I have an Olympic t-shirt that says 1000 days to go. Back then, we had three winters of grinding out the miles ahead of us.  Now that we are down to double figures, it’s hard to believe that most of the hard work is already done. At last we have got to the part of the season where we are spending all our time in the double scull. Most excitingly, it’s time to get racing. The snow and ergo tests are a distant memory as now everything is about the speed of the boat.

We made it to Italy for a training camp, the lake having eventually melted. We have deconstructed our rowing stroke down to the absolute basics, and we will build it up again layer by layer adding precision and finesse onto the foundation we build now. We have three regattas in May and June in Belgrade, Lucerne and Munich. Over the course of the three we’ll be likely to face every crew that we’ll race in August. It will be while yet until we get close to the speed we want for the Olympics, so we must be patient, but the thrill of side by side racing against the same opposition we will race in London is tantalisingly close.

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