July 2021

July saw me taking part in my first Middle-distance ('Half-Ironman' distance) triathlon at the Cotswold Classic at South Cerney. Unfortunately, the swim was cancelled due to fog. In enjoyed the bike, pushing it hard. I spent the first 30 mins overtaking lots of cyclists before I could get by head down and get into a rhythm. I started to feel the pace a bit at the 40 mile mark. Onto the run, the first 2 miles felt strong and I was running well and then suddenly my legs started to feel the pace from the bike and a slight lack of gels - it pretty much went downhill from there and I was just glad to get over the finish line. I was 14th after the bike but finished 34th out of 797 - disappointed with the run but a good learning experience. I could hardly walk at the end of the race due to the muscle fatigue in my quads so there's certainly a lot of improvement I can make to get myself ready for my next race.

I've already entered for my 2nd Middle distance race; the Vitruvian, on September 11th. My next block of training will really try to build me up towards this race and hopefully allow me to run the half marathon at the end in a much quicker time than at the Cotswold Classic. I will be looking to do an Olympic distance triathlon and some cycling time trials before the Vitruvian to get myself well prepared.

My training has been going pretty well this month - my swimming certainly feels like its coming on now I've had 6 months of uninterrupted swimming training under my belt - I'm hitting some of my best ever times in the pool.