Last week I went on camp with the East Midlands Academy. I had a really good week training with them at Welbeck college. We got a lot in and it was also great because an Austrian athlete, Leon Pauger, we had met in Hungary came over to train for a few days. Thanks East midlands for inviting me for a fab week of solid training in the build up to the World Champs qualifier race at Mallory park.
On Wednesday the 26th of August I went down to velocity Norwich with my brother to see Howard. He gave my brother an excellent bike fitting and he says he can feel the difference already, with a roughly 15% power increase. He had knee pain after riding his bike on the old set up, but after riding today he says there is next to no pain and he felt a lot more power on the bike. I also got a short fitting, perfecting my saddle height. I feel now I am getting the most power possible from my positioning on the bike.
A massive thank you to Howard and Velocity. On Friday 28th August we went along to a ride at the Snetterton race track, where you can pay £10, which all goes to East Anglian Children Hospices, and you can cycle the track as many times as you wish between 5.30pm-8.00pm. There were lots of people there and quite a few from VCN also. It was such good fun and thanks to
Michael Jenness Photography for taking wonderful pictures of the event. Also a great pic of all the family in our glasses from
Vision for Sport. This week was also very exciting because I got the new XK through from Swimzi which is super warm and lovely. I cant wait to use it around races and training.
The under 20’s festival was the last race of the British
super series. It also doubled up as World Championship qualifiers. I felt good
going into the race, well rested and prepared to give it all I had. The race
unfolded well. Livvy led out the swim at such a fast pace, but I got on the
feet of Lissie and we managed to get a large gap to the next group, with Leah also. Once out of the water, I had a really snappy transition to go out
onto the bike 1st , right next to Livvy. We all got together and
worked well, getting into a good formation pretty much straight away. On the
second lap, I had a very close call. I’m still not quite sure what happened but
all I remember is taking a corner and my bike jolting underneath me, causing
it, and myself, to nearly hit the floor. I saved it and then I ended up on my
small chain ring. Luckily I was near the back, with just Leah behind me, but we
both lost quite a bit of speed and a gap opened up between us and the other 2
girls. Luckily I felt quite good and managed to really work to get back on the
back of them. Unfortunately Leah didn’t quite have enough in her legs, after just
coming back to racing, to bridge the gap and she dropped off our group. We worked
well though for the 7 laps and I felt pretty comfortable, plus we were putting
in time to people behind us. Going out onto the run I felt really strong,
taking off quickly. It was just me and Lissie together now and it remained like
that for the 3 out of 4 laps. Lissie made one surge and I managed to cover it,
but once she made another I couldn’t quite hold on and just dropped off. I was
still gritting my teeth and working as hard as I could because I knew that if I
wanted to be selected for worlds a fast run time would need to be recorded. I
finished 2nd and was really pleased as for one of the first times
this season I actually felt like myself whilst running. This also got me a second in the super series overall which I was really pleased with. Unfortunately I didn’t make the Worlds team,
but if you’d have asked me at the beginning of the year my targets, I would have
thought that Worlds was an unrealistic goal for myself, but after coming so
close I was and still am genuinely gutted. I can’t look back at the race though and feel disappointed
because remembering how I felt when I crossed the finish line, pure happiness,
is really the thing I need to take away from the race. I can’t let not qualifying
make me forget how delighted I was about the race. I can use this though; I now
know exactly how much I want this and how much I am willing to do. I will
use this ambition to fuel myself over the winter months and come back next year
more than ready to attack the season head on. 
Thank you to all of my sponsors for helping me thorughout the year and enabling me to achieve all I have: BNY Mellon and SportsAid, Vision for sport, H2pro precision hydration, Zone 3, Carl Goose, Copy IT, Velocity Norwich and Swimzi.
