We speak to a world mountain running champion who is turning her attention towards the track this summer
Jess Bailey has a clear goal for this summer; to reduce her times for 800m and 1500m. It’s an interesting change of direction for the multi-talented junior who won gold at the 2022 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand, but it’s not a total surprise.
Bailey has previous – and current – form on the track. A European under-18 3000m silver medallist and UK School Games 3000m champion in 2022, she finished fourth over 3000m at the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games despite missing the entire winter due to injury. More recently, she ran a nine-second personal best and World Under-20 Championships qualifying time of 9:10.18 at the Loughborough International (May 19).
The Leven Valley athlete grew up on the fells and cross country and won English National and English Schools cross country titles in 2022. As an under-20, she finished eighth in December’s European Cross Country Championships and was 18th at the global showpiece in March.
On the road she’s a former winner of the Mini London Marathon (2021) and in April this year she ran a 15:37 personal best at the Mid Cheshire 5km, taking down Emelia Gorecka’s British under-20 record (a mark since re-written by Innes FitzGerald with 15:32).
Bailey has enormous potential and that recent 5km – a test of upper-end aerobic work before fully transitioning onto the track – marked the start of a new era for the 17-year-old who says that mountain running will now take a back seat.
This summer’s plan is to phase the track season, starting with 3000m/5000m and gradually moving down to 800m/1500m. Perhaps surprisingly, the World Under-20 Championships is not the main target, although it’s a likely by-product – especially now that she has achieved the standard.
Jess Bailey (Getty)
“It would be such an amazing opportunity [to go to the World U20 Championships], but it’s not my main season focus,” she says.
“There are a lot of juniors doing well. I want to run as well as I can this season and I don’t want it to be good or bad depending on whether I make that team – that all relies on other people. If I can run the qualifying times I’ll be happy with that and I’ll go to the trials and throw my hat in the ring, but it’s not the be-all and end-all this year.
“This track season is primarily about the shorter distances. That scares me, because quite frankly I’m rubbish at them, but I really enjoy them. We’ve never done the training so I can’t expect to be good at something we’ve not trained for, but I’m excited to see what I can do.”
Bailey has PBs of 2:12.26 for 800m and 4:20.30 for 1500m.
For an athlete who has enjoyed so much success at such a young age, the leap into the unknown is admirable, but often the choice that scares you most is the one that will help you grow.
Favourite session: “A cross-country session in the winter – I absolutely love it. We do two sets of 90 seconds [at the pace you’d start a cross-country race], one-minute float, 3-4 minutes at cross-country race pace, one-minute float, another 3-4 minutes at cross country race pace, one-minute float, then 60 seconds faster (total is about 10 minutes of volume per set).”
Least favourite session: “Unstructured fartlek – bleurgh!”
Sofia Thøgersen (centre) with Jess Bailey (right) and Edibe Yagiz (Getty)
Typical early summer training
Bailey trains alone but benefits from a team approach to coaching with an overview provided by Matt Long, one-to-one sessions delivered by Pat Miller – father of GB Paralympian Dean – and support from her dad, James.
She has done bodyweight strength and conditioning since Covid but has introduced weighted exercises since joining a gym last September and is slowly building that up.
All Monday to Friday activity is after school, with the exception of Wednesday’s easy swim.
“There’s a massive amount of burnout in our sport, so our philosophy and every decision we make is 100 per cent focused on the long term because I want this to be my career,” she says. “The effort we’re putting in during sessions is reduced so that we can build and sustain fitness over a long period of time, year in, year out. Pat often reminds us of this by saying, ‘no heroics’; it’s his way of keeping the session reserved.
READ MORE: Georgia Bell’s training schedule
“If you know there are people around you who are doing a lot more than you, it’s about holding your nerve and staying patient. There have been times where I’ve lost to other girls and thought, ‘They’re doing this much, why can’t I?’ but you’ve just got to focus on what’s right for you.”
Monday: 30-45min easy run plus drills. “My watch is on but I’ve no clue what pace I’m running at, I never look at it to be honest,” says Bailey.
Tuesday: track session with threshold to start such as 8min threshold round the park (followed by 5-10min recovery) then 2 x 500m at 3km pace, 3 x 300m at 1500m pace, 200m jog between reps (track)
Wednesday: (am) 30min easy recovery swim; (pm) strength and conditioning
Thursday: moderate tempo or threshold-based session totalling 15-30min of volume such as 3 x 2km (comfortable pace) with 2min jog recovery or 4 x 1mile with jog recovery
Friday: rest day
Saturday: (am) multi-pace session ranging from 800m-5km pace, such as 2 x (400m-600m-300m) with 200m jog between reps and 5-10min recovery between sets. 400m and 300m at 1500m pace, 600m at 3km pace; (pm) strength and conditioning
Sunday: 30-60min steady swim. “Swimming is such a good way to improve your fitness without risking injury,” says Bailey. “Without the swimming I wouldn’t have the aerobic capacity to perform well and I don’t want to put the runs back in now. We can do that next year and get the gains then.”
This feature first appeared in the June issue of AW magazine
