Hello readers. Here is February’s blog from our Olympic rowers. It’s Peter’s turn to update us on their doings in the last month.

Hi all,

February has been a really busy month! We came back from our training camp in Portugal in late January to prepare for the long distance (5 kilometres) trial in Boston, Lincolnshire.  I think it’s fair to say everyone dreads the 3 hour drive (or 2 hours 15 if you go with Richard) to Boston and the race. It’s normally wet and very cold and requires every athlete to race as hard as they can over the 5km distance, two and a half times the Olympic distance.  It normally takes around 18 minutes and is horrid!  This year I came fourth and Richard won (our trials are raced as singles), which is even more frustrating! To be honest I was slightly disappointed, but I have had a mishmash winter of training and this normally shows up when you come to race. It’s just another reminder that hard training during the winter leads to good results in the summer. I felt I got the result I deserved and has given me lots of motivation to keep pushing on with training.

We are now prepping for the first World Cup of the season which is in Australia from 22nd-24th March. It’s odd to be preparing for a World Cup race so early on in the rowing calendar. Normally at this time of year we are still in small boats training at Caversham, but it’s a nice change to be training in a crew boat. It’s fair to say we are very rusty and still need a lot of practice, but that’s a challenge in itself.  I can’t wait to travel to Oz, I’ve never been and it’s a place I have always wanted to go see. We are there for a total of 3 weeks, so the trip also gives us the opportunity to see some of the sights in Sydney for the first couple of days while we get used to the time change. It’s meant to be around 30 degrees in Sydney so the shock from 0 degrees might be a big one.

You may be wondering what I will be doing with my pet rabbit Eskild over this time? I have him booked in for a holiday as well at Natty’s Nest in Old Windsor. I’m sure he is very excited.

Read next months blog from Richard to find out how we both got on in Australia.

Thanks, Pete.

Good Luck in Australia Pete!

Next week, I’ll bring you news of Thursday’s event at Pinsent Mason’s offices in London when, before jetting off to Australia, Richard will be talking our guests through the Olympic Final race, which still keeps us on the edge of our seats. If you would like to attend or have any questions for Richard and Peter, please let us know via the comments box, below.