Coach and self-coached swimmer José Javier Montón Cruz won the 2024 30km UltraEbre. He shared his training philosophy with Ben Lane.
When José Javier Montón Cruz says swimming is his life, he isn’t exaggerating. He learned to swim at four, grew up on the Mediterranean coast, and never really left the water.
Today, he works full-time at a swimming club in Spain, coordinating lessons and coaching new swimmers through their first strokes. Between sessions, he trains hard, preparing his mind and body for long-distance events.
The Coach Who Coaches Himself
José is both an athlete and a coach. This is a mix of skills that demands flexibility and constant self-awareness. He writes his own training plans and insists that listening to the body is non-negotiable. “If I feel good, I train,” he says. “If I’m tired, I adapt.”
His approach blends structure with realism. On lighter workdays, he manages two sessions: swimming paired with running or gym training. “People think marathon swimming is only about metres,” he explains. “But strength holds your stroke together when fatigue sets in.” Core stability and shoulder control, he believes, are what keep swimmers efficient in the final kilometres.
Nutrition follows the same principle. He eats a healthy, varied diet without strict rules: “Enough to train hard today and recover well enough to do it again tomorrow.”
Preparing the Head
If José has one message for swimmers stepping up from ten to thirty kilometres, it’s this: prepare the head.
Long training, he believes, builds confidence more than muscle. “Two-hour steady swims are essential,” he says. “You teach the mind to stay calm when it gets boring or hard.”
That psychological resilience, he argues, is what allows a swimmer to manage the unpredictability of a river marathon.
Racing the River
Among river swims, the UltraEbre holds a special place for him. Stretching over thirty kilometres down the Ebro River in Catalonia, it’s as much a mental puzzle as a race.
José divides it into sections — smaller stages that make the distance manageable. “You can’t think about the full 30km at once,” he explains. “You win one section at a time.”
His approach to pacing is deliberately conservative: find rhythm early, respect the river’s changing flow, and make decisions based on feel rather than fear. The psychological dip, when fatigue and doubt arrive, is expected.
“You don’t try to win the swim in that moment,” he says. “You just win the next section.”
That mindset carried him to his 2024 victory in 5 hours and 12 minutes — a time he describes not as fast, but efficient.
Feeding His Own Way
José’s race nutrition is minimal. He trains without food and drinks very little, so his body has adapted to a lean system. During a marathon swim, he might take just one or two small bars and less than half a bottle of liquid such as a cola-and-lemon isotonic mix that suits his stomach.
But he is careful to stress that this is personal, not prescriptive. “It works for me because I’ve trained for it,” he says. “Another swimmer might need more. The key is to practice your plan before race day and never experiment mid-race.”
Building a Training Week
A typical heavy training week for José balances endurance, strength, and recovery.
He swims most days, alternating steady aerobic sessions with faster sets using paddles or pull buoy work. Two long swims, each lasting ninety minutes to two hours, form the core of the plan. Strength work happens four to five times a week, focused on core stability, hip extension, and scapular control. Running adds aerobic capacity and variety.
But even with structure, he keeps flexibility at the centre of his philosophy. “If I wake up unmotivated or sore, I adjust,” he says. “Consistency beats perfection.”
The Psychology of Racing to Win
José doesn’t shy away from ambition. He wants to win but, in his view, that goal sharpens focus more than ego. “It gives your mind a clear task,” he says.
He studies his competitors, learns the behaviour of the stretch of water he is swimming, and builds a plan around both. But once the race begins, he focuses on economy: conserving energy when the water runs fast and committing fully when it slows. “Winning is often about when you choose to spend,” he explains. “Everyone is tired in the final stretch. That’s when decisions matter most.”
And when the plan inevitably goes wrong, a missed feed, a headwind, a surge from a rival, he returns to simplicity: stroke, breathe, sight, feed.
“Hold form. Don’t let a bad five minutes ruin the next thirty.”
Injury and the Road Back
The back injury that sidelined him in 2025 forced a rare pause. Recovery became a chance to rebuild better habits and rediscover motivation.
Now back in training, he’s methodically rebuilding fitness and power for UltraEbre 2026. “It depends on how work fits around it,” he says, “but that’s the plan. Go back and try to win again.”
Beyond the river, he also runs road races, marathons, and half-marathons, as both cross-training and for a change of scenery. “Running gives me time to think,” he says. “But swimming still feels like home.”
Lessons from a River Racer
José’s advice for swimmers tackling their first river marathon is simple and clear:
- Train your mind as seriously as your body and use long sessions to normalise steady effort.
- Build core strength and shoulder stability to protect form when fatigue sets in.
- Break the race into stages to manage focus and pacing.
- Practice your feeding plan until it feels routine.
- Respect the river. Expect easy patches and hard ones and save your effort for the final third.
Closing Reflections
There’s a quiet symmetry in José Javier Montón Cruz’s relationship with the water. He is the coach who coaches himself; the athlete who races to win but talks most about patience, awareness, and control.
He began swimming because his parents couldn’t, and now he spends his days helping others find confidence in the same pastime.
For him, long-distance swimming is about a rhythm: steady effort, calm thinking, and one decisive push when the wind or current turns against you.
About Ultra Ebre
The UltraEbre Swim Marathon is a long-distance downriver swim in the River Ebro, Spain. The total distance is 30,830m and is organised under World Aquatics rules.
