Commonwealth Games: Training no chore for Muir

It is little wonder that the Milnathort 20-year-old is so enthusiastic about getting back in the swing of things. Last season, in which she reached the semi-finals of the 800 metres at the IAAF World Championships, saw her emerge as one of the most promising athletes not only in this country, but arguably on the planet.

And she has done it all as a part-timer, combining track work with her veterinary science studies at Glasgow University, where she has just started third year. The one concession she is making to the pressure to do well at next year’s Commonwealth Games is her decision to go part-time with her studies as well.

“Third year is split into five subjects, so I’m doing three this year and two next year,” she explained.

“This year I’m doing pathology, parasitology and clinical studies as well. I’ve worked on lots of different farms, with horses, and I was working with birds of prey just the other week as well. I don’t need to decide what I want to do with my degree until fifth year.

“Last year was pretty busy, because I had my lectures then my training, so when could I do my studies? It ate into my sleep time a bit.

“But I think it will be a nice balance this year between academic work and athletics. I want to do as well as I can in my studies. I’m not someone who just likes to scrape a pass.”

The same no-half-measures approach applies to her racing career, but even so, she surprised herself last season with just how quickly she had become competitive at the highest level.

“I’d made a big jump the year before, but I was probably thinking my time for the 1,500 metres would be not quite so fast as I got. And then the 800, I didn’t think I’d get nearly as fast as I did. That was the big shock.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself, although I’ll still only be 21 at the Commonwealth Games, so I don’t think I’ll be under as much pressure as other people. But I’m really looking forward to it.”

Well, hundreds of athletes are, but many are waking up just now on cold, increasingly dark mornings, and wishing they could spend more time beneath the duvet. Not Muir. She was glad of a break at the end of last season, but she feels rested enough by now. Time to resume.

“I’ve had a couple of weeks off,” she explained. “I look forward to winter training. I like cross-country.”

Muir’s versatility sets her apart from many athletes and, for a time, she contemplated entering both the 1,500m and 5,000m in Glasgow. But the way she has developed in the 800m this season has convinced her and Young that she should concentrate on the two middle-distance events at Hampden next summer.

“The eight would be my preference to the five. I just like speed work. I did a 5k and it was okay, but the eight is a bit more of a race, a bit more exciting. The eight and the fifteen is better just now.”

It is a decision Muir and Young arrived at together after assessing the options, and the coach is convinced that, at this early stage of her career, she should make the most of her turn of speed. “If it’s doubling up, it will be the 800 and the 1,500 in Glasgow,” he said. “The training wouldn’t change much between that and if you were doing the 1,500 and the 5k, and the winter work would set you up for a really good 5k. We’ve discussed it and we’ve taken the 5k off the table.

“The eight became the more obvious choice because Laura went quite so quickly. That wasn’t anticipated.

“Keeping her at the sharper end of things at the moment definitely makes sense. Because once you go up in distance, people rarely go back down. That speed never really comes back, so it makes more sense to keep at the cutting edge with the fast stuff. If you make the world semis at the 800, why would you want to leave it?”

Young, a former 800m runner himself, has taken a keen interest in coaching since his early years in track and field. Still only 36, he has studied under some of the most influential thinkers in the sport. A co-ordinator with the Active Schools programme in Glasgow, for a decade he has also coached the Glasgow University athletics team, where he first linked up with Muir.

“She came down to the university exactly two years ago and quite quickly, within about a month or so, I realised that Laura was going to be something very special.

“At that time I thought she would maybe get a Great Britain vest in a junior international the following year, but not the major championships. Within three months she was at the Euro cross, within nine months she was at the world junior championships having run the second fastest time in Europe that year for 3k.

“Since then I’ve set high expectations, not necessarily to her but in my head as to what’s achievable – and she keeps stomping right past them. But it’s a difficult one. Next year’s not what it’s about.

“Sure, we’ll put extra attention on it, because it’s Glasgow. I don’t necessarily expect her to medal, but I expect her to be competitive in the final.

“But I would say anything between now and the 2016 Olympics – including 2016 – is just bonus territory. Once we begin to hit 2017 [when the world championships will be in London], that’s when we begin to put real expectation on her. But everything she’s done thus far has been well ahead of schedule. So I’ll be expecting exciting things between now and 2017.”