Lucia Stafford’s gruelling training camp with Olympic medallists

Training alongside Olympic medallists is an opportunity even two-time Canadian Olympian Lucia Stafford couldn’t turn down. The 26-year-old made a surprise appearance at the Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson and bronze medallist Georgia Bell‘s intensive three-week training camp in South Africa this month. After three weeks of potentially the most demanding training Stafford has ever done, has she uncovered the secret to snagging some Olympic hardware?

 

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The Potchefstroom, South Africa camp was hosted by the Nike-supported, Manchester-based, M11 Track Club, headed by coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows. European running groups frequently hold training camps in South Africa in winter to take advantage of the warmth and altitude. The city of Potchefstroom sits at around 1,300m of elevation.

Painter and Meadows extended an invitation to Stafford and her sister, two-time Olympian Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, to join the club at training camps throughout the year.

“There’s no way I was going to turn down the chance of training with 2 Olympic medalists and several other world class athletes,” Stafford said. “Their group is quite big and has amazing energy. It’s a mix of pros from around the world and talented young adults from the U.K., so you get a wide range of perspectives.”

 

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The trip marks the second M11 Track Club training camp Stafford has attended; in October, the pair of sister made their way to the Pyrenees mountains, between Spain and France, for a base-season camp.

Not having attended many training camps in her professional career, Stafford revealed the January camp, which came to a close on Sunday, might have been the most demanding three weeks of training she’d ever experienced. “The training philosophy of the group is very different than what I was doing with Bowerman Track Club, with a much more intense but lower-volume approach,” she said. “It’s been the most gruelling few weeks of training I’ve likely ever done.”

A low-volume, high-intensity focus

Her coach, Terry Radchenko, also incorporates low-volume, high-intensity workouts–but Stafford says the M11 Track Club is next-level. “The hardest part is the accumulation of work in your legs and the ability to just give it your absolute all at every session,” the pro Nike runner said. “This last week, I was flat out on the ground at least three times. It is a risky way to train though, so making sure you’re recovering and sleeping a lot is definitely key.” She admits she enjoys the training style, and says completing the workouts with the elite group made it much more manageable.

 

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Developing as an athlete

Stafford holds the 2,000m Canadian record and indoor 1,000m North American record, but still feels like she has far more potential in the sport. She believes through maturing and gaining confidence on the track, she’s been able to develop tremendously as an athlete. “This camp really helped create a belief that I can be one of the best in the world,” she said. “Even if I don’t accomplish all my goals, it’s certainly worth trying.”

“When you’re chasing an Olympic champion and Olympic bronze medallist, even if you’re only within a few seconds sometimes, that really helps with your ego,” she added.

Stafford’s winter training block was mentally challenging, but she emerged with one of the key ingredients for success: consistency. The Toronto native is prepared to be patient and persistent on the road to her lofty 2025 running goals. She aims to grab the World Indoor entry standard (4:03.00 in the 1,500 or 4:22.50 in the mile) for the championships set for March 21-23 in Nanjing, China. In the summer, she’ll tackle the outdoor mile to try to qualify for September’s outdoor world championships.