if you are the fittest one and need to take the front than Billy Gough is pushing. But like, yeah, like training with Tom, it's nice that we still— it's like you feel someone is watching your session even though you're doing two different sessions. And I feel that's helping. And it puts a little bit pressure on yourself to do what you said you were going to do, you know? Like, I think I told him that I would do 2x10— no, 2x10 2x10x100 in the pool at race pace. And he was doing 8x10, no, 2x8x100. So 2 less, but he was sort of doing his pace. And knowing that someone can ask you afterwards, what did you swim at? That sort of motivates you to try to be in the upper end and perform.

That's so good for our listeners to hear because you know, even, even the world champ, um, and Olympic gold medalist just needs that a little bit of accountability, you know, in training. And, and we're not all superhuman. And, and yeah, if anyone out there is ever feeling not motivated in a session solo, you know, this is the evidence that, that, you know, um, not everyone feels motivated all the time and, and little tricks that you can give yourself to get through help.

Yeah. And, and for me, it always helped to tell myself that I'm putting the base a little bit lower. Like, yeah, today when I did the 20, Times 400, I said to go out that like a 1:08 is sort of where I can go, or at least that's the pace I should go at. And then sort of using the first 8 or 9 or 10 to sort of just get into the rhythm. And then when the muscles and the blood and everything gets warmed up and ready to go, then it's easy to feel or like push the pace down and sort of just feel good and go quicker and quicker and quicker.

I'm so happy you've said that, Christian. We are so adamant that our athletes in every training session start conservative and finish at the top of the range rather than starting at the top of the range and sometimes not completing the session because they've blown themselves up. And if it's good enough for the Olympic champion and world champion, it's good enough for the everyday age grouper. So that's great advice. Thank you.

Yeah, that's maybe the biggest, uh, sort of hack you can do. Like, you, you never want the power to drop. Uh, of course, like, if you're doing a very long threshold session, the last one, uh, is typically feeling harder to reach the power, but you still want to be able to sort of show that you have control over the session by ramping up either the speed or the power throughout the session. That shows that you're pacing well.

Oh, we are just going to clip that exact 30 seconds and just have that in our membership site for our members, just to remind them that It's not just us saying it, it's Christian as well. Just following up a little bit on the training week. So, is it a similar structure the whole time? You mentioned your Monday, Friday easy, Tuesday to Thursday is mixed intensity over the bike, swim, and run, and then Saturday, Sunday is, is that just more endurance-based? I mean, how does the rest of the week actually get filled in?

Saturday is either to do the max or threshold in the pool, and then in the winter we have done like a 3-hour long hike. And, uh, in the mountains, so like run/hike. And, uh, then it's, uh, been a brick, so maybe 5 hours in total over bike and run with threshold on both sessions on Sunday. And, uh, when we've been on training camp and trying to get a little bit more hours, we are swapping out the 3-hour hike in the mountains with, uh, maybe 3-hour bike and then an hour run off the bike. Uh, but we use sort of the same structure, but we're adding on like longer sessions. So like, uh, instead of doing 90 minutes, it could be like a 2.5-hour on the bike or 4 hours on a threshold bike on a Tuesday because we're doing a longer ride over to the place we want to do the intervals.

Have you over the, over the journey fine-tuned your program each year you come into it? Have you looked at it and said, look, we— if we're preparing to try and win Kona, for example, we— you know, you've been, you've been right there in the— in on the podium. Are there some things I need to do differently to get me to win that event? Have, have you, have you thought about that for this year, and have you tweaked anything that you could, uh, tell the listeners that you're going to do differently, um, in your preparation for Kona?

Uh, not yet. It's more like having a good base training going into it. And maybe, like, maybe one of my mistakes going into the 2024 race was maybe I was too aggressive on the training when I got to the island instead of being a little bit more patient with it. And, uh, uh, as well, I had two bad days, like, going into the race day. Like, I was picking up the day before as well on the race, and I think that's, that's too costly in terms of, uh, yeah, like the acids in the stomach. Uh, but I think, uh, it's not like I want to flip the script all around. Like, I've been quite close before when I came third behind Gustav, and, uh, I think I just need to do it a few percent better and also be, uh, having the race strategy right on race day. Because it's not like I want to suddenly do something completely different. But maybe one thing is that I want to lock in the bike position more. Like, uh, maybe the mistake I did in '24 where, like, like, going back and forth in the position and wasn't really solid, like, locked in 6 months out from the race. And that's something I'm trying to be this time around.

It's easy, isn't it, to, uh, to make too many tweaks and you get yourself confused as to what feels good for one week and then not so good. So yeah, that's such a good thing that, you know, we really push that on our athletes to make sure they feel comfortable in that position and then train to that position for a long period. Um, yeah, so it's— is there anything else in, in that preparation that with the heat that you think— oh, sorry, you go.

Yeah, and it's so easy, like, feeling a little bit like weak in the quads, and then, okay, I need to put the saddle further forward in order to activate the quads more, or like, oops, I need to go backwards with— in order to activate the hamstring. But, uh, now it's more like just trusting the position and then stay on it. And I think Also being more aware of the cadence. So being like practicing a little bit higher cadence, uh, when I'm riding, uh, leading into the race. And, uh, heat-wise, I think maybe I should bring, maybe bringing a turbo. Like I haven't decided yet if I want to do more rides on the turbo because a lot of the riding, uh, on Queen K doesn't really get, it doesn't feel too warm. Outside of race day, but then when you're riding back on Queen K, uh, the last 50K, then you feel smoked. So I think maybe, uh, adding in a few more heat sessions just on the bike, uh, on the turbo to get that extra stress. Uh, I don't think it's necessary to put on too much clothes, but just doing it, uh, uh, yeah, either in a, a place where there's not too much wind.

That can be the, that can be the, um, mistake that people make is they just cook themselves too much and they, they, they way overheat and then you can't even get the quality session in. And that was gonna be one of my last follow-up questions for the training side is, is how much, uh, of your bike training do you do on the trainer either in terms of hard sets or, or longer sessions compared to outside?

Oh, that's, uh, that's very different between time to time. Like in the winter, it's basically all of the hard session and then I go easy on the gravel outside. But, uh, what I've been thinking about maybe doing in Kona is just to do the easy rides. I'll maybe do like, uh, 2 hours outside and then 1 hour on the turbo.

Do you use, with the heat, do you use the sauna much to, a lot of the protocol that we've read is do a training session hard with really good cooling and then sit in the sauna for 20 minutes after you've done that session. To keep the heart rate high and get some heat acclimatization. What are your thoughts on that?

Not really. I've done some, uh, maybe a handful of warm baths, like, uh, 25-minute bath just to add on the stimuli. Uh, but then it's so uncomfortable, you know, after 8 to 9 minutes you just want to get out and get out. You're counting not the minutes, but you're counting like every 5 seconds and, uh, the clock just goes so slowly. Uh, so I've done a few of, a handful of those, uh, but not too many. Normally it's just a training session itself, like going, uh, as hard as I can and then until it's awful and the heart rate goes to the roof and then trying to stay there for a bit and then afterwards just getting undressed and cooling down and, or like, no, not cooling down, but like naturally the body temperature is going down.

So finishing off things to this weekend, everyone's looking forward to the big showdown. It is a stacked field. It's one of the most stacked 70.3 fields we'll probably see all year. We're so happy to have it in Australia. You're feeling good. Legs are feeling pretty good. You've recovered from the Ironman. You've checked out the course. You've done a course recon and you've tested the bike and the bike adjustments are okay. The bars are all good to stay on.

I think this is a course where I need to tighten the bolts even more than in New Zealand. Like going, going, going. Going out through the park, it's such a rough tarmac and sort of like a sketchy downhill with a sharp left-hand turn out of the park. So, uh, yeah, bolts should be tightened and the speed arms and a little elastic bands around the bottles in order to not lose the nutrition. And, uh, yeah, and it is not like completely flat. It's still like some, uh, sort of hills on the run, uh, short ones though, but, uh, Uh, yeah, a beautiful run course, I would say. A very nice one.

Uh, I'd love to ask, uh, your race strategy now with the 20-meter rule. Uh, are you thinking differently about how you ride? And if you end up with a group that's, say, 15 riders or 7 riders or 3 riders, trying to pass 15 riders is a really big increase in intensity. And is it worth trying to ride? That's a, you know, it could be 2 or 3 minutes of a pass from, from the back to the front. What are you thinking about here? How is this looking when you're thinking about the race strategy?

Yeah, I don't think too much about the strategy in terms of 20 and 12. Like, I think it's probably putting a little bit more fatigue in everyone's legs. But again, this weekend's race is probably, Jal and Hayden is the two favorites and Jal was riding really well in in Marbella last year, and Hayden has been used to, uh, do 20-meter rules in the T100, and he's been doing it pretty well there. Uh, I don't think the change will impact the race too much. Like, uh, we still need to run quick off the bike. And, and, and as well, I think, uh, something that's impacting the race more is like, um, motorbikes, of course. Like, of, like, we, we do need to have the the crew was filming and making the live broadcast. But I think if they are coming into a group where we have maybe 6 or 7 guys and they're filming the 4th guy or the 2nd guy, then it's more drafting from that motorbike probably than what you're getting from the guys in front. As well, here it's a 2-loop course and it's probably going to be a lot of age groupers out on or second loop there first. And I think just that slipstream of age groupers is also, uh, probably impacting the second lap more than the 12 to 20 meter rule change.

And there's, there's so much talk right now in these races about, you know, you're all so talented, you, you've got to race these races, you got to race an Ironman, race a half Ironman, which is just crazy at those distances. And seen that plenty of times play out over the last couple of years. Uh, you know, the, the 3 of you Norwegians at the Ironman World Champs and you and Jelle at the 70.3 World Champs at Marbella last year. There's a conversation around, you know, do you, do you just run your own race and not worry about the guys and ride your own race? Um, or do you race the race in front of you and, and go into different zones? You know, what do you normally try to think about?

I'm, I'm in it to win it and, uh, trying to break other guys and not been broken myself. So, uh, yeah, like, you have to follow the riders around. Uh, like in Marbella, I knew that I had to be with Magnus Ditlev and that train on top of the hill. And I think we all rode whatever power we needed to, you know, to be there. And, uh, that, uh, it was crucial to be on the right side of the split there. I think it was only Pitados and Kasper who came across who wasn't really on the right side of the split on top of that climb. So, yeah, we are looking at who is where and trying to follow or trying to take advantage if they are not there.

Absolutely love that answer. What a stamping answer to hit home of. Look, we want to wrap up there, but if it's okay with you, we just kind of wanted to finish off with just a 1-minute kind of rapid-fire question, like a little knockout tournament thing. So we'll give you 2 options and you tell us what what race or moment, uh, is more important to you. Is that all right?

Yes.

So starting with, we're going to start with the sub-7-hour record you have or being the Ironman Pro Series winner.

Ironman Pro Series winner. Okay.

Ironman Pro Series or ITU World Champion?

Personally, it's the ITU World Champion. That's a world championship title. Nice.

ITU World Champion or 70.3 World Champion?

Then it's the 70.3 World Champion. And then I think I know what's coming next. That's the Ironman World Championship title. And then because that's in the right order because I'm changing all the time because over the next one Olympics is above the Ironman World Championship title. But, uh, so it's like in that order.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

That's exactly what I wanted to know. And then the last one would be Olympic gold medal champion or winning Kona this year, 2026.

Oh, that's easy. Olympics. Uh, oh, amazing. So, uh, yeah, yes, Kona is unique and, uh, it's like a historical race. Uh, but, uh, I wouldn't swap out the Olympic gold medal for any other race in, uh, in, uh, triathlon. Maybe I would have swapped it out with, if I could, maybe I would have swapped it out with, uh, an Olympic non-penned without the pandemic and like with the crowds that we had in Paris, because it's maybe, it may be getting a little bit more goosebumps when it's like full of crowds and stuff like that. But Tokyo was also a great place to, to win it.

So do you have the same ambitions for LA? Is that something on your, on your radar that you, you would like to repeat that?

No, no. Or, uh, now I'm, uh, staying with Ironman and the longer stuff, simply because then we are young, wild, and free. We can do whatever we want. We're not restricted by any federations.

Hahaha. Interesting.

Yeah. Yeah.

Look, I am glad you answered with the Olympic gold medal because we spoke about it in preparing for the podcast and we said, you can't not choose the gold medal, surely. But I thought that your competitiveness to win Kona this year might be so strong that you might say that, but it makes sense. Yeah.

And, uh, and also because Kona, I know the Olympics was like a 10-year target when I came into the sport and was, uh, uh, searching on, uh, YouTube, like triathlon, the races that popped up was, uh, Jan Frodeno winning in, in Beijing. And that was the first sort of, what I saw of triathlon. And when I started racing when I was like 14, 15 years old, I was looking up to the— yeah, to be a part of the Olympics. And that was a 10-year-long journey where, yeah, since I met my old coach, Adel Teyten, for the first time, and he asked me, well, what my ambitions were. And it was quite clearly, it was to win the Olympic in 2020. And yeah, it was a 10-year project and I will probably never have a 10-year project in my life again.

What a special, special answer. And thank you for that insight. And it's been amazing to watch your journey, that whole journey really. And we actually had Aurel on the podcast after your gold medal and he was, he got a little bit emotional about it, you know, on the podcast. It was such a big journey. It was amazing to have him on. And hear his experience. And, yeah, the journey you've been on has been so inspiring. So thank you for, hey, sharing all your secrets and sharing all your stories and everything you do on social media and letting a lot of them open on Strava and for sharing your stuff on here. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. I've enjoyed the chat. It's been good to be on the pod.

Yeah, I was just going to reiterate, you're being so transparent and it's what the age groupers are just really loving. So, We don't want them to copy everything the pros do, but it's really good to get some insights and you've been very generous and we're very much appreciative. So, uh, good luck on the weekend and, uh, just, uh, give a, give a little bit of a help to our, our Trivelo, uh, specialist Tom Page and Roland Crantock who are in the pro field. And, uh, if you can give them a, give them a little helping hand and, uh, that will be very much appreciated.

So.

Thank you so much, Christian, for being on the, on the, on the podcast.

Thank you.

That's it for this episode. Thank you very much for everyone for joining, tuning in, and we'll see you on the next one.