With the season now in full swing, we caught up with Natalie on training, improving her cycling and a very windy British Elite Duathlon Championships...

March has been a pretty good month for me, well apart from the weather at the end (you will find out why later). For me, training has been going better than ever.  I seem to be able to push further than before and my running times on the loop I use are quicker too, as well as my swim feeling stronger.  It's great to feel good in training - I love the feeling when it's going really well, you feel strong but relaxed and are able to make the times you want to hit.  It gives a huge mental boost and I find just makes me feel really happy, bouncy and on top of the world.

I am also determined to continue to improve my cycling skills and strength further and have officially joined the local cycle club, which I also find great for a bit of socialising and meeting new people too.  I may be a bit biased with my opinion here, but I believe it really is the friendliest club as they often mention on twitter.  I have done a couple of their time trial events this month - an undulating 25 miler and a tough hilly 10 mile. They hurt a lot but I thoroughly enjoyed both.

I enjoy going off first, with the challenge of being overtaken by as few of the riders starting behind and it certainly makes me keep pushing until the end.  I love the feeling of being totally exhausted following a race - it’s then that you know you have put everything into it. Strangely enough, after the hilly cycle I blasted out an amazing swim!  It's funny how sometimes when you are tired you can still put in a good session.  Another thing I will be giving a try is some circuit and road races which I hope will further improve my skills in the elite drafting races.

Finally at the end of the month it was the Elite Duathlon Championships which I was really excited about to gauge how training was going. I could also compare it to last year’s result as in 2014 it happened to be my first elite race with drafting allowed on the bike, against some of the top British athletes.  But with all the best intentions, the weather was not on our side that day.  The only way I can describe it is horrendous.  I knew from the forecast it would not be great but was not prepared for how bad it actually was.  On arrival at Rockingham motor circuit in Corby it was apparent the wind was pretty strong. The juniors had raced and the para athletes were currently racing but it looked tough out there on the course.

I'm not going to lie, I was feeling pretty nervous about cycling in those winds which just seemed to be getting worse as the day went on.  The Junior men were racing just before us and while I was warming up, some were cycling or being helped back in after being blown off their bikes. Having seen the bike racks (with bikes on) being blown over,  I was considering just doing the 5km run and not going out on the bike.  What's the point in putting yourself at risk of getting injured in the first race of the season when there's plenty more to come?

Well it turns out with the winds expected to get worse the race director made the decision to make it a 10km run race for the junior & senior women’s race and also the men's event.  Personally I believe it was the right call and despite being a disappointing outcome at least we still got a race, even if it wasn't what we were expecting.  The run was 4 laps of 2.5 km and it was nasty, hurt a lot and was a huge struggle in the strong wind which made it hard just to stay on the course! I was happy to reach the finish but a little disappointed with my time as I feel I can do so much better. But then everyone else probably felt the same - it was a tough race in tough conditions.

I would like to thank the marshals and everyone involved in putting the event on - especially those that were stood outside the whole time being blown around or trying to save the bikes from being blown over and damaged.

I have something really exciting to blog about next month which I just had to mention now, but unfortunately I will be keeping you in suspense until then!

Natalie's next blog post will be Wednesday 6 May. Read her previous post here.