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Remi Leroux - Pre Sunapee Scramble Interview · The Steep Stuff Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, fam?
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, james Lariolo, super excited to bring you guys another Sunapee Scramble pre-race interview with none other than Mr Remy LaRue, one of the most exciting athletes in our sport over the last couple of years.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Remy was kind enough to come back on the pod and catch up for a chat.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: We chatted literally just caught up because we just had him on a few months ago, but we caught up with him right after the Brooks summit that he participated in as a new member of the Brooks team up in Seattle area and we also caught up with him to chat a little bit about a race brief, kind of a debrief from the big Alta 50 K where Remy also landed himself on the podium in one of the most like stacked pre season races that we've seen in a long time, with the likes of Eli Hemming, remy, david Roche, brian Becker and just so many others it was Johnny Lunalima, just like.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: A lot of studs showed up.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: So it was cool.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It was fun to catch up with Remy and chat with all things as well.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: This is an interesting race for Remy because it's an American selection race for, obviously, worlds, but Remy is, it's an American selection race for, obviously, worlds.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: But Remy is a Canadian athlete so his ticket is already punched to go represent team Canada in September in the Pyrenees.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So Remy's kind of got a different, almost like a different approach where it's not necessarily do or die for him, it's a, it's a race to kind of stack up against see where you stack up against some of the best athletes in America.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So pretty good stuff.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Um, remy is just so consistent and always does such a good job that it's going to be fun to see him shake it up with some of these gentlemen and kind of see where things land on race day.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So hope you guys enjoy this one.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Uh, it's a personal favorite of mine.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Really enjoyed Remy.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: He's a good friend, a good guy and, uh, someone I just really admire in the sport.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, none other than Remy LaRue.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Remy LaRue, welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: How are you, my friend?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I'm doing pretty good.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Good man?
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Good, this is excited to be having this conversation.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: We're a few weeks out from the Soon at Peace scramble and you know what it's cool to be doing all these interviews with all the elite men and women and just having some chats.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So it's exciting that we're getting ready to, on the American side, getting ready to start selecting our Mountain Classic Worlds team, which is going to be fun, so it's going to be exciting.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: So what's going on?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: What's new?
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Before we were talking offline since the last time we'd spoken, you went and had a great race at the Big Alta 50K which we can get into in a little bit, um, and then you went over to up to Seattle to do the Brooks camp.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Tell, maybe talk a little bit about how that Brooks camp went for you and just how much fun it was having everybody together as a team and kind of how that was.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was great.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: It was my first kind of experience of like actually being part of like a team camp like that, and it was really eye-opening.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I feel like everything that I was expecting was like.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: It was actually like even better in person.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I think the main part for me is just like actually feeling like I'm part of a team of like runners who I'm gonna train with and do like competitions with this year.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Just thinking about like soon to be coming up in a couple weeks, it's gonna be so, so cool.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: To you know, we're going to share an airbnb, all the, all the gang together for like a couple days before the race, like go check out the course together, probably do like some media stuff and stuff like that, and we're also going to meet up at a lot of different races, like broken arrow, this year, sierra's, and now we're going to do a training camp before that.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: So it's really cool and it's definitely what I dream of when I think about like being part of like an actual like team of runners and then, yeah, it's been super cool.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: And also like seeing all the products that are now on the market and are going to be on the market in the next couple years is pretty exciting, I don't.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I don't consider myself very much of like a gear person, but I think I'm now starting to become a bit more just like seeing like the people that work with the shoes directly and stuff like that.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: So that's also very exciting.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: That's amazing, dude.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Do you have more and you can?
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously we can talk about this, because you're not not previously you're with Merrill and now you're with Brooks Do you have more access to those folks that are in shoe design and shoe development now compared to Merrill?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I'm super impressed, I feel like, with Brooks.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: I know Mika, for example.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Last year he contacted the people who create the shoes at Brooks and they made a custom shoe for mika or like a specific race that mika that was going to do, like a vertical race.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So I feel like they're really.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I feel like they're really um, how can I say that they're really listening to what we want and they're really ready to like custom things and they really want our feedback, which sometimes I kind of like, since I'm not such a very like gear oriented person.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I don't feel like super comfortable sharing feedback, because for me it's like well, yeah, I mean the shoes are comfortable, or like yeah, the shoes like the grip is good or whatever.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: like I'm not very good with like the sophisticated terms and like being able to differentiate like one shoe from another, but yeah, I feel like they're really attentive to our feedback and they actually like put them in practice, like in their shoes afterwards, and that's been really refreshing to see.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I have to be honest with you, man.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I think it was such a smart decision to go sign with them, in my opinion, for two reasons.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: One, I think it's now the the best, like if you were to look at itra indexes and utmb indexes, like I think you guys have the best sub ultra trail team on the planet.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: That's the first part.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: And second thing is I just love that they're investing so much in sub ultra.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: You know it's the only team, or really one of the only teams besides maybe solomon, but solomon to a lesser extent because it's a smaller team like they're one of the only few teams that are like just really heavily investing in sub ultra, which is cool to see as the sport grows and develops yeah, I agree it was super cool that team camp.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Uh, one of like the people that work at brooks with the team is a gareth heath, who's like one of the best american.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Well, now he's uh, he's retired now, but he was one of the best like runners of like cross country or on a track and he beat like Mo Farah once at like a cross country race, like a very famous race in Great Britain, and he made a speech to us like at team camp and he was telling like you know how, like when Josh Kerr, who's like a Brooks track athlete, like when he won world championships, like all all the people working at brooks headquarters went out for dinner together and we celebrated and he was like I would love to do that, for example, if one of our athletes like wins like the golden trail finals or whatever, and I just found that so awesome, like it's just like he definitely like recognizes this sub ultra scene a lot and also just the fact that we're so many runners on the team that are really like into that, I think it's it's really nice to see.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's cool and it's like a very almost like kind of like a family like mindset in a lot of ways where, like they're everybody's a little more tight-knit, you guys recognize each other.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: That's funny, man garrett, he, he tried his hand in our sport for a little bit.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I know he raced a little bit, but yeah, he did the loon mountain race, uh, and I think he also won, like canyons, 25k the year after yeah I'm not sure if he's still.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I don't think he's doing it more like in a competitive side now, but he did try for at least a year or two to yeah, but it's, it's just a different sport, I think a lot of track and road runners maybe they, um, you know, they do that transition and think it's gonna a different sport.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of track and road runners maybe they, um, you know, they do that transition and think it's going to be easy.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: But I think it takes a couple of years and especially like if you're at the end of your road and track or like you're maybe not, as the say, at the same fitness as when you were at your peak, so that makes it also possibly a bit harder to make that transition also.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: For sure, for sure.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Let's transition.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to, uh.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about, uh, the big Alta where you had I think you were the only podium selection that I actually got correct Maybe you and Eli, it's hard to remember, but, dude, it was so fun following you guys racing and just how it all went down.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Like, maybe talk about that race to you Cause like there was some heavy hitters at that race.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: It was a very competitive early, probably one of the, if not the most, outside of canyons preseason like competitive, competitive race that went down.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Maybe talk about how that went for you, how long was the recovery and how you felt Cause in your race one of the things you talked about, I think, on Instagram you had said that you're such a good climber, you're such a world-class climber, but you felt better on the the descent.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe, maybe talk about that.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: I don't say I wouldn't say I felt better on the descents, but as I felt like the lead pack was just going way too hard on the climbs and just too easy on the downhills, which I think it's usually the case, like whenever I run with like road runners and people like that don't usually run a lot of hills, like that's often how they run, but I felt like it was.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: It was kind of like the same thing.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Like as soon as we got on the first climb I was like wait, what the heck, this is way too quick and I use heart rate a lot and I was just very quickly able to see that, okay, like I could keep up with them if I wanted to.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: But this is like not a very smart way of racing.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: So basically, yeah, for the first like um eight or nine miles, it was kind of a strange feeling that on every climb I would get dropped and then every time we get on a downhill then I'd catch them back and, um, so, yeah, I think that definitely helped me.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, I mean overall it was a, it was a pretty good race, I'd say I I don't think my fitness was at the best point that it could have been just because I had been injured a lot during the winter, had like a lot of achilles problems, but but yeah, fortunately, like I think like two or three weeks before the race, I did like this one long run that was kind of like going to make me decide if I was fit enough or I was not injured enough to do the race, and that long run went well.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: So I was able to do big alta and um, yeah, it was good.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: It was, uh, my first ultra in like five years, I think, but um, it was surprisingly kind of fun.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: I I feel like I've been someone who's very much like I don't want to do ultras, I just want to do like sub-ultra stuff.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: But it's kind of cool to be in a race and like you're pushing, like yes, you're working hard, but you still feel like you always have another gear and you kind of feel relatively comfortable in a way.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of like a nice feeling compared to, for example, vertical races or like vertical races that like even after five minutes of their race you're just like dying out there.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: So, um, yeah, it was, it was nice, nice season opener and I think the recovery after that went like really well and had no problem with my Achilles, so I was able to really get back to training pretty much like one week after.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: So that was really nice as well.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: That's amazing, dude.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this I've been trying to figure out for the last five minutes how I want to word this question with, because there's a lot of personalities there, right, like Eli.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Many consider to be probably the best 50K runner on the planet right now.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: And then you've got David Roche, who's been very outspoken about a lot of his training and very open with a lot of his training.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Was there a lot of ego at the front of the pack and like how the guys were racing?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Was it like, like you said, it was almost like stupid hard on the climbs, like, in a little bit of ways?
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Was that just because they?
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: were pushing because they could like what was that like?
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get a feel for like what was going down out there.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: That's a good question.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't really feel that way.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I was really just focusing on myself, on my own race and on my own effort.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Um, I don't think it's.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's an ego thing.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I just think it's simply the fact that when you're starting an ultra, you feel good and when you're climbing, you just feel like you can always go faster.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And it's very easy to like overdo it on the climbs, especially at the beginning of races.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: And I feel like on the downhills it's kind of a weird thing where you've you definitely feel it more easily when you're going fast on the downhills, but if you're going too fast on the uphill, sometimes you don't really feel it that much.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: So I think that's why a lot of people were getting like too too fast on the uphills and too slow on the downhills.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Um, but uh, but yeah, I mean, basically the race really changed at like mile 11, where Eli like made a really big move and for me, like as soon as he made his move, I was like okay, like this would be dumb to follow him and I was actually pretty impressed to see that David like followed Eli for a while.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Like I think I would have been able to follow Eli, but it's just like you still have like almost 20 miles to go after that.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: So it's just like in my mind it was just like very obvious that, like I'm not, it wouldn't be smart to follow him.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Um, so, yeah, so they, david like tried to follow Eli and then kind of David kind of blew up a bit and me and Eddie kind of uh, yeah, eddie did a really great race.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: We ran together for quite a while of.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, eddie did a really great race.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: We ran together for quite a while and yeah, we finished second and third.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: But yeah, that was a big move at the middle of the race there.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: But I knew that for me when I was looking at like the start list, I felt like Eli was kind of like okay, he's definitely like in a different league in the sense that if he has like a normal day with my fitness, like I don't think I'm going to be able to be close to him.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: But everyone else I was like it's anyone could like have a great race and finish second.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: So he was very open after that in my mind.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Interesting I love you have.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: It's just interesting and it speaks very well to your race IQ to be able to say like okay, at least distinguish the fact that, like all right, eli's making a move, do I match, match or do I just kind of sit back and and just wait for things to unfold and see what happens?
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Like I think that's very intelligent of a way to race because, yeah, I mean, you saw what happened with david, obviously, and like I was, I was surprised, kind of david did that as well, just given you know, different mismatches and fitness and stuff like that.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Like I'm not saying david's not, david just has been training for something different in the sense where, like, eli is just so complete when it comes to the 50 K and below distance, so interesting.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for providing the commentary.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: It's close.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into soon to P.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: It's part of the reason why we're having this conversation is to talk soon to P.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Obviously you've been at this race before.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this I've talked to like three different people and I've gotten three different answers and I just haven't asked Tom Hooper.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: It's the same mountain classic course as the last time.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Is that correct, not?
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: exactly.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: It is slightly different.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: So it's two loops and the last time that we did it, in 2023, both loops were the exact same.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Now, from what I understand is that this year, the first loop is going to be almost identical to one of the loops in 2023, but the second loop, on the uphill, the second part of the uphill, is actually going to be the end of the vertical race in 2023 and the end that section is going to be like very technical.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: I was pretty frustrated when I did that race in 2023, the vertical race because just at the end I felt like I could have pushed more, but since it was like super rocky and muddy and so many routes like classic East Coast trails, I just couldn't run fast at all.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's kind of like a mix of the vertical and the classic race of 2023 mixed together.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: But the descent, from what I can see, it's the same as the descent in 2023, which was mainly on like open ski slopes, but there's also like a part that's kind of like a double diamond ski slope which was like pretty kind of technical, but like a different type of technical than I think most people are used to.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: But, um, yeah, it's going to be fast course for sure.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, big time.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: So your, your situation, your position in this race is a little bit different.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Like, you're obviously going to be bracing for the Canadian team.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Your tickets essentially booked right, so for you it's going to be going out to see like, okay, like how do I stack up against so I can beat up on a bunch of these Americans rightfully, so it's going to be fun to follow.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Um, like, how did what is your mental, like preparation going into this race?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Are you looking at this just like any other race?
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Like is, is there?
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Like, what are your thoughts going into this?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Cause it's a little bit different for you it's true that am I.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: I'm a bit in a particular situation, but I really enjoy it.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Like for me, I do try to approach it like any different race, in the sense that I just want to compete.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: I just want to compete and rank as best as I can, like in any other scenario.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, maybe I don't have the pressure that some americans have of like kind of make or break in the sense like I feel like a lot of runners are going to be there and it's like either I make the team or I don't, whereas for me it's more like uh, yeah, just try to position as high as I can.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Um, I think it's going to be very interesting to race in that sort of format, because I think it's kind of going to be similar to like in track running, where they have championship races, like olympics or like world championships, where it's not always like the fittest athlete that wins, because those races are usually pretty tactical, and I wouldn't be surprised for sunupi to be also a pretty tactical race.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: So I think it's going to be kind of maybe special for me to look at it and just like race to place well, whereas I feel like some other runners might make some bad decisions because they want to like, really want to make the top four at all costs pretty much yeah, but yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be super fun, like as a runner, but also like as a spectator, just like who's gonna make the team is gonna be pretty cool to see as well it's so crazy, man.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: This is like a really stacked race.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: With that said, though, it's interesting that you bring that up.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: This is a question I was going to ask you because when you look at races that are two loops, the first one that comes to mind for me is like, maybe like the broken arrow, 46k right, where usually the first person, the person leading at the end of the first lap, is not the person winning the race.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: It seems like there's a lot of tact.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: You have to be very tactful in a lot of these races in order to execute correctly on a lot of the climbs, in the sense of just be smart, have a high race IQ.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts?
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe you don't have to give away any of your specific what you want to do for the race, but what do you think as far as the best way, because I almost feel like not going out like with my hair on fire is probably the smartest way to race the first loop and then kind of maybe turn it on in the second loop.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: But it's such a fast race and it's only what?
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: 10, 11, it's only nine miles, so it's you gotta be so fast too.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: So it's, it's very tricky for this.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you have to be fast on all different sections.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: But if there's one section where where I think a lot of people will most likely lose a lot of time is on that second climb.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's very easy on the first climb or on the first descent to really go fast.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: But on that second climb, which is still like a pretty like long climb it's like a half a vk, I think, in term of elevation gain, like you can lose a lot of time if you're kind of really fatigued at that point.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: But yeah, in terms of tactics, one of the things that I expect to happen is, like at the start, like for sure there's going to be a lot of runners that are going to start fast, like just thinking about like Christian or Andy, like those guys always start really quick, and I think, like in a typical normal race, people were just like, okay, we'll let them go and that's it.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: But I feel like in this scenario, since, like since like top four is going to us team, I feel like for sure some people are going to be like, oh, I want to be at the front, I want to keep up with them, and then a third group that probably would have never even even like imagined to follow that pace at the beginning.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: They might see that, oh my god, we have like eight runners up front really like running pretty fast.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: If I want to make the top four, like I have to be in that pack.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: So I wouldn't be surprised, like at the beginning, that they're like we might be like 15 runners running together and like, for I don't know, like almost everyone, it's a pace that's like way too quick and then like the situation is just about like who's gonna blow up the least on that second climb.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be really interesting yeah that's crazy.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: let me ask you this because one of your you've long for like a long time.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: You and dan have like raced each other and kind of gone back and forth and in both have your own individual strengths.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: It was interesting to me because Dan has been out here in Colorado and threw down a sub four minute mile on the Sanitas descent.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I'm so interested to see if he's able to transfer a lot of that on the descending Like do you?
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Have you did you?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw that on Strava, but that was bananas, dude, some of the guys are so fit going into this race.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: It's crazy.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I was able to see Dan firsthand at Canadian Mountain Running Championships last year.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Basically the course was the same thing.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Actually it was a two up down, up down.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: It's so interesting On Strava when you look at this segment of the whole race you can compare like how you were running against like another runner and me and Dan.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: It was like every uphill I would gain some time on him and then every duck, every downhill he would just like catch back up.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: And he ran that last descent, which is actually like a pretty similar terrain to Sunupi, two miles at four minute mile pace, exactly like.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I'm not exaggerating, it was literally that and it was crazy because during that race I was, I was in front of him, like during the descent and I was feeling like I never felt like so good on a descent.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: I was like, well, I've never run, it's like to date.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: It's still like my fastest 400 meters split, ever fastest 800 meters, split ever, all the different distances you want.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: While I was doing that, just Dan passed me and within like 15 seconds he was out of sight.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't like I guess it's a ski slope, but it was still like.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: You know, you had some mud.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: You had some grass.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like a perfect, like asphalt road, for example.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I mean dan is in my mind he's one of the best descenders out there.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, it's going to be interesting to see on the climbs how well he can do compared to like runners, like christian, for example.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: But um, yeah, for the downhills, uh, I think he can do a lot of damage.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Man, I still have to talk to christian.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if he's gonna like I expect him to be there coming back from injury yeah, exactly mason too, man mason kopi yeah, holy shit, is he good now.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Like I raised him a couple of times last year at the Cirque series and like I always knew he was like a sub 14 minute 5k guy.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: But I like this year he really put it together.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: So it's just, I totally agree.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: I was speaking to someone I don't remember who, last week and we were talking about who like was going to be there at Sunupi and I was like I think Mason is like something, someone that people maybe don't think about much like, but he's like really freaking good, yeah, so yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see him up front also.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the way I explained.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: It was like that's not the same Mason from 2023.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a different Mason.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's going to be.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: What is your, what is your expectation personally?
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Are you got in for the podium, like what is your expectation for the race?
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, podium would be like the, the goal.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: But I don't want to say just podium because, like, I don't want to be like in a position, for example, if I'm third and I'm like I'm going to be content with third because it's on the podium.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: So I always try to look at races like I want to just finish as high as I can and because, same thing, like if I'm in 10th place, I still want to run my best to try to get ninth in front of me.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I don't want to be like I didn't get my goal so I'm just gonna like keep it easy for now.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Um, I think yeah, but I think, like somewhere around podium, I think I would be pretty, pretty happy with, but I'll just try my best and see what the the other competition does against me.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Well, last year a Canadian and Alex Ricard beat, beat Joe gray and took the dub in the vertical, so I wouldn't be surprised to see you.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: You know, continue the Canadian tradition.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a big motivator right there, dude, he's a monster too, I got to talk to him before broken arrow it's a it's.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: it's so crazy.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Uh, just the level of athletes that are going to be out here this year and racing some of these races.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Um, what's the shoe?
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: What are you going to be racing in on race day Like what?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: What's you're going to be rocking?
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: I think, a classic Ken Amell agile.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I've done a couple of workouts with them so far and, uh, yeah, they're just super light and pretty grippy, which I think is going to be pretty important, especially for, like what I was talking about earlier on the second loop, like the end of the climb, which is like legitimately pretty technical.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: So I think just for that it's going to be a yeah, it's definitely going to be my go-to shoe.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah so you, it's interesting to me because you you know, obviously you live in training quebec you have opportunities to get on a lot of east coast trails where it's extremely rocky and technical.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: It's nothing like the West coast.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I it's interesting to me because I'm curious to see how many West coast guys come out with all this fitness and actually struggle on some of the technical sections of the trails or maybe don't, are not as fast as they would have thought they would have been, because it does it.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it doesn't translate.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: It's a lot harder on those trials versus these trials, so it's going to be interesting.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a different.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, like, I think most of the course is going to be pretty runnable.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: I think it's only that like little section that I'm talking about.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: I don't think the rest of the course is really going to affect them that much, to be honest, but, um, it depends though.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Like, if it, if it rains super hard in the days before then that might become more of a factor then, or if there's still no, I don't think there's still snow, but I remember 2023 there was still some snow, so that might have also been a factor like an advent, an advantage for, like, the east coasters yeah, no, that's fair enough.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's cool.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I I just like the fact that we do them on the east coastasters.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's fair enough.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's cool.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I just like the fact that we do them on the east coast more now, as opposed, maybe even as opposed to like the west coast, just because, like there's, I don't know, the east coast can, if you can throw in certain more technicality to it and you could do more things with it.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: It's, it's uh, plus it's not at altitude, so it's a.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: You know, as dan would like to say, it's uh.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: You know it's an even playing field, because I know he hates altitude, which is kind of funny.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: But okay, when are you?
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: This is probably the last question.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: When are you going out?
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Are you going to, because you're not too far away?
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Are you going to go out super early?
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Play on the course a little bit?
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I know you said you were going to go out there with the Brooks team.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: How far out ahead do you think you'll go?
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually pretty cool because if I have been with the bricks team I probably would have went like to do like a course recon like in these next couple weeks.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: But with the team we actually have an airbnb starting on thursday night and the race is sunday, so that's like well enough for me and I mean I'm pretty sure, like friday, we're gonna be able to go check out the course and, um, yeah, just chill out on saturday after.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: So yeah, thursday night i'm'm going to be there, nice man.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Nice, All right.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Last question I haven't looked at Strava.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: I should have before we got into this conversation.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: But as far as like layering in different, like specific pieces for the race, have you already started kind of putting that together, or is it still just like where are you?
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to understand, like, but are you just doing more specific stuff now?
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: I think I'm a bit of a, I think my situation is a bit particular, just because soon a piece going to be the first race of five weeks of a consistent racing and so because of that, I'm not tapering much for the first one, cause if I would taper too much for the first one, because if I would taper too much for the first one, then that would mean that at my fifth race, like the fifth week, I would have like five weeks of low volume, uh, or even more like before that.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: So I feel like, especially like for sunipi and even like cirque series canon, which is like my second race of the block of the competition block, I feel like I can't really afford to taper that much.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Um, it's not an excuse, like I don't think it's gonna affect my performance that much, but I'm still gonna keep like decent training in um, just so that I'm really ready for, like my last races, which will be like broken arrow and the new gold and trail race in mexico.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, training has been pretty well, been doing pretty good.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: I think coming back from big alta, it was really nice that, since I hadn't really been training running super consistently during the winter because of my injury.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: It's really nice that after big alta I was able to just like start training like full on after and, um, yeah, it's been.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: I think I have maybe like eight weeks of like pretty consistent training now, and it's always difficult to like uh gauge where my fitness is, because most of my trainings are like uh like threshold training, so it's kind of like controlled, and so even if, like, for example, I'm doing a session now that's faster than last year, it doesn't really.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: It doesn't necessarily mean that I'm fitter.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: It just might mean that this year my effort was just a bit higher than last year.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think I'm fit.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I just have to trust the process of it and I think the only way to know for sure is by doing time trials or racing.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: So I won't do any time trials, but I think soon it will be my first uh, first test.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Nice, nice.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, I think that's a good place to end it.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Remy, I really want to wish you the best of luck on race day.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: It's going to be fun to follow your season man.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Five solid weeks of, uh of racing.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I will have to catch up after the fact, um fact, and kind of in between, as you take some downtime between your two competition blocks.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we'll have to talk after that and yeah, wish you the best of luck and it's going to be a fun one to follow.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Thank you Appreciate it.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, remy.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Listen up, guys.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: The Steep Stuff podcast is brought to you by Ultimate Direction USA.
• 30:00
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• 30:41
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• 30:49
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• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you, we'll see you next time.