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Friday 30 December 2016

Uni Life


 Its been a while but finally found time to write about what I've been up to and how university is going. Since September I have been living, training and studying in Loughborough. It was a hard transition into the training centre and living in Halls but one that I feel went quite smoothly. Moving into a place full of strangers is a very daunting thing to do, but its crazy how quickly you make friends when you're living with people 24/7. To start with it felt as if I was on a training camp, staying in accommodation and would be leaving
after a week or so to go back home once it was done. It was hard to get my head around the fact I would be there for 11 weeks before I was to go home again, but those weeks absolutely flew by and it seemed like only a couple of weeks before I was back home in Norwich. The training load is probably what made the time go super quick, I was tired most the time as the amount I was doing compared to back in Norwich was a lot more, but it is really enjoyable being with a solid group and I have much more time to be able to get the training in, so I can get it all done during the day so my evenings are pretty free. So far this winter I haven't done any cross country, not even county champs which felt weird, but the one race I have done and really enjoyed was BUCS Duathlon. This was my first experience of a BUCS event and it didn't disappoint. It was great to be able to have my brother and parents there as well, with it being Luke's first duathlon I was happy to be there and watch him race. I was really pleased with my race, I had a strong first run, coming into T1 just inside the top 30. Out on the bike I started working through the field and managed to get myself into the top 10, having the 4th fastest bike split. I kept working hard on the 2nd run and finished up in 11th place, which I was very happy with. We managed to get 3rd team in the girls competition, and overall Loughborough got top Uni.  Just before going home for Christmas I headed out to Rio Maior, Portugal with the rest of the England Talent Squad for a week of warm weather training. It's the third time going to this venue and it is always as good every year. The area has great cycling routes, running trails and a fab 50m pool, so perfect for a camp. Now I'm back in Norwich enjoying Christmas and some well needed recovery time and preparing for another solid block of training to come in Loughborough.