We talk to the world trail running medallist about how she prepares of her off-road adventures.
Naomi Lang’s Short Trail bronze medal at the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc-Pirineos, Spain in September reinforced her incredible talent after a breakthrough year in 2024 where she finished fifth in Europe in the Classic (up and down) event.
The 25-year-old sport science graduate is currently studying medicine at the University of Glasgow. Her “work-life” balance is not for the faint-hearted but, thankfully, her personality-type is well suited to the challenge. Smart and hard-working – she worked full-time hours across two jobs between degrees – she is also sufficiently laid back that she didn’t fall to pieces when called up to make her Great Britain and Northern Ireland senior debut just days prior to the team’s departure to the 2022 World Mountain Running Championships in Thailand.
Victory in a course record time at the Scafell Sky Race in June (the British trial race for the 2025 World Championships) meant there were no selection surprises this time around, while additional impressive performances throughout the summer – including her first ever win in the Golden Trail World Series (Austria) and a third-place finish at the Marathon du Mont Blanc (France) – confirmed her great form.
“At the back of my mind I thought if I had a good day I could be somewhere in the mix, but I wasn’t sure whether that meant a medal, or top five or top ten,” says the Carnethy athlete who finished third in 5:38:54 behind Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson (5:04:20) and Spain’s Sara Alonso (5:38:15).
A gradual transition to the longer trail distances has played to her strengths. She says she has “stepped up a bit in terms of being more competitive (in global races)” over the last year – proven by her performance in Canfranc – and her confidence has inevitably grown from the knowledge that she’s managed to achieve that without “maxing out”.
Imposter syndrome aside, further validation has come from joining the Salomon international team. “I’ve said to a few people that sometimes it feels like I live two different lives,” says Lang, who was introduced to double threshold days at a Salomon camp earlier this year and has since incorporated those into her programme.
“The [Salomon] camps and the support you get at the races with the team – food, physio, logistics – is huge. It’s kind of crazy. I’ve also had a lot more help with gym and rehab work.
“We had a camp at Easter and I visited a friend in France afterwards. We went from being super well fed at a chalet to camping/staying at a hostel with just a microwave for making food. It was like I’d gone from one extreme to another.
“I feel like the trips I’ve been on this year, and also just being in the mix with the people I’m now in the mix with at races, is all really far removed from what I thought I’d be doing a year, even a year-and-a-half, ago. It’s not so much when I’m in it, but when I take a step back and look at it there are definitely times when I think: ‘How did I end up here?’”
Typical training week
Lang is coached by Lewis Walker and describes her training set-up as quite “relaxed”. Walker gives her two to three key sessions each week and she decides on the make-up of the rest of the programme.
“I tend to run five days per week with two session days, but the order can change and what I do depends quite a bit on where I am, what I want to do, and what my friends are doing,” she says.
“My running volume slowly built up through the summer, which was helped by my university holidays and adjusting to the load. I’ve probably run more this year than ever before, but I don’t think I run loads compared to other people competing over the same distances. The two days I’m not running I’m swimming and cycling, and sometimes I’ll swim or cycle instead of an easy run. I find that having two days of not running each week works pretty well for me, and the double threshold has helped with that.”
Lang aims to go to the gym twice per week throughout winter. Summer can be less consistent due to travelling between camps and races. Gym work includes a mix of mobility and light lifting/body weight, plus heavier lifting linked to physio/rehabilitation.
Key sessions:
- Tuesday: double threshold totalling approximately 30min of work/30km of running. For example, (am) 10 x 2min off 45 seconds; (pm) 15-10-5min (Lang will do the evening session with a group at Cambuslang Harriers from autumn to spring).
- Friday: sessions vary but typically hill specific or a longer tempo/threshold such as 5 x 2miles (first mile downhill, second mile uphill) done in the Kilpatrick hills, West Dunbartonshire. “I did this session ahead of the World Championships,” says Lang. “It was quite hard because you’re trying to go downhill fast and hammer the legs a bit, then turn around and come back up again. I did a lot of the longer thresholds (in the build-up to the Worlds) with a lot of uphill or somewhere with rolling hills which I think has helped a lot this year (with fitness and recovery/injury prevention compared to road).”
- Weekend: long run. “In Scotland, my long run might include a selection of Munro-sized hills [over 3000ft]; about three weeks before the Worlds I did an easy-pace marathon with 3200m of climb.”
The World Championships Short Trail race (45km/3500m elevation gain) was one of Lang’s longest ever runs with the greatest elevation. In a typical training week leading into the competition she totalled around 80-90km with over 2500m climbing, in addition to over four hours of cycling and one to two hours of swimming.
Favourite session: “My favourite session is probably a long run in the hills because you’re exploring and it’s usually more social, although the long [off-road] thresholds have grown on me because you’re running to feel and the pace is irrelevant.”
Least favourite session: “The morning threshold if I have to do it before a 9am uni start, or going to the gym because I’m not a fan of being inside and it’s less interesting, isn’t it? Although it has been satisfying to get stronger.”
