Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: Boulder Dash 2007
 

Bow, NH. Warm-up at Nottingcook Forest for the Boulder Dash. It was a nice field with views toward the mountains.

Boulderdash at Nottingcook Forest near Bow, NH. Things started poorly and kept that way. Out of Peggy, Joe & Pavalina Brautigam, and Peter Gagarin all starting behind me, I only saw Peggy while I was going to #2. The navigation through the thick forest was difficult. With it being a difficult place to map, some adaptation to orienteering styles seems to be needed only I never figured it out. I had a lot of trouble understanding why many large boulders were not mapped and others were. Contours helped me the most but lots of little ups and downs weren't there. Trail angles didn't even line-up at many times. The vegation threw me off most of the time and lastly, I didn't feel that strong physically--like I had to keep pushing to keep a decent pace. My confidence improved along the way and the errors got smaller. However, I still made errors including a 1:15 error within sight (30-40m) of the finish. It turns out that the finish was actually placed incorrectly. Instead of being further back in a reentrant as mapped, it was just off a road. When I approached the Go control which was on the other side of a copse that looked like a single tree, I thought I must have passed it and couldn't understand why there was no ruin as seemed to be shown. The 4 dots I saw on the 1:10,000 map were intended to be a small circular vegetation boundary and instead of a green blob, it was shown with white. I finished the day 4th in M45+. I was near some other M45+'s except for Peter Gagarin who was just over an hour. Despite being tired in the middle of the race at times, I finished with a lot to spare.

Red Day 1 - Splits

45 situps at a hotel in Manchester. It was a travel day with an average flight up. I was an orienteer flight. Besides myself, Peggy and Max were: Kris Beecroft with her sons Tanner and Graham; Heidi and Dave Onkst, Tim and Ted Good. It turned out that Eddie Bergeron was on the next flight too.

From Rosedale Ave., Maryland Ave. to Jones Bridge Rd. to the NIH/Trolley Trail, to Old Georgetown Rd. to W. Cedar La. to Rockville Pike, to Jones Bridge Rd. to Maryland Ave., to Rosedale Ave. I wanted to take it easy. It was in the mid-80's F but running in a tank shirt, I felt cooled sweating it out. It is getting somewhat rare for me to run from home or run at all these days--less than 30 miles running for the month!. Peggy and Max were later than usual due to a stop at the library.

From Takoma Park Metro Station, Carol St., to Maple Ave. to Aspen St. NW. to Sherill Dr. to Beach Dr. to the Pinehurst Trail, to Western Ave. to Cummings La. to Turner La. to Brookeville Rd. to Taylor St. to Connecticutt Ave. to Thornapple St. to Leeland St. to 46th St. to the Georgetown Branch Trail to Pearl St,/Maryland Ave., to Cheltenham Dr. I last did a variation of this route on 6/19/07 and it seems I ran the same pace. It's a nice route--12:30 of city running, 13:30 crossing Rock Creek Park and another ~19:30 home through suburban streets. My knee hurt initially. It was at the upper end of the mid 80's F when starting and a little humid--slightly better conditions than before but I was probably more tired. I felt like I was running faster. I was a bit woozy after this and weighed out at 170lbs.

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD to C. St. SW, Washington, D.C. As I started out with Max in tow, a new neighbor, Alejandro, called from behind and asked if I was going to the bike path. After introductions, he told me of his own 2 year old daughter and he was interested in Max's school. We rode together with Alejandro's bicycle rattling badly. We rode slowly at his pace until I stopped to drop-off Max at his day care school (we got there a little less than a minute slower than usual). After that, I moved along the trail comfortably in the low 60F air but not feeling particularly strong. At one point, there were two trucks driving down the trail that I had to get around. I passed a lot of people then caught-up with Alejandro again just after crossing the trestle bridge over the canal (around 7 miles out). Though he's biked to Georgetown for work before, he hadn't seemed to grasp the minutia of commuting and the trail etiquette yet. As I came up fast behind him and shouted his name to say hello, he moved from the right lane to the left and almost ran into me. Avoiding the wreck mostly by luck, I moved along the flats solidly at 20-21mph. After Georgetown, I could feel the headwinds along the water.

From C. St., NW, Washington, D.C. to Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD. It was warmish but not humid. After a nice tailwind most of the way to Thompson Boathouse, I converged with several other cyclists headed to the trail. I passed them then a couple miles up on the flats as I got lazy, I got passed. 4-5 of us rode a pace line. Initially, one guy was left doing the work. Most of the time, he was going too fast up the hill for me move ahead--I was already tired from the last couple of days and had extra weight from a second set of clothes in my panniers. Another guy who hadn't done any pulling was behind him having the same problem. As our pace line broke-up at a pause when trying to get around some slower cyclists, I was able to close the gap again. After the water treatment plant, the leader slowed deliberately to let us pass. After only a short spell, I went ahead to lead, on up to River Rd. where the other cyclists passed me--I'm find that I'm often getting dropped there, unable to climb as fast. Though I fell back, I caught back up and then led to downtown Bethesda. I was just over 37 minutes at the day care where I picked up the trailer.

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.