Wow June, i can’t believe it’s over already, this year is flying by. But June, what a month. Every weekend was a race weekend, the great British summer returned to provide some awesome weather and even some much undesired weather.

June started with a charity cycle called the Tour de Listening. The tour was organised by the company I work for the Listening Company and encompassed a cycle tour over 18 days from Brora to Portsmouth and a total of 1120 miles. Each day was a new stage with 10 riders per day. I ended up doing 4 legs of the tour.

Stages:
June 1st – Brora to Inverness: 57 miles completed
June 8th – Newcastle to Hartlepool: 37 miles completed
June 9th – Hartlepool to Danby: 39 miles completed
June 18th – Richmond to Portsmouth: 80 miles completed

June was also the focus of qualifying for the Age Group GB team at the National champs held at Milton Keynes. After a good week of sunshine it looked very promising to be a great morning of racing. Due the size of the field in the race the event started on June 7th at 7am with the weather looking very bleak indeed. By the time we had exited the swim the wind had picked up the mercury had dropped and i was freezing. As most people know, I function in hot weather only; by the time I had reached the first 5 miles of the cycle I was so cold I could barley pedal properly. With the ride out the way, my legs and arms freezing it was time to start the run. Now running on numb feet is a challenge in itself, but over the last 3 years I have gotten used to this. This time though I had to deal with numb feet and numb legs all the way up to the hips. Needless to say my run was a disaster. The first 2k’s was a simple jog as my legs just wouldn’t work, felt like I was going to fall over. I was so glad when that race was over; total time of 1:08:32 was a disappointing result but did get me my slot on the GB team for World Champs.

June 14th – the sun was up early the birds chirping and I was feeling good. I was off to do the Nokia Windsor triathlon. I have never done this event before but always heard good things about it. The race went very well; I enjoyed it to bits and will recommend it to anyone. It’s a 1500m swim in the Thames, this isn’t ideal, the Thames was very shallow so your hands drag on the bottom and I swam into a rock. Besides that the race went very well, I felt very strong on the bike partly due to the legs I had done on the Tour de Listening. The run felt even better, each lap I felt stronger even though it was baking and this was my first Standard race of the season.

June 20th – 21st – Off to Northumberland in the middle of nowhere. This was a challenge, just getting there. First try and find accommodation out there, almost impossible. But it happened so after a 5 hour 30 drive we arrived in Northumberland, checked in, registered and racked the bike and found a pub to watch the Rugby.

The race went well; my fastest 1500m swim yet at 20min was great. The ride on the other hand was tough, legs where feeling the strain of three races in three weeks but my run felt fantastic. Each lap felt stronger and faster. The weather looked to be bad for the race but brightened up by the time I set off and stayed that way till the end although the headwinds where tough going on the bike leg.

June 28th – The 4th and final triathlon for the month. This was a spur of the moment decision to race and well worth it. The race was the FGS sprint race at Dorney Lake. We had what could be described as the best racing conditions ever. Very hot day, very little wind, perfect. My race took place at 12pm best time for a race I think. After a great start in the water I was leading but ended up going skew and had to correct my direction losing valuable time. I quickly made this up on the ride but not enough so had to push through very hard on the run. The push on the run worked bringing me home in my quickest race time for a sprint in 2009 and giving me second place in my age group 25-29.

Well that was June, one very busy month of triathlons and training and charity riding. Bring on July and the world champs in September.

Happy training, racing or couch potatoeing.