Double Olympic finalist Jess Eddie, who is from Durham, continues her exclusive Northern Echo column outlining her preparations for next year’s Games in Rio

AS we were finishing our training the other day, a fellow athlete noticed that it was a Sunday, the day of rest.

Days of the week have little to no significance for us - we live by a training programme which dictates how many miles we are to row or what weight to lift each day. We live a life of routines, rituals and ridiculous amounts of training.

My friend then pointed out to me that I’ve never truly experienced a weekend in my whole adult life. The elusive “weekend”, the exact thing people start getting excited for on a Friday, the two-day holiday all normal people experience each and every week.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, and I am very lucky to be able to be a professional athlete. But should I start getting excited about my weekends?  This got me thinking a bit more about post-rowing life.

Many of you will have noticed that we’re now in 2015, which means the Rio Olympic Games take place NEXT YEAR.

This is a date we certainly pay attention to, but it also fills me with a bit of fear. Not because of the pressure and enormity of lining up on the start line of the Olympic Regatta, but because what will I do once I’ve crossed the finish line?

First of all, I’ll gain a weekend, but beyond that I must now start making plans for what I want to be when I grow up.  I have to become 21 again and figure out what kind of job I’d like, or what I’d be good at (or who would actually employ me?!).

These are questions I’ll be asking myself for the next 20 months. For the time being though, I’ll be working on how to make my boat go as fast as possible and qualify for the Rio Games.

The North-East rowing community will be back in action very soon with various head races scheduled in the coming weeks, kicking off with Durham Small Boats Head on February 7.

Newcastle University held a very successful weekend of training for women’s eights this month, highlighting how important the North-East is for up-and-coming talent.

* Follow Jess Eddie (@jesseddie) and Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (@nrodtweets) on Twitter.