You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
G U I D E<br />
Do it<br />
Fitness<br />
At the age of 20, Schiester was a heavy smoker and drinker, but on his doctor’s advice<br />
he turned his life around. Within two years, he had run the New York Marathon<br />
MENTAL TRAINING<br />
FULL STEAM<br />
AHEAD<br />
Christian Schiester is one of the world’s top ultrarunners.<br />
His secret to beating the Sahara Desert? A trip to the sauna<br />
Heading to the sauna after<br />
working out is wonderful:<br />
muscles relax, the circulation<br />
gets going, thoughts melt away.<br />
But what if the sauna becomes<br />
the gym? That’s the reality for<br />
Christian Schiester. Whenever the<br />
Austrian ultrarunner was training<br />
for his desert runs, he would put<br />
a treadmill or exercise bike in the<br />
wooden shack, heat it to 60°C,<br />
then reel off the kilometres for the<br />
next three hours. “I’d drink up to<br />
15 litres of water and make sure I<br />
was never in the sauna alone – you<br />
never know what might happen,”<br />
the 52-year-old explains. But<br />
then, he was already supremely<br />
fit thanks to a disciplined training<br />
schedule. “I trained in the sauna to<br />
simulate in my mind the conditions<br />
in the desert,” he reveals.<br />
And it worked: as he ran over<br />
the dunes in the 2003 Marathon<br />
des Sables – a six-day race across<br />
the Sahara – the thermometer on<br />
his watch showed 60°C. “I felt<br />
absolutely awful,” he recalls. But<br />
suddenly he heard his inner voice<br />
saying to him, “Don’t be like that,<br />
Schiester. You can do it. It was this<br />
hot in the sauna, too, remember?”<br />
<strong>The</strong> dip in motivation was<br />
suddenly behind him and he<br />
crossed the finishing line in 12th<br />
place, having run more than<br />
250km through the desert.<br />
christian-schiester.com<br />
“I would drink<br />
up to 15 litres<br />
of water and<br />
make sure I was<br />
never in the<br />
sauna alone”<br />
Christian Schiester,<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Bull ultrarunner<br />
KNOW-HOW<br />
MIND OVER<br />
MATTER<br />
Faster, higher,<br />
further? Here’s how<br />
your mind can help<br />
urge your body on<br />
to high-level<br />
performance<br />
TALK TO YOURSELF<br />
Organise and control your<br />
thoughts both before and<br />
during crunch time. Anyone<br />
who puts their inner voice to<br />
good use – by, for example,<br />
deploying positive key words<br />
– has a better chance of<br />
achieving peak performance.<br />
SET GOALS<br />
Forget the bigger picture for<br />
a moment. Focus instead<br />
on important individual<br />
elements that you’ve already<br />
mastered. This will boost<br />
your confidence.<br />
VISUALISE<br />
Picture – in the most vivid<br />
way possible – completing<br />
each individual part of the<br />
challenge ahead. <strong>The</strong> more<br />
authentically you can<br />
visualise it, the better<br />
prepared you’ll be if<br />
the going gets tough.<br />
Schiester’s motto: “Punish your body before it punishes you!”<br />
PHILIP PLATZER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, HARALD TAUDERER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL FLORIAN STURM<br />
106 THE RED BULLETIN
Change language