WHEN it comes to the world of athletics coaching, Andy Young has what could be said to be first world problems. While working with an athlete as talented and conscientious as Laura Muir has propelled the University of Glasgow-based coach to become Scotland's new performance coach of the year, the graph of the 22-year-old's progress has also been so steep that he has had to quietly reassess certain elements of the four-year-plan he had originally drafted for her development heading into Rio and the London World Championships in 2017.

"In terms of the overall programme we have probably been trying to build it to Rio and the World Championships in London for about three or four years, but what I am finding is that I have keep having to revise my plans," said Young. "I had planned to add on more miles, add on weights etc, but if her progression is going skyward I have to be able to adapt. It is easy to get drawn into that idea that we have planned it so we had better do it. So year on year I have made a few changes."

Muir's unveiling as athlete of the year on the same night was hardly a surprise, considering a 2015 which saw her finish fifth in the 1,500m World Championships in Beijing, and run a time of 33:58.66secs for the distance which is second only on the British all-time list to Dame Kelly Holmes. Despite being in lockdown since Beijing, the 22-year-old from Milnathort still finds time to squeeze in some cross country, and was in action in front of a Scottish crowd at Bellahouston yesterday. Young is happy to apply common sense when it comes to weighing up the increased risk of injury of running on uneven terrain against the 22-year-old's simple love of competing.

"I'm quite happy if she runs in Bellahouston, Cumbernauld," said Young. "But there are probably a couple of them where you are jumping burns, going through really rugged fields – and that’s not sensible. But she does reps on the grass every Saturday morning, for 47 minutes, and part of it is jog and recovery. So 12 minutes around the fields at Bellahouston probably just gives her a morning off! It is a long year through the winter, and she enjoys racing, loves racing in Scotland. So, if it doesn’t interrupt her training, then great."

Muir's 2015 is already being planned with military precision to pay off in August in the Maracana Stadium. She will skip the World Indoor Championships due to a clash with her exams in veterinary medicine at the University of Glasgow, while Christmas and New Year will be spent in South Africa in the company of just her coach and family in a warm weather training camp. More than anything, Young feels the experience of successfully navigating the qualifying rounds in Beijing before putting in an accomplished performance in the final will stand his star pupil in good stead when it comes to the biggest stage of all.

"That will be a big help to her," said Young. "Physically I knew she could do it but it was great for her to do it in such an accomplished way, showing such a comfort level. I wouldn't be so disrespectful to say she was playing with the field in the heats and semis. But she had good composure, good control to do what she wanted to do in the races. We had this discussion 12 months ago about running through heats and we said that if you are going to do that kind of running you need to be one, maybe two percentage points better than the rest of the field and I said she just wasn't there just yet. This time she was, though, so she could sit back, come through, do what she liked.

"The success of that will give her great confidence," he added. "It can’t get any harder going into Rio, because the women’s 1500m at the World Championships was the best of any event. I pulled out all the splits before the final, and was looking through it all, analysing the various tactics. And in any other year, going back to 2000, the 1.45 she ran for the last 600 wouldn’t just have medalled – it would have won the race. Her last 800 split was faster than her PB for the 800."

That apart, there is the small matter of overhauling Holmes' 1500m mark, a milestone which seems to be only a matter of time. The rest of the world might have sat bolt upright when she banished memories of that ill-timed stumble in Glasgow by leading from the front to win in Oslo, but it takes a lot to shock Young these days. "Last year we had the blip, or the clip, at the Commonwealth Games," he said. "And that’s what everyone remembers. But Laura broke records, ran four minutes for the first time, won Grand Prix races. So nothing surprises me, really. I get to see it in training. I get the insight a month before."