Training Log Archive: Nadim

Seneca Creek State Park, Lake Clopper Area, MD. From the disc golf parking area south of Great Seneca Highway, I continued working on mapping the vegetation in the disc golf area. There was about 6 inches of snow, old and new, on the ground and it was 19 F. I had hoped that some of the snow had melted. It was pretty slow moving when going across open ground. The top layer of snow was frozen so it reminded me of some post holing on the continental divide in Colorado that I did one spring long ago. With the snow, I had to stick to mapping vegetation. That was distinct enough to know that I wasn't missing something important. There were several disc golfers out playing. Some were watching me as I finished-up near the parking lot. Discussion with one of them indicated some trepidation at the thought of orienteers on the disc golf course. The guy I'd been talking with said that "Geocachers used to come out before they realized it was a golf course." He realized that orienteers were mostly in the woods. I told him that I'd been working on mapping the whole park, that we work with the park on usage, and generally don't disrupt things. I hope no issues result and that we'll be able to use or at least cross this area with all kinds of mapped vegetation types (open, semi-open, white, green, rough open, rough semi-open, etc..)that I find interesting to navigate. There's still good terrain further south to map.

Spinning and watching a show.

Spinning and watching a show.

Spinning and watching a show.

I spun and watched a movie.

From Northfield Rd., Custer Rd., to Park Rd., to Battery Ln., to Exeter Rd., to Edgemoor Ln., to Hampden Ln. to Moorland Rd. to Wilson Rd. to Aberdeen Rd., to Aberdeen Ct. to Northfield Rd. Though I had been running several times while orienteering or jogging when en-route to do field checking, this was the first road run that I did since November. Sure enough, I felt awfully out of shape but not in much discomfort. Some discomfort from my back came later but it wasn't bad and I felt virtuous for finally running. It was a nice day getting up to 48 F, but it was 39 F, when I'd finished. The 5-6 inches or so of snow around had been melting a lot but streets were fairly passable and even dry in some places.

I got woken up before I planned to a few times by Samantha. Peggy had been out running. It was a rare day with snow that fell (starting midday) on a day I didn't have to work, and had no other pressing plans--these days, if the office is closed for snow, I still have to telework. I spent a large part of the day with the kids. Initially Max, Samantha and I did some light sledding. We did some snow shoveling and then Samantha and I did more sledding at the park. I did yet more snow shoveling later. The snow was pretty light and fluffy but with about 6 inches (some from the previous snow), it still was significant. I really shouldn't be shoveling but it was fairly easy going. Another good thing for the day was that I got some insulation installed that I'd purchased the previous week. It was fairly easy to put down, but it makes one grungy.

I spun and watched a movie.

I spun and watched television. It felt a little easier to do.

Earlier today I saw my orthopedist. I'll stay the course as far as waiting to see how much I get better. The continued weakness on my right side, measured in a less than scientific way by pushing in different ways on both feet and toes, was not good. To me it feels like stagnation though I could still be getting better. I think it's better to wait it out and work out more than to go to surgery. My orthopedist asked about my shoulder and he was concerned that it wasn't getting better either. Because of the loss of movement in my left arm, he decided it was best that I get a steroid shot in that shoulder and that I start physical therapy for it.

C • continued sciatica 4

After coming home from work, I cleared what the snow plows had pushed across the end of our driveway. Much of it was icy and didn't move so easily. I wanted to clear it before the next snow and round of cold temperatures moved in.

I spun and watched a movie. Earlier in the day, the edge of the numbness on my feet was aching a bit. My right leg felt weaker too and I stumbled a few times accidentally not lifting it high enough when walking. Otherwise I felt okay.

After a 4" snowfall, I cleared the driveway and sidewalk. The snow was light and fluffy so this wasn't so bad. I was able to fling it far without putting too much stress on my back. It hurt my left shoulder more than my back. However, after finishing this and while working from home (offices were closed), I felt pretty tired.

Seneca Creek State Park, Lake Clopper Area, MD. From the King Fisher Overlook parking lot, down to the park road and to the disc golf parking lot. The park was open but the roadway was blocked before the dam due to icy conditions. There was some ice but not much. Mainly it was cold--14 F. The surface of the lake was almost entirely iced over but not in a way that'd be safe enough to walk on. I was fully dressed and carrying my usual field checking garb plus extra clothes. The jog warmed me up nicely and I was glad to put 2 consecutive days of running together, however short it was.

Seneca Creek State Park, Lake Clopper Area, MD. From the disc golf parking area south of Great Seneca Highway, I worked on mapping the vegetation in the disc golf area. Unlike the disc golf course at Mckeldin, another state park, the vegetation that this disc golf course is in is complex. There are many twists and curves to the open areas, some of which are narrow and long like you might expect a golf course to be. At the edges of the open areas, there were either scattered open, white, light green, green or fight areas. It's a challenge to map and I hope it'll be worth the effort. Layouts for trees like these can change abruptly as courses are changed, or dying trees are cut. Each disc golf hole usually has more than one paved tee to start from. At least for now, I'll map those and decide later whether or not to remove them. There are several man made features well worth mapping besides the disc golf baskets. Various trail remnants start and stop unconnected too. There were a few ditches, a gully, and a nice cliff too. I thought it good that I was there when it was cold so that I wouldn't get hit or interrupt a game. About an inch or less of snow covered the ground. I didn't expect to see anyone but I saw at least 2 people playing (maybe 2 more), and a ranger who stopped to check and see if I was okay for some reason. The temperature stayed in the teens. I wish that I had more time to field check but I had to get home to take our still new kittens to the veterinarian.

Seneca Creek State Park, Lake Clopper Area, MD. I jogged back slowly from the disc golf parking lot to the King Fisher parking lot. It was 14 F when I finished but I felt comfortable the whole time out. I guess the lack of wind helped.

Great Falls Park, MD. The QOC meet at PWF was cancelled since a cold snap and high winds made for difficult conditions. It was about 8 or 9 degrees when we found this out on the way to drop off Max and Samantha before going to the meet. Instead, a group of friends went running through the park. It was 14 F when we started; probably the high temperature for the day. I had propensity to roll over on my right ankle. I did it one time just walking down a trail to where we started from. I didn't injure myself more from rolling it several times but I could have. The ankle would just go over when only slightly askew with the slope or a stick on the ground. I think it's just weaker due to nerve issues from my back problems.

Event: QOC Prince William Forest Park
 

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It was pretty windy.

Seneca Creek State Park, Lake Clopper Area, MD. From Garrett Dr., I went over terrain that I'd not checked very well previously last summer when it was too green. I hadn't missed much but did find a few more things that should make the map better. I also hit a complicated vegetation area that I tried to map in January. I made some corrections. After this, I drove over to the disc golf parking lot on the south side of Great Seneca Hwy. I'd been itching to cover this terrain for a long time. I didn't covered part of the golf course but did more mapping along the edges of the property, along the east. There were some nice things and a hill with a lot of deadfall. It was a good addition. I look forward to coming back an getting the ridge with the bulk of the dis golf course covered. That area could be tricky to map with much open, scattered open, and white woods. It was in the 50s F and sunny most of the time so there were a lot of disc golfers out.

Event: QOC Post Super Bowl Saturday Bumble at Morven Park
 

QOC: Morven Park, Southern Parking Area, Leesburg, VA. This was the first run that I did more than a couple of minutes consecutively since November. I held up pretty well. I was just pretty slow. I wasn't sure that I'd get to go out since I had taken Max and Samantha to Max's basketball game before the event. The kids were hungry so we had to stop to eat too. I got running 40 minutes later with less than an hour to complete the course before it closed.

David and Heidi Onkst setup their Stumble Bumble format; popular for the last 2 years. I enjoyed the courses. I opted to do 3 windows which is what my age group would do in the overall handicap. The initial window was in rough open terrain which this time of year meant wide open. I figured I'd be slowest on the hills and that was true. However since I figured with controls not in windows on the big hill, that I'd still need to climb which is what the second window did. I also figured it'd be more fun to navigate in actual wooded terrain (the last 2 windows that I opted not to do were in more rough open terrain). There were a bunch of controls and many were close together. I navigated pretty well but I just didn't realize that I'd skipped control H after getting to G easily. It was only 80m away from G. I wondered why I wasn't climbing much going to K. After the second window, I opted to go left and attack #16 from above. This worked well. In the 3rd window, I hit everything well and was feeling good about my running. However, I missed seeing control N entirely. Several others did the same. It was tucked in a corner amidst some scattered green and the control circle was broken just enough that it didn't register (I'd forgotten to take my glasses along so that could have had an effect too). I hit a trail briefly in the window, on the way toward P. I was reading the map when all of a sudden I caught my right foot on something. As I was going down, I wondered what it'd do to not only my back, but my left shoulder. I figured that because my right side is weak, that I dragged my right foot just enough (as I'd done several times during 2014 leading up to my back episode). That caused me to twist just enough to have my right arm hit the ground first and take the brunt of the fall--that saved my left shoulder. My back was fine as far as I could tell so I got up, shook it off and got to running again. I was glad that the course was kind of downhill toward the finish (except for the last control). I was just weak enough that it mattered.

Green - Splits

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was 14 F when I first checked the weather outside, 15 F when driving the kids to school, and 17 when I rode. After the first quarter mile, my face hurt but after a half mile from the house, I felt fine.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. I caught the traffic lights just right. Thought it had warmed up during the daytime, it was a little colder than I thought going home.

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was 33 F and I had a nice tailwind. That was nice since I had a big heavy coat on that catches the wind.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It was 21 F and I had to ride into the wind going back. It was chilly. My old mid-weight winter cycling gloves helped but they are pretty thin in spots after 13 years.

Riding and watching a movie. Maybe now that I'm past a busier time with work, I can focus on working out more again. I was in all day meetings the last two days and the base of my spine was getting sore. Overall, I feel I'm not improving much.