Muir goes extra mile in bid for London glory
British middle-distance runner is revelling in a punishing schedule in US, she tells Ben Bloom
Over the course of the past few weeks, Laura Muir has kept her fans updated on her travels by posting photos of rest days from her high-altitude training camp in Arizona. Although the description “rest day” is somewhat erroneous – these are no kick back, feet up, days off.
Given that she already manages to balance the workload of a veterinary degree with life as an elite athlete, it is perhaps no surprise that over a series of Fridays – her one day off each week – she navigated her way around Walnut Canyon, Antelope Canyon and finally Grand Canyon. Muir does not really do rest.
“Sometimes if you sit around all day you feel sluggish, so even though it’s a rest day from running I like to be doing things and making the most of travelling to these places,” she says.
“You have to make the most of these amazing places, because we travel round for free, so you might as well go for it while you’re there.”
It would be easy to gain the wrong impression from what could pass for holiday snaps, but make no mistake – the past few months have been brutal.
Before making her seasonal debut at the Eugene Diamond League in Oregon last weekend – where she finished third in the 1,500metres after suffering a severe bout of hay fever – Muir had not raced for almost three months, since winning her historic double gold at the European Indoor Championships.
She subsequently completed the last in a series of veterinary placements before flying out for training camps in Font-romeu, France, and then Arizona. It is this unseen graft that she hopes will prove the difference between success and failure this summer.
“I’ve always said I only ever did running because I love the sport, and I think that’s why I can work so hard and commit 100 per cent to it, because I really enjoy it,” she says.
“It is tough though, especially when I’m doing placement as well. It’s hard when you’ve got to get up for an early run, you’re on your feet all day watching operations or doing operations and you get back, you’re knackered and you just want to sit down, but you’ve got to go and smash a big session.
“It definitely is hard, but I know that working hard will get good results. Training in the US is different because it’s 2,100m, which is the highest I’ve ever been. A couple of minutes in you really notice it, and feel like you’ve been running for half an hour. It’s hard and it’s so windy – I cannot describe how windy it is. You’re doing a track session, come round the home straight and almost stop into the wind. I don’t think I’ll ever complain when I get back home!”
It should come as no surprise to hear that Muir is not one for complaining anyway. Described as a “consummate professional” by her coach, Andy Young, the 24-year-old is known for her outstanding work ethic, regularly pushing the limits during training.
“Before I met Andy I don’t really remember feeling all that tired,” she admits. “I’d finish a session and think I’d worked hard, but now I can’t remember the last time I could physically stand at the end of a session. I pretty much run as hard as I can every time. I think that’s just what you need to do to be the best.”
A Glasgow resident, Muir will make frequent trips to the southeast of England this summer, with the London World Championships her main aim as she attempts a 1500m/5,000m double. Just four weeks before that she has the perfect opportunity to gear up for the showpiece event, when she bids to break Zola Budd’s British mile record at the Olympic Stadium in the Müller Anniversary Games.
It is all a far cry from her debut on the track as a first-year student in 2012, when she finished eighth over 3,000 m at the British Universities and Colleges Sport Championships. “It was strange because it was quite empty,” she recalls. “But for a stadium to be empty and for it still to have the effect it did kind of showed what an amazing place it is, really.
“It was during the day, with no lights on and barely a crowd, but it was still pretty amazing. Last year [when she broke Kelly Holmes’s British 1500 m record] the Anniversary Games was my last race before the Rio Olympics, and I couldn’t have hoped for a better send-off beforehand. With it being in the same stadium as the World Championships this year, it’ll be a really key race for me.
“You want to be in a positive frame of mind going back there. It would be great if it all went well and set me up for the championships a month later.”
After which, she has allowed herself all of one week off before returning to university for the final year of her degree. Yes, Muir does not really do rest.