For the second year in a row, Cristofer Clemente ran an extremely intelligent race to take second at the Trail World Championships. In the following interview, Cristofer talks about how he has the confidence to be so patient, what his training looks like, how the terrain of the Canary Islands prepared him for this race, and whether he thinks he’s reached his potential.
For more on this year’s race, check out our 2018 Trail World Championships results article.
Cristofer Clemente Post-2018 Trail World Championships Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Cristofer Clemente after his second-place finish at the 2018 Trail World Championships. Congratulations, Cristofer.
Cristofer Clemente: Thank you very much.
iRunFar: For two years now your race has been amazing. You start comfortably it looks, and the whole race you go from the back to the front. How do you do it?
Clemente: I try to concentrate myself on the pace, keeping myself in control, and I know I can race for an amount of hours in this performance, so I try to think of that. Of course, I save the good bullets for the finish.
iRunFar: How do you have the confidence you will have those good bullets at the finish?
Clemente: It’s all about the training. I’ve been training for this. I’ve been training to have these good bullets for the finish line to have this last push. I think that also with the training, there’s a lot of confidence coming and also believing in myself to have that confidence to use it, and that goes all through the lines.
iRunFar: What does one of your high weeks or big weeks of training look like?
Clemente: It’s more or less around 120-130km per week and also having mid-runs of 20-25km and a long run of 40-45km on the weekends and also mixing in some bike. Also, the terrain around where I live is super aggressive and makes a lot of damage to the body, so you have to be careful. You cannot do super long runs. That’s enough—40km.
iRunFar: Do you think the terrain and the rocks of the Canary Islands prepared you well for this course?
Clemente: Yeah, it was pretty similar. It’s super aggressive where I live with a lot of loose rocks and things. Yeah, I think it was similar.
iRunFar: In talking with Luis Alberto Hernando a minute ago, he said you keep improving rapidly. Do you feel that way?
Clemente: Yeah, I believe that. I realize I’m improving year after year. I’m new in this. I started at 24 years old. I started late, but I can feel each and every season that little point of improvement.
iRunFar: Do you think you can build that improvement and be a champion before you’re 40 years old?
Clemente: Yeah, I’ve signed up for two second places at the Trail World Championships, so that’s perfect. It’s a hard task, but I will try to keep improving to get there.
iRunFar: Where else will we see you improve this year? What other races do you have planned?
Clemente: I’ll be at the Zugspitz Ultra-Trailin a month. Two weeks after that there’s another race of Salomon in Germany, and I’ll be there for that. Also, I’ll be at CCCand Ultra Pirineu.
iRunFar: Congratulations on your great run again this year. See you soon.
Clemente: Thank you very much.
