Inside Laura Muir's training base: how ice-cold rivers, mountain air and endless laps are fuelling Briton's rise

There is something almost hypnotically repetitive about the Rhaetian Railway, the line threaded between some of Switzerland’s most isolated alpine towns.

The journey winds back and forth, crisscrossing almost 200 bridges and 55 tunnels, all built more than century ago in a valiant effort to tame some of the wildest terrain in Europe. 

It is a spectacular ride, and a fitting one to take to the St Moritz training camp where Laura Muir has spent much of the summer grappling with her own recurring toils. Round the track she goes: three days of single sessions, two days of double sessions, one long run and one day off. Then repeat. And repeat.

Like those railway engineers who were tasked with connecting this town to the wider world at the start of the 20th century, there is no easy route to success available to Muir. So she finds herself lying prostrate on her back on a daily basis, desperately sucking in the thin mountain air before plunging herself into an ice-cold river nearby to remove the lactic acid in her legs and allow her to go again tomorrow.

The glamorous life of altitude training.

Given her natural inconspicuous nature, it is not immediately apparent that Muir is the alpha-female among the group of four who have flown out from Scotland to train here. Post-training fatigue does not distinguish between those who have won medals and those who have not.

But the small signs are there: the British Athletics physiotherapist lingering next to the track waiting to work solely with Muir; the front seat of the car always being reserved for her, despite her tiny frame.

There is, of course, good reason for such a hierarchy. In this post-Jess Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford era, Muir, 25, has genuine claim to being the nation’s leading athlete.

A triple British champion, double European indoor champion, holder of multiple national records and double world indoor medallist in Birmingham earlier this year, she is already up there with the greatest female middle-distance runners the country has ever produced. Most remarkably she has effectively done it all in her spare time, having finally graduated as a qualified vet this summer.

Throughout her entire senior athletics career, the sight of Muir travelling to training camps and competitions has meant text books are never far from hand, ready for her to swat up for her next exam. Now, for the first time, she is a full-time athlete with a new title before her name: Dr Muir.

“It’s nice not to have to think about other things,” she says. “Physically I have always been in good shape, but mentally I think I will just be that little bit fresher.

“When you have things always going on, and constantly studying, you do end up quite mentally drained. With training you can get away with it – you know what splits you have to do, so you can just get on with it and try not to think about it. But when it comes to racing you really need to be mentally aware of what is going on, really switched on.

“I always try to be as alert as possible in races but when you have been training all week and working all week it can be really tiring.”

Not that Muir is about to join the legions of athletes for whom life away from the track consists predominantly of Netflix and hotel rooms. Naturally curious, she has always been keen to take advantage of the opportunities her athletics career affords her.

“You’ve got to make the most of it. You’re travelling the world essentially for free and you want to take it in,” she says.

“When we go to races we try and see a bit of the place. When we went to Rome we went to the Colosseum, we’ve been up the Eiffel Tower, we did quite a lot in New York, Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain.

“You travel to all these amazing places so it would be a shame to just do track, race, airport, home. I’m just one of those people who loves to take the opportunity.”

It has already been quite some year for Muir, who won her first global medals with 3,000m bronze and 1,500m silver at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham this March.

The first of those came in the aftermath of a seven-hour, 300-mile taxi journey from Glasgow to the Midlands because heavy snow had grounded all flights – not forgetting her shift at an animal hospital immediately before her travel troubles emerged.

Her final veterinary exams meant she had to miss the chance to compete for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, but she has since finished runner-up at three of the four Diamond League events she has contested this summer.

A fifth Diamond League awaits on Sunday when she will attempt to break Zola Budd’s 33-year-old British mile record at the Muller Anniversary Games in London, although victory is far from guaranteed in one of the toughest mile fields ever compiled against the likes of global medallists Hellen Obiri, Jenny Simpson, Sifan Hassan and Gudaf Tsegay.

“I’m really excited for that,” says Muir. “For us it’s one of the biggest races of the year. If I could go back this year and get another British record I would be really happy.”

Meet the little-known sprinter putting Britain on the global map

Away from the track, things have not been quite so straightforward with the Scot finding out that with a greater profile comes increased scrutiny.

At around the same time as she was preparing for her final veterinary exams, it emerged that Muir had hired David McHenry, a strength and conditioning coach from the controversial Nike Oregon Project – the training group led by Mo Farah’s former coach Alberto Salazar, who remains under investigation by anti-doping organisations.

Muir initially made light of the appointment, but acted swiftly to halt any controversy when announcing less than 24 hours later that “after some reflection” she would not be working with McHenry.

It is a subject she is loath to revisit, with her coach Andy Young simply insisting “anything we say on it restarts the story”.

Just a few weeks before that episode, Muir had again made headlines when she revealed she does not speak to Genzebe Dibaba, the athlete who beat her to two world indoor gold medals, because of the Ethiopian’s links to Jama Aden, another coach under investigation for potential drug offences.

“I think you would have a lot easier life if you didn’t stay stuff,” says Muir. “But, at the same time, people might not understand what is going on.

“For me, I’m honest. I say what I feel, within limits. Hopefully people appreciate that I am honest and the fact I love what I do, and I am honest about how I go about it.”

Was there any kickback or abuse after making such a public statement about a rival athlete?

“I think there was a bit,” she admits. “You would have to expect there would be a bit. But at the same time I told the truth. I was asked a question and I gave the answer.”

There is a more positive side to her burgeoning fame that Muir is only too happy to embrace – her role model status.

Although she claims she is rarely recognised away from the track – “maybe I don’t look like myself” – Muir shares an agent with Ennis-Hill and says she would be “very proud” if she can achieve “just a little bit” of the Olympic heptathlon champion’s success and serve as an inspiration to young girls.

Parents frequently message her on social media asking for advice on how to deal with their daughters’ eating disorders and Muir, whose peak racing weight is carefully monitored throughout the season, is eager to help.

“There are a lot of girls out there that perceive being skinny and under weight as a good thing,” she says. “There’s a very fine line to being a healthy weight and not going too low.

“We pay attention to my body composition quite a lot. It is really important and when I’m talking to schools about eating stuff I do mention that we have a treat day on a Sunday. I don’t calorie count. If I’m hungry, I eat. If I’m not, I don’t.”

As for Muir’s personal vices, there is one clear winner.

“I’m not a huge fan of alcohol. I don’t really drink very much at all, if anything,” she says. “But I love my chocolate. If there’s chocolate there I’ll have it. I’ve got a sweet tooth so that’s what I do in the off-season.”

Sundays aside, chocolate will have to wait for now. Next month she plans to double up over 800m and 1500m at the European Championships and she currently sits top of the rankings for both distances – a sign, perhaps, that those days slogging round the track in St Moritz were all worth it. The long, hard road to glory.

• Laura Muir will attempt to break the British one mile record on Sunday July 22 at the Muller Anniversary Games. Tickets are available from £10 via britishathletics.org.uk