April saw the first England Talent squad camp of 2015, being held
at Welbeck Defence College near Loughborough. The week was really good,
starting with just the 10 England talent squad members, then slowly more people
arriving during the week. The training was really good and I felt really strong
on both the swim and the bike. During that week I had a bit of a niggle on the
side of my foot. Lyndsey the physio there wasn't quite sure what it was as it
was in a quite unusual place. It got less painful during the week so it was
probably just a pull. I found it so hard to have to stop and not do some of the
training as it is something I haven't had to do before, but I know that it is
really important to listen to your body and know when the time to give in is. At
the end of the week was the time trails. On the Saturday we had an 800m swim
and on the Sunday we had a 20km bike to a 5km run. I was really happy with my
swim, posting the fastest girls time and quite a big gap between second.
Although this was good, it meant that on Sunday I would have to go out on the
bike on my own, meaning a hard few laps, especially because it was one of the
windiest days ever (only the duathlon/10km was windier). I rode about 3-4 laps
until the girls behind caught me, which there was 4 of. They were probably the
hardest 4 laps of the race. I felt the pace had slowed up a lot since they
caught me so I kept trying to work hard. The side wind around the bottom of the
course was horrendous so I made sure everyone was drafting to the slight right
of the riders wheel in front, to help us stay ahead of the behind groups. I
felt strong on the bike, but as soon as I got off my legs were non-existent. I
had done so much work on the bike that I had nothing left. In the end I
finished 4th overall, so I was still really happy.
The mini London Marathon was also in April. This is one of my
favorite races, because the crowds, atmosphere and scenery is break taking,
along with the running. We went down in regions the day before and stayed over
at Royal Holloway College, so there was so many people there. I felt as if I had
a really strong run, running around 30 seconds faster than I had 2 years ago.
It's weird because 2 years ago I knew absolutely no one going to the race, but
this year I basically bumped into someone I knew every 5 minutes. It was a
really great environment to prepare in, with everyone being really excited and
motivated to do well. We had a lovely time walking around London afterwards and
we managed to watch lots of the Marathon in a really good place.
