Steel admits that she underperformed at the 2015 Great Edinburgh XCountry and then pulled out of the same event mid-race in 2017.

The 32-year-old has been competing on the international stage for years, but still sometimes struggles with others’ expectations of what she can achieve in major races.

Here the Charnwood endurance athlete explains how the pre-race pressure before the Edinburgh XCountry in 2015 – combined with the timing of such a major event just after Christmas – impacted on her performance, and how she dealt with it.

“The Great Winter run in Edinburgh is always a tough one as it’s the first big race back of the year after juggling training with family commitments and resisting temptations over the festive period,” she says. “Keeping the momentum going after peaking for the European cross country championships is also hard, and only the most dedicated manage to put in a good performance and cope with the pressure of racing live on the BBC running for Great Britain!”

Steel has a great track record in the event, having won it and finished in the top three on two other occasions leading up to the 2015 race, so expectations were high, both from others and from herself. Herein lay the problem for the high-achieving athlete, who had just won the European cross country championships the previous month.

Expectations to succeed

The Charnwood athlete was made the poster girl of the event following Mo Farah’s last-minute withdrawal, which only served to add to the pressure she was already experiencing: “I was focused on media commitments, interviews and photographs, and, although in my element at the time, it actually took a lot out of me, especially with being a bit of an extroverted introvert!

Running on empty

The extra energy Steel had had to expel before the race resulted in her running on empty. She explains what went through her mind as she fought on through the 6km course.

“My first thought during the race was to zone out and pretend it wasn’t happening,” she says. “It was as though I was in the middle of my worst nightmare, especially when it started hailing on the last lap and I drifted further and further back.

“Another thought was whether to drop out or risk the embarrassment of being outside the top 10, but I just thought of the team and this kept me going – it is, after all, what I was there for, apart from myself as an individual. It was, however, hard to accept my poor performance, live on TV in front of everyone.”

The aftermath of a bad race

She ended up coming 12th, which she says felt like a failure: “I had let my fans down, my team, my coach, but mostly myself. It took me a long time to come to terms with this as, in my mind, it was a disaster, it was just unacceptable. I had never had such a bad race and my world fell apart. After all the success of the previous year, I had finally fallen from grace, and my purple patch seemed to be over.”

Her pride hurt, Steel wanted to avoid any media attention, preferring to hide and pretend it didn’t happen.

Dealing with the mental scars of a bad race

Steel decided to speak to her sports psychologist at Loughborough, who reassured her that, just because she’d had a bad race, it didn’t make her a bad athlete.

However, she admits that, although it helped to watch the race back, it wasn’t an easy task: “It did help to ease the pain, but it was also like a horror movie, reliving my worst nightmare all over again,” she explains. “I could see from the footage that I wasn’t myself and looked flat from the start, but analysing the race helped me to see where I started to struggle.

“It didn’t seem so bad after processing it and facing my demons, but it took some facing up to. It was then that my coach realised how much my confidence had been knocked by the experience, and that I wasn’t as thick skinned as other athletes.”

Learning from a bad race

The 32-year-old confides that it is still an area she struggles with today, although she has got better at accepting bad races and learning from them: “The fact I am so hard on myself and often my own worst enemy made me the athlete I was then, but now I am more forgiving of my failures, learning from experiences.”

The effervescent budding artist is keen to help others who may find themselves in similar situations in races, stressing that the best way to deal with a bad performance is to get back out there.

“It can really help the healing process,” she says. “I bounced back from another bad experience in Edinburgh this year where I had to drop out, with a win for England at a 10k and half marathon in Bermuda on consecutive days the following week.

“I had nothing to lose and it was a real test dealing with the climate change and the change of environment, but it put the fun back into it for me and made me realise that the good times ultimately outweigh the bad.

“The races that don’t go so well are the ones which make you stronger, and can be the most valuable.”

This article is part of a series that asks runners what they’ve learnt from bad race experiences and their advice on how to deal with it. Related articles include Dewi Griffiths: How do you bounce back from a bad race? and Elle Vernon: 
the negative impact of outside stresses on running.

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The championships that took place in December 2017, saw Vernon finishing 48th after aiming for a top 12 position, it was the same competition that Dewi Griffiths spoke about in the first of this series.

The 34-year-old had returned to the athletics spotlight just weeks before earning an automatic qualifying spot on the GB team travelling to Slovakia for the Europeans, recording the second-fastest leg of the day at the national cross country relays in Mansfield following a solid block of training from the end of September.

Hopes were understandably high for a career-best position in Samorin for the in-form Stockport athlete, but it was not to be this time around. Here Vernon explains why, even when physically you’re on fire, outside stresses can affect your whole race.

The build-up

“I’d had an easier week to recover after the trials, followed by a seven-day taper – including a reduced training session on Wednesday and a shorter gym session on Thursday – which went well,” she says. “I rested on the Friday to allow for the long day’s travelling to get to the hotel, which took more than 12 hours.

“I didn’t feel good on my run the day before the race compared with the day before Liverpool, but I tried not to worry – sometimes you don’t always feel good the day before a race, and the travel may have left me feeling a bit tired. However, it was outside influences that had the biggest effect on my race in Samorin.”


The effect of stress on running

“I had been dealing with a lot of stress leading up to the race – with two pieces of bad news one week before the Euros – one of which brought into question whether I’d be able to stay in my house,” she reveals. “My running support team are all based in Stockport and Wilmslow, as are my running partners, established routes, physio and friends.

“These stresses were emotionally draining and affected my sleep, leaving me very tired. On top of these two stresses I also had to do my sessions on my own in the run-up to the cross country after my training partners – Louise Rudd and Dan Sutton – picked up injuries.

“The timing of both these pieces of news were devastating and left me feeling empty.”

The impact of stress on competitive performance

Aside from the unusually high levels of stress Vernon was dealing with outside of running, three call-ups before the race affected her race preparation: “It made the warm-up quite stop-start and might have affected how good I felt, along with the very cold temperatures,” she explains.

However, she knew after just 500m into the race that something wasn’t right: “I felt flat and had no competitive edge to me – I thought ‘don’t panic, there’s a long way to go and my legs might come back to me’ – they didn’t. I thought about stopping but only for a split second.

“I’m a determined person and to drop out would only set a bad psychology for future races.
  
Despite feeling absolutely dead for the whole race I kept myself going, however frustrating it felt not being able to produce a performance like I did at the trial.”

Dealing with the aftermath of a bad race

“All the girls on the team were extremely supportive in the finish area, and continued their support for the rest of the trip – Steph (Twell) was waiting for me at the finish and said ‘that wasn’t you out there today Elle, don’t worry’,” she explains.

“I spoke to my coach (Dave Turnbull) afterwards about the stress leading into the race – we knew it wasn’t a question of my fitness. Dave made me laugh as he usually does and we decided to have a few days off and resume training the following week after a few days of easy running. It was very important not to dwell on the race.”

Vernon also emphasises how crucial support from her employer has been in helping her train during such a stressful period.

“I would like to thank Philippa Whittingham at Rumpus Resort – a luxury swimwear boutique – for her support and flexibility in my work hours – it’s a good place to work and I have been fortunate to have time off for training camps and races.”

The post Elle Vernon: 
the negative impact of outside stresses on running appeared first on Fast Running.

Dewi Griffth, who had to pull out of the European Cross Country Championships mid-race with a torn hamstring earlier this month, is first in a series of runners who offer their advice and insights.

Racing is a mentally and physically demanding experience for everyone from the average club runner to the elite, with the build-up of heavy training followed by a well-planned taper hopefully culminating in the desired peak fitness on the day itself.

But what happens when race day doesn’t go to plan?

Griffiths may have had his most successful racing year to date, going to 15th on the UK all-time rankings with a 2:09.49 marathon on his debut in Frankfurt – posting PBs in every distance from 3000m up the half marathon in the months beforehand – but his final competition of 2017 ended in disappointment.

The Swansea Harrier pulled up 4km into the championships in Samorin, having led the field for the first two laps, limping on for a few seconds before realising it was futile to continue.

Here the farmer’s son from Llandeilo explains how, despite having the best competitive year of his life to date, the race didn’t go to plan in the small Slovak town.

The beginnings of Dewi’s hamstring issues

“I’d had a cramping issue during the Frankfurt marathon (October 29), and was unable to use my hamstring properly in the last 7km,” he reveals. “However, it didn’t feel too bad afterwards, and, despite being a bit stiff and sore the next day, it eased off itself. My physio didn’t find any real issues, so the next time I felt it was in the cross country race.”

With a few weeks’ steady running under his belt post-marathon – including some tempo sessions and a ‘low key’ Gwent League race victory wrapped up in a number of 80m-plus weeks – he felt ‘stronger, fresher and mentally ready’ for the Euros.

When injury calls a halt to a race mid-run – an insider’s perspective

The 26-year-old Welsh star led the race from the off, feeling ‘easy and comfortable’, until he reached the end of the second large lap. It was at that point that it all went wrong.

“I felt a twinge in my hamstring and instantly had a flashback to the marathon,” he explains. “I just told myself not to think about it, if it’s going to go there’s nothing I can do about it. About 200m later I felt it seize up and cramp as we ran over a pair of man-made mounds.

“I tried to relax it to try and loosen it off again but before I know it we were running around a sharp bend and it was becoming sorer. I had to stop to see if a quick two seconds stretch would sort it out, more in hope than anything else. I tried to start running again but it was no better. I stopped to try and stretch it again, but I knew my race was over, although I couldn’t help but think I could still catch them up! Luckily, the guys from the Tartan Army were on that corner, had seen it all and shouted at me to stop. I quickly saw sense and stepped off the course.”

The aftermath of a DNF

Despite having to pull out of a major championship race while leading the field, Griffiths remains resolutely positive about the experience.

“I think I held it together pretty well, perhaps made easier by the fact I’d approached it as a bonus race with nothing to lose,” he explains. ‘However, I did want to be left alone for a bit immediately afterwards to allow me to digest it for myself first. I’d gone from comfortably leading the race to being in a tent injured in the space of 500m.

“Mick Woods, the senior men’s team manager, was by my side to console me as soon as I’d stepped off the course. He was really gutted for me which was nice. I put some kit on to watch the end of the race and pondered what could have been.”

Analysing what went wrong in the race

“When I eventually managed to speak to my coach (Kevin Evans) back home and explained what happened everyone agreed I’d done the right thing by stopping as soon as I’d felt it,” he reveals. “I was never going to be able to compete with one leg!”

Refreshingly, Griffiths admits he went to the bar that evening, clutching an increasingly sore hamstring, to reflect on what had happened. He was astounded when he saw the race footage: “I had no idea what damage I was causing behind me in terms of where the other athletes were – if only my hamstring had held up, who knows what could have happened, the mind wonders! That’s when the real disappointment and frustration kicked in.”

However, a few days later he found out he had torn his hamstring, putting paid to any lingering thoughts of a possible victory had he continued.

Taking the positives from bad races

Griffiths is upbeat about his future prospects and is excited about what is to come off the back of his short-lived European cross experience.

“Even though I didn’t finish the race, I found out how competitive I am now on a European level – I won’t need to convince myself I can next time – I know I will be able to compete,” he stresses. “It was a positive experience, 2018 will hopefully be another successful year, with my hopes aimed at the Commonwealths and Europeans, as long as I get selected for both.

“With the Commonwealths in the spring, if I do have an issue with my hamstring post-marathon that needs to be sorted, I’d like to know about it now while I still have a chance to do something about it.

“The bad times make the good times even sweeter. Everything happens for a reason.”

The post Dewi Griffiths: How do you bounce back from a bad race? appeared first on Fast Running.