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   Today's race went smoothly. I felt the course suited my Stumpjumper 29er better than the previous two cyclocross races I had taken part in this winter. It was mainly comprised of an undulating gradient with some tight woodland sections and some nice flowing descents.    After the track had taken a battering from the earlier races it was clear that running would play a crucial role today so I used this to my advantage. I tried to hold back the first lap and then slowly applied the pressure to create a consistent pace. This worked and soon I was racing to catch the Senior riders who set off a minute earlier than the Juniors.    I finished first Junior and fifth overall. I plan to continue this as a trend towards the first National Series race at Sherwood in late March.     Thanks to all Organisers and Volunteers at NDCXL for creating a great race.  

   The final day at the camp was special as friendships had been made and soon we would have to disperse back into our own lives and get into the Christmas spirit again. The morning was another fresh 05:45 rise in preparation for the second and final circuit session of the camp. We had a short amount of time to collect our belongings from around our hotel rooms which gave me just enough time to make a coffee in the polystyrene cup I had commandeered from the campus dining room the afternoon before.    The circuit session was easier than last time. For a start it only lasted for about 30 minutes and in my opinion it was comprised of far easier exercises however it did produce similar numbers to those I recorded earlier in the weekend. After getting changed out of our sweaty clothes it was time for breakfast, our penultimate visit to the dining room. Here Group 2 took the table on the stage of the hall. We all talked about what we were doing in the lead up to 2015 and many exchanged

   Day 3 of the camp greeted us with a lie in, well 06:45 was better than 05:45! Breakfast at the Premier Inn was brilliant with many cyclists mixing with the tennis folk, eating lots and generally having a pleasant morning. We left the hotel at 07:15 and after a quick tour of the campus whilst dropping people off at their 'classroom' locations, arrived at the netball centre, the base of Group 2. This morning was a bit slower with various activities used to wake us all up and prepare us for some more hard thinking.    The topic up for discussion was emotional intelligence and therefore the well known model of Professor Steve Peters' 'Chimp Paradox'. After watching a short clip of a coach handling a team discussion pretty badly we discussed how we could control our minds and help our athletes when faced with hardship be that during a sporting event or in our own personal lives.    Lunch soon crept upon us and even though we were not hungry after breakfast it was im

   Our first morning at the camp was an interesting one. The group leaders knocked on our bedroom doors at 05:45, so as you can imagine by 6:15 the hotel foyer was full of sleepy teenagers, hanging in a zombie like trance as we awaited the bus to take us to the tennis centre.    As we entered the courts it was clear the next hour would be a tough one. Athletes, Coaches and Officials lined the walls of the huge room with the odd group leader setting up their stations for the circuit session. After a short but critical warm up of jogging around the hall we were pulled into the nearest station and therefore a new group of people, they would be our comrades for the duration of the workout. The next 45 minutes past in a blur of Jump-squats, Burpees and Russian twists to name a few. The session must have been stressful as I recorded a maximum heart rate of 184bpm and an average of 150bpm. As a result there were many achy glutes and sore abs that day.    Back to the classroom sessions and

   The National Talent Camp was a fantastic opportunity for me to develop as both an athlete and a coach, learn skills from experienced individuals and also to develop my ideas of sporting philosophy and ethics along with the other coaches in my group. I would like to thank the Youth Sport Trust and the other individual volunteers who gave up their time to make the camp happen.       During our first afternoon together we attended an Opening Ceremony which was led by the Youth Sport Trust Chair, Baroness Sue Campbell. This was a good introduction into what we would learn over the next few days and helped everyone to feel as though we were embarking on a team adventure rather than individually and focused on the process of Dream, Develop and Deliver. Following this the ceremony was handed over to Heptathlete; Katrina Johnson-Thompson and Wheelchair athlete; Hannah Cockroft. This was not only inspirational but also insightful for the athletes and I to hear of their personal pathway to