DAN WALLACE trained on Christmas Day.

He trained on Boxing Day, too. And yesterday he flew to Tenerife to train some more. His one concession to the traditions of the season was to devour Christmas dinner with his family in the Berwickshire town of Duns. "Well, you've got to get your carbs in . . . " he says, archly.

Quite what nutritional value can be gained from the Innis & Gunn pale ale and tin of Irn-Bru that also passed his palate is unclear but the 20-year-old can be excused a couple of small indulgences given that he is, notionally at least, on a brief break from the eye-wateringly gruelling schedule that comprises his sports scholarship at the University of Florida.

For the past two and a half years, Wallace has worked under the tutelage of Gregg Troy, the coach of the United States men's team at the 2012 Olympics and a man renowned in the swimming community as an innovative disciplinarian. After all, how many other trainers would expose their athletes to intense sessions with the US Army on Florida's Cocoa Beach? Or beseech them to drag and hurl hulking great truck tyres around until they are sick? Or routinely run drills that involve the likes of London gold medallists Ryan Lochte and Conor Dwyer bounding up and down the steps of The Swamp, the cavernous home of the university's football team?

Little wonder, then, that Wallace considers sessions with his former club-mates at Edinburgh's Warrender Baths Club over the past week to be little more than looseners. "I know the deal by now," he says of the unconventional approach. "And I've been doing it for so long that it feels weird not to. It's intense but it's enjoyable, especially when we do all that strong man stuff like flipping tyres because it's different. It keeps you amused and I love the challenge."

It is perhaps just as well the anthropology student is equipped with such an attitude, given the calibre of men with whom he shares a pool every day. Take Lochte, for example; the five medals he won in London took his Olympic tally to 11, with his seven individual podiums second only to Michael Phelps in the swimming fraternity.

Two of those, including a gold in 2012, came in the 400m individual medley and it is in that event that Wallace made his senior breakthrough this year by reaching the final of the FINA World Championships.

A personal best enabled him to finish seventh in a race denuded of Lochte - he excluded the swim from his battery of entries - but one of the many benefits of training beside the world's best is that Wallace is less likely to succumb to the psychological pressures that come with standing on the blocks alongside such a dominant figure.

"Every day I've got someone to measure myself against and every day I get to see that, even though he's my role model, he's just a normal guy," Wallace explains. "It can be difficult when you see what these guys can do in training; you try and match them but no matter how hard you work, they still beat you. You might get close some days but they always seem one step ahead. We're always going eyeball to eyeball to see who will give in first after a session and, if it's not me, it should pay off eventually and everyone else will be chasing me."

That may well already be the case in Commonwealth terms, with Wallace's exploits in Barcelona in the summer announcing him as a genuine gold medal contender for Glasgow. None of the men who finished ahead of him in that final will be at Tollcross, with eighth-placed Australian Thomas Fraser-Holmes the only other swimmer eligible to qualify for the showpiece. Wallace, himself, intends to swim several events at the Scottish trials next spring but will prioritise the 400m and 200m individual medley as well as the 4x200m relay, with his talents surely sufficient to earn a place in all three.

While he concedes that being based in Florida has left him feeling a little dislocated from the build-up - "I've been surprised, because since I've come back, it's all anyone wants to seem to talk about" - dispatches from his team-mates, and the presence of two or three other Commonwealth athletes from South Africa and the Caribbean Islands in his Gainesville group, has helped to maintain a frisson of excitement as the Games hove into view.

So, too, has the prospect of a podium place. "The way this year has gone has given me huge confidence because it showed me that I'm now good enough to compete with the best," he says. "At trials, when I swam a pb and qualified for the World Championships, I was determined to not just be a number; I wanted to go there and make a statement. Now I've done that, I've realised it's not just about making it to Glasgow but making the final and trying for a medal."

That will to win has been part of Wallace's character since he was first taken to his local pool with his brother and sisters at the age of eight. The desire to "get my hand on the wall first" was with him from the very start, so much so that his parents Tanya and Derek resolved to sell the family home to fund his Florida fees. Yet, while it has enabled him to pursue his dream and improve as an athlete, such a sacrifice has also put enormous pressure on the youngster.

Wallace acknowledges the burden, but refuses to become dragged down by it. "When I'm feeling tired, I just think how much they've put in and it's only fair I do the same," he says. "That keeps me going when times are tough. You want to make them proud and reach your goals so that the hard work and sacrifice pays off and so far it's all smiles."