June 2021

This month saw me competing in my first standard distance triathlon for a very long time - the Leeds British Championship triathlon - where I finished 6th/38 in my age group. This looks to have qualified me for the 2022 Abu Dhabi World Championships. The swim and bike felt good. The bike was quite a technical course, with quite a few short sharp ascents and descents. I felt like I struggled a bit on the run with my breathing and blisters from not doing my trainers up fully in 2nd transition. I possibly went a bit too hard on the bike. However, overall, I am pleased with the result as I'm the youngest year in the 20-24 age group and it's certainly a higher level than my previous age group. I'm enjoying the higher level of competition.

I am currently in the build-up phase of training leading up to my first ever Half Ironman at the Cotswold Classic on July 11th. This will involve a 1.9km swim, 56mile bike and a half marathon to finish. I'm really looking forward to this as it will be a great learning experience in my journey of progressing to the full Ironman distance. Also, the increase in distance should really benefit me, as my swim is my weakest discipline and the swim becomes a smaller percentage of the overall race as the triathlon distances increases.

The 2021 Edmonton, Canada World Championships have recently been postponed. This means that my Cotswold Classic race is now my main race of the season, so I have been doing even more focused training leading up to this race to ensure I'm at my peak, ready to put out a top performance.

i have recently been putting in some key track running sessions to get some real top-end race speed in my legs. I have also been riding the course of my upcoming Cotswold Classic in order to really familiarise myself with the course. It's great as the course is just on my doorstep.

See my next blog post to see how I get on.