DOUBLE Olympic medallist Becky James is hoping her "happiness planner" and a steady build-up will get her to Tokyo 2020 ready to go for gold.

The 25-year-old track sprinter from Abergavenny has taken a year off from racing after claiming silver medals in the keirin and match sprint at Rio 2016.

During that time, James has developed her passion for baking, travelled and cheered on Wales rugby star and long-term partner George North during the Lions tour of New Zealand.

Having barely visited a velodrome for a year, James returns to training in Newport in September but is not making any predictions about when she will compete again.

Speaking at a British Cycling event in London, James said: "I'm not even thinking about the Olympics yet because I don't want to put too much pressure on myself.

"If I want something too much, I over-train and then I get injured and go back to square one, so the important thing is keep that enjoyment in what I'm doing and build up slowly. I got to Rio on basically a year of training.

"In my head, the main goal will be Tokyo, but at the same time it's just a case of taking it a step at a time."

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This caution is understandable given her record of illness and injury. A double junior world champion in 2009, James missed London 2012 thanks to a triple whammy of food poisoning, an Achilles injury and appendicitis in the build-up.

She bounced back to win the keirin-sprint double at the 2013 World Championships, only to then endure a knee injury and cancer scare that almost forced her to quit the sport in 2015.

But a bronze medal in the keirin at the World Championships in March 2016 signalled a return to better days and five months later she scooped those two medals in Rio, an achievement she has described as better than any of her victories.

Having reached that high, however, James admits to suffering a bout of post-Olympic blues and being caught between wanting time "to be Becky the normal person, not Becky the cyclist" but missing the routine of training.

Now ready to get back to work, James puts her new positive mindset down to her happiness planner, a diary and journal she bought online.

"It's where I write what I'm looking forward to each day and I can look back and write what I was happy about, so you stop seeing the negatives and start seeing positives in everything," she said.

"I have always needed lots of reassurance and positive feedback from coaches but now I get that from myself, instead of anybody else."

Knowing how good she is when fit, British Cycling's coaches have been happy to let James stay in shape with her road bike and yoga and there is no pressure on her to ride World Cup events this winter.

"I know having missed London, winning at the world champs, doing okay, being injured, missing the next world champs and then getting two silver medals, that life doesn't always go straight up like that," she said.

"I just want to take it in my stride."