As some of you are aware, I’m a physiotherapy student at the University of Birmingham. Last year I put my degree on hold to try and make the Olympics in the Team Pursuit. It was always a long shot and despite being one of the most improved teams on the track last season, the team failed to gain any Olympic qualification points in Astana put this goal just that little bit too far out of reach.

I always maintained that, if possible, I would like to complete my degree and in January I started back at university. Thankfully, my university are being incredibly supportive and allowing me to do my degree part time, which enables me to continue training at the level I already do and complete my degree. By no means is it easy, but it is achievable.

I started a hospital placement at the beginning of January so was straight in at the deep end! I was incredibly nervous about starting back but thankfully I have a very lovely team of people around me on my placement that are all very supportive and understanding of my sport.

So… my life now consists of training, revision, my placement and work. It has given me a new appreciation for how much time there actually is in the day and makes me wonder what on earth I did with my time when I was just training full time. I’ve always worked alongside my sport so I did a lot more of that until now, but I’m a lot more disciplined with my time and seem to have a to-do list most days.

At the moment I’m in the middle of a very hard block of training and I seem to feel pretty tired all the time, but I know the results will show. I’ve finally started doing weights sessions and am combining this with a lot of endurance work as well as managing to make it to the track. So it is definitely full on.

Despite the odd moan, I secretly love the DOMS (Delayed On-set of Muscle Soreness for those of you that aren’t familiar with the term) feeling from all the hard work! Weird? Maybe, but then I’ve always loved training hard and often have to be told to ‘relax and go easy when it’s easy’.

So, what’s next for me? I’m really hoping to have secured a World Championship spot in the Individual Pursuit and Points race… and there are plenty of other goals for the season… so watch this space.

I arrived in Cali with seven days to go until race day and was super excited to be racing the Individual pursuit for Ireland.

The week leading into it I was really happy to see some fast times which gave me an extra confidence boost, with new personal bests in pretty much every session I did.

Race day; I warmed up on the rollers and felt really good. The race itself; I went out a little fast and died in the last three laps. It was quite windy and the use of double discs meant that on the banking I was being pushed up to the red line and was trying to avoid hitting sponges on the way down.

Positively, I nearly caught my rider and was happy to walk away with a four second personal best and 11th place, just .3 outside the top 10. Whilst I had hoped to place in the top 10, you cannot control other riders performances, only your own. With a personal best of four seconds, I could not be disappointed as I’m clearly moving in the right direction.

Next up, a big road block and I’m hitting the weights.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

My dad is very wise and when discussing whether or not to race the Points Race he said he had found this on the internet and thought it would be useful for me to read;

“Consider the cost of missed opportunities – the biggest risk that people fail to consider is the benefit they lose by avoiding high risk/high reward opportunities. The ideal career contains a wide range of job opportunities (some risky, some safe) that combine to form a relatively safe career with a high potential for growth. Taking high risk opportunities is essential because they offer the greatest reward: the issue is that without taking risk, you can’t exploit any opportunities. You can live a quiet and reasonably happy life, but you are unlikely to create something new, and you are unlikely to make your mark on the world.”

As soon as I read that, I knew I was going to race the Points Race. After our Team pursuit drama I was excited to race the Points Race as I wanted to use my good form and get rid of some aggression.

At European U23 earlier on in the year I had a pretty shocking time in the bunched events. I finished 11th out of 13 in the Points Race. The Points Race is one of the hardest if not the hardest race on the track and I’m sure a lot of people would agree with me on that one. Its go go go with not a lot of time to recover. If one person attacks and it fails another person counter attacks and it goes like that…. For around 80 laps!

I guess today was my lucky day… for numerous reasons.

At the start of the race all the riders were up on the track with their bikes. I was stood there like a lemon without mine. I didn’t have my bike because we were having issues with it making weight. Eventually we got it sorted and this was my first spot of luck as I’m sure normally I’d have been disqualified for wasting time.

The race itself was fast and I was glad to be on a bigger gear than normal so that I could follow any attacks and go with the fast pace. There were two crashes; both of which I don’t know how I avoided, but again, it was clearly my lucky day.

With 30 laps to go I followed the Australian rider Katherine Bates and went with her awesome kick which gave us a big gap from the rest of the field. Then it looked like she had sat up when I went through so I noticed the gap from the field and thought to myself, don’t hesitate (mistake I made at European U23) and went for it.

The score board was saying 29 laps and I remember thinking oh my God how am I going to get a lap on my own. It turned out after laps of trying and trying on around lap 23/24 I had a significant gap and was closing down on the field. Until I ran out of legs. I ended up taking the five points and then sat up waiting for the field to catch me for a few laps before sitting in and trying to make sure I got a good finishing position.

Overall I finished 8th which I was delighted with. Another step in the right direction…

Thank you to Brian Nugent for his help prior to and during the race. When I was away from the field he encouraged me to keep going and stay away and go for the points. Also a big thank you to Sinead Jennings and Julia Bradley for cheering me on throughout the race. Those laps on my own seemed to last forever so I was very grateful for the support.

I’m a massive fan of autobiographies, you name it and I’ve probably read it. The common theme throughout sporting autobiographies is the journey – the process in which athletes go through to achieve their dreams. So many of them think at some point ‘is this actually going to happen?’ or ‘is this realistic, am I kidding myself?’

But part of them inside won’t stop because they have that inner self belief that actually – it will happen, it’s just going to be bloody hard with a lot of highs and lows along the way. But as my coach says it’s the athlete who can deal with the lows and keep coming back stronger.

This week was essentially our last shot at London 2012. We needed a top seven result. The race itself, we allegedly false started. We didn’t and we had video proof that we didn’t. But we got on with our second attempt, everything was going well, we were very smooth, fast and controlled. When I went to the front for my second lap, I felt great, but noticed I was having to steer the bike more so than usual to hold the red-black (team pursuit line).

I didn’t think much of it – in fact I presumed it was due to the wind. Then I swung up to change – same change as always and ended up chasing on. I didn’t swing down like I normally do, in fact it felt like I wasn’t being allowed to swing down. I didn’t think anything of it, I got on and recovered behind my teammate Sinead Jennings. I then heard a noise and I thought ‘Oh my God Sinead is puncturing’ then I thought no she can’t be.

I thought maybe it’s her chain as I often joke with her about her chain making noise. Then before I knew it my bike was swerving all over the place. It was me who had the puncture. As soon as I realised it was definitely me I raised my hand and shouted puncture. Within a lap we had stopped.

We got straight on the rollers expecting to be back up at the end of the heats but after 10 minutes we were told we weren’t getting back up. I immediately burst into tears and my teammates were saying it’s okay we’re getting back up there so I got some energy drink and continued to spin my legs. Then a commissaire said ‘right you’re up’. We jumped up, ready to go and nail our performance. Then we were told by another commissaire that we weren’t racing.

That moment – where you suddenly realise your Olympic dreams are over is the worst feeling in the world. You feel lost, hugely upset and there is also a large amount of disbelief. It feels like a nightmare and you expect to wake up and it’ll be race day. We all kept our cycling shoes on thinking, ‘no it’s not actually over we’re going to race’. Then when the mens team pursuit started it was clearly not going to happen. We packed up and left.

I’ve learnt a lot about myself training with Caroline Ryan and Sinead Jennings. Sinead Jennings has become one of my closest friends. I am very lucky to have met her. I have a huge amount of respect for her after everything she has already achieved and her real fight and hard work ethic is hugely inspirational.
I personally don’t understand quite how hard it must be to be away from a 10 month old baby (as I don’t have a baby!) but anyone who is a parent I’m sure must realise how hard it is and for Sinead to have been away for weeks from her baby. As my mum said ‘what a woman’.

The other things I’ve learnt from Sinead; she never shouts about her achievements. She will say that she used to row…. She doesn’t actually mention that she was a World Champion in the single sculls. Or that she is a Doctor. Again I find that very inspirational. She is always looking out for me and is such a team player. I wish her all the luck in the world with whatever it is she wants to pursue next.
Caroline Ryan is my other team pursuit teammate. We have been teammates for the past year and have shared the highs and lows together. She has gone from strength to strength and is always pushing me on in training. She is very passionate about her cycling and is already achieving a lot after such a short time in the sport. I’m sure she will continue to excel at Elite level and hopefully we can be teammates again in the future.

Brian Nugent and Chris Davis have been coaching us and have been absolutely brilliant. I’m hugely grateful for their coaching expertise and continued support. Not many people would have stuck by us and tried to go against the odds, but hey, we can honestly look back and say we have ‘No regrets’ as we gave it everything to try and make London 2012.

We arrived in Holland on Monday 17 October with three track days to get used to the Apledoorn track. The track itself isn’t very fast so despite our good form we needed to remember our splits were probably going to be .2 slower a lap and needed to hold a little back at the beginning.

Race day- we warmed up on the rollers, everyone feeling strong and good to go and do the job. We started off a little quick and finished in 3.32 – 7th.

If we had finished 7th and raced an almost perfect race I’d be happy with the result. But I know we’re better than that. Technically we weren’t as good as we have been in race efforts in training. Little mistakes add up and these were the sort of mistakes we cannot afford to make.

We know what we need to do and will come back stronger as we always do so watch out Kazakhstan World Cup…

There are so many highs and lows in sport and my first stage race contained both.
The first stage was a 36 mile course with 2 Category 3 climbs. Before getting out to Ireland I had a cold – just a cold – but enough to make me feel like I had nothing in the tank. In the race I struggled with the pace of the main peloton… something wasn’t right.

On Molls Gap, the first climb, I was out the back within seconds. Every rider that went past me, I tried my hardest to keep on their wheel, but I had nothing. It was incredibly disheartening. My mind was saying ‘what are you doing? Stop!’ and my heart saying ‘you cannot stop, you have to finish’. It was a real struggle.

On the second climb of the day I soon realised I had a slow puncture to my tub but was so far back I had no choice but to continue riding. A lesson learnt: there is a broom wagon with the last rider (and I thought I was the last rider) so I could have waited for them but instead continued to ride on a slow puncture for a good 20km – smart!

I crossed the line in floods of tears. Ten minutes down on the GC and absolutely no help to my team. I had no energy throughout the race and was struggling with my breathing. I thought that was it and that I may as well book the next flight home. Despite how I felt physically and how mentally tiring it had been to fight on, with the support and encouragement of my team I decided to give it another shot on the second stage.

Second stage was a real test for me. Mentally I was feeling totally shot down. Physically I felt drained from the previous day’s race and warming up I felt awful. My expectations weren’t very high and I just wanted to finish and hopefully not last. But as it turns out, throughout the entire race I kept with the lead group which sometimes only had ten riders in it. I stayed with them on the two climbs and whenever I found myself in a bit of trouble I had that second gear of effort that I didn’t have in the first stage.

Thank God… I felt myself again. Our team leader, Olivia Dillon, nailed her race, finishing first with Lauren Creamer coming in 11th and me 12th. Sandra Fitzgerald rode another great race attacking up climbs for Olivia and really showing just how strong she is. Our junior on the team Lauren Gourlay performed exceptionally well finishing with the 3rd bunch and holding onto her lead as first junior.

Third stage was the hardest – Healy’s Pass. I managed to keep with the main group and even kept with people on the descent which was a big surprise. A smaller descent right before Healy’s Pass caused me to lose the main group. I didn’t have the confidence to go down at that speed and consequently ended up chasing up the climb.

Once with the main group (some people were away) I managed to sit comfortably before the massive descent. Oh my God, it went on and on and on. If you haven’t noticed a pattern yet, I cannot descend. This is a skill I am going to learn and with more practice I will get it right. If you virtually live on the track you don’t get much time to practice these road skills but that’s no excuse and is something I’m going to have to get better at if I ever want to be successful on the road or time trial scene – which I do.

The encouraging thing was that despite losing over two minutes on the main group I managed to time trial it back to them on my own. The team car said ‘Go back to the chase pack and recover’ thinking that after I had been ill I wouldn’t be able to close the gap… They were as shocked as I was when I closed the gap!

Then up the Category 2 climb… I sat in and recovered taking it nice and easy and sticking with the group. Then someone attacked on the descent and surprise…surprise I was out the back again. This time I lost about 90 seconds as the group pushed on. I chased hard to get back and quite literally just made it back to the group in time to finish with them achieving my goal of ‘same time!’

Stage 4 was brilliant and was a real demonstration of how much we had learnt from our team leader Olivia Dillon over the week. We controlled the pace up the climbs by lining out as a team, we closed down attacks and followed breaks and led Olivia Dillon out with 3km to go. Olivia had a superb sprint and took the stage. Yet again a brilliant team effort and I felt so proud to be part of such a strong team.

Stage 5 was the time trial. I definitely missed my TT bike for this one. Annoyingly Olivia and I being the first riders off had some issues being stopped by cars on a bridge. Valuable time we lost when the distance was only 3km but despite this Olivia managed to finish 2nd and I picked up 4th.

The last stage started off pretty easy until my teammate Lauren Creamerr and Abergavenny rider Lowri Bunn put in a fierce attack and managed to get a five minute lead on the main peloton. At this point it was getting a little risky that if the group didn’t start to put the pedal down Olivia could lose the jersey.

So Sandra Fitzgerald and I (with the help of some Women’s Cycling Ireland riders) managed to close the gap a good bit. This resulted in both of us getting dropped up the main climb as we had nothing more to give after working on the front for so long. At the top of the climb a small group of us were just a bit off the main group but on the descent I was dropped (yet again!) and didn’t manage to close the gap on my own this time.

I had given everything and quite literally hit a wall. Hats off to Sandra Fitzgerald, who showed how strong she is and managed to get back in the main group and finish 4th on this stage.

Overall it was a huge learning curve and I really think everyone in the Ireland team rode superbly. It was managed incredibly well by Gillian McDarby and the support of our team masseuse and mechanic was a huge help throughout the event. Olivia Dillon was an inspiration throughout and such a fantastic team player. She was always willing to pass on her wisdom and do anything to help the team out.

Next up for me – learn how to corner and descend. Maybe I’ll make a roady yet?

I raced three events at the championships; the Individual Pursuit, the 500m Time Trial and the Scratch race. Being an outdoor track the times are all a lot slower, so the goal was to go out there and get everything out.

In my qualifying heat for the Individual Pursuit I finished in a new Irish record time (outdoors) 3.55.39 which was soon broken by Caroline Ryan in a superb time of 3.49.80. So the medal ride off (Gold/Silver) was between Caroline and me. The final itself took place an hour after the heat. I replicated my heat time but it wasn’t enough and Caroline managed to put a good 2 seconds into my time in the final.

I’m not going to lie, I was disappointed to finish second as I had wanted to win the title so badly. I gave everything and it wasn’t enough on the day. But that’s sport. You have to take the highs with the lows. My thinking is if you aim for the stars you can still hit the clouds. Another positive – our team pursuit is looking very strong with all three of us on the podium for the Individual pursuit.

Next up was the 500m TT and I finished behind Caroline Ryan – again a class performance from her. The afternoon event; the Scratch race was brought forward due to the rain. Sinead Jennings and I worked really well together taking a lap on the main group. This was very hard outdoors with the added fact the track is 460m! Once back to the group we recovered for a lap or two before I led Caroline Ryan out with six to go. After three quarters of a lap and getting a break from the main group I totally died and before I knew it Caroline and Sinead were gone! They were incredibly strong and nailed the race with a 1-2-3 finish to the team pursuit girls yet again. Sinead Jennings won the race, I finished second (again!!!!) and Caroline Ryan finished 3rd. Overall it was a great team effort.

Looking forward, I’m now preparing for a five-day stage race; Ras Na mBan. Then it’s all about the winter track season as we continue to try to qualify for the Olympics in London with the Team Pursuit in the Cunga colours.