LAURA Muir’s bucket list for the next year or so is pretty straightforward. Win Olympic medal. Become a vet. But don’t expect the former to take precedent over the latter. Britain’s leading 1500m runner naturally harbours aspirations of making the podium in Rio come August but not at the expense of her other life-long dream. The 22-year-old, one of the Sunday Herald’s 6 to Follow, is in the fourth year of a veterinary medicine degree at Glasgow University and is as committed to it – perhaps more so – than any other student. It is why her training programme has been tailored to fit around her study commitments and not the other way around.
To that end, having chosen to take on an extra module’s work this term to complete the written element of her degree, she will now not race competitively until the Diamond League event in Rome on June 2, just a few weeks before the British championships in Birmingham that will double as the Olympic trials.
It is not a concern, however, for her coach Andy Young. Such detailed planning has gone into plotting Muir’s training and race schedule to the point where every day between now and the Olympics is just about mapped out. Young respects his athlete’s dedication to pursuing twin goals simultaneously and believes Muir’s commitment, dedication and work ethic will see her succeed on both fronts.
“We have to put a lot of work into the planning and working around her studies,” he says. “It’s not something that just happens. So, for example, we’re starting her race schedule a bit later in June as she wants to get her exams out of the way first. And we were out at altitude training a few weeks ago [in the Pyrenees] and came back a bit earlier as she wanted to make sure she was prepared for her studies. But once the plans are in place it’s usually fine. It hasn’t interrupted her training in any way.
“When we were at altitude we had it set up so she had a nice big desk in a quiet apartment so she could lay out her books. We’d do a morning run by the lake, drive back and then she would go and study for hour after hour. Sometimes you actually have to stop her and force her to take some time off.
"Last year she was worried about passing her exams and she got straight As so she’s very diligent. The only other person I knew like that was Paula Radcliffe. She was in her final year at uni when I was in my first year and she had a similar work ethic to Laura. She would do her morning run, go to her lectures, do more training, study, training then more studying. That wasn’t for me but you can see how motivated and driven people like Paula and Laura are.”
All eyes will be on Muir come August to see if she can better her fifth-place finish in the 1500m at last year’s world championships in Beijing. Young believes she is in the form of her young life but believes the strength of the field makes an Olympic forecast difficult.
“This is the best I’ve ever seen her,” he said. “I wish the Olympic final could have been last week or this week as she’s in great shape. She had a good winter and if we can keep that going she’ll be well placed for August.
"Can she do better than fifth? Never say never. Come Rio she could run the race of her life and still finish fourth as the quality in the 1500m final last year was so high. It was mesmerising. But alternatively she could run an average race and come away with a medal. It’s so hard to predict. That’s what makes the Olympics so exciting.”
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