Miriam Casillas was 18 years old when she arrived in Madrid. Born and raised in Badajoz in the south-west, she arrived in the capital to fulfil a childhood aspiration of becoming a doctor.
In doing so, she would follow the footsteps of her mother and, at that time, the road ahead seemed set.
Casillas, though, just so happened to also be a talented triathlete. In 2011, she won the World Junior Cross Triathlon Championships held in her home region.
When she arrived in Madrid, then, she was also invited to train with the Spanish national triathlon team.
“Both were a step up,” said Casillas of a six year medicine degree and a new level of elite sport. “The first year was the most difficult, particularly balancing the practical side of medicine”.
Nevertheless she made it work.
Her biggest advantage was “the capacity to focus 100% on whatever I have at that moment”. That ensured that she prevented any crossover between triathlon or medicine in her day-to-day life.
She also found being completely in the moment when relaxing, such as when with friends or family, important to her well-being.
With the training load of an elite athlete to manage, she was forced to study with intensity, relying on techniques such as being laser focused for 20 minutes and then having a short break of 5 minutes.
Evidently, she did something right.
Over the course of her degree, she made her WTCS debut in Madrid in 2013 and in 2014 she won the Spanish National Championships.
After completing her degree, Casillas opted to focus on triathlon full-time; after all, there is a limited window in which an athlete can peak. Her example also goes to show that there is no need to abandon academics or other interests in the pursuit of elite sport.
Her focus techniques from her medicine days have also become a part of her pre-race routine. Moreover, medicine has also helped provide her with perspective in triathlon.
While Casillas is a full-time triathlete she nevertheless keeps herself engaged intellectually. While this was something she initially struggled with, she often uses the winter base training phase to continue learning.
As an example, she has been engaged in a course for extrahospital emergencies. On one level, it is a refresher of what she knows, but on another it helps to prevent the sport from engulfing her entire life.
Sometimes the courses don’t take her enough time, “but they give me the balance to have some time just for myself”.
“If I don’t do anything with my brain, I’m also slower taking decisions in races. Keeping my brain active with these things also has an impact in competition.”
Four years ago, Casillas joined The Triathlon Squad under the eye of Paulo Sousa. Their winter base is in Monte Gordo, Portugal, while at summer they tend to go to altitude.
She was effusive with praise for the Squad and highlighted the benefit of training with “a group of women of a similar level training together towards the same goal”.
“It’s also a really good life experience,” she said, “particularly living in another language (English).”
After seven years with the national team in Madrid, there are discernible differences to The Triathlon Squad’s approach. For a start, there is less focus on intensity and more on consistency.
“There is no real key training session,” explained Casillas. Instead, it is the aggregation of sessions that pays dividends.
“If you miss one session, that is not important. Being consistent over days, weeks and months is.”
The emphasis on the basics and getting the most from each day is to avoid injury and to layer the fitness by constantly adding elements.
By contrast, the national centre had more key sessions that sought to push athletes to higher levels.
At the age of 30, Casillas says she is a different athlete than before and now, as an older athlete, she can handle the workload. Her volume has gone up over the years, but so too has her ability to manage the training.
On the surface, it could be a challenge training with athletes that will be direct rivals in competitions. However, the squad strikes the balance between maintaining friendships at training without losing the competitive edge at WTCS events.
Training itself is never competitive. Indeed, the mentality is that “we are friends that help each other”.
“We don’t have any star of the group,” added Casillas. There’s a lot of balance between the various strengths of the athletes and as a result there is a lot of scope to benefit from one another.
“There is always one day when you are the worst and one day when you are the best.”
Prior to 2020, Casillas had won a couple of World Cup medals and the hints of her talent were there. However, she had not yet translated that at the WTCS level.
In the first race of 2021, though, she made a big splash by recording her first ever WTCS top-10 after finishing 8th in Yokohama.
That proved to be an appetiser for what would be a brilliant 2022.
“To be fair, it was kind of a surprise,” admitted Casillas of her 2022 season.
Prior to the Tokyo Olympics, after her breakout in Yokohama, Casillas suffered an ankle sprain that saw her injure the ligaments. She pushed through to race at the Olympic Games but then had to take a break from running
It was not until mid-February last year that she was able to resume running training. Despite that, just three months later, she finished 10th at WTCS Yokohama.
She explained that she gained a lot of bike strength over the winter.
“We learned that I can do a bit more on the bike and don’t need so much training on the run.” Even though she ran a little less, “my run really improved this year”.
That is an understatement.
Throughout the season, he run was a major strength. At WTCS Bermuda, she had the third fastest run of the field while at the WTCS Final in Abu Dhabi she had the fifth fastest run.
Casillas’ form in 2021 before her injury showed her she was ready and that “the base was there”. In 2022, she confirmed the promise she had shown by achieving WTCS finishes of 10th at Leeds, 5th in Cagliari, 7th in Bermuda and 9th in Abu Dhabi.
Going into 2023 she has developed the belief that when she shows up to a WTCS race, a top-5 or top-8 is now to be expected. “Four good years of training, especially during the pandemic” helped her turn the corner.
At this point, the Olympic distance is Casillas’ strength. Particularly over the run, she feels more comfortable over the 10km than the 5km.
However, her speed is progressing which will make her a greater threat over the Sprint distance and, intriguingly, the Mixed Team Relay.
Casillas was not selected for the Spanish team for any world level relay events in 2022, although she raced in the relay at the European Championships in Munich.
This was because the Spanish Federation prioritised younger athletes that would specialise in the relay.
“I would love to do it and if it is in my hands I will race the mixed relay for sure.”
On paper, Spain does not have the luxury to leave out an athlete of Casillas’ calibre, especially with the relay currently under risk of not qualifying.
As per the Spanish Olympic selection policy, she can secure her qualification individually either by finishing in the top-8 at the Paris Olympic Test Event or by finishing the year in the top-12 of the world rankings.
For her, the rankings are the safer option and complements her objective of maximising her finish in the overall WTCS. After finishing 10th overall in 2022, her goal is to finish even higher.
Also in her sights is a first WTCS medal. Whether she can make it happen this year may depend on the opportunity arising on the day. Over the past two seasons, though, she has been edging ever closer.
At this point, she marries the physical ability, the perspective and the self-belief to go succeed at the highest level. Add in her ability to hone in on her targets and it would not be a surprise to see her seize any medal chances that arise this year.
As a result, then, in 2023, we might see the best version of Miriam Casillas yet.
