Practice race report??
Since I'm still not sure I'll be doing the race, I figured I might as well write up a practice race report...
This morning, we did a "dress rehearsal" for the Lehavim Triple Super Sprint, which is certainly one of the stranger and more interesting triathlons in the world. I've done this race before and written reports on it here, but for those who don't remember or who haven't been reading my blog all that long, I'll give a quick summary. It's three short rounds of swim/bike/run, each round in a different order:
As I've reported several times, this has not been a good summer for me physically. I've been struggling with shin splints and back problems and, in fact, I've done almost no running and my swim workouts have been shorter than usual and not of very high quality. The only thing I've been able to do painlessly is ride my bike. I wasn't even sure if I should do the practice race, but since it was a whole kilometer away from my house, I figured I'd ride down to the pool and then decide. So at 5:45 this morning, I headed out the door.
I got to the pool and discovered that they had watered the grass during the night (and apparently right up to a couple of minutes before I got there) and it was very wet. Our usual transition area is on the grass, but that was out of the question. We just kind of found spots along the fence of the kiddy pool, on trees, wherever. That was fine, but then I realized that I was going to have to run with my bikes through the wet grass to get out on the road which meant that my tires were going to be very wet (and slick). More on that later.
So after getting set up in the "transition area", I decided to put on my running shoes and do a short run so that I could see if it hurt. I ran 500 meters and nothing hurt, so I decided I'd do the first round of the practice race and then decide whether or not to continue. That 500 meters was my entire warmup, but I had no intention of running quickly, so that was fine.
Round 1:
Run: I set out at my very slow pace. I knew everyone would pull way ahead and it was a real effort to keep reminding myself that I've been injured and that I don't want to re-injure my leg and that I have to run slowly. I just let them all go and kept running at my snail's pace. The nice part about it was that it wasn't hard. I didn't love being dead last, especially when I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be if I would just run at a normal pace, but I reminded myself that this wasn't a real race and that I had to stick with my plan. So yes, I finished the 1.5 km DFL (dead f*ing last).
Swim: The swim was rather uneventful. I hadn't done any swim warmup at all and I could feel it right away when I got in the pool. No big deal -- this wasn't a real race. I soon realized that I had forgotten to remove my number (which is allowed in this race, but it's kind of annoying to swim with it flapping). The pool was fairly empty, as two of the kids had actually finished the swim by the time I returned from the run and the rest of the kids were finishing up. I took it slowly, concerned about my back. My back wasn't too bad during the swim itself, but getting out of the pool was painful. I just did it very slowly.
Bike: This was the only part of the race that I actually intended to "race". I grabbed my bike and headed out, making sure to get on very slowly, as I was afraid I would slip. I don't remember much about the bike part of round 1, apart from the fact that I passed people going up the long hill and no one was going to catch me going downhill -- I just got down on the aerobar and soared. I do remember that going up that hill the first time was a bit difficult and I remember thinking that it would be easier the second time, because I'd be warmed up. I do remember getting off the bike. I did it slowly, but even that wasn't enough. When I swung my right leg over the bike, I missed and my foot caught the saddle. Oops. I got it right the next time. Round 1 was over. I was still feeling ok, so I decided I'd try round 2.
Round 2:
Bike: Round 2 did not start out well. I'm really bad at starting on the bike -- something goes wrong at the beginning of this round every time I do this race. Today was no exception. The team manager screamed "GO!" and everyone got on their bikes and took off. I got on my bike and fell right off. Well, I didn't actually fall, but I found myself with my feet on the ground, straddling my bike. So I got back on and eventually got moving, but at that point, everyone was way ahead of me. Goody -- now I could catch people on the bike! That's actually one of my favorite things to do, so I wasn't all that upset. And catch people I did. I caught all of the women, apparently (although I didn't realize that until later). For some reason, I felt a bit slower this round than I had during round 1 (though I had been sure it would be easier), but I still managed to pass people, especially going uphill. When I finished, my coach yelled out something like, "Way to go, Bari!" and I knew I must have done pretty well, as he's not always all that generous with the words of encouragement (and if he's reading this, let me just say that that's fine -- I'm good at encouraging myself).
Run: The truth is, I almost didn't make it to the run. I got to the transition area and said (out loud), "Maybe I'll quit now." I mean, it was a practice race, there were no trophies at the end and there wasn't even a real finish line. But on the other hand, I'd gotten up at 5:15 on a Saturday morning to do this thing and I wasn't in excruciating pain, so I didn't have a really good excuse to stop, so I did a very very slow transition (so slow, that after changing my shoes, I actually took the time to try to fix the insole that had come out of my cycling shoe when I'd taken it off) and then set out at something that resembled a slow jog. I had run slowly the first time. This time, I ran painfully slowly. I mean, I'm not even sure I knew it was possibly to run so slowly. But I realized that I'd already run 2 km and that the most I'd run in one day in the last few weeks was 3.5 km and that I'd paid for that the following day. I didn't want anything to hurt, so I just chugged along. All those women (four of them, I think) that I'd beaten on the bike passed me on the run. Actually, two of them had already passed me in transition, which is something that never happens to me -- my transitions are usually very fast. That was fine. It wasn't a real race.
Swim: The pool was almost completely empty, of course, so the swim was at least calm. I swam slowly, but I tried to pick up the pace for the last 50 meters. My back was starting to ache, but I'd made it this far and I wanted to complete the last round, so I didn't want to overdo it. Getting out of the pool was painful again, but at least the round was over and I had a few minutes to rest before round 3.
Round 3:
Swim: This swim did not resemble the first two in any way, shape or form. We all started in the pool together and right away, I could see that it was going to be a disaster. In the actual race, the lanes are divided in such a way that you swim with the people in your age group (and if there aren't enough in your age group, then they'll put two same-sex age groups together). So when I do the race, I swim with 40+-year-old women. Today, everyone just got in the pool wherever they felt like and I found myself in a "lane" with the fastest kid in the race. Great. And why "lane" in quotation marks? Because there were no lane lines today. That made the whole thing a big mess. We were supposed to be swimming in a counterclockwise ellipse, but it was really hard to tell where one lane ended and the next lane started, so you can imagine what happened as soon as we got spread out enough to be swimming in two different directions (which didn't take very long). I turned at the wall at 25 meters and halfway across the pool, BANG! I had not only hit one of the kids head-on, but his arm got linked in mine and he just kept going, taking my arm with him (in the wrong direction). Apparently, I was the gentler part of his collision. He'd bumped heads with the woman in front of me. I looked up and saw swimmers everywhere, swimming in both directions. I decided to just take it easy for the rest of the first 100 meters, figuring that by the time I finished that, the fast kids would finish 200 meters and get out of the pool and it would be easier to swim. And that's exactly what happened. Once again, getting out of the pool was painful (swimming hadn't been so pleasant, either) and, in fact, I wasn't really sure I wanted to go on, but I really did want to get on my bike, so...
Bike: Remember the wet grass? Well, it was still wet. I got my bike out to the street and tried to get on and found both my bike and my shoes slipping all over the road. A teammate who wasn't "racing" today was helping out on the bike route and I called out to him that I was slipping all over the place. He started coming towards me to help me, telling me to just take it slowly, and by the time he actually reached me, I was on my bike. This was actually kind of scary, as I'd never felt my bike slip like that before. Once I was riding, though, I got over it quickly. It was time to pass people again. I'd only left two or three people in the pool behind me, so there were plenty of people ahead of me to pass. Again, I overtook most of the people that I passed on the hill. This was, I think, my best round on the bike. I gave it my all, knowing that all that was left was a measly 1.5 km run, which I was going to do slowly regardless of what I did on the bike. The "race" was almost over...
Run: Actually, as far as I was concerned, the race was over. Once again, I took off at my super-slow jog and let everyone pass me. It was actually kind of fun. I had plenty of energy to encourage one of the slower kids who decided that she was going to walk instead of running. I told her to just run with me and chatted with her almost the whole time, until we were almost at the end and I suggested that she might actually want to run fast now that she was about to finish. It was kind of funny -- I can't even imagine being able to hold a conversation in a regular voice with no huffing or puffing during a race (I can always talk when I run, but this sounded like I was lying on the couch talking to a friend on the phone). I had no intention of running any faster, though. My leg was fine, but my back was actually hurting during the run, which hasn't happened before, apart from some very minor pain during a brick workout on Wednesday. Jarring my back and doing more damage than I already have concerns me even more than the possibility of the shin splints coming back, so I just plodded along for the entire 1.5 km and then it was over.
Slow as I was, I managed to easily stay within the 35 minute limit (and remember, at the race itself, I have 40 minutes). And I finished in one piece. Despite having "run" (it was more like a crawl on two feet) a total of 5 km, my shin was only the tiniest bit sore (something that I wouldn't even have noticed if I hadn't been concerned about it already). My back, however, was very sore. I found a shady spot on the grass and laid down on my back with my feet up on a chair. After a few minutes, I got up and walked around and then I grabbed a towel and went back to lying on the grass and stayed that way for quite a while. This helped my back and when I got up, I felt a bit better, though I suspect my back will be very sore for the rest of the day and probably tomorrow, as well.
I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to do the race. I mean, why pay money to do it again when I did it today for free? ;-) However, at least now I know that despite my injuries, I can do it if I want to and even if I take it slowly, I'll finish with time to spare. And maybe I'll get some good photos from the race -- there were no photographers at the practice race (there weren't even any water stations!). In any case, I'll be there -- if I'm not racing, I'll be volunteering (there will be no excuses for getting out of that -- what can you do when the team manager is the race director and his right-hand man, the other team manager, is your best friend?).
This morning, we did a "dress rehearsal" for the Lehavim Triple Super Sprint, which is certainly one of the stranger and more interesting triathlons in the world. I've done this race before and written reports on it here, but for those who don't remember or who haven't been reading my blog all that long, I'll give a quick summary. It's three short rounds of swim/bike/run, each round in a different order:
- Round 1: run 1.5 km, swim 200 meters, bike 6 km
- Round 2: bike 6 km, run 1.5 km, swim 200 meters
- Round 3: swim 200 meters, bike 6 km, run 1.5 km
As I've reported several times, this has not been a good summer for me physically. I've been struggling with shin splints and back problems and, in fact, I've done almost no running and my swim workouts have been shorter than usual and not of very high quality. The only thing I've been able to do painlessly is ride my bike. I wasn't even sure if I should do the practice race, but since it was a whole kilometer away from my house, I figured I'd ride down to the pool and then decide. So at 5:45 this morning, I headed out the door.
I got to the pool and discovered that they had watered the grass during the night (and apparently right up to a couple of minutes before I got there) and it was very wet. Our usual transition area is on the grass, but that was out of the question. We just kind of found spots along the fence of the kiddy pool, on trees, wherever. That was fine, but then I realized that I was going to have to run with my bikes through the wet grass to get out on the road which meant that my tires were going to be very wet (and slick). More on that later.
So after getting set up in the "transition area", I decided to put on my running shoes and do a short run so that I could see if it hurt. I ran 500 meters and nothing hurt, so I decided I'd do the first round of the practice race and then decide whether or not to continue. That 500 meters was my entire warmup, but I had no intention of running quickly, so that was fine.
Round 1:
Run: I set out at my very slow pace. I knew everyone would pull way ahead and it was a real effort to keep reminding myself that I've been injured and that I don't want to re-injure my leg and that I have to run slowly. I just let them all go and kept running at my snail's pace. The nice part about it was that it wasn't hard. I didn't love being dead last, especially when I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be if I would just run at a normal pace, but I reminded myself that this wasn't a real race and that I had to stick with my plan. So yes, I finished the 1.5 km DFL (dead f*ing last).
Swim: The swim was rather uneventful. I hadn't done any swim warmup at all and I could feel it right away when I got in the pool. No big deal -- this wasn't a real race. I soon realized that I had forgotten to remove my number (which is allowed in this race, but it's kind of annoying to swim with it flapping). The pool was fairly empty, as two of the kids had actually finished the swim by the time I returned from the run and the rest of the kids were finishing up. I took it slowly, concerned about my back. My back wasn't too bad during the swim itself, but getting out of the pool was painful. I just did it very slowly.
Bike: This was the only part of the race that I actually intended to "race". I grabbed my bike and headed out, making sure to get on very slowly, as I was afraid I would slip. I don't remember much about the bike part of round 1, apart from the fact that I passed people going up the long hill and no one was going to catch me going downhill -- I just got down on the aerobar and soared. I do remember that going up that hill the first time was a bit difficult and I remember thinking that it would be easier the second time, because I'd be warmed up. I do remember getting off the bike. I did it slowly, but even that wasn't enough. When I swung my right leg over the bike, I missed and my foot caught the saddle. Oops. I got it right the next time. Round 1 was over. I was still feeling ok, so I decided I'd try round 2.
Round 2:
Bike: Round 2 did not start out well. I'm really bad at starting on the bike -- something goes wrong at the beginning of this round every time I do this race. Today was no exception. The team manager screamed "GO!" and everyone got on their bikes and took off. I got on my bike and fell right off. Well, I didn't actually fall, but I found myself with my feet on the ground, straddling my bike. So I got back on and eventually got moving, but at that point, everyone was way ahead of me. Goody -- now I could catch people on the bike! That's actually one of my favorite things to do, so I wasn't all that upset. And catch people I did. I caught all of the women, apparently (although I didn't realize that until later). For some reason, I felt a bit slower this round than I had during round 1 (though I had been sure it would be easier), but I still managed to pass people, especially going uphill. When I finished, my coach yelled out something like, "Way to go, Bari!" and I knew I must have done pretty well, as he's not always all that generous with the words of encouragement (and if he's reading this, let me just say that that's fine -- I'm good at encouraging myself).
Run: The truth is, I almost didn't make it to the run. I got to the transition area and said (out loud), "Maybe I'll quit now." I mean, it was a practice race, there were no trophies at the end and there wasn't even a real finish line. But on the other hand, I'd gotten up at 5:15 on a Saturday morning to do this thing and I wasn't in excruciating pain, so I didn't have a really good excuse to stop, so I did a very very slow transition (so slow, that after changing my shoes, I actually took the time to try to fix the insole that had come out of my cycling shoe when I'd taken it off) and then set out at something that resembled a slow jog. I had run slowly the first time. This time, I ran painfully slowly. I mean, I'm not even sure I knew it was possibly to run so slowly. But I realized that I'd already run 2 km and that the most I'd run in one day in the last few weeks was 3.5 km and that I'd paid for that the following day. I didn't want anything to hurt, so I just chugged along. All those women (four of them, I think) that I'd beaten on the bike passed me on the run. Actually, two of them had already passed me in transition, which is something that never happens to me -- my transitions are usually very fast. That was fine. It wasn't a real race.
Swim: The pool was almost completely empty, of course, so the swim was at least calm. I swam slowly, but I tried to pick up the pace for the last 50 meters. My back was starting to ache, but I'd made it this far and I wanted to complete the last round, so I didn't want to overdo it. Getting out of the pool was painful again, but at least the round was over and I had a few minutes to rest before round 3.
Round 3:
Swim: This swim did not resemble the first two in any way, shape or form. We all started in the pool together and right away, I could see that it was going to be a disaster. In the actual race, the lanes are divided in such a way that you swim with the people in your age group (and if there aren't enough in your age group, then they'll put two same-sex age groups together). So when I do the race, I swim with 40+-year-old women. Today, everyone just got in the pool wherever they felt like and I found myself in a "lane" with the fastest kid in the race. Great. And why "lane" in quotation marks? Because there were no lane lines today. That made the whole thing a big mess. We were supposed to be swimming in a counterclockwise ellipse, but it was really hard to tell where one lane ended and the next lane started, so you can imagine what happened as soon as we got spread out enough to be swimming in two different directions (which didn't take very long). I turned at the wall at 25 meters and halfway across the pool, BANG! I had not only hit one of the kids head-on, but his arm got linked in mine and he just kept going, taking my arm with him (in the wrong direction). Apparently, I was the gentler part of his collision. He'd bumped heads with the woman in front of me. I looked up and saw swimmers everywhere, swimming in both directions. I decided to just take it easy for the rest of the first 100 meters, figuring that by the time I finished that, the fast kids would finish 200 meters and get out of the pool and it would be easier to swim. And that's exactly what happened. Once again, getting out of the pool was painful (swimming hadn't been so pleasant, either) and, in fact, I wasn't really sure I wanted to go on, but I really did want to get on my bike, so...
Bike: Remember the wet grass? Well, it was still wet. I got my bike out to the street and tried to get on and found both my bike and my shoes slipping all over the road. A teammate who wasn't "racing" today was helping out on the bike route and I called out to him that I was slipping all over the place. He started coming towards me to help me, telling me to just take it slowly, and by the time he actually reached me, I was on my bike. This was actually kind of scary, as I'd never felt my bike slip like that before. Once I was riding, though, I got over it quickly. It was time to pass people again. I'd only left two or three people in the pool behind me, so there were plenty of people ahead of me to pass. Again, I overtook most of the people that I passed on the hill. This was, I think, my best round on the bike. I gave it my all, knowing that all that was left was a measly 1.5 km run, which I was going to do slowly regardless of what I did on the bike. The "race" was almost over...
Run: Actually, as far as I was concerned, the race was over. Once again, I took off at my super-slow jog and let everyone pass me. It was actually kind of fun. I had plenty of energy to encourage one of the slower kids who decided that she was going to walk instead of running. I told her to just run with me and chatted with her almost the whole time, until we were almost at the end and I suggested that she might actually want to run fast now that she was about to finish. It was kind of funny -- I can't even imagine being able to hold a conversation in a regular voice with no huffing or puffing during a race (I can always talk when I run, but this sounded like I was lying on the couch talking to a friend on the phone). I had no intention of running any faster, though. My leg was fine, but my back was actually hurting during the run, which hasn't happened before, apart from some very minor pain during a brick workout on Wednesday. Jarring my back and doing more damage than I already have concerns me even more than the possibility of the shin splints coming back, so I just plodded along for the entire 1.5 km and then it was over.
Slow as I was, I managed to easily stay within the 35 minute limit (and remember, at the race itself, I have 40 minutes). And I finished in one piece. Despite having "run" (it was more like a crawl on two feet) a total of 5 km, my shin was only the tiniest bit sore (something that I wouldn't even have noticed if I hadn't been concerned about it already). My back, however, was very sore. I found a shady spot on the grass and laid down on my back with my feet up on a chair. After a few minutes, I got up and walked around and then I grabbed a towel and went back to lying on the grass and stayed that way for quite a while. This helped my back and when I got up, I felt a bit better, though I suspect my back will be very sore for the rest of the day and probably tomorrow, as well.
I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to do the race. I mean, why pay money to do it again when I did it today for free? ;-) However, at least now I know that despite my injuries, I can do it if I want to and even if I take it slowly, I'll finish with time to spare. And maybe I'll get some good photos from the race -- there were no photographers at the practice race (there weren't even any water stations!). In any case, I'll be there -- if I'm not racing, I'll be volunteering (there will be no excuses for getting out of that -- what can you do when the team manager is the race director and his right-hand man, the other team manager, is your best friend?).
posted by bari | 12:51
3 Comments:
What a great report! I really enjoyed it. I hope your back gets better soon. You know it will!
I haven't heard of this race - it is strange and intriguing! Even if you don't do it tomorrow - sounds like you had a good test today. Great job!
The race itself is still almost two weeks away. I'll probably do it in the end, as if I don't, I'll be sorry I didn't!
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