From the autumn of 2019 by means of the top of 2022, there was a dominant drive in triathlon – the good Norwegian duo of Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt.
Throughout that interval, which included the COVID blackout yr of 2020, they received three IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, two IRONMAN World Championships, an Olympic Gold medal, a WTCS Grand Ultimate and a WTCS World Title to call just some highlights.
In addition they turned the showcase for one more particular person: Olav Aleksander Bu. He’s the mastermind coach who guided these two to stratospheric ranges. Their method was labeled “The Norwegian Technique”. In contrast to most coaches, Olav turned as well-known as his athletes. He appeared to have the ability to apply a magical contact to information like no-one in historical past.
However that unbelievable reign of invincibility began to wane because the 2022 season closed out. Sure, Blu received the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in St. George to complete issues off. However Iden was a DNF in that race just some weeks after he’d received in Kona and set a course file.
The dynamic duo has been struggling ever since to regain their dominance. Gustav is hoping to regain his IRONMAN World Championship title in Kona later this yr. Kristian will probably be lining up at Paris 2024 later this month hoping to deliver house his second Olympic Video games triathlon gold medal. For each, there nonetheless appears to be an enormous hole to shut if these these desires are to be realised.
In a current dialog with Olav (you’ll be able to watch the complete interview on the backside of this text), I requested him what it was that labored so properly in that four-year golden interval, and what’s modified since then. There have been a couple of surprises in his solutions!
Tokyo 2021 – systematic however experimental
“I believe the primary half got here main into Tokyo the place we began to have a really systematic however experimental method to individualisation. It was about determining what elements have been an important that had the biggest affect on the event of pace and velocity after which doing extra of the nice issues. Systematic but additionally experimental!
“Dialling on this manner of working created an excellent basis for what got here afterwards. Clearly after Tokyo it was not like Kristian simply had the concept that he wished to do lengthy course and win the IRONMAN World Championship that very same yr. This was already one thing that he had determined that he wished to do a few years upfront.
“However apart from the blokes that I coach, I get to see what different coaches do after which I attempt to be taught from them as properly. One of many issues that I noticed is that individuals are actually good at writing exercises. They make exercise fashions, they’ve durations, they’ve relaxation ratios, after which they’ve depth.
“However the depth half is the place I really feel most individuals don’t have a very good device to know what to focus on. What most individuals don’t realise is that allow’s say you prescribe 5% extra period or 10% extra period, you’re not speaking a couple of 5% linear relationship. I could be exponential when it comes to the influence on the athlete and their want for restoration.
“That is the place we began to see fairly large transformation in each Kristian and Gustav and the entire remainder of the staff by contemplating that nice edge exponential influence on the prime finish of what was is feasible to get better from.”
The Norwegian Technique was working flawlessly till the top of 2022. Gustav received in Kona in record-breaking time. Then he and Kristian went to St. George for the IRONMAN 70 .3 World Championships. Kristian crushed, utterly dominating. Gustav dropped out. I requested Olav if this was an enormous chink within the armour of the invincible boys?
“To be trustworthy, this was our most relaxed race. All of us agreed after Kona that now we’d deliver it down a couple of notches. There was an enormous drop in let’s say depth management and dosage management.
“We’d pushed for years from Gustav in Good in 2019 by means of the Olympics to then IRONMAN racing and likewise some PTO races. All of us wanted to let down a bit. It was the interval the place we had the least management and construction.”
Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt wins gold within the Olympic Video games triathlon in Tokyo in 2021 (Picture – World Triathlon).
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Paris 2024, and mission unimaginable!
After the “letdown” the buildup needed to occur. Paris is right here in just some weeks, and Kristian is hoping to defend his gold medal. I used to be curious what Olav considered that problem of going towards the grain of standard knowledge and taking a World Champion from IRONMAN again to Olympic-distance racing.
“Initially, it was a bit insanity, like why on earth would we return when these two guys have like seven world titles and course data?
“It got here right down to we would have liked a brand new aim. To be trustworthy if the aim for each had been to remain the course with long-distance racing, I’d in all probability have switched sports activities. I wish to construct issues, to innovate. I would like one thing to problem my thoughts. And going again to the Olympics? Effectively, that’s mission unimaginable!
“Kristian was additionally like that. He wanted extra freedom to do some out-of-the-box type of stuff. Final yr he mentioned he wished to do the Milwaukee PTO. I mentioned ‘Kristian you’re going to do PTO Milwaukee two weeks earlier than the Olympic Check Occasion?’ So, I mentioned yeah, I believe that will probably be actually good preparation. He checked out me with a big grin on his face and mentioned ‘I don’t even suppose YOU imagine that nevertheless it’s extra that you simply settle for it’. It’s a yr the place we simply we have now to maintain it extra relaxed.”
The Olympic yr is all about gauging the place an athlete is all through the season in comparison with the place they must be on the Video games. Nevertheless, one key race metric was cancelled early in that cycle: Abu Dhabi. That was successful for Olav and Kristian.
Abu Dhabi distress
“We actually wanted Abu Dhabi. That might have given us a number of months to regulate based mostly on what befell there. With out it, the one gauges have been Yokohama and Cagliari – each comparatively near Paris. We knew we’d be a bit blind as a result of the ultimate adjustments we’re making based mostly on these occasions received’t be examined till the Video games.”
There’s been hearsay of Kristian pushing boundaries along with his run to be prepared to overcome the strengths of Alex Yee, Hayden Wilde and Morgan Pearson. I requested him how he “measures” each day success in territory that nobody has ever been?
“We’re constantly pushing boundaries. We are attempting to redefine what’s sustainable when it comes to each period and depth, not solely in a single session however truly over time. We’re into utterly uncharted territory as a result of we’re growing way over what any instructing e-book would say we must always. I’ll come again round after the Olympics and speak extra about that.
“It’s a spot the place I’m very depending on the suggestions of the athletes, as a result of you have got all of the devices we have now, however in the long run, you actually should have a very good sense to your physique and Kristian clearly has a really, excellent sense of his physique.
“We ask about RPE, for instance. What was the depth feeling? Then I’ll ask him about time to exhaustion. How fatigued have been you from a scale from zero to 10. And it nonetheless surprises me that on a few of these classes we do, he’s not saying 10.
“He may not even be a 9, however extra like a six or seven. And I’ll ask, properly, does that imply that you possibly can have run six or eight extra kilometres on this tempo? Yeah, I might. And that’s okay, nice, that leaves one thing in reserve. And I believe that’s essential. Systematic however experimental!”
Kristian Blummenfelt is now within the closing countdown to Paris 2024 (Picture – Joerg Mitter/ Crimson Bull Content material Pool
Seine water inflicting Bu complications
The water high quality of the Seine in Paris will decide whether or not the Olympic race will probably be a triathlon or a duathlon. I requested Olav if that is a part of his preparation with Blu.
“I’ve to say, I actually don’t just like the scenario. To be trustworthy, we’re not getting ready a plan B. It’s a triathlon. If it’s a duathlon, it’s a duathlon, and we’ll simply should make the most effective of it. We mentioned this final yr and determined that if it’s a duathlon, it’s not a triathlon.
“However there’s additionally one other issue: the present. This summer season the present has been actually sturdy. If it’s like that on race day, a few swimmers might open up some insane gaps on the half the place you go towards the present. And worst case, once you flip across the buoy, some athletes may truly begin going backwards!”
For a coach like Olav who loves a brand new problem, the query needed to be requested: what’s subsequent after Paris and Kona this yr?
“Clearly I’ve unfinished enterprise with Gustav and the triathlon world, so I’ll proceed to work with him there. Kristian? There have been rumours that he is likely to be contemplate altering sports activities after this yr.
“So clearly Olympics after which Kona. However then in 2025? Kristian is contemplating different sports activities: biking to be particular. One factor I can say for positive although, that is nonetheless hearsay. I’ll say we’re in dialogue with a few individuals. After which we’ll simply should see the place it takes us.
“My spouse and I have been sitting down discussing all this. I mentioned it’s seven years till I’m 50. That’s the interval I give myself the place I’ll actually push for extra innovation in sport whether or not it’s by means of teaching, serving to different coaches or engaged on AI initiatives. I will be extra exact on all this later this yr.”
…. to be continued
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