In mid-September, the 25-year-old from the Bernese Oberland won his age group at the Ironman World Championships in Nice and came 28th overall amidst professional athletes. Claes will be applying for a professional license for next season.

You first began competing in triathlons five years ago. What do you consider to be the 3 most important keys to success?

• Structured training (training plan, trainer)
• Perseverance (passion)
• Having fun in what you do

What does an aspiring professional triathlete’s training look like? Can you give us an example of a typical training week for you?

The basic structure is always very similar but the duration and intensity vary somewhat from week to week. I'm not sure what next year will involve yet.

Monday:
Morning: swim 1.5h, bike 4h / Afternoon: work / Evening: mobility
Tuesday:
Morning: swim 1.5h, bike 2h, run 1h / Afternoon: work / Evening: mobility
Wednesday:
Morning: run 1.5h, bike 4h / Afternoon: work / Evening: gym 1h, mobility
Thursday:
Morning: swim 1.5h, bike 3.5h / Afternoon: work / Evening: mobility
Friday:
Morning: run 2h, swim 1.5h / Afternoon: work / Evening: mobility
Saturday:
Morning: bike 6h / Afternoon: poss. work / Evening: mobility
Sunday:
Morning: bike 3h, run 0.5h / Afternoon: swim 1.5h, gym 1h / Evening: mobility

Winter is coming. What are your tips for winter training?

In winter, you should focus more on the basics and worry less about speed. There’s plenty of time to work on that in spring.

It’s also important to set a training goal over winter. For example, your focus might be on running training. You can try improving your running efficiency. You can work on your stride rate, the roll-off phase of the foot or focus on arm work, etc.

Do you have an insider tip with regards to training, equipment, nutrition and recovery?

I wouldn’t say that it's an insider tip but being consistent in every training session definitely helps me to achieve my goals. There’s always something you can improve on in each session. If discipline, ambition and fun are in balance then sooner or later you'll see an improvement and/or success.

Fotos: ZVG