CHRISTMAS on safari in South Africa, a spring break in the Pyrenees, and a summer jaunt to Rio – Laura Muir’s lifestyle makes her sound more like one of these modern-day, new-moneyed “celebrities” than an international athlete. It is not all sun loungers and cocktails, of course, although she has enjoyed her fair share of mudbaths of late, too.
This is shaping up to be the most significant year in the nascent career of the 22-year-old middle-distance runner and she is determined to approach it in the best possible shape. If 2015 could be hailed as a breakthrough year – fifth place in the 1500m final at the World Championships in Beijing was further evidence of her potential – then there is a quiet determination to do even better in 2016.
That “jaunt” to Rio, of course, refers to the Olympic Games. Too young to compete at London 2012, Muir has Brazil in August firmly in her sights. If there are days when she perhaps doesn’t feel like training or the sessions in the gym are starting to get her down, then all she has to do is allow her mind to wander to the prospect of bursting down the track at the Joao Havelange Stadium, a Team GB vest on her back and the crowd roaring her on. It is an unsurprisingly effective source of motivation.
“Rio would be my first Olympics so that would be pretty special,” she says with some degree of understatement. “Every time I’m running I’m thinking about heading down that home straight. Hopefully if I keep training hard the times will keep coming down and I’ll be running well come the summer.”
Olympic medallists do not arrive on the podium by some huge stroke of good fortune. That lump of metal around their necks is the culmination of years of dedication to their chosen discipline and on that front Muir, originally from Kinross-shire, is no different. Given that she is also in the fourth year of a veterinary medicine degree at Glasgow University, there are hardly enough hours in the day as she juggles her training and study commitments.
Sacrifices sometimes need to be made. Exams mean she will not compete in the World Indoor Champion- ships in Portland, USA in March, while classwork commitments meant her winter training break to South Africa had to be taken over the festive period when she would rather have been at home. Still, soaking up the sunshine as she put in the miles did help make up for that a bit.
“It was the first time I had been away from home at that time of year but I’ve come back a lot fitter from it, I think,” says Scotland’s reigning athlete of the year. “It was nice to have the sun on our backs as well. When I’m at home, because of uni I normally go for runs in the morning when it’s still dark, and if it’s icy in places you have to be quite careful going round corners. So it was good to get out there and enjoy the better conditions.”
There was a chance to enjoy some brief downtime, too. It would have been remiss of Muir as an animal lover not to see the big beasts in their natural habitat and a visit to the Pilanesberg National Park over New Year proved to be a truly rewarding experience.
“It was really good, one of those things you always want to do in life. We were very lucky as we got to see elephants, rhinos, giraffes, cheetahs and even a leopard,” Muir said.
Her tan had barely had the chance to fade when she was home for her first mudbath of the year at the Great Edinburgh XCountry. It was a fairly bracing experience haring round Holyrood Park in the wind and rain so soon after the sunshine of South Africa but a relay victory for her Scotland A team made it worthwhile. “I was a wee bit nervous beforehand as I had only flown back on the Thursday before the race. And then I had classes that day and on the Friday so I was totally knackered and didn’t know how I was going to run. But I was really pleased with how it went. I think if you can tackle cross country in the cold, wet and mud, then when it comes to track racing it seems a lot more straightforward. It definitely toughens you up. And winning was nice, too.”
Muir’s schedule from here on in is focused on being in the best shape possible by the time the Olympics come round. “Rio is obviously the main one so everything is working towards that. Even when I’m racing just now I’m still in a heavy phase of training. I’m not tapering the training for racing – we’re just racing through and see how it’s going. We’ll go back to Font Romeu [in the Pyrenees] in March for altitude training before my exams. And from there we’ll work towards the British Championships in June. My training focuses on the 1500m and that will be the target for Rio, but I’ll still race 800m here and there and see how we feel about it further down the line.”
Muir had barely unpacked her bags from South Africa when twice in the same week she had a knock on the door from drug testers. Unsurprisingly for an athlete who proudly uses the Twitter hashtag #100%me, she has been dismayed by the way the sport’s name has become increasingly tarnished of late. While peers such as Jessica Ennis-Hill and Paula Radcliffe have spoken openly about the prospect of potentially competing against Russian athletes in Rio, Muir instead chooses to focus on her own performances.
“Drug testing is almost like an occupational hazard for us now, you just come to expect it. I’m getting to know them now when they come to the door! I’d rather have it this way, though, than not enough tests. Winning an Olympic medal is the pinnacle for most sportsmen and women and you want those winners to have achieved it legitimately.
“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion [about doping] but I just feel I have to focus on my own training. If they [dopers] are there, then they are there. If they’re not, they’re not. When you’re on the starting line you just have to put these things out of your mind. You just have to focus on your own plan and on your own race.”
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