大象传媒

Athlete's Village, Beijing

I am physically and mentally drained.

The main emotion this morning is less exhilaration and more a mix of relief and exhaustion.

For the first time in months and months I'll be able to walk up a flight of stairs without worrying whether my legs feel tired.

To finally get it all finished is a wonderful feeling. For five days I've been battling to keep my head above water.

I can pinpoint times in the last four years when I've gone through real suffering.

Certain sessions I've done have been simply horrendous. The only thing that gets you through is the thought of the

Nihao from the athletes' village in Beijing.

I've just come back from the velodrome, and I've now only got three training sessions left until my racing begins. We're that close.

I'm settled into my room, I'm feeling relaxed and I've even got my coffee machine working. Excellent.

I'm in a good mood. I've just finished a tough couple of days at the velodrome, and it's all been excellent news - two personal bests on the flying 200 metres.

At the same time, I'm hurting. On Tuesday I did the last part of my interval session at my , and if I'm honest it felt pretty grim.

My numbers were great - my power readings are up - but it still felt horrible. There's nothing pleasant about those sorts of sessions.

Well, I've had my last race before Beijing - and it couldn't have gone much better. Not only did I win out in Cottbus, Germany, but I set a . Great for the confidence.

Since I got back at the weekend it's all been about training and packing for , where the GB cycling squad is based before we fly to Beijing.

I won't see my home until the end of August now. It's quite a strange feeling. There's that worry that you might have forgotten something, but at the same time once you get your Olympic kit on you really start to feel the buzz, that you're part of something special.

I don't usually follow the , but this year it's different, and all because of Mark Cavendish.

Cav has been absolutely fantastic. He's not just been beating his rivals, he's been .

When you're a sprinter, you expect to win by half a wheel length, or a bike length at most. Cav's been winning stages by two or three bike lengths.

It's scary how fast the Olympics are coming, and we're all feeling it now - it's like having a big countdown clock going in your head.

I was getting the car washed a few days ago and I opened a newspaper while I was waiting to see a big article proclaiming that there were fewer than 30 days to go.

My heart-rate must have leapt 20 beats per minute - but I'm absolutely ready for it.

I'm a Scottish track cyclist. I've won nine gold medals at World Championships since 1999, took Olympic silver in Sydney in the team sprint and gold in Athens in the 1km time trial. In Beijing I'll be competing in the keirin.

More to follow.