June was always going to be a big month, with the ‘A’ races I’ve geared my season around.

I raced three times this month: Nottingham hosted the British sprint triathlon championships which doubled as the first sprint triathlon qualifier for the GB Age Group team for the World Champs in London, Bristol was the second chance to grab a spot, and Eastleigh was a welcome return to low-key racing close to home.

The two big races were both amazing experiences, but the logistics and the importance I’d put on them made them quite stressful. The racing was intense too, hugely competitive, with recent European and World medallists at the sharp end of every age group. I was disappointed to miss out on qualifying by 38 seconds at Bristol, but there were others who had even closer near misses, and lots of recent GB age group athletes who finished further back. I posted my best ever bike splits by a significant margin (both over 37 km/h) and learnt a lot about racing at this level. It’s been hard to stop feeling like I failed but although I didn’t get all 5 sections of my race perfect either time, I emptied the tank on both occasions. Eastleigh was a happy change of pace, and finishing 3rd/246 after another decent bike leg and the fastest T1 of the day (woo hoo!) put a smile back on my face. 🙂

With all the racing, I’ve done a bit less training this month than usual, but still put in some good rides and spent plenty of time on stretching and core work between the races. Recovery is important, natch.

So, what now? Well, July will be a break from racing. I might do the next Eastleigh Aquathlon at the end of the month but that’s it. I’ll probably put an entry in for the Concorde Triathlon in early August. And I’ll spend a week or two just riding or running as I feel each day before planning the training for the summer.

Finally, here’s the comparison between this month’s training, last month, and last year.