Kristian Blummenfelt: How to achieve a champion body and mind

Looking to find out the secret of Kristian Blummenfelt’s incredible success? Of course you are. That’s why your interest will be well and truly piqued by episode six of Red Bull’s Mind Set Win podcast, which not only features Norway’s record-breaking triathlete but also his acclaimed high-performance coach Olav Aleksander Bu.
 
Blummenfelt, who’s aiming to regain his Olympic crown in Paris this summer, and Bu openly talk about their training philosophies, the integration of data into their training, plus the mental strategies employed to maintain peak performance.

In an enlightening interview, the Norwegian phenomenon offers a fascinating insight into his relationship with Bu, plus training revelations and his attitude to data…
 
“I thought that the laws of physics didn’t count for me and that’s a threshold that I didn’t need to have,” Blummenfelt admits. “I can tolerate the pain better so I can deal with it more.

“When you sort of understand more about the data [that Olav is] showing me and what we’re doing in the lab and understanding that actually I have to combine my physical shape and what I can do in training with his data and his knowledge, then it will be creating something quite great in the middle.”
 
“Quite great”, of course, is an understatement with the 30-year-old’s list of achievements including world titles at Ironman, the World Triathlon Series, Ironman 70.3 and gold in Tokyo where he beat Great Britain’s Alex Yee by 11secs.

In 2022, Blummenfelt also smashed the seven-hour barrier at the Sub7 long-distance project, winning his match-up against Joe Skipper (GB) in 6:44:25. That ridiculous time comprised a 48:21min 3.8km swim, 3:24:22 on the 180km bike and 2:30:50 for the marathon run.

What motivates Kristian Blummenfelt?

In a wide-ranging interview, podcast host Lisa Ramuschkat asks the multisport phenomenon whether his record-breaking exploits are his greatest motivation.

“For me, it’s like when you are in a battle against your biggest rival and you’re able to solve that,” the Norwegian responds. “That moment is like snapping an elastic band and feeling unstoppable. That’s more what I am sort of driving towards than breaking records.”

Blummenfelt and his coach, Bu, have become synonymous with the Norwegian method of endurance training that has a few key tenets…

• High-volume and low-intensity training weeks. Blummenfelt, who often shares his training data on Strava, trains for around 30hrs a week that peaks at 40hrs. Around 80 to 90% of this training is low intensity.
• Double threshold days. This is two high-intensity efforts in one day – morning and evening.
• Regular lactate testing. The likes of Blummenfelt and Gustav Idan are multisport pin cushions with the Norwegian method requiring constant finger pricking. This is so that the likes of Bu can measure lactate readings to ensure their athletes are working at exactly the right intensity.

In this episode, Blummenfelt and Bu openly discuss the ideas behind their approach to training, including its empirical nature.

“Data can act as a really good, positive reinforcement loop,” says Bu. “There are many times I ask myself, am I doing good enough? I think that having confirmation back that we are doing well, that is important.

“When you’re using data in a positive way, when you have a good model that is producing good performances, this is a really strong psychological combination. 
 
“So, it does not become a superficial confidence where you think, ‘Oh yeah, I’m doing a good run’. You actually get hard facts. That is where data can be used as a superpower and to supercharge the mental aspect.”

Managing conflict

Bu also delves into managing conflict… 

“There will always be times when things are difficult, when things aren’t on track and there will be disagreements or emotions. Being able to address this and sit down and feel that even though you’re having a heated conversation, you can still come back afterwards and give each other a hug… We have the common goal.”
 
And his coaching strategy… “You can maybe extract more from people in the short term by being very, let’s say, harsh or direct. But I think that’s a short-lived strategy. To have people flourish and perform all the time, you have to create an environment where people feel that they can flourish or perform.”
 
Whether that environment will see Blummenfelt follow Alistair Brownlee’s path and win successive Olympic gold medals, well, we’ll find out on Tuesday 30 July.
 
All episodes of the Mind Set Win podcast can be listened to on YouTube and all podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Deezer.

Top image credit: Getty Images