MASTER THE TRI RUN WITH VICKY HOLLAND

Having relocated to Bath and with her sights set on defending her world title and Tokyo qualification, Vicky Holland’s run form has never been better. We join her on the track as she shares her strategy for refining the run

The reigning ITU world champ takes us through her training and race tactics for top run form

To understand the rewards for persistency in endurance sport, look no further than the reigning women’s ITU World Triathlon Series champion Vicky Holland. Her impressive résumé also includes Olympic and Commonwealth medals, but it’s the incremental improvement season by season that’s to be most admired.

“Everyone wants to be the teenage sensation,” says Holland, 33. “No one wants to be the girl who plugs away and gets there in her thirties but I’m proud it’s gone that way for me; that I wasn’t someone to whom success came easy. I’ve had an unbelievable career, really, and when it ends I’ll look back and say ‘I’ve done alright’.”

It’s not finished yet, though. Holland switched high performance set-ups from Leeds to Bath for 2018 where, coached by her partner Rhys Davey, her run form and results have never been better. This season she plans to compete on dual fronts – defending both her individual world title and cementing Olympic selection for Tokyo 2020. But it’s a tough ask, as underlined in the first World Series race of the season in Abu Dhabi, where she ran up to eighth place as one of four Brits in the top 10.

With the need for speed in her 33-year-old legs greater than ever, 220 caught up with Holland for a track session held by her sponsors Polar, to find out what training secrets we could glean to conquer the all-important run…