Friday, September 17, 2010

A Date with Delhi

The next few weeks are going to be so exciting. I’m off to Doha next week for an eight-day preparation camp and then it’s the main event of the year – the Commonwealth Games.

There’ll be about 50 of us in Doha, and we’ll be doing a bit of fine-tuning ahead of jetting off to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games. The Games is the only international event outside the Olympics that have all the competitors staying in an athlete village, so its promises to be a great experience.

In terms of events, I’ll be racing the 200m Medley and the 400m Medley. And there’s a surprise event! I’ll also be doing the 800m Freestyle, which I haven’t done in a competition for quite a while, so it should be interesting to see how I do in that. I’m pretty confident going into the Games, but I never make predictions of how I’m going to do – so we’ll just wait and see.

After the racing, my Stockport Metro teammates and I are going to stay in Delhi for the remaining week, watch a few other events and see some of the amazing culture that India is famous for. It will be great to spend a bit of time with my teammates out of the pool – we all get on really well. We’d like to catch a bit of the men’s hockey as they have been doing so well recently – and you can’t go to India and not see the Taj Mahal!

So as I said, it’s a really exciting few weeks – I’ll be posting another blog from Delhi to let you know how I’m getting on, stay tuned!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Home Sweet Home!

I'm finally home after a very busy couple of months - and my attention is now fully on the Commonwealth Games in Delhi this October. I will be swimming in the 400 I.M and hoping to be in the 200 I.M too, but I'll have to wait and see about that one.

The last 2 months have been a real whirlwind! I have gone from the Open Water World Championships in Canada to being a pundit for the BBC during the European Championships in Budapest. I have really enjoyed it but I am so happy to be able to be home with my friends and family.

I'm really excited about Comm Games and even more excited to start the next season and right all the wrongs I made this season! Up first for next season is a 3 week training camp in Sierra Nevada in Spain which is at an altitude of between 2,400 to 2,800m!! It's going to be a little tough doing three sessions a day - I do love a challenge though .....