Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd., Greenwich Park, to Old Georgetown Rd. to Beech Dr. to to Singleton Dr. to Bulls Run Pkwy., to the trail along the school to Bradmore Dr. to Folkstone Rd. to Hartsdale Ave. to Heampstead Ave. to McKinley St. to Garfield St., to Roosevelt St., to the trail at Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. I had spent the night of Thankgiving with my sister and parents to celebrate Eid with them and because so many other people were stopping by, I didn't get a chance to run. With today being dominated by birthday activities for Max (his real birthday is later), I almost didn't run again. I finally got out to run after midnight. It was colder than I'd been used to. I had on full sweats and gloves. I was tired and my left knee kept me running a bit gingerly. I saw what must be some of the first holiday lights for the season on a few houses.

Event: Bethesda Turkey Chase 10k
 

YMCA Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Chase. With Peggy volunteering to take Max through the 2 Mile event this year, I was free to go for a good 10K run on this Thanksgiving morning. I had lots of company from the QOC family: David & Heidi Onkst, the whole Merka family, Ted and Tim Good, the whole Lennon family, Ken Walker Jr. & Sr., and perhaps some more. The rains we'd been having the last few days took a break and fortunatly the cool air was calm. Everyone came with a QOC jersey so I was shamed into wearing one too--fortunately David had brought two. David, Jan, and I started near each other, probably crossing the chip timed start in 5-6 seconds after the Go! was given.

David and I ran together last year. His pacing really helped me back then since it was the first hard road run I'd done after my knee surgery. However this year, we didn't plan on running together. I didn't run the two days before the race but I didn't get adequate sleep either. I was still unsure of the pace that I'd be able to hold but told David that I'd be happy to finish at 6:30/mile pace. I had the recent experience of two other road races this fall. This one was by far hillier and longer too.

I took off being pulled out with the crowd in the first mile but hardly feeiling any of it as we dropped elevation most of the way. I separated from David a little bit during this. The second mile was a different story for me. I felt the rolling hills and went into pacing my way through. I got passed a bunch. The third mile had the most uphill of the course. I continued to slow and was really feeling the effects of the first mile--it wasn't all that fast but I just haven't been doing any speed work. I held my own with the crowd around me during the 4th and 5th miles. The 5th and 6th were the flattest of the course. During the 6th, I started passing people again and perhaps finished with too much left in me despite starting a push a little before I thought I would. I hadn't felt good after the first mile so it was a bit wierd to feel better on the final kick.

Dave Onkst apparently was close by the whole way. He may have been closing in too as he saw me more in the last two miles, though I think he was faster or tied on just 2 miles through the race. He finished only 16 seconds behind. Jan had not intended to race hard but having felt good early on, he pushed and did pretty well, only 2:01 behind David. Ted and Tim weren't racing very hard and started in the second wave. Ken Walker, Jr. blew us all away easily in 35:52, 12:05 ahead of his father. Ken Walker Sr. won his age group and I got second in mine (I was 110th overall); I was rather surprised at this. There were supposed to be 8,000 people registered (10K, 2-Mile, Tot-Trots) though results showed only 4,326 finishers in the 10K. Perhaps it was a weak day for my 45-49 year age group. I didn't learn of my place until the day after but the race and breakfast with the QOC family was a nice way to start off Thanksgiving.

Splits:
1 Mile ~5:59 5:59
2 Mile 6:36 12:35
3 Mile 6:43 19:18
4 Mile 6:59 26:17
5 Mile 6:44 33:01
6 Mile ~6:24 39:25

45 situps. Busy at work; cold and rainy at home. A planned run didn't pan-out.

Event: QOC Manassas
 

Manassas Battlefield Park, VA at Stuart Hill. I did a warm-up jog or 2 loops around the parking area for the QOC meet.

Manassas Battlefield Park, VA. QOC at Stuart Hill. I wasn't sure what to expect physically today but I had anticipated doing better navigationally. My bearing was a bit to the left on most of the controls where I was a bit off. I was running pretty good and perhaps ran too fast. I underestimated control #9 which was a depression 20m off of a main road. Though the map was lacking some features along the road, the big part of my error was reading a ridge to be a reentrant. I ran well past the control, to a reentrant and found a nice unmapped depression about 20m off the road, then figured out that I had to go back. That mishap cost me about 5 minutes. I made another serious error going to #11. At least this one was a parallel error. I got to the wrong ridge and took a while to realize it. That error cost me another 3 minutes. There were various issues with the map, like at #2 where the control was on what appeared to be an unmapped dot knoll. Not having read the control description, I got distracted by another control in the area and when I approached it, two unleashed dogs came up to me threateningly thus further distracting me (another 20-30 seconds or error). What had happened is that the map we raced on with hadn't included various corrections which course setter Tim Good had made and used. However, I can't really blame the map on my errors I think I was just going too fast in places where I should have slowed and read the map more. The one nice thing that I can take away from the day is that I ran solidly and had some speed at times. I need to evaluate routes better, adjust strategies, and thus stop making these big errors at our local meets.

Red - Splits