Kilian Jornet's Advice to Race Faster, For Non-Elites | Extramilest Show #51

Kilian Jornet is the greatest mountain and ultra runner of all time. We discuss how runners of all levels can improve in training and racing. This applies to trail, ultra, mountain and road running. 

Chapters:
0:00 Intro Kilian Jornet
3:28 How Kilian trains to prep for races
5:45 Two a day workouts
6:58 How Kilian measures training intensity
10:15 Intensity zones after cardiac drift
13:13 Mistakes many runners make with training intensity
18:15 How Kilian tracks his training, with volume, terrain and intensity
20:18 Altitude training, with lower blood oxygen levels
22:25 Training different adaptations
24:13 Product development in wearables
27:09 How Kilian journals every workout
29:55 Advise to other runners to improve their journaling
32:40 How Kilian goes about training his mind for discomfort
37:42 Find what motivates you to perform the best
39:30 Training adaptations for altitude
42:07 Sleeping and training in altitude tent?
43:15 Heat training
44:25 Any Aha moments in Kilian’s training journey?
47:15 How is Kilian able to combine training, parenting and working?
50:01 How Kilian brings his kids on outdoor adventures
51:02 Kilian’s books
52:14 Training for the uphill athlete book
53:48 Advise to runners to improve their training and racing

#kilian #hardrock100 #utmb2022 #RunningAdvice

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FIND KILIAN JORNET HERE:

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ABOUT THE EXTRAMILEST SHOW:
A podcast and YouTube channel where host Floris Gierman interviews world class athletes, coaches and health experts on the topic of how to become a stronger, healthier and happier athlete.

🚨BIG GIVEAWAY!! I’m buying and giving away a COROS APEX Pro, valued at $399. The same Multisport GPS Watch Kilian uses. To enter, subscribe to my channel and comment below: what was your favorite takeaway, lesson or quote from this episode? 1 winners will be picked at random.🚨

[RunwithSung]

This was a fantastic interview. I learned a ton about how he has been training, how he is training differently after having children, and some awesome tips and reaffirmations on making sure EASY is easy.

With that being said, my favorite takeaway is this one

(17:04) “Adaptations NEVER come from ONE session. It’s about doing repetition of hard sessions all over the year. 30, 40, 50 hard sessions during the year, that’s what makes adaptation, not just one hard session.”

Sometimes I fall into that mistake of ‘Okay, if I do this one crazy, big session, I will gain so much.’ but of course that’s not true. Kilian’s comment on adaptations also reminded me of this great quote from Renato Canova: “Training is not the work you do but the effect it has on your body”

Below are some notes I took so I remember them and thought to share with the viewers here.

(16:00) “Plan is the dream. But reality is that, plan to reality, is very different. We need to be able to adapt to plan(reality?).” (I laughed at myself when he talked about plan vs. reality. I think all runners can resonate with this ha!)

(13:20) Q: Main common mistake you see intensity wise, anything that stands out for you?

“I think people go too fast. What we call regenerative, easy running, would be classical Zone 1. But people never go there. They go to Zone 2, 3 during what is supposed to be easy run. That means they are not able to recover from hard sessions or when you do hard session you will not be able to go hard. So it makes all the training in the same area(zone).

EASY means EASY... It's not about going fast, it's about making your body move and have adaptations[that you want to have] and regeneration to be able to do very well, push hard when you do hard sessions."

(14:30) [Second mistake]
“Not taking into account all the different stresses of the body. We think about, okay, this is the workload and this session puts ‘stress 2’ on my body. Then we think about that, to plan the next hard session. But you could have a lot of stress at work, family stuff, all these stresses that might be bigger now, [so the previous work that felt like stress ‘2’ won’t be ‘2’ the time.]”

(23:04) Training =/ Race
“At the end of the day, a training session is not a race. I feel like a lot of people racing in the training sessions.”

(26:09) Individuals
“Because we are individuals, what works for me it will probably not work for you.”

(30:26) On Tips on Journaling
“Like training, it’s better to be consistent, than measure a lot for just one day.”

(35:18) Q: How do you train your mind?
“Be realistic about what your capacities are, not overestimate yourself. And then go into that discomfort and practice to accept that discomfort.”

(53:07) Closing Thoughts (some great comments and insights here)

“It’s about motivation at the end. Being happy doing what you do. We do it because we love it. It’s not an obligation. No body is saying you need to train. You train because you love it. Many times we lose that on the way, we feel that it is obligation and it is not giving us fun.

But it should [be fun]. Especially for young athletes. Not focus on the goals, but focus on the process. Of course you enjoy racing, when things go well. But that’s a very few days every year. What you need to love, is the training. You need to love being out. You need to love to do the workout.

And then you need to find out what really motivates you. Sometimes it’s community. You want to go training because you go with your friends. So make that your training environment. Sometimes you want to go to the mountains, the landscapes… enjoy the process.

Loving the process.. results will come. But if you focus on the results, I don’t think anything good can arrive there.”

Thank you Floris for this interview, and thanks to Kilian for sharing a lot of unique experiences and insights!

[spdlee]

Totally agreeing with "Adaptability comes with repetition which requires patience and consistency" which many people don't have when it comes to training...

[dickensrivers]

Takeaway: Knew it, but Kilian expressing..."it's ok to go 6, 7 kph" legitimized to another order of magnitude easy efforts can be productive training; also, was pleasant hearing his seal of approval to train ( i call it playing in the woods) for just the sheer joy of it. I think being joyful is the result we're all wanting!

[chadhawkinsart]

I love his last comment. “Enjoy the process more than the goal.” I’m training to BQ and I’m a very goal oriented person. It’s a great reminder to soak up the process and not just the goal. Thank you.

[rushodai]

So many runners I know trained for their first marathon and hated it. Dreaded the long runs, hated the tempos and hill workouts. And then didn't run for weeks after the marathon. I don't want to be like that. I want to be like the other runners who go out for 15-20 milers once a week and enjoy it. I don't want to train for a race, I want to run so that I can run more.

[ameliavrabel]

“It’s important to have goals but it is the experience that really matters”

Thank you Floris and Kilian - excellent discussion!

[nateweingarden]

My takeaway is that even with two children, a world-class ultra-runner makes training work for him!

[bobogdanov]

Really positive athlete with zero ego for such accomplishments in the running world. Thanks for the interview!

[wilkography]

'Train because you love it, sometimes we forget that' - 'You need to love being out there and know what is motivating you' - This. Thanks so much for sharing this, greatly appreciated and much respect to all who train hard and love the process! Respect.

[titosinha]

Floris, thank you so much for this! When Killian said the body always gravitates toward balance and that adaptations don’t happen after one session but many, many sessions, this resonated with me. So when the body is telling me to take it easier or slower, it’s ok and to listen to it rather than being rigid in following a plan. 🙏🏾

[drtadwalkar]

Beautiful interview with so many takeaway points. The point I loved the most: training plan is like a dream but you need to adapt it to the realities of your life to get the most out of it and adaptations come slowly from doing same things again and again.

[acjee]

My best takeaway ‘ lie to yourself that you will stop/eat at the next stop’ 🤣 to get over the tough moments while running or getting over the pain-caves. Also the truth that ‘you are running that race because you wanted to be der’!

[slingy]

I've noticed that I've made it a goal to be able to run continuously in zone 2, as a result I'm constantly at the high end of the zone and starting to undermine the session. This interview helpfully slapped me on the wrist, I'm going to aim to be 10bpm slower than I've been averaging and accept that may be just 6/7kmph, include a chunk of walking and will look unimpressive on strava 😅

[susanswinny]

I truly loved 🧡 what Kilian said about the importance of enjoying the process and not only attaining running goals.
I feel this way about anything I spend my time focusing on in life.

[RallihSarl]

For as a newcomer in the ultra running community I more and more starting to embrace to quote of "enjoy the process ". It have taken some time to put the "fighting" for improvements away and really start to love what I am doing. And maybe most important, I started to show my self love and respect. To really listen to how my body is feeling and what I am in the mood for. Last year when I started ultra I only cared about performance and I ran my self to injury. To hear so many good athletes, and especially Kilian, say that we need to listen to our self and be adaptive is so motivating and it gives us happy amateurs confidence to really trust the process. Thank you!

[SteveSpeirs]

Brilliant interview. So many takeaways, but the reminder that a race is all about the experience whether you finish 1st, 2nd or at the back is what it's all about. Keep up the great work!

[mddg]

Great Podcast. As a MAF runner I think the last question dealing with loving the process is so paramount. For myself the enjoyment and peace gained by running at low intensity has been really eye opening. I find a lot of satisfaction in daily runs and training seeing the HR low and being at peace with whatever the pace is that day. For myself, the passion of the process allowed me to be comfortable in my own running skin which helped me be patient enough to find daily commitment.

[ThePlantPoweredRunner]

This has to be the BEST video and Podcast I've watched and listened to. Thanks so much to taking the time to sit down and do this interview. Kilian IS a huge role model for me and my running and Floris my friend you are a huge role model for me when it come to running and YouTube. Motivation to me is "what makes me happy" and then doing more of it. When it comes too consistency, you will see the results over time not just doing sometime a few times and expecting a huge payoff.

[WeakToElite]

Thank you so much - hugely appreciated approaching my first Ultra - 13 weeks out

[amandaarmstrong]

Floris, this was brilliant. I agree that consistency and doing something over and over means that your body adapts and improves. It's so good to see you back. Don't leave it so long before the next podcast!