It may sound fishy but success was all beginner’s luck

13 April 2012

I landed back in the UK last week to what I'm told was a pretty mild minus 1°C.

Bearing in mind temperatures dropped to
minus 15°C in Loughborough while I was away, it's not bad but for the last week I'd got used to temperatures of about 27°C out in Florida.

I'd been there six times before for training in Fort Lauderdale, which is about 45 minutes north of Miami. The last time was back in January and, in some ways, it's a bit like home from home.

We stay in the same place in a motel just a few yards from the beach and this time I was sharing a room with fellow swimmer Ross Davenport.

It was a pretty intense training camp although our motel owner, a guy called Andy, had promised last time to take us out on his boat for a fishing trip. Sadly, we weren't able to go on that occasion but, on our first rest day after about eight or nine days of training, he took us out.

So, Ross, Joe Roebuck and I set out with Andy and knew straight away it was going to be our day when the fish started to bite from the moment Andy set up Ross with the first fishing rod. In all, we ended up with 20 fish — I reckon it was beginner's luck.

Anyway, we took them back to our motel and filleted them. Now I'm not that much of a fish fan but we cooked them up and they tasted amazing.

We went out for a dinner a couple of times as a team but otherwise it was heavy training and I'd have to say it was a perfect trip. The important thing was that all of us stayed fit and healthy and we did just that.

It was a mix of swimming, running and work in the gym, with some sessions on the beach even thrown in.

I've never really swum in the sea in training but we did this time around. It wasn't quite Baywatch but we'd run across the beach into the water, swim through the break and round some buoys that were set up.

On Sunday, I'm off to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. AP McCoy would be my pick to win it. All the people on the shortlist have had great years but his has been fantastic and I think he deserves it.

It's always an event I like, getting the chance to chat to people from other sports. Last year, I spent some time with David Haye and got a photo of us posing with our fists up, which I'm sure he gets asked to do all the time.

There's no one I'm setting out to chat to this time. I never really had heroes growing up so there's no one I particularly hold up on a pedestal. It's just that people from sport are normally good guys to talk to so I'm looking forward to it.

And then it's off to Exeter for the family Christmas followed by Exeter City against Swindon on Boxing Day. I get three days off training in all for Christmas and then it's back to work.

Follow me on Twitter @LiamTancock

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