Training Log Archive: Nadim

At Great Falls, MD. From the Tavern parking area, hiking out to Olmstead Island and part of the Billy Goat Trail with Peggy and her parents. I photographed and took video. I even tried a slight jog on the towpath to test things out. It's best that I not run and re-pull muscle under my left shoulder again.

Just before leaving for work from Bethesda, Peggy, who usually leaves well before I do, wished me well with a proverbial "Don't fall." Why would she say that? I hadn't fallen off my road bike for years (mountain biking is different). Thinking nothing of it I took off at a decent pace catching an older man who later passed me back and kicked the pace up to 25 mph all the way to the bottom. With speeds high and occasional people both going and coming the other way with all of us passing at the same time on an 8-10ft wide trail, there were some unusual close calls. The old man's draft was nice but he stopped or slowed after reaching the bottom. I struggled afterward going into a wind alone on the flats. With only about 5 blocks of any real traffic after leaving the Tidal Basin, a big stopped SUV blocked me from turning right at a light. I went around but with all the close calls this morning I thought I'd better be safer. As soon as I was accelerating on 14th St. another SUV had stopped in front of me. There was about 4-5 ft. right of it to the curb and I didn't want to risk going to the left again in the traffic. In a split, I decided to pass on the right. Just then a little old lady with a cane opened the passenger door. Normally I'd have seen the passenger through the rear window but not with the big SUV bucket seat dwarfing her. I fell over as Peggy forewarned but not before stopping myself the hard way on the open door. Winded I sat a while on the curb and must have looked worse than adrenaline let me feel because the driver and perhaps her passenger mother asked if they should pray for me... "No thanks," I eventually got up and somehow rode 2 more blocks to work--my bike seemed to fare better than I. Feeling worse once inside at my desk, I couldn't get my shirt off for an hour as no pose was w/o pain under my left shoulder blade. This will set me back a bit. Even taking the subway back home was painful. Of course this injury was my left shoulder, not the right one which had mysteriously started hurting when doing pushups earlier in the year. I've avoided a feared overuse injury to my legs for now but as I've learned; ligament damage anywhere can be debilitating for training--it's not just knees and feet. The ligaments all depend on each other and w/one area injured the rest may not function right either.

C • 8

From Rosedale Ave., Battery La. & Keystone Rd. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Huntington Pkwy. to Bradley Blvd. to Fernwood Rd. to Tulsa La. to Singleton Dr. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Keystone Rd. to Battery La. to Rosedale Ave. Initially my hamstrings felt tight. I wandered the neighborhood wanting to cover some new ground and not push too hard. This Spring has been so good weather-wise. I savored the cool dry air while running strong on hills and stretching it out on the flats. This was a little under a 4 for intensity.

C • Have you checked EPH's last note yet? 2

Event: QOC/SVO: Mont Alto
 

At Mont Alto State Park, PA. Warm-up for the QOC/SVO meet around the parking lot, along the stream and by the pavillion. The big nice dinner from the night before kept the weight up--thanks Heidi and Dave.

QOC/SVO at Mont Alto, PA. The sun came out for this nice event. I forgot to bring my gators but athletic tape on the shins worked fine. I hadn't been on this section of the map before but studied the details of the broad mountain side a bit earlier in the week. We marked our own courses. The choice of strategies was as anticipated. Start low and loop back high or do the reverse. After marking courses, I avoided studying further. The setting didn't give much choice for those planning to get everything in the alotted 75 minutes. I had planned to start low to ease the climb and had gotten into a conversation w/Heidi and Dave Onkst about it in which we both convinced Dave that going low first was best. After talking w/Ted Good I learned he was going high first and he asked if I was going to do the same so we could compare splits later. I told this to Dave as we passed warming-up but my earlier arguments apparantly held sway with him--sorry Dave. I glanced at the map and changed my mind when I saw that the attack going high first wasn't bad. This kind of follows some wishy-washy pattern I've been in this spring in which I'm not trusting myself enough. This time, the result worked-out okay for me. While fresh I climbed quickly and recovered to run better later. My route was: 20, 21, 19, 18, 17, 15, 14, 16, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I lost time at 19 (too low--1:15 error), 16 (too high--0:45), 9 (drawn off by a ribbon--0:15), 7 (passed it too low--0:20), 6 (forgot to draw the new road so seeing it made me hesitate and back-track--0:25), 5 (rushed out to get ahead of a line of horses and still didn't realize I was on a new road--2:30) for a total lost time of 5:30. I was reading well and running on bearing well, at least for me, for most of the time. I took longer safer routes in technical areas but probably lost time by opting not to use the trail going to 12. I lolly-gaged in from #1 and missed the punch initially. It was enough to lose me a place as Clem finished 6 seconds faster on his run. My endurance is improving. The vegetation, climb and errors did slow me down but I never got real tired.

I was glad my legs held-up today but comparing my training with the time around the week of 2/21/2004 indicates a need for caution.