They were pretty much the final words of last Sunday’s post-race World Championship press conference, but in many ways Kristian Blummenfelt’s parting shot delivered the most pertinent insight yet into how this trio of Norse legends had created their moment of IRONMAN history.
Having done his utmost to hide the obvious disappointment of missing out on winning a second title, the Norwegian powerhouse was clearly genuine when he spoke of what it meant for him to be standing on the podium alongside his compatriots Gustav Iden and champion Casper Stornes.
More than simply training buddies, these three athletes have redefined how IRONMAN – which is essentially a sport where individuals compete against one another – can be partly morphed into a team affair that enables athletes to not only swim, ride and run together, but also to learn, share and feed off of each other’s knowledge and skills.
An environment for success
It is this environment which has provided the added X-factor to the much-discussed and long-vaunted Norwegian Method that was first introduced by their former coach, Olav Aleksander Bu, and has seemingly been pimped up to the next level by a trio of athletes determined to set new fitness and nutrition boundaries within their sport.
Somewhat irked by those who had declared the Norwegian Method obsolete just a year ago, Blummenfelt ended the winners’ press conference on Sunday by revealing that he had decided to ‘use the 2025 season to prove you wrong’. Not even he could have predicted quite how well that would end up working out.
For someone like Blummenfelt, who together with Iden, had been the major beneficiaries of Bu’s innovative scientific approach – focusing on high volume, low intensity training and using Lactate Threshold Control to accurately measure fatigue responses – the desire to prove the doubters wrong only served to add more fire to the belly full of flames that had already started burning after their brutal experiences at Kona in 2024.
It was this cocktail of desire, frustration and sheer will to succeed that not only laid the foundations for their strict training regime but also helped them plan race preparations, organise their 2025 calendars and set up a winter training camp in Nice itself, as they sought to maximise their chances of success with unprecedented efficiency.
Iden admitted they had been planning ‘the whole season to win this race’ while Blummenfelt called it a ‘good investment’ to have spent eight weeks training in the pouring rain and chilly winds of the French Riviera in January and February, instead of heading off to warmer climes.
Being able to run the route, imagining what it would take to beat Patrick Lange and to ride it thinking about how they would tackle Sam Laidlow was something that Iden recalls as being ‘really, really motivating for us’.
Gamble pays off to go it alone
With Bu having made the switch to cycling, Blummenfelt and Iden made the bold choice to go it alone on a day-by-day basis without the support of a specialist coach. It was a gamble that gave them the freedom they needed to plot their own destiny… and it was a journey that Stornes was happy to join them on once he saw just how determined they were to succeed.
“Gustav and Kristian didn’t want to have a coach. You could see in the winter that they were so hungry to get back again after the disappointments of Kona,” he said. “They weren’t happy. I could see it in the training that we were going to fight back. And that really triggered me to make the decision and take more responsibility for my own career.
“We have had some amazing coaches along the way who have obviously been teaching us how we should train, but then we have made our own programme and helped each other every day. It’s good competition in the group where we are building each other up, giving each other advice, and I think working very well together.”
Blummenfelt is very much seen as the leader of this Norwegian pack, and it was telling that both Iden and Stornes were quick to thank their training partner for his role in delivering them at a World Championship event, both fit and prepared to challenge for their podium place.
As Iden spoke of being ‘dragged’ through training sessions by his colleagues while struggling for fitness, Stornes apologised to Blummenfelt for having ‘complained for half a year’ about the intensity of the bike training. His apology earning a sagely reply from the 2022 champion, who simply said: “I told you that you’d thank me after the race.”
Telling it like it is
But it can’t always be sweetness and light, especially when you are spending as much time together as this tight-knit trio. Indeed, Iden explained it is just as important for them to be able to deal with those difficult times as it is to cope with the training demands.
“I think what goes first, if you’re in a group like this and people start getting tired, is the mood. People can get a bit more annoyed with the others,” he said. “And you get like the small signals. Knowing each other for that many years, we know those signals, and sometimes, while it may seem a bit rough to just say it as it is – you don’t want to hurt their feelings – you also have to be honest when you are in a group like this.
“We all want the same thing for each other. We want to be on that podium together. So often to just tell it how it is, when people are kind of getting a bit annoyed, I think it’s an important part of our day-to-day work.”
The question now is just how far this group can go as they seek to dominate a sport which is seemingly seeing its parameters being re-drawn on an annual basis with the introduction of improved technology, nutrition and more money coming in for the athletes to contend for?
One of their beaten opponents certainly believes they have hit upon a recipe for success, with Sam Laidlow almost looking on with a sense of envy at a behind-the-scenes set-up which he feels is making a huge difference where it matters, on the course.
Train more, think less philosophy
“These three have a very special environment, to be honest,” said the Frenchman, who finished fifth on Sunday. “At the end of the day, we all train; somewhere between 20, 35, maybe even 40 hours a week for these guys, I don’t know.
“I did actually see them out running three times in the space of 20 hours when I was at the hotel in Nice, and I spoke to Gustav and he said, ‘This year our philosophy is train more, think less’. And I was like, that’s basically the opposite of my philosophy this year… but we found out which one works best.
“Everyone’s different, but I really think what’s made a difference for them is their environment and again, the momentum that they’ve built up from the fire that they clearly had from Kona last year and believing in themselves that they can deliver these sort of performances.”
Some may say that Blummenfelt, Iden and Stornes have breathed new life into the Norwegian Method, but this is something different. By taking that initial model, they have been able to adapt and develop their own approach, adding the powerful ingredients of teamwork and a belly full of fire to the all-important mix.
Sunday’s World Championship was the third time that these three have achieved a clean sweep of the podium; there is no doubt that the hunger which drove them to those achievements continues to burn as they look to truly stamp their names even more indelibly on IRONMAN history.
Are we in a triathlon boom, or hurtling towards burnout? Laura Siddall on the growth of the sport
