Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd., to 12th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. After getting Max to his bustop, I rode directly to work. Last night I had repaired the flat rear tire on my commuter bike only to discover a broken spoke on the front tire, when I was trying to true it. Not wanting to miss the opportunity that a 75F sunny day in March is, I used a backpack and rode on my road bike. It's much lighter and has a shorter wheel base. It was fun and I could very soon tell that I was moving faster than I do on my commuter bike. I worked at it since I hadn't ridden into work this fast in a long time however it wasn't as much effort as I've put in on various rides in previous years on my commuter bike. Most of the time I was doing around 21mph which is good for me at a time when I've not beendoing much in the way of training rides. I got through most of the traffic intersections pretty easily and certainly felt tired at the end. The awkward part of commuting on my road bike is having to walk through the courtyard and hallways in Speedplay cleats that were never design for it. Otherwise it was pretty fun. The temperature was 51F and there was just a slight headwind, mostly on Ohio Dr. along the Potomac River.

From 12th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. Breaking out from work just before they locked me in, I got a good start rounding the Jefferson Memorial in nice warm sunny weather. Even though there was a significant headwind, I cut through it well getting to Georgetown. There was slightly above the usual amount of pedestrian and auto traffic there but I got onto the CCT fast and resumed some good speed. I felt in between needing to gear down and hold where I was at but I held the gear. On the flats I was doing around 19mph, still into the wind but to a lesser extent. My speed up the grade was around between 16 and 18mph; still faster than usual but not a lot. I did gear down further ahead and mostly felt significant winds by the time I passed Dalecarlia. I kept steady after that but was fairly tired reaching home.

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station. It would have been nice to bicycle all the way to work today (it was only 42F and sunny) but I still haven't fixed a flat on my commuter bike. With my road bike I'm reluctant to beat it up on the bouncy paved trail and would have had to use a backpack instead of the panniers that I'm used to using. There was a lot of traffic from more than one trash truck bottleneck.

From Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. via Bethsda Ave. I stopped-off to pickup some spare inner tubes needed for my commuter bike. It was around 60F. Riding in my work clothes was too warm so I took off my jacket.

I did some spinning and watched a movie. I was moving faster than I had been averaging on earlier spins and it felt fairly comfortable. I still have some knee discomfort at times during the day but so I feel the need to minimize running for now.

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was a bit cooler than the day before and I ran into some traffic.

From Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. I hit the traffic lights well again and had less headwinds than the day before.

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station. I was going to ride with Max but my commuter bike with the attachment for the trail-a-bike had gone flat. Max rode the bus and I rode my road bike. It was in the low 40s F. I felt fine. Last week, I was concerned enough about my knee not to ride--maybe it is better? It's probably too early to say.

From Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It was a bit warmer out and I caught the first 2 traffic lights just right. I felt a bit winded but it's usually fun to ride my road bike and I was enjoying it this time. There was a bit of a headwind too.

QOC: Pohick Bay Regional Park, VA. I had no idea what to expect today. On the one hand, I thought I might be foolish to go out at all. Next with my decision to try the Green course, I wondered if I should be safer and just do Brown. The jogs to the bathroom before the start was encouraging as far as my knee goes though I still did feel some very minor discomfort in the area that was troubling me earlier this week. I took a little ibuprofen to keep the inflamation down. I left late and ran easy to the first control; hesitant even because of the map being out of date and just getting used to the scale. I could run so I was encouraged to run more naturally. Of course, I left #1 a bit fast and had a poor bearing. I mistook a reentrant juction higher up for the one that would lead me to the control. Figuring that out and correcting involved climbing over an extra ridge, then getting hung-up in some nasty deadfall. I hit the next several controls well though I had to stop once when my epunch, including a velcro safety strap, got stuck on a tree branch and came off as I ran forward (leg 4#). The course was not technically difficult; just physical. Pohick has a lot of tall steep reentrants. My route to #8, the long leg in common with Red, involved some misteps. I went left along the main road at the south edge of the park and cut in just past the park entrance. I meant to cut in much later. I ran over a trail after doing this, but without seeing it. I found myself hitting a maintenance road and seeing Keg Good, whom I'd seen earlier leaving what was my #7. Briefly on the road, then off at a non-descript point, I came down a long reentrant valley and attacked from low, SW of the control. I hit it okay but could have had a straighter line from my attack. I spike #9 and #10 too but felt the climb for these to be a bit unecessary. All in all, I was just happy to have been able to run (even slowly). I won the Green course (now my official age group) by 19 seconds. I worried about the pain happening more after the run but nothing like the swelling and pain I had on Thursday ocurred.

Green - Splits