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!