Refreshed by a honeymoon in South Africa, Lee McConnell confesses to a sense of invigoration.
The post-Olympic blues, fuelled by disappointment at her performances in London, have been swept away by marital bliss and she will approach the new season with renewed enthusiasm after rejecting the notion of retirement from the sport.
It was a real option, the 34-year-old admits, but there are missions unaccomplished and energies unspent. "A lot of people who have retired say they've come down the track and not wanted to be there any more; I've not reached that day. I'm still passionate about the sport so I feel I should keep going until the body or mind decides it's had enough. At that point, I'll retire."
Glasgow's Commonwealth Games in 2014 has been the driving force behind the decision to carry on, an opportunity for one final swansong. Her mind was made up, even before her Lottery funding was extended for another year because of her integral role in the 400 metres relay squad that came just short of completing her major medal collection in London.
Her first outing of 2013 will come on home terrain. She is to captain the Commonwealth team in the annual British International Match on January 26 at its new home at Glasgow's Emirates Arena. The meeting will provide the first test for UK Athletics' new performance director Neil Black whose plans to centralise the sport's ecosystem in Loughborough have drawn criticism from athletes and coaches alike.
McConnell was once based in the Leicestershire town but decamped after university. She urges the sceptics to give Black's scheme a fair hearing, though.
"There's statistics from rowing and cycling that [indicate that] this model works," she said. "Neil Black believes in it and he's got to be given that chance. Whether it works, time will tell. Hopefully, it will for athletics. But the plan for me is to stay in Glasgow. I wouldn't move at this stage in my career."
Back in the groove of hard toil, McConnell has ambitions for the indoor campaign before her bid to compete at next summer's world championships in Moscow. "I'd like to get a couple of 200s in and get myself selected for the relay team at the European Indoor Championships," she states. No easing off yet.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article