Training Log Archive: Nadim

From the Bethesda Metro station to 12th and C Street, SW, Washington, D.C. Seeing a decent weather forecast and needing a cross training day I collected my bicycle at the station (left there on Friday) and rode in. I caught one guy not long after he'd gotten on the trail, and when he passed me back, I just kept my steady but still not easy pace. One other guy passed me just before getting to Georgetown. There were headwinds just about the whole way and it was in the upper 50's F. Rounding a person on the trail, I got a bug in my eye and couldn't get it out the last few miles.

From 12th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. to the Bethesda Metro Station, MD. I started out with some headwinds until I rounded the Jefferson Memorial, then I had pretty nice tailwinds up to the Dalecarlia Reservoir. I had been spinning nicely and passing people until one guy went past. Without really trying, I caught him again going up the hill. As I had closed, I had to sniffle my nose and that was enough for him to pickup the pace. I was going to pass and pull but I didn't feel obligated with the pace quickening; I was just hanging on anyway. My time is estimated. I have to find and change the batteries on my bike computer. It was about 68 F.

Camp Shea, US Military Academy, West Point, NY. I jogged and then hiked to the start with Corrine Porter. It was pretty steep climbing to the start again but not as high as it was on Saturday.

Camp Shea, US Military Academy, West Point, NY. I ran the Red course for the Long event. It was great starting out spiking #1 and #2. The blueberry kept me from running too fast and I was able to read my way across the ridges, knowing when I wasn't hitting my intended path (due to vegetation or cliffs), and adjusting well. I took a high route to #3 and came didn't adjust enough. I spiked #4 and #5 running well to both. At #5, Vadim Masalkov and I converged. He took a higher route to my right while I stayed lower keeping out of the blueberries most of the time. I guess we got into racing each other rather than reading the map. passing through a narrow, we mistook our position to being much lower than we really were. Subsequently, we didn't recognize the massive mapped cliff for being what it was shown to be on the map. We didn't even know if we were going for the same control but managed to mess each other up enough for a +10 minute error. I went right to the control after correctly interpreting the cliff. After this, I got sloppy in that I didn't read the terrain as carefully, I overshot #7 and knew it from the marsh to minimize the error. I ran straight to #8 but coming off the road at the end, I went to the mapped boulder which was right on the circle line and didn't see that there were 2 boulders close. I did another loop in the wrong direction and hopped boulder to boulder till I found it--I just wasn't sure what had been mapped and what hadn't. Going to #9, I was off to the left but got confused by the mapping of the knolls--I thought I was reading one to be the correct hilltop attack point but I was wrong. When making my final attack off the road bend, and on top of the cliff, Sergiy Gnatiouk(?) kept asking me if I had found it. I honestly could tell him that I hadn't but I was less than 15 seconds away from it at the time (that cliff was longer than mapped). I was little hesitant going to #10 but hit that well. Having to backtrack out to get clockwise around the green for #11, I must have given away the control location for #10 to Sergiy again.

I was moving down it well but focusing on the chunky gravel so as not to twist an ankle. At the bridge, I stopped expecting to see the control before realized that it was only the water stop shown on the map. Sergiy Gnatiouk and Vadim passed me there as I was still confused. I followed Vadim up when I thought using the road might be better. Still confused and feeling tired I misinterpreted the contours, control, and building--I punched the wrong control without checking the code and went on. The map didn't make much sense for 30 seconds but when I saw the assembly area, I started feeling okay again. The last loop was technically easy but I was tired getting up the hill around the first half of it. I finished pretty well only to find out about the mispunch. In reality, had I done it correctly, my finish time would have been just about the same.

I felt okay about the day. It was a big plus for me to run well on the early technical controls and keeping contact with the map like that is what I need to remember to do.

I ate a few desserts after the race. I was rather nice to leave an A-meet and get home with enough time to do some much needed yard work. I found a tick bite on my right leg (large tick, not a small one). It hurt after pulling the tick out.

Event: 33rd West Point A Meet
 

Camp Natural Bridge off Rte. 293 in West Point's grounds in NY. For my warm-up I jogged part of the way to the start with Alex Jospe but the hill to the start was too steep to warrant running up the whole way. A dead car battery (from leaving an interior light on all night) got me to the meet site late so I missed my scheduled 9:01am start.

West Point A-Meet, near Camp Natural in NY. Running the Red Middle distance course, I ran okay through #5; that is that I went well... With the steep climbs and rocks, I couldn't run much going to #2 or #4. Going to #6, I was fine, coming off the end of the big cliff before the control. I got off my bearing when I saw a lot of extra cliffs, and subsequently lost 1-2 minutes. On #8, I was on the right bearing but got distracted by others hunting to the right on other seemingly unmapped knolls. I did better for a while but coming down to #13, I saw the correct rocks but mistook them for cliff. Going down further to boulders I could see, I did a 2:30 minute loop before dragging myself back up. The most frustrating was running straight toward #14, reading everything along the way well, and then getting caught-up in an unmapped wall of thorns when crossing a few streams. I had to back out and come around but it cost me 1:30 minutes more. This map took some getting used to and could have used some updates but I felt I read my way across well at times.

Camp Natural Bridge, West Point, NY, off Rte. 293. After some minimal jogging and stretching, I headed out for my Sprint run on the Red course. Lots of people had already run and I got to see them start. I went down the right fork to #1 and stopped right on top of the boulder before hesitating and seeing it below. I was hitting the controls well thorugh #7. I used the trail going to #8 and pulled-up at the end of the trail expecting to see it in front of me but I didn't. I flailed around going side to side, then down past the trail, then up, then finally hitting the 5th control (still down on the ground) before going straight to it from there. That was frustrating. I remember having a similar problem making the adjustment to the IOF trail symbol mapping in the West Point meet last year. At Camp Natural Bridge, not seeing a different between the gravel trails and the dirt ones threw me off too. After losing about 2:40 minutes, I got back on track and started hitting controls well again. My only mishap after #8 was leaving the spectator control by going the long way around the buildings. That probably cost me about 15-20 seconds. It was a fun place for a sprint. The climb, though described to be high, in the end didn't seem that big.

Red Middle - Splits

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station.

When it was time to go home, a combination of a fire near the Bethesda Metro station and other disruptions first delayed the trains, then negated them from stopping in Bethesda. I had to get a ride from Peggy and Max from Friendship Heights and never made it home before leaving for the West Point meet.

From Northfield Rd., to 12th and C Street, SW, Washington, D.C. It was around 56 F starting out. There were headwinds most of the way though by the time I was on Ohio Dr., the wind came across my path from the side, from the west. I rode mostly alone but got a little help after passing one guy who was dressed more warmly than I but whose jacket caught the wind. I kept a good cadence. I rode despite the 40% chance of rain. My usual cutoff is 30% but I got tired of missing days like last Tuesday which called for higher rain and were perfectly fine.

From 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I got locked into the courtyard so I did the usual riding/rolling through the basement halls and finally out onto the road. Weaving on Independence Ave. was fun if not foolish doing slolemn with the tour buses. I had headwinds most of the way to the water treatment plant. I thought I was going faster but perhaps traffic in DC and Georgetown made the difference. I eased off toward the end.

From the Van Ness/UDC Metro Station in Washington, D.C. down Connecticutt Ave. to the Melvin-Hazen Trail, to the Rock Creek Trail to Broad Branch Rd., trails on the west side of the valley to Military Rd., then up the Valley Trail to the foot bridge over the creek to Beach Dr., to the Pinehurst Trail, to Western Ave., NW, to Cummings Ln. to Turner Ln. to Brookville Rd. to Sheperd St. to Connecticut Ave. to Thornapple St., to Leeland St. to 46th St. to the Capital Crescent Trail, to Woodmont Ave., to Hampden Ln. to Arlington Dr., to Cordell Ave. to Old Georgetown Rd. Conditions were pleasant for running. The dirt trails had a few damp spots and some rocks were slippery wet from recent rains. The temperatures were in the 60s F and it was a bit humid. I ran okay, shaking off some soreness along the way. I sometimes was slow climbing hills but on slight grades and flat ground I could find my stride. Near the end I stopped to watch Max's soccer practice. My time was slightly faster than a similar rund that I did almost a year ago.

45 situps. I ate too much for dinner but my left ankle also felt odd. It was like it was out of alignment or sprained; there was a kind of swelling on the left side. It's probably nothing. I probably just stepped on it wrong going up or down some stairs or an escalator.