Maxim Zhurilo: how much you need to prepare to make the first Ironman

Not so long ago the opening of the triathlon season in Sochi took place, which means it’s time to watch the new episode of the show #226 questions. We would like to remind you that this is the first YouTube show about triathlon, which “Championship” launched together with Ironstar, the leading organizer of triathlon starts in Russia.

This time our guest was Maxim Zhurilo, the founder of the “I love supersport” project and co-founder of Ironstar. He has 7 Ironman distances to his credit, including the extreme three: Norseman, Swissman and Keltman.

– Maxim, how many years ago did you start your way in triathlon?

– I did my first triathlon start in 2010.

– You weighed 110 kilograms. How did that Monday come when you woke up and decided it was time to switch to sport?

– I had a dream of climbing Everest at one point. And I decided that in order to do that I needed to lose weight. I started with running. My first goal was a ten, and after about a month I ran it. I liked this game, when you have a specific goal and you go to it. I immediately decided I needed to run a marathon. Right away I looked up what marathons there were and chose the New York City one. Since 2009, I decided to run all the majors, and then I got into triathlons, and I missed that a little bit. Now I’m back, running Boston and only Tokyo will remain.

– How did that goal evolve into conquering the Ironman distance?

– After finishing in New York, I was talking to two guys and they told me about Ironman. I decided to give it a try, I was preparing for it quite conservatively.

– What was the first Ironman like? What insights did it bring?

– The first one was in Austria in 2012. To be honest, there were no insights. Ironman is a reward for your training. It’s like a celebration. I don’t think Ironman is some kind of miracle. Anyone off the street can do it, they just don’t need to. It’s not like skydiving – you just clasp your eyes and jump, it’s the preparation phase that counts. Plan it so that a year before the race you swim 250 kilometers in total, ride a bike for seven or eight thousand, and run one and a half. Then you go the distance, and that’s your gift.

– Was there anything funny related to your first start?

– Yes. It just so happened to be the finals of the World Triathlon Championships. Those were wild times, when there were only fifteen people doing triathlon in Russia. There was not a single start, and I saw on the calendar that the nearest one was in Budapest. I thought: “Great, it’s not too far to go.” I decide that I will go to the Olympics. I try to register, but they tell me that I have to do it through the Russian Triathlon Federation. I thought, what a weird sport, but I guess that’s the way it has to be done. I called, they told me to come and I would be registered. Then it turned out that the ITU Grand Final was held in Budapest, and only qualification was the only way to qualify for it. But there was no one from Russia, so I went.

Watch the full version of the interview on YouTube.

– What are the differences between foreign starts?

– Since amateur sport has been developing there for a very long time, people have a much simpler attitude to everything. There is no performance, more of a fan. I hope it will be like that in our country soon.

– Thanks to your projects, a lot of people come to sport consciously, with a coach, with motivation. And how did you come?

– I started out wrong, and that was one of the reasons why we then did “I love running”. I broke quite a lot of wood: I was running too much, too fast… my back started hurting, the doctor said it was bad for me to run at all. Anyway, everything that could be done wrong, I did. A person can train incorrectly for years, in terms of heart rate and heart strain, and not know it.