Heyward is now coaching himself as he aims to get back to his best.
“I was blessed to have a very good coach in Mark Rowland and I learned a lot from my time there,” he explained.
“He did a really good job with me, actually managing injuries, but when I took my time away I realised I needed to heal mentally as well as physically.
“For me that meant stepping away from the sport, moving back home, being around my family, being back in Wales, and I think that’s given me a new perspective and a new lease of life.”
Heyward says it feels like a new beginning for him.
“I genuinely feel like it’s the start of my career now because I think from my perspective, people have always been like, ‘Oh Jake has the ability to do certain things’, but I was always carrying this burden of this huge bone deformity on my heel,” he said.
“I couldn’t push off my foot properly, I was managing sessions, changing the way I was running, and I was never really able to get the best out of myself because of it.”
While he continues to move back towards his best, Heyward is keeping realistic expectations of his ‘new’ self.
“It’s so easy to compare yourself to how a session felt when you were in peak condition,” he continued.
“You have to be very confident in your own ability and also trust the process.
“I think when you’re patient, and you listen to your body, and you allow it to come to you, that’s when the results come.”
With a 3:32.09 run in Nancy at the start of July, Heyward was just one second off his personal best in the 1,500m event.
That run was inside the standard for August’s European Championships in Birmingham, though he will have to wait to see whether he is selected by the British team after finishing second at the UK Athletics Championships in June.
Heyward said his performance at the UK Championships was bittersweet: “I came to win and was a little bit short of it.
“In the bigger picture it’s incredible to be able to put a pair of spikes on, be healthy and be challenging for the win.
“It’s pleasing that I can still come back into this environment and run a fast lap because the way my training has been going I haven’t done much of that work yet.
“It’s really exciting going into the Commonwealth Games.
“It’s one of the first times I’ve gone into a race and really just enjoyed the whole thing; that’s really good.”
