The Norwegian Train Gets Back On Track: Kristian Blummenfelt Unpacks Kona, The Olympics, Training, & Lessons On Resilience After Failure

32:11I was expecting to run faster. But again, you always try to trick yourself and tell yourself that you have a chance. But maybe I thought that the chance is getting smaller and smaller with the pace I'm running at. Yeah. Well, it's a lot easier to go from Olympic distance to Ironman than it is to go from Ironman back down. And while as you age, you can continue to kind of increase your endurance capacity. Speed is much harder to continue to develop and fades more easily, especially with age. And once you kind of let go of that speed work and then you're in the long distance world to come back and recapture it.

32:52I mean, I think that's why a lot of people were like, wow, that's, it's a lot harder than I think most people who don't intimately understand that world would imagine it to be. But I think also my feeling from Paris is that we maybe did some mistakes on the training the last year going into the game. So it's maybe too much focused on building that capacity and stretching out sessions too much instead of simplifying it more and working more around like the 30, 40 minutes of workload. Well, the fact that you went and won Frankfurt two weeks after Parrish, it's like clearly you were doing a lot of more kind of endurance-based work than maybe you needed, because you wouldn't have been able to perform that well.

33:36Yeah. That was for me more like a blinking sign of, yeah, we did a mistake. There's some kind of miscalculation there. So you think you can still, you have that speed, it was more like training error. I think so. So I think I can, I'm not that old that I can't get back to the speed that it was required to win Paris. It was more mistakes we did and build up and like what we were prioritizing. Right. And it didn't help, not that this applied, you know, this applied to everyone who was racing, not just you, but, you know, the whole kind of Seine, Paris, you know, sort of situation was a bit of a disaster.

34:20Sure. Yeah, that was a strange one as well, like coming to a games and it feels like the course is not even ready, like in that sense, like you. Not only that, you don't know when you're gonna race. Yeah. So every day it was sort of, they wouldn't even let you, they kept changing when you could even get into kind of, you know, practice in, you know, on the course, right? It was all dependent on measuring the toxins in the water or whatever, and that would change every day. And then you think you would get it and that would rain and then they'd say no. And then the day you were supposed to race, you show up like really early, right?

34:59And they call it off. You're getting an email like four o 'clock in the morning or something. Yeah. Or middle of the night. And then when you wake up for the race quite early, then you see the email that race is postponed another day. That plays serious mind games. But like in that situation, you just try to think that it's the same for everyone. it's not gonna - But the next day, the day that you raced, that morning it was raining. Yeah. I woke up that morning and I thought, there's no way these guys are racing today. There's no way they're gonna let them race. And that was the day that they let you race.

35:34But - They pushed it back too. You ended up like going in like later, like 1045 or something, I think. Yeah, so that was because it was the women's day of racing. So they raced under the rain. And I think because of the rain then, then normally the water gets dirty like two days after or like a day or two days after because then it comes like down from the uh from the city so uh the water itself should have been clean on that day but it's more like to race later on on the day as well like it then it's more it's warmer especially on the run and uh maybe hayden wild would have taken it if it was earlier in the morning like he was getting cooked out there so um yeah you know not you never know how it would would have ended up up front, but I do think the podium would have been the same, same guys.

36:23Yeah, how did your throat do it with the sand water? Did you throw up in that race? Actually not, that was actually okay. Really? Did anyone get sick? I think there was a few athletes who got sick, but you'd like, you don't know if it's the food they've been eating or like if they've gone out or, but I haven't seen the, I haven't looked at the numbers since like the water, like if it was clean or not. But the strange thing, I think it takes 24 hours to get the measurements from the water. So the numbers we're using in terms of getting green light for racing, it's the numbers from the day before.

37:00Oh, I didn't know that. And then it's like estimation of how it's gonna be the next day. Oh, that's not good. I mean, it was ambitious and sort of a cool idea four years ago when they decided like, hey, this is what we wanna do. but they just couldn't really pull it off. And you guys were the ones who had to pay the price for that, unfortunately. It was an epic course. It was a great location, but again, maybe not a course that was secured and ready for the Olympic Games. But from what I understand, LA 2028 is in your sights. You want to go back. Is this true? I haven't decided yet. This is what all the articles are saying.

37:41I haven't decided yet, But with that feeling coming off Paris and thinking that I'm not too old, but it was more mistakes done. And of course, I want to showcase that it's possible to come down again from arm and distance. Because now with the 12th place from Paris, I would say like the coming down from arm and distance, Olympic distance projects have sort of been a failure. and I do want to, of course, come back again to ensure that it is possible. 13 days after Paris, you're in Frankfurt and you tow the line at, you know, this legendary Ironman race, but you have no expectations. You're not even, you're just there kind of, like you're there to race, but I don't think that you, from what I understand, like we're putting a lot of pressure on yourself to, you know, uncork some kind of amazing performance.

38:37And yet you have this unbelievable performance that I think sort of allowed everybody to kind of put your Paris performance in the rear view mirror and say, oh, whatever you might've thought about, you know, Christian not being at his best. Think again, like this guy's for real, look what he just did when all he's been doing is training for Olympic distance. Which leads me to believe that you're somebody who performs well in the wake of disappointment. but this year for the first time ever, you've had two kind of very large disappointments. So how do you like from just sort of a sports psychologist, mental health perspective, like manage the disappointment and all the expectations that, that, you know, went into your, you know, most recent big two last two performances.

39:26I think it's important to, yeah, I'd like to have that conversation with yourself and like being honest with yourself and not coming up with too many excuses and just think about everything that's been done and what I do is often like I write it down on the phone and just like looking through what I think was the reason what I think I could have done differently and using it for motivation for the future like of course it hurts to lose the Olympic title to someone else and to to look at the pictures now from Kona of everyone on the podium and I was still on Queen K when they finished the race but I think it's important to talk and have like honest reflections with the team and with Gustav and with Olav and yeah, leaving nothing yeah, we will talk about everything when we get back home with Gustav and Olav and do those reflections and making a plan for how we can come back because uh yeah all of all of us are both agree and hungry that we are not supposed to be that for down on the result list what what did all olav say to you after kona uh he was wondering mostly what i was thinking like what was happening on the bike with the puking and what i thought was the reasons for yeah getting cooked on the run but we haven't spent too much time talking about it yet we will have like a more longer talk when we get back to bergen yeah it's not a it's not a easy puzzle is it like the way that you and gustav train with olav is so measured you know everything that you guys do is a function of science on some level, right?

41:27And so for you to say, well, we made a miscalculation here or we don't quite know why this didn't work here is curious and interesting, right? Because of all people, I would feel like, well, you guys know exactly what happened or you and Gustav are the last people to kind of make an unforced error. But also how we often do these reflections is that we often first sit down and do like over phone like we have like in different parts and then we have like maybe a week break or like we're all like thinking about the point the order we're coming with and then coming back again and doing another evaluation of the process and what we think could have changed like if you have changed any opinions of what have been happening yeah so we have had like the first round now on the phone while we were in Kona, and then we will have a deeper one when we get back to Bergen.

42:23Of all the unique methods that you guys deploy in your training, what do you think has had the most impact? Is it the constant lactate testing? Is it altitude training? Is it heat acclimation? Is it some of the technology that you guys are always experimenting with? Is it your relationship with volume and intensity? Is it metabolic efficiency? Can you point to any one thing that you think has moved the needle the most? I think it's high, like being able to tolerate a very high training load. And then to be able to do that, so you obviously need to have control over the training, like intensity control.

43:03That has maybe been the key. And being able to absorb it, like the training. Absorb the training. Absorb the training. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I read that you have the highest recorded VO2 max of all time. That's like... Not by weight, right? Like total in aggregate. Like per milliliter. It's like 7.7. But that's also where I think we went wrong coming into Paris. Like when I had that high enough numbers in December or January, I should have been able to perform better in Paris. uh eight months later so then again if i can get the bit max up to those numbers uh coming back from long distance then i also think i should have performed better in the 2024 season so then i think also how we've been utilizing that engine maybe been wrong in training because uh i was running well in december january but then it's maybe a periodization i've maybe been a bit off.

44:15What is, to what do you account your ability to kind of put in such a huge training load and also absorb it? Like how do you measure that so that you're not overtraining and you're always able to kind of absorb the training that you're putting in? The easiest way I think is every week just being aware of how the training is feeling. Like it's about feeling if you're absorbing your training or not. Like if you're getting more hammered on your Thursday track session than you were the week four, then maybe you've had a tough week and you can still push through. Then if it goes like two or three weeks in a row and you feel like the numbers are not going in the right direction and you're just slowly digging yourself in a hole, then I think it's time to slow back a little bit.

45:05Like either cut down some of the track sessions or like some of the intensive sessions by maybe 80 % and also doing it pace-wise a little bit more carefully to get that energy back. Do you ever have total rest days where you don't do anything? Those are the podcasting days. So that's the podcasting days and the sponsorship days. So then certainly it's not an easy day still. But now if I feel very fatigued, then maybe I will just go out for a walk and then come back again for the next day. is it harder now to maintain your focus because people always want you to, like you have media obligations and you have sponsor obligations and your life is a lot, you know, kind of in a good way, like busier than it was when you embarked upon this journey and balancing all of that has to have, you know, a certain place in order for you to kind of maintain your focus on why you're even here in the first place.

46:08I think, yes and no. like of course it takes energy and uh when but when you're like feeling like everything just is happening in a tailwind like everything just goes smoothly then it's easy to do for the shoot for sponsors and like interviews and being committed around extra training around the races but of course when you're getting more fatigued and you feel the training is getting a little bit uh worse then it's also easier to be a little bit or like blaming it on that as well. But I feel I'm having quite sponsors who's really understanding the situation and also understand that the main thing is to perform at races.

46:52So they try to balance it out. So it's I think it's important that we as an athlete also understand that the brands that you're signing up with they also need a value from you. So it's give and take. So when I feel I'm having energy to do trips, like extra trips for a sponsor, like visiting their HQ or something like that, then I try to put it in because I also know that that's giving me goodwill when I'm tired again, when I'm feeling to say no for any obligations and just want to focus on the training and the race. So both going into Paris and going into Kona, we were minimizing like the noise from that.

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49:18I know you haven't had like a full sit down with Olav yet to kind of deconstruct, you know, what went right and what went wrong this year. But do you have a sense in the back of your mind, like, here's what I'm going to change or here's the main thing that I think didn't work right that we need to adjust? I think we should have done more higher intensity going into Paris, as an example. Like it was done too much threshold and maybe too much extensive work of threshold. That's maybe costing too much of the total energy for the week. So sort of the time that's required to rest after the session is too long.

49:59And I'm sort of just feeling like I'm getting very efficient just around threshold, but maybe it's been stretched out too much. So I can almost stay there for quite a long time. But then certainly the threshold numbers get slower and lower and lower instead of being able to lift it up by making easier sessions like simplifying it and working around that 30 to 40 minutes intensity instead of stretching it up to 60 to 80 or even two hours. But going into 2025, you're not looking to continue in the Olympic triathlon world, right? It's still the Dennis Arman, yeah. But I still think I need to improve the power around the W2 max and then engine there and then coming back again to working on the capacity.

50:49so I think also the weeks have been looking a little bit too much similar instead of having like a little bit more periodization between having a volume phase and then a building up phase and then more like intensity so I think having cleaner structures there and maybe also spend a bit too much time in altitude because then you artificially also brings down the intensity a bit while we could have taken advantage of maybe skipping the January camp in altitude and maybe doing it at sea level instead and then having more, yeah, artificial higher pace on the sessions. Yeah, and maybe showing up in Kona a week earlier than you did this year.

51:32Yeah. Yeah. Although Lionel was there for like forever, it felt like, before him. But he didn't have the best day either. Yeah, so we were in Flagstaff for a month before we went to Kona. And it was good temperature. It was getting quite warm there on some days, but it's very dry warm. So it's not, it doesn't... It's the humidity. Yeah, you need that. But if you're there too early, it starts to wear you down. It can make you tired. So maybe I didn't have a hard, like a tough enough session in the heat going into the race. Like I never felt like I was really hitting the basements heat wise before the race.

52:17Yeah. And maybe it would have been good too. Do you think that they'll, Ironman will go back to having the men's and the women's race in Kona? Yeah. The same weekend rather than, I mean, this was all a product of COVID, right? The fact that they separated it initially And there's something great about it because the women deserve to have the attention on them when they're racing. And sometimes that doesn't always happen when, you know, the race is in the same place at the same weekend. But Kona is its own thing, right? It is the home of the Ironman World Championships. And I do feel like it should return there for everybody.

52:54Yeah, it's definitely, that was definitely the vibes from the army crew and the people there that they want to get it back to only be in Kona for the future. But as an athlete, I do think it's great to have both letting the women having their own day. And because it's something to be racing first on course versus being the first female on course. I think that's great when they have the 70-point race on two different days then it's also like the same location but at two different days because then the women's race doesn't get affected by by the guys either up front or like the age groupers coming in catching them or the pros being dropped yeah so but it was definitely the vibe that people want to only have it in Kona even though some pros like myself, I think it's great to go to Nice.

53:52Like it's a beautiful place and - It's incredible. Yeah, but it's just not the right place for that race. Yeah. You know, but for the foreseeable future, your focus is purely on Ironman racing and half Ironman racing. Yeah, I think for now it's Nice next year, which might be the last time it's in Nice. And then it's Kona in 2026. And then we will see what's - After that. No comment on after that. Well, I bring this up because I don't know if you know, but there's been a lot of rumors about you perhaps dipping your toe into professional cycling. When this rumor first surfaced, there was like a lot of discourse around it, but it was validated at least in the press when Olaf said, yes, this is our plan.

54:42This was back in July. Christian is going to enter the world of professional cycling with a very ambitious goal, which was to contend initially at the Tour de France. And by, I don't know, I think he said like 2027, be in the mix for a jersey. Now, this is an even bolder claim than going from winning an Olympic gold medal to winning Ironman and back. And a lot of hands have been wrung over this, right? In July, he said, this is gonna happen with 90 % certainty. I know this is no longer the case. You've shifted gears. But I kinda wanna talk about this a little bit. I'm curious, cause I don't know if you or Olav have ever shared much about the impetus of this idea.

55:33How did this idea even, you know, kind of occur to you guys, let alone become this thing that you were entertaining seriously? It was more like we were looking at opportunities to see how, like, yeah, what's the opportunities? You're being very guarded right now. It's okay, man. Yeah, so for them, like it didn't help with the performances in Paris and I also wanted to leave triathlon on, yeah, with a good performance and not just... Had you won the gold medal in Paris, would you be now officially a professional bike racer? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of cool actually. But yeah, I thought like it is, as you're only living once, you also want to take the chances you can like, and not be afraid of taking new challenges.

56:42But then also, I also want to finish off well in triathlon. Yeah. So is this a possibility for a later year that you're kind of just, you know, sort of of keeping dormant for now that you might revisit? I think it was either now or never, because like if I do it after LA, it will be 34. And that's quite - That's pretty late. That's like four years even later. And it was, yeah, with, I thought it was a great idea to - I kind of wish you were doing this because I just would like to see it. You know, I would like to watch how this would unfold. I think it would be fascinating. Physically, you don't present like a professional cyclist.

57:31These guys weigh like 125 pounds or whatever, they just look different, right? And you present differently. You're a stockier athlete, but you also come packaged with this insane VO2 max. Like you have the ability to put in giant volume, absorb the training. So the physiological capacity is there. the question then becomes, you know, can he learn how to, you know, handle his bike properly under pressure? Can he descend? You know, it's dangerous. How do you ride in a Peloton? There's a lot of other things that these guys learn over many years through experience, right? That you would have to then learn quickly and that presents its own challenges.

58:14It's a complete different ride in a group with triathletes to the World Tour, but... Real cyclists don't like riding with triathletes, like in the group ride. But like, yeah, I think like the engine is like my strength and being able to tolerate like a high volume over, not just days, but weeks, I think also would have been my strength. But yeah, it's a... A lot of people have a lot of opinions about this, but I did read, I think it was Victor Kampenartz, who you guys now professional cyclist who was singing your praises and saying like, I think you should do this. I love it. Like, I think Netflix should make a documentary about this.

58:59It's fascinating. It would be so cool to see what would happen if you really went for that completely. Obviously that's parallel universe. You're doing something differently. But I think the fact that you even not only just entertained this as, you know, kind of a switch in your career, but actually like we're making plans to, you know, move in that direction speaks to, it speaks to mindset, like a sort of growth mindset, like a malleable mindset, like what is possible? Like, yes, I do this well, but like, why don't I, yes, I won the Olympic gold, but what would happen if we went over here? What would happen if we would go back?

59:38And you're the man in the arena and it's easy to like criticize that person when things don't go right, but you're the one who's out there trying to do something that no one's ever done. And I think that gets missed in the discussion around your career arc. I think it's important to not be afraid of taking the challenge and jumping into new stuff. And often people, even when they're standing on the start line in the race, have been preparing for like the biggest reason why they may be being nervous for the race is because they are nervous to fail and I think that's been or strength in this whole project like we jumped into triathlon and said like 10 years before that yeah we will win the race in Tokyo in 2020 and that's been like the whole target or the whole thing we've been working towards uh even though it was back back then it was quite an ambition uh goal to set and the same is now like you want to keep that youthful in you like you want to be able to have a goal that is almost unreachable you don't strike me as somebody who who allows these setbacks to um you know kind of negatively impact like how you see the future uh but rather as a sort of fuel like hey what went wrong how can we fix this let's move forward yeah is that true it's like my slogan on my bike it's it hurts more to lose and that's a little bit like uh when i've won a race it's often more like yeah it's great but then i want to win another one but if i lose a race like now in Kona, then it stays on my mind for so much more.

1:01:38It's so much worse than the joy I would have had after winning that race. So it's definitely I think I'm able to utilize disappointments to come back stronger. Do you take a break now? What's the plan for the next couple months? So out on Queen K basically said that this is this is it. So now it's two or three or four weeks off, off maybe a little bit of like soft training and then building towards Nice. So then being in Bergen out for the rest of the year and then maybe visiting Nice in end of January for like a month and just getting familiar with the course and spending time there. and we might even put in one more camp before Nice in September, I think it is.

1:02:34So, yeah. Not going too aggressively out with the motivation because that's also a bit risky when you've been having, when both of us have had disappointment experience now in Kona, but like using it like gradually building up towards Nice. Yeah, yeah, being smart about it. Because if you start to apply that too soon, you're not going to be able to sustain it. And then you will probably run into an injury in March or something, like burnout or something. So it's important to spread out the motivation or energy throughout. How is Gustav doing? He is on the way back, I would say. But of course, he was struggling on the swim, he was struggling on the bike, and he started walking in the first aid station in Kona.

1:03:27and that's obviously a complete different situation than what it was two years ago. But I think injury-wise and mental-wise, he sort of finished with the worst and now it was just that he wasn't trained for racing in Arman. Like you can easily fake it through a 70.3, but even if you are in the best shape, like 42K on the run is a very long day. Yeah. Do you think that he's on his way to the rebuilding that he needs? Yeah, I think so. To get back to his top form? Yeah, I think the fact that he knows how to ride a bike in a course like Nice is also giving him like mentally that extra boost he needs to think that Nice will be his comeback race.

1:04:15Yeah. When you and Gustav were on the podcast, when was that? Like two years ago? I can't remember. Yeah. Yeah, it was right after 20, it was like two years ago, exactly almost. I asked you guys if you had any advice for the amateur triathletes out there or, you know, what are some of the, you know, habits that, you know, you think work the most. And, and, and it was great because it was just the basic stuff. It's like sleep, you know, like all the stuff that you kind of see on Instagram, all these kind of like hyper recovery tools and all of that. Like you guys were just like, no, it's the basic stuff.

1:04:53Right. So now having come from another Kona race, was there anything that you observed among the amateurs competing there where you thought like, these guys need to chill or like, like Like if I could, you know, like if you're like, hey, maybe not do that, do this. Or where do you think like some of the amateurs out there kind of lead themselves astray unnecessarily with their training in the racing? It's hard to say. Like it seems like if you look at the top age groupers, like they are basically looking like they're professionals. Like they're having all the same gears. Well, the guy who broke the swim course record is like he's an age grouper, I think.

1:05:32Not for very much longer. But, yeah, I mean, to be at Kona, you're kind of a professional. Yeah, so they are all pretty fit. And it seems like most of the triathletes who is getting to Kona, they are well-educated. Like, they know how important it is now with taking enough liquid in. They know how important it is to take in all the cobs. So it seems like they do try to learn as much as they can from all the pros. What about the other races, though? Because you go to other races. There is more mixed. There is obviously more mixed for, yeah, like the simple things on race day. If you start shorting down on your carbs, like then in the race, then you are basically in a big issue.

1:06:18Yeah. But also like in the build-up for an arm, and like if you do try to get in too much volume and you're sacrificing the sleep again, like nutrition and then it's, yeah. I recently had this guy on my podcast called David Roche, who's an ultra runner and a running coach. He's been a coach for a long time and distinguished himself for many years at shorter distances. And he recently ran his first 100 miler. He ran his first 100 miler at Leadville. Like he picked like this insane race, right? High altitude, very difficult course. and he destroyed everybody in his first 100 miler, he won. And what he said, which was super interesting, is that his approach was very counterintuitive.

1:07:11Like he has this massive endurance base because he's been running forever, right? And he focused on threshold efforts, like learning how to train fast. That was his big thing. And then secondarily, he studied the habits of competitive eaters because his theory was that if I can train my body to absorb more carbohydrates than anybody else without gastric distress, then I'll be able to maintain that higher pace for a longer period of time. And he was successful in doing that. He just won the Javelina 100 like in Arizona. So a high heat race recently. And so suddenly he's like the guy in ultra running, but I just thought it was so interesting, his approach to carbohydrate intake.

1:08:03Like he trained his body. I can't remember what the figures were, but he can absorb like just an astonishing amount of grams of carbohydrate per hour. And I have to believe that this is something that Olav, yourself and Gustav have tested and are playing with. Yeah, we have blocks where we try to go like very high and like maybe a little bit more than what's comfortable with in terms of carbs, carbohydrate intake, other intensity. And then there is blocks where you maybe try to go like back again, pulling it to a lower number. So I think you can do periodization in the same way as you do with the training.

1:08:45and especially in a buildup to an important race where like the carbohydrate intake is crucial, then you also want to have a block of higher carbohydrate intake. But your ability to do that in a race context, to be able to maintain like a higher threshold for a longer period of time seems like... You need to do it under higher intensity. Like typically we do it, use the more army specific days to do those high intake so if we do four or five hours on the bike then we try to also stay around or maybe five or ten percent above what we normally will take in the race we will do that constantly on the on the bike and the same on the run like pushing that upper limit and because then in a race situation you normally will ease off a little bit more towards and And it's not like you will finish off the race with tons of energy.

1:09:44Yeah. Well, you gotta figure out your throat thing. You gotta stop throwing up, dude. Yep. You gotta figure that out. I'll have to fix it. I was DMing with Patrick Longa earlier today and I was like, Christian's coming in. What should I ask him? And he's like, ask him if he's throwing up on purpose. Like what's the deal with him throwing up all the time? I did it just before Harvey, just for the climb to get lighter. Yeah. You're trying to drop weight. And I was doing it to get this like slippery surface behind me because I knew the train was coming. The other thing this guy David Roche talked about was bicarbonate.

1:10:20Do you guys test this? Do you play around with this as like a way of buffering lactate, I guess? Is that what it does? Yeah. So I used the Morton bicarb quite a lot going into Paris. and I used it both on the longer days where I was having like 60 minutes of threshold on the bike and then straight into 20K or 18K threshold on the run. And with the idea of being able to have a longer time before exhaustion on the run. And you found that effective? I don't feel the straight benefits. But when we do like measurements on like the blood in the lab, they see that I'm sort of utilizing the bicarb. But the bicarb is not something I feel as powerful directly on my body as I do with caffeine.

1:11:16But the testing that I've done that they have done is showing that you are increasing your capacity by using it. And for like in race, now I didn't use it in Qona, but I think maybe in the future it's something I can even take like, the day before or two days before the race, because often when you take the bike carb, you also gain like two kilos, three kilos, two days after or the day after. So maybe - Oh, that's interesting. Because basically it's so much salt in it that you're also carrying more liquid and maybe even increasing the blood volume. So then you being able to utilize it like the following day or two days later.

1:11:56But that was something I didn't do in Kona this time around. So maybe - Add that to the list. Yeah, for 2026. Well, we're in New York City. We're here. It's marathon weekend. We're both going to be doing stuff with Ann. Shout out to Ann. Great partner, I know, for myself and also for you. Are you going to be able to have fun here in the city? What do you got planned? Yeah, I am doing some touristic stuff tomorrow, heading into the Statue of Liberty. Show of Liberty. Yeah. Have you been here before? I've only been like a few hours layover. Oh, wow. And then we go into the Friends house or like the, you know, the TV show Friends.

1:12:43And then like, or like see that or they will show me that street and yeah, see Times Square. Yeah. And then see the own lab, which we also saw in Paris. So they have this machine that's like creating a shoe in three minutes. Yeah. The machine. making the light spray shoes in real time for everybody, which is pretty exciting. I think we're doing a Q &A also at OnLabs at some point. Yeah, on Friday. Yeah. Well, thanks, man. This was great. I really enjoyed it. And I can't wait to see what the next season has in store for you. And I just want to commend you for kind of like the way that you comport yourself through, you know, I'm sure you would love to be here having just won and having won a second gold medal.

1:13:31life had a different plan for you, but I feel like you're somebody who is in a really good place with all of it. And I think you're only gonna build on this. I think Mark Allen said that Christian is somebody who knows what to do with disappointment. And I think I agree with that. Thank you. Yeah. Hopefully we can come back in two years time with the Kona trophy. Yeah, so we'll just set it now. Now every two years we do a podcast, buddy. Okay. Thank you. All right, cool. Cheers. Peace.

1:14:18That's it for today. Thank you for listening. I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation. To learn more about today's guest, including links and resources related to everything discussed today, visit the episode page at richroll.com where you can find the entire podcast archive, my books, Finding Ultra, Voicing Change and The Plant Power Way, as well as the Plant Power Meal Planner at meals.richroll.com. If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify and on YouTube and leave a review and or comment.

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