Happy New Year!

As The Big Year arrived, everything suddenly became much more real..

So 2012 is finally here.  As soon as big Ben struck 12am and the fireworks began, the London Olympic Games appeared to take a giant step closer. In that second the Olympic games became very, very real!

Whilst watching the rockets and colour light up the London skyline for what seemed like an eternity, I was flooded with a sense of extreme pride, excitement and nerves.

In that 11 minutes London was watched by millions of people around the world, giving us an insight into the levels of attention we can expect for the duration of the Games. The streets of London crammed with people, an event expertly showcased by a globally leading city, an atmosphere the rest of the world is stunned by, and a buzz which can overwhelm the fiercest cynics.  

Christmas was a very quiet affair for me this year, with only a couple of days off training over the festive period. It’s hard not being able to completely relax with friends and family but it’s one of many sacrifices I’m willing to take in order to compete at the Games in little over 6 months time.

One thing we all do as a family is a big dog walk on Boxing Day. It’s great to get out in the fresh air the day after Christmas and walk the Christmas pudding off.  We take a bracing walk over a golf course, through woods and alongside streams. The dogs love it and so do I!

The little time spent at home this year was a lovely. I do love Christmas so I try to make the most of it. Christmas dinner was spent at my fiancé Claire’s house, with her family in Melton Mowbray, before travelling back to Belper to spend time with my family.

New Year was also a low-key event.  Claire and I visited Claire’s sister, Amy.  She’s a chef with her own catering business so we were treated to an 8-course meal!  The food was amazing, and it was really nice relaxing in good company whilst taking in the New Year. 

Since then training has been going well. Things are pretty tough at the minute but there’s only a few more weeks left of hard training before we start resting up for the trials.

We arrived into Tenerife on Wednesday (18^th January) for our last training camp before the trials. This camp provides the last intense training block and again gives the benefit of leaving the British winter and transferring to healthier climes.  On returning to the UK, our workload and its intensity will decrease.  This trip really is the final stretch on what has been a 7-year journey to qualify for the London Olympic Games.

Thanks for your support and I hope everyone has a great 2012.

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.