Trails PLUS the Best Products Tried and Tested
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
T R A I L KILIAN JORNET Change is a very good thing for the off-road superstar IMPROVE YOUR AGILIT Y Tips and exercises to help increase your chances of success on the trails PLUS The best products tried and tested 16-PAGE SPECIAL TRAIL KILIAN JORNET @ATHLETICSWEEKLY TRAIL CONTENTS 2 Kilan Jornet on setting targets and weighing up risks 6 Running the volcano at the VVX Experience in France 8 Tame the trails with exercises which will improve your agility 12 Kit yourself out for an off-road adventure with the best products Kilian Jornet: has won all three of the races he Changing set as his main targets DAM GEMILI goes into this meeting for the IAAF World as an individual, as well as in the – and to run the same time as him, weekend’s world trials in Championshipsman (see p42-45). 4x100m,” he says. “I went the closest I’m happy,” he said. great form after pushing Not bad for an athlete only that anyone from Britain has gone On doubling up at the world trials, former worldTRAIL champion AND MOUNTAINconsidered good RUNNING enough to be part SUPERSTAR to winning an KILIANOlympic 200m JORNET TALKShe added: “It’ll be a long weekend AYohan Blake to the wire at the of the relay squad when the last medal three years ago. Just three and then I’ll really start to sharpen TO EUAN CRUMLEY ABOUT BECOMING A FATHER AND ADOPTING Diamond League in Birmingham Aon DIFFERENTwave of Lottery fundingAPPROACH decisions TO thousandthsTHE SPORT of a second HE LOVEScame up before Doha. I’ve done a lot of Sunday, writes Jason Henderson. were made. between me and bronze in Rio.” work, so why not?” The 25-year-old’sT has fine been run a time of changeGemili for had Kilian a couple Jornet. ofEarlier lean thisyears comesHe wasto he also and close Forsberg to victory balancing in the demandsHe also ran well at 100m, with against Blake (seeyear p16) the propelled man known asdue the to greatesthamstring mountain issues butrunner he is ofBirmingham training, racing on andSunday parenthood when he between 10.04, them. at the Anniversary Games him on to the coveron of the this planet issue had his nowown backpersonal in form world after turned relocating on its wasNo longergiven thecan same an expedition time as Blake or adventure last be month, embarked so what’s his favourite of AW and he now axisruns when the 100m he and his partnerto Florida Emilie and thenForsberg Germany – also to be upon– 10.07. on a “I’d whim have but, liked given to have the broad won grin eventwhich now?spreads “It used to be the 200m and 200m at theIone Müller of the Britishfinest off-road athleteswith his coacharound Rana – welcomed Reider. the acrossbut to Jornet’s be beaten face by when Yohan the Blake subject – of hisbut new I’m familyconsistent in the 100m and Championshipsarrival at the of selectiontheir daughter Mag. “I want to show I can win medals set-upthe second-fastest is broached, you guy suspect of all time he wouldenjoying not have it it again,” any he says. As with any couple adjusting to life with a new baby, there other way. have been obstacles to overcome but the Catalan insists It is not just at his Norwegian home where there have those have mainly involved logistical arrangements when it been significant changes, however. When it comes to JORDI SARAGOSSA JORDI 2 AW TRAIL AW TRAIL 3 TRAIL KILIAN JORNET @ATHLETICSWEEKLY MARTINA VALMASSOI MARTINA the day job, there have been some sizeable alterations too and a difference in approach Jornet winning which has paid dividends. Sierre-Zinal It is not unusual to see Jornet at the top of a podium and he has achieved the feat three times this year. The big difference is that those victories have come in the only three races he has chosen to contest in 2019. The 31-year-old has spent the majority of his competitive life negotiating mountain running and ski mountaineering seasons crammed with racing assignments. This summer, he set his sights on just three classics – Zegama-Aizkorri in northern Spain, Sierre-Zinal in Switzerland and last weekend’s Pikes Peak marathon in Colorado – winning them all and smashing the record for INSTAGRAM “I am someone who is very afraid of things the second item on that particular agenda. Kilian in general,” is the unexpected reply. “I’m not Jornet There has been a change in training, too. For with his a fearless person at all. I have always tried to a man who can often be found leaping across daughter control the things I can do and those I cannot. Mag earlier vertiginous ridges and scaling the world’s great this year “Before doing any activity I am very cerebral peaks at great speed, he has also come rather in terms of ‘okay, these are the risks that are more down to earth, with road and track workouts there, these are my capacities and this is how the having featured as part of his regime, too. mountain presents…’ “Normally what I have done since 2006, when I “So I try to visualise everything and I know that started both trail running and ski mountaineering when I take the decision there will be some risk seasons, would be to do 10-20 races in the winter but I try to control everything that I can so it’s not and then 10 in the summer,” he explains. “I would the case that before I was just going for it and try to reach a good level on average and to win now (that he’s a father) I’ll look at the risk. I’d look as many as possible but never have a focus like at the risk before and now it’s the same situation.” ‘these are the two big goals of the season’ – I The pull of the mountains remains strong, would just go from race to race. though. “My training before was just do a lot of volume “Climbing fast is something that I love and but never intensity because that came during the I like to climb mountains in a light way and 30 or 40 days of racing in the year. But this year I am not a fearless in a fast way,” adds Jornet, who grew up in the has been the first where I’ve run during the winter Pyrenees. “It’s interesting, especially when it’s – I’d never done that before and was only skiing. person at all. I have very technical stuff. Then you are really in the “So I’ve run during the winter plus introduced always tried to control moment – the past doesn’t exist, the future intensity. I have been running on the flat for the the things I can do doesn’t exist – I think that’s a really cool feeling first time in my life and I have been improving and those I cannot when you are just living this precise instant and a lot. I probably can’t improve my Vo2 max but it’s just like kind of meditation. You are blank on KILIAN JORNET it’s many things like technique, biomechanics, the brain and need to concentrate on the instant. neuromuscular connections and inter-muscular I did 24 hours doing loops on skis to see how “I like variation. A long day – from 10-15 hours co-ordination – things like there is a lot of ‘many metres of elevation I could do. That’s not in super technical terrain, combining running improvement to do.” fun at all but it’s very interesting because you with climbing, that’s what I enjoy the most but it’s For someone who has achieved so much and discover your body and how you are. Racing for not the sort of workout where you finish and feel who has his place firmly etched in the mountain me now is more about that – it is the checkpoint’ that you’re completely done. running history books – not to mention the to see if the training has been working.” “I like to do some long elevation days – Summits of My Life project which saw him taking He adds: “I am very happy with what I have where you find somewhere with an elevation of on speed ascents of some of the most iconic done and in the races it’s more about having 700m-1000m and I try to do some fast laps up mountains on earth – there is still clearly an fun – plus racing is very good training. In the and down three or four times. That’s very good appetite for more. But what keeps driving him? mountains it’s to explore, to have ideas and to training.” “Exploration, I think,” he says. “That can be see if they work.” Crucially, he adds: “It’s just to change, to do external – to visit places, for example, to have an With these ideas can come a great deal of different things and test the body in different Personal bests just got softer with the new Ghost 12. idea in the mind about what it can be to climb a inherent risk, of course. Given that he is now a ways.” The perfect mix of comfort and performance that you’ll fall in love with fast. certain mountain in a certain way and to see if father with great responsibilities, has he changed If ever there was an example to back up the it’s possible.