Tried to lose weight like the best in the world, it got worse and worse – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule

– When I look back at the training log, it’s completely sick to have trained what I did from September to the start of the season last year. Because I see the comments I have in the newspaper. It’s “ass session”, “miserable session”, “bad session”, “I felt tired” … But I was thin then, and it was fine, Musgrave laughs wryly.

The 30-year-old can finally smile again. On Saturday, he finished sixth in the classic 15-kilometer race at Ruka, behind Finnish local favorite Iivo Niskanen.

A year ago, he was more than two and a half minutes behind Niskanen himself in the corresponding race. That time the Finn won, while Musgrave was number 48.

Last winter turned into a nightmare for the man who was actually the best Norwegian-speaking racer at the five-mile World Cup in Lahti in 2017 in fourth place.

Now he reveals to NRK what was the reason for the season of failure. Before the season, he decided to lose weight.

Got thin, forgot about the rest

– I had struggled a bit on the opposite slopes so I thought it would be easy and devastating on the Tour de Ski until the last slope. But there was no devastation last year. It was completely silly, so I went back a bit to what I had done before, slowed down a bit in training and tried to have a little more quality. And it seems that skiing is going faster this year, smile.

– So you were just trying to lose weight last year?

– I did it last year, yeah. And it worked very badly.

Musgrave says that he usually picks an area of ​​focus before each year of training.

– Last year I was losing weight. And I managed to lose weight, but I forgot the rest, that one must have a surplus of training and quality. It was a lot of quality hours, simply put, Musgrave says, which seems like proof that you don’t necessarily become a better skier by carrying less weight down the ski slope.

– Pri one is at least being able to train well, and that’s hard to achieve if you focus on being slim all the time, he says.

Lost muscle mass

Andrew Musgrave admits that he lost more weight than he had imagined. He was motivated to see the weight drop. When he reached a weight goal, he set a new one.

– You think “a little more, then it will be even better”. But then it gets heavy eventually, he claims.

From his previous weight of 77-78 kilos, he dropped suddenly to 72. And it wasn’t exactly the case that he was overweight before starting either.

– It was not only fat that I lost, it was also muscle. I was just an idiot, he admits when he looks back.

Midway through last year’s season, he decided that the weight should go back up. It also didn’t have a positive effect right away, because he suddenly had a completely different body than he was used to training.

– extreme

For Musgrave, therefore, it was perfectly fine for the corona pandemic to abruptly stop the ski season in March. During the spring, summer and fall, he has found his old self.

And where many before him have lost control when it comes to reducing weight to dominate endurance sports, Musgrave feels he was in control. But he learned a lesson.

– I realized that it was not working, so it no longer made sense to lose weight. It is the total that matters. Training quality, body – everything is important. You must focus on all areas.

Great Britain coach Jostein Vinjerui confirms that the British tried to adjust the weight before last season.

– The whole team did the same, but “Muzzy” was the most extreme. That’s “Muzzy”. If he finds something that he thinks works and thinks it works, it is “all inclusive” and sometimes it becomes too much. It has happened to other things too. But that’s the way it is, says Vinjerui, who claims the final sum came out in the red for the team’s biggest star.

– Did you feel that the project was under control?

– Yes absolutely. It was in collaboration with a nutritionist who knows what he does, us coaches and everyone. It just wasn’t successful for “Muzzy” your part.

Believe in the success of the World Cup

Vinjerui notes that Andrew Young did the same, but much less.

– He managed to balance well and improved. It’s as good as it is today because you made some changes and measurements last year to your diet, Vinjerui says.

Young finished 16th in Saturday’s 15km and, together with Musgrave, secured the best British World Cup effort in a classic distance race.

Back to his old match weight, heavier but relieved, Andrew Musgrave feels that it is now possible to improve on fourth place in the Lahti WC during the WC in Oberstdorf in February / March next year.

– There is no reason why this is not possible. I went big last year, but I’ve come out of it stronger. So I think I will be able to fight for victory during the winter, says Musgrave.

On Sunday he comes out as number seven at the beginning of the hunt, which ends the minitour in Ruka.