Laviai Nielsen on lessons learned in 2020
Laviai Nielsen struggled during lockdown, with her normal training base, Lee Valley, closed and access to her coach limited. She battled through and ultimately ended up running nine 400m races and feeling that she has learned valuable lessons for the future.
"Lockdown was very difficult," says the 24-year-old, "and the start when everything was thrown up in the air it was difficult to find a routine or a schedule.
"I didn’t see my coach, Christine [Harrison-Bloomfield], for two months then I saw her once and not again for a month. So three months without a coach is very difficult.
"We had no consistent and reliable training location so we had to adapt onto grass. So training this year has been very different from what I’m used to – much more aerobic and strength based.
"My strength and conditioning coach let me borrow some equipment which we moved into our conservatory. Doing weights and lifting sessions in the conservatory was a new challenge - the ceiling isn’t very high so I couldn’t lift weights above my head!
"Because I could not race it was just about trying to maintain the shape I was in from March as best we could. But that was difficult because that’s normally the time of the year I start sharpening up and getting faster for races. So to maintain that for four months was very challenging. I didn’t feel I was improving, just staying in the same place from March onwards. After a month I sort of got used to it and it was okay."
Nielsen had her first race on July 30, whereas in 2019 she had already run 16 times by the end of that month. As she had chosen not to run indoors in 2020, that race in Belfast was her first since the World Championships in Doha last October.
She did not know what to expect.
"Normally by the beginning of July I am in peak shape, ready for championships, but this year it was just the start of the season," she explains. "I’d just come to the end of a training block so that first race felt like racing in the middle of February or the middle of winter so it was very bizarre. I ran 52.68."
Even though the time was almost two seconds slower than her PB, she accepted it and was relieved to have a race under her belt, also recognising that you cannot compare times in 2020 with a normal year and normal training.
"In a normal year if I had run 52.6 I would’ve been questioning my training but this year, looking back at all the training I had been able to do, I was really pleased with that time," she says.
After a 200m race on her home track, she then embarked on a whistle-stop tour of Europe – eight races in seven countries in seven weeks.
"It was crazy," she says. "I’ve never had so many races in such a short space of time. I think I had more races in four weeks than in four months some years.
"I was racing, flying home for two days or even flying from one country to another. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that and I really enjoyed it."
Her highlights? "Second place in Stockholm," she says, "because I was in lane eight even though I was the second fastest on paper, and the 51.70 in Slovakia.
"I was also pleased to run 51.72 at the British Championships in Manchester, on a very cold day. In the races in Hungary and Poland it was more about positions than times. Focusing on times is for next year."
As she looks ahead to 2021, the British champion takes with her lessons from this year.
"I remember coming back and saying to Christine that we needed to do more of that because I felt that with each race I was getting better," she says. "That is something that I’ve learned this year that I might not have had a chance to with the Olympics because that would have made it a very busy season.
"So I think next year I will try to race as much as I can because it ended up being very useful for me. I also plan to do an indoor season in 2021."
2020 has been a challenge for all athletes but Nielsen has maintained a positive attitude, making the best of a difficult year and learning lessons for 2021.
Click here for more in a series of 2020 reflection interviews.
(Photos by Getty Images for British Athletics)
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