Hannah Miley: Keeping fit and healthy on the road to Shanghai via Cyprus

Published on Friday 22 April 2011 16:09

I LOVE the longer summer evenings and the lighter mornings, but this time of year comes with a bugbear. I suffer from hay fever and the sticky, itchy eyes have already started to kick in. Not the best for a swimmer.

With the Olympics now just 15 months away, keeping healthy and staying injury-free is vital. It's a case of playing it smart. I'm on medication for the hay fever and I do go to the doctor if I have the hint of a sore throat.

But prevention is much better than cure, so twice a week I visit Alison Fantom at the Inverurie Chartered Physiotherapy Clinic. I've been seeing her regularly for the past six or seven years and she does a great job at making sure my body doesn't fall apart. I do Pilates and lots of stretching exercises to stay supple, and Alison also works hard on making sure I have a good posture. I was seriously ill with a viral infection just a few weeks before the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and that hampered my performance and made me aware of the importance of good health.

Over the years, I've had a few shoulder and knee injuries, but nothing more than niggles. Fortunately - and touch wood - I haven't had anything that's kept me out of the water.

The light mornings do make it easier to get out of bed. I'm up at 4.30 or 5am for training and then back home for a second breakfast - just as well I'm sponsored by Kellogg's - and then it's back to bed for some rest. Sleeping is one of my favourite things.

At the moment, I'm in the middle of a long block of training - morning and evenings - so I always try to be in bed by 9pm. It doesn't leave much time for anything else, but I enjoy watching movies. Notting Hill is my all-time favourite.

Most of my friends are away at university in St Andrews or Stirling. But I'm a real girly person and so, when they are at home and I come out of hibernation at weekends, I do enjoy shopping trips to Aberdeen. It's good to get away from the intensity of swimming.

My next competition is at the end of this month. I'm going to the City of Glasgow meet and will be taking part in a lot of events, including some sprints.

It breaks the routine and it is good to spice up training with some racing.

There is a different feel when swimming is competitive, and it is something you have to practise.

Next month, I'm off to Cyprus. It's a training camp for all the British swimmers selected for the World Championships in Shanghai this July. I do feel a little isolated in Inverurie so it's always good to get together with my GB team mates.

It also adds an extra edge to training. Egos abound and no one wants to be outdone by a rival. It will be good to get away and catch up with everyone. We're a friendly bunch.

Living and training so far away from everyone else does have its plusses.It means I don't have any distractions and Dad (my coach) and I can do our own thing and it seems to work for us.

Next week I will have a slight distraction. A BBC crew is coming to do a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Not that I know too much about it - I leave Dad to cope with all these sort of things.

• Hannah Miley is one of Scotland's leading prospects for the 2012 Olympic Games and is a member of Team Kellogg's.