Ludovic Pommeret | 2024 UTMB Pre-Race Interview

ludic palay you Legend of Legends here in Shaman before another UTMB how are you doing my friend I'm I'm okay so far I'm sitting a nice sofa so I'm not so bad we were just you have prepar some waffle for me so we prepar some some waffles and we were just joking about how the last time we saw each other was in Silverton and it's a little bit of a different vibe in Silverton before Hard Rock than it is here it's a bit more crudy here know a little bit bit different you've already done many interviews today as you said so all the week you know it's you start a marathon before the race yeah well you different Marathon yeah exactly right and you are a hot commodity as always is somebody that people want to talk to and so we appreciate you taking the time but obviously we have to start with hard rock my God man unbelievable course record performance another amazing win to add to the collection of trophies you've amassed in your career talk about Hard Rock to get us started what made that day so special for you it's a good question because I I like to have again such a good day but it was maybe the first uh like almost perfect race in my life so it could happen sometimes that's fine no but um yeah it was really a pleasure to prepare the race because it was in Silverton in colado it's really nice to run yeah to to sleep almost everywhere so so it's like yeah it was nice to prepare the race and then uh yeah during the race everything was was going well uh it's a shame that uh yeah Fran and and Zach could not could not Trace so we cannot race um together but uh yeah I enjoy even if I was a bit alone with my Pacers but but it was well it was really nice God it would have been so entertaining if Zach and fris were both healthy and you guys were pushing each other maybe even faster I don't know but uh yeah we don't know now find out next year yeah maybe next year maybe next year um afterwards you spent a little time in the US you guys did a little road trip Seline your wife is here with us as well I know you visited like what was it Yellowstone and Moab and yeah we go to Arch Park Yellowstone gron so yeah it was it was nice to to enjoy uh so the American park park and it's nice and we spend some times there uh already last year also M with much more Parks but this year we just stay we just stay close to um yeah to Salt Lake yone so just some hiking in grandon it was it was nice but it's a quite tricky part and there's some trades that are tricky there yeah very tricky yeah yeah maybe maybe we'll go there for for more tring next well it was great to have you in the US it was great to have you at Hard Rock and here we are back on your home turf at UTMB in France let's talk about the transition between Hard Rock and UTMB obviously in the last few years we've seen both franois and Killian be able to execute that double very well so how have you recovered from Hard Rock and how do you feel going into UTMB where obviously you're going to have to go deep into the energy reserves again so a lot of pressure because it's all what Fran andan has success to to do both hard rock and UTMB but um recovery seems good I don't know about training in between uh according my coach it's okay we'll see but uh you've been training a lot we'll talk about that in a second but in physically you're feeling strong in between yeah I was training Maybe yeah quite a lot of hours lot of kilometers or miles but uh really easy easy pace so we'll see if I can push during the race that's the question yeah um yeah and for me the main goal was AR Rock because you know it's quite hard to get a beep there so it was nice to to prepare well this this race and this one is like the cherry on the cake you know it's just I'm here mainly because because uh it's my 20 years after my first starts so that's M the reason why I take the UTMB start this year I have already done last year the UTMB so usually I'm not doing twice so cool so but we'll see there's a there's a high density of um of Runners uh fast Runners so we'll see what would be the race and we'll see according the weather could be different yeah cool well and so on Friday yeah yeah we'll see you on Friday we'll see you on Friday but just for our our audience here just to make something clear You've Won UTMB You've Won diagonal deut now you've won Hard Rock to me it feels like there's four major championship level 100 MERS in the world those three plus Western States you've done very well missing West missing Western States a too fast for me I think it's is it I think it might be only you and Courtney who have three of the four Courtney's got all four oh Killian's got three of the four too or no Killian's got all Four's got all four so only Killian and Courtney have all four of the majors but ludic pom has three out of the four so I'm the only human guys I guess FR got three out of the four and so does Katie SH now after Western States so anyway just uh puts you in rare air and unique company in the history of the sport a spectacular course record achievement you've also been obviously very successful here I've got it written down three times top five at UTMB including that 2016 Victory twice on the podium of CCC twice on the podium of TDS including your win in 20122 say a few words about the consistency over time that you've had and one of the things we've been talking about here with athletes today is like rising to this occasion and like being able to perform well on the biggest stage any lessons or learnings you can share about that uh lessons it's uh it's the r that gave me some lessons because I have lot of uh fail during UTMB when I start UTMB here uh I mainly start with fails so that's that's how I learn and um yeah now it's I I just managing the the race maybe a bit differently and um I'm just yeah starting with my own pace and try to keep um my Pace that's difficult because last year uh I was really far uh at the beginning of the race even if I was on my uh expecting Pace but I was more than 57 I think uh so that's really difficult and my wife could say that I was not good in my head because there was yeah even if I was in my pacing um there was too many people in front of me and uh yeah where you were 57th is that what you're saying yeah where uh I think it was in shapur or something like that so that was really far and um yeah so it's it's difficult because you are in your pace but I was expecting a bit more than 20 50 on the the ranking I mean so so and for our viewers L shap Pew is roughly 55 or 60 kilometers into the race and you were in 57th place and you finished fifth last year fifth yeah yeah so it's yeah difficult but um yeah I'm proud of the UTMB race um because um I'm more and more consistent on my race so I I'm more on the courtess model you know try to keep the same Bas uh but uh you know I think it's more a man uh strategy to start fast and and see if we can uh we can keep or keep running at the end or not uh I think women are are starting yeah are more conservative and um yeah we'll see we'll see what would be this year but uh yeah um no I'm not managing the race like uh some some would say that I'm not taking too much risk on the race and that's maybe true but um yeah now it's my but it's 20 years ago I will see I will try to do better than I have done in 2004 where I dropped the race after ATK so yeah I'd like to to finish but uh I will see how how I will manage if I take more risk or not I don't know yet well so now it makes you want to just like have you retell the story of 2016 when you won the race cuz it's sort of similar although I know if you were suffering early and then you had this amazing comeback to win the race so obviously the sport has grown a lot since then so maybe for those who weren't around eight years ago retell the story from your 2016 victory at UTMB yeah I think it's no more possible now with the density uh to be 1 hour behind the head and and win the race um you know that there's there's less people that are dropping the race now I think it's uh yeah there's some uh learning also then some experience for all from all the runners so and there's more and more density so I think this scenario will not happen anymore so if you really want to win the race I think you should stay close to the head I mean okay a quar hour it's it's okay but uh not one hour yeah very very amazing story from the history of the race so for those who who don't know yeah go check out lud's race from 2016 an hour behind at coray was it and you won the race uh I think sh they sh you an hour behind to yeah so Lea Pew is your weak point on the course that much we've established so Ludo is an hour behind or 45 minutes behind at Le sh he's still in good shape last year it was not my weak point it I was really in the pacing that I was expecting U but that was the runner that were I don't know maybe too fast if I can reach top five maybe they were too fast I don't know but so before Hard Rock we talked about this you did two soft rocks so two laps around the Hard Rock course and it seems like you've done two laps around the UTMB course also in training so coming back to this transition between Hard Rock and UTM it seems like you've been putting in a lot of volume even though at low intensity were you trying to mimic the success of the two soft rocks with your two uh tours around M Blanc yeah yeah no but the usually we do one uh one toblo uh but then there was a training camp or where with Oka and with some atlet were doing the the tour so I just join and um yeah I was doing with the with the ladies just to okay it's not something that should not be taken in the right but uh just to be um uh yeah in Easy Pace mhm even if the woman are going quite fast it's not but uh just to be sure that you are not going too fast and you spend too much energy you so I was looking at your training and yeah you had like one down week after hard rock but then you did three weeks of like 20 30 25 hours I think in that succession and yeah it's all lower intensity stuff but physically do you feel like you're building strength and fitness for UTMB and like how do you how do you measure that like what are you listening to to ensure that you're not doing too much after such a big effort but you're setting yourself up for Success it's a good question yeah I've only taken two days off I think after the outro and then I start really slowly um but it was just because we were in the US we were visiting so you need to hi to R visit so just start again slowly and uh yeah increase uh increase the volume uh approaching the UTMB um yeah the volume is I made two or three weeks that was higher volume but uh last week was quite low and this week almost nothing so so how are you feeling though Ludo because like what you proved at Hard Rock is like dude you can still win youi like if you can run 21 and change on the Hard Rock course you can run 19 and change no on the UTMB course my best timing on UTMB is 21 short uh no 21 sorry last year I don't think that I could so when Killian broke the hard rot course record he ran 2145 he ran 2136 or no he ran 2136 he ran 2133 something like that yes yeah and then he ran he was a ran 1948 I think at UTMB to break the UTMB course record back to back I mean it could happen yeah it could no I don't I I don't think that uh if I I take the race of last year I don't think that I can uh do one hour better than what I have done but who knows which I think you can no no no but think you can it's really a different Trace um I think you need to be much more faster okay the timing is is quite similar but there's more kilometers on UTMB um almost 10 kilm more yeah okay the altitude is uh is lower but uh yeah it's different skills I I think for UTMB and you need more to be a runner on UTMB I would say yeah than Hard Rock and then High Cur even on Hard Rock if you have to run some part because especially in this clockwise uh there's lot of runable parts yeah well as Killian franois and Courtney have all proven it is possible to win both in the same for the season everybody look out for luno I've been asking everybody who's going to be crewing for them and why I'm assuming Selen who's who's here is going to be for you so she'll be she'll be the the crew chief to Shepherd you on another amazing UTMB so maybe instead of that I'd love to ask you about Vincent buard because I know you guys know each other and I saw you guys did a little training together Ryan and I bumped into him in town this week and view him as you know somebody who could surprise some people this week so for those who don't know Vincent who is he and what makes him special so he's working for Oka but I ran with him U last time together on the same race in France because the he moved in in us um he beat me on on a race no he's really fast um he's really uh fit you have seen him uh you say that we have trained together but uh it's not really true he he was a bit too fast so we have did the start together and then that's it yeah so yeah and um he has 100% of success on his 100 miles okay you have done only one but and it's it was the first one in us I don't know this one but it seems that it's quite trable because it's 16 hours so I don't know if he he will try to uh to break the 16 hours on UTMB no no for sure I think it could uh yeah it could be a really nice Challenger for and he's worked at Hoka like in Footwear Innovation for a while cuz didn't he work on the the tekan X products yeah yeah yeah tekan x 3 that is called and yeah. and yeah so he works for Innovation but now he will be back in France he was in in USA and he will be back in in France he is back in France in the US we have a term called of dark horses do you know what that means like people who have a chance to perform very well but nobody's talking about vinant is a dark horse like like C on Western yes exctly like Rob at Western States well Ludo it's an honor to sit with you congrats on an awesome season so far I know we're all excited to see you take on the UTMB one more time 20 years after your first one we appreciate you taking the time okay thank Youk you let's see you on on Friday Friday let's go