My body is back to normal as I prepare for the long flight to China and the fourth round of the championship. Following the crash in Estoril the bruising was deep and took around a week to come out which made sleeping difficult but I'm back to one hundred per cent fitness and I can't wait for the race in Shanghai.

I love the Shanghai track and had a good result there last year when I finished eighth. I also had a great qualifying session and started from the second row in fifth place despite the lack of speed on the fastest straight in the championship calendar.

That long straight will certainly not be a problem for my Aprilia that has never been lacking top speed. It's the rear end grip that we will be working on to improve. Ever since the Estoril race I've been thinking 24/7 on how we can improve things and I've spoken to the team who are just the same. They are a great bunch of guys who have been fretting and planning the whole time to work out just how we can find that extra bit of grip. At this level of competition a tenth of a second gained here and there makes all the difference and so we never stop thinking about how we can find that advantage, however small.

I'm 11th in the championship after the Estoril crash and it will be hard to get back into contention but never say never because we have six grands prix in the next couple of months. We start in China on Sunday and then onto Le Mans in France where I took my first ever podium last year. In some ways this is where the season really starts and I must start catching those leaders before they pull away at the front before our summer break at the end of July. If I can get on a roll with so many races in such a short space o time, who knows?

I'm not looking forward to the 11 hour flight to Shanghai because I can never sleep and just want to get off and get started. When I get there I try to stay up as long as possible and adjust to Chinese time immediately. If I can make it to 10 o'clock the first evening without falling asleep I've done well. I also try to be up early the next morning and do a bit of training before the first practice session on Friday morning. I'm not that keen on the food and usually stick to pasta.

I'm never that happy when I'm not racing but I've enjoyed being at home the last couple of weeks. The warmer weather has meant plenty of training outside including cycling while I've also had some fun moto crossing and karting at Milton Keynes.

On Sunday I went to Blenheim Palace with my Mum, Aunty, Uncle and cousin to take part in the 7 km fun run round the park. The weather stayed dry and we had some brilliant fun with everybody finishing, although some were faster than others. Sounds like the race at Shanghai and it's up to me and the team to ensure that we are faster than any of the others on Sunday.

Speak to you next week and let's hope with some good news.

Bradley

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