Training Log Archive: Nadim

Glacier National Park, MT. Trail of the Cedars. After a nice lunch on the shore of Lake McDonald where I taught Max to skip stones, we drove further into the park and did a very short and easy loop. It was half on a boardwalk through marshy cedar forest with lots of deadfall. Because of the high water table, the cedars have shallow root systems and fall over a lot. In between being impatient waiting for Peggy and I (taking pictures and reading exhibits), Max worked on his Junior Ranger badge.

Glacier National Park, MT. After our first hike, we had a spectacular drive up the Going to the Sun Highway to Logan Pass which is on the Continental Divide. While moving or stopping on the drive we/I saw a black bear crossing a rushing glacial melt stream, dear, dozens of waterfalls, snow capped sedimentary peaks rising as much as 9,000 ft. in vertical differential, precipitous drops on the edge of the roadway, mountain goats, an old Bighorn sheep and sunny skies. At the Visitor Center at Logan Pass, Max and I had a snowball fight. From there, Peggy, Max and I started up the Hidden Lake Trail but the weather was changing rapidly, The trail was snow covered right from the start and it started off with having to cross through an icy slush puddle. Footing was slippery going up and we only had plain running shoes and sneakers (this was better than some foolish people heading up in flip flops). The air was cool and the sky got darker. We only got out a bit past a quarter mile before hearing the thunder. We had climbed quickly to around 6,800ft. before turning back. The return was fast and fun. Max and I threw more snow at each other and by the time we got past the slush puddle, we looked back at the clearing skies.

Camp Sekani, Spokane, WA. I ran/jogged up the steep hill to the start of the US Orienteering Sprint Championships.

US Sprint Championships at Camp Sekani, Spokane, WA. My feet were blistered and otherwise torn-up from the run yesterday. I did what I could to get them ready and wore trail shoes for this race--not my preferred choice for steep slopes with pine needles. I had an early start so the only person that I knew was on my course that I saw was David Yee. With the steep slopes I knew that errors would be costly so I ran cautiously. I felt I didn't lose much time for almost the whole course. I sometimes went to the wrong rock but always managed to stop near the control and find it quickly. A few times, I was standing right next to it and didn't see it as it was behind a rock or just hung very low. On a leg to a prominent cliff with a thicket (#10?) I got too low. At the end, I hadn't visualized a feature correctly. Instead of a man made wall (more like a dam that's high on one side and ground level on the other), I expected a cliff. I saw a cliff almost on the line so I ran toward it without seeing the control and had to come back.

Red Sprint - Splits

Fishtrap Lake, WA. Warm-up run from the parking area to the start of the US Long Distance Championships. I'd already missed my start time since I was having split starts with Peggy and there was not enough time in-between. The scenery on the way to the start was rather nice. Had I the time, I would have wanted to come back to photograph the wild flowers. There were very nice yellows, whites and purples in good combinations with the rocks.

US Long Distance Orienteering Championships, Fishtrap Lake, WA. I had a tough day. I had a difficult time reading the map and the bifocals I brought along didn't help; they were fogged-up too much. I got way off course on the way to #2 and was slow to recover from the error. I started getting more into the map for a while but nearing #5, a fall into the marsh off a low dam seemed to mark another change in effectiveness. I landed safely but after that my wet feet were more prone to hurting. The basalt or whatever the predominant igneous rock type was kept me off balance. I don't usually get blisters but ended-up with nasty toe blisters and torn calluses. This slowed me but my poor accuracy in the rock detail had as much effect. At 1:15,000 (the map didn't have a scale printed on it, the course notes didn't say, but I found out later) I really needed a magnifier. I took a fall again in the course. Wierdly it was while running up some bare rock. This stumble ended with a sore right hand that's still sore as I write this many hours later. I did well sometimes but when I missed, I lost a lot of time. It was hard for me to tell what was up and down. I'm going to have to find better ways to read detail on maps now that my eyesight has degraded. I enjoyed the race but could have used more protective shoes too. Before going out, someone had warned me that typical O' shoes weren't a good choice for this map and that person was right.

Red Long - Splits

Event: US Sprint/Middle/Long Championships
 

Moses Lake, WA. After a long day of traveling from Baltimore to Las Vegas, getting on a plane that was late, getting to Spokane, WA, driving to Ritzville at 2am local time and finding that our hotel room was inaccessible, then driving to Moses Lake for a hotel twice as expensive, we got a short sleep and to the meet site. I had just enough time to get to the start without forgetting anything but some eye glassse that I wanted to give a second try.

U.S. Middle Distance Championships, Moses Lake, WA. I ran a safe race and felt slow/tired doing it. The rolling/sage and grass covered sand dune terrain was prettly well mapped if you stayed out of the green. I used the slow and sandy roads initially to get used to the map. I was happy to get off of them for the more runnable rough open. I went straight a lot but avoided all the green as the course notes recommended. The green was usefull for navigation. I perhaps lost 1-2 minutes total. Some of it was pulling up short and not seeing a control that was behind a bush ahead. At #15, I read the map incorrectly expecting a control to be on the wrong side of a short ridge. It was a bit hot out but with low humidity, it felt much better than running at home at this time of year. I finished 7th amongst the M45+ runners though not all of them were eligible for the US Championships. The courses were fun and I was happy to have been relatively error free in a technical area.

Red Middle - Splits

From Northfield Rd. Bethesda, MD, to Montgomery Ave. via the Air Rights Building with Max in his trail-a-bike for the first time to school, then to C St. SE, Washington, D.C. Since I'd come back from travel for work, I had to tote my laptop. I'd earlier left Max's trailer at school. In Bethesda I was amused passing the Apple store and seeing the long lines for people picking up pre-orders or buying. Winds were mixed; both the headwinds and the tailwinds were strong and equally distributed. Most noteable was the 87 F temperature and high humidity-like Florida.

From C St . SW, Washington, D.C. through the basement of my building at work to Independence Ave. SW, to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I was running late at work and needed to meet a vendor at home. Traffic was slow at first and there were strong headwinds. In Georgetown with more traffic a cyclist passed me and I wiseley tucked in behind him. He was too strong for me to pull for him up the hill and still into the wind. I left the trail-a-bike to pickup later with the trailer.

Williamsburg, FL (near Orlando). I attended a conference this week and didn't get much opportunity to workout. I finally got out for this run from my hotel in a semi-urban touristed area for Universal Studios. It was almost all on concrete walkways in a hot sun and humid air. My right arch had been hurting while walking outside for the run and for the first minute but was fine after that.