Conor Cummins was back on track last week and the Milwaukee Yamaha rider has just checked in with an exclusive blog. Read what Conrod has to say about the build up to 2013!

Over to Conor:

Hi all!

It's been a long winter yet again. It never gets any easier!

For the majority of it I have been training hard in preparation for the season ahead. A mixture of gym, football, cycling and motocross has seen me well sorted fitness wise and I feel ready to tackle some racing. I have done a fair amount of mountain biking over the winter months, following a programme set out by Isle of Man End 2 End winner Elliot Baxter. For him to train me up is a big thing for me as what he doesn't know about fitness isn't worth knowing. I get a lot of enjoyment from it which is great as I couldn't imagine doing something I hate - it would drive me mad! We're lucky to have such good terrain to train on here on the Isle of Man. All in all I'm in good shape.

On the side of the racing I made some personal appearances for one of my personal sponsors, Manx Telecom. They staged a 'Kick off 2013' function for all of their company employees and they asked me to come along and give them an insight into my career so far. Obviously, my spectacular TT 2010 crash and my recovery afterwards were shown, but to make people understand and appreciate the highs and lows of anything and that you can come back from a lot of things. I enjoyed it and they all seemed to enjoy the rubbish that I talked about anyway so job's a gooden!

The winter blues were well and truly demolished when I threw my leg over my Milwaukee Yamaha race bike. They look stunning and I know the lads have worked really hard over the winter to get them all ready so I want to reward them with good results this year for their effort. At the end of March I am heading across the pond to compete in a mountain bike race called the Whinlatter Challenge up in theLake District. There are a good few Manx lads heading over to have a go so it'll be real good crack!

Cheers for the support

Conrod