Yesterday saw the first edition of World Athletics’ Continental Tour Gold meetings since the Olympics, with the Memorial Kamili Skolimowskiej in Poland.

Some stellar fields were assembled, particularly in the field events of which the Poles are so fond. There was British representation in two of the distance events, led out by Jemma Reekie who took a close win in the 1000m in 2:35.47, a new Meeting Record, the second fastest of her career over the rarely-run distance.

Elliot Giles, Daniel Rowden and Jake Wightman, in his season ending race, took to the track for 800m in a packed field including Olympic bronze medalist Patryk Dobek and Commonwealth Games champion Wycliffe Kinyamal. Roden was the first of the three across the line in 1:44.89 for third, closely followed by Wightman in fourth.

We were going to label this picture, but thankfully everyone remembered their name tags. Photo: James Rhodes

Wightman’s 1:44.97 makes him the eighth Brit to run under 1:45 in 2021, a statistic all the more impressive when you consider a twelve year period from 1993 to 2005 didn’t see a single British athlete accomplish this. Elliot Giles finished sixth in 1:45.20.

At the Bronze meeting in Padova, Italy, Charlie Da’Vall Grice ran 3:35.39 to take third over 1500m and Archie Davis took seventh place in 3:37.92.

Friday night fireworks

On Friday, Brussels played host to the latest of the Diamond League meetings. The women’s 800m was the strongest event for GB, with Keely Hodgkinson and Jemma Reekie finishing second and third in 1:58.16 and 1:58.77 respectively. It was a thrilling race with the Brits only fractions of a second behind Jamaica’s Natoya Goule who won in 1:58.09.

In the 5000m Eilish McColgan ran 14:31.26, the 3rd fastest time in British history and just seconds off her British Record. Despite this she only ranked seventh in the race, such was the quality in Belgium.

Photo: Bobby Gavin

Eilish has since announced that she’ll be making her half marathon debut at the Great North Run next weekend.

Into the mountains

Moving onto very different terrain – at the Swiss Peaks 100k in the Swiss Valais, part of the Fast Running family Natalie White, was back for redemption on steep and technical trails. The event was part of a festival of running which included a 360km event, all the way down to a half marathon.

White, a former British and English fell running champ, excels in the rougher terrain and ran strongly throughout to finish third in 18:55. “It was very technical, rough and rocky,” said the Italy based athlete. “I was really happy to go back and finish this year after a tough DNF in 2020. You have to be in the right head space to go well through the long night in those mountains.”

Sat down at the finish line at 6:00am in the morning, contemplating the journey ahead to go get the car from the start. Photo: Robbie Britton

Back on the track

Back to the track but on home soil, Highgate Harriers held their mid-week Open Meeting. Parliament Hill was a peach for Ben Winfield who ran a 4:01.09 to take the honour of fastest 1500m of the night. Brogan Wallace was fastest lady in 4:38.46. Opting for a few more laps, Oliver Newton took and Carole Coulon (V45) both took home new 5000m PB’s, winning in 15:21.94 and 18:15.98

The BMC Regional Races in Exeter saw the top three run PBs in both the women’s and men’s 1500m – 4:40.22 for Nicole Edmunds, 4:40.63 for Jessica Hill and 4:41.78 for Isla Bryson. In the gents race it was Iestyn Williams with 3:54.13 , James Vaughan with 3:59.55 and Gregory Hayward with 4:00.56

On Sunday the Paddock Wood Half offered some speedy results as usual, with Nick Dawson racing home to first place in 67:51 ahead of Ben Savill (68:00) and Chris Thomas (68:08). Savill, part of the AB Training group, posted that it was quite the back and forth battle at the front with training partner Dawson and the others.

Another Allison Benton coached athlete Izzy Coomber topped the women’s podium in 81:33, beating Caoimhe Nic Fhogartaigh (81:44) and Hannah Roberts (84:09).

Sometimes the taper doesn’t go to plan

The ABP Southampton Marathon saw Sean Hogan take the win in 2:35:02, over 10 minutes ahead of Iain Trickett’s 2:46:16. Melissah Gibson had a shocker of a taper week where illness and hip problems meant she hadn’t been able to run much at all. Nonetheless she ran 2:54:16 to take the win ahead of Rosie Smiles (3:07:49).

The Half Marathon was won by William Cork in 72:21 and Claire McErlean in 85:55 and the 10k went to Isaac Farnworth (32:39) and Alice Burch (41:09).

Gemma Hillier-Moses came fifth overall and won the women’s race in a storming 78:16 at the Air Products Worcester City Half Marathon. The men’s victory went to Gary Whitehouse in 73:52.

The Garstang Half Marathon resulted in a comfortable first for Tristan Windley, running 74:44 and leaving Robert Bee in 80:54 for second place. Tori Nixon was first lady in 96:55. At Southport 10km Kirsty Longley took the win in 36:38 despite still recovering from at PB at last weekend’s Antrim Coast Half. The mens winner was Martin Peck in 33:19.

It was a bit of a local derby at the Framlingham 10k with Ipswich Harriers taking the women’s win thanks to a 39:44 from Alice Heather-Hayes and Ipswich Jaffa RC taking the men’s win after a 33:54 run from Cooper Berry.

At Britains Ocean City Half Marathon in Plymouth the men’s winner was Tom Merson in 69:46, whilst Ruby Orchard was first lady in 82:03. Wilne 10km always attracts a strong field and this year was no exception with Will Battershill (29:54) and Hannah Robinson (35:30) taking victory. Worcester City 10km was won by Omar Ahmed in 29:40 and Sally Russell in 41:03.

The running community shines bright

We finish this week’s roundup with a couple of moments that highlight two brilliant members of the running community and show the close-knit nature of our sport and the support it offers.

This weekend saw the launch of the Natasha Lewis Foundation, with a half marathon run in her memory. The Foundation will support young athletes and give them the chance to work with team Bath Athletics.

Lewis, who was tragically killed by a driver on an early morning run, was a shining light in the Bath running community and many turned out to honour her at the Natasha Lewis Foundation Half Marathon. It was not a day for fast times or results, more a case of of hundreds of athletes sharing a journey together. Team Bath AC’s Dan Jones and Bournemouth Ac’s Georgia Wood were the first athletes home.

The Leicester Road Running League wound up their competition with the Desford 5 in honour of Stuart Hall. Stuart was a keen member of the Desford Striders and had taken part in two of the league races this season while training for his first London Marathon.

He often ran multiple club bubble-runs during lockdown so that everyone who wanted to run could do so. His contribution was marked by a minute’s applause at the start of the race, which was won by Tom Mahon of Wreake Soar Valley in 26:56 and Charlie Nurse of Wigston Phoenix in 30:54.

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Mountain and ultra runner Natalie White started running competitively when eight years old and has probably knocked out more sessions than you’ve had tepid dinners.

“Living in the mountains it’s actually all done by time these days,” says White. “If I did mile reps near my house in Chamonix, France I could be out for hours. We work off the equivalent time and then take whatever terrain is most suited to races ahead.”

Time also takes into account the athlete’s ability. One way to look at it is if everyone at the club is doing 5 x 1 mile that could be 5 x 5 minutes for one athlete, but 5 x 10 minutes for another. One athlete is doing double the work there.

“As I had a few years away from competition due to a niggling injury,” she says. “I know there is still speed to be tapped into in the mountains. So shorter sessions like one or three minute reps can be really beneficial.

“Something like 6 x 3 minutes is a great workout, with 90 second recoveries in between each effort but still uphill. Those three minutes are done around the same effort as a 5k race. It’s hard but sustainable.”

White is pushing her VO2 Max. Getting above the lactate threshold and raising the top end speed as a mountain runner. If you’re able to sustain a high percentage of your top effort for a long time then you need to raise that top effort.

6 x 3 minutes is a stable diet of world class mountain runners like New Zealander Jonathan Wyatt. It’s not a huge session but it can have a big impact on your performance.

Progression

“As the season goes on I might even build it up to 8 x 3 minutes,” she explains. “You might even shorten the rest periods. Then we try to get the lift down, a luxury not available for everyone, I know. It just lowers the physiological load of the session by removing the impact of the downhill.”

If you don’t have an 18-20 minute hill nearby then this can be done on a treadmill or on a three minute hill with a jog back down.

Recovery on the downhill can be a useful tool for racing in the mountains too.

 It can even be done on rolling trail or the flat. It depends on the race you are preparing for. If you can make your training more specific to the goal then it has more value.

The Odlo & Profeet sponsored athlete is preparing for long ultras like the 120km Lavaredo Ultra Trail and the 119km UTMB TDS.

Training has a good mix of uphill tempo running, longer easy effort and hard sessions like this, to keep raising the top end. The faster you are, the easier it is to run easy.

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Running downhill can be scary, but it is a technical skill that you can improve on. This will happen not just from running down lots of hills, but by purposely working on more technical trails, pushing a little bit out of your comfort zone each time and challenging yourself to go just a wee bit faster.

It’s not about “switching your brain off” and hurtling down – far from it. You need your brain to be working for years and years, building up a subconscious understanding of the terrain, how your feet, ankles and legs react and processing a dozen other things your conscious mind hasn’t even noticed.

Fast descenders may look devoid of fear and reckless, some may even believe that they’re just a bit “crazy” but they’re working at a level that many couldn’t even comprehend. They may have been fearless as a child to begin with but as the years of practice have built up, they have no need to fear because of their extremely high levels of competency. They’re awesome descenders.

Expert advice

Downhill running is the biggest technical skill in running and, as such, is the only aspect you would really apply the 10,000 hours of purposeful practice theory to.

Anytime you are running downhill it is an opportunity to improve.

 Natalie White is a former British Fell Running Champion and she says: “when your mind wants to lean back, away from the descent, you need to lean into to it. Work with gravity and it can be pretty helpful on the way down.”

Any technical sections, be it roots, rock or reggae, should be thought about and used to improve your skills. “The brain starts to chunk together what it sees and the necessary actions required to deal with what is ahead,” adds White. “And then each year you get more and more effective at running downhill.”

Not all everyone can starting out as a 9-year-old fell runner as White did, but it’s never too late to start and you can start amassing that experience right now and adding to it year on year.

However, White also explains: “people think it is all about going as fast as possible, which is fine when you just run up and down one hill, but for something like the Tor de Geants [a 338km mountain race White completed in 2016] you need to think about efficiency too. It might be about going down a bit slower, saving your legs for the descents in 3 days time.”

Downhill greatly increases the impact onto the muscles and joints – so strengthening your body, especially the leg and supporting muscles is very important.

Exercises such as squats, weighted lunges and box jumps are good to add into your weekly schedule and White also advises trying some downhill reps – although cautiously if you are completely new to the descents.

“During the season, due to the increased damage done to the legs, we used to do 8-10 downhill efforts. Working uphill at about 75-80% we would run up and then turn around and do a 30-60 second hard effort downhill,” she explains. “It was never on super steep or technical terrain, but purely to prepare the muscles for racing hard downhill, same as uphill sprints.”

RELATED: Downhill training sessions

With downhill efforts you also must prioritise recovery and refuel effectively afterwards to start rebuilding any damaged muscles – treat the session as you would a hard hill or track effort.

A common phrase is “races are won on the uphill but lost on the downhill” so as long as you are a competent downhill runner then it doesn’t need too much focus. Just think about the balance in time of how long you spend going uphill and downhill in races and structure your training accordingly.

Natalie White is a mountain runner, remote ultra-marathon coach and award winning photographer.

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