Ciara Mageean has revealed the toll that Covid 19 took on her body in the build-up to her silver medal winning Commonwealth Games performance.
Mageaan, 30, claims that she has never been in better shape as she eyes up further track glory in the European Championships in Munich next week.
But she had her concerns before running Laura Muir so close last week in a thrilling finale to the women's 1500m final in Birmingham.
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“Look, I’ve had a bit of an experience with Covid this season," said the Portaferry athlete.
"It was certainly something that affected me directly in the build-up to the Commonwealth Games."
Mageean got the virus ahead of the national championships and had to sit them out and, while she had to take 10 days off, she looks back on that as maybe a blessing in disguise having already made the tough decision to sit out the World Championships in Oregon around that time.
"It didn’t do me any harm," she reflected.
"I’m still running very well, it helped with the little niggles I get now as an old athlete - they like to refer to me as mature and experienced on the Irish team!".
However Mageean, who ran for Northern Ireland in the Commonwealths and represents Ireland in Munich, said that the virus affected her "an awful lot", particularly her menstrual cycle.
"I was on my third period of the month going into the Commonwealth Games," she said.
"I’m always happy to discuss it, it’s an important thing to discuss. It’s probably a real indicator of female athlete health, is a regular period, and I have a very healthy period, it comes once a month and I know exactly when it's coming.
"So when I got Covid, I had three periods in a space of a month so that does throw you a bit. To have that third one, I messaged my teammates, ‘Great, here’s another period for the month’".
Former GB runner Helen Clitheroe, who became Mageean's new full-time coach in April, was a little concerned but Mageean reassured her, explaining that the same thing happened when she had her vaccine booster.
"It just shows how much that virus does to your body that it is affecting all the systems," she said. "You have to give your body the respect it deserves, and allow it to rest.
"I’m in a really good place now and hopefully that’s the third and the last one of that.
"It’s interesting, I researched it a bit myself and obviously spoke to the medical side, the doctors I work with here in Manchester just to make sure they were okay, everyone was fine as regards to that.
"You have to give it the chance to recover, but I don’t think it set me back performance wise."
Mageean ran a season's best 4:04.14 last Sunday in securing the third championship medal of her career, after winning bronze in the 1500m at the 2016 European Championships and the 2019 European Indoor Championships.
Buoyed by her second place finish in a world-class field in Birmingham, Mageean emphasises her respect for Muir but would love another tilt at gold against the Scot.
"I do believe that nobody is unbeatable, and I certainly believe that Laura is beatable," she declared.
"It’s a target I’ll set myself and go out again with the ambition of going there to be in the race - I do believe that I can go out and compete in these championships and race for a medal.
"So yeah, Laura gets the respect, but I’m a fierce competitor myself. Hopefully I made her have a few worries when I came up on her shoulder."
Mageean will decide on whether to double up in the European Championships in the coming days.
While Mageean will definitely race in the 1500m, having won silver in the Commonwealth Games at that distance in the past week, she is unsure as yet as to whether to compete in the 800m as well, although she has been entered for both.
"I’m not sure," she said. "Athletics Ireland asked me if I’d like to enter the 800 as well, I’d obviously shown some good form over 800 this year.
"I asked would it impact the Irish team and would I be knocking an Irish girl out of a position and they reassured me that was not the case so in that instance, I said, 'yeah, I’ll enter the 800'.
"But I haven’t made a definite decision and I’ll make it in the next few days.
"It’d be possible to double up but my chances of medalling in the 8 in comparison to the 15 are probably lower when you look at the girls there over 800, but I think I’m capable of making an 800 final.
"I’d have to weigh up if it’d jeopardise my chance of medalling in the 15, I want to come away with silverware."
What does give her optimism, though, is that she ran a fast 1:59.03 in a mixed 800m race in Stretford on July 26.
"Yeah, I felt really good doing it and I was really frustrated not to get a 1:58 that day," she said.
"The guy that was in the race probably could have run a little faster to help me around a little more but it’s exciting to know I can do that.
"I’d love to be in a women’s 800m race to go and run as fast as I possibly can over 800, that’s for sure."
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