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Having said that, though, I always try to balance the wisdom of six years' service in international rowing, with the freshness of a novice.

I often find myself thinking back to my first year on the team in 2005, and asking myself what the would have done.

There is a saying: "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got" and I think you need to balance your experience of what's gone before with the aim to always look at your rowing objectively and with a clear head.

Getting through the training programme and relying on past results won't win races -excitement, vitality and new ideas set you apart from the rest.

A second fact about this year which has swiftly become apparent to me is that it is very different to 12 months ago!

This was clear when standing on the and , where something like three journalists wished to hear our opinions and maybe five photographers took our pictures.

I cast my mind back to the , where probably 50 flashbulbs were going off during the medal ceremony, and there was a walkway several hundred metres long with journalists and reporters both sides, desperate to record our every thought for posterity.

Last year, every World Cup race was dissected on television as a possible pointer in the road to the Olympics. This year, we've been bumped off television by , who apparently are more of a crowd-puller than us rowers.

And it's not only media interest that makes '09 so different to '08. This time last year, we were watching the Wimbledon finals over the internet, on yet another training camp on the Rhine canal, having already spent four months of the previous nine abroad.

I hadn't had a night out since Christmas Eve and I hadn't even stayed up to welcome in the New Year - I had an early night, to make sure my training sessions on New Year's Day were top quality.

One of my friends has a photo of me from a wedding we'd been to in June last year, and it's known as my 'sober and stressed' photo.

I look drawn, worried, and knackered and I remember leaving the wedding by 10pm having drunk orange juice all night, to be sure I could still get an early night.

By contrast, 2009 has seen us enjoying Wimbledon hospitality and socialising at Henley Royal Regatta, still giving our training 100% - but not spending our non-rowing time thinking about training as well.

Overall 2009 has, so far, been much more enjoyable. Of course the Olympics are the defining feature of our lives, and our entire sporting careers will be judged on our performances at this four-yearly event.

But the other years carry the same highs and lows, successes and failures, and rollercoasters of emotions; this year is lived much less in the public eye but it's no less challenging for it!

Watch Annabel in action at the third World Cup regatta in Lucerne, live on the red button and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport website on Sunday, with highlights on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two on Monday, 1300-1400 BST.