LIFE in San Francisco is going well and I’m settling in nicely. I moved here just under four weeks ago and am really starting to get a feel for the city - in short, it is a seriously cool place.

I’ve found a flat, bought new furniture and will be moving in this weekend. It’s all systems go!

Balancing this while also fitting in training has been an interesting task at times. Just yesterday I managed to squeeze in a trip to a bedding store between my swim/run workouts and my gym session. It is definitely all keeping me on my toes!

Last weekend I ventured to Tempe, Arizona, to support several friends who were racing Ironman Arizona.

Under my original plans, this was due to be my first Ironman event, but my coach and I decided some time ago that it would be better for me to save this for next year instead. I have always raced Ironman 70.3 (half Ironman distance) so stepping up to the full distance requires a bigger base of run training than I’ve had this year, primarily because of injury.

Nevertheless, I went to Arizona excited to watch many friends and training partners in action. As a racer, it can often seem weird to be the other side of the fence and watch a race when you’re normally the one taking part, but it was actually interesting to see things unfold as a spectator. There were four of us on support duties and between us we had more than a dozen athletes we were looking out for and cheering on.

Ironman involves a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2 mile run – so it is by no means an easy or short day out. And it turns out that it’s just as hard for spectators as it is for racers.

The professionals started at 6.45am and the last finishers cross the line at midnight, so it is a fairly epic day of exercise for all involved. It was great to cheer so many people on, knowing first hand just how much of a boost you take from crowd support and energy. It’ll be my turn next year.

It’s less than four weeks until I return to Swindon for the Christmas holidays now and I’m very excited to be seeing everyone soon.