Every day when i'm up at 6am to get ready for training, the weather forecaster informs me that it will be another cold day, when is winter going to make way for spring??? There's been a few beautiful days so far when the sun is out, but still cold! 

Training is going very well and I feel my body is developing well. Eric my coach is starting to introduce some more speed work and I am confident everything is heading in the right direction. I've been getting regular adjustments at Putney Chiropractic to keep my body in good shape despite all the hard work I am putting it through. Today I received a fantastic new Garmin Forerunner 310XT. I already use a Forerunner 305 and this is an upgraded version with many useful new features. I use it on every water and running session and can download all the data wirelessly onto my laptop. 

On Sunday I go to my first training camp for a while in Seville. Really looking forward to training as part of the team again in some warm weather and developing my speed work. 

This week I have moved back down to the Teddington area to train under Eric Farrell's guidance, my coach of 15 years now. Really exciting to be getting stuck back into it training hard in the gym, pool, running and of course out on the water in my new Nelo Vanquish III. Pretty cold on the water at the moment but good all the same to be out in the fresh air on the Thames again. It was pretty tough to have to leave my medical career for a second time to persue my Olympic ambition having enjoyed 18 months back working mostly full time as a doctor.

 

Now it's just the simple case of training hard to re-build the muscle and fitness on a refreshed body and look forward to racing again. UK Sport Lottery fund and my two sponsors Matrix Fitness and Gatorade will support me along the journey to the London Olympics and hopefully another Olympic Gold medal. In the meantime I am enjoying pushing my body again and watching as much of the Winter Olympics as possible between sessions.

Just back from a good week in Dubai taking part in the Dubai Shamaal surf ski race. Great to get out to some warm weather and be amongst some of the Worlds best surfski paddlers. Nelo brought out several of their prototype versions of their new long distance ski. As usual, the boats were of top quality. They were great in the sea, catching runs easily and felt fast. Congratulations to Tim Jacobs who won the race again. Bring on next year when I will be more paddling fit!

 

After the race I went to the first of the International Rugby Sevens tournament series which was held in the outskirts of Dubai. I was kindly hosted by Aggreko in their hospitality area, an excellent way to enjoy the event! Rugby sevens is a fantastic event to watch at all levels and will be included in the Olympic program in 2016. I am sure this will raise the profile of the sport and standard even further. I'm looking forward to watching the tournament when it comes to England next May.