Hi, and thanks for tuning into my site

Race countdown can begin today I feel!!  Singapore was a great start to last season for me and I hope to replicate my success this time.  This camp has been fun and I am certainly strong from the hills and the (relentless) wind so I am confident I can pull something special out the bag come a week on Sunday.

The week was a good one.  My big sister Joanna came out for a work break and it was great to have a sidekick for a while.  Friends are great but family are special and I can trust Jo explicitly to be on my side and support me even when I am tired and inevitably grumpy.  Sometimes we pros get flack for being moody or temperamental but the hard graft does mount up and physical tiredness can lead to mental tiredness too.  We need a bit of leeway during these times.

Rest day this week meant a trip to Orzola where Jo introduced me to surfing with the help of a friendly and handsome Italian instructor.  I did manage to stand up- but so much for a rest day! – I can’t believe how tired and stiff my arms were from battling to get out in the waves.  Jo is much better than me …ill give her that

I have got a new sponsorship deal on the cards with torq too which will be great.  I will blog for them every fortnight and they will add it to their website www.torq.com.  They are a great brand that offer reliable and incredibly lush sports fuel.  Once I have tried the whole range I can tell you when, and how, to use their stuff.

My old coach Richard Hobson is currently out here coaching the club Ful-on triathlon.  There are some great guys here putting a lot of effort in and it’s been good to see Hobbo.

We were studying the nutritional content of gels today in fact and he told me how he had recommended one of his athletes to take a gel every half hour in his ironman as they are about 80 calories each;  The guy was stopped on the run with heart palpitations ….he’d taken Hobbo’s advice but unwittingly taken caffeine gels L  . The guy was 60 odd and a non-coffee drinker.  God, that is bad (although I’d probably be ok with the amount of caffeine I down in various forms!)

Session of the week has to be between my awesome treadmill session last Tuesday (1km at 18, 1km at 17, 1km at 15 NO REST) x 4….and the ride to Mirador on Sunday with Hobbo’s Group 1.  Great guys to ride with and I met the infamous Mark Booth at last.  I ran off it hot and fast too so hopefully will keep the acclimatisation of sort going for the humid heat of Singapore.

I’ll let you know how final preparations are going from Singapore next week J

Probably had a bit too much fun on the last night…life of the party…and I think I had to demonstrate my magical singing ability once whilst I am out here J. I spent ‘Recovery Friday’ in the gym and with the Brews before they headed back to school.

This week Tom, Nat and Vicki arrived for some sunshine and miles.  Whilst I stay here training a number of people will come and go (with their bloody fresh legs!).  I like it because there is always some form of entertainment about and it keeps me laughing and smiling.  I have been on loads of style of camps as a triathlete and I think I have found the right model for me out here.

I have trained on my own, just with a boyfriend and also with the GBR team.  Sometimes, things on those trips have grated on me and that impacts on my state of mind and inevitably my training.  When it has been just me and my coach the sessions obviously become very intense and possibly training tends to seep into life.   I like to keep training as training and life as life.  This doesn’t mean that triathlon isn’t my lifestyle but when I’m with my friends or relaxing I simply do not involve triathlon.  It’s about music or work or reading or friends.  I think it is a pretty refreshing skill of mine and why if you ask me a triathlon question in my time out you may get a very simple answer!

I like inviting age groupers out here because they have different focuses in their lives to talk about and learn about.  They are definitely less selfish in their time organisation and lifestyle than me or other pros are simply because they can be (their life does not depend on triathlon).  Us ‘pros’, react to situations and setbacks dramatically because events or injury have the potential to topple our careers…selfish as it may seem, therefore, by limiting who and when I train with I limit the negativity and worry in my life.  I look forward to days and the future when I can be less selfish-I really do.

Age groupers are also ironically far less set in their ways and willing to learn.  Their nutrition is often far less routinely strange and they definitely consider more.  It reminds me to eat for recovery and for fuelling at the right times.  Saying this, I try and encourage a little less analytical approach to training – I was bought up on the motto ‘JUST DO IT’ (think it was an Asics quote haha), and much of my success has been on this principle.  Repeating this used to help me through awful swim sets and it is fairly rare you get a moan from me in training since then (bar biking-there has definitely been moaning whilst cycling!)  My personality is fairly straightforward and I transfer this into my training.  I try and steer away from the cloudy bullshit and get down to the work.

Talking of me (as usual!!) when presenting recently I compiled a pyramid of the structure of a professional triathlete.  I’ll write about it in my next blog fully, but in it I refer to TRAINING, EGO AND TALENT being the highest building blocks to success.  I believe these are equally important in producing performance and continuously work at maximising each of them.  Just a thought ……talk to you soon

Jx

I am so happy…after 5 days of riding at 8 mph pushing 400 watts (yes that actually happened!) I have a day without my bike…I have even lent my wheel to Robin J Granted I have a 20km run out to Famara …and a swim but then we have a gorgeous night planned to say adios to the ‘campies’ and spend a few hours in the discotheque.

The disco in La Santa is a funny place…its one of those time free zones where you look at your watch at 11pm and then the time 10mins later is 3am….its the same EVERY time as well – same music, same people, same bad behaviour haha . I hope to have some proper restraint tonight. This has been my hardest week for a long time and I don’t really want to spoil the progression in any way. We shall see my resolve!

I did my talk to the group last night and it seemed to go down really well. It always feels extra special to be congratulated on something other than sport. I am very honest in my talks as I would rather people judge me on the true facts and not half of them….I hope they got something out of it.

Meanwhile I’ve managed to get on top of my website inactivity and also got a couple of blogs going so you can be updated a little more.

Training meanwhile has been fantastic…I completed my treadmill test set very well and therefore have my marker of where I am at and I’m pleased. I do need to concentrate a little more on the speedier side of training as I enter the last week of my five week cycle conditioning phase so I know that the next few weeks is going to be tough.

I’ll be sad to see the back of the Brews but each week I am privileged to have a new set of friends to train with and make me laugh. Talking of laughs I’ll let you know how it goes tonight J

I am soooo glad to be out here in Lanzarote again!  Something has been up with my temperature radar all winter and the cold of the Surrey hill bike rides has been getting at me.  For some reason, I assumed that when I got back from La Santa in January it would have warmed up but that was never to be and last week and the week before I just felt stiff and a little under the weather.  Maybe I have S.A.D syndromeL.

I am helping out on Robin Brew’s tri camp for the second year.  Robin is an ace coach and probably one of my top 5 people to be around.  He is very positive yet definitely has a no shit attitude surrounding morals and training.  He treats everyone the same, as long as there is effort going in.  I am living for the week with the family – Liz (super mum) and Jamie and Tom along with the rest of the coaching crew.  It’s quids in for everyone and is a real antidote to and my normal, fairly quiet, environment.  The kids are a hoot….truly hilarious.
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After two weeks of relative rest, (we did run every day but in very non-structured way), I flew out to Aguilas in Spain yesterday to join my coach Chris Jones and his Irish squad for a kick up the ass back into training.

It has been grim back in the UK last week and to be honest without a little graft to get fit on the bike I would have been liable to run rather than bike as much as possible.  It’s not the cold I mind it’s the cold rain and the wet roads and slimy leaves.  When you feel tired and the training mounts up going away makes me that little more focused and switched on so it’s like a reset back into phase one of training which starts on the 14^th of December.

I moved house in my break.  During my 9 year triathlon career I have always craved having a permanent training partner but have never come across an opportunity for that to happen.  I did train with Julie Dibens down in Bath for a year but because of the differences in age and lifestyle it wasn’t as solid as I would have liked.  In my swimming days I loved being part of a club environment that also incorporated individual attention and trained with a guy called Eddie Clements at Killerwhales where indeed the best of my swimming times were achieved.  Working, hurting, resting and driving each other forward.  We both won junior European medals that year.

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So I’m back home for the holidays now and recovering over a mixed yet forward looking year.

Clearwater was perfect until I started running! I exited the water along side Joanna Zieger and Julie Dibens and stormed through transition into the lead. Julie zoomed past but I settled well and kept her in my sights.

As we turned left at about 5km the police car failed to direct-muppets! and went down the wrong road- the 5 girls in touch zoomed past but quickly switched back and got on their tails.

I rode very hard from here on in and despite a very controversial decision to let the pro men off behind us (that saw a couple of girls latch on to their train and pull up to the good swimmers), me and Mary Beth-Ellis broke off the line of girls.

In hindsight, I hope the organisers of Clearwater understand that decisions like this are absolutely crucial in deciding these championships. At points in the course it was absolutely impossible to not tail the men because of the long pace line that was cutting into us. I do feel that it became a race of who could hang on in at the men’s pace rather than dictate our own pace. I fully (maybe naively) believe that we all want a fair race but when organisers decide things like this we have to react and live with the consequences, not really them as they will get a world champion anyway. Why not start us 10 minutes behind the men and there would be no problem. Is the road schedule really that tight?

This is all a little moany as I know that the best lady on the day won, no question-Jules was ace. However in future we need to know this is definitely the case and it is not only first place that matters in world championship results.

As soon as I hit the run I felt awful. Very lightheaded and not really leg related at all. I past the third place mary at about 10km and then just had nothing at all to give. I dropped out whilst in fourth place at about 12km.

It’s a very strange situation as I have trained so well since Perth, looked after myself nutritionally and I thought travel wise too. In truth I was relying on my run because it was going so solidly and my treadmill reps are easier and faster.

Having thought about it and discussed with Chris and my loved ones I think I was really silly to think that all the travelling this year would not inhibit me. I’ve just got off the flight from florida and I feel absolutely awful. I think that the euphoria of perth masked these effects and the assumption that I made about coping with flying just two days before racing in Florida.

I have to explain that my decisions have not always been independent of financing this dream and it sometimes become balancing what’s best and what I can afford. Next year the racing will be far more specific and I have delegated responsibility on travel to Chris…lucky him! I ALWAYS think I’ll be ok but this is my personality and it doesn’t necessarily take logic into an emotional decision.

ANYWAY that’s enough of dwelling on being fed up. I can’t wait till next year now and my new winter with a new coach and new area and training groups.

I am national olympic champ and world long distance champ in 2009 and that’s better for me and my sponsors than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!!

Stay fit and healthy through the winter and lets make 2010 great

Check the link below

http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/O_Donnell_Swallow_top_ITU_long_course_Worlds_1090.html

Well…..I have been working for a day like this for nine years (and more!) now. I can now say that I am the “World Champion” . It feels amazing; great; awesome – all of these things but most of all it feels like a chapter finally concluded. It feels like my comeback tale is finally over and now its time to turn the next page

They played the national anthem and I had my own flag and everything!!!

Everybody, in life and in sport has difficulties and dilemnas and mine are no more difficult or severe than everybody elses but I will allow myself that the past year and the year after the olympics were incredibly draining and upsetting for me, for different reasons and it is after these bleak times that the good times seem so great. Never have I felt as happy as when I win now, never do I feel as thankful as when I remain uninjured and never have I partied and smiled so hard when the results do roll in. I value the good times more now as they are rare in elite sport and are equally matched with disappointing times.

Ultimately I raced the way I know how….I built a minute on the 3km swim, pushed hard on the bike building to 8 minutes and built to 11 mins on the run. I finished in 4hours 7mins. Rebekah Keat of Australia was second and Delphine Pelltier of France 3rd.

The swim was one of the toughest I have ever done. Although the men started 90 seconds ahead there was no chance of even seeing them as the sun beamed down the swan river and the wind hurtled wave after wave at us for the 1800m straight out swim. A number of times I had fear I could have passed the bouy or be totally off course. Occasionally I passed a white capped male or stroked a jelly fish but that was the mose contact I seemed to have for the whole thing. The last bouy was a little confusing and i was briefly steered back to the correct turn by a surfboard. I came out about 1min ahead of Lucie Zelenkova and Pip Taylor the next girls.

I hurtled through transition and felt amazing running so i kind of knew it would be a good day. I simply eyed the little mens group ahead of me and pace judged off them. It was the right thing to do – I didnt hold them but my focus forward made me push harder and although isolated from then on (just passing age groupers on the course), I had already set a precedent pace and so the little women’s group chasing dropped back first 3.30mins after lap one and building to 8 on lap 4. The bike was tough – it was incredibly windy out there and there was no let up. I just concentrated on fuel and water and pace for the 80km and occasionally a little rocky soundtrack stimulus!!

I entered transition and hurtled out. I felt fresh and good and knew I’d be ok – I slowed myself down and settled and was joined on the third lap by kevin clarke a old friend and so had stirling company on the run leg. I actually ran equal splits – the first 5km lap just 4 seconds faster than the last 5km. Total run time was 1 hour and 18mins in blistering winds and 32 degree heat.

Flag in hand I savoured the moment down the shoot. It felt amazing and I am so glad I pulled it together.

I have worked hard over the years and so have people around me. Special thanks to my previous coach Livio Salvador-Aylott for helping me build a foundation to build from and also to my coach of two months Chris Jones. I am even more assured that we can reach our goals now.

Next up is clearwater 70.3 Worlds. No doubt I won’t fall under the radar at this one but I feel good and hope I can pull a better one in three weeks.

The party is done, the rest day almost done and I remain here in Perth for a while training up until Clearwater on the 14th of November…….Be there or be square

Since I was young my life ambitions always centred on the Olympic Games. The notoriety of those five rings and the pride held in Britain’s champions are what first attracted me to the world of competitive sport. As my career has progressed so has my understanding of professional sport and the opportunities it offers. With the ending of one dream, begins a blooming of another. …America and London beckon. In 2008 I have the chance to nurture my name as a top professional triathlete….Of creating the ideal platform to build a professional portfolio to build year on year up to and into London 2012.

Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, LA and Dallas make up the lifetime fitness series, big stage venues for big stage challenges. I can’t wait! Combined with my involvement in the French Grand Prix Series for my new team Poissy, and of course the British classics Windsor, London and Nationals 2008 is going to be very exciting!

My Sincere thanks to those that continue to ‘followtheswallow’ and have enthusiasm for my success. I would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in sponsorship opportunities, presentations, mentoring and consultancy services or bespoke training programmes.