How a WR setting, Olympic gold winner, speed skater trained

It is so impressive what this guy does.
Just for some context, after the 2018 olympics he draftet himself into elite armed forces (In sweden elite athletes dont have to do mandatory military service) and served a year as a ranger in swedish Lappland. He took a complete break from skating, just doing army-ranger-stuff. He figured a year under extreme discipline and hardship would make him a better athlete in the end.
It obviously worked

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Reading through. Loving his attitude.

This specifically struck a chord with me:

"During the Aerobic season I planned for some endurance challenges. It could be a 100km run, a 5 day running stage race of 280 km or a 600 km bike ride. The main purpose of this was to inspire myself to train more, gather more hours, but also to get some cool experiences out of my career. Afterall I didn’t get to decide whether or not I would win the olympics. But I did decide if I wanted to complete a 100 miles ultra run or not. I simply tried to get the most out of my career.

edit: Lol at this:

Example week during the Aerobic season

Mon 7h biking at 260W
Tue 6h biking 250W
Wed 2h x-country skiing + 4h biking at 250W
Thu 7h biking at 265W
Fr 6h biking at 240W
Sat Resting
Sun Resting

“During this (aerobic) season I ate a lot, probably around 7000 kcal per day…However, to down all the calories I was drinking whip cream during sessions, another recurring routine was to eat potato chips after dinner until I went to bed.”

Well at least I got the eating part down. Now to work up to 7 hour aerobic sessions at 250 average watts

Final edit:

“The hardest thing about this program was getting through it with a smile upon my face. When I found ways to enjoy it I was unstoppable. Sometimes, to get through more hours, what was needed was an ice cream and sometimes it was multiple ice creams. The good news was that ice cream was pretty cheap. So even though other skaters had millions of euros going into their careers, I was able to skate faster than all of them, because I had found a way to enhance my performance with ice cream. To me the challenge was not about suffering, but finding a way to endure hardships with ease”

Wise words

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So, icecream DOES make you faster?? Going to present this argument to my GF to convice her that eating ben & jerrys while on trainer is perfectly reasonable!

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I have only positive things to say about ice cream during long bike rides. Lots of easily digested calories for sure. Tastes better than any bar or gel I’ve ever had.

Edit: Spelling…

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With all that time on a bike how does he fit in the actual skate training?

He only does skate training during his last training phase, in the build up to race season.

It’s worth noting that he has skated for a long time, and was junior world champ. He says he “already knew how to skate”.

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Indoor Biking? phew 5h for 5 cosecutive days

I would guess he rode most of them outside, but I’m not sure.

He writes that he hated indoor riding, so he bough mudguards, snow tyres, and waterproofs, so he could ride outdoors instead.

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A man after my own heart

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This is absolutely a fantastic read. Still working through it but enjoying it and getting many practical takeaways. Would love to hear the TR team discuss this on the podcast or who knows, maybe get him on the Successful Athletes podcast?

His training is crazy, the massive volume during aerobic weeks is something else. But my biggest takeaway is his mentality through the whole thing. He clearly understands the importance of his mental well-being as well as his physical and integrates it into every aspect of his training. Love how he discusses taking two days off every week just to spend time with his friends and better himself as a person. The whole section on the 5-2 training model is very insightful.

Also absolutely loved this paragraph on page 9:

I held myself to a high standard and I rewarded myself properly and often. When I failed I
forgave myself and tried my best not to fail again. I never felt sorry for myself, no matter the
hour, wind, rain or temperature. I volunteered to do this. I wanted it because it was hard and
throughout the training sessions I tried to keep that in mind. I questioned my decision to be a
speed skater a lot, but I didn’t question it when I was suffering, then I only got through it. I left
the questioning for rest days

Excited to keep reading, lots to learn from this. Thanks to Nils for publishing this and making it free and easily accessible

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From page 11:

Specifik Season was also the weight losing season. I went from 85kg in Oktober down to 80
kg when January began.

So for his aerobic season, when he was doing 7 hours at 250W, he was about 85kg. 2.95 W/kg for 30 hours a week, not too shabby

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I am really enjoying reading this. So many interesting takeaways.

A line from page 17 made me think of how beneficial the new AI FTP detection can be: “For the professional athlete I believe testing is vital, but sacrificing training hours in order to perform tests is not the proper way of moving forward.”

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Yes but it needs to be put into broader context.
That 2.95w/kg is only 62% of FTP, so thats LOW z2 work. It’s not like he’s out there doing 7hrs of sweet spot.
It’s a lot of low z2 work to build a large aerobic base.

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Yes, because that would be impossible.

62% of FTP for 30hr weeks, within 5 days is pretty darn hard.

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I love the relationship he has with food. None of the “high quality food” or “food as fuel” talk. AACC podcast constantly referring to food in this way is strange IMO. Getting enough calories is the goal so that your body won’t hate you.

Going off on a tangent, but classifying food into good/bad just leads people to under-eat and crash out after a few months. If you want to limit certain foods because of some other reason (like allergies, vegetarianism, or due to a need for weight control to name a few) then great, go ahead. But to imply that potato chips and ice cream are somehow bad food choices as is done on the podcast seems oblivious to the overall goal of maintaining a good relationship with your body. It is also relying on a lot of dogma and bro-science.

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I wonder what kind of training Patrick ROEST did in comparison. Did he also take on a cycling training approach and log massive hours aerobically on the bike or was this simply the separator for Nils?

Great post by the way, fun to read through.

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Eh. He’s in a rare position that eating like that is almost a necessity. 7k calories a day is a lot, especially when you’re on the bike for 5+ hrs.

I’m sure he and his coach recognize that it’s not necessarily good for his health, but you can’t eat 7k calories of boiled potatoes, brown rice, fruit and kale.

He’s also in a sport where weight isn’t that consequential. He’s not competing against guys who are 5’6 and 135lbs, because as far as I know they don’t exist in endurance speed skating.

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First, I think a lot more people are in this boat than they think. Yes, there are obviously some people who need to lose weight to avoid obesity. Nils, as a world record holder, is by definition an outlier. But on this forum and in the TR community, calorie restricting as a consequence of “good, healthy food” is the norm. I would love to hear from people who are having trouble with motivation, energy, consistency, and see what it does to their training to add 500-700 calories of French fries or whole milk to their lunch. It’s not just the guy doing 30 hours a week that is at risk for under-eating, but the rest of us who are doing structured training too. I hope it’s obvious I’m not referring to a general sedentary population, but TR folks tend to not be those at all.

Second, I know there is going to be blow-back on this, but I am just pointing out that saying “boiled potatoes, brown rice, fruit and kale” are somehow healthy is a huge amount of bro-science and dogma - so much so that it is hard for people to wrap their head around. IMO mostly it is a fetishization of “clean” eating. That somehow torturing yourself with only “healthy” foods somehow makes a person better or more disciplined. As I said above, the promotion of this in the AACC podcast is problematic for me. Saying that his diet is “not necessarily good for his health” disregards the health effects of being in a calorie deficit and the stress it causes on you in many, many ways.

I started disregarding the whole “clean eating” approach last year. Before, I was focused on the high-carb (rice, potatoes, breads, etc) and low fat with adequate protein that is promoted here and elsewhere for endurance athletes. After repeatedly getting sick, repeatedly having periods where I just needed to take time off the bike every 2-3 months, muscle injuries, etc, I decided one month to just eat whatever the heck I wanted. Chicken strips for lunch, scrambled eggs piled high with shredded cheese for breakfast, mashed potatoes and gravy, a gallon of whole milk per week, PB&Js to my heart’s content - anything and everything. After I quit fetishizing a tortured diet, my training started going shockingly well, and my recovery is in places I didn’t think it could be before. My diet is now a balance that I trust my brain to dictate.

His entire approach contradicts the “torture is good” mentality. I’m glad to see someone talking openly about eating food they are craving as a way of being nice to themselves for a change.

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I fell so much better about my quote from this morning:

Now I just need to get my hours from 20 to 30. Then no Strava segment can stop me!

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