In this interview, ultrarunner Kilian Jornet discusses how he balances training volume with recovery, emphasizing the need to know personal limits to avoid a catastrophic overload. He explains the mental side of endurance, describing the "pain cave" and the use of small‑goal segmentation—tricking the mind by focusing on the next aid station or a short stretch rather than the full distance—to stay motivated during long, painful races. Jornet highlights the role of gratitude and a positive mindset, noting that his love for the mountains and appreciation of the experience fuels his performance, contrasting this with other athletes who thrive on conflict or aggression. He stresses the importance of creating a training environment that aligns with individual motivators—whether it’s community, scenery, or personal values—and advises young athletes to focus on loving the process of training rather than obsessing over results, trusting that performance will follow.
Chapters
That's very important to see, okay, I find that I can train this many hours a week to be able to recover from it. If I do more, at a point, it just explodes. And you need to find your balance. And when it comes to mentally, it's the same. Okay, hard sessions, it cannot be a hard day every day mentally. It's too much. Of course, you need to go to places where It's not comfortable to improve, and that goes also on the mental state, especially if you are training for long-distance events or mountaineering, where the mental part is very important to fight when you have pain or when— Your stomach is upset or you're nauseous. Or your mind saying, just stop, I want to go home. Or it's some kind of exposure and danger and how to feel comfortable with it, it takes training and you need to get used to this kind of discomfort. And that goes with the time, I think, to start with small loads of it, like going to do harder sessions that they became normal after, or going to do some routes that they are a bit more technical and a bit more technical, and then you get more used to to deal with these situations, to deal with this pressure. And yeah, I think it's that to just be realistic about what, first to be realistic what your capacities are, not to overestimate you, but to really try to push a bit every time and go into discomfort, to accept this discomfort, to be, okay, now I'm here and these problems are happening, but I want to solve it that way and to not be stressed at that point, it takes time to train.
On a day like tomorrow, at some point you're going to get into that pain cave. Are there any mental games you play with yourself at that point?
Yeah. Like in a long race, when you start to feel okay, now legs starts to hurt and all this, it's like you try to trick your mind and it can be very small things. Like you say, okay, I go to the next aid station and then I a stop. And then when you get there, it's like, okay, no, it's like you lie to yourself. Like say, okay, now it's finished soon. You need to devise the race in small portions because if you think, oh, now it's like 80 miles to finish, that's too big. If you think, okay, in 2 miles I have this pass and then it's downhill, or in 5 miles is a Navy station, and you need to really cut the goal into small goals into the race. That makes it much easier because you think, okay, it's 2 miles, I can do it. If you think it's 80 miles, I can do it. That's much more difficult. That's a trick. And then it's just like, at the end of the day, why you are there. Okay, it's hurting, it's not a cool situation, but you are here because you wanted to be here. We have the chance, it's a choice that we choose to race or we choose to go climbing or whatever. And it's because we love it at the end of the day. So to remember that when you are racing, when you are hurting, it's like, It was my decision to be here and it's part of my experience to pass through these moments. And yeah, I think it's mostly that.
I noticed that you have a lot of gratitude, you have a lot of positive aura around you. And I think that sometimes helps as well in a way of like, you're not running from an angry place, but it seems that being appreciative of like you running in the mountains as hard as it is when you go through some of those painful moments. But yeah, I think that's a good approach.
Yeah, I think you need to find also your approach. For me, I think if you go from the beauty of it and it's because you love it and this gratitude of I'm doing something that is really giving me back a lot, that's where I feel good. And I have been talking with a very famous coach from football in Europe and he was saying, I love when I'm in a stadium of the opponent and people is insulting me and they are like just— and he say, there is the moment where I feel my best, where it's like a fight and when people is really like, you know football, it can be very harsh. They are just saying insulting and he say, that's where I feel good and empowered for performing the best. And I think that's very different from person to person. For me, it's being peaceful and being happy about it. There is where I feel like I can deliver the most. Maybe some people need to fight. Maybe some people need to be in war to be able to perform. And I think that's also— you need to know what brings your best performance and then to try to create this environment to be able to deliver. And especially for young athletes, like it's not focused on the goals, but focus on the process. And that's like, of course you enjoy like racing, you enjoy like 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 workouts, and then you need to find what is really motivating you. Sometimes it's community, it's like you want to go training because you go with your friends, so make that your training environment is that one. Sometimes it's because you want to go to the mountains, to the landscape, so make your training that. So really like to think Enjoy the process, the results will come.
