“I’ve never made such drastic changes in training as this year,” admitted Strömsheim in an interview with TV2, saying that he was inspired by the speed skater Nils van der Poel’s training documentary for the extreme load.
The 25-year-old biathlete is trying in vain to make it to the World Cup in the crowded Norwegian competition, even though he collected one first after another at the lower level of the IBU Cup, especially at the beginning of the season.
He got to the World Championships in Oberhof thanks to a curious situation, after the IBU bosses properly explained to the elite representatives at the venue of the championship that they had the right to deploy six competitors. So Strömsheim hastily interrupted his training in Italy, jumped into his car and drove the shortest route to the Thuringian Forest.
The chance of a lifetime has finally arrived. Shortly after his arrival, he took 22nd place in the sprint at the World Championships and subsequently improved to 13th in the pursuit.
Strömsheim hopes to finally begin to reap the rewards of the summer and fall hard work. “I trained by just trying to last as long as possible. It ranged from four to eleven hours a day. And I tried to last as many days in a row as possible until I completely dropped out. Then I regenerated properly,” he described his galleys.
“The most I managed to train was about 60 hours in nine days. When autumn came, I had a huge fitness base,” he continued. He did not hesitate to include the triathlon Iron Man race in his preparation.
It was clear to him that he was doing things that none of his competitors were doing. “I knew I was either going to make a total idiot or it would kick me,” he laughed. “But I thought the whole thing through before I started. I was very well trained before, without that I would never have tried this whole thing. I wouldn’t have done it when I was, say, 20. But I’m 25 and I still haven’t hit the peak yet, so it’s time for a drastic change,” he explained.
Even one of the most successful biathletes of all time, Ole Einar Björnadalen, marvels at his approach.
“I have never heard of a biathlete training like Endre. He is innovative and gives himself extreme training doses, over a hundred hours a month in the summer. I can only congratulate him on his work. It makes a big impression on me and I’m curious to see how he will do,” laughed the legendary Norwegian.
