Oli Beckingsale, is one of British Cycling’s two Olympic Podium Programme riders in men's cross-country mountain biking.

The 32-year-old Commonwealth silver medallist from Bristol will be competing in his third Olympics, in Beijing.

My season is well under way now; in fact I am about half way through, having started in early March and going through to mid-September. But the work started back in December last year when I stopped the DIY, started eating better, had my last lost weekend and started training hard. In the New Year it was time to pack my bags and head off for three training camps with the GB team, where I was tagging along at the track endurance guys’ camps.

My season was planned out back in November with the help of Professor Louis Passfield, who helps me with my training, keeps an eye on me and works out the difficult stuff that makes my head ache! The season is then broken down into phases, with aims and objectives. Things often change but at least there is plan to follow, which is important.

This year is a tough one with two races that I want to peak for: the World Champs in Italy on 22 June and the Olympics on 23 August. The two-month gap between the peaks is okay, but requires a controlled and steady start to the year, so I decided on a low-key build-up, racing in the UK and Ireland.

In late April, the World Cup series kicked off with three races in three weeks, which is a tough round. We started in Belgium, then Germany and then Madrid. My form was solid but not 100%, which was the plan, and I ended up 18th, 30th and 19th, which I was pretty happy with, knowing I had more to come.

I got back from Madrid and relaxed for the week at home. It was nice to spend some decent time with my wife and child and they were happy not to feel like a one-parent family for a few days. We got in some nice walks and some quality cafe time, which is always a favourite of mine, but I had to then leg it up to Scotland for a National series race on the weekend, which went well and I won despite feeling half asleep.

After this I had a break for three weeks to go training hard and improve. This involved a 12-day training camp in the Alps at medium altitude, and then some road racing back in the UK. The three weeks went to plan, and having some time away from MTB racing meant I came back fit, fresh and ready for my first big targets for the year: the World Cup in Scotland and the World Champs.

The World Cup in Fort William is always a big race for the UK-based riders and I have had mixed fortunes here over the years, with some good days like a 13th in the 2005 edition or my slow 32nd at the Worlds last year, which was not fun. Riding in front of a home crowd is great when you are going well, but I feel like a bit of a dick when I am crawling, especially when friends and family have made the effort to come up.

This year turned out to be my best yet and it was a great feeling to ride fast in front of such support. I was confident that I was in good shape before the race and was going to go for the top 10. On the first lap I made sure that I made the 14-man front group. This split up into two groups and I was in the second part but I was strong over the last few laps and picked a few off.

In the end, four of us came into the last kilometre fighting for sixth place. I am never a fast finisher and ended up ninth; this was my best-ever World Cup and equals my ninth place at the 2005 World Champs, so I was pretty happy.

Next up is the World Champs in Val di Sole, and after a few days at home I headed out to the Italian Dolomites for 10 days’ preparation. After that it’s a bit of training, course practice and wasting time - probably involving watching series 6 of 24 and series 5 of Peep Show - before race day on Sunday 22nd.

My form is good and my confidence is up, so I’m hoping to go better than my previous best of ninth.

Check out here on BBC Sport and www.olibeck.com for latest news.

Oli Beckingsale is just one of the 2008 Olympians and 2012 hopefuls appearing regularly on 606. Find out more.