One week to go until the ITU World Championship Series in Hyde Park

I can’t believe we are already in July and Hyde Park is just around the

I am now back at home preparing for Hyde Park. It’s nice that it’s so close, it’s very handy not having to travel so far. Hopefully the weather will be good.

I tend to take a day off every couple of weeks. On average, I’ll swim five mornings a week, ride four times a week and run five or six times a week, usually in the afternoons. I mostly train for swimming through a swimming club – I don’t do an awful lot of open water swimming. I’d usually look to cover a distance of 4,000 – 6,000. I’ll also use a gym in Cardiff a couple of times a week and see my physio once or twice a week as it’s good to get consistent checks.

In-between training, I spend a lot of time walking the dog. It’s a good way to warm up and down.

I’m still training with my Suunto Red Arrow. I’ve also got a T3c pink for more casual training. I get lots of comments on it actually as it’s so bright. For the more complex stuff, I’m still sending data to sports scientists who check my data to make sure everything is okay.

Lead up to the ITU World Championship Series event in Hyde Park

Since my break after last year’s season, I put in a good winter of training – which went pretty well but my season didn’t begin as well as I’d hoped with a 15th in Sydney World Championship Series recently.

I’ve really learnt that it’s not so much about how fit I am but more about getting enough race practice in. Last year it took me until London Tri to get on the podium – it’s already happened quicker this year, in Madrid at the begining of June.

The WCS is getting more and more competitive, especially with the girls – there are so many good girls competing and we’re all very close together now.

I am currently in Portugal with the British Squad training hard and getting in lots of race practice sessions. It’s fantastic to train with the squad for a change as I usually do most my training in South Wales with Marc, but I’m always happy to get home.

I try and keep my training balanced in terms of swimming, running and biking. It’s important to have a good swim but I try and work on my running a lot. I want to feel prepared to be able to deal with every scenario that can occur in a race.

Then I’ll be at home training before Hyde Park. It’s nice it’s so close, it’s very handy not having to travel so far and get on a plane. Hopefully the weather will be good.

I will keep you posted on my progress ahead of Hyde Park ....