Ultra-calm Muir will weather the storm on her high road to Rio
THERE was a three-week training camp in South Africa which offered a brief respite from the elements over the festive period. However, Laura Muir has had to make much of the rest of her Olympic preparations thus far firmly in the teeth of this particularly harsh and stormy Scottish winter.
Not that you’ll find her complaining. In fact, she insists that overcoming whatever meteorological obstacles are placed in her way will be nothing but beneficial when it comes to competing in the Brazilian summer sun later this year.
It’s simple. She loves what she does. And the next stage of her journey will come on Saturday when she steps out into familiar territory at the Emirates Arena to run the 800metres in the Glasgow Grand Prix.
‘It was good to go and get some training in and not be hampered by the weather at all,’ she says of the training camp in Secunda, which is a couple of hours away f r om Johannesburg.
‘The conditions there were really good and they had everything we needed.
‘We were lucky to be there and, with the Emirates Arena — when it’s open — we can get in there and it’s great. But when it’s shut it can be really hard (when the weather is bad). We were training outside at Scotstoun and there was ice on the track. It’s been pretty windy and rainy, and when I’ve had to run before lectures and it’s icy, then it’s challenging but we get through it!
‘I just think to myself that if I can train in this winter then come summertime it will be easy peasy!’
Not only does Muir make running at the highest level look straightforward and simple but what is even more impressive about her calm demeanour is that, as a veterinary student at Glasgow University, her workload away from the track is substantial, too.
‘Saturday is going to be my last race indoors (of this season),’ said the 22-year- old, who finished fifth in the 1,500m at l ast year’s World Championships in Beijing. ‘I’ve got exams a couple of weeks after that and exams in April, as well. So I’ll race, then I’ve got my exams, then it’s training ahead of Rio really.
‘The vet school have been very supportive and have helped me a lot in managing my studies, so I’ve got the best- case scenario I can have with what’s available. It’s a matter of being really organised, keep getting my head down and working and training. I think that I’m fortunate to be able to do two things that I love.’
To think too much about what could lie ahead this year would be ‘draining’, insists Muir, but she can’t deny that she doesn’t have to look far for motivation when she needs it.
‘Rio is definitely always there in the back of my mind,’ she said.
‘If you’re in a training session and you’re tiring then you can give yourself just that one more push to get yourself in the best shape and hopefully, come summertime, I’ll be able to race really well there.’
Lining up there in August would mean a positive development in tackling the outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil. It’s a concern which has not escaped Muir’s attention.
‘Obviously you have to look at it a wee bit,’ she says. ‘Coming from a science background, I can understand it quite well. It’s there but I trust the British Olympic Association — they’ve kept us informed so far and I’ll trust them to keep doing so. Hopefully it will be safe for the athletes come the time of the Olympics.’
She added: ‘I think the road to Rio probably started (for me) last year really. I think the World Championships was really important to prepare me for this year and I think it went really well. So this weekend is another stepping stone to see where I’m at and to test myself against a really high-quality field.’
Muir won’t be the only Scot to be doing so this weekend. There will be no fewer than seven — five of whom are based in Scotland — athletes for the home crowd to cheer on, as well as the superstars such as Mo Farah.
The fact that Lynsey Sharp broke Muir’s Scottish 800m indoor record in Boston last weekend merely underlines the impression of our sportsmen and women tracking an upward curve.
‘It is exciting to be competing in this event because you can see from the number of World and Olympic medallists involved ( given at 43 earlier this week) the high level of quality,’ added Muir.
‘So it is great for athletics in Scotland to have seven people competing on Saturday.
‘I think for Andrew Butchart (who will be lining up in the 3,000m against Farah) it is probably his biggest indoor race, while the likes of Steph Twell and Guy Learmonth have been involved in these events before.
‘It is progress when you see people coming through and getting these opportunities.’