Thanks for reading again. Since I wrote my last entry, I have been on another triathlon high!

Training has been going brilliantly and I have managed to train very long and hard, getting myself in pretty good shape for these next few races.

I have been mostly concentrating on my running and swimming, but my biking is right where I want with a solid work out at Mallory Park bike race the other day.

I’m confident that I couldn’t really have done anything else leading into the make-or-break Olympic qualifier in Madrid on 25 May so that is really comforting.

Last weekend we flew to Lisbon to race the European Championships. It took a lot of contemplation before we decided to do it but we thought as it falls right at the end of my training block we could get another good race, and some confidence, under my belt.

It was nice to get to Lisbon mainly because it signalled the hard work is now over and the best time of the year has arrived - RACING!

It meant I got a break from my hard work and could relax and have some “me time” as well as having a good time hanging out with the rest of the GB team.

After popping my Red Bull I felt ready to go and very fleet-footed, which is great with all the miles and hard work still in my legs, so I was really excited to get amongst it.

The 1500m wetsuit swim in the harbour went OK. I came out around 20th, safe in the front bike group and at the lead of the race.

The bike was pretty full-on the whole way, with lots of attacks. On the third lap a group of seven very strong guys got a big gap on us before they hit the run.

I hold my hands up, I missed it and they got two minutes 20 seconds on us. I really didn’t expect to lose so much time and was a bit disappointed.

I still had the chance to have a good run, though. I took it on hard, and really ran quickly for the first three laps but on the last lap I started to get tired, all the training in my legs was working against me.

I still ended up having the fourth fastest run of the race to finish 11th - not bad considering I didn’t rest for the race and did a lot of work on the bike section.

I was fairly neutral about the result, I think I have been a bit unlucky in the past three races but I took some good fitness and confidence from the race.

I’m looking forward to freshening up now so that my body can adapt to the race and all the hard work before.

After the Europeans, we did all the tricks we knew to recover properly for the next day and reap the benefits from a hard race: ice bath, protein shake, nutritious evening meal and finally my new secret weapon Compex - a device that sends small electrical impulses through my muscles to help them recover.

As a result I felt great the next day and even got an hour morning run before breakfast and check out.

My next outing is the first French Grand Prix of the year with my team, Lagardere Paris Racing. Let’s see if I can sneak a bit more race form and perhaps a cheeky podium before the big one!