Home for Christmas

After the whirlwind of last month – taking a surprise trip to Paris and getting engaged – December has been a little calmer.

My last blog came from Florida, sitting in 25 degree heat, next to a pool and surrounded by palm trees.  Having returned to the UK last week, this month’s blog comes from a slightly less glamorous surrounding.  I’m sitting at my kitchen table, heating on full blast, enduring the strong smell of wet dogs!  It’s freezing here and the two hounds are lying by my side after a walk in the wind and rain.

Although it feels like being on another planet now, Florida was a great trip.  I managed to get in a lot of good work and feel that I’ve returned in great shape. The idea of the training camp was to complete a solid training block of work, stay fit and healthy, and come back in better shape than when I left.  On all three counts it feels like mission accomplished. 

We managed the occasional afternoon of downtime out in Florida. One afternoon we took the same fishing trip as the last time we were out there.  The motel owners have a 20 foot-long boat and invited us out for an afternoon’s fishing.  Always welcome!

Swimming is a tough sport; we literally spend hours and hours submerged in water with only a black line for company.  But it’s also given me travel opportunities I could only dream about otherwise.  One example would be fishing in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida under glorious sunshine, when most people are sat inside working!

It was a great day out and a lovely way to unwind but it was rewarding too.  There’s something really satisfying about taking on the elements and catching your own dinner.   Between us we managed to catch a number of fish including Tuna, Snapper and a fish called a Grouper, which I caught!  It was a weighty, strong fish that took a good 5-minutes to reel in and get aboard.  I’m not sure you can get a much fresher dinner and they tasted unbelievable.

The remainder of the trip was spent largely in the water, as opposed to on it, but I had a great time nonetheless.

Since coming back with only ten days until Christmas I’ve had to be organised in order to get the shopping done.  Normally I’m the one rushing around on Christmas Eve but this year with help from my fiancé I’m all done!

I’ve also managed to catch up with some family on my return.  My family have been brilliant all the way through my career and it’s really nice when we all get together. I don’t get to see them enough with all the training and travelling, so it’s important to make the effort when I am here.  My auntie always follows my blogs and texts me to say she’s read it, wherever I am in the world.  Its lovely to have the support and it means the world to me.

Me and Auntie Jane.

Also this month I competed at the Northampton Swim Meet: a low-key event but one with great importance in the lead up to the Olympic Trials.  It was useful to apply all the things we’re trying to improve in training.  I was really pleased with my times and with the shape I’m in.  Things are definitely moving in the right direction.

As the year comes to an end I want to thank everybody who has supported me through 2011, whatever their role.  Without all the help, my chances of competing at a third Olympic Games wouldn’t look as bright.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and here’s to a Happy 2012!

Training in Florida, the Derby sports awards and a Paris match..

This last month can only be described as a huge whirlwind of changes and I am absolutely loving it!

First of all, I am writing this blog sitting next to a pool under glorious Florida sunshine, wearing a pair of shades and a good coat of Factor 20.

After coming back from racing in the World Cup Series in Berlin last month my confidence was sky high. I didn’t expect to race that well and managed to carry that form and confidence into this month’s training block.

Training intensity has really increased since the end of last month. We’ve tapered off the short, fast speed swimming and concentrated on the long hard slog that’s going to get me in the best possible shape for the Olympic trials in March.

I’m really happy with where I am at the minute.  This season’s racing has been good and training is going according to plan. Even though the countdown is well and truly on for the trials and time is ticking, there’s still a lot of hard work to be done.

Whatever happens in March I want to know that I’ve left no stone unturned and make sure that all of the i’s are dotted and all the t’s crossed. That way there can be no regrets.

Back to Florida....   Together with the rest of the training group from Loughborough, I’m here on the south-east coast of America for a four week training block. The motel we’re staying at is a stone’s throw away from the beach and although it’s a little windy at times, there’s wall-to-wall sunshine.

Swimming is a tough sport but times like these and racing at major competitions make it all worthwhile. Having said that, this is by no means a holiday.  In fact it’s the complete opposite. We rarely have a day off and when we do it’s all about recovery and no play.

Our base is an hour north of Miami and we’re training at the Pinecrest School. The facilities are world-class and the all-year-round weather makes it a perfect location to get away from the British winter! Getting away to warmer climes helps us avoid all the bugs and illness that start getting spread around during the wintertime at home. Each training session missed is a training session wasted.  By removing ourselves from that bug-ridden environment at home, we can minimise the amount of sessions missed through illness.

It doesn’t mean we don’t ever get small colds, but it’s a percentages game.  When 0.01% is the difference from an Olympic Gold to missing out on a medal, it’s obviously a game worth playing.

Out of the pool this month has been interesting to say the least.  I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Derbyshire sports awards and to co-present an award. It’s always a great evening and inspiring to see all the different sports people achieving great things. I was fortunate enough to present the junior sportswoman of the year award to swimmer Molly Renshaw, a 15-year schoolgirl who broke into the senior team at this year’s World Championships in Shanghai. A well-deserved award and of course it’s always nice to see other swimmers from Derbyshire doing well.

On a more personal note, a couple of weeks ago I took a little trip to Paris with my girlfriend, Claire. I asked her if she fancied a weekend away to London because I was going to Florida for 4 weeks: a kind of peace-offering for leaving her all that time, and for all the Christmas shopping she’ll do on my behalf!

I told her we’d go to London for a weekend and that I would sort everything out, maybe throwing in a few surprises along the way.  We travelled down on the train to London from Loughborough straight after training and everything was completely normal as far as Claire was concerned.  It was only when we arrived into St Pancras Station that I told her we were going to Paris for the night! She certainly wasn’t expecting that and didn’t believe me until she saw the passports, which I’d remembered to pack and hide.

Once aboard the Eurostar train I told her there were no plans for when we arrived in Paris and, to be honest, there weren’t. The only thing I’d booked was a hotel. I hadn’t planned what we were going to do, no restaurant, nothing. But I did have one other surprise up my sleeve!

It was around 5pm after we checked into our hotel, so we decided to get dressed up and go out for dinner. We had a wander around the Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church that looks over the whole of Paris, and when the sun began to set we caught a taxi headed for the Eiffel Tower.

Standing at the Trocadero, which overlooks the Eiffel Tower, we watched the sun fall towards the horizon and bathe Paris in an amazing shade of red.  It encouraged me towards my next surprise.  I got down on one knee and asked Claire to marry me! To my relief she said yes!

The next few hours were a blur as my fiancé and I walked the streets of Paris telling family and friends about our big news. A couple of hours later we found a cute French restaurant and celebrated quietly. The next morning we got up and had breakfast before making our way back to the Eurostar.

It was only a short trip to Paris – less than 24 hours – but I will remember it for the rest of my life. I was relieved Claire had agreed but also glad to share the news which I’d hidden from everyone for weeks. The only person to know was Claire’s father, who I’d visited to ask for permission before we left.   Wedding plans are underway but nothing will happen until after next summer at the earliest.

For now my focus is well and truly on the Olympic trials in March, and hopefully after that, the Olympic Games. Only once these are out of the way will I start to think about the Hog Roast!

Thanks you for your support. I hope you’re enjoying the journey.

Competition times

October saw my first return to competition since the World Championships in July.

The events were nothing like the scale of the World Championships but with 99 per cent of our time dedicated to training, it’s always nice to start racing competitively again.  For the last six weeks training has concentrated on fitness and speed.  Competition offers the chance to apply the skills we’ve been honing to race scenarios.

I've competed at three different competitions in the last month; each a step up from the one before.

The first was at Loughborough in the pool where we train every day.  All the Loughborough squads – Development, University and Elite – entered and competed against each other in the ‘Big 50 Challenge’, a unique competition/training set that Loughborough coaches devised around five years ago.

Each swimmer has to enter in each category of stroke: Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle; plus an underwater race.  The races all cover 50 metres, hence the big ‘50’ challenge.  Added to the five 50 metre races is a 100 metre individual medley (IM), which means 25 metres of each stroke. All of the times are added up at the end of the evening and the swimmer with the least is the winner.  There’s no prize at stake, just an enormous amount of pride!  My target was to finish in the top five and 5th was my overall position.

Being a 200 metre swimmer, the ‘Big 50’ isn’t my forte, but it’s always a great laugh and brings the swimmers closer together in creating a brilliant atmosphere.  Loughborough University enjoys a fantastic team spirit, which I believe is a key reason for its success.

Next up was the Lincoln Open Meet, which was actually staged in Sheffield.  I entered five events, three of which I have either never done before or rarely ever compete in.  I entered 200 metre Fly, 200 metre IM, 100 Fly, 50 metre Free, and 100 metre Free.

Entering the different events was a deliberate strategy intended to familiarise me with racing again and I really enjoyed it.  There was no pressure because I didn’t know what to expect.  Sometimes it’s healthy to stand up and race the person next to you, without putting too much pressure on yourself about goals.  This was what the afternoon was about for me, so that was what I did.

A strong presence of GB swimmers at the meet meant it was a great opportunity for young, up-and-coming swimmers to race their heroes.  Meanwhile, swimmers as young as 10 were able to watch those who have won gold medals at Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European levels, and grab a few autographs.  Everyone likes being recognised for what they have achieved, and swimmers are no different.  It’s a pleasure whenever young or old swimmers ask for your autograph.

My final competition of the month was just last weekend.  Not in sunny Loughborough or the tropics of Sheffield, but this time in the cosmopolitan German city of Berlin.  The FINA World Cup Series travels across the world, stopping in Dubai, Stockholm, Moscow, Berlin, Singapore and Beijing, before finishing in Tokyo.   I only competed in the Berlin leg of the tour because it fit with our training phase and the travel time is manageable.

I was really pleased with my performance, managing to qualify for the 400 metre Freestyle Final, an event that isn’t normally my strongest.  And on top of that I managed a second place finish.  I’m never disappointed if I know I’ve given 100% leading up to an event, and in the race itself.  Also I can’t be disappointed in coming second to a world champion and world record holder!

My main event was the 200 metre Freestyle the next day.  Again I managed to qualify for the final but this time missed out on the medals, finishing fourth.  I was still pleased with the performance, both the time and position, and in the way I swam the race.  Training labours are now showing signs of bearing fruit in race scenarios.

Now back from Berlin I have three weeks more in Loughborough before heading out to Florida for a training camp.  In this time I plan to work on getting as fit as possible so I can go to Florida and put a great 4 to 5 weeks of training in.

Before heading out I’ll also be able to enjoy time at home with family, friends and of course the dogs!  This week was the first birthday of our golden retriever puppy. I wasn’t around for it but I know for sure that both dogs, Alf and Poppy were spoilt rotten – even though it wasn’t Alf’s birthday! (Not that either of them really had any idea what was going on).

On the subject of down-time, next month I’m looking forward to using a Christmas present from my girlfriend Claire.  We’re off for a live comedy double-header: Jason Manford in Derby followed by Alan Carr in London the next day.  It’ll be a treat to chill out with a rare weekend away from the pool.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get to a Derby County game over this next three weeks too, because after then time will be in short supply.

The road to London is getting closer by the day. Each day I wake up thinking it’s another chance of working as hard as possible to realise my dreams of competing at a third Olympic Games.

Thanks as ever for all the good luck wishes and for all the support.  It’s always appreciated.

Getting up to speed

Fitness and fine-tuning have been the order of the last month or so, with rock climbing, kickboxing, camping in hurricanes and pushing cars up hills all thrown in for good measure!

Preparations are now well under way for the Olympic trials in March and I’m firmly focused on getting in the best possible shape, stacking the odds in my favour for London 2012 qualification.

The current focus of our training is to get fit, lose any residue holiday weight, develop raw speed and concentrate on racing skill. One thing I took away from the World Championship earlier this year was the knowledge that my skill needs to improve if I’m to compete with the best. This means my starts need to improve and my turns need to be faster and more efficient. On top of this I need to continue working on my general fitness to achieve faster finishes.

All these things take time to implement but the signs indicate that I’m moving in the right direction, which is very pleasing.

The past four weeks have seen our group continue with the unconventional training methods. Provided you arrive at the same place, mixing up training is beneficial for athletes. As the saying goes: ‘there are many ways to skin a cat.’ Boredom leads to athletes going stale, which is the last thing any athlete or coach wants, especially in Olympic year.

So we have continued to rock climb, kick-box, run, lift weights, complete gym circuits and, of course, swim. But in the middle of all this we went as a group to Carsington Water in Derbyshire to camp and exercise for a couple of nights: a mini boot camp for swimmers. It was just our luck to pick the week Britain experienced the tail-end of a transatlantic hurricane, which made a challenge of trying to pitch up our tents and sleep beneath the stars!

Having said this, the couple of nights we stayed at the campsite were brilliant. We walked, ran, cycled, canoed, built rafts, rock climbed and pushed a car up a hill. I have camped before but this was no regular camping trip. Both as individuals and as a group, we revelled in the different challenges.

This week I returned from a training camp in Tenerife with the Loughborough University team. Whereas I usually train at Loughborough’s ITC (Intense Training Centre) and our group only consists of 8 swimmers, this time we went away with all the Loughborough students, making up a group of 35 swimmers. It’s been great competing against different swimmers. There wasn’t any car-pushing, canoe racing or raft building, but much more swimming. It was great to get away, increase our fitness, speed and strength. All whilst being under the watchful eye of the sun!

This month has been busy out of the pool as well. I was asked to open Identity, a watch store in Derby’s Westfield shopping centre. It was great to learn about all the different watches they had in store and to obtain a little knowledge of the industry.

I was also asked to ‘keep watch’ over my 10 and a half month old goddaughter Daisy-Mae. This gave a little insight into how demanding babies can be, but at the same time, how rewarding it is! I really enjoyed myself for the day and I’m sure if she could talk, she would have said the same!

Almost as rewarding was a day out to watch my beloved Derby County Football Club in the East Midlands local derby match. My best friend Dean and I managed to get tickets for the match against our close rivals, Nottingham Forest: always a fierce encounter and tickets are like gold dust. With one man sent off and one goal conceded within 64 seconds, we feared the worst. But Derby staged a remarkable comeback to win 1-2, which left our away stand literally rocking! This was a giant achievement after being beaten in the same fixture 5-2 less than 10 months ago, and a great day for the football club and the city.

As life in the pool starts the increase, free time and social time become downtime: time to let the body recover from the gruelling previous week and get ready for the punishing week ahead.

With two eyes and one mind firmly focussed on the Olympic trials in March, again I thank you for all your support.

Swimming World TV - Morning Swim Show

Yesterday I gave a live link-up interview for Swimming World TV's Morning Swim Show.  I gave my views on next year's competition and our training methods.  You can check out the video here..





Or by visiting Swimming World Magazine here.

Rest and refocus before the London 2012 journey begins

My Olympic journey starts here.

Returning to training after a three-week break marked the beginning of the final stage of our four-year Olympic cycle, which is equally scary and exciting.

It’s important to have a clear divide between seasons, especially after such a high pressure event like the World Championships. Reflecting on achievements and taking the time out for complete rest and relaxation, both physically and mentally, is vital in preparing for the season ahead.  My next major goal is the Olympic trials in March.

During my first couple of weeks off I did some charity work and some community work, which is always enjoyable. For me, it’s essential to give something back to the community whose support means so much, and it was great to have the time to do that.

I also took a few days away in Ireland with my girlfriend Claire, the Event Manager for British Swimming.  Next year will be an exciting and busy time for both of us as I’ll be aiming to get in the Olympic team and Claire will be organising trial events for swimming and the other aquatic sports.  We picked out a couple of nice hotels and took a road trip between the locations. Although we didn’t go to Ireland for a beach holiday, we did manage to find a beach to spend lunch one day.  We were extremely lucky to find it in the one 10 minute spell the sun came out during the whole trip!

My grandad was from Ireland and we still have a lot of family over there, who we were able to visit. Having not seen some of them for about 15 years, it was brilliant to catch up.  We also visited Killarney and Wexford before heading back to Dublin for some traditional Irish culture.  This culture obviously had to include a tour of the famous Guinness brewery, where we were able to pour (and taste) our own pints of the black stuff.  I hadn’t tried it before because during the season we don’t normally drink, so it was especially fun.  We followed this with a trip to watch the Riverdance and felt like we’d been fully initiated to the Irish way by the time we flew home!

It was great to spend time with Claire and unwind before our busy year ahead. We’ve both come back relaxed, focused and ready to tackle the next 12 months.

Now my mind is firmly set on the British Gas Swimming Championships in March and getting in the best shape possible.  But at the moment we’re not actually doing much swimming.  Instead it’s all about cross training, such as rock climbing, kick boxing, running and circuits, to help rebuild our strength after having time off. We’re also doing pilates and gymnastics for core strength. All of this will help our swimming when we start increasing the sessions in the pool, which will happen over the next few weeks.

In September we’ll be heading to Tenerife for some warm weather training. Our strength and power will be back by then, so it will be a case of doing lots of swimming to get back into great shape and peak fitness.  The camp should springboard our preparation ahead of the trials.

Now is the time to invest 100% effort, blood, sweat and tears, hold nothing back and enjoy the ride! 

Your support means everything to me and I hope you enjoy following my journey.

The 2012 Countdown Is On..

This post catches me dreaming of 2012 and reviewing the brilliant experience of the Swimming World Championships in Shanghai.

Now the countdown is really on.  It’s under a year until the London Olympic Games, which means this time next year we’ll know who the winners and losers are; who are our new national heroes and who has fallen heartbreakingly short. 

We’ll also be addressing the biggest party hangover the UK’s had in a generation, and begin to start wondering: ‘whatever do we do now?’!

But before we look too far into the future, it’s time to reflect.  I’ve just returned home from the World Championships in Shanghai, China, with the rest of Great British Swimming Team.

The World Championships are the second most important swimming competition behind the Olympics.  They happen every two years and the event before the Olympics is the biggest single indicator of what will happen the following year.

Our latest trip started around four weeks ago.  After a short flight to Amsterdam, where the team assembled, we endured a 10 hour flight to Osaka, Japan. We went there to acclimatise to similar conditions, culture, food and time-zone as China, and to bond as a team.

Regardless of how much of a frequent flyer you are, long haul flights are always punishing.  I need my rest, so missing out on a night’s sleep definitely takes its toll!   Firstly, I managed to get over the jetlag and take some down-time.

In the lead-up to a competition we decrease the volume and intensity of training.  From four weeks until racing it gets gradually less intense until we’re doing around 45 minutes of low intensity swimming a day, leading right up to the competition.

Those three to four weeks are all about resting up and fine-tuning the tiny aspects of your skills and technique.  All the hard work is done in the months beforehand so the worst thing a swimmer can do in the days before a major competition is to work too hard.  The more a swimmer rests, the sharper they become – providing they have put in the hard graft over the previous months.

I was in Japan for about eight days and the country was great.  Training was getting better the more I rested and I felt sharper with each day that passed.  This meant I was confident of being able to put in a strong performance in Shanghai.

In the days before our departure from Japan, we learnt of a Typhoon heading straight to Osaka! With winds approaching 140mph heading straight for us, we were obviously concerned the airport would close and we wouldn’t make it to Shanghai in time.  Fortunately the Typhoon slowed down and we managed to get out before it hit Osaka.  Which was a relief because nobody fancied swimming across to China.

With four days until the competition began, we arrived safely into Shanghai and familiarised with our new surroundings. About 30 minutes bus drive away from the hotel was Shanghai Oriental Sports Center: the venue.  Although the pool is temporary and erected just for the World Championships, it’s situated in a brand new £300 million indoor facility that will host basketball, ice hockey and concerts after the pool itself is removed.  It’s a brilliant arena.   After seeing it for the first time I felt a wave of nerves and excitement, and couldn’t wait to start racing.

A few days later, rested up and shaved down, I was ready to race!

Day 2 saw the 200 metre freestyle, my preferred event.  It’s a strong event the world over, with the likes of Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and next year Ian Thorpe, all competing.  Over 20 Olympic golds between them mean it’s a pretty exciting and massively competitive race.

I went into the competition ranked 20^th in the world and really wanted to move up, hopefully making the top 16 and winning a place in the semi-final.  For this to happen I had to swim a best time in the morning heats.  That’s despite morning times being notoriously slower than evening times, because the body isn’t as alert.  

I was drawn in Heat 9 of 9, in Lane 1. The fastest swimmers are always drawn in the middle lanes, with the slower swimmers on the outside.

Judging by the times being posted in the heat beforehand, I knew that for me to make the semi-final this would have to be a lifetime best.  And even then it would be touch and go.  Standing behind the blocks, I was trembling with nerves yet reassured that I’d put 100% effort and commitment into training over the past 6 months.  It was time to race.

The race was a complete blur. Being out in Lane 1 you can’t see across the pool and can only really see Lanes 2 and 3.  All the same I knew I was doing well because I could tell I was in front of the two swimmers next to me. 

I touched the wall to see I’d finished third in my heat with a lifetime best performance and knew straight away that I’d achieved my goal of making the semi-final.  I’d actually qualified eighth fastest into the semi-final, which was just seven hours away.

Between the heats and semi-final you have to recover as fast as possible.  So after swimming down – slow, steady swimming to remove all lactate from the muscles – and a massage, I headed back to the hotel for some food and a sleep.

After a few hours’ sleep it was back to the pool for the semi.  I was so happy with my performance in the heat that anything else which came my way was a bonus.

The race went well for me and I was really pleased with the tenth-place finish.  In fact I only missed out on the final by 0.37sec.

After the 200m free I had three days’ recovery before the 4x200 metres freestyle relay.  I love being part of the relay team.  It’s such an honour to be able to race for your country, but also for your teammates and friends.  Four guys giving 100% and willing each other on generates a great feeling.  I’d always prefer success in the relay over success in the individual events.  It means you can share your success and emotions with three other friends.

We knew it would be hard to make the final but we managed to do it, before finishing sixth in the final itself.  As a relay team we know we can improve, so this is a great starting point for next year.  With the right support, I feel the relay team has a strong chance of Olympic success next year.  I’ll be doing everything in my power to be part of that team, and everything possible to make it a success.

I now have a couple of weeks’ break before it all starts again.  This time I will be starting back on the final road to qualification for the greatest show the UK will ever see: London 2012!  For now, I’m looking no further ahead than that. 

Thanks for all your continued support, here, on Twitter, Facebook, and even in person!  It's always really appreciated.

Shanghai Noon (via Barcelona Sheffield Rome and Loughborough).

This post finds me a little further down the road to the World Championship in Shanghai, and ultimately another step closer to London 2012.

Since returning from the national training camp in Cyprus some 4-6 weeks ago, I've hauled myself across Europe and back again in the name of competition and training. It feels like East Midlands airport and budget airlines have become my second home!
At the beginning of June I travelled out to Barcelona with the rest of my training group to compete at The Mare Nostrum, a series of three competitions across Barcelona, Canet (southern France) and Monte Carlo. Having competed at the series many times over the years, I knew some of the world’s best travel over for it. Although I only swam in the Barcelona leg, it was a really good training exercise.

I came third in my main event, the 200 metre freestyle, to two Russian swimmers who are European, World, and Olympic medallists, so it was no disgrace.  In fact, it was extremely satisfying to be up there challenging the best swimmers around whilst in the middle of heavy training and highly fatigued.

Practising skills under pressure when you’re not fully rested and are feeling the effects of fatigue can actually be a great training exercise. If I did it here and swam well, I can be even better prepared for when it really matters on the world stage.  

When the Barcelona event finished and the series went on to Canet, I took a mini four-day training camp at a place half an hour outside of Barcelona.  It was only a brief stay because we had another competition coming up, this time in sunny Sheffield.

The Sheffield competition was used as a ‘top-up’ event for those who hadn't qualified to compete for the British team at the World Championships later this year.  Fortunately I’d qualified at the first time of asking back in March, but once again it was great practise trying new things and working on weaknesses within race scenarios.

I competed at an unusual distance for me, the 400 metres: double the distance of my main event.  6th place was all in all a pleasing finish.  It was tough work but interesting to see how I compared against Britain’s best in the distance.  Given that I prepare and train for the 200 metres, I expected the 400 metres to be twice as long and twice as painful, and so it proved!

After just two days in the steel city of Sheffield I headed out to compete at my third competition in just over ten days. This time my destination was the capital of Italy, the home of the Pope, the birthplace of pizza: Rome.

By now I was tired from training, exhausted from travelling and drained from racing. Yet I somehow managed to clock my fastest time over the three competitions.  This gave me a lot of confidence ahead of the World Championships in Shanghai.  

‘When in Rome’ I did as tourists do, thankfully managing to get a couple of evenings off to cram in some sightseeing. Swimming is such a lonely sport: day after day spent staring at the black line, added to the unsociable hours.  This makes it especially nice when you get a chance to see outside the swimming pools of places you visit. In Rome I managed to see Roman ruins including the Vatican City and Colosseum, while a few weeks earlier I’d been to see the famous Montjuic Fountains of Barcelona.

Our Loughborough training group has been doing a lot of ballet lately.  This might sound strange but it really helps body position in the water. Ballet is all about how you move your body as 'one,' how you hold a firm body posture under pressure and how to breathe efficiently throughout: all things which us swimmers need.

We’ve been lucky to have an incredible Italian teacher who has done wonders with us, taking us from swimmers with two left feet, to swimmers with one right and one left leg.  It’s a start!  In Rome I thought it would be good to keep up the ballet in front of Rome's famous landmarks.

A final block of hard and high-intensity work faced me on my return from Rome, which is vital in the build-up to the World Championships.  We leave for Japan as a team next Tuesday (July 12th) and spend around eight days preparing there before heading on to Shanghai in China.

In Japan we’ll acclimatise to the region and recover from the jet lag of travelling halfway around the world.  It’s also important to come together as a group of people and continue the bond we have on the British Swimming team. All the fine-tuning will be undertaken in Japan, resting up and mentally preparing for the most important competition of the year, the second most important swimming competition behind the Olympics.

British swimming is continuing its upward curve of success. As a team we will be doing anything we can to keep the momentum going at the World Championship and ultimately through to the Olympics next year in London. It’s an extremely exciting time to be an athlete right now, and in particular to be a swimmer for Great Britain.  I couldn’t be more proud.

Thanks for your continued support.


Keep up to date with events in Japan and China by following me on Twitter @SwimmerRoss.

Training daze..

A well-earned break, training camps in Mallorca and Cyprus, a naked Cosmopolitan centrefold.  You could say I’ve been busy..


Since the British Gas Swimming Championships at the beginning of March, things have been really manic for me. I eventually came down from the high of World Championship qualification in Manchester and decided it was time to take what was, in my view, a well deserved break.

But that wasn’t before a further week of training after the championships. As a group in Loughborough we completed an intensive five days of training to boost our fitness levels before taking a break. This made it easier to start again after seven days’ rest, fully charged and ready to go on the next phase of the journey.

Plus it means you can have one extra ice cream on the beach!

My girlfriend Claire and I then jetted off to St Lucia for a relaxing and very chilled out week: just what the doctor ordered. St Lucia is a beautiful place, the food was fantastic but the thing that struck us both was the locals. Some of the most polite and friendly people you could ever wish to meet!

On returning to the UK it was back to business as usual: the daily grind of training and preparing for the World Championship in Shanghai in late July.  We spent about a week training in Loughborough before heading out to Mallorca for a five-day training camp. The objective of the camp was to gain as much fitness as possible while also making it as fun as possible. This is really important because the stresses of competition can really pile on pressure and get you down, win or lose.

In Mallorca we cycled, ran, walked, played on the beach, lifted weights, completed body circuits and of course we swam. We’d start training at around 8.30am and finish anywhere between 2-3pm. In that time we would only swim once but it was surrounded by other activities before and after, making the day a highly intensive one. But it was enjoyable, cycling the roads of Mallorca and running the streets of the local towns, all under the watchful glow of the sun!

The whole training group came back in better shape, both mentally and physically.

There was only enough time for a few sessions back in Loughborough before it was time to go away again, this time for the National training camp to Cyprus. The annual get together allows the National Team to train as a squad and helps to create a greater bond between us.  We’re able to introduce the rookies to the team and train against other members or rivals who we might not be familiar with.

Cyprus was a great experience and another phase ticked off on the road to Shanghai!

View from my room.

With no time to unpack on arriving back from Cyprus, I was straight off to Manchester for the British Gas Great Swim. The swim is part of a series of swims all over the UK in lakes, docks and reservoirs that the public can take part in for a challenge. This one was 1 mile long with all types of swimmers involved, from elite swimmers to beginners, from young to old. It’s a great way of including everyone in swimming.

I was there for the elite race. I really enjoy the swims but it isn’t my forté. Open water swimming is completely different to pool swimming. In pool swimming you are the only person in your lane, there are two fixed walks either 25m or 50m apart, lane ropes and a black line to show you the way! In open water swimming there’s none of that. You’re in cold, dark, dirty water and surrounded by other swimmers. It's great fun but I don't think there is a career for me in open water. I came 17th out of 20!!

Another thing happened in the last couple of months, which you might have seen....    Along with two other swimmers, Grant Turner and James Goddard, I did a photo-shoot for Cosmopolitan Magazine. Not just any old photo shoot but a NAKED centrefold for one of the biggest magazines around!!

We were asked by the media department at British Swimming if we were interested in doing it and I instantly agreed! It was only when the photographer asked us to get naked that it really hit home what we were actually doing: appearing virtually naked in one of the UK’s bestselling women’s magazines!  It was a very different experience.       

I'm now working tirelessly towards the the World Championship later this year. I'll be competing in a few competitions in Europe, Barcelona, Cannes and also in Sheffield. It should provide me with great race practise and brilliant competition.

Thanks for your support.

Success at the British Swimming Championships

After returning from an enjoyable and successful training camp in South Africa, my confidence was high going into the British Gas Swimming Championships in Manchester - which incorporated the trials for the World Championships in Shanghai.

I'd raced well in South Africa and trained well since the Commonwealth Games back in October 2010, but over Christmas I had a small setback.  What I now know was swine flu completely wiped me out for three days and then lingered for around 2-3 weeks.  However, by the time the British Championships came round I was in good shape and felt back to full fitness.

The day before I started competing in the 200 metres freestyle, I shaved down.  This means literally shaving your whole body and takes hours to do!  After that I tried to rest up, but without much luck.  Only five months earlier I'd lost my Commonwealth title to my good friend Robbie Renwick. Now I was excited, nervous and anxious about how the following few days would pan out.

The next morning went according to plan. I raced the heats of the 200 metres freestyle and felt comfortable, without setting the world alight. It was then a case of resting up as much as possible before the evening's semi-final, so I went back to the hotel for something to eat, and put my feet up for a while before heading back to the pool.

In terms of making ensuring progression to the next round, the semi-final was similar to the heats. It didn't matter which lane I had for the final because I felt comfortable and confident enough to perform well from any, as long as I was in the final.  But the stakes were much higher as this was where the real pressure started.  As a result I was very nervous before the semi-final, knowing that if I messed up or got disqualified then I wouldn't make the final and my chances of qualifying for the World Championships would be slimmer. Still, I had a race plan which I discussed with my coach, and I stuck to it. The semi-final swim felt good, I knew there was a lot more in me and I qualified for the final in 5th place! 

With a lane in the final and more in the tank, I knew I had a chance of winning.  In fact, straight after the semi-final I turned to my coach and said "I feel like I can win this."

Again it was a case of resting, eating and sleeping. The final was 24 hours after the semi, so there was a lot of time to think about the race.  Maybe too much..

In the evening of the final I was nervous again, although not quite as much as I was before the semi. By this point I knew all I could do was my best. I felt good in the warm up and was well-prepared for the race.

The race itself went how I predicted. The first 50 metres were very close but I knew I was up there with the leaders.  By the 100 metre mark I was leading and feeling comfortable there. Then the third 50 metres began to take their toll and I could see Robbie catching up on me. I know from racing against Robbie and Dave Carry over the past 7 years that they always finish strongly, so from there I just put my head down and gave everything I had left to make it to the wall first.

PICTURE BY VAUGHN RIDLEY/SWPIX.COM...

British Gas Swimming Championships 2011, Day 3 - Manchester Aquatics Centre, Manchester, England - 07/03/11

Looking up from the water I didn't know where I had finished.  Then I saw the scoreboard.  I had won and in doing so had qualified for my fourth World Long Course Championships!  I was ecstatic.

PICTURE BY VAUGHN RIDLEY/SWPIX.COM...

British Gas Swimming Championships 2011, Day 3 - Manchester Aquatics Centre, Manchester, England - 07/03/11

Robbie came a close second and Dave Carry came third. Both are great friends and fantastic competitors. We have raced each other so many times down the years. Sometimes I win, sometimes Robbie wins and sometimes Dave wins. It's great to have that competition from two brilliant guys.

This seems a good point to say thanks for all the messages of support and congratulations during the British Championships, however they've been sent: on Twitter, Facebook or even in real life!  It really does mean a lot.

Now it's time to train for a well-earned break. Once I return from holiday it'll be straight back to the daily grind of training. I'll compete in Europe a couple of times before heading out to the World Championships in China later in the year.

Bring it on!

South African training camp

On my way down to Heathrow for what seemed like the hundredth time, I took a moment to realise how lucky and privileged I am. It shouldn’t be taken for granted, travelling the world, seeing different cultures and meeting new people, all in the process of chasing my dream to compete at a home Olympics in 15 months’ time.

In the past 6 months swimming alone has taken me to Budapest, Doha, Delhi and Florida. This time I was on my way to Durban, South Africa for a training camp.

After an 11-hour flight to Johannesburg, a domestic flight to Durban and a short drive, our training group reached the house at around 7pm. We quickly dropped off our bags before exploring our new home for the next three weeks and, of course, taking a short dip to loosen off.  On first viewing the pool looked like it was built in the 1960s!  But all the same it was a 10 lane 50m pool with a 8 lane 25m pool next to it.  It reminded me of an old lido but we get the use of the pool whenever we want and all the space we need, so it’s perfect for us. 

This training camp is very different to a normal camp because we’re all staying in a large house that’s been converted specifically for swimmers who train at the pool. I'm sharing a room with World and Commonwealth Champion, Liam Tancock, and Commonwealth Medallist, Grant Turner. We also share a communal living room and dining room with the girls: Lowri Tynan, Commonwealth and World Championship swimmer; Lizzie Simmonds, European Champion, and Fran Halsall, European and Commonwealth Champion.

We’re living a life of luxury thanks to two amazing maids who also live in the house. They cook breakfast and dinner for us, plus they do our cleaning, washing and ironing. It’s like going back 10 years and living at home with your mum having tea on the table after training!

We’re out here for the last big block of work before the World Championship trials in Manchester. The trials are the first big competition of the year, with qualification for July’s World Championship in Shanghai the big incentive. 

During our stay in South Africa we were invited to compete at the Port Elizabeth invitational swim meet. About an hour’s flight south from Durban, the Port Elizabeth meet gave us the chance to race against other international swimmers and fine tune skills we’ve been working on since last year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

I raced a lot over the two days and put in some good performances. I'm still lacking on front end speed but that’ll come over the next 4 weeks as I start to taper into trials. (Tapering is where we decrease the volume and intensity in the lead up to a major competition).

After the competition we took a day off to drive up to Tala Safari park. We saw some great sights including Zebra, Giraffes, Warthogs, Elephants (I even met one) and Lions.  We tried to find the hippos but ended up getting stuck in some marsh land so had to turn back!!

Making friends with the locals.

 I thought we had collected a couple of monkeys, but it turned out to be Liam and Grant!  

The South African people have been really friendly and welcoming. Its somewhere I’d definitely love to come back to, either with swimming or on holiday.

Now there’s just one week left of training here before we fly home, and then it’s just over 3 weeks until the world trials. In this time I’m planning to rest up as much as possible, saving all my energy for the competition and hopefully gaining qualification to Shanghai!  

Tickets are on sale for the World Championship Trials in Manchester, March 5-12th, 2011. Please visit http://www.swimming.org for more information.