After an exciting and (for the sport) a well publicised couple of weeks, life is starting to get back to normal.

The trials ended very well for me, with some fast swims and the joy of being named on my first ever Olympic team. My final two events (the 200m and 50m Breast) were both real confidence boosters. My 200m time of 2:09:51 makes me the third fastest swimmer in the history of the event and my 50m time of 27:30 places me second all time.

Those two swims along with my victory in the 100m Breast, gave me a clean sweep of the male breaststroke events, which is something I am very proud of.

Saying this, we have really had it hammered into us that trials were just that, trials; the true test starts now.

As exciting and uplifting as the trials were, what really is important is what happens now, to get back into work and find that one percent improvement that takes people from being a world class athlete to Olympic gold medalist. From this point of view I am glad I chose not to participate in the World Short Course Championships in Manchester.

The team left a few days after trials and although it would have been interesting to compete again, not attending gave me the opportunity to relax, recover and get back into training all while the team was overseas. Special congratulations must go to Felicity Galvez (2 world records) and Adam Pine (2 Commonwealth records at the age of 32) for their stellar performances over there.

The Olympic and Paralympic teams are presently gathered in Canberra at the AIS for our orientation camp and a Grand Prix meet.

It has been great to get the team back together after the whirlwind end to trials. It has been a little strange for me, being in the city I have lived in for the last three years, swimming at my usual training pool, yet staying at a hotel.

Of course there are a couple of notable absentees, with Grant Hackett our team captain and Nick D'arcy both not being here.

Grant is over in Europe preparing for the world open water championships, which - if successful - Grant will use to qualify for the 10km race in Beijing.

Nick was removed from the team pending his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Now a lot has been said and written about Nick, and I will not be commenting on any of it here. Nick is in the middle of a police investigation as well as an appeal against the AOC and I was not present when the alleged incident occurred so I can't give any insight.

The camp has been a great experience, the fact that we are now regarded as the Australian Olympic Swimming team, just makes it that little bit more special.

Also this week has had some great activities with four current team members (and some former swimmers) carrying the torch on the Olympic torch relay. We were spoken to by Major General (retired) Peter Cosgrove and then attended the dawn serviced at the war memorial on Anzac day.

The racing has been hard and fast at the Grand Prix, with two world records broken by Libby Trickett and Leisel Jones. Although most of us are not up to our usual fitness level, the quality has still been really high and the act of competing (at any speed) important to our preparations.

Anyway it is back to training for me, and I will leave you with a quote from Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett when he was asked about how it felt to win the premiership. I believe it really relates to what the team is going through after the joy of being selected, but still having the challenge lay ahead.

"It's nice to pat yourself on the back, but if you keep doing it, all you do is put yourself to sleep."