This quote is worth translating for the HN crowd. It's a typical Nils van der Poel answer, from an interview with Swedish Radio. When asked how he did it, how he could sacrifice so much for a gold medal, his answer was<p>"I think it's important to understand that you're not doing it for a gold medal. Regardless of which life you chose to live, you will sacrifice something, that's the way it is.<p>As soon as you go in one direction, you also choose to not go in all other directions at the same time. It's the basic precondition for going anywhere at all.<p>But on the path you take, you will experience fantastic things, even though it's uphill there will be a great view when you're at the top, and that's what makes it worth it, to be on this journey with people you love. It doesn't matter that much where the journey ends. A movie with a sad ending is also a good movie - and a movie with a nice ending makes you happy.<p>I'm very happy for this medal around my neck, and for getting all the way here. But why do you do it? I don't think you get to pick your dreams, they pick us. It's up to us to realize them or not, and it seems like people who try to realize their dreams are happier."<p>Source in Swedish <a href="https://twitter.com/Radiosporten/status/1491090244652969984" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Radiosporten/status/1491090244652969984</a>
So interesting. Every other athlete would have sold this as a book.<p>Lots of wisdom. Not only on training but on life as well. It really shows, there is not shortcut but only hard, meaningfully work.<p>To everyone complaining about the website and the “mysterious” download button: He is a speed skater. Not a web designer. Give him a break. His name is just below the download button. If you would Google the name for 2 seconds you would know what this is about. He cycles 7hours per day, and you can’t spend 2 seconds to Google and just complain. You would not endure 2 seconds of his training.
An IronMan triathlon is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile marathon. 140.6 miles.
When I had friends who did IronMan triathlons, I was shocked to learn that the 15-20 hours weekly of training that they did had one main purpose: to minimize the chance of going anaerobic during the race. Even the top IronMan athletes who are running 6 minute miles in the Kona heat and humidity at the IronMan World Championships are not going out of their aerobic zone. Once you go anaerobic, everything breaks down. You may recall those famous videos of athletes crawling across the finish line. The weekly commitment to 15-20 hours of IronMan training is to prevent that. As a side note, I went to IronMan Lake Placid to cheer on a friend a decade ago. We did not see her so we started walking out of town, reverse along the marathon course. It gets really dark and lonely quickly once you get about 2 miles out. So many of the 140.6 miles it is just you and your mind. We found her about 5 miles out and she was ecstatic to see us. She finished her IronMan. The next morning you see all these proud athletes of every age group (men’s 40-45 are the most competitive, cue mid-life crisis) strutting around with their finisher medals. Registration for next year’s race opens up exclusively on site before the Internet. There were a lot of people in line, some without medals.
This is straight gold, love the insider perspective! He has an incredibly mature stance on training and competition. I especially liked the bit about motivation, and the bit where he implies everyone is cargo-culting a little bit.<p>Are elite athletes the same as us or fundamentally different? Thats the mystery at the heart of celebrity. And this guy splits the difference about as well as I've ever read.
"This development was mainly acquired through continuous voluntary confrontation with the challenge (read that sentence again and emphasis voluntary). It was first when I understood that, or felt like, I volunteered, that I was able to compete with a free mind."<p>Biggest take-away for me so far is the importance of the voluntary aspect. He seems to be saying that when you fully say yes to hardship, it becomes easier to bear.<p>His mental fortitude provides a nice backdrop to all the UX guru's coming out of the woodworks to comment on an HTML page with a link to a PDF.
One curious thing I observed about the winter Olympics is the domination of tiny Norway in medal rankings. They were at the top of the table in 2018 games and are currently at the top as well. It's insane how a country of 5 million is able to do it, ahead of russia, china, usa, canada etc. It's not like these countries don't get snow or don't have enough money. I wonder what's the real reason. Lack of interest? Lack of winter sports culture?
He promised he would release it after the Olympics. Interesting choice to do it, spilling all your secrets. Looking forward to read it, from before I know he has a pretty unconventional look at training.<p>I'm also interested in if he became best because of the program (and hard work etc, but the program being the edge), or if it because he could <i>endure</i> the program. Maybe no one is able to copy his ways.
I love the anti website. I went almost into this zombo.com kind of waiting for something to happen except this one ended with some actual useful information when I realized waiting wasn't helping but I should press the mysterious button instead.<p>I remember there used to be this website that was looking like a regular website but had a special pixel somewhere you should click to get access to the warez. Totally useless from a protection perspective but I loved the "secret hatch" idea.
TL;DR: The guy who won both the 10k and the 5k skating events at the Olympics documents his training regime, which boils down to <i>staggering</i> amounts of aerobic exercise on bikes and on the skating rink. A typical week involves 5 days in a row of 7 hours on a bike.<p>As an aside, I always thought from the name that he must be originally Dutch, but nope, he's a third-generation Swede; the name comes from his grandfather.
great read and great attitude, but saying "anyone could do it if they just worked as hard as me" is so banal. You're training 33 hours on a bike in a week --- most people who try that will just break down. Then you transition to extended periods of time at 400 watts --- most people couldn't hold that for 5 minutes no matter how hard they trained. Obviously hard work is good but you still need to be a genetic outlier.
When you do the math I average 3 mph for 3 hours going between benches in different laboratories plus at least another mile of moving slow so that's 10 miles per day 5 days a week.<p>Wears out the sneakers in 3 months. People give me a hard time since I keep wearing them an additional 3 months ;)<p>Compromised sneakers like this don't damage my feet, my feet damage the shoes.<p>One afternoon per week I put back on the quads and skate the same old way. It can get hot in Texas, I wait until the temperature drops below 96 F and I'm fine.<p>I go about 10 mph for one hour so that's another 10 miles that day. Even after a 12 hour day I look forward to skating, it's just still fun at "retirement" age. After warming up for the first 45 min, then I fly over 30 mph for a few choice blocks before the last recovery mile or two where I cool back down.<p>After 15 minutes in the shade I like to be able to go into a nice place and nobody thinks I've been sweating or anything.<p>Certainly not a speed skater, I don't even lubricate my wheels every year, I'm trying to get more exercise in a shorter period of time after all. So the wind doesn't bother me either.<p>Probably more endurance and sustainability, it has taken me decades after all, and I'm still going in circles or I would never make it back to my vehicle.
> "However, to down all the calories I was drinking whipped cream during sessions, another recurring routine was to eat potato chips after dinner until I went to bed."<p>I thought that this was pretty hilarious. Reflected on and tested every last detail of his life, training, and circumstances — just to then smash bag after bag of potato chips all evening every evening. Love it.
I look forward to reading this recap of the training methods of an Olympic gold medalist.<p>That said, I think these sorts of books should be seen as valuable data for serious athletes, but never as gospel. To paraphrase my former coach: if Nils van der Poel would make a point of always practicing in a tutu, would you as well?
It's a bad link, should probably link directly to the pdf. <a href="https://www.howtoskate.se/_files/ugd/e11bfe_b783631375f543248e271f440bcd45c5.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.howtoskate.se/_files/ugd/e11bfe_b783631375f54324...</a>
Thank you. That was amazing! And truly inspiring!<p>From the Epilogue -<p>"If you were to engage in elite sports please remember: it's about winning, but it is not solely about winning. All but one is obliged to lose. Under such circumstances I consider success to be measured by means of playing, and not by margin of winning. It is the strive for excellence, the sharing of love and the ability to inspire others to do the same, that to me above all, defines an athlete's success. The job is to lead the way by leading yourself."
I was enthralled by this. I took away a great parable about developing a plan from first principles rather than convention, dedicated himself to the grind, and came out with shocking results