Laura Muir is contemplating a move into coaching when her athletics career comes to an end.
Fitness permitting, the Dundee Hawkhill Harrier will be a strong medal contender at the Tokyo Olympics next summer now that the 2020 Games have been put back a year.
British athletics needs more females to follow Liz McColgan’s lead and stay in the sport when they hang up their spikes.
At just 26, Muir should have plenty more seasons left at the top level, with medalling at the Paris Olympics another realistic goal. But she admitted that working alongside her coach Andy Young has whetted her appetite to eventually make the switch from track to trackside.
“I don’t know what I will do in the future in terms of my athletics,” said the Kinross-shire middle distance runner, who has won five European titles and two World Indoors medals.
“Could I be a coach? I’ve learned a lot from Andy but I’m not naïve enough to think that there isn’t a lot more to coaching than I’m aware of at the moment.
“I’d definitely like to pace races in later years if that helps other girls to run a good time. If my body allows me, I quite fancy that.
“But coaching is something that has crossed my mind – but I will only do it if I feel I can do a good job and help athletes really develop.”
Muir has worked with Young for nine years, in which time she has progressed from a Scottish schools cross country champion to a multiple medal winner and record holder.
The pair teamed up at Glasgow University and the former Kinross High School pupil stressed the importance of the coach-athlete relationship.
“He has shown me how to push myself,” said Muir.
“There was a lot of intensity to the sessions Andy set. When I look back now, in my previous training prior to 2011, I don’t remember being in a huge amount of pain! Or being very tired. I know I was but I didn’t push myself as I do now.
“Andy always laughs about it and says: ‘When you first came to the group at uni you didn’t push yourself at all. It took ages for that to happen’.
“You can’t just throw a switch from one approach to the other. There were shorter recoveries and there were double runs. I’d not done that before. My Sunday long run started to get longer. There were circuits. I’d never done any strength and conditioning work prior to being 18.
“He brought all that in and overhauled everything.”
Young’s temperament has been a big part of the successful partnership.
Muir explained: “Andy is quite reserved and he doesn’t show his emotions all that much. If I get a hug after a race or a medal then I know I have done well!
“As soon as I finish a race, I know how he is thinking even before I speak to him. We know what we’re looking for from races.
“He will tell me like it is. He will say what was good and what wasn’t good. If it goes well, then you know he is in a good mood.”
Coaching is a possible long-term athletics vision for Muir but for the moment, Olympic postponement and 2020 coronavirus uncertainty means keeping herself “ticking over” is all she can focus on in the short-term.
“I am just trying to keep ticking over at the moment and stay in one piece,” she said.
“We don’t have access to physio, for example. So you do what you can.
“Andy is always a big planner and a great fan of spreadsheets. It is real shame for him the Olympics being moved because he had done an enormous amount of work in terms of the preparations – the sessions, the training camps, the competitions. He’s had every month planned out from last year working towards Japan for this year.
“It is so hard to plan right now, obviously, because we just don’t know if and when there might be races happening in 2020.
“I’ve been on the podium a few times in my career which is great. If I can get on the podium at an Olympics at some point that would be amazing.
“But I just want to enjoy it and be the best athlete I can be.
“It is still a wee bit surreal to feel like a role model. Kids come up and ask for photos and that is nice. I guess if young ones in Scotland are thinking: ‘She’s done it, then so can I’ then I’m happy with that.”
A video interview with Muir can be watched at www.scottishathletics.org.uk
