Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: North American Championships
 

CNYO North American Championships-Preliminary. I started out the weekend pretty well. My goal was just to get through cleanly if not very quickly. I had a few baubles while entering and exiting controls but avoided any larger issues. Going into #4 I had come around from the right side and through the rough open I had read the edge of the field incorrectly. Some green areas near the edge of the mapped distinct boundary confused me so that I ended up too far right of the control. I missed the ride going to #11 but it sounded like that wasn't all that good any way. I felt slow and my splits show it in the open grassy areas. It was my lack of running training showing through. I still have to count this run as a positive one for me given that I'm just glad to be racing at an A-meet again.

CNYO North American Championships-Final. After waiting around in the afternoon rains, it was good to finally get going. I ran a fairly smooth race. Like the morning run, I was not very fast but overall I fairly good accuracy for me. Coming out of #4, I hesitated then ran around the long way. As I approached #5, I slowed, expecting to see the control sooner. From my conversations with Ted Good, Tim Good and Mike Eglinski, my route to the left was good. I was a bit unsure what to do at the map exchange area and didn't really flip the map I had until after punching. On the second look, I caught Phil Bricker as we climbed toward #12. I had a better line on it and ran into the reentrant rather than over the rim and down. Phil caught me soon after. I didn't feel that I had the running speed I needed to keep up on the road. He lead me through just about the rest of the way through the second loop. I didn't realize that he was finished until I started my 3rd loop. I left heading the wrong direction and was wandering as I aimed to enter the woods getting to #18. I stayed in the woods going to #19. I was slowing down the further that I went. On the leg to #21, I wanted to go to the left and come in from the road but the green looked thick there. I came in from the right, through the light green. There were a couple of things I would have liked changed about the map there. Some other people started to close in on me with the unfortunate route choice. I led them until one of them passed me going to #25. My visual inspection of the straight route led me to make the wrong decision to go around and through the parking lot. I reentered the dark conifer area a bit behind and then didn't go in far enough to see the spur. We both corrected quickly. The last few controls were steady, not like the furry of sprinting hard at the end. I was both tired and thinking it not worth pushing too hard and making my knee hurt more for tomorrow. As I lay in bed writing this, my knee is aching. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up tomorrow and on Sunday. I felt this was a pretty good race for me. Having a little moer speed (as in years past) would have been nice, but who couldn't say that?

Sprint Red/Blue Final - Splits

Sprint Red/Blue Preliminary - Splits

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD to Custer Rd. to Glendale Rd, to 12th St. SW, Washington, D.C. via the Capital Crescent Trail. Since Peggy had Max this morning, I got to sleep in a little and get to work about 50 minutes earlier. A lot of that time comes from not having to get Max ready for his day. The ride was about 1.3 miles shorter since I didn't have to go to his day care either. The trail was busier than I've seen it in a long while. I suppose this was due to riding in earlier. I passed a steady stream of people from Bethesda Ave. to Massachusetts Ave., while hardly getting a chance to be in the right lane. I wore a thin long sleeve t-shirt and shorts which felt a bit too cool with temperatures in the mid 50's F starting off but it was enough to have me sweating in D.C. Some of that came from leap-frogging another guy who seemed to be doing a fartlek workout. He would sprint past, then drop to 19-20mph again long enough until I would get far ahead. The winds were slower than yesterday but I still felt them.

From 12th St . SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I rode steadily and tried to spin more. I geared down eventually on the climb. I caught up with an older road rider and we split leads for a while with him eventually pulling away while another followed me. Without needing to pickup Max's trailer, I went on a more direct route home via Falls Rd. but I took one wrong turn making it a little longer than needed. I felt the continued NE winds. While well below some years past, my total cycling mileage this year is the most since 2004--a result that has much to do with my knee injury and making up for it by cycling instead of running.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD to Montgomery Ave. via Bethesda Ave. and the Georgetown Branch Trail, to 12th St. SW, Washington, D.C. via the Georgetown Branch Trail and the Capital Crescent Trail. I got back on my bike this morning. Yesterday I took Max to a doctor for a regular appointment so I did not ride in. Yesterday I also go my freewheel cassette, chain, and both tires replaced along with having a short tuning and cleaning session. It's alwasy funny how trepidation creeps in. Worries about the bicycle being ready, feeling cold, feeling tired, etc... are all amplified beyond reason when I have short breaks in commuting. Once out on the roads and trails it pretty much goes away and seems ridiculous. The strange NE winds kept up. Winds from this direction are usualy far in-between in D.C. and when they do come it's often stormy or cloudy. Lately they've been producing nice cooler, partly cloudy weather. The impact for the ride was a mix of head and tail winds.

From 12th St . SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. The winds from the NE continued so I had a mix of head and tailwinds again. I rode steadily and picked up one rider before the water treatment plant. We traded a little but I pulled most of the way to Bethesda. I was at Max's day care in about 38:28.

Event: QOC: Hemlock Overlook
 

QOC: Hemlock Overlook. I started off running the short course. It was fairly easy. The bigger challenge for me was keeping all of my body parts working. My right knee felt pretty good though I expect it to hurt tomorrow. Going between #5 and #6 I was looking for a fence and had trouble making sense of the map. I managed to stumble in an open field twisting my right ankle. Instinct kept me fighting to stay on my feet which I did with significant difficulty and effort while hearing crack-crack-crack of ligaments being strained. I was able to shake it off and find the control. I was even good finding #9 which was slightly misplaced and which I'd been warned about. Trying to make some speed, I chased down a mother-daughter pair from Norway which had joined the club for this year. I should have been reading ahead more. After #11, I started to go straight to #12 but setting a bad bearing and being distracted by a man in front of me who was going the wrong way, I came back to the power line trail to avoid green and then plowed in. It took me a little bit to figure out that I'd passed the spur that the control was on. As I got to it, the mother daughter team was just finishing punching. I left in a hurry again and set a bad bearing again. I corrected more quickly this time but I lost time on #13 too. The total time lost was about 1:05.

I was planning to go out again for the Red Middle Distance course and was just about ready when Mark Mace came in and calmly told me that his wife Patti was injured in the woods. Unsure if we could walk her out, carry her out, or would need professional help, several of us cavorted and got in gear. Greg Lennon found a sort of wagon then went ahead while we called 911 and followed with the wagon. Greg had carried Patti alone, piggy back at least 50m before we were able meet them and get her into the wagon. Chris Rumohr, our Safety Chief from the 2007 US Champs was there. She stablized Patti's leg with towels and helped keep us organized in the woods. Several of us took turns carrying Patti where the wagon could not roll over the dead fall. An EMT met us for the last 75m with a stretcher. Since Patti was deaf and her husband Mark needed to bring their car, I went in the ambulance with her to translate. It's times like that when one knows just how poorly one knows another language but we got by. Patti told me she had stepped into a hole hidden by leaves and wasn't able to put any weight on her injured leg. Several people had stopped while she was down and eventually her husband Mark had come along on the course. At the Fair Oaks hospital Patti was okay and in fair spirits. When I left her with Mark and Billy, it was too early to tell if it was a twist, a fracture, or broken ankle. It was probably just as well that Mark had stopped me when he did and I hadn't gone out again to run the Red Middle Distance course since my ankles are weak from lack of running activity. I now have one hurting too and that would have been risky in the woods.

Short - Splits

From Mark Twain School and Park in Rockville, MD, initially I did some field checking of areas mapped earlier between Rte. 28 and Avery Rd. on the west side. Most of this was to investigate and make corrections to areas that were identified from the July Summer Short Series training. Instead of rushing these areas at the end of a field checking expedition to other areas, I took my time this go around and I think I fixed a lot of the problems. Afterward, I went to the area west of Avery Rd. on the east side of Rock Creek and finished off the section. There was an area of significant green surrounding a rough open field that was included. It had several features in it and I hope I got them well placed. I had hoped to get to the west side of Rock Creek, west of Aver Rd. but I'll have to do that another time. I expect it will be a quick section since it's very open however a lot of it is steep. I left it for another time.