He is an amazing runner, but instead of doing the same thing again and again and hoping for a different result, he fully went all in and moved to Europe to morph from running like a gazelle to become more of a mountain goat
https://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Jim_Walmsley_on_Stepping_Outside_the_Box_8500.html
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Thanks for the cross-over article. As an avid ultra/trail runner and triathlete, I found the interview very interesting.
Thanks, but can you imagine Gustav Iden or similar moving to Kona to get the race fully dialed ?
I don’t think triathlon requires the same specificity as UTMB. Not necessary to move to Kona.
Very few Kona champions live and train in that kind of environment year round.
His mini documentary on living there is up on youtube. Great for trainer/treadmill.
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjjWTi_WkyA
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjqmclAg1l8&t=659s
Indeed, it is awesome. And his wife it too cool
I’d say it’s pretty much equal specificity.
Source, I’ve coached a guy on the podium at UTMB (3rd) and IM Hawaii (2nd). I might be the only person who can say that, never looked it up.
Fun fact: Jim jumped into some local triathlon’s when he was first getting into Ultra running in Montana. He’s rides pretty darn well.
The slowtwitch crowd might be interested to know that back when he was living in Great Falls, MT he did a sprint triathlon in 2013:
racemttri.com/images/SprintResults.pdf
I had done that race the 5 years prior but moved out of state a couple months before the race so I didn’t get the opportunity to go head-to-head with him. However he managed to crush my time from the year prior by 2 minutes. For those wondering about his 15:19 run split, yes it is a legitimately measured 5k course. The swim was 500 meters in the pool, bike was 20k with a 1 mile long/200 foot climb at the turnaround.
What a cool story and yes he is legit
The slowtwitch crowd might be interested to know that back when he was living in Great Falls, MT he did a sprint triathlon in 2013:
racemttri.com/images/SprintResults.pdf
I had done that race the 5 years prior but moved out of state a couple months before the race so I didn’t get the opportunity to go head-to-head with him. However he managed to crush my time from the year prior by 2 minutes. For those wondering about his 15:19 run split, yes it is a legitimately measured 5k course. The swim was 500 meters in the pool, bike was 20k with a 1 mile long/200 foot climb at the turnaround.
I fully agree, it was a hypothetical question about that kind of commitment
I don’t think triathlon requires the same specificity as UTMB. Not necessary to move to Kona.
Very few Kona champions live and train in that kind of environment year round.
Thanks, but can you imagine Gustav Iden or similar moving to Kona to get the race fully dialed ?
i would say gustav has been living for many many years 200 days away from home a year to dial in to become the best athlete.
or the german ironmans that many years ago lived in califomia to train with the best …
or all the australians and kiwis that move to europe in race season year after year .
so in short its rather common in tri .
Thanks, but can you imagine Gustav Iden or similar moving to Kona to get the race fully dialed ?
i would say gustav has been living for many many years 200 days away from home a year to dial in to become the best athlete.
or the german ironmans that many years ago lived in califomia to train with the best …
or all the australians and kiwis that move to europe in race season year after year .
so in short its rather common in tri .
Sure, but do they NEED to or just WANT to.
When I had a remote job I skipped two Canadian winters to live and train in Australia and New Zealand.
Except for getting in long rides, I trained just as well in winter in Canada.
Skiing is a helluva great way to get in shape for triathlon season.
I don’t see the Aussies, or Germans moving to warmer places during their respective winters as quite the same thing. But yes they did and still do that.
Thanks, but can you imagine Gustav Iden or similar moving to Kona to get the race fully dialed ?
i would say gustav has been living for many many years 200 days away from home a year to dial in to become the best athlete.
or the german ironmans that many years ago lived in califomia to train with the best …
or all the australians and kiwis that move to europe in race season year after year .
so in short its rather common in tri .
Sure, but do they NEED to or just WANT to.
When I had a remote job I skipped two Canadian winters to live and train in Australia and New Zealand.
Except for getting in long rides, I trained just as well in winter in Canada.
Skiing is a helluva great way to get in shape for triathlon season.
if you respond to altitude training than i would say its a commitment you need to make to be one of the best in the world.
if you were a non responder than no .
so as always it depends.
if you are a young aussi athlete and want to race the best in the world and want to earrn prize money you kind of have to move to europe in from may to september as only fracne and germany have clubs that help you with living costs and especially in france you have many good races with prize money almost every weekend.
and of course you could say hayden wild has shown during the pandemic its can work without it
leeds has clearly shown that nobody really has to move because of bad weather…
so it really depends on many things. what is necessary and what is want and for different people different things work.
overall it just of made me lough that people kind of think that there is sports where people have more commitment as i would say in any profesional sport there is usually a very high commitment some sports have more money and in each sport you have atheltes that are very good with less committed but by and large the commitment to become good is pretty much the same in any sport , and by and large the more money is involved in a sport the harder it is to get to the top.
i like to make fun about soccer player when they dive on the pitch but to get to the level to be able to do this requires as lot of work and a mental toughness from a very young age and as much as i hate ronaldo i do see the commitment he has.
i think only fanboys think their sport is the hardest and has the athletes with the most commitment …
interesting that Jim is planning a lot of skimo this winter… but I think a year isn’t enough time to build up the kind of aerobic base that Killian has from racing skimo for decades 
Kilian’s winter is spent on skis, where he’s a world-class skimo athlete. From December to March, he would do 2-4 hours on skis (mostly in Zone 2) in the AM, followed by a 40-60 minute easy treadmill run in the PM. His training graphs show no hard workouts that entire time.
still, I admire Jim’s commitment. It would be easy to stay here and rack up the ultra wins, but he wants to do the hard things. Good for him…
True Kilian is quite another species
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Thanks for the cross-over article. As an avid ultra/trail runner and triathlete, I found the interview very interesting.
^^this^^
True Kilian is quite another species
And Killian and Francois grew up playing in the mountains every day. You simply cannot teach or learn the downhill skills or anticipating the weather changes in the mountains for example over a year.
Jim is a generational talent for Western States type races. It would be spectacular if he can translate it to true alpine racing.
Thanks, but can you imagine Gustav Iden or similar moving to Kona to get the race fully dialed ?
That’s not a valid comparison, Iden hasn’t had three bad races in a row there. We’ll only know of that actually happens.
Thank you very much for the links, though, I watched both parts today, knowing little about the ultra world. It was really interesting. Also Jim’s wife is no slouch!
There’s some fairly in depth chat about Killians training on the SWAP podcast. It’s worth a listen if you’ve got a couple of hours