With just four weeks separating the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice from the Ironman World Championship in Kona this September and October, many athletes would shy away from attempting both. Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, however, are embracing the challenge – with the clear ambition of winning both races.
“I think we can make it work,” Iden said in a recently published video. “But it does mean that our final altitude camp will need to take place in Europe. Spending the entire four weeks after the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice just adapting to the heat for Kona would be too long. So we’ll need a very smart plan.”
Both Norwegians of course will begin their season much earlier. For now, Ironman New Zealand (March 7) and Ironman Texas (April 18) are their primary early-season targets, with the possibility of adding a 70.3 race in between the two full-distance events.
“We want to be in good shape early in the season,” Blummenfelt explained. “The plan is likely to start with four weeks at altitude in Sierra Nevada, followed by travel to the race location about a week before Ironman New Zealand.”
Iden emphasized that none of the training plans or camps are set in stone. “People often think everything is fully mapped out already, but that’s not the case,” he said. “It’s very fluid. We talk to a lot of people, and good ideas come up all the time.”