Sunday 15 November 2009

Hi. My training in and out of the pool has been going well. Two weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, I went to Brentwood as Essex Sport Legacy had set up a day to promote urban games. This day included basketball, graffite, bmx biking, beatboxing and street dancing. It was good to see and I am enjoying doing my Ambassador duties.

On the Saturday evening, I had an in-house gala at Ipswich. I was supposed to race in the 100m Backstroke and the 200m Freestyle, but I had not been feeling very well and decided to pull out of the 200m Freestyle. This meant I could focus on just one race. Technically, I swam the race average, but I was within a second of my personal best so I was happy, considering I had not been feeling very well.

The next day, I had the 100m Freestyle to race. I also look forward to racing this but also always put pressure on myself as this is the race that I prefer. I swam fairly well in it and recorded a time that was exactly half a second away from breaking the minute barrier. I was pleased with this performance as I knew the pool condititions were not the best and that I could perform better if I did not feel ill.

I am really looking forward to the Senior National next weekend as I feel excellent in all departments at the moment and love the atmosphere up in Sheffield when I swim. I always feel the adrenaline at Sheffield and I feel like I do the best I possibly can when I compete there.

I have also recently found out that I am safe on the British Swimming Development programm till December 2010. So the pressure has been lifted off of me when I compete in Swansea, but I am still looking to deliver some fantastic times that will kick me on into next years busy schedule.