Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd., to Arlington Rd. with Max on his bike, then to the Bethesda Metro Station. Max was pretty reluctant to ride today. He'd ridden 12 miles with the Lennon family on Sunday, while Peggy, Greg Lennon, and I were at the Billygoat. He was also up late and thus cranky in the morning. I don't think the physical part of riding bothers him much though the initial hill takes some work. He likes having more time to play before school when we drive, a 5 minute difference. I pressed him and we went slowly. He was angry and didn't say hello to his friend whom we passed on the street. I was more tired than I thought I'd be from the Billygoat on Sunday.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Arlington Rd. From there I rode in the twighlight towing Max's bicycle to Northfield Rd.

Event: The 35th annual Billygoat Run
 

Jog to the start of The 35th annual Billygoat Run.

NEOC: The 35th annual Billygoat Run on the Earl’s Trails map in the Holyoke Range in Western Massachusetts. Going into this for the last couple of days, I had big concerns about feeling worn out and about some painful callus on my right foot. I got two good days of rest and did an lot of callus removal. I also used new O-shoes, never worn before. The combination helped a lot as most of the soreness from my Thursday run went away.
The start was confusing for everyone going different ways. I went with the crowd, going on the right side of the mountaintop but I was not keeping up very well. Eventually I found myself in the company of several West Point cadets who suddenly stopped when trails ran out and we had a good look at a hillside ahead. I could tell where we were so I led from there. I was coming into the trail just right but dropped down right before it when I saw others shuffling along. I had to come back up a contour but had an easy attack to #1. I saw Ted Good ahead of me by 15-20 seconds but when I left #1, I never saw him again until the finish. I led the cadets most of the way to #2 until Alex Jospe passed us. I drifted off my line with her ahead and we came in low where there were some unmapped cliffs. We lost 30 seconds to a minute. Alex pulled the group along mostly. I took a few different lines up to #5 but didn't get ahead and couldn't break away. I was running too fast and not reading carefully. I was going to drop going to #5, to avoid a spur but went a parallel path with Alex across the spur instead. Not thinking well, I started reading the leg for #6 and kept adjusting my bearing to the right. I stopped this later but was off-line at that point. I ended up a few contours high at the right distance and looked over to see the cadets punching where Alex had been. I was concerned about keeping with the group to make time and didn't read leg #6 very well. About 1/3 of the way up the climb, I moaned realizing that this would have been a great skip for me--I like to avoid hills when possible. I walked on up the hill, committed to #6 and disraught about there not being a good skip for the next several legs.

I was in the midst of the cadets getting to #6, then started catching the leaders. Going to #8, I considered a skip bud didn't see it being worth it. The cadets were faster on the initial trails, As they got ahead, I chose a lower route to stay on trails. I got there right at the same time as the cadet leaders. I jumped in the woods early going to #9, so as not to make an easy mistake and the cadets did the same. Going to #10, the cadets got ahead and I was getting tired. I didn't want to go straight but did anyway. I should have read the trails more carefully. There seemed to be extra unmapped knolls so the contours weren't making sense. I dropped a little eventually following a trail that took me to the controls but it was a little out of the way for a loss of time.

Going to #11, I got ahead of the cadets but they were trailing me. I was doing well but got distracted when seeing others below me one reentrant too early--the control circle on the map obscured the reentrant I was in. After a drop and climb back up, I hit the control-another minute lost. I took the trail to #12 and some others were too. For #13, I gained and caught a group of younger people but they punched before me. When leaving behind the crowd, I decided climbinb right away made sense--they were all going either across or down and up to the left for some reason. Once up, I made good time in the open flatter terrain with one cadet in pursuit. I left #14 and started catching others who perhaps were doing the Minigoat. On the approach, I decided climbing and attacking #15 high was best. I did but lost concentration and went right over the control (about 10m to my left) when I crossed a reentrant. I did a slow circle, coming back and wondering why I hadn't seen it from below even. Another group of orienteers including Jeff Saeger led me in but I'd figured it out at that point. I chased Jeff, eventually passing him. Another cadet followed me when I left the trail early and we got to #16 first. I ran too quickly going to #17 and ended up to the left. David Onkst was close behind. We corrected for a 30-40 second loss. When asked, I told David that I was skipping #18. I moved out fast and used the trails to the left, spiking #19 easily but losing David inadvertently. I ran past the finish and back into the woods going to #20. I felt bad for a cadet who'd lost his epunch in the leaves; another cadet stopped but I was feeling I wanted to compete and catch others. I hit #20 well. I went straight toward #21 but pulled-up short by one spur. I relocated on the steam below but had to climb right back to where I was to get to the control. That cost me a minute or 2 and a bunch of cadets were then there. I chased and passed some, getting to #22 (my control "NA" from last year) well. I ran fast and straight to #23, spiking it, and passing most of the cadets. I ran on bearing and where the running was good going to #24; I hit the trail unexpectedly and then got stuck in the green behind some others. There was no way to catch and pass after punching as the run-in was short.

It was fun running this. I felt I navigated most of the course on my own and I incurred errors that I was disappointed with. The hillls weren't that bad but I'd much perfer a flatter Billygoat next year.

Billygoat - Splits

Event: QOC Rosaryville - MTBO Part Cancelled!!
 

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 unpaved trail to the Western Ridge Trail, to Wise Rd. to Chestnut Rd. to Winnett Rd. to Brennon Ln. to Thornapple St. to Brookville Rd. to Underwood St. to Meadow Ln. to Thornapple St., to Leeland St. to 46th St. to the Georgetown Branch Trail, to Woodmont Ave. to Edgemoor Ln. and to the Bethesda Metro Station in Maryland. I was pretty slow early on this run. By the time I'd gotten to the bottom of Rock Creek, I figured I'd set out to do too much today with the Billygoat coming up. My quads were surprisingly sore and it must have been from riding home fast on Tuesday. Rock Creek is pretty hilly where I ran. I climbed out of the valley and across several big reentrants. There were some deer (and horses) in the park--the deer, surviving from recent culling, were not very afraid of me. I struggled up hills saved only by inspiration from the beautiful spring weather (it was in the low 70s F but a little bit humid). It was quite nice looking coming across Chevy Chase (best time of the year for the lawn and gardens there), but I was hurting too much by then. Besides tiredness, I had a lot of pain from callus on my right foot. It may have been making me run imbalanced so the ball of my right foot began to hurt a lot too. When I got stopped at a stop sign and started again, the pain would go away for a short while. Filing the callus doesn't seem to help much more than 2 days and leaves the skin underneath inflamed and sometimes sensitive in-between runs. Despite the pain and tiredness today, my overall time was only 3 minutes off my 2011 run which was slightly shorter.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to Arlington Rd. with Max on his bike, then to 12th and C St. SW, Washington, D.C. It was in the low to mid 50s. After leaving Max, I moved well on Arlington Rd. but quickly got winded. There were headwinds from the south. I continued to move pretty well but slowed after the Lincoln Memorial.

From 12th St & Independence Ave., SW, in Washington, D.C. to Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD to pick-up Max's bicycle, then to Northfield Rd. I left work late again so I first had to ride through the courtyard. Once outside I let loose aided by a nice tailwind. It's always fun if not a little crazy to be able to pass or ride pace with the cars that way. It was starting to get dark and I hadn't brought a headlamp so that added to my motivation. Overall, I was flying with the tailwind on the ride. I knew to gear appropriately especially when I hadn't been riding much. I was more disciplined about it once past Fletcher's Boathouse. I kept passing cyclists so that was fun too. After picking up Max's bike it was dark. I moved fast with it as a car was taking the same route behind me, falling behind at intersections and catching up on narrow streets. I used my stopwatch to time but it is more of an estimate with keeping it running when I was going up al elevator at work, and forgetting to start it after a stop at another place.