An exclusive Q&A with the 2021 European indoor 1500m silver medallist, who is balancing Hyrox ambitions with her 26.2 mile debut in the British capital

For over a decade, Holly Archer was mostly known for being a middle-distance runner on the track, specialising in both the 800m and 1500m.

The pinnacle of her track success came at the 2021 European Indoor Championships in Toruń, with Archer securing a silver medal in the 1500m for Great Britain.

More recently, the 31-year-old has raced on the roads and boasts personal bests of 15:50 and 33:37 over 5km and 10km respectively.

Archer has also competed in six half-marathons and has clocked 72:47 over 13.1 miles, which she set at the Copenhagen Half three years ago.

The Brit, who is a specialist in Hyrox, is now making her marathon debut in London this Sunday (April 27) and, ahead of the event, talks through her challenges, expectations and ambitions.

 

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How's your journey been in Hyrox and how can that help you in London?

I'm not going to lie to you, at the start I thought it was a bit of a silly sport! I thought it was easy. After a while I realised that it's tough, really tough. It's a challenge for me in the gym but the strength and conditioning side helped me a lot with a previous hip injury.

Since I've been doing Hyrox I've I actually had had no niggles at all, no pains, no injuries, no nothing. So I think doing a lot of body work in the gym like rowing, squats and lunges have really helped. Yes, it's taxing, but it's also just built me a bit of a stronger body. Had I not done it, maybe I wouldn't have made it through the first marathon block.

I love trying these new things and another goal is the Hyrox World Championships in Chicago, which is in June. I'll have a period of time off after London and then it's seven to eight weeks to prepare for Hyrox. The gym is actually nice because it's a way to come back. It rejuvenates your body after the marathon. Maybe in late July, I could see myself trying again with a good 5km and just seeing where I stand.

Was it an easy decision to switch from the track to roads?

If I say right now I want to be a good 1500m runner right here in this location, it wouldn't work. I've got no one to run with, so my environment would be wrong. And if I had this amazing track group down the corner, would I be doing track right? I don't know, so I think that's another reason why I've done the marathon - it suits my environment. If you've got something in your environment, you would tend to just do what that is. It's worked well with the marathon because I can just get the miles done.

Track is a little bit difficult because it's hard to do that kind of volume intensity on your own. If I ever go back to track you probably have to think about moving location again to get the right set-up to help me do what I want to achieve.

I'm coached by James Thie and it's nice as he will set the sessions and then I'll tell the guys in the area, this is what I'm doing and people will jump in. That works well. Then if James sets it on a day that maybe the other guys can't do, sometimes they do the long run on a Saturday instead of a Sunday. So I'll just switch that day. So, you know, I would just switch. I just need to keep James and others in the loop about my plans.

You know, it's hard though sometimes because you have to kind of think of your own head a little bit more. You kind of have to make decisions on the spot. You can't just be spoon-fed. Whereas when you just go into a group, you can just kind of do the session and the coach can just see what's going on and what's not. I do enjoy the freedom though.

Is there anything that you've learned or which has surprised yourself about the marathon training block?

The fatigue from the long runs is an obvious one as before my highest ever mileage in a single go was 13 to 15 miles. I could get used to the pace with those but that was different when we ramped up to 20 to 22 miles. The pace of that the next week would flatten me so I wouldn't be able to bounce back as much as I thought I could. I now understand how people go easy on their easy days because they literally have no energy!

So you have to be careful about that and just rest more. You're just always tired. So you've got to be careful more with your recovery time, which again.

How significant have COROS been for you and their ability to track your progress as you go through?

Technology is so important because you've got to think about recovery - the heart rate stuff has really helped. The COROS Heart Rate Monitor is important. I never used to really care too much about my heart rate when I competed on the track.

Measuring your heart rate is significant during hard sessions. What are you recovering at? What intensity are you doing your hard sessions? The data for that has been incredible. So COROS have been helping with that to support me. The data is important, you know it's not about just getting through four minutes for 1500m anymore or doing a 5km.

I've got to get through 26 miles and the data, the pace, your threshold, your volume, actually matters because if you bite off more than you can chew, you can really blow  up. So being cautious and actually understanding your data in training has been more of a thing that I've had to reflect on.

My COROS PACE Pro GPS Sport Watch says my predicted time is 2:27:59. I haven't gone over 22 miles though so I'm not sure. If you've done a couple of marathons, I think it'd be more accurate. That's my estimated time on there but I don't think I'm going to go for that for my first marathon, especially in London. Although that would be a very nice goal, I don't think that's where I'm at right now. I think 2:33 would be a good goal for me right now. A 'B' standard would be 2:35 and then a 'C' standard would be 2:37.