Hannah Miley: Training schedule starting to hot up as Olympics loom large on the horizon

ALL the time, I can feel the Olympics getting closer and closer. I've just spent a couple of week's training in Cyprus and no sooner had I arrived home in Inverurie than I heard that Aberdeen is one of the stopovers on the Olympic torch route. It all adds to the excitement. Can you believe there are just 14 months to go?

The training camp was for the full GB National squad, including everyone selected for the World Championships in Shanghai in July. It was an amazing two weeks and well worthwhile.

I train so much on my own at the Garioch Pool in Inverurie that it was great to get a different stimulus and go head to head with other members of our World Championship team. It was also so nice to be able to train outdoors. After all the trouble I had over the winter, with the snow that blocked roads and shut the swimming pool, it was great to be able to get in the water and have the sun on my back.

Unfortunately, a few illness and injury niggles meant that not everybody in the World Championship team made it to Cyprus. Becky Adlington wasn't there and two Scots - Michael Jamieson and Robbie Renwick also couldn't make it. But there were another four Scots - David Carry, Lucy Ellis, Kris Gilchrist and Jak Scott.

We worked with two of America's world-renowned coaches, Milt Nelms and Bob Gillett. For me, the most valuable aspect was the concentration on turns and the underwater phase of a race. Milt is known as the "Water Whisperer" of swimming and he has a completely different perspective of the sport. His philosophy is to give athletes a deeper understanding of swimming and allow them to help themselves.

Bob coached the American Misty Hyman - she won gold in the 200m butterfly at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney - and both coaches provided me with a lot of new and useful information. The real challenge comes now that I am home and have to engrain it into my swimming. But it is a challenge I relish.

After three days in Cyprus, Dad (my coach) came out to join me, so he also got the chance to soak up the new ideas. As I said, it was great to train with my teammates and I did a lot of work alongside David Carry and Liam Tancock.

Now I have a week or so of hard work at home and then I'm going to Stirling for some long course training in a 50m pool before a couple of major meets in June.

I'm going to take part in the Mare Nostrum Series in Monaco at the start of next month and then it is the British Gas Scottish National Championships in Glasgow from 30 June-3 July.

I wasn't sure whether I was going to go to Glasgow but I want to be there because I love swimming in front of a Scottish crowd.I won't be swimming a full programme - not my usual punishing ten events or so - but, hopefully, it will be a good tune-up before the World Championships.

The World Championships take place at the end of July and they will be the last major event before the Olympics - incredible. Everyone who will be in London should be in Shanghai and it will be a great test. I'll be swimming in both the 400m and 200m individual medleys and would love a medal. I was fourth in the 400m at the World Championships in Rome two years ago. This time I want to be on the podium.

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