Tel Aviv Triathlon - 27 June 2009

I just realized that I never got around to posting my race report from the Tel Aviv Triathlon. Well, here it is, as posted to my mailing lists. I'm currently nursing a knee injury and it may be a while before I have another race report to post.


Tel Aviv is only about an hour or so away, but I got a good deal on a hotel room through the teacher's union and the race was a day before my 19th wedding anniversary, so Avi and I decided to make a weekend of it. This gave me an extra hour to sleep in the morning, which is pretty significant when the race starts at 6:15 a.m and you want to be there by 5:30 at the absolute latest. The only problem was that I ate way too much hotel food the night before the race and it kept me awake half the night. Not exactly the ideal pre-race meal!

I got to the race at 5:30, got set up in the transition area and headed down to the beach. There wasn't enough time for a real warm up, so I just swam a bit and waited for the start. The swim was a 750 meter triangle which we had to do twice, running up on the beach in between. One of the things that I don't particularly like about this race is the really long run into the water. It's only about knee-deep for maybe 100 meters or so and there are holes that you can't see, making it really difficult to actually run. In fact, I didn't see a single person running into the water -- everyone was safely wading until it was deep enough to swim.

I felt pretty good during the swim. The water temperature was comfortable to slightly warm (I'm guessing about 26 or 27 degrees Celcius) and there were some small waves that I wouldn't have noticed at all if they hadn't made it difficult to see the buoys. In previous Olympic distance tris, I've found myself swimming almost completely alone. This time was different. It certainly wasn't crowded, but there were always other swimmers near me and I even caught up with and passed a few. When the second lap was done, the guy next to me said, "That wasn't bad," and that's when I remembered to look down at my watch. I was nothing short of shocked when I saw 30:00 and change. This was by far the fastest I'd ever swum 1500 meters and I'm not convinced that the course wasn't short, but the race director insists that the measurement was accurate, so who am I to argue? ;-)

After a quick transition, I was out on the bike course. This was a draft-legal race, but at first, I couldn't find anyone to ride with. Then two guys passed me and I managed to hang on behind them. The three of us worked together for quite a while. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could do my share of riding up front, letting them rest for a bit. I couldn't have asked for two better people to ride with. However, after about 15 km or so, a few more guys started riding with us and things changed. Not all of them were willing to work -- most of them just wanted to hang on at the back -- and I didn't like the way they were riding They weren't riding as straight as I would have liked and they would fall off the back and then speed up in order to catch up, yet every time I tried to get ahead of them and ride behind the two guys I'd been with all along, they'd manage to edge me out of the way and I found myself behind them again. At some point, while I was trying to pull out a salt tablet, they dropped me and I didn't make too much of an effort to hang on. So I found myself riding alone for pretty much the rest of the course. It was ok, though, and I had the best ride I've ever had on an Olympic distance course, averaging 30.3 kph, according to my bike computer (I suspect that it was slightly more, as that included the run out of the transition area and also slowing down at the end because I wasn't sure where the turn-off was). The course was slightly short -- about 37.3 km, I think, and my time was 1:13 -- much faster than I'd hoped for (of course, I thought the course would be 40 km).

T2 didn't go as smoothly as T1. I got off my bike and ran into the transition area, wondering why there were so many people just hanging around. Then I wondered why there wasn't a single free spot on the bike rack and why I couldn't find my stuff. That was about the time I realized that I'd run into the wrong transition area. This was the transition area for the sprint distance (which hadn't started yet, thus the people hanging around). Oops. I ran out and found my own transition area, feeling very stupid. I later discovered that I wasn't the only one to make that mistake, which did make me feel slightly better.

The run...

I'm still a relative newbie to triathlon, I guess, but I have learned a thing or two in the last five years. One of them is that there are no shortcuts. If you don't put in the training, things won't go well in the race. That's just the way it is. I knew that coming into the race and I didn't expect much from the run. That's exactly what I got -- not much. It was 10 km of just trying to survive.

I have never liked the run at the Tel Aviv Triathlon. It's in the Yarkon Park, along the "river" (more like a muddy stream) and although it's pretty much flat as a pancake, there's not much shade and it's always hot. There are also always people on the course -- the ones who come to the park on Saturday morning with their kids or their dogs or their bikes and couldn't care less that there's a race going on. So with the sun beating down on your head, you need to run around people who are just strolling along and also try not to get run over by a bike. To make matters worse, they've changed the course so that the out and back are on the same side of the river, meaning that there are runners going in both directions on the path. But to be honest, none of this is what made the run bad for me. What made it bad was very simply lack of training. It was hard, my legs didn't want to move and I started to feel really lousy after about 5 km or so. I had to take several walk breaks -- three or four, I believe -- and I probably would have taken more if I hadn't realized that I was about to PR big time. I forced myself to run the last 3 km, thinking I would come in at under 3 hours. However, the distance markers must have been misplaced (or the course was long) because it took me over 8 minutes to get from the 9 km marker to the finish line -- I'm not capable of running quite that slowly. So I didn't break 3 hours -- I finished in 3:00:26 -- SO close!!! And if I hadn't stupidly run into the wrong transition area, I would have broken 3 hours.

This was a 20 minute PR for me. 20 minutes!!! Even if the bike course hadn't been short, I would have PRed. Of course, every course is different, so the PR really doesn't mean much, but I now believe that I can go under 3 hours, even on a full-length course. My run, including T2, was slower than my bike time (yes, really -- how embarrassing is that?!) and was probably the worst time I've ever done for a 10k. If I actually train, I can easily take 6 or 7 minutes off that run time (running the whole thing would help me achieve that goal, I think!). My relative placement in both the swim and the bike show that I have made a lot of progress in the last year. I'm still a back-of-the-packer, but there were plenty of people even more at the back of the pack than I was. So despite the lousy run, I finished this race feeling really good. I won't be competing at the elite level any time soon, but I no longer feel like I'm just making believe that I can keep up with the "real" triathletes :-)

Women's Triathlon , Herzliya - 6 June 2009

Ok, better late than never. Rather than write a new report, I'll just post the one I sent to my mailing lists. I've already done another race since this one -- still working on that report!

If there's anything I've learned in my five seasons of doing triathlons, it's that if something goes wrong during a race, it will always be the one thing you didn't think of in advance. I saw the waves and even got knocked over by one while warming up. Didn't bother me in the least. I saw the number of women who would be on the course. Took it in stride. I knew I hadn't been running enough. No big deal. I had no gels. Didn't care -- it was only a sprint. My swim cap ripped when I put it on. I figured it would hold out for the swim. No worries at all on my end. I was right not to worry about any of those things.

The swim was an out and back instead of a triangle, supposedly because of the waves. The waves weren't really that big, but a lot of newbies come to this race and I guess the race organizers just wanted to be safe. They even shortened the course a bit -- something like 675 meters instead of 750. My main mistake in the swim was not standing in the first row. I was far from the fastest swimmer present, but standing in the first row would have kept me from getting stuck behind a lot of slow swimmers. I was completely blocked in for the entire first half of the swim, I was kicked repeatedly, including one nice hard breaststroke kick to the head, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find an open spot of water. The turnaround was a real mess, but I took advantage of the mess to move over to the right and find some open space, so the swim back was much faster. I didn't even notice the waves, apart from one that hit me in the face just as I turned my head to breathe, but I heard a lot of women complaining about them and apparently, a few women even turned around and got out of the water. I've swum in much worse. The breaststrokers were a lot more deadly than the waves.

I got to the transition area and saw that there were still quite a few bikes, so I knew I'd done relatively well on the swim. In fact, it was by far my best relative placement in the race.

I hopped on my bike and almost immediately, women started passing me. At first, it didn't bother me -- I figured they were just good cyclists and slow swimmers. But it didn't stop. For the entire five laps (20 km) I was passed again and again and again. I passed a few women here and there, but this was nothing like what normally happens during a race. The bike is not only my favorite part of the race, it's also my strongest. I'd done this course four times before and I'd never been passed like that. I briefly considered that maybe I had a flat, but it didn't feel like my tires were flat and I didn't have that "bouncy" feeling that I get when there's hardly any air in one of my tires. I felt fine, I just didn't have enough strength in my legs to pedal any harder or any faster. There was some wind on one part of the course, but since it was a loop, there must have been a tailwind on the other side to balance it out. Plus, everyone was riding the same course, so why were women in running shoes and even one or two on mountain bikes passing me??? I blamed it on yesterday's yoga class. Or maybe it was last week's long ride. I really didn't know quite how slow I was going, which, in retrospect, is probably a good thing.

The bike disaster finally ended and I headed out on the run. My legs were a bit stiff at first, but they quickly loosened up. I got to the spot where I'd totally lost it last year and had started walking and I felt fine. In fact, I was passing people. I remember thinking that all the 40+-year-old women in Israel must have been doing a lot of bike training and no running. But that didn't make much sense, as I haven't been doing all that much running myself. Then I remember wondering how the run could be so easy if the bike was so hard -- maybe it wasn't the yoga after all... I passed women during the entire run. I might have been passed here and there, but nothing like what usually happens. My run time wasn't stellar, but it was faster than last year's (because I walked a large portion of the course last year). My finishing time was the slowest I have EVER done this race. Three minutes slower than last year, which was my personal worst for this race until now. I knew I'd had a decent swim and I knew I'd run faster than last year, so this was around the time I realized that those women hadn't been super fast on the bike -- I'd been super slow.

Since this is basically a race that I do for fun, I just took it all in stride. I walked around a bit with my husband who'd come to watch me today, met a bunch of people I know and then went to the transition area to get my bike. As I was walking out, I took a peek at my speedometer to see how long I'd been on the bike. Over 50 minutes -- for 20 kilometers! Even last year, exhausted after three weeks in a row of racing, I'd managed to do 43:00. My slowest time ever on this course as a brand new triathlete on a bike that was too big for me was 45:00. How on earth could I have done 50:00 (actually, it was 51:00) for 20 km?!

I looked down at my bike and that's when I saw it. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but upon closer inspection, there was no doubt. One of my brake pads was touching the rim of my front wheel. I'd ridden the whole course with my brakes rubbing up against the rim! I'd removed my front wheel to put the bike in the car, but I remembered holding the brakes closed when I put the wheel back on, so it should have been centered. Then I also remembered having this problem once before -- I can't even remember when it was, but I remember wheeling my bike into the house after bringing it home from somewhere and noticing that my front wheel wasn't centered. I took off the wheel and put it back on again when I got home, making sure that I centered it properly and held the brakes shut when closing the quick release, but as soon as I'd finished, I looked down and saw that once again, the brake pad was rubbing the rim. I can't help wondering how long I've been riding like this and if perhaps this is the reason why I've had so many crappy rides lately. (Note: I have since fixed the problem. It required taking off the wheel and actually pulling the brakes to a better position)
So there you have it -- yet another way to screw up a race. I could probably write a book by now! I'm glad this was supposed to be more of a fun day than a real racing day, as that has saved me quite a bit of disappointment, though having that bike time posted online for the world to see is a wee bit embarrassing! I figure it was kind of like riding hills, though, and that I got a good workout. In fact, maybe I've had a few good workouts like this one -- who knows how fast I'll be on the bike now!

What I've been talking about

I need to post my race report from the Women's Triathlon. In the meantime, I'll post this. It's a "Wordle" -- a graphic representation of the most commonly used words on my blog. I like that the biggest word is "bike" :-)

Lehavim Triple Super Sprint - 23 May 2009

I've put off writing this race report because this could possibly have been my worst race of all time -- or maybe second worst, the worst race being the Eilat Triathlon the year that I crashed and DNFed. I never could have imagined that this race, the one in my backyard, the one I do for all my friends and neighbors to see, the one on the course that I know like the back of my hand would be so... well, awful. It was.

Round 1: run 1.5 km, swim 200m, bike 6 km

The race started and as usual, everyone pulled ahead of me. But this time was different. Whereas I can usually catch the people who start out too fast, I wasn't able to catch anyone, apart from two girls who were running really slowly and chatting the whole way. Everyone just kept getting further and further away and all I could think about was how I wanted to close my eyes and sleep. Not a good start to the race.

The swim wasn't much better. It was slow and I believe I was the last one out.

And the bike, well... That was a total disaster. I did actually manage to pass a couple of people, but the entire time, all I could think about was that I wanted to quit after round 1. I just wasn't into the race at all and I was feeling awful.

I could barely pick up my feet to run across the finish line the first time. And once I got to the finish line, I just stopped. I couldn't move. Eventually, I did somehow make it back to the transition area, shivering, despite the heat, and feeling dizzy. That's when I announced to my teammates that I was quitting.

Round 2: bike 6 km, run 1.5 km, swim 200m

Despite my announcement, I found myself out on the starting line for round 2, right at the back of the pack, which is where I remained. I came in dead last on the bike. That has never happened to me before. It will never happen to me again.

The run was even worse. I'm not even sure I was actually running. I was moving forward (barely), but it wasn't pretty. The gap grew -- I was still dead last.

By the time I got to the pool, it was almost empty. There was one guy in the lane next to me and I noticed that I was swimming quite a bit faster than he was. That's when I realized that I wasn't feeling as awful anymore. I had taken a salt capsule between rounds and maybe it was kicking in -- I don't know. The slower guy got out of the pool (he was a lap or two ahead of me when I started swimming) and I got out of an empty pool, but I sprinted down to the finish line faster than I've ever run before, almost managing to pass one of my teammates, but not quite. I thought I was dead last, but apparently there was still someone in the outdoor pool, or so the results show. Close enough to dead last, in any case.

Round 3: swim 200m, bike 6 km, run 1.5 km

After another salt capsule, I headed up to the pool for the last round. I was feeling much better and I was ready to go. I made the mistake of letting all the men in my lane go ahead of me -- one of them was a slower swimmer than I am and with five people in the lane, it was difficult to pass him. I eventually managed to, but I spent way too much time swimming slowly behind him.

Another sprint down the hill, this time to the transition area, and I was on my bike and going. I passed a few people on the bike. It wasn't particularly fast, but it was a lot better than the previous round!

The only glitch in this round was the muscle cramp in my calf just as I got off the bike. I screamed out in pain and started hopping on one foot, but I managed to get into the transition area (slowly) and to start running. The cramp worked itself out on the run, which wasn't as hard this time, and soon I was done. At least it was a respectable finish -- after the way the race had started, things could only have gotten better!

I don't know what was wrong with me. Maybe it was those non-drowsy antihistimines I'd been taking for my allergies. Maybe it was my allergies. Maybe it was something else (I can think of one or two more things that might have left me feeling a bit under the weather). Or maybe it just wasn't my day. Whatever it was, I managed to get through it and finish, so I can at least be proud of that. Another race in the books.

Nitzana Duathlon - 4 April 2009

This is a bit late in coming, but here goes...

Nitzana is one of my favorite races. It's a small race that always makes me feel at home. It takes place on the Egyptian border and last year it was canceled because of the security situation. I was very happy to be back this year, even if I wasn't in great shape. Because I'm just getting fit again, I decided to do the sprint -- 5 km run, 20 km bike, 2.5 km run.

I didn't really have any expectations for this race -- just go out and have fun. It started well -- I actually managed to hold a better pace than I had hoped for on the run. I started out way in the back, but I passed quite a few people who must have gone out too fast. That doesn't happen very often, so it made me feel good.

The bike was a disaster from start to finish. First, I couldn't close my helmet -- my fingers just wouldn't cooperate. When I finally got that done, I ran out with my bike, started to mount and then saw that I'd dropped my chain. I pulled over to the side and fixed the chain, then got on and started to ride.

Right away, I noticed that my bike computer wasn't working. I don't need it, of course, but I do like to know how fast I'm going, because when I'm still oxygen-deprived from the run, it's hard for me to get a good sense of how hard I'm working. After about three kilometers or so, I managed to get it working again and the rest of the out section was ok. At one point, I was down on my aerobars and I noticed a shadow coming up on me. I tried to ride away, but it just hung on to me. Then I started to get annoyed, because this wasn't a draft-legal race. I sat up and turned around to yell at the person who was drafting off of me only to discover that it was my own shadow! Oops...

I passed a few people on the bike, got passed only once or twice and soon I was at the turnaround. This is when I decided to take a salt tablet because my calves were cramping. I had the salt tablets in a plastic bag and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get one out. Fed up, I bit off a corner of the bag and just popped one into my mouth. It hit my throat and I almost choked on it, but I managed to grab my bottle and wash it down before I started gagging. Not long after that, I took my lone gel, given to me by a guy I know. It was Gu espresso flavored and I highly recommend it -- it was like having dessert in the middle of my ride! That was probably the best part of the race ;-)

There was a lot of wind on the way back and people were suffering. I didn't find it too bad, but I wasn't riding as fast as I would have liked. Just before the end, I decided to shift down into the small chain ring so that I could spin out my legs a bit before the run. As soon as I shifted down, I dropped my chain again. I managed to shift it back on, but every time I tried to shift down, it dropped until finally, after three or four tries, it got stuck and I could no longer pedal. At this point, I had to get off the bike and fix it and I was more than a little bit annoyed (especially when a bunch of people passed me as I was still trying to get it unstuck). When I finally got the chain thing worked out, I got back on my bike and rode like crazy to pass those people who had passed me (so much for spinning my legs out...). I finished, hopped off and prepared to run.

The second run was short. I don't remember much about it, but I actually held a fairly good pace and, in fact, it was my best relative placement of the day. Before I knew it, the race was over. I finished a good seven minutes or so slower than I'd done two years ago (five of those on the bike), but I'd had fun, which is more important.

The following day, I took my bike into the shop and it turned out that my derailleur was bent. I have no idea how that happened, as my bike hadn't fallen (as far as I know), but the bike mechanic fixed it and it's as good as new now :-)

I think I'm back

I finished physical therapy this week ("finished" as in I used up the eight sessions that my health insurance will pay for) and my back is almost pain free. Still a bit of soreness here and there and the occasional ache for no apparent reason, but it's much better than it was. I've been swimming and running and cycling -- yay! Now I just need to get back into shape.

I don't have any specific plans for the near future, apart from starting to run outside again (I've been running on the treadmill). I'm just happy to be moving again.

Things are looking up (maybe)

I'm being cautiously optimistic. I haven't been to physical therapy in a week (scheduling problems) and I won't be for another four days. However, in the last week, my back has gotten progressively better, especially since receiving The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook from Amazon. I'm generally skeptical about this kind of stuff, but I've been in pain for so long that I figured trying what the book said couldn't make things any worse. Plus, my physical therapist has mentioned trigger points. Anyway, I'm not pain-free yet, but I'm not in constant pain, either. I swam on Tuesday and last night I ran (slowly) on the treadmill.

Who would have thought that I'd become a believer in things like Kineseo tape and trigger points?