The speed of the roller ski stops and the ski coach Reijo Jylhä walks drenched in sweat Antti Tuiskun come over with a lactate meter in hand.
– There will be another similar set, Jylhä tells Tuisku.
This curses, but immediately apologizes. The artist, who put his music career on hiatus after last summer, is in exactly the situation he has always dreamed of. Tuisku has several different professional identities, but now he wants to know what it’s like to live the everyday life of a top athlete.
At the beginning of February, Tuisku, 40, revealed on Urheilustudio’s broadcast that he was going to become a professional skier and that he planned to participate in the SC skiing next season. For which distance and where, it is still unclear, but free skiing has been chosen as the skiing technique, and the distance is by no means 50 kilometers.
Jylhä praises Tuisku and urges the artist to congratulate himself on how much better his skiing looks now. When Tuisku once did his first half-hour mat exercise, it was tiring at all possible speeds.
In almost the same breath, Jylhä states the last four minutes of the race that is about to start. Tuisku’s Friday morning mat workout included four four-minute loads. The person from Rovaniemi skied in the speed endurance area of the first one, slightly above the anaerobic threshold of the second one. The last two Tuisku has skied at 10 km competition pace.
– What if I can’t? Tuisku asks.
– You can, Jylhä answers succinctly.
A better than average fitness athlete
Tuisku has been training intensively since November, and it has included two training periods lasting two and a half months. According to Jylhä, the use of his protégé’s legs has improved considerably during that time and he is able to train with a national team-type program at his own level for two, even three weeks.
Both Jylhä and Tuisku remind us that although Tuisku does things like a top athlete, he is not a top athlete. Tuisku describes himself as a fitness athlete in better than average shape, but he does not have the background of a top athlete.
The last few months have been a learning experience for Tuisku. The duo’s goal is for Tuisku’s intact training season to begin in May for next winter’s snow. As an experienced coach, Jylhä knows that they both need patience. There are still many areas for development, and Tuisku has a tendency to train a little more and harder than necessary.
– The most important thing is that we focus on one thing at a time and get to the next stage. If we were to spread out the whole map and see that there is still so much to be done and this should be so much better, it would cause nothing but pain, says Jylhä.
Happiest in the middle of a workout
Tuisku admits that throwing himself into top sports has surprised him several times. He has liked the simplicity of life, not having to hold ten different strings in his hands. His task is only to implement the coach’s training program with the highest possible quality.
On the other hand, asceticism, determination and discipline have made the days feel similar. When you add the training load and the fatigue it brings, Tuisku has noticed their effect on his mood. Rest days have been the most difficult for him, as he has often been too tired to meet his friends.
– On my rest days, I have found a lot of the same type of thoughts in my head as I had when I was a little depressed years ago. They have been real feelings: a little distressing, crying and overcome by a kind of melancholy. It just takes significantly less time.
Tuisku considers this state of being to be somehow natural, because exercise produces pleasure hormones. He admits that the elastic band exercises in the gym do not always inspire, while some exercises cause a dopamine explosion in his brain. The harder the training, the better, and even easy three-hour ski runs don’t feel like anything anymore.
– Even though sometimes it feels awkward to go do some exercise, I still feel that I am happiest there, in the middle of the exercise. I hope that feeling lasts for a long time. I wouldn’t want this opportunity to turn into a boring and miserable experience.
When Tuisku told about his goal in February, he received an assessment of his possibilities from many experts. According to Jylhä, Tuisku shouldn’t aim for any placings in the WC, because they would be very modest. In his opinion, the most important thing is the journey and the sensations it brings – the true path of an athlete.
Tuisku admits that it has not been easy not to care about experts’ assessments. On the other hand, he also knows that it is part of the everyday life of elite sports. In his own opinion, Tuisku has never been the best anywhere, at least not right away. His talent can be found in his work, as he is always ready to learn and work.
“This is what this is all about”
Antti Tuisku was one of Finland’s top artists for many years, but thanks to the skiing project, his interest has risen even higher.
– I feel that Antti Tuisku’s interest is currently much greater than it has been during my career as an artist. I think this resonates in the core of Finnishness when we talk about skiing here.
Tuisku says that he has received many messages in which his human experiment has been praised as inspiring. One message in particular has stuck in his mind. In it, a middle-aged man said that he was in a crisis in his life, but encouraged by Tuisku’s example, he dared to quit his job and head for new winds.
– That’s when I started crying when I realized that this is what this is all about. If I can encourage people and myself and set an example that you can do many different things in this one life, then that’s great.