Running Athlete Mathieu Blanchard’s journey to Western States Endurance Run | Salomon TV

- From an outside perspective, one might that have the impression trail running and road running are all the same thing. It's just running. Putting one foot in front of the other, a little faster than walking. But actually, they are not the same sport at all. - One isn’t better than the other, they’re just two different sports. - You work your quads, your glutes, in totally different ways. You don’t learn how to climb. You don’t learn how to walk. You don't learn how to use poles. - It's not about the legs that are running. It's not about the body, it's not about the money. It's about how strong you are, it's about how strong your mind is. - Ultra-trail running is not about going as fast as you can, it's about keeping up. - I usually like to spend my winters in Quebec. I hibernate like bears do. I try to get my feathers back. This year is very different. I'm taking part in a very special race, the famous Western States race in the United States. You need to be able to run fast on flat terrains that are less technical. At the same time, you need to be able to cope with the relative altitude. And above all, you have to withstand extreme temperatures. The marathon is in early April, we only have 3 months. 12 weeks of training is a very short time to prepare for a marathon. And me, well… I'm like that. This is my marathon pace. I've got to find the right road running pointers to be at my best for the Paris marathon on April 2. - Here we go. Are you okay? - Yes, I'm good. Right now, I'm learning what road running is because actually, I'm discovering a new sport. - Let's go, we start at 12. We'll use a 2% incline which is equivalent to the air resistance on the track. Come on, start jogging, easy. - From the outside, you might think that trail running and road running are all the same thing, it's just running. Putting one foot in front of the other a little faster than walking. But actually, they are not the same sport at all. It’s not the same way of training, it's not the same vocabulary, it's not the same philosophy. You can see the really motivated ones at this time. - 2:35, 2:40, 2:45. - I want to use the Kilimanjaro as an illustration of what altitude is all about. My idea was simply to go down slowly on day 4 and go back up via Lemosho. The idea is to go up and down in one day. So, one day means 24 hours. - Performing at a very high altitude requires a totally different preparation program than for marathons and the Western States race. Full acclimation requires 400 hours of continuous exposure above 3,000 meters. Until we've done those 400 hours, our body hasn't put in place everything it needs to adapt to the drop in atmospheric pressure. If you want to enjoy your training in Kenya, you need to be reasonable about your ambitions on Kilimanjaro. I think that for a first time, with the hypoxic preparation you have, I'd take the first option of staying with the group and calmly climbing the summit. - Okay, thank you very much, Pascal. Have a good day. - Bye. -Bye. I thought 5,800 meters was not a big deal. But actually, it's a really big deal. There are some big goals coming up like the Paris marathon, like the Western States, maybe UTMB. It's not a really a simple plan and that's a good thing. That's what we love about adventures. It's losing control, it's being shaken a bit and getting out of our comfort zone, and that's exactly… It stresses me out, it scares me, but it's what I’m looking for every time. I'll say it again. This is how I feel 10 days before traveling to Kilimanjaro. I went for a hypoxia test. What's a hypoxia test? It's putting yourself in high altitude conditions using a mask. Making a small effort to see how your body reacts physiologically to the altitude, to get indicators and find out whether your physiology is adapted to cope with high altitudes or not. - Endurance-trained subjects desaturate much more at high altitudes. And Mathieu has stabilized at around 69-70% saturation, which is relatively low. But that's because he is highly trained in endurance. Therefore, he has a very high cardiac output and the blood will flow too quickly through the alveolus. He won't have enough time to oxygenate sufficiently. So, the score is 9.5 and it starts to become pathological as soon as you exceed 5.5. - Out of a score of 10? - No, he didn't understand. No, no, out of 12. - Of 12. - Yes. - And now, I'm at 9 out of 12, so it's not good. - Yes. - We are certain that the test is reliable? - Yes, it’s the test… - The guy made us come here to ask the question. - So overall, the test went well. I felt good, but the results were crap. - You probably chose the most difficult summit in terms of altitude sickness. - I’m studying the subject of altitude, and I also want to try to understand and maybe even explain, well, to share that it can be just as dangerous too, or even detrimental for your health. - Exactly. - And it's not just a matter of optimizing physiological potential that we can find with altitude. In the end, the reaction I had to the hypoxia test which wasn't great, comforted me in the idea of not pushing myself too hard on Kilimanjaro, and taking it from another perspective. There are two ways to acclimate. The first is to put on a mask at altitude, lie down, and wait until you feel the effects. I find it boring. But there is a second solution, it's to acclimate while reveling in a truly magnificent setting. Samba. Samba. I eventually decided to take it from a different perspective. This Kilimanjaro from the "polé polé" perspective as they say in Tanzania, which means gently, slowly. I hurt my foot. I wanted to do it a little safer, too. And that's why I chose to do the adventure with "Terres d'Aventure." - My name is Abeid Mdoe. I'm a mountain guide. I climb up and down Kilimanjaro. - Starting point at 2,300 meters? - Yes. - Isn't it too high? - No, it's okay. Then, we'll do this. - To climb up and down Kilimanjaro, the minimum is between 5 and 6 days We’ll change things up a bit and do it all in 4 days. We'll do one stage after another. - He told me: "You have to keep warm to get to the top." I listened to him. It's time to leave. We've just arrived at Lemosho gate. We're about to begin our ascent of Kilimanjaro. I think we press the "START" button. - On the way up, Mathieu thinks he's in good shape. The mountain is not determined by your fitness level. The mountain itself will decide whether your body will acclimate or not. Mathieu will see if he can do much more or less than what he had in mind. - We're checking my saturation at 4,500 meters altitude. - At 4,600. Don't start removing meters because they cost too much. - And it’s going down and down. - 91. So, who is the king of the acclimation? I'm the king in here. - Let me see. - The oxygen is in me. - Asante sana. - Foot bath on Kilimanjaro. I should have washed my face first. - Oh yeah. It would have been a better idea. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, it smells like feet. Oh yeah. Here we go. That's a luxury shower. We are at the last camp, Barafu, before attempting the final ascent to the summit of Kilimanjaro. We are resting a little, we took an afternoon nap in order to climb this steep slope in the middle of the night to see a beautiful sunrise from the summit of Kili. It's crazy, I can see the Kili right there. It seems so close, like a stone’s throw. But actually, it's so far away when you add the physiological factors of the altitude because we're about to reach 5,000 meters. - The summit of Africa. - You know what, the sun is rising. Do you want to see that? Come on. We've finally reached the top of Kilimanjaro. It was so beautiful: the sunrise, Africa’s roof. My coach and the road runners I met in the preparation path for the Paris Marathon saw me doing Kilimanjaro as a sidestep. But I see it more as a step forward. And it really gave me a big dose of motivation for the final stretch. The beauty of nature. We all know that Kenyans dominate the world of road running. And I want to know what their secret is. So, the best way to find out how they do it is to visit them directly in Kenya, on the highlands of Iten, to understand how they train at altitudes above 2,000 meters. That's quite a track... The training philosophy in Kenya is somewhat military-like. It's a mix of passion and selflessness. I'm trying to get on the track now. They’re going at 2:45, 3:00 per kilometer all around me. Take a look at those rockets. 3x10 minutes, with four minutes of recovery. All right, time to work. Even though I had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro the week before arriving in Kenya, the first jogs were not easy. My heart was pounding, my heart rate skyrocketing, and I was short of breath. It was really rough in the beginning. Please let me go down to sea level. These rockets, they won't stop. Stop! Damn. It seems like they're jogging easy. You're behind them, they're not even breathing. Okay, it's gone down to 110. It's fine. I reached 180, 185. It beat hard today. Behind this door, is screaming. It's torture. That's where I'm going to get a massage. Is everything okay? - You need a hard massage? - I need just cool massage. - Let me heal you, you have problems. - Heal me. - I won't kill you, I heal you. - Heal me don't kill me, it's different. - Yes, it's different. - I'm going to vomit. Oh my God! It's awful. Damn, for God's sake! Is this a joke? It's a hidden camera prank. - You have a lot of problems bro. - You have a lot of problems bro. Your body is the big problem. - this famous Kenyan Fartlek, which is also a symbol of this country, after the red lands, after Eldoret stadium, here I am at the start of this very specific local training. That day, we had one minute on, one minute off. But what kind of ambush did I fall into? The Kenyans, they are very competitive even in training. At first, it was going well. I was full of motivation and energy in the first few minutes. These guys are going all out. The Kenyan suffering. It was a true descent into hell, but I held on. I held on and pushed through until the end. I was destroyed, even though it was just a typical Kenyan daily training session. We can't consider ourselves runners until we've seen the Kenyans in action. We put our egos aside. I'm a beginner. They destroyed me. Look, they're right there the first ones. Those are the guys I was running with, look I'm going to pass them. I'm going to throw up. - In Kenya, athletics is a culture, is a way of work. Competition is very high in Kenya and lack of opportunities of jobs, unemployment is high. - Over the years it has built up as a center of running, and it now as acquired the status as the home of champions, partly because of the success running has brought to the local area. - There is definitely something where running has taken a significant place. Yes, indeed, You can observe the warrior version of Kenyan runners, both male and female. They are serious about training. As much as they smile, they seem happy, but when you encounter them during training, they are often very focused. - The most important thing, in my opinion, that I've learned from the Kenyans is their mentality. The fact that they only want to be the best and there’s nothing else. One underestimated strength is that they don't overthink it. They truly rely on instinct. It's kind of an "all-out" approach. It can break them, but if it works, it works. - It's not about what's in the legs when running, no, it's about a mental. If your mind is stronger, you can run faster than somebody else. If you discipline your mind just to become calm, and you just focus, at the end of the day, you'll achieve what you want. But somebody from Europe can't beat an African guy. It's a culture, for me, it's just a culture that I can't allow somebody from Europe to beat me in a race. I always train hard. I just train hard because in my home maybe somebody is depending on me, or maybe I want to buy land, or maybe I want to build my house. Huge part that makes you run as fast as you can is to elevate your family, to elevate your friends, your parents, your lifestyle that you want because everybody has a kind of life that he want to lead. - Alright, it's done. Last workout in Kenya on the track. The work is done. Three months, since early January in Quebec, in heavy snow at minus 30. Now, it feels like the end. Incredible. I arrived in Paris for the marathon about a week before. It's strange because I didn’t feel more pressure than that. I usually struggle to sleep the nights leading up to a race. Thanks. I don't have many indicators of how I'll perform tomorrow in the marathon. It will be a bit of a surprise tomorrow. We like surprises. But, we worked hard for three months. We should still have a decent pace, at least for the first few kilometers. We'll see. So, at what height do we pin this bib? I don't know, what's the fashion for road races? Up high, down low. Definitely not on the logo. My goals were already accomplished. I remind you that my main objective was to gain speed for the upcoming Western States race a few weeks later. Clearly, at that moment, after Kenya, I felt like I had never run so fast in my life on flat ground, so the goal was achieved. Ultimately, the Paris Marathon came as a cherry on top. It drastically reduced the pressure. Good marathon. Here we go. Let's go! In a marathon, unlike an ultra-trail, I try to control myself. Control my pace, my speed. I take a gel every 30 minutes, I check the split times. In a marathon, I feel more like a musician reading sheet music rather than a musician improvising as I do in ultra trails. I was fortunate to be accompanied and supported by friends of my partner Salomon. It gave me a lot of strength to run as a team in this marathon. I had the feeling that the ups and downs. It distributed the load on my body a bit. I also had sensations of mountain running, of trail running that came back. And strangely, while some started to slow down a bit, tap on the brakes, but at the 30th kilometer, that's when I started hitting the gas. From the indoor track in Montreal in the middle of winter, to the summit of Kilimanjaro, the highlands of Kenya, and the Paris Marathon, I believe I worked hard, really hard. I have a little frustration, I could have gone a bit faster, I think. - Yes, but that's even better, you can surpass… - Who knows? I will be back. I've lined up the stars, as I like to say. These stars, in the end, are milestones that lead me to that famous Western States race. Next stop, Marathon des Sables. After that, it's off to the Western States with a little more confidence, knowing that my legs can handle flat terrain quite well. I believe it will be positive for the preparation. I'll have plenty of good energy on the Champs-Élysées. - Bravo! - Aux Champs-Élysées. N/A