The majority of June was spent revising or in the exam hall, however the end of exams was in sight and I managed to remain motivated, and by the 24th I had completed all of my exams. Despite the time and stress they caused, I had managed to remain fairly consistent with training and remained in good form for my only race this month, a Super Series race at Eton Dorney on the 29th.
The forecast was for very hot temperatures, with a high of 31° being predicted. I was grateful that our race began at 9:15, as it meant that it would be slightly cooler. I had a good start on the swim, and finding another fast swimmers‘ feet after 50m or so meant I could position myself well without too much effort. Coming towards the first turn buoy just before halfway, I decided the pace wasn’t high enough and moved to the front to apply more pressure to the rest of the race. This worked well, and after a few hundred meters of this, I settled into a more comfortable pace and cruised to the end of the swim, still exiting the water in first place. I had a very swift T1 and went out onto the bike with a small lead over a group of 5. I did not want a large group to form as this would give a chance for the faster runners to get back into the race so I drove the pace hard on my own, hoping that only a few athletes would be able to catch me, leaving only a small group. My prayers were answered when 2 strong cyclists broke clear of the 5 chasers and we formed a breakaway group of 3 and worked very well together over the 20km distance, pulling out a gap of 90s over the chasing group. We came into T2 together, and we each knew a fast transition would be advantageous over the other 2. Unfortunately I could not find my run shoes quickly enough, and after a few frantic moments of searching I found them underneath another athletes wetsuit. I had lost around 20 seconds through this mistake and it would be a tough ask to catch the other 2 athletes who had already run out and established a lead. I knew I had to keep a cool head and pace the first lap of the run, so I didn’t fade in the second half. I slowly drew back the gap to the first athlete, and after 2km I had brought back both of them, and had a slight lead. I kept my momentum and pushed hard on the second lap, and managed to take the win by around 20s. Overall I felt i put in a good performance, but I admit I was lucky that my mistake in T2 did not prove more costly.
Looking forwards to july, I do not have any triathlon races planned but I will continue to work and try to peak in time for the world junior qualifiers on 3rd August.
thanks for reading
Noah