Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

A lot has happened since my last post!

First of all, the GB team has been named, and it's a great line-up as well with Helen Tucker and Hollie Avil, Tim Don, Alistair Brownlee and me.

I'm really happy with the team, it's really well-rounded with no "weakest link" and I genuinely believe that each one of us could win a medal.

Once the qualifying race was over... phew! We all pretty much had a week off to recharge the batteries, before we headed off to Austin, Texas where the specific preparation for Beijing began.

We chose Austin because of the guaranteed extreme heat. In Beijing it's likely to be around 90% humidity and 35-38 degrees so we had to find somewhere to replicate this. On one of our bike rides we saw 109F!

I felt like I had a good block of training with many good sessions and many struggles as well. I managed to do a great session on the track. It was about 41C and I ran 35 x 400m, where I went close to the times I would expect in England.

The whole team then went straight out to Des Moines, Iowa for the World Cup to practice racing in the heat, putting all that we practiced to test. Unfortunately results were not great from anyone for various reasons. Most of us were still very mentally tired from the big stress of our qualifier race.

When we arrived back in the UK the team was finally officially announced by the BOA. This proved to be just the boost I needed. It started to settle in after this announcement - we signed off all the forms and then everyone pretty much got their body weight in kit and all of a sudden I started to feel very Olympic.

Everything has been going swimmingly since we arrived back from Des Moines. My coach Dan Salcedo and I have been getting stuck into a massive block of training and racing to get in tip-top shape for the Games.

We did another big week leading into the French GP where I ran 100 miles during the week. The race went really well - Hollie came joint first.

In our race Tim, Ali and I had a fantastic work out off a massive week of training. My race was interesting to say the least but I managed to finish fourth in a sprint with Ali and Tim and we all finished within five seconds of each other - and under 15 minutes on an off-road course for the 5k.

After France, training resumed in Spain for one of our organised pre-games camps.
Several other athletes were there - Tim brought Fraser Cartmell out, Hollie Avil and Kerry Lang trained together. I brought my girlfriend and one of my best mates and training buddy Dann Brook so it was like a home from home.

Together Dann and I put in one of the hardest 10 days ever. All we did was eat, train and sleep! We really pushed the boat out with Olympics on the mind, the volume was high and the intensity of our training was really tough as well, with something extreme every day.

I had to consume energy drinks every day to keep the performances high and the ever-professional Narroa, our sports scientist, was always on hand with recovery ice baths to keep us going. John was also waiting to piece us back together with physio and massage.

I think everyone got a lot out of that camp. Personally I have a few more hard days left of this period to go, including a race at the Corus National Champs in Wales (which will be very hit-or-miss!) before we get on the flight to Korea, when I aim to be safe in the knowledge that I have done everything I can for this Games.

It's going to be exciting. The biggest race of my life so far will all be over in less than a month's time. Bring it on!