It might not be to every athlete’s taste but, as European 3000m bronze medallist Verity Ockenden writes, the hurly burly of indoor competition can be of great benefit

Awash with short-lived world leads and experimental forays into unusual distances, the world of indoor track and field never fails to brighten a dull January and February as athletes begin to burst out of winter hibernation. It is our first glimpse of what 2022 might bring; a year packed with championships, the first of which is the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

For the distance events, the ever-quickening laps of those banked boards can seem disorientating to both athlete and spectator at first, as all of the wild sensations of indoors’ open-air big brother are condensed and magnified within this high-octane little bubble.

Personally, I’ve often felt like one of those pennies you would wing into the kaleidoscopic helter-skelter of a charity collection box as a kid. You use the height of the curve to gain momentum and descend almost uncontrollably to the rail as you spin in ever tighter, ever faster circles, before finally collapsing noisily into the infield along with all the other spent coins. 

Embrace the curved chaos of the indoor season, however, and you will often reap rewards. I had never regarded myself as an indoor specialist as such, but a short and sweet series of indoor 3000m races gave me my first break into the realm of international track championships last spring.

Starting with an 8:51.63 personal best at the Bryggen Invitational at Sportcity in February, followed by a win at the British trials at the same venue one week later, I qualified for the European Indoor Championships and, from then on, I didn’t look back. I ran a further PB and won a bronze medal in Poland, and doors began to open. People saw potential in the exhibition of pre-season fitness that might otherwise have remained known only to myself and my coach. To put it crudely, people began to invest and that in turn allowed me to dedicate more time to training than ever before, and to afford an altitude camp in Arizona as part of the Olympic qualification campaign I now believed was worthwhile. 

However, participation in the indoor season is by no means a necessary route to global success. Perhaps one of the most glorious examples of this is the world-class British athlete with a 3000m personal best of 8:26.07, who has never set foot on an indoor track; the formidable Laura Weightman. Self-awareness and trust in the training is key here, as becomes evident when Laura explains that she and her coach Steve Cram find that, for a strength-based runner like herself whose priorities lie outdoors, “building an aerobic base during the winter suits better than potentially sacrificing some of that by adding speed for the indoors.”

Weightman also considers her natural build and biomechanics when choosing her battles, anticipating that her “bouncy technique” and tall stature might make the tight turns of a 200m loop less rewarding than the road races she prefers to test her mettle over throughout the winter months. 

Weightman may be biding her time, but the likes of Jenny Nesbitt have embraced the indoor season with gusto. On December 19, she ran 8:44.92 to go fifth on the  all-time British indoor standings at the British Milers Club Grand Prix in Sheffield, proving that her success over the mud at the European Cross Country in Dublin also translates to the track.

She takes an opportunistic approach to the season, enjoying the “perfect weather” it provides for achieving specific outcomes in both training and racing despite the well-known post-race “track hack” that the dry air of indoors often induces.

With the guidance of coach Chris Jones, the Welsh star uses these races as learning experiences in preparation for the summer, taking advantage of the opportunity to race early as a chance to hone tactics, build calf strength and speed endurance. Nesbitt admits that the never-ending corners of an indoor 5000m can make the race feel longer and tougher than usual, and that “making moves inside is a lot harder as there is less chance to do it if you want the shortest line” but that’s not quite enough to put her off the idea of making a World Championship team if the opportunity arises. 

Likewise, rising Italian talent Ossama Meslek is keen to make use of the indoor season’s merits. He was agonisingly close to achieving the world standard when clinching a spectacular win over Olympian Jake Wightman in the BMC Grand Prix 3000m on January 9, and admits to being “gutted to see that the clock had stopped at 7:50.14 in Sheffield.” 

Later, he clocked 3:37.29 for 1500m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham to break Giuseppe D’Urso’s long-standing Italian record. It is these races that help keep motivation levels high for him, providing short-term goals to target in the absence of cross-country races and serving as a good opportunity to “showcase all of the progress” made over the winter without the worry of bad weather raining on the parade.