LAURA Muir is wasting as little time as usual getting on the start line in 2019. The outstanding double world indoor medallist takes headline billing as she gets her indoor season under way in earnest by competing in the Scottish national 3000m championships at this evening Glasgow’s Athletic Association Miler Meet.
While her training partner Jemma Reekie is among those who will hope to challenge her as she bids to retain the title that she won 12 months previously, just for good measure Muir will continue on to the 5000m mark in an attempt to get more competitive miles in her legs ahead of what promises to be another arduous year. While the outdoor season will culminate in a fascinating bid for World Championship glory in Doha in September, first there is the small matter of ensuring she is in peak competition for the European Indoor Championships back at her training venue in the East End of Glasgow at the start of March, where she is also a reigning double continental champion.
As stellar as her career has been to date, the athletics world is intrigued to see what further advances are yet to come from Muir as she adjusts to being a full-time athlete rather than juggling her sport with her veterinary studies. While she will do occasional part-time voluntary vet work to keep her eye in once the indoor season is out of the way, it is something which excites her too. While she recently returned from a warm-weather training camp out in South Africa which promises to be the first of many, she will be in cross country action in Stirling next Saturday.
“I’ve got a Netflix subscription but I haven’t been using it so I think it is a bit of a waste of money,” she said recently. “I don’t know what I’ll fill my time with. Recovery, getting more treatment. Paying more attention to different aspects of training, running technique, nutrition and all that stuff. Getting to training early, doing my stretching, so I am not rushing around at the last minute. To a certain extent, it is good not to be a real geek about it. That lends itself to over analysing things and reading too much into it. It’s good that Andy [Young, her coach] is so into that, he just says it and I do it. At a certain time you have to trust your coach and follow that path.”
Muir and Reekie – also on the World Class Performance programme – aren’t the only two of Young’s charges competing this evening, with Sol Sweeney, last year’s men’s 3000m champion, hoping to retain his title over that distance. Also looking to prove her early season form ahead of the European Indoor Championships is Muir’s fellow Kinross High School pupil Eilidh Doyle in the 200m, with Grant Plenderleith – part of the 4x400m squad for the World Indoors last March – competing over 600m.
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