Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC: Balls Bluff Sprints
 

Balls Bluff Regional Park near Leesburg, VA. I ran up and down the road leading into the park, trying to warm-up in the 30 F weather. It was warmer than the previous day but I felt sluggish from the climbing then.

QOC Balls Bluff Sprints. To qualify for the final, I ran Heat A1 which from what later I saw of Heat A2, was nearly identicle. I felt tired from the previous day. The 1:7,500 scale and 3m contours threw me off a little. The map didn't show the many areas of light green as well as a few extra root stocks. I did okay but I almost shot far left of control #2 and took a bad route into the finish. The course setter had intended the sprints to be twice the distance but didn't realize that that the scale was not 1:15,000.

Warm-up for the QOC Balls Bluff Sprint Final along the road.

QOC Balls Bluff Sprints: Final A. The "qualifying" from the first heat turned out to be more of a choice but using the finishing time guidelines, I did run the correct final race. I fumbled the route to control #2, by going left and low through difficult footing and much further left than necessary. I fell twice along the way. Part of this may have been fatigue. I also flubbed the run-in swinging wide right again. Neither made for big errors. I don't know if they were enough to really gain me a place. I think I finished 4th fastest to Clem McGrath, Jon Torrance and Jeff Coker.

Heat A1 - Splits

Final A - Splits

Great Falls, MD. Clem and Dharia we in town for the holidays. While Dharia ran the trails, Clem and I did a line-o together throuogh the uplands and across Bear Island. Visibility was great now that the leaves are all down. It was cool out; ~25 F. Clem's easy pace made me work fairly good so I was more than adequately warm. Where I would have stopped to read more carefully, Clem moved on through. We got off line a little including once in the beginning where I started reading a parallel line but mostly we were on. I struggled on the climbs a little. My side hurt a bit.

C • Struggled on climbs? 2

From Rosedale Ave., Battery La. to North Brook to Old Georgetown Rd. to the YMCA. Light rain and temperatures in the upper 30's F.

I jogged the 23rd Annual Turkey Chase sponsored by the Bethesda-Chevy Chase YMCA with my neighbor Bob Angell. It claims to be Montgomery County's largest race with over 4,000 people and winds through many of the neighborhood streets I usually run along (Old Georgetown Rd. to W. Cedar La. to Locust Ave. to Alta Vista Rd. to Rockville Pike/Wisconsin Blvd. to Old Geogetown Rd. and the YMCA again). Splits (1 and 2 miles) along the way: 26 seconds to the start line, 9:29, 9:03, 18:40, 18:16, 1:26. Bob and I got a chance to catch-up with each other in this family style well organized event. If only the weather would have been nicer. My side hurt some.

45 situps. Feeling tired. My side hurt doing the situps.

From Rosedale Ave., Glenbrook Rd. to Edgemore Rd. to Arlington Rd. to Bethesda Ave. to the Georgetown Branch Trail, to Kentbury Dr. to Rosedale Ave. I was still feeling tired so I took it short and easy. It was windy and cool but it mostly felt invigorating. My side hurt again. It's doing so more frequently and well into the run.

I had the day off from work for an appointment with our adoption agency and a doctor exam. I was dead tired after getting home and had to take nap. Rains discouraged a light jog. 45 situps.

Event: Susquehanna Stumble
 

Pine Grove Furnace, PA. Warm-up walk/jog to the start of the Susquehanna Stumble on the Hammond Rocks map.

Susquhanna Stumble on the Hammond Rocks (1:10,000) and Pine Grove Furnace (1:15,000)maps. It was a tough course both physically and technically with 40 controls--sunny with temperatures between 45F and 55F. I started out feeling my workout from the day before but did okay through the first window. The rocks and graby underbrush wore me down as I continued the climb up to the top of the course and into the second window. The second and third windows with 6 and 3 controls each were back to back in hilly and rocky areas which made a difficult optimization problem. I screwed things up coming over the top of the hill into the second window and lost nearly all the lost time finding the first control there. Jon Torrance eventually came along and led me and Ted Good into one control which let us relocate and find the others. My route was suboptimal through both these windows losing 523m plus the time relocating. I finished the loop cleanly to the map exchange and made up lost ground. I ran the second loop on the Pine Grove Furnace map (an older and less precise map) all but alone after 3 controls. I had worried about this map the most and studied it the week before the race. It paid off as I hardly made any errors on it. I finished 5th well behind Vadim, Wyatt, Randy and Jon T. See the Split List.

C • Training? 7

Long - Splits