The year's UTMB champion Vincent Bouillard caught us all off guard at the end of August when he broke ahead of the pack overnight and came into Chamonix in 19:54:23, making him one of just four men to finish the epic race around Mont Blanc in under 20 hours.
Overnight, Bouillard went from under-the-radar runner to the top of the trail running game, and naturally, we all wanted to know how he did it, and what gear used. Turns out he's a shoe engineer at Hoka, so it didn't take us long to figure out which trail running shoes were on his feet (the Hoka Tecton X 2.5). Next up, we wanted to know what GPS watch he used.
Would it be the Garmin Fenix 7 that's been favored by ultra runner Tom Evans in the past with its excellent training tools? Or what about the top-of-the-line Garmin Enduro 2, which was coveted by Jake Catterall on his recent record-setting run across the Alps? Could he have gone with the undeniably expensive Garmin Forerunner 955 with its super-accurate GPS?
Turns out, the ultra runner didn't go with a Garmin at all. For his runaway success, Bouillard has revealed that he trained and ran with the Coros Apex 2 Pro in addition to the Coros Heart Rate Monitor. This watch has previously been on the wrists of other UTMB champs, such as Kilian Jornet in 2022, when he became the first runner to finish the race in under 20 hours and Mathieu Blanchard who came in five minutes later in second place.
We took this watch out on the trails ourselves last year and found it to be a tough watch packed with features, with landscape and topographical maps already loaded. The battery life and storage is the best the brand has offered and all for a lower price tag than other major brands.
Coros recently shared how Bouillard used the watch to prepare for his win, and stay the course once he hit the trail. Read on for the four main tools Bouillard used, plus his overall stats from his victory.
1. Consistent but flexible training plan
Bouillard might have said that winning was beyond his wildest dreams, but that doesn't mean he didn't set himself up for success by training for most of 2024. Bouillard says he used the Apex Pro's training plan tool to create a plan that could be consistent, but flexible – he does have a full-time job after all.
"It doesn’t matter what day I do my intensity or cross training as its blurred into the bigger picture, but I can adjust as needed. I can shift this around as needed to accommodate my schedule and how I feel," says Bouillard.
According to Coros, this entailed cross-training on his bike, one or two sessions of interval training (8 - 20 minutes total) and one strength/stretch training a week. Other than that, it looks like a lot of zone 2 training with an aim to increase his training load by 10 percent each week.
"I use the Training Load Metric to make sure that I'm actually increasing my fitness each week. I will work backwards from my key event, and map out a target training load for each week that I aim to hit."
2. Sleep and recovery monitoring
The Apex Pro gives estimated recovery times and sleep tracking and Coros reveals that Bouillard checked these stats regularly to help him avoid overtraining and injuries in the run-up to the main event.
As we've previously written, the recovery times on your watch may need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but Bouillard says he used these as a guide, not a hard-and-fast rule.
"I don’t take it as 100% I should do what my watch tells me, but I use it as an indicator. I treat it like a friend telling me, you look tired. It’s been far more precise as my training has been very consistent."
3. Detailed route planning
Unlike some UTMB events, the Mont Blanc circuit is a well-marked course, but that didn't stop Bouillard from using the Coros Route Planner and he was quite crafty in his approach.
The ultra runner entered the entire course into the route planner, and then marked all of the waypoints with the aid stations along the way plus his time goals for reaching each one. He even made codes for his fueling plan based on previous runs where he had been really strong so he could stay on top of nutrition.
4. Power over pace
Once he hit the 106-mile course among 2,700 other hopefuls, Bouillard says he didn't want to know what pace he was running at, preferring to look at his wattage instead.
"Having pace on my watch isn't something I wanted during this race. I have such a long history in the sport that If I look down and see a number, it can play games with my mind.
"Power however feels more relaxed to me, and gives me a better indicator on the consistency of my effort. So even though my heart rate was high early due to the excitement, I knew that it was okay because my power was in the range I wanted."
Even when he began to tire during the last couple of climbs in the race, he could see his power was remaining consistent, which he says motivated him to keep moving. Learn more in our article on running power and how to harness it to get better on the trail.
Vincent Bouillard's overall UTMB Stats:
- Total time: 19:54:23
- Average heart rate: 134 bpm
- Maximum heart rate: 174 bpm
- Average power: 207 watts
You can see more details of Bouillard's training approach, plus graphs provided by Coros at Coros.com.
