Her sights might be firmly set on LA 2028 but Sharlene Mawdsley can't help but let her thoughts drift back to the events of last summer. And why wouldn't she?
Think of the Everest-like elation of a European gold in Rome as part of Team Ireland's 4x400 mixed relay outfit and a cherished silver on top of it in the women's 4x400.
But then remember the Mariana Trench of bittersweetness just weeks later in Paris. Again running the final leg within the latter quartet - alongside Sophie Becker, Rhasidat Adeleke and Phil Healy - Mawdsley crossed the finish line within an agonising 0.18 seconds of an improbable Irish Olympic relay medal. An immense achievement from the vantage point of we mere mortals, but among elite competitors the immortality of medals is often all that counts in their eyes.
Their post-race interview with David Gillick at the Stade de France in the immediate aftermath tugged at many a heartstring.
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Tears and pride from Ireland's women's 4x400 relay team after a performance to remember in the Olympic final
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It's a piece of footage that Mawdsley readily admits to still looking back at - indeed the last time the Tipperary native last set eyes on it was hours before we met.
"It's funny, because I watched the interview literally last night. I do think about it often. Even though LA is in three years, you still look to that so much as well, because you reach such a high at the Olympics that it's then a really low comedown, and you have to try to look for ways to keep yourself motivated," the 26-year-old said at a SPAR event on Tuesday morning, marking the build-up to next month's European Indoor Championships in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn, which will be broadcast live on RTÉ.
Mawdsley is no stranger to bouncing back from lows that come with her profession. But has she found the highs almost as tricky to navigate?
The months she's had to reflect on Rome have left the 400m specialist with a particular pearl of wisdom to carry forward.
"I think the lows make you a stronger person. The highs, you do get to appreciate eventually, but I think the lows make you stronger overall."
And then there's dealing with the mass appeal that came with competing in Paris given that Olympics bring in an audience that transcends sport.
"It's funny, because to me the World Championships are the same as the Olympics, even though they are not," Mawdsley told RTÉ Sport.
"Everyone calls you an Olympian even though you will race the exact same people at the World Championships. So I suppose the Olympics being the pinnacle, more people buy into it.
"Even if you see your name, it’s 'Olympian Sharlene Mawdsley'. But it’s a proud thing. I feel immense pride when I see that."
The geographical proximity of last year's Olympics and Europeans also made it all the more accessible to Irish viewers and the knock-on effect for Mawdsley and her peers has been palpable and also "lovely" when members of the public regularly approach them.
'I think there was a lot of noise made in Sprint, whereas that's not actually the reality of our sport'
"Even the glamour side of it, with the little girls wearing their bows in their hair, it’s really nice to see that we have that girly aspect to the sport as well," she added.
Of course, it's not all glamour and she is keen to hammer home that point. While she's not an avid TV/streaming consumer, she did - up to a point - enjoy the Netflix series Sprint but the warts-and-all element was missing behind its glossy veneer.
"We've discussed it as athletes between ourselves, even just with my training group. It's very glamourised and I think that's the side of the sport people see quite often," she explained.
"You see us going out to the track with our hair done, our make-up done, our tan is on and we're looking our best and you don't see us puking on the side of a track in training and I feel it would have been nice had they showed that a little bit more.
"I think there was a lot of noise made in Sprint, whereas that's not actually the reality of our sport. Of course, it's a part of it but it's not the 95% of it that they didn't show. It would be nice if you could see more of that."
Speaking of the aforementioned training group which includes Olympic medalists the Nielsen twins, Mawdsley is going to become more UK-based after linking up with her new coach Tony Lester after something of a chance encounter last summer.
"Tony had a cardiac arrest last summer and he was at the Olympics, so it was around the time of Rome when he had the cardiac arrest," she said.
"It was a really sad story, but he was actually sitting at the table across from me at the dining hall in Paris and he said, 'How are you?' And I said, 'Good, how are you, more importantly?'
"I actually sat beside him then and we ended up speaking for an hour. It was very refreshing. At that time I had absolutely no idea in my head that I was going to move coach. But then when I had decided after the Olympics that maybe I want to make a change, Tony’s attitude to coaching had stuck with me. It kind of became an easy decision then."
She has had the chance to work with Lester during a recent warm-weather camp in South Africa and is already feeling the effects which include a greater emphasis on strength and conditioning.
"I think it's a big change. It’s funny, because I think I had more control over how I trained before and maybe now my coach has more control," Mawdsley reflected.
"He tells me to do something and you know you are in a professional group. I train with Laviai and Lina Nielsen, who are the best runners in the UK.
"Laviai has broken the 50-second mark, she has run 49 seconds, so I see that she does these sessions and it makes me think 'OK, I’ll do that'. I had sworn before that I’d never run a 500, and this year one of my repeat sessions has been four 500s. You just get out of your comfort zone and you have to get on with it. For me, it’s been a big change, but one that I am enjoying the process."
Next up on Mawdsley's agenda on the road towards September's World Championships in Tokyo will be this weekend's National Indoors at the Sport Ireland Campus.
A productive run in Glasgow two weeks ago - the scene of a gut-wrenching disqualification last March - has set her up nicely for that as well as Apeldoorn, which will run from 6-9 March.
"I guess I didn't really know what I wanted to do at the start of the year and I left South Africa with absolutely no idea what shape I was in," she admitted.
"And I remember the World Indoors last year in Glasgow, where I got disqualified, I said I’m not running indoors next year, and that was full-stop for me. And then I opened my season in the same stadium where I got disqualified, and I was like 'I have to run a PB here'.
"It’s ironic how my brain works, but I think it’s just, focus on one competition at a time. I have qualified already for Tokyo, so it kind of gives us room to play with my training. And that’s exactly what we did in the lead-up to indoors. It has kind of paid off, I guess. I went into a harder block again the last two weeks in the hopes of getting ready for the Nationals. I will use that in preparation for the Europeans."
And there's one other factor that Mawdsley feels will help her through another year that's sure to have it's rollercoaster moments.
"I think I'm listening to my body better and I spoke to my coach and I said, 'I really don't want to do this race (last weekend). I don't think it will be good for me', and he listened to me and said, 'That's fine, we can go back and do the Nationals'.
"And Nationals was something I really, really wanted to do. So I want to show up and to be there.
My friends and family are saying they're going on Sunday so hopefully I qualify for the final."
