Training Log Archive: Nadim

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.

From Northfield Rd. to Old Georgetown Rd. via Greenwich Park, to Cheshire Dr.. to Grosvenor Rd. to the Bethesda Trolley Trail at Fleming Ave. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Northfield Rd. via Greenwick Park. It was cool and breezy; temperatures were about 58 F. With a long sleeve t-shirt, I probably wore too much but that will be good for later on. I had been feeling sleepy all day and discoveriing various aches, and scratches that I didn't know about after the race yesterday. I felt adequately sore in places. After working late, coming home and eating dinner, it took me a long time to gather motivation for the run but it was rather pleasant out when I got going. I focused on form and this drove me to run a bit faster. Toward the end, my form was falling apart and I was trying to hold my pace. I hadn't been pushing-in to the finish on runs in a long while but I did a bit of that today.

Moreau Lake State Park, NY, near Glens Falls, NY. Warm-up jog around the parking lot once, before walking to the start of the 34th Annual Billygoat race.

34th Annual Billygoat hosted by EMPO at Moreau Lake State Park, NY, near Glens Falls, NY. It was a great day for running and we sure did that. Behind at the star as I scanned the map for the first control, others were off fast, I chased Dave Onkst for a while eventually catching him and I think JJ Cote. Rounding the hill, I knew roughly where we were but pinpointed it as we approached under a cliff and crossed a trail. Ernst Linder was leading the way up and I was struggling to keep up. I lost track of where we were but Ernst got us to the control directly. Going to #2, I felt he was going to the left too much. A DVOA runner stayed low and followed the reentrant. When Ernst stopped, I cut right and got to #2.

Dave Onkst suggested taking the trail toward #3 and the DVOA runner had already moved toward it. I angled up getting in line behind the DVOA runner. I saw Clint Morse at one point, down below going through the reentrant. Ernst dropped off the pace. Upon seeing the uncrossable marsh, I was looking for the right trail bend. The DVOA runner went past the bend and paused. I cut right aiming for the longer marsh and converged behind Clint Morse. As we rounded the marsh before #3, I started reading the wrong leag. The bearing to #4 was the same so I got confused not matching-up the terrain. Others found it and I chased again toward #4. Clint and I were more to the right going to #4 and catching-up. Others found it to the left.

Andis Vitolins had come up from behind and took off. Dave Onkst and I conferred that the right fork looked better since there was a trail along the way and there were some better attack points to #6. I struggled to keep up with Andis' pace. He spiked #5. At least I knew it just before we could see it. Going to #6, the pace was hot. Crossing the many ridges was wearing me down. David Onkst was falling off the pace and so was I but less so. I didn't want to leave Dave but figured I'd better stay with the group to #6. Unfortunately we lost Dave.

The pace slowed to something more reasonable. Clint and I set in running more together after that. Somwhere along the way we saw Jon Torrance who'd made a big mistake and was going to #6. In memory, #7 and #8 were a blur but I felt okay assessing where we were along the way. 150m or so after #8, I saw Dave Onkst running the opposite direction. He' missed #6 and was relocating while towing another guy behind him. I misread #9 and seriously misjudged the distance while running through the reentrant. When one other runner cut right to cross the marsh to the control, I was thinking it was further ahead. Clint thought so too so we went off on a 3 minute loop by ourselves. Clint figured out how to get us back on track.

I read my way to #10 well and gained some ground on a DVOA runner. Leaving #10, Ijust wanted to hit the big marsh half way there. I kept getting pulled ot the left by cliffs and vegetation. I was corrcting too so probably doing some zig-zagging. I knew we were getting too far to the left but didn't expect we'd miss the marsh entirely. Continuing on bearing, Clint and I seemed alone. Finally seeing the second marsh, I felt better and cut across the northern end. Once across I was to the left and didn't see the control. I was pretty confused and about to go on when I looked to the right and saw Clint punching. I'd been very luck to basically hit it on a bearing.

Alex Jospe and 1 or 2 other guys were leading at first toward #12. I caught-up and recongnized the 2 marshes before the control. I accelerated to punch. Alex Jospe was leading mostly to #13, #14, and #15. She was seemingly reading the way rather calmly while I was having trouble just scanning and reading along. Clint and I both stayed with her. On the leg to #14, Nathan moved to the left and we got ahead. However, he caught us at #15 again.

Going down the hill to #16, Nathan took off and I was not far behind. We moved well on the trail but at the bend, I paused. Nathan went left. Alex caught up and went more to the right which seemed to make more sense. Hitting the intermittant trail in the rough open, I felt better about falling into the right reentrant and cutting left to the control, still behind Alex. I rushed out toward #17 getting ahead, and cut left at the trail. I paused as the trail flattened-out. I saw the parking lot in the distance but it was hard figuring-out the map there. I cut right and soon enough saw the control to my left when I had expected it to be closer. At the aid station, I quickly debated whether to drink a Gatorade that I had set in the drop box. I decided to drink most of it even though it was feeling like the race was just about over. Upon seeing the length of last loop, I felt better of it.

Earlier, I had been thinking of skipping #16 or #17 but closer examination and being convinced by Alex and Clint, skipping #18 made more sense. We chose to use the road but initially however, Alex turned up the trail that would have had us attack #19 from above. I paused. Both she and Clint backed out and a bit water-logged, I chased them down the road. From the road bend, Alex had planned to just follow the base of where the hill changed steepness, most of the way to the control. This worked pretty easily and I got to the control first. Going ahead, Alex led us right, over the saddle. I would have gone straighter but it made sense to get over the big reentrants. I could see some hikers ahead and knew the trail was coming up. I cut left and accelerated to the field. However when I got there, I didn't see the control initially. I had turned left first. Alex and Clint coming from behind punched ahead of me. As they took off, they were going more to the right as if they were going to the finish. I stayed left. Alex suddenly pulled-up stopping behind us. It turned out that she'd lost her hair band in a branch and couldn't find it. Clint and I didn't know what had happened as we kept running. At the water, we were both too far to the right so I got to the control first.

I debated using the causeway trail and in the meantime, Clint took off going left around the lake. I chased. It seemed that Clint was moving rather strongly and I was several steps behind. After seeing some others finishing-up their race going the other way (Greg Balter and Vadim Maskolkov), I was looking at the map when suddenly Clint was falling down ahead of me. He rolled and got up but remarked that the fall took a lot out of him and understandbly so. I picked-up a small change in the shoreline as an attack point so when I turned still behind, Clint turned at about the same time independently. I saw it first and punched first. I led on the trails mostly to #23. Suddently some leg cramps set in and I commented on the poor timing while slowing. They went away and I went on. I'd stopped when I didn't see the triangular intersection that I expected to. Clint got us to that, whereupon I ran on across the ditch to the control. I didn't read the whole leg and wasn't really seeing the ditch very well on the map goint to #24 so I crossed the ditch again. I realized we'd missed a turn and had to cross it again after the intersection. A big line of horses were coming at us on the trail so Clint and I ran off trail along the ditch to get past them. I was a bit high using the trail and Clint pointed out the control right on the marsh. We got on trails, taking care to use the right ones going to the next control. I climbed when going around might have been quicker. Clint climbed too but left the trail a little earlier than I. Attacking from a trail intersection I was confident and ran faster to the control. Ahead of Clint, I moved out on the trail but Clint caught me quick enough. I hesitated on one intersection and Clint removed the moment of doubt. I was able to get to the Go control first and asked Clint if he wanted to run it out or finish together. I didn't hear it well but it sounded like he wanted to run. I took off but soon realized Clint wasn't running that hard. I slowed a bit, then more in the chute so we could finish toghether After all, we'd run most of the race together already and he was fine company.

I felt better about my run than last year when I overran a late control and lost a lot of places. Wearing Vapro eyeglasses helped me a lot this year. I was also glad that I was in much better shape this year.

Billygoat - Splits