Tri-ing in the Holy Land

The ramblings of a struggling triathlete in Israel

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Location: Israel

I'm the mother of 3, a teacher and a couch potato turned triathlete.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Lehavim Triple Super Sprint Triathlon - 24 May 2008

A week after my first Oly distance tri, with almost no training in
between (I only worked out twice this past week), it was time to once
again tackle the Lehavim Triple Super Sprint. At first glance, this
looks like an easy race. It's not. It's fast, intense and even
confusing at times. It's all about fast transitions and keeping your
heart rate up.

I've explained this race several times before, but here's a quick
recap. It's three rounds, each consisting of a 200 meter swim, 6 km
bike and 1.5 km run. The first round is run, swim, bike. The second
round is bike, run, swim. The final round is swim, bike, run. There
are 40 minutes between rounds and if you don't finish within 40
minutes, you're disqualified.

For me, the worst part of starting with the run is that I can actually
see everyone pulling away from me. I wasn't last, but I was way in
the back of the pack. On the new course, I could see the turnaround
point almost from the very start of the run, which was good. I ran as
hard as I could, trying to ignore the fact that almost everyone else
was so much faster. When I reached the end, I looked down at my watch
and I'm pretty sure I saw 7:35, which would be an amazing time for me
for 1.5 km. The swim was really hard (it's kind of hard to swim when
you're panting) and it was slow. The bike was ok -- I got up the long
hill in a pretty good time and then went whizzing down. Round 1 was
over and I had almost 10 minutes to rest before round 2.

Round 2 is my least favorite. I don't like starting on the bike
because I'm always wobbly getting on and I'm afraid of bumping into
someone else. This means I always have to start in the back. To make
matters worse, today, when I went to get on my bike, my calf cramped
up. OUCH! I got rid of the cramp and then had an extremely difficult
time clipping in. While all this was happening, I watched the crowd
of cyclists moving further and further away. I did manage to catch
up, but my bike time was not what I would have liked. I don't
remember much about the run and the swim -- I think the run went ok
and the swim was slow again. I just wasn't moving well in the water
today. I finished round 2 in just a few seconds more than round 1 and
for the second time, my son, who was volunteering today, handed me a
bottle of water at the end. That was the best part of the race :-)

Round 3 is my favorite. I like it when things are in the "right"
order, or at least the order I'm used to. Round 3 is when I
discovered just how fast the other woman in my age group swims. She
actually lapped me at 125 meters and out of four women in the lane, I
was the second out of the water. She completely blew us away! The
bike went well and all I remember about the run was thinking "It's
almost over!" I don't run fast (I think I've mentioned that...), but
I ran as fast as I could. I can usually dig deep enough to sprint the
last hundred meters or so, but not today -- I was giving it my all and
I had nothing left at the end. I had hoped to go under 30 minutes in
the last round, but it wasn't to be. I actually had no idea if I was
anywhere near my goal, because I was running too hard to be able to
look down at my watch. I finished round 3 in about the same time as
round 2, which, I guess, is pretty good.

It was over. I was exhausted -- much more exhausted than I was after
last week's race, although I'd been moving forward for a lot less time
(less than half of what last week's race took me -- almost two hours
less, in fact!). I was 2/2 in my age group today, but I didn't care.
It had been an incredibly fun morning and I love racing right here in
town, less than a kilometer from my house.

Next race next week -- the Women's Triathlon (a sprint). That will be
three races in three weeks, another first for me.

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