Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: OCIN A-meet (Night, Relay, Ultra-long)
 

Sharon Woods Hamilton County Park, Cincinnati, OH. Peggy and I did a map walk to the training controls for the OCIN A-Meet. The map left a lot to be desired. The vegetation, trails, and contours all were not up to A-meet and even local meet standards. About the best thing that worked was going on a straight bearing. It was still good to get out on a map because a it got our minds in the right frame.

OCIN A-meet, Mt Airy Forest,, Cincinnati, OH: US Night-O Championships. I prefer running longer events even though my right calf has been ailing me, and this being a championship. I ran M45+ instead of M50+ because I thought it'd be fun. I went into this not knowing what to expect because of my lack of recent training and calf injury. The injury itself was probably due to being a weekend warrior--no training during the week, then racing on days off. About the only thing I had going for me was getting a new headlamp. I splurged on it. The light was bright but I didn't even use the full power. The nicest thing with it was that the headband worked without the light bouncing as in the past.

I got to the meet a bit late and missed my start by a minute. I had gone into the weekend calmly so the rushed start didn't frazzle me, The course was not technically difficult but it was physical. I expected to lose a minute taking the road around to #5 but figured it best to save energy and to save my calf. AP shows an error for me on #6 but I hit it right on--I just got hung-up on some deadfall and thorns. I got mixed-up going to #11; I'd initially planned to to around to the right and did on the trails but along the way I fixated on control #17. I cut left back through the field, went down, and up perfectly to #17. It wasn't that far out of the way. The last quarter of the race, my calf started bothering me. Going over a steep ridge probably did it in. I slowed down but hit everything pretty well including #17 which was causing others around me some problems. I got second place in my age group which was somewhat unexpected. :)

US_Night_2012_Red - Splits

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

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

45 Situps. Resting my calf to get better for the weekend.

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

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

During the day, my right calf continued to feel tight though it was better than yesterday after the orienteering training. It's somewhat a dilemma to need to rest and be ready to race 3 days in a row this weekend when some training would help me be less likely to get hurt during the weekend.

Riverbend Park, VA. Greg and Kathleen Lennon organized the setup of an informal training event in Riverbend Park. We hadn't had a race in this park since 2005 though we'd had one other training here put on by the Lennons in 2009. The map was out of date in places and one control had been mis-hung (the bio-degradable controls were hung by several people). I fell a few times as did others, tripping over brances and other hidden things. My navigation wasn't very clean but I hit most controls without a lot of loss of time. My biggest miss was #7 for which I'd somehow mis-counted big reentrants and was otherwise distracted by the map being wrong. I had to take an unscheduled nature stop too. My miss at #7 meant I had to climb the very steep river embankment 3 times instead of 2. I missed at #9 too but I think the map contours being a little off here had some to do with that. My right calf did keep me from climbing comfortably too. It hurt to walk afterward--some more rest and stretching is needed.

From Bradley Rd., the Cabin John Trail to River Rd., and back. I felt awful starting out but loosened-up as I went. I was glad it was flat and relatively soft on the dirt. My right calf was tight; like warning signs I've felt before for achilles troubles. I wanted to go longer but with plans to meet my sisters in Virginia for a movie, I had just enough time to stretch 2 minutes after the run, get back home, get ready and go.