Businessman Vladimir Voloshin. Indoor triathlon

On April 24, Vladimir Voloshin started overcoming 5 official distances of the IRONMAN triathlon race in the walls of the World Class fitness club “City of Capitals”. The businessman has set himself a truly incredible goal: in 80 hours he plans to cover 19 kilometers by swimming, 900 kilometers by bicycle and 211 kilometers by running. And all this with breaks only for an hour’s sleep. “Championship” managed to take a unique comment before the start and here is what the triathlete himself says about this event.

– Vladimir, how do you feel before the start of such a challenge?

– I feel very good, my mood is great, I have strength!

Vladimir Voloshin before the start

– Are you excited?

– You know, I think I’ve been overexcited for the last six months. Every day I was thinking about how it would go. So now the most important thing is to concentrate, probably, on performance, to make as few mistakes and rash actions as possible. We need to try to overcome this whole distance at a stable pace, with good health.

This is not a record. The distinctive feature of this distance is that everything is more difficult. No one in the world has ever run this distance indoors.

– How much did you prepare for this start?

– We had almost six months of very active training, and in general we had been preparing in such a permanent state for about a year. Here it is important to take into account that what is going to happen now is not the end point. It is part of our two-year big plan to prepare for the World Championships in the ultra-triathlon distance: 38 kilometers of swimming, 1800 kilometers of cycling and 422 kilometers of running.

Preparing for the start

– What is the most challenging for you of these three disciplines?

– All the disciplines are quite challenging, each in its own way. Cycling is difficult because you will be in a fixed position and, you know, you just have to have the strength and patience to sit through the distance. As far as running goes, certainly outside you have fresh air, wind and so on. Here, in a closed room, it’s quite warm, the air doesn’t circulate as well as it does outside. So it is difficult to predict how the body will react to such external factors. And in swimming is difficult monotony, heavy load on the shoulder girdle and on the upper torso. But we tried to plan everything. Meals, massages, short naps – everything is provided for.

It’s such a tradition: every year I set myself one big ambitious goal in sport.

– What motivated you to organize such an eighty-hour challenge?

– It’s a tradition: every year I set myself one big ambitious goal in sport (and in business as well), and I work on it. Before that, I had a daily marathon. I managed to run 186 kilometers in 24 hours. There was also a desert marathon and other tests in the form of IRONMANs and so on. Now I want to go to a completely different level, to try distances in ultra disciplines. The most important thing is that all these sporting challenges are related to charity. I have been working with the Rosfond charity fund for 5 years, and during this marathon period we will have the opportunity to help a 15-year-old girl, to collect all the necessary funds for her surgery.

Those who are not running with me can support the campaign online or via social media.

Start of the course in the water

While we were talking, Vladimir showed an alert from his phone screen that just over 70,000 rubles had come into the charity account.

During the start and throughout the distance, Vladimir will be assisted by a team of experts:

Victoria Shubina – head coach, director of the Triathlon direction in the World Class network of fitness clubs. In 2016, Victoria Shubina became the first of two Russian women to qualify for both Ironman World Championships in one season: Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Australia and Ironman World Championship in Hawaii;

Valery Pluzhnikov – World Class swimming coach;

Elena Pisanko – doctor, functional testing specialist.