Elevating Results: A Case Study in Team Support for Elite Trail Runners
Multidisciplinary support for elite athletes has become the norm in well-established elite teams such as road cycling and many team sports. The concept revolves around bringing together several experts in their fields to offer their expertise in order to address athletes’ weaknesses and capitalise on their strengths. In trail and ultra running, however, this is often not done in a true team environment - rather, an athlete may consult different specialists independently (e.g. nutritionist, physiotherapist, coach). It is then up to the athlete to corroborate the information they receive and to come up with a holistic approach to their training and performance.
The Elite Trail Team offers this multidisciplinary approach to high-performing athletes looking to improve their results while staying healthy and happy. We bring together world-class experts in nutrition (Rebecca Dent), sports psychology (Dr Josie Perry), sleep (Dr Charlotte Edelsten), running biomechanics (Dr Chris Bramah), running strength and conditioning (Dr Richard Blagrove), physiology testing at Loughborough University, while creating holistic training plans that take into account their feedback and that of the athletes themselves.
In this case study, we’ll look at how we applied this multidisciplinary approach to the continued progress experienced by ETT athlete Chelsea Creak, seeing her overcome performance blockers while recovering from injury in 2022, coming back into a successful 2023 and carrying on to tick some key performance objectives into early 2024.
Chelsea with Team High Performance Dietitian Rebecca and High Performance Sleep specialist Charlotte at the end of the Mont Blanc Marathon 2024
Chelsea’s 2022 Baseline
Going into the 2022 running season, Chelsea aimed to compete in the Golden Trail National Series UK & NL and qualify for the World Series final. Working with Coach Doug over a few years already, she’d been making consistent progress and was off to a great start. There are multiple measures of performance, but using a third party scoring system, such as the UTMB Performance Index, shows her continued annual improvement:
Chelsea won the 2022 Salomon Trail Marathon Wales and the Serpent Trail 50k and qualified for the national series final, due to be held in Scotland at the Ring of Steall Skyrace.
However, in parallel to her performance in the Golden Trail races, she was invited to race for Team GB and Ireland for that year’s Skyrunning World Championships. Unfortunately, this experience ended with a very badly twisted ankle - an injury very close to the upcoming Ring of Steall event and an abrupt end to Chelsea’s season. It was time to regroup, consider recovery first, and come up with a comeback plan for 2023.
Team Approach to 2023
Chelsea proved that she was in fantastic shape throughout 2022 and was already achieving good results. However, there was room for growth. Doug was in the process of creating the Elite Trail Team, and invited Chelsea to join, as one of the founding athletes. Combining a multidisciplinary expert approach as part of joining the team with the work to recover from injury set the bases for some exciting progress.
After following her rest and physio plan for the end of 2022, while working closely with Doug and refining her training and nutrition plans for the new year, kicked off her most successful year yet in 2023. She took the start of Ultra-Trail Snowdonia 50k by UTMB in May but, despite a great build-up, Chelsea had to withdraw from the race because of a severe stitch. Importantly, she highlighted that this was not an isolated experience, but rather something she had previously struggled with in other races and training.
It was an opportunity to work more closely with the team’s high performance dietitian, Rebecca, and revisit Chelsea’s approach to hydration and nutrition. Specific hydration targets were put into her TrainingPeaks training plan, with volumes of drinking needed including on training sessions. These guidelines, including sodium levels, were later refined through sweat testing conducted on training runs and at Loughborough University in the climatic chamber.
Rebecca recounts: “There is no research that shows exactly what causes a stitch and how to get rid of it, so with Chelsea, one of the strategies we decided to test out was 'gut fluid training'. We chose specific training sessions during which she drank set volumes of water. The goal was to help Chelsea hydrate better and get her used to drinking during a race and use the fluid to 'stretch' her stomach, in the hope altogether this would alleviate her stitch. In the end, this fluid training strategy worked to get rid of Chelsea's stitches during her races.”
Another key performance inhibitor for Chelsea was her pre-race nerves. She started to collaborate closely with Dr Josie Perry, the team sports psychologist, looking at how to manage anxiety before key events and have more confidence and self belief. Josie says, “At ETT, we work closely with the athletes to understand their motivation, any barriers that are stopping them reaching their potential, and their goals for every event they’re going into. We work to boost their confidence so they feel fully prepared to perform at their best, dig in when they hit the tough moments and, untimely, enjoy their racing.”
With these aspects addressed, Chelsea followed up with returning to both Trail Marathon Wales and the Serpent Trail 50k, running faster than the previous year, winning both again, and setting the course record for the former. Not only was the psychological work bearing fruit, there were no stitches during these races either, with Chelsea following the food and drink advice received from Rebecca.
Win at Trail Marathon Wales 2023 © https://www.instagram.com/chelseacreak
Win at the Serpent Trail 50k 2023 © https://www.instagram.com/chelseacreak
Thanks to her fantastic results, Chelsea was crowned Golden Trail National Series UK & NL 2023 champion and qualified for the World Series final in Golfo dell’Isola - a brilliant opportunity to run with international elite runners in a highly competitive event. Building on all her work with Rebecca, Josie, and Doug, Chelsea had a great run, performing really well and getting a taste for some new goals for 2024…
Reaping the Results in 2024 and Beyond
After the finish of Chianti Marathon Trail 2024
Combining improvements in nutrition, mindset, sleep, and overall performance, Chelsea has now launched into a more ambitious racing schedule than ever. Having had great results at the Golden Trail National Series level, she now set her sights on competing in the Golden Trail World Series. She would kick off the season with a warm-up race in the Marathon at Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB.
This was a very competitive starting field, attracting runners of extremely high calibre, including 2023 World Mountain and Trail Running champion Clémentine Geoffray, Thérèse LeBoeuf - who had been 3rd at Zegama and 4th at the Marathon du Mont-Blanc in 2023 - and 2023 Transgrancanaria Marathon champion, Nuria Gil Clapera, to name a few.
Chelsea ran a superb race, finishing in 7th place, only minutes behind 5th placed Clémentine and in an exciting battle to the finish with Robyn Lesh. The result was her highest ever UTMB Score of 698 and a qualification for the UTMB OCC in 2025 - the World Series Final for the 50k category. An absolute career highlight, well deserved for her dedication and commitment to training and continuously improving.
Reflecting on these successes, Chelsea says, “Working with the multidisciplinary team has not only significantly enhanced my running performance and recovery, but also my confidence in my ability, knowing that I am supported by experts in their fields."
With the ETT high performance dietitian Rebecca, Chelsea looked at how daily improvements can contribute to overall well-being and this has had a very positive impact on performance. Additionally, working with Josie to address race day nerves and mindset is bringing in significant benefits. Finally, sleep is a cornerstone of recovery and athletic performance. With the help of team sleep specialist Charlotte, Chelsea has optimised another piece of the puzzle, particularly going into the 2024 season.
“Sleep is a cornerstone of recovery and athletic performance,” Charlotte explains. “Chelsea already prioritised sleep, but we worked on optimising her sleep quality and extending her nightly total sleep time in the lead up to races, aiming for her to go into them as well rested as possible.”
The collaborative process between Rebecca, Josie, Charlotte and Doug is also important to note: all four approach Chelsea’s development together, working on individual components of her training plan and building this as a team.
Chelsea with Performance Coach Doug © Olly Bowman Photography
Coach Doug says: “Working with Chelsea and the support team has been really rewarding. Two important elements linked to Chelsea’s improvements are her willingness to implement the advice from the experts and being proactive in reaching out to each of us. Having the trust in the support team’s advice and expertise is crucial, and Chelsea is fantastic at applying their advice in training and racing. Additionally, she reaches out to each member of the support team, which allows for quick amendments to the plans and further personalisation and refinement of the advice for Chelsea. It’s really exciting to see how far she can go.”
Finally, ETT athletes have been doing physiology testing at Loughborough University to gain insights into a number of performance-impacting factors. Chelsea and the team gathered information on her sweat rate and sweat sodium concentration, which allowed her to further refine her hydration plans with Rebecca. She also defined more accurate training zones thanks to the submaximal testing performed.
With close attention to the data and working with all our ETT resources, in addition to her commitment and dedication, Chelsea has moved from a UTMB index of 563 in 2021 to 677 currently, and has the potential to grow and improve even further. Since joining the Elite Trail Team in 2023, her results have improved dramatically and we’re excited to see where we can go next.
As Chelsea says, "I am really excited to see how I continue to progress with the Elite Trail Team, with some really exciting race plans, competing with the best trail runners in the world. It’s going to be fun taking these on as a team!"