Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was around 51 F.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. I was rushing to get home for the kids that I knew would be stopping by the house for Halloween. I left the station at 6 minutes to 6 and already there were lots of them crossing roads with their parents and in small groups. It wasn't even dark yet. I had to slow down a few times when they were crossing in front of me. Later after getting ready and turning-on the lights that weren't on a timer, the kids started pouring in. It was hard to estimate but there were well over 50. Most commented on the house which was decorated to be Hell. I was dressed in my work clothes but put on a vest, some make-up and horns to complete the scene. Max and Samantha went separate ways; Max with some neighborhood girls, and Samantha with Peggy house-to-house and to a party.

Event: QOC Hemlock Overlook
 

QOC: Hemlock Overlook Regional Park, VA. Sleeping before this race, I was really achy. The tendon across my heel in my right foot was throbbing sometimes and my legs were sore. The night-O had taken it out of me but I did get a pretty good sleep. For a long time, my pattern had been to do well for the first 5-6 controls and then to make an error. Lately I've been messing up the first one or 2 and recovering much of the rest of the race.

I just didn't plan well going to #1. I missed the nice ridge/saddle run that I've done getting to this area in previous races. I went straight and plunged too low. I missed, came up the hill through the green, hit a (intermittent) trail that I had trouble finding on the map, then calmed down and went to the control.

I spiked #2 going just a tad left of straight to get through the mountain laurel.

For #3, I again missed the left route using the road. Instead, I angled along the hillside until the first reentrant, dropped across the bigger reentrant and hit the trails. Leaving the trail just before the road bend, I follow a ditch to a small clearing and then the reentrant system with the control. I was just a bit to the left and started to follow it down. I wasn't thinking how far I'd gone as I passed it in a side reentrant. Stopping, I calmed down, relocated and found it.

For #4, I got on the ride--that's gotten much harder to follow with downed trees so I ran along side of it a lot. Leaving at a bend, I was rather hesitant dropping along the side of the ridge to the rootstock and control.

For #5, in retrospect I should have gone straight. The formlines made me think the hills were bigger. I ran heading down to avoid the ups and downs. I felt senile forgetting which reentrants I'd crossed and soon found myself on the flats below the control. I took a while to validate that, and more to determine if I'd passed the control or needed to angle away as I climbed up. I hit a rootstock on the edge of the steep part and correctly knew I was still not far enough.

I went straight for #6 and spiked it. Someone else was converging on it from my right. I saw it from a ways off.

For #7, I thought to play it safe taking the longer way around on the trail to avoid climb. I left the trail in about the right place but pulled-up one reentrant early. I recognized my location at a reentrant junction and ran right to it afterward, damage already done.

For #8, I set out straight. At the big reentrant with a stream, I crossed somewhat straight over, then angled to my right to follow a side reentrant. Eventually, I saw Anne & Kim Jepsen on the other side of the reentrant, and I passed them. I kept straightish, reading my way across another smaller reentrant, and using the ditches to cross the last big reentrant. I ran right up to the tree and only then spotted the control behind it.

For #9, I paused to catch my breath and then ran. I was slow at first, then ran more confidently. After crossing the reentrant and walking up, I corrected my bearing by going around the left side of the deadfall. From there I ran along the edge of the mountain laurel until I could see the reentrant and the control.

I ran straight as I could toward #10, which meant bearing left a bit to get through the mountain laurel. After crossing the trail, I saw the reentrants ahead. Picking out he gullied one, I cut right and counted till I could find the right spur. I hesitated but kept going slower until I saw the control.

For #11, I dog-legged up the hill again and crossed the trail. I paused before dropping down the hill, then realized I needed to cut more to the right where the control became visible.


For #12, I ran along the hillside until I intersected the trail, I took a bearing from there, just before the trail crossed the stream. I realized I was too low so I angled up more. After a few ditches I saw the control up even higher.

For #13, I was not patient. I ran straight instead of going around the reentrant after the trail. I crossed it and ran the hillside until I got around the spur, then changed direction to hit the control well.

For #14, I went straight and corrected along the way off of reentrants. I was clear where I was until the last 125m. I got a little high being distracted by root stocks that turned out to be near the trail. I passed the control and looped around. Don Davis was hunting too and I was glad to seem him in the forest again after his accident. Don came from the other direction and got there before I did.

For #15, I ran straight but hesitated. I feared missing and dropping too low, but I was on target.

For #16, I dropped to the trail. At one point on the trail, I ran off of it by mistake, and came back. Leaves were covering it. I saw Peggy on the trail too and figured she was going where I was. She left the trail earlier than I planned. Leaving from the bend south of the control, I got there ahead of her.

For #17, I went straight and walked the hills a lot. I got to focusing on the hillside with the spur and ran to a control on the spur in the white woods, east of the control. I went on, dropping until I knew I was too low. I read the map and corrected to the left.

For #18, I dog legged back and saw the Jepsens going toward one of the controls I'd just left. I was thinking about using the trail but realized that it would be okay to cut across saving distance if not climb. I read things pretty well and spiked the control. Others were in the area but they didn't give it away for me.

For #19, I ran straight and eventually crossed the reentrant just before the big trail. I was pretty tired so when I started climbing, I had to pace my walk. I used a boulder/cliff to attack from.

For #20, I ran to the right a bit and used trails a little bit too, to get to the buildings. This was less messy but probably not the most efficient.

Overall, I felt okay about this run. I got a good physical workout and didn't make huge errors. I didn't use my head enough so that part was disappointing. Better routes could have saved a few. Maybe I can balance it all

Blue - Splits

QOC: Hemlock Overlook Regional Park, VA. Scare-O. I went out with Nicole Aleksieva and Samantha on QOC's first scare-o. It came off well. Going out with 2 kids as young as these, they were genuinely scared and thrilled at the same time. Niclole talked her way through the march in the dark; we were only to use glow sticks to read our map. The route was marked with glow sticks too. Samantha was quieter except during scares and to tell Nicole to stop squeezing her hand so tightly. Our scares were sometimes simple like a glowing poster-like skeleton at a control. Sometimes they were silently scary like Jan Merka dressed in black with a black had and a staff. Of course, Benny, Jan's golden retriever, was nearby and Benny's breathing alone scared the girls. They didn't see Benny's glow-in the dark skeleton costume until later. Scares continued with flashing lights and even the unintended. The girls stumbled on roots sometimes and one-time when we missed a forking of a trail, we cut down an embankment. While holding the girls hands, I happened to step down into a sort of concrete wall drop for some sort of sewer. An interesting scare at controls 5 and 6 was the guilt-tripping screams asking for help to get out of giant spider webs. We said sorry at #5, only to have our route double back closer to the trapped screaming girl. Again we said sorry and started to walk away when Nicole Lennon, dressed as a sort of spirit came screaming at us from another direction. We ran down the trail and got away of course. There was some navigation required in this, and I helped the girls find #7, which was kind of darker than the rest. Eventually, after a control in a make-shift graveyard, we were surprised by a monster with a bloody mouth all lit-up. We hurried off as Max snuck further ahead and lowered a goul down in front of us. Our final trial was a witch who popped out from behind a tree at the last control and kindly asked if we needed help. We hurried on-in. Everyone seemed to have fun. It took a lot for the Lennon's to set it up and the volunteers had to do a lot of waiting in-between participants. I went off to run a regular night-o course afterward and found that Nicole and Samantha loved the scare-o enough to go out and do it again with Kathleen Lennon leading them.

QOC: Hemlock Overlook Regional Park, VA. It had been a long time since I'd done an official night-o (though I picked-up controls at night over the summer). I was a bit late leaving and thought I should drop-down to a shorter course. I decided to go out anyway and hope for the best. I set my headlamp to a medium setting, worried that I might otherwise run out of power.

I did fine going to #1 and #2.

For #3, I used the trail but even though I was aware that distance seems much further at night, I pulled off of the trail way early. I ended up finding 2 other controls before understanding the terrain I'd gotten into and getting to the dot knoll control.

For #4, I got confused trying to follow the edge of a reentrant after crossing a trail. I wondered around in a lot of deadfall, eventually looping back to the trail, relocating and hitting the control.

I thought I'd take it more safely going to #5, a long leg. I followed reentrants until they ended, then crossed over a ridge. I started not understanding what I was seeing but kept a bearing that dropped me into a reentrant where I thought I knew where I was. I crossed and followed another long one upward. I was probably in the large reentrant to the south of where I thought I was because after a long while I hit a road. Given a nearby curve, I though I relocated so I came at it again--first, I had to go around some out of bounds areas. I did but everything I was in was green. I couldn't make sense of the reentrants very well and soon got to the edge of some private property. This turned out to be the winery because after rounding it, I ended up near the road bend at the park entrance! That sucked. I figured then that I couldn't finish the course but I went out at #5 again. This time I read things well the whole way there and hit the control with almost no trouble.

I was strangely more confident after that 32 minute error. I went at #6 pretty much directly and spiked it, despite it being in the green. I was able to get to #7 pretty well too but that wasn't hard given that #7 was just off of a trail.

I decided that to get back before 10pm, I had to head back. I went to #10 next and hit that well. I went on straightish to #14 and spiked that too.

For #15, I read my way acoss well until the last 150m. I missed it in the green, got low and came back to find it. I turned my headlamp on to full power at this point and noted from my battery meter that NO energy drop was registering; after +90 minutes it looked like I still had full power! I was feeling stupid about not using a higher beam earlier and that might have prevented me making a lot of the errors that I did.

My run-in was perhaps not the most efficient with a combination of cutting across the slash, and using trails. I came-in from too high on the paved foot path.

It was disappointing to have messed-up this night-O. It was one of those that I wished I had a chance to do over. I was worn out and tired (so were the kids) even before we got home. Peggy had her own full day helping the boy scouts learn to be orienteers at Patuxent River Park.

Long Advanced - Splits

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. It was only in the upper 40s F this morning but there were shifty winds. It was slowing me up getting out of Bethesda and part way on the CCT. Past the Kennedy Center in DC, I had some tailwinds.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C., to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I barely made it out of work without getting delayed at the courtyard gate--they had closed it but the guard was just leaving so she opened it up again. With it being less cloudy, I wasn't riding in the dark until out of Georgetown. I again rode alone the whole way. I was happy that the hard gusty winds that were around most of the day had diminished and were negligible by the time I was home.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. I left work pretty close to 8am and it was 35 F. With my warm jacket on, I felt the air drag. I gradually caught and joined-up with some other riders but overall did more pulling. There was a hardly noticeable tailwind along the river. There were about 3 times during the ride when someone suddenly cut in front of me and I laid patches applying braking. One was a runner who was avoiding a pedestrian walking a dog on the inside corner and wrong side of the trail, another was a van which was pulling out from a parking spot at the very end of the CCT as I was going into Georgetown. On the later there was no maneuver room since a gate big enough for a single rider blocked my sides escapes, and another rider was right behind me. I was fortunate enough to see and react quickly enough for all of these.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C., to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. The temperature was in the uppermost 50s F. I rode this mostly in the dark with a headlamp. I was by myself pretty much the whole way and the winds were calm.

Busy day at work and afterward, I took the kids to get Halloween costumes. Samantha will be a fairy. Max had already ordered a mask, and decided not to get anything more.