November and December 2014

At the beginning of November I had the national cross country relays. This was a really great event and I feel as if I had a really good race myself and CONAC had a really great team performance in every age group. The day after this I had a lab testing day at Loughborough as part of the England talent squad. It was a fantastic experience and really interesting to read through the results and outcomes of the day. It was a really tough day though as we had to do roughly 5-8 reps of 4minute on the treadmill and then also a max VO2 test were we just had to run until we couldn’t anymore. It was a really fun day and it was lovely to have the other members of the squad cheering you on.

In November I also attended Norfolk sports awards which were held at the forum, Norwich. This was a really exciting event as the best sports people from all over Norfolk were there to celebrate the success of the year and it was an honour to be a part of it. I was shortlisted for the Young sports achiever award, along with 3 others. Unfortunately I did not win but the competition was strong and some great athletes were in the field.

The following weekend was another eastern region academy session. This was an exciting day and we got some really good coaching tips for things we can do on the turbo over the winter for when it is too cold and wet to go out on the roads.

In November we also had the England talent squad launch weekend, which was a really great couple of days. It was held in Loughborough and we got some really decent training done and also got to bond as a team as well.

The first weekend of December was the winter regional swimming championships which took place in Luton, here I only took part in the 800m free which was long course. I came 3^rd and the time wasn’t what I was hoping for, but then again it is only very early in the season so it was really good place to start.

I had my celebration evening for my high school GCSE’s during December, which was when I got presented my GCSE certificates and also I won the Head teachers cup for PE, which was a really lovely  achievement.

Saturday the 6^th of December was the Norfolk County cross country championships. I feel as if I had a strong race, it was quite far, 6.3km, and I feel I held a good pace and strong form throughout which is very important to me at this time of year. I was really pleased to take the win and also first team. I haven’t had the confirmation yet but first across the line gains the spot, so I have the opportunity to run in the mini London Marathon in 2015.

Before I flew out to Portugal for the training camp, I got a great massage off Carl Goose of Carl Goose sports therapy, which got me feeling really fresh and prepared for a really hard weeks training.

Saturday the 13^th of December was the first day of the England talent squad training camp in Portugal. We stayed in a big town called Rio Maior which had a great training complex within.

 It had a lovely track which looked like a coliseum and a fabulous 50m swimming pool which we trained in as well as a diving pool outside and another 25m pool. It was a really tough 8 days training out there but the sights were great and the cycle routes were so amazing, very tough, but still very amazing. I had such a great time and everyone got on so well. I can’t wait until the next ETS camp.

October 2014

The first weekend of the month I took part in the Birmingham road relays. I was on first leg for the City of Norwich running club A team girls in the U17's. It was a down hill start and I got caught up at the very back but slowly managed to make my way through during the first, long and steady up hill. There was a breakaway pack of about 10 girls which I tried to get on the back of despite there being a roughly 20 m gap. But once I made the strong push to get the pack it was a lot easier. I managed to finish my leg in 9th, which I was very please with, even though my time was just shy of the time I posted last year. Over all my team finished 15th, which we were very happy with, as this was out of the best teams in the country. Well done to my team mates Amy Clarke and Lauren Howe, who also had great runs.

The next weekend was Arena League. These are 

always such great events as they have such a 

great team spirit and excitement involved within. I was competing for City of Norwich swimming club A team. I had the individual 200m IM and 100m Backstroke and I was also in the 6x50m free relay at the end. I was really happy with my swims here as I got a 2 second PB on the 200m IM and I was only just off my 100m back PB which I had only just got at club champs a few weeks back. CONSC won the round and we are now really looking forward to the next round.

Friday the 24th of October I got the pleasure to attend Thorpe Lodge council chamber for the Broadland Sports Awards 2014. I won the Young Sports Achiever Award, which was sponsored by The Norwich city FC community Sports Foundation and I also got it presented to me by the very inspiring Danny Nobbs, paralympic athlete and the men from the community sports foundation Daniel Wynne and Stevie Bramble. Thank you all for a great night. 

From Left to right: Me, Danny Nobbs, Daniel Wynne. 

This weekend was also the first Eastern region academy day of the new academic year. It was so nice to meet all the new guys joining the academy for the first time this year and also lovely to catch up with the veterans of the squad. We had a long drills and running form session followed by a talk by head coach Tim Williams and a solid 1 hour strength and core session. 

That's all for October, just having some decent base training now and will update you all in November.

Club champs

Since the end of the season I haven’t done much, it’s been nice to relax and recover after very tough and long season. I have done trials for the Eastern region and England talent squad and actually found out today that I have got into the England Talent squad. So it’s a good Weekend already.

Last week was UEA city of Norwich swimming club championships. I did 11 races, in which I won 9 and came 2^nd in 2. So all in all it has been a very good couple of weeks. For these races I used my H2pro precision hydration 1500 strength hydration tablets and they helped me so much to perform at my best and even get some big Pb's early in the season! 

Tuesday I had my first meeting with a nutritionist, Ollie Matthews from Body catchers. Even though it was just our first chat, I have learnt so much more already and been told things I can already improve on with my diet.

Wednesday I had a massage with Carl Goose and I am now feeling so much better and refreshed. I am now ready to get into hard winter training. First thing I am doing is the national road relays this weekend in Birmingham. This should be a really good event. I loved it last year and hoping that my team of City of Norwich girls and I can have a really good performance a decent result to show for it. 

End of the season

 So with Nottingham being the last race of the season, I really wanted to end it on a good race. I'd prepared well and had 

inspected the course so I had no doubts about where I as going .My race was quite late in the day, being the second to last race, starting at 2.35pm. It was quite a weird day on the weather side: one minute it would be very cold and raining, then the next minute it would be beaming sunshine and boiling hot! I got there just in time to watch the ETU junior girls cup race. It was a great race to watch with such a strong field. I knew pretty much everyone in the race as the Italian girls who I’d been on camp with earlier in the year were also competing. I also got to see the tristar 3 race, boys and girls, which was good to see and cheer for Eastern region.

After 4 hours of waiting around, it was finally my time to go. On the way down to the start a thunder storm took over the sky. It was raining so hard, but luckily we saw no lighting. I quickly put my wetsuit on to avoid getting cold and kept jumping around. I was a bit worried about the pontoon start due to the fact that the previous night during registration, I found that I wasn’t on the start list. They missed the top few so the A’s and B’s were not there. So I happened to have to highest and last possible number in my race. I wasn’t use to this, normally being at the front with Alden! But in the end they drew numbers out of a hat, so I ended up being in the first third of people getting on. I lined myself up directly with the buoy and Livvy Mathias managed to find herself next to me!

Boom boom, boom boom. The heart beat started, but it was hard to get nervous when Livvy just kept saying how she hated the heart beat. They blew the horn so quickly after “On your marks”, I’m pretty sure I was the last to dive in. It was ok as I think I came up just on Livvy’s shoulder. Liv and I swam next to each other until the first buoy, breathing in time looking at each other for some f it. At the first buoy I had the inside line so Liv just dropped back onto my hip. The swim was so cold. I led out of the water and was really pleased with my transition, again leading out. For the first time this season I actually had a decent mount! It was just Emer and I for the first 400m but there was a large group of 5 or 6 that it was inevitable we were going to get caught. The bike was tough with a very unstable pace. So many surges occurred and also many drops in pace. But we still managed to gain over 1 minute on the chase group. Going into T2 me and Kate had a little collision due to a very tight corner. My T2 was terrible. My wetsuit was on top of my trainers, making it very difficult to find them. I went out of T2 in 5^th. I was roughly 10 seconds down on Kate, Liv and Lizzy. With Georgia Hannam roughly 5 seconds ahead. The first half was agony. They just kept running further away. I was still in 5^th at half way. Just after this point I caught Lizzy up. We ran together for a while but in the end she told me to go and gave me words of encouragement. Liv kept looking behind and I could tell the gap was getting smaller.  Only at 400m to go did I catch her and that’s when she asked “can we finish together?” I must admit I just kept running through, having no energy to speak.

So I was so happy with 3^rd, after having to run myself into the position. Normally my placing would go the other way on the run, so it’s showing how much my running is improving by which gives me great confidence and motivation for a hard winters training and cross country season.  1^st was Kate and 2^nd was Georgia.

Overall in the series I secured 2^nd, with Kate 1^st and Emma Clapton 3^rd.

On top of this season I also had exams and GCSE’s to think about. I waited until I got home Friday night, rather than receive them on the Thursday like most people. I was happy enough Friday with the race but to come home and find I got; 6xA*’s, an A and a B: put me on such a high.

Overall its been such a great season and hopefully next season when I move into junior, it will be just as good. I’m especially looking forward to the longer distance!

BRITISH TRIATHLON CHAMPS

So this weekend was the British Triathlon Championships in Liverpool. It was one of the bigger events of the super series and it didn't disappoint! So many people were there competing and the transition area was absolutely massive. It was an indoor transition so a bit strange to normal but it was so well organised. I was very nervous for this event as it had been a while since a super series race so it was a bit like the first again. I was very pleased with my swim, I knew I was strong on the swim at the minute as I’d just raced well at Nationals the previous week.  I led out the swim and managed to split the pack quite well.  I went into T1 (the 500m run into T1) with Emer Winsch and coming out of T1 there was a small group of 4 of us, Lizzy Hood, Emer, Kate Waugh and me! I was sure to make the pack work well together, Making sure we went


through and off. It was a hard cycle due to the fact there was a very large pack trying to chase us down. I knew there were very strong runners in the chase so it wasn’t over yet.  Going into T2 Lizzy led the way with me and Kate right on her heels and Emer just a few metres behind.  Leaving T2 Kate and Lizzy led with me just a couple seconds behind. We missed the other pack coming into T2 as when we went once side of the wall, they went the other!  The run was an out and back and 2 laps of that. Going out onto the run, Kate went so strong and as I pasted Lizzy she gave me a push of encouragement which was gratefully received.  I could see at the far end of the run that Caitlin Roper was having such a strong run as per usual (She normally has a top 3 run time)! I had to keep pushing really hard. I was running with a boy for my first lap which helped me keep my pace up but then he went into the finish and I still had another lap.  I could see Caitlin was closing the gap slowly but by the last turning point I could see it was too late and I had secured second, with Kate 1^st and Caitlin 3^rd! I was so happy with this and it matched where I came last year at this event so couldn't be happier. I would like to say thanks to Carl Goose for the great sports massage which got me ready for the race, H2pro for the great hydration tablets which helped on the surprising warm but rainy day and Zone3 for the amazing wetsuit which helped me lead out of the swim!

This week I am preparing for the last race in the series in Nottingham! In prep for the race I have had a great bike fit at velocity Norwich which will enable me to have more power on my bike! It was fantastic! 

Summer so far...

Well, after Russia it’s fair to say I was on a bit of a high. It took about a week to sink in. But I couldn't let it affect me as I still had some hard training to do during the summer for the last few events of the season. There was a great training camp in Loughborough which only a small group of athletes attended during July so that was a good solid week of training. 

The first of my races left was the Virgin Active London triathlon. I done this race last year and absolutely loved it. This year it was just as good. Before the race I visited the vision for sport stand and they were kind enough to give me a great new pair of glasses which I wore to race. First I changed the lenses as it was a bit of a dull day so this made the road clearer. The race was good, I had a solid lead out of the swim and all I had to do was hold it on the bike and run to achieve first place.

I just had to recover quickly ready to race the next day, so thanks to H2pro I managed to rehydrate and fuel up well ready for the National Open water championships in Rother Valley country park the next day. I was quite nervous for this event as a triathlete racing just swimmers, it was going to be very tough. I had good dive and a solid first 100m to get myself up in the mix of the race. I done this event last year but I was still very unsure on pacing myself over 2km. The course was two 1000m laps. The first lap I think I could have gone out faster, but I now have the confidence to do this, so hopefully next year I will know better. But one the 2^nd lap I really tried to up the pace and luckily I found myself with 2 other girls pushing on so I managed to cling onto them (for the majority of the lap). I did lose my top swim hat on the second lap and my bottom one was only being held on by my goggles so that was taking my mind off the pain. But I was very happy with a finish of 11^th place. I was hoping to break top 10 but 11^th isn't too shabby.

Back to Norwich for a couple of days training then back up to Sheffield for the 800m National pool championships. This was the first time I have raced this event at nationals so I was quite unsure about how to take it. I like going out fast so I thought I would just stick to my guns and go for it. Apparently everyone else in my race likes to go out even faster than I do. I was clinging on to the girl to my right, (the girl to my left was already 5m ahead by 100m but the gap stayed that size) and managed to hold onto her for 700m but then she “dropped the hammer” as my coach Alex said and dropped me. The first thing I said to Alex after the race was " That was the longest 800m of my life" But I was happy to come 5^th in my heat and only less than a second off my pb! I also had my highest ever national pool finish of 21^st in my age group. So all in all it has been a good week so far.

BACK to Norwich we came,  making sure I am well ready and well recovered for British Triathlon championships this weekend in Liverpool. I just got back from a visit to Carl Goose, where I received a wonderful sports massage and am now loosened up ready for Liverpool. Just the final preparation to go in the next few days and then off on Saturday, ready to race Sunday.

Me crossing the finish line at the London Triathlon

Me (number 6)  walking out onto the pontoon ready to start the Open water National Champs

European Youth Relays

Last Thursday, I flew out with a team of 8 youth athletes and also an under-23 team, along with many coaches and other important roles, to Russia, Moscow. It was a long and early flight and it was very hard to adjust to the 3 hour time difference. The next day we also had another 1 hour flight to Penza from Moscow, so there was LOTS of travelling involved.
When we got to our hotel, which was the race hotel, so many country's were also staying there, we went into breakfast. It felt so wrong, we had been up since 3am so it felt like it was 5pm, not just 9am!!
The build up to the race went quite slowly. We had a good recce of the course on the friday, the bike course was hilly and tough, especially because of the wind. It was such a short race though so no holding back. The swim was fun, but tough to practise. We all practised many times diving in and also running into the water from a beach start, and this definitely helped as many of my team mates said they gained just by diving in.

On the Saturday we got to watch the Under-23 race, which we all really enjoyed. We got to see them do the course and got some feedback on the course and this was gratefully received. We also done our last minute prep and fuelled up well.
Sunday: Race Day!!
We had to get up at 6.45am as our race was at 10am, so we had to have breakfast, check in and set up transition all in time. It was really handy that our hotel was the race location. I was surprisingly relaxed in the morning.
In the morning I was sure to hydrate up on my H2Pro precision hydration drink. Thanks for supplying me guys.
The race came around quickly.
I went first leg. I had a strong swim and was out onto the bike in 1st. I quickly dropped the Russian but there was a small group who worked together to catch me. I went out onto the run in joint 3rd and thats how I finished it. I handed over to Olivia Mathias, who had an excellent leg and ended up just over 15seconds in the lead. She then handed over to Kate Waugh, who pulled away even further. At this point Liv and I couldn't believe it. Kate was over 30 seconds in the lead going onto a 1500m run. We were so ecstatic. We couldn't believe we had just won GOLD at the European youth relays!!!!!!!

After our race, we got to watch the youth boys race, who all raced excellently and finished second, although there was an incident with some cows on the course, which impeded their position. 

We also got to watch the Under-23 relay, which the 2 youth reserves got to race in along with Hannah Drewitt and Gordon Benson. So Jack Willis and Emma Clapton were excited they got to race. 

Russia was such a great experience and something I will never forget.

Well done to everyone who raced and thank you to everyone who supported me:

Copy It- for the race wheels

Gowards funeral services- for the bike box

H2pro precision hydration- The tablets which helped fuel me for my race

Vision for sport- Who gave me sunglasses

Sportsaid- for the award 

Broadland distrct council- for the grant

Carl Goose Massage- For helping me prepare for the race

Zone 3- for the brilliant wetsuit.