Training Log Archive: Nadim

Washington, D.C. Just as I thought I might have left the knee injury behind, I felt pains starting out that had me considering whether to stop or not. Fortunately, they subsided within the first mile. I left work going down along Independence Ave. to run between the Reflecting Pools, then rounded the Lincoln Memorial to the trail along the river (my bicycle commute route). With the sun reflecting off the water and it already in the mid 80's F, it felt hot. I kept a steady pace passing people as I got onto the Rock Creek Trail--they finally started repaving some of it. It was cooler in the shade of the steep valley. I climbed out at Woodley Park and took the metro home. This was above a 3 and closer but not all they way to a 4 in intensity.

Osborndale Park in Derby, CT. US Relay Championships. I ran on a 4 point team with Dave Onkst leading off, Tim Good, myself and Ted Good anchoring. We didn't get off to a good start as Dave's contact lens got dislodged during his course. Tim had an okay run but I had several troubles. Ted ran okay too. I started out fine, spiking the first 2 controls. Seeing Dave Onkst's map after he finished helped me plan leg 2. Someone approached from behind as I was leaving so I rushed a little leaving toward #3. I knew better so I tried to focus on where I was going rather than running away. I got too high and confused with a parallel reentrant that was much too soon. It took a while to relocate and I lost 5 minutes. On a short leg to #4, I ran out well reading the big features then got confused as I navigated to where I thought I'd seen the control and didn't find it. It turned out that I had gotten to the correct rock group but hadn't looked at the bottom side of it. I had wandered back and forth, climbing and dropping again a few times before figuring it out. It was another 5:30 lost. I spiked #5, took a safe but slow route to #6, got #7 well, then stopped too early on #8 for a 1 minute error. I got the next ones just fine until #13. I left #12 confident that I could find a control in a reentrant out in the open field. I got to the reentrant and didn't see it. I looked ahead, ran back almost to #12, then back in the field as another competitor ran out--she kept going, never punching. By this time, I had gotten almost to the park entrance road so when I looked back, I could see the control up higher than where I had been. A sort of lip on the reentrant had just obsucred it when I came in too low. Poohey! I felt bad about letting the team down again. It's not unusual for me to screw-up in Connecticut. My knee didn't bother me during this.

Warm-up for the US Relay Championships in Osbornedale Park, CT.

Event: Sprint Series Final & US Relay Champs
 

Cranbury Park, near Milford, CT. WCOC A-Meet Sprint A. The footing was tricky with lots of small boulders spread around the often light green woods. I started poorly by getting confused at #1. was ready for the 1:4,000 scale but didn't read the notes or anticipate the 1.5m contour interval. I was looking for a reentrant indicated by 3m contours. I'm not sure why I was so slow going to #2 after that--probably just recovering confidence. I gathered speed but made a big boo boo at #6. I got to the wall, then climbed on it to see on both sides. Somehow I walked past the control with out seeing it or the well/pit. Dumfounded, I eventually circled back and read the map more carefully but it was a whole minute lost. Things clicked together a little better afterwards. I caught up to Kristaps Tamuzs(?) and ran a few controls with him before getting away as he made a bad route choice to the pond. I started getting tired and struggled to catch Gayle Ryan at one point. On the run-in, I had to push to stay ahead of Jeff Saeger--I had almost accidentally tripped him earlier as I turned in front of him expecting the control to be on my right after entering a field. Overall, my result was not bad compared to the field. I was second in M45+ behind Daniel Schaublin by 4 seconds; JJ Cote was behind me by only 14 seconds. My knee didn't bother me during this.

C • Yup, that was me. Except I ... 2

Cranbury Park, near Milford, CT. WCOC A-Meet Sprint B. I started about 30 seconds behind Mike Eglinski and ran straight to the first set of trail intersections. Forgetting the 1.5m contour interval again, I thought not to climb so I cut right a bit. This confused me approaching #1 since I had to cut left along the marsh a long way before finding it. Going to #2, I should have looked at the map more. I thought going just left of the marsh would be better than going around on the right but hadn't noticed that a trail would have taken me right there. I got hung-up in the marsh a bit. I got on-track better after the first two controls and started passing people. I felt a bit more tired than the first sprint but the woods were a little more clear. On the leg to #8 I caught a crowd, that eventually keyed off of Mike Eglinski. I had originally thought to use the trails but with a train going, I went straight at it. I kept going too high and wasn't sure how high I was. As we all stopped at the reentrant, Mike went down and I went up--seeing nothing, I started down and saw Mike going up. I still didn't see anything so I ran back up again as Mike was going down with others. I finally realized it was much lower--splits seem to show a loss of about 1 minute though we weren't wandering that long. I eventually got ahead of the pack on a climb. I had a slight bobble at the Go control. I initially looked in the right direction but didn't see the control so I circled right. The long run in was a struggle. Once again, I did okay compared to others runners but in M45+, JJ Cote's consistency won out over Daniel and myself. My combined time got me 2nd over Daniel by only 7 seconds. My knee didn't bother me during this.

C • Highlander 2007 on October 7 6

Cranbury Park, near Milford, CT. I ran around and underneath an unusual copse so I could still watch Max as Peggy was racing. The copse was a weeping beech hybrid/graft. The canopy formed a natural umbrella as leaves hit the ground on all sides and several trunks held it up. The trunks were twisted and even were even grown together so that branchs from one trunk grew into another. Course setter for the day, Joe Brautigaum, could still find his initials carved high up back in 1978.

Sprint A Course 3 (R/B) - Splits

Sprint B Course 3 (R/B) - Splits

45 situps in a hotel in Milford, CT after a long night driving.

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD to C. St. SW, Washington, D.C. It was about 55F and since I had been on travel, my load was a little bigger than usual. I carried my laptop on my back. At first, I felt pretty strong. I hadn't tried pushing yet I was moving at good paces. There were several slow areas while passing other cyclists and a few lawn mowers on the trail. I was doing about 20.5mph on the flats. After getting to Georgetown and negotiating more traffic, I slowed. My back had started hurting and I could feel it more in my legs. Cycling didn't bother my knee at all but there was a lot of downhill riding.

From C. St., NW, Washington, D.C. to Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD. During they day, I noticed some delayed agrivation that the morning commute had I had generated. Starting out, I had a nice tailwind going to Georgetown. I kept a steady pace sometimes into a slight wind on the flats, then climbed the hill between 17 and 18mph. I caught a guy after River Rd. who picked up his pace. I stayed behind him until he took off the last quarter mile on the trail. Peggy walked Max home again so I didn't need to route to Max's day care to retrieve the trailer. I rode the more direct route through Bethesda, passing the old apartments we lived at for a short time (37:00). I detoured to pickup dinner at Chipotle before finishing up.

45 situps back at home. After meetings in Kansas City in the morning, it was mainly a travel day. Once home, since Max and Peggy were out walking, I did get to do a little gardening. My knee is still getting better but is not yet 100%. My toe feels good now.

Shawnee Mission Park, KS. I had another enjoyable run with Mike Eglinski and this time Dick Neuburger joined us. With it pouring rain an hour before the run, I wasn't sure if we'd be doing it but the sky cleared sufficiently. From the marina/tennis court area, we ran past the dam and turned right. From there we ran through the network of trails which was a mix of the old trails and the newly rerouted ones. Immediately, our shoes started picking-up the muddy silt that had deposited on the trail. Mike noticed that the newer trail was muddier than the old one and that this was probably due to the older trail having been packed down better. With the rocks and mud, we made a slow sloppy progress. I read along the map which Dick had given us. I didn't have a compass so it was a little harder to follow along through the curves at times. Dick has been updating this map a little at a time. Altogether it was a fun outing with dinner at Jose Pepper's again.