After returning from the Women's World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, I had a couple of weeks break before getting right back into my cricket in preparation for the ICC Women's World Cup.
All of us have been working hard in an intense period of training which has included multiple sessions every week working on fitness alongside our cricket.
Our commitment to these sessions showed in the results of our squad fitness tests last weekend at the National Cricket Performance Centre, where we all made improvements.
Holly Colvin: as tough a training partner as a competitor on the pitch, says Sarah
Fitness has been a key focus for us given the heat and conditions we will experience in India. We all know about the challenges of facing spin and the difference in pitches and have done our research; we've all played in the sub-continent before so are adaptable and fully prepared.
In between meeting up with the squad at camps I've been training with Holly Colvin and Mark Lane down in Hove.
I'm really excited about heading out to India; there's always a great atmosphere at the grounds, all the people out there are so passionate about cricket and the crowds are the noisiest I have experienced.
Sarah Taylor
Quotes of the week
It's been great fun as well as hard work training with Holly, she's a brilliant bowler and is getting better and better all the time. We had our last England squad training session on Thursday at Edgbaston and can say we are really happy with our preparations.
Passionate
Alongside my training I've been enjoying watching the England men's performance in India and it's also been interesting to see some of the grounds we will be playing at next month.
I'm sure there will be some exciting cricket to watch during the ICC Women's World Cup and with 10 of the games live on Sky Sports everyone can enjoy it and hopefully get behind us.
I'm really excited about heading out to India; there's always a great atmosphere at the grounds, all the people out there are so passionate about cricket and the crowds are the noisiest I have experienced.
Whilst winning the ICC Women's World Cup in 2009 was a fantastic achievement, I was quite young and don't think I took it all in properly at the time. But this one will be different, I've been working towards this for four years, I've moved up the batting order, taken on more responsibility and really matured as a cricketer and person.
Eight of us who were part of the 2009 success are returning to defend our title and we would like to think if we go out there, play our brand of cricket and approach the game how we want to, then we have every chance of retaining the ICC Women's World Cup.
Watch coverage of the ICC Women's World Cup on Sky Sports, starting with India v West Indies on January 31.
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