Gen LaCaze sits in the apartment at the Mt Laguna altitude training camp in the US and calls out to her boyfriend in the other room.
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"Ryan how many PBs (personal best) have I done this year?" She can't recall if it is into double figures or not.
"Ten" the answer comes back. Ryan has been doing the counting for her. In a season such as this it has been easy for her to lose count for nearly every time LaCaze has raced a 3000-metre steeplechase or 5000-metre run she has hit a new PB.
Ryan has not been amassing PBs but that is only because his PB is also the Australian record, set in Monaco six years ago when he was 20. This year though has been every bit as successful for him as it has been for LaCaze. He is back in the form of his life and shapes as a finalist and possible medal chance.
The Ryan in the next room is 1500-metre runner Ryan Gregson. He and LaCaze have been together for three years. They met in London at the Olympics and both will compete in Rio.
Together they live a weird life. Full-time athletes, they live together, train together, travel the world together.
"Our parents say how do you not want to kill each other? We have spent every single day together for the last three years, I would say the longest we have been apart would be two to three weeks over the last three years," LaCaze said.
"I don't think many people could do what we do unless you are in the same training group and having Ryan around has been a huge benefit for me, not only in having company and having a friend through all this but also I have learnt from his mistakes."
What confronts as the taxing part will be controlling one's emotions to protect the other or insulating one from the other's performance once the racing begins. In the village they will not share a room, but will be in close contact. They are so emotionally invested in the other's performance that how one goes – good or bad – must impact the other. The issue will be how much.
LaCaze runs first. She thinks that's a good thing: Gregson is better at shutting out what he doesn't need to, she reasons. She is probably right. Gregson argues the relationship has to essentially be on hold during the Olympics.
"If any of it became a distraction we wouldn't want our relationship to get in the way or anything like that … at the end of the day even though we are in a relationship, it is an individual sport and we are both in this to get the most out of ourselves. I guess we kind of have to put it aside and realise what we are there for and that is to get really good results," Gregson said.
LaCaze said after three years together and Commonwealth games and world championships in that time they have learnt from the at-times painful experiences.
Glasgow was not great. Gregson had a shocker but LaCaze did well.
Importantly both have had the best year they could have hoped for leading into the games. Gregson is back to the form of his career after being bedevilled by injury for several years and now shapes as a genuine medal chance.
He ran well in Europe, finishing third in a Diamond League meet in Rome. That was the race that affirmed his steady improvement over the year and in the aggressive way he ran reaffirmed in his own mind the confidence he has back now in his ability.
He is not the type who can bluff confidence for a race he said. Perhaps not, but you also cannot bluff the self-assurance when year on year your body fights you.
"I always had faith that I would get back, maybe at times it was blind faith. I don't know where that faith comes from, maybe it's because I did have a taste at such a young age. I had a taste of being one of the best in the world when I was 20 so I knew what it was like, knew how good it felt, I knew that I wasn't going to stop until I got that back.
"Now I have got back to that level I just want to stay here for as long as I can and get even better."
Both run with Nic Bideau's Melbourne Track Club. Bideau will have 10 athletes in Rio including young star Luke Mathews in the 800 and 1500.
"Thankfully he's still yet to beat me in training at anything but it just means I have to keep every day perfect and 100 per cent because I have got a guy like Luke ready to step in and beat me," Gregson said.
Despite the impressive year he has had Gregson said quick times in Europe are not what will be remembered and he wants to be remembered, at worst, as an Olympic finalist.
"The day in 10 years' time when I am retired that's what people are going to talk about, they're not going to talk about a couple of fast times that I did, people are going to talk about how I did at a major championships," Gregson said.
"That will be how I will judge myself and certainly making the final is a pass mark. If I am able to do that it will be a dream come true and something I would be incredibly proud of."
