Training Log Archive: Nadim

Lake Accotink, VA. After having done a lot of maintenance on my Klein mountain bike until late the night before, I rode it around the parking lot, over various things to see if it'd hold up and to see if I could warm-up. When I did this the night before, the rear brake cable came loose but just about everything held up this morning. However, I need to replace the front derailer. Moving the shifter does nothing. The cabling worked but it's rusted. The rust is the natural outcome from having ridden on this bike on snowy days in winter, when they've salted the roads. I hadn't had a chance to ride it since then. I managed with being able to shift on the rear cogs.

QOC: Lake Accotink. Doing my first bike-o on dirt trails, I had fun. I've done enough mountain biking that I found myself able to get over just about everything on the course. Conditions were perfect with it having been very dry lately, and the air nice in the 60s and 70s. My full suspension helped but I do have the older 26 inch wheels. I came off the bike twice unexpectedly. Once was when making a steep twisting climb with some roots in the way. I got my front wheel over but with the angle of the root, my rear wheel spun out and I went over on my left side. That was better than falling on my right side with my hurt shoulder that's been healing very slowly. However, after all the activities, my back was stiff on the right side; probably from the fall.

As for the orienteering, I had trouble with a few things. Initially, it was the map scale along with the speed of cycling. I passed #1, left the main trail on a smaller one just past the right place, and took a while before figuring it out. On #2, I went right up the correct trails but stopped just about 10 ft. short of where I would have seen it. I did what amounted to a penalty loop to hit it from the other side. I went pretty well toward #3 but in a sequence that would be repeated a lot, I had trouble reading the detailed trails, even when stopped. The 1:7,500 scale should have helped but even with this scale, there was a lot close together and some thick lines. In a coupl of places, it felt like the trails, though all on the map, were just a little off. I expected to see one intersection in a reentrant, started to go into it before realizing that it was off trail, backed out and being at the bottom of a hill, I walkied up to find the intersection where the trail took me right into the reentrant again. This happened in just a couple of places. My goof getting to #12 was partly due to some frustration with reading the map. I had came to #11 from the main trail, and from the back side; hitting it rather well. When at #11, I looked for #12 and my eyes kept following the wrong long line; I kept following a line back to #10, and had forgotten which number I was at. I finally had to follow the line back from #13 to #12 before realizing that I had just been reading the wrong line out of #11 for 2 minutes. Going to #15 was fun since it was the last high point and I'd already passed it on the way to #10. It was on the trail to #15 that I had wiped out earlier. This time, I stayed to the right at the crux point in the steep climb and got over the roots just fine. I had the power to get up all the hills and getting past where I had fallen earlier felt like an accomplishment. I had a few other more daring successes with obstacles too.

It surprised me how long it took me to finish. The errors had some to do with it but I'd also forgotten how when I run and see other mountain cyclists, that I go similar speeds. I rode 8.4 miles to finish the 7.7K course. I had a map case on my bike but didn't use it. I held the map instead. I had my thumb compass too but would have preferred a wrist compass for this. Another thing I liked about the cycling was getting to sit and recover while rolling downhills--it made me feel renewed enough to push harder on the uphills when needed.

QOC: Lake Accotink, VA. After the MTB-O, I rushed back to MD to see Max play soccer. I got to see the last 25 minutes, the rushed home to grab clothes and get back to Lake Accotink. Peggy and I rushed out before the start window closed. I had forgotten about the courses being set for Farsta. Peggy got out a little before I had but I saw her while trying to find #4 (118). I lost a bunch of time there. I went pretty close to the trail and a fence to relocate and attack it once, and had to go all the way there to do it correctly the second time. I saw Peggy later in the course but not much. I wasn't running all that cleanly. I would often get in the vicinity pretty well, then miss on the attack. The pit, #9 on my BB course (130) was a good example as I ran right past it on a trail. A lot of times, I ignored the more detailed wiggly cycling trail networks and went straight. The forest, though mapped white, is rather more uniformly light green in this park; I guess that's okay for summer foliage. The contours wern't bad but I wonder if I'd have done better had they been from a good LiDAR base. There was some very nice running low near the lake, even where the map shows it to be green. For a small area, this park has a lot of nice features.

On my way back from my first look, I saw another runner in blue headed out. He must have had 3 minutes or more on me. I saw him when trying to get to #2 on the AA loop. I interpreted the map incorrectly, not reading the clue description, I went to the bottom of the big earth bank. I had trouble getting back up. I caught the guy in blue when approaching #4. I incorrectly led the guy to #118 since the leg to #13 was parallel and very close. It had been my second time going to that control errantly. I started to pull away but had to stop to tie my right gaiter at #5 on this loop (my right one got untied too but I just kept pulling it up the rest of the race whenever it fell). A mistake on #6 let him catch-up again. I thought I'd lost him at #10 but I was way off on #11, having crossed a trail that I shouldn't have. I blew #12 too by being too far to the right. My approach to #13 (control 118 for the 3rd time) was just a bit off so the guy in blue was right behind me again. I thought I had it made going to # 11 but somehow I read the trail bend incorrectly and ended up searching one reentrant too soon. I ran out of #11 smoothly but not nearly as fast as I would have liked to. Fortunately that was enough to beat the guy in blue in by close to what seemed like 2 minutes. For having missed the mass start Farsta, I still got the experience. It just was dissapointing making so many errors. The course was fun and it was nice to be back doing local meets again. My legs felt a bit beat-up too.

Afterward, I had to wait for the control boxes to come in and poor John Baker had too many controls. It took him about 2 hours to pickup. We all went to get a bit to eat afterward, as we were all famished. Peggy, Max and I had to rush home and return to Virginia for the 3rd time on this crazy day--my mom's family was having a party.

MTBO - Adv - Splits

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to Arlington Rd. with Max, then to 12th and C St. SW, Washington, D.C. The weather is excellent. There was a slight headwind after Georgetown. My lungs felt out of shape from not having run or ridden much lately.

From 12th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. to Arlington Rd., then Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I mostly had a tailwind which was good since I needed some rest. I went to check if Max had ridden home w/Peggy and found out that he and she had. I left work before finishing some things that I had intended to. It was just too busy. I decided to try to make up for it on the weekend.

From Northfield Rd., to Arlington Rd., with Max, then to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station. to Northfield Rd. I was working late. I had to swing by to pickup Max's bike, and tow it home by holding onto it while I rode. I missed running yet again today. The weather was great but it was dark when I did this.

From Northfield Rd., to Arlington Rd., with Max, then to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station. to Northfield Rd. Working late. For the 3rd day in a row, I wasn't able to run after work, and was too tired after eating at home.

From Northfield Rd., to Arlington Rd., with Max, then to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station. to Northfield Rd. Working late.

From Northfield Rd., to Arlington Rd., with Max, then to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station. to Northfield Rd. Working late.

Rock Creek Regional Park, MD, at Lake Needwood. I went about checking all of the Orange, Yellow and White course controls and made map updates. I had left these for last thinking it wouldn't take long to do. I was even planning on doing a trail run afterward. However just walking about and capturing map updates took a long time. I moved more controls than anticipated. Most of this was due to the derecho storm damage such as a trail closing with deadfall on portions of it. Oddly enough, in this area, I also had seen evidence of preparation (mowing the tall grass) for the Montgomery County Road Runner Club 10K Cross Country race that is to happen the day before. As was the case last Friday, I made some map corrections and got fairly tired just walking around again. At least I jogged in some places.