Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Rosedale Ave. Chestnut Ave. to Jones Bridge Rd. to Kensington Pkwy. to the Rock Creek Trail to Cedar Ln. to Rockville Pike via Elmhirst Ln. to Jones Bridge Rd. to Maryland Ave. to Rosedale Ave. Very nice out. Some of the quarter splits on the trail: 1:42, 1:42.

Working late again interupted the day. I really wanted to go run since the weather was so nice but was tired when I got home. 45 situps. Going up stairs, I could still feel some pain on my quadracept too.

I flew back and worked late. I only felt like staying home a bit after that. 45 situps, 20 pushups.

At Creve Coeur Park, St. Louis, MO. While waiting for Eric Buckley to complete his canoeing, I went for a short run from the Sailing Cove restrooms to the Page St. overpass on the east side of the lake. It was very flat and very busy with cyclists, walkers, strollers and runners. Nice. I was sore at first on my right quadricept but it loosened and felt better. At the turnaround I was at 10:52 so I picked it up to try not to be late.

At Creve Coeur Park, St. Louis, MO. Eric Buckley took me out for a run around the lake. Starting out the same way I had went out earlier, we passed through some even nicer forested floodplain areas while doing the long loop. There were some neat cliffs along the trail too. Unfortunately we had set out at dusk and couldn't see it all properly--perhaps on a return trip. Later we stopped by and saw Baby-O and had some good NY pizza.

45 situps and 20 pushups in my hotel in St. Louis. I had misread Eric Buckley's note to me about getting together for a run. I thought it was for Tuesday but it was for today--sorry Eric. I could use the rest anyway as my bruised right quad is pretty sore just when walking. I feel like a wimp with my pushups compared to Valarie. My arm is a little stiff from the disc golf.

McKeldin Area, Patapsco State Park, MD. Warm-up around the field for the start QOC meet with Dave Onkst and Eddie Bergeron.

QOC at McKeldin. Running the Blue course, I started well but didn't take Ted Good's course setter advice to run slower and navigate better. The first half of the course had some longish legs and I blew two and a half out of five of them. I couldn't or didn't read the map well throughout the run. I think a combination of the steep hills and the silk grasses hiding things underneath drew my focus elsewhere. Ted and Eddie Bergeron had used Lidar data to almost double the map size. Part of this new area wasn't fully field checked but the contours were good. It did require switching from 20ft. contours to 5m contours on the same map. There were some other minor problems with the old mapping near #8 but much of the rest of it had been updated too. On the way to #12 I stumbled on some bricks and my forward momentum drove my right quad into a blunt spike-like 2" thick broken branch. I had to walk a bit after that and slowed down for the rest of the race. See the Split List.

McKeldin Area, Patapsco State Park, MD. Control pickup for QOC's meet. Ted and I went out together to pickup #7 and #8 across the river. Eddie got all the ones far away. My right quad is bruised with a cut. It hurts to push off but should be fine in a few days. Later Dave, Ted and I played 18 holes of disc golf. Playing par 4's, I finished behind Ted at 5 over.

Blue - Splits

From Ken-Gar Park, down the Rock Creek Trail to the fountain at Spring Rd. and back with MCRRC. I started quick trying to catch-up to the lead group which started about 2 minutes ahead of me. Catching them around 2.3 miles out just past Cedar Rd. I ran their pace to the fountain. I paced with Paz going back a bit faster. He has recoved from a hamstring injury. His pace was as erratic as ever and he's not in shape. It was a nice cooler and overcast morning. I felt okay but started feeling winded when the pace was in the 6:30's. Splits on the trail: 6:49, 6:36, 7:48, 8:23 (30:40 at the turnaround), 7:00, 6:54 (3:15 & 3:39), 7:33, 6:47.

From Rosedale Ave. to the Georgetown Branch Trail to Connecticutt Ave. to Thornapple Rd./Leeland St. to 46th St. to Pearl St. to Rosedale Ave. Cruising steady down and up the hills.

From Mark Twain School, Avery Rd., Rockville, MD northward through Rock Creek Park, MD to the pipeline break west of the Lake Needwood dam and back. I had an errand to do in the area and had often wanted to check out the woods here earlier. Starting just after 8pm with my headlamp, I ran west of Rock Creek on the hillside across across reentrants and some steep hills with a Topozone map that Peggy had printed for me. A good portion of this run was w/o a map as I ran off the north end of what I had. There were no moose here though one of the several deer started to come at me before it realized what I was. The woods here were very nice with almost no undergrowth and few fallen limbs. The hills were steep and sometimes rocky with a few trail remnants and deer trails. There were boulder, cliff, dot knoll, ruin and rootstock point features. While crossing some scattered tree areas grasses and some kind of knee high ground cover dying from the drought grew high sometimes. Google Earthing the area afterward shows there's lots more to explore south and westard toward Lake Frank. All in all it was a very nice calm night the type which reminds me why I'm a night owl by nature. I wish I had done it earlier.

From Rosedale Ave., the Two Mile Loop through the neighborhood. I worked late and was tired but went out anyway. In about 3 minutes I felt much better in the cool night air.

From the parking lot on the south side of Rte. 29, up the Northwest Branch Trail to the Wheaton Regional Park Nature Center and back. I ran up on the west side not feeling so good starting out. Trail conditions were good and dry; unlike most of the time. It almost seemed like someone had cleared out the trail but some of it was due to drought. There was lots of light hitting the ground and the many cliffs and boulders were much more visible. I think it was in the upper 80's F. By the time I got to the turnaround, I was tired and slow. I drank a lot of water and picked-up a copy of a trail map that they had before heading back. I crossed to the east side using the bridge and the blazed trail. I'd been on the trail long ago when exploring the valley but hadn't used it much since it wasn't well maintained. It was better now and blazed but had some areas of overgrown grasses w/seeds, fallen trees and erosion. Reading along with the map and the wiggly trail gave me something to think about besides being tired. It'd be fun to set a Pink course here one day. I was surprised 3 times by owners walking dogs w/o leashes--One couple had 3 labs, a second woman had 2 dogs including a shepard and the fourths person said she was embarrased about not having a leash for hers.

45 situps and 20 pushups after the Redskin's win.

Lake Accotink, VA. Warming up around the dam for QOC's meet on National Orienteering Day.

QOC: Lake Accotink Park. I started off okay but rushed out of #2 in the wrong direction. At #4 I ran around a bit and suspect some map problems. At #5 I had a bad attack and got a bit high, hitting an unmapped trail. Midway through, Syd the course setter had an off the clock challenge to go up and down a new trail, memorize the route and map it in later. I did this in 6:39 and was once again on the clock. Going on the long leg on the trail toward #12 I was reading ahead and started to focus on #13. I went there, realized what I did and had to run 230m back to #12. I felt I was running quickly but not very accurately. The thicker green areas again often gave me trouble.

C • Map dubious around 4 2

Lake Accotink, VA. Syd Sachs challenged us to remember the mapping of a new trail during the middle of the race.

Lake Accotink, VA. Pickup of controls and e-punches. I ran with Lawence Whitmore, an adventure racer who wanted some tips. I had wanted to checkout #4 where I had problems earlier. I still think something was wrong with the map there but I'm not sure what it was. My arms got some work during this. The bag with 11 controls (one more that Lawrence got) and e-punches got heavy.

From Lake Accotink near the dam, trails to King Aurthur Rd. to Gallow Rd. to the W&OD Trail, to Williamsburg Rd. to Glebe Rd. to Chain Bridge to the C&O Canal Towpath, to the Capital Crescent Trail, to Rosedale Ave. To get across town and back home I started off slow on rough bluestone trails more conducive to mountain bikes. Once on roads I hit some hills and I didn't have a map. I made a few wrong turns to dead ends as I felt my way northward. I felt fairly tired by the time I got home and like I hadn't retained much cycling shape. Thanks Dave and Heidi for carrying my stuff back.

Green - Splits

From Ken-Gar Park, down the Rock Creek Trail to the fountain at Spring Rd. and back with MCRRC. I started easy--level 2 with Leo and Alex. It felt much cooler than San Antonio did. Leo and Alex were going further so I came back alone and quicker--level 4. I started feeling hot before turning around. On the way back an 8K race was going on along Beach Dr. I paralleled their path around their 2-mile mark as the timer called out 14:15. I was passing people. Splits on the trail: 7:46, 7:54, 7:55, 7:57 (32:39 at the turnaround), 6:51, 6:48, 6:51, 6:37.

San Antonio, TX. From Commerce St. near the Rivercenter Mall. Out and back through the Riverwalk before flying back home. It was hot and more humid than the night before with record heat expected.

San Antonio, TX. From Commerce St. near Rivercenter Mall, westward mostly on Commerce Street and W. Martin St. to N. Hamilton St. and back. I started sometime after 6:30pm which was fortunate due to light traffic through the city blocks. I thought to hit the river north of the city and ran without a map. If I had gotten lucky there would have been a trail along it worth exploring but leaving the downtown area and upon crossing the more than proverbial train tracks, I hit the river. It didn't look very runnable and the neighborhood deteriated too. I knew thing were getting bad when I saw more stray dogs and passed by not one but four bail bond businesses in a row. Police cars crossing back and forth were both raising and reassuring my nerve. I turned around at sunset. All was well, though very hot and humid in the low 90's F. Back in the nicer Riverwalk area, I had a nice dinner in a quieter spot with live jazz (Dolores Del Rio). A belly dancer had just finished when I got there.

C • 4

San Antonio, TX. 45 situps in my hotel room after a long day of meetings.

San Antonio, TX. From the Rivercenter Mall area, down and up the San Antonio River on the Riverwalk and and some roads parallel to the river. Once the Riverwalk ran out, I got past the Blue Star St. warehouses and was turned around in a lonely area at dusk by 2 loose dogs with a 3rd one barking and getting closer. The nicer Riverwalk was runnable especially after getting past the restaraunt areas. It was somewhat hot and humid but I felt okay even on the stonework and concrete walkways.

20 pushups.

After flying home Sunday night and flying right back out Monday morning to San Antonio, TX, I had a full day of meetings to 10pm. I wanted to do more but settled on 45 situps.

The Mega at Pawtuckaway State Park, NH. I went out on this world record course (for the most number of controls in a single race) behind Ted Good. Dave Onkst, Peggy, Samantha Saeger, and Suzanne Armstrong started shortly behind me. Since my watch didn't hold enough splits, I intended on taking every 5th control split and trying to remember by counting the number of blue striped controls. Flubbing #4 by trying to rely too much on memory got me right away behind Dave, Suzanne and Samantha. I mostly felt on top of things through the first 64 controls, often running with Suzanne. Clem and a Canadian passed somewhere in this. I didn't realize the map extension overlapped and messed up a leg 65 putting Samantha and Suzanne ahead just when I thought I might be able to pull away. I spent the next couple of controls recovering and losing my place on the map a lot. Next Will Hawkins and Wyatt Riley came through. I got on their train a while. I lost them somewhere after The Slot but soon caught Suzanne and Samantha again. At #112 where everyone was searching for Will's glasses, I only had to wait about a minute before Phil Bricker found them. The crowd was slow to go after this but I got in behind Jon Torrance and Will for a while. After the beaver dam crossing on the way to #120, I lost Suzanne. Eventually I started feeling like I couldn't keep up and know where I was at so at #136, I paused and reorganized my control codes. The water stop at #138 brought me back in contact but by around #153 I needed to let Jon go again. On the "long leg" to #158, I was right on line but pulled-up short. John Frederickson came through but he had somehow already been to the 8m pillar, #159-161. When I got there, Jon Torrance was still there. I ended-up chasing him more but I was slowing down. At #176, I misread the map (ignoring the control codes) and presumed the control was on a boulder so I pulled-up short. Samantha and Suzanne had been steadily gaining and caught me there. Together, we caught Jon around #181. On the last loop, the running was faster and more open; we lost Suzanne somewhere around the parking lot with the "fodderack" on J.J.'s car. Somewhere around #200, when I first stopped at the recreation course control, Samantha and I lost Jon but soon gained Ernst Linder. Samantha lead in to the finish. This mind numbing exercise was still fun in a wierd way. It would have been a bit more satisfying to run more by myself but I wanted to run fast too. The many 100m legs were conducive to it too. I didn't keep track of splits the way I wanted nor did it register to me much when I got to a blue striped control--I had no idea how many there were at the end as I lost count by around control #75. I kept losing place of which control I was on and sometimes went with the crowd. If I do something like this next time, I'll prepare a punch card system.

THE MEGA - Splits

Event: 2005 Sprint Series Finals
 

Pawtuckaway State Park, NH. Warm-up for the Sprint Series Final, around the parking lot.

Sprint Series Final in Pawtuckaway State Park, NH. My 38th rating going into the final had me seeded in one of the groups within the Second Heat. I ran against Ted Good, Mikkel Conradi, Rex Winterburn and J.J. Cote. The group was fairly closely matched. I came off the first control last and took a while to adjust to the pace and terrain. I ate a fair amount of wood from Hemlock branches flying back at me. I started moving up at the 6th control. Mikkel had mostly been leading through here but slowed. I moved past him going to #7 and the group finally spread out a little. A little bobble at #10 had Ted Good going past me and I took a poor route over a hill when I could have gone around going to #11. However as I approached the control circle with Ted ahead I stopped, having seen the pond on our left. Looking right I saw it, punched and went past Ted. I ran to the road directly when I should have angled toward the marsh but charged down the road. Instead of going right at the next intersection, I cut-in from a form line knoll across a dry marsh. I ran just left of the control and seeing what looked like a spur ahead to my left I ran there and found nothing. I must have drawn a crowd with me because soon there were about 5 others looking in the same area. I cut back away from the road and saw it but so did others. Ted had already gone through. Rex got to the punch first with Mikkel behind me. J.J. had injured himself earlier. I couldn't see a way around Rex but Mikkel managed it. In the field, I passed Rex and arrived in 3rd, one place out of advancing. It was fun.

Jogging in the field and stretching.

Sprint Series Final in Pawtuckaway State Park, NH. In the consolation round, I was put against Eric Osborn, J.J. Valdamir, Rex and others. I took out in the lead across the bridge and turned right. Most of the pack except Rex cut left which afterward I realize was a better route. I wandered my way to #1 after that. After crossing the road going to #2, I paused to help Rex find his glasses which fell off--he told me to go on. By the time I was approaching #2, the group which had started a minute behind was catching me. Fortunately, the overran the control. I had stopped at the right distance looking right to see it. They caught me any way which probably was not a bad thing. I found myself chasing after Clem a lot after that. In the process, I got ahead of most of the rest of my group, and most of the group that had passed me. At #10, I paused a while, inclined to take the tangent to the road instead of the trail around. Clem and Eric were well ahead but I managed to open it up on the the trail and almost catch-up. I couldn't close the gap at the last two controls however as Eric finished first out of my group. Clem took first in his group just ahead of me (2nd).

Sprint Series Final in Pawtuckaway State Park, NH. My 3rd round of Heat 2 was against, Eric Osborn, Mike Eglinski, Vladimir, J.J., Niven French and a couple of others. I got a better start, getting to control 1 in second. Taking a longer route to a path with another racer, I got behind. I made-up ground gradually moving-up one at a time through #8. I started going brain dead after #8, almost missing that I needed to go to control #9, then seeing the control and thinking it was for something else. Afer the map exchange, I chased Niven(?) to the parking lot and saw the correct boulder for #11 but didn't go to it immediately because Niven passed it and I couldn't see the control at it. At #12, I was leading and cut into the woods at the knoll but stopped short. Others, some from the previous group like D. Schaublin, went past me and to the two boulders. I saw it ahead on the single boulder and got ahead of the others. After #13, I almost bumped someone (Niven?) and cut a bit right. This got me a bit off track further right but seeing others turn left made me look in the right direction before I passed the control. I was tired by then but I think feeling better than most around me. I moved ahead of Niven and didn't know where Eric was. I almost didn't see #16 but fortunately someone was ahead of me headed there, thus tipping me off before I made a mistake. Ultimately I finished first in my group but at the time, I didn't know where I had finished because other groups were mixed-up in ours. I think Eric finished second and Niven third.

Round 1 Men's Heat 1&2 - Splits

Round 2 Men's Heat 1&2 - Splits

Round 3 - The Finals! - Splits

45 situps after flying into Manchester, NH. I was still tight in both hamstrings but feeling better. I stretched a while.

45 situps. I'm still very tight in both my hamstrings from the sprinting on Tuesday. The after affect is like I had never sprinted before. I stretched long and slow after the situps and it helped.

Great Falls National Park, MD. From the Old Angler's Inn parking area to Bear Island with Peggy. I was very tight from the intervals yesterday.

Bear Island, Great Falls National Park, MD. Peggy had setup a fun course on paper (i.e. without any controls or streamers). I started a couple minutes after her. I was doing well despite having to pause at controls often in order to verify that I went to the right location. Going faster than in the past, I came upon boulders that were distinguishable from other unmapped rock features. When I've gone slower in this technical area, it seemed harder to make the distinction. The dry ponds really helped me navigate and verify where I was too. I was not good about judging distance and didn't pace count but this was mitigated by reading along the way. Going to #8, I had to relocate and was able to do it quicker than I was able to do in the past. The area was almost void of people since part of the towpath was closed.

Bear Island, Great Falls National Park, MD. Peggy had setup a second course on paper (i.e. without any controls or streamers). This time I started ahead of her. I spiked the first but going to #2 I was confused by the light green areas which as printed on the map looked a lot like the light blue for ponds. Additionally the northern par of Bear Island (where this sprint was) was somewhat undermapped. I had nearly gotten to #4 when going to #3 and was fortunate to relocate on an old levy. Peggy had gotten ahead of me there and I didn't see her until she was leaving #5. The whole last half of the course I had to go slow just to check off features and be sure I was at the correct control location. I caught Peggy when she made an error on #9. We walked back after this matching the rocks and cliffs with the map while beautiful low sunlight at our back danced on the Widewater like Fall.

From Rosedale Ave. to the Bethesda-Chevy Chase H.S. plus 3 laps. I also spent a while stretching. I've not done this much lately. The rogain and all the cycling has really reduced flexibility.

16x110m with about a 100m easy jog between efforts. Rather than the lines on the track which I ran on, I used the soccer field markings on the infield to start and stop. These were all at 18.5 seconds or better and probably averaged 18.2. The last was the fastest at 17.6 seconds. I could use a lot of improvement with leg speed and aerobic ability. It was a very nice day outside with low humidity and temperatures in the 70's F.

Almost 4 laps around the Bethesda-Chevy H.S. track, then an light loop through the neighborhood to Rosedale Ave. I was fairly tired during this.

From Rosedale Ave., Batter Rd. to Huntington Pkwy, to Bradley Rd. to Fernwood Rd. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Tilden La. to Schuylkill Rd. to Beach Dr. to Jones Bridge Rd. to Maryland Ave. to Rosedale Ave. I had been doing lawn work most of the day and just wanted to loosen-up. It was nice.

C • Anniversary 1

Natural Bridge, VA. Peggy and I took a detour on our way back from the rogain to stretch our legs. The 215 ft. high Natural Bridge is a pretty spectacular sight. It's a 90 ft. span is about 40 ft. thick and weighs something like 72,000,000 lbs. We hiked down to the stream and walked the trail under the bridge to the end. Along the way we saw George Washington's graffiti (he carved his initials 23ft. up the wall under the bridge), a salt peeter cave, an Indian village re-creation, an underground stream, many cascades and two water mocassins in different places.

Event: The United States National Bushwhacking Championships
 

US Bushwhacking Championships, Jefferson National Forest, Caldwell Fields (near Blacksburg, VA). Once again I ran with my only Rogain partner, Peggy. We did the 6 hour version which to me seemed like a good way to start getting in shape for longer races... 12 and 24 hour options were available too. Going here was also fun because I got to see my old haunts from my college days. I had done my first ever orienteering event just 10 miles away (I think it was a White course sometime around 1981; I did just a few O' events in the early 1980's then had a +20 year hiatus). As Peggy said, the day was perfect, sunny but not hot, not humid. The event was held between syncline and anticline ridges separated by 3.7 to 5.7 K and a 1,500 to 1,800 ft. deep valley. The northern ridge's south slope was more gradual while the southern ridge's northern slope was deeply ribbed. There were no water stops--contestants needed to either carry drink or gather from natural sources--I carried about 140 ounces along with much Gu and some energy bars that Peggy had bought. I brought back about 50 ounces and lots of Gu.

Our pre-race analysis plotted out a 937pt. loop. We made 200 points the first hour then lost a lot of time (+30 minutes) hunting for a misplaced control (#89 we later found out was on the wrong spur well below the mapped location). There were some minor problems with at least two other controls that we went to. The steep sidehill terrain had my ankles start getting tired in the first hour but they held up fine. Our navigation was pretty clean. We went slow in the difficult to traverse terrrain walking up nearly everything while jogging down the steep and sometimes slippery slopes. Doing rogaines like this can make you feel good about your navigation. We saw some early competitors rush out ahead of us and make bad mistakes. The steep terrain also helped make it harder to make mistakes. Even though the map was essentially a pieced together USGS map, even with 20ft. countours, nearly all the reentrants showed-up.

Going down the northern ridge, Peggy seemed to pickup the pace even faster than I had wanted to go. In retrospect I should have asked her to slow down. I think she burned-up some energy there. We bumbled the "easy" 38 point control at the bottom and soon after on a bad hillside for an 80 point control, Peggy started getting both tired and unhappy. After getting the 80 point control, we rested 10 minutes and then enjoyed a scenic run in an old burn area down a long rib to the valley again.

Heading toward the end and gathering the last set of controls, we crossed a few ribs when we probably should have gone around. Near the end we went for a 36 pointer when a sure 30 pointer was easier. We ran out of time and had to bail-out getting neither, but also did not incurr a penalty which would have lost us our highest control plus another 10 points per minute. On the rush in I tried to get to a location to cross the creek without getting wet--this took me over a large log which when crossing, 30 seconds from finishing, I inadvertantly gashed my left knee. We finished with 1,041 points which was far ahead of second (I think Tom Strat and his female partner got around 600 points. I think Tim Gilbert and his female partner were not far behind this).

Our score surprised organizer Brad Hunt and had him worry that the 24 hour teams might clean the course--they didn't. However, our score was good enough to beat all the 12 hour teams. I came up with the climb (~2,560ft.) by retracing our route and counting what seemed like the optimal contours--this doesn't show all the ups and downs that were necessary to get around stuff. The distance was measured in straight lines between controls. With terrain this steep, it certainly doesn't reflect the optimal distance traveled. Our climb and distance was nothing compared to first and second in the 24 hour division--Jon Torrance and Jamie's altimiter logged around vertical 11,000 ft. while winner Scott Pleban going solo logged about 14,000 vertical feet.

Overland Park, KS. From Metcalf Frontage Rd. to 107th St. to Lamar Ave. to the Indian Creek Trail, to Barkley St. to Metcalf Frontage Rd. Just an easy jog early before catching a plane homeward.

Bonner Park, KS. Mary Jones set 3 loops in this grassy park. I set out ribbons for the one of them not using a compass.

Bonner Park, KS. I ran all three loops that Mary Jones had setup. Nancy Neuberger and Mike Eglinski set ribbons for two of the loops. I again ran without compass which lead to one error while climbing over a hill and mistaking one building for another. A little more time was lost looking for a ribbon on a manmade control when 3 were in the circle but only one on the map. I picked-up some ribbons on the third loop and a few others. Running on the grass was nice and because one could run fast, it still required reading the map to make good choices. I found myself running too fast and changing route choices mid-way because an alternate route seemed better once I had read more but already had gotten started in the other direction. It was fun and we ate burgers afterward.