With racing on hold around the world, and no clear timeline on when triathlons will return, we checked in with some of our deboer Team athletes to see how they are staying occupied through this uncertainty.

• 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Champion

Right now I'm in Font Romeu in the Pyrenees with a small part of our national team. I spent few weeks in Austria also, both for training and racing which was really great.

What are the current training rules in your area?

In France where we are now there are not really any restrictions. We wear masks when we are in public and try to stay as away from groups and on our own as much as possible. Other than that we are pretty much free to do what we want in our training.

How is your training different right now?

My training is actually pretty much the same as it would have been normally. I have the long term goal of winning the Olympics, so every day I am trying to get closer to that goal. Now it also seems like there will be a WTS race on the schedule, so trying to tune my engine in to perform at my peak there.

How is the local triathlon community dealing with this?

For my triathlon community back home in Bergen there has been more athletes taking on various adventures and different training such as long rides, mountaineering, and some track races. There hasn't been any triathlons in Bergen yet, but my club plans to put on a race soon. I am proud of my father who has put in a lot of energy to get that race going together with the rest of the team in my club.

Any races on the horizon that you have some optimism about actually happening?

I was so ready to take on the European Championship in Tartu at the end of the month, but that sadly got canceled. Luckily there seem to be some races that will happen. In a few days we have a race in the French GP in Chateauroux. Also I am hoping that the WTS in Hamburg will go as planned. The organizers seem to have a good plan on how to safely let the race happen.

How are you managing your fitness and training load with so much uncertainty?

For me the training load has been quite high. In the start of the period I said to my coach that I don't really need a training plan right now, so then I just went out and had fun with the training without a specific target on what to develop with each and every session. Slowly but surely we have built a more structured plan, and the last lab test we did I set a new record for my fitness.

Any skills/challenges, triathlon or not, that you've taken on over the past few months?

Since I haven't been able to travel as much I have instead read a lot and learned a lot about geography,  but not well enough to call it a skill yet. Maybe by the time we come to Kona I will be able to impress someone with my geography skills.

 

To follow Gustav Iden you can find him on Instagram.