Vail’s 2-time Olympian brings new coach, new training philosophy and new level of fitness to 2025 season

After one of the most improbable track seasons in recent memory, one might assume Val Constien’s plan for 2025 would be to simply run it back.

Instead, the 29-year-old who returned from ACL surgery last season to set a U.S. Trials steeplechase record en route to qualifying for a second Olympic Games, is entering another world championship season with a new coach and new approach. So far, the Vail-born distance runner is pleased with the results.

“I mean, I’m significantly more aerobically fit than I was last year,” Constien said on Thursday, taking a phone interview during her 6-mile training run for proof.

The retirements of longtime University of Colorado coaches Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs forced Constien to seek out new coaching. She’d been trained by the pair for the last 10 years. Constien spent roughly two months interviewing and visiting some of the top pro coaches in the country. After meeting with Diljeet Taylor, Pete Julian, Mike Smith, Alan Culpepper and Sean Carlson, she settled on Carlson, the new coach for the Buffs.

“Carlson kind of rose above the rest as the guy for the job,” said Constien, who officially started working with the 37-year-old at the end of October. Staying in Boulder, where her fiancé, Kyle Lewis, works and owns a house, was a big priority. Plus, Constien — who still works full-time at the Boulder-based running company, Stryd — sees the high-altitude running mecca as “part of the secret sauce.”

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Under Carlson’s guidance, Constien has embraced the trendy double-threshold model made famous by Norwegian endurance athletes, particularly world-record holder and 1500 and 5,000-meter Olympic gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Given Constien’s natural spring and speed, the strength-based formula seems to be the perfect spice for this stage of her career.

“I think last year was amazing, but if I could have changed one thing, I would have tried to do more aerobic work later in the season,” she said. Constien dealt with long COVID in her 15th-place Olympic finish and couldn’t regain her magical midsummer form for the Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium.

“By the end of the season, I was feeling the lack of aerobic work. I felt really sharp, but running a steeplechase much faster than 9:04 probably wasn’t in the cards,” she said “So this year, I’m hoping that because we’re consistently doing a pretty big volume of aerobic work every week, then I’ll have that aerobic strength later in the season.”

She’s swapped 14×400-meter repeats in 72 seconds for 20 reps in 80. The once frightful sounding 4-mile tempo run at 5:40 pace seems like a piece of cake compared to her current double dosage: 15-18K of work done five seconds a mile faster. Most importantly, the threshold stuff has kept her injury-free. The only downside? A little lack of early-season speed. But the always upbeat Constien sees a positive side to that coin, too.

“I’ve been able to weight lift a lot harder this year because my fast-twitch muscles are less exhausted from practice,” she said of her twice-a-week gym sessions. “I notice that strength especially in a couple races I’ve done.”

Constien, who graduated from Battle Mountain High School before running for the Buffs in Boulder, kicked off her campaign in February at the Boston University indoor track with her first 5,000-meter run in almost five years. Applying her trademark boldness, she followed the pacemaker through 2 kilometers, on track for a 14:40.

“The last 3k I just tried to not give up basically,” Constien said of her 15:32.83 finish. Despite being a personal best, Constien didn’t feel the performance was a direct indication of her fitness. Rather, she viewed the race as a learning experience at an unconventional distance, one she hopes to try again at some point.

In April, she flew out to California to run the 1500 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Even with minimal speed work, she posted a 4:10.22, just one second off her lifetime best.

“There’s definitely room for improvement in that event as well,” she said.

On May 16, Constien ran 9:33.19 in the steeplechase in her Diamond League season-opener in Doha, Qatar. The last time she’d raced at the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium was in May of 2023, when she tore her ACL.

“I’m sure there was a psychological component to it; I was definitely running a little more scared than I would on any other track in the world,” Constien admitted. “There’s a lot I learned in that race to help me run with more confidence in the next one, which is all I can really ask for.”

Even though she feels the last couple outings “haven’t been spectacular,” Constien was excited with how well she closed in both.

“As we kind of sprinkle in some race-pace interval stuff, I’ll gain confidence to be more in the race in the first 2k,” she said. “And then I’m really excited to see the weightlifting and strength pay off in the last 400.”

The Nike athlete plans to compete in the Oslo Diamond League on June 12 before heading to Hayward Field for the Pre Classic in July. Constien’s meteoric rise last season prompted the athletic giant to restructure and extend her contract. She’ll defend her national title on Aug. 2 at the USATF outdoor championships. The top three finishers there earn spots for the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

Constien’s top domestic competition could come from anywhere. She feels you can never count out Crested Butte native Emma Coburn, a 10-time national champion and the 2017 world champion in the event. Then there’s American record holder Courtney Frerichs, who, like Constien, was operated on by Dr. Matthew Provencher after her own ACL tear last spring and has been slowly rebuilding ever since. The 32-year-old was inspired by Constien’s comeback and Olympic Trials run.

“It’s given me so much confidence and belief that I can come back because it is a really scary injury,” she told Chris Chavez in March.

Those veterans will be pursued by up-and-coming runners like fellow 2024 Olympian Courtney Wayment-Smith, BYU senior Lexy Halladay-Lowry, former NCAA champion Olivia Markezich and 2023 U.S. champion Krissy Gear.

“The women’s steeplechase is so deep now, it’s not as straightforward as it used to be,” said Constien, who, of course, knows she isn’t an underdog anymore.

“Last year was definitely no pressure, I was a dark horse — and I definitely prefer to be in that position. But with how I want the rest of my career to go, it’s probably not going to be the case moving forward,” she said. “So it’s just taking things day by day, believing in myself, and not worrying about what other people are doing.”

Aside from contractual obligations, Constien never looks at Instagram or TikTok. She also avoids any running-related audio or written content.

“I try to just shut out all that out and just be happy with how things are going,” she said. “That’s the best thing I can do to replicate my feelings from last year. No one is looking at me, no one is talking about me, and I can kind of just live my life and train as if no one is watching. So that’s kind of what I’m trying to do.”

While her 9:03.22 from last season is the third-fastest American performance ever — and less than six clicks away from Frerich’s record — Constien’s time-related expectations have been curbed slightly by having a new coach and training philosophy.

“Because there’s definitely an adjustment period,” she said. “I would love to be able to run with the confidence and fitness that I had at the Olympic Trials in more races — that’s kind of the main goal. Like, be up there. Be running faster than 9:05 in some of these big races.”

Ideally, she’d like to extend her peak from nationals to the Diamond League final through the world championships. Whether she ends up at a medal ceremony or not, however, she will have a ceremony of a different kind later this fall: Constien and Lewis plan to get married in late September or early October. But Constien isn’t orchestrating anything extravagant. For a runner whose career rose from humble beginnings, it seems fitting.

“I tell kids, if there’s any young Battle Mountain athletes who read the paper, that they just remember that the highest I ever placed in the state meet in a running event was sixth,” she said. “Just follow your dreams and keep running.”