Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD, to Montgomery Ave. via the Georgetown Branch Trail, to C. St. SW., Washington, D.C. via the Capital Crescent Trail. It was about 50F with the forecast in the 70's F; I couldn't let the day go to waste. I wore a long sleeve jersey w/no jacket so it was a bit cold at first. I rode Max in his closed trailer to the day care school, dropped off the trailer with him, then rode in. I felt weak. As I was about to slow down on the flats at Fletcher Boathouse, I got passed and drafted the next +3 miles through Georgetown. There were some headwinds along W. Potomac Park. My lungs felt rather nice after this like I was breathing better afterward.

From C. St., SW, Washington, D.C. to Montgomery Ave. in Bethesda, MD, to Rosedale Ave. I left work at 5:19pm with it already getting darkish. A nice tailwind got me to Georgetown fast. There was Halloween induced gridlock for the cars in the streets there but with the nice weather and me sailing by the cars, it was one of those times when I really appreciated being on a bicycle. Once on the Capital Crescent Trail, passing between warm and cold air pockets, I started picking off the cyclists ahead of me one by one. I could see their rear flashers and slowly reeled them all in. I had my rear flasher on but didn't bring my headlight. I got through the darkest parts of the trail before it got truely dark but what I needed to be afraid of were pedestrians and other bicycles without lights. I slowed down with the dark but wasn't going to go much faster anyway. I picked-up Max's trailer and rode the Georgetown Branch Trail to Kentbury Rd. past Maple Ave. surprised to see the Trick-or-Treaters already out in force. Once home Max could be heard crying from outside. He had already gotten the gist of the evening from others stopping by dressed-up and wanted to go out too. Already changed from my shirt and tie costume into my cycling gear, I was all ready to go; a bicyclists and his banana (Max in his improved costume). It was a fun evening for all. Only one person thought Max was a squash instead of a banana though his drab silently confused others while charming them. He even was understood saying "Paka" at his first stop.

My legs are feeling tired from the weekend wars. I'm officially 45 now.

C • Happy Birthday!! 7

UMD, College Park, MD. Warm-up from Cole Field House to/from the Student Union.

QOC at UMD College Park, MD campus. Dave Onkst (course setter for the A-meet sprint to be held in conjunction with the 2007 U.S. Champs) applied new ideas to the College Park map which has been in-use for a few years. His Sprint A made use of uncrossable barriers such as fences and walls to give route choice and keep one thinking most of the way. I unfortunately did not think it out well enough. An unmapped structure in a fenced construction area threw me off for control #2. I made a 180 leaving #3 for another minute or so loss. I calmed down after that but was tired. I felt weaker from running long at Patuxent River Park. See the Split List and Route Gadget (on QOC's web site).

QOC at UMD College Park Campus, MD. Dave Onkst's Sprint B was not quite as tricky as the first but I made some poor route choices, then a bad parallel error when I lost my place on the map while trying to focus on passing some people. I was headed toward #6 when I suddenly thought I was heading toward #7 from #8. The route was parallel. As I passed the other runners, I passed the control too. This threw me off at the next where trying to make up for it led me to not checking the clues. I went to the wrong side of a wall. I think fatigue made errors on the next two controls. Next, I got passed. I think it was by Peter Forester who eventually won. Had I just been in the shape I was a year ago, I probably could have kept up. As it was, I trailed behind him the next few controls. I lost site of him by the last two controls and wasn't focusing much. I mispunched the last control by going to the first control from Sprint A which was around the corner and closer than where I should have gone. Had I checked the code, I would have realized it and had about the same finish time but I didn't. See the Split List.

Sprint A - Splits

Sprint B - Splits

Patuxent River Park, MD. My job helping out at the Boy Scouting event organized by Dave Linthicum was to be the event photographer. Max and I started this together by hiking out partly on a new trail in the south, to a dead-end at a marsh stream crossing. The best route for the Super Advanced scout orienteer course was to cross at this point. Rains had swollen the stream somewhat so it was about 1.5-2ft deep and made for a good action shot when the scouts finally plunged-in. Max and I walked a bit of this but I had to carry him most of the way. I got some other shots of scouts climbing a hill and getting lost leaving the trail.

Patuxent River Park, MD. After Peggy was freed-up from starting the Super Advanced scouts and scoring the route-o, she watched Max so I could do more videography. I recorded the mass start of the team Score-O where what seems like a thousand scouts all charge-off in pairs in all directions. I followed some scouts running to controls while holding both my camcorder and camera in hand. Some scouts were pretty good. Some had no clue. Others went over-technical by figuring out the degree of direction and following the bearing while ignoring faster trails. I could keep up with even some of the faster scouts while videoing them but it did get tiring holding my arm up at the right angle and trying to keep it steady. I'll put an edited video together eventually. We had pretty good weather. The rains cleared-up and I managed to keep the camcorder and camera dry without falling into the marshes.

Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. Having worked off-site again and gotten off at a decent hour, I got through traffic in time to put in some work on mapping Blockhouse. I covered the major reentrant in the SE section of the park and a little more. It really helps to start with good contours!

Carderock, MD. I went north on the C&O Canal towpath to the second (northern) trailhead for the Billygoat Trail Section B, then took the Billygoat Trail to the southern trailhead, then back on the C&O Canal towpath to Carderock, finishing at the climbing cliffs. I ran a little loop in the middle too. My mind is on mapping these days. I kept thinking how fun it'd be to map these areas for a sprint or Pink course from Great Falls. Much of it is technical yet close to the river or towpath. Even the part between the canal and MacArthur Blvd. is usable. My knee felt okay though the rocky trails tested it.

Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. I got out into the nice fresh air and beautiful colored leaf carpeted woods. I stayed mostly in the SE quadrant of the park between the main trail and River Rd. This was a much easier area to map. There are far fewer features. With almost all wide-open woods and enough relief to get a clear picture of where I was on the LiDAR based contours, I could plot things with more certainty the first time. The gullies took the most time. There's a lot more shape to them than the O-map symbol allows for. It was a bit hard to determine gullies apart from ditches and a little harder to get the distances between bends right. I finished most of this block before it turned dark.

Recovering and I'm stronger. It surprised me how much it tired me out to walk down the street a bit.

Still sick. The doctor diagnosed influenza and gave me an anti-flu prescription. Temperature dropped to 100.3F. The time sleeping doesn't count many hours in bed before midnight. Oddly, the time in bed may have let my knee heal. I won't test it until later but I don't feel any of the pain I had walking earlier. Now it's just the usual muscle aches and pains after a Highlander along with a loss of balance and occasional headache from the flu.

C • Get Well!!! 8

After limping to work, I got the chills while in my office and left to go home early. Later in the evening, my temperature read 103.6F. I slept, got chilled and sweated the rest of the day and evening.

Event: Hudson Highlander
 

HVO Hudson Highlander in Harriman State Park, NY. Peggy and I were very fortunate to have Janet Tyson volunteer to watch Max for us. Janet took him right away to let us get ready. They seemed to have fun throwing lots of rocks from a bridge into the stream. The courses were on the Silvermine and Rockhouse maps. Half an hour before the start I discovered that I had left my O-shoes somewhere. I ran the race in my regular Nike Skylon road training shoes and pretty much destroyed them by the finish.

The King and Queen of the Mountain along with the Trail Run were first, followed by some other legs with long trail runs and some rather thick areas. Right from the beginning I felt soreness in my legs from my run last Wed. At the top of the mountain I was right behind the Queen, Samantha Seager, and the eventual winner John Frederickson. I took a bad route from #2-#3 and fell behind. I took a bad route from #5-#6 and lost contact with about everyone. I was just about alone for a while after that. I rushed exiting #12 to get away from a guy whom I'd passed who had taken a more direct route. This led to a bad route choice. Still alone until 3/4 of the way to #13, I hooked-up with JJ Cote. Dave Onkst and Bernie Bretton caught us at the water stop and we all caught Hillary and Jeff Seager on the way to #14 and #15. I tried to break away but with the thick hilly terrain , I wasn't able to until #19 where JJ and I found the control first. I lost JJ soon after with the road run to the map exchange. Cramps set in after 3 hrs. 15 minutes which was later than The Susquehanna Stumble a few weeks back. I walked a bunch. Unbeknownst to me, JJ passed me taking the high route to #23 but he and another guy made a mistake going to #24. Fortunately I was able (just barely) to hold off from loosing other places as Hillary and Jeff caught me right before #24 too. My cramping was bad along the steep side slopes of the low route. Going mostly downhill, I caught then led most of the way to #24 but Hillary found it first. My finish kick included a fast descent down the ski slope to the finish, then turning left to get to the Go control. Hillary and Jeff were right behind me but took a more direct line. I was hopping in to the finish as the cramps came back. I finished 15th. It seemed like I had gotten away from the race without any serious injury--a likely outcome given my little training but my left knee hurts a bunch now a day later. It was probably the fast descent at the end that did it. See the Split List.

C • Max 2

XI - Splits

Rock Creek Park, MD. I left from Mark Twain School and Park and rechecked some areas that I'd been to. My overall goal was to try to get the contours right. It was rather frustrating. The subtle contours on the ridge near Avery Rd. and relatively few features on top made it hard. As I tried to draw them, contours seemed to run into one another. I did correct some areas and find some more small cliffs and a stream. I'll have to go back again to get this right but I wonder if I should just wait until I can get some LIDAR data to redo the contours.

C • LIDAR data 2

45 situps.

From the Woodley Park/Zoo metro station, down into Rock Creek Park to Dumbarton Oaks, to Glover Archbold Park via the Dumbarton Oaks Trail and the Wesley Heights Trail, the Glover Archbold Trail to the Tenleytown metro station via Van Ness St. and Wisconsin Ave, to Rosedale Ave. I hadn't run much. Though it's probably too late to gain advantage for the Highlander, the running should help mentally. I left work at 5:30pm and by the time I was in the woods it was already getting darkish. I wasn't sure how far I'd go. After getting to Tenleytown at a comfortable pace that was faster than when I pushed harder last August, I felt the run was too short. I kept going but the Friendship Heights station was only about 5.5 minutes further. I decided just to run home from there. The weather was changing and blustery. Good running weather and running were complimented with a nice sunset sky when I passed Friendship Heights. It was dark by the time I was home.

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD, to Montgomery Ave., then to 12 & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. I towed and dropped Max off at daycare again then rode into work (tired with headwinds). I'm getting a little more adept at making the process of getting Max ready and getting him to the daycare smoother and quicker. The colder weather coming will make it harder.

From 12th & C St. S.W., Washington, D.C. to Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD via the Georgetown Branch Trail. I had a good tailwind getting to Georgetown and perhaps the last part to Bethesda. There was some occasional sprinking and damp trail. I got passed by a non-commuting roadie so I drafted off him at around 18mph until River Rd. where I had to let him go. I took it easy to warm-down after picking up the trailer from the daycare.

Rock Creek Park, MD on the west side, between Rte. 28 and Avery Rd. After flying back, Peggy took Max to the gym. I covered the remaining parts of this section of Rock Creek (I'll have to go back to re-check). There are fewer point features, especially up on the ridge where the running is wide open. I found a few nice large earth banks on the sides and some other things. Some of the point features are a bit small. In using this for course setting, it'll challenge people to cross the fast empty ridge from point features on either side; especially if I don't map it right. The USGS contours were vastly inadequate so I had to do my best to try and get them corrected.

Warm-up for the North American Long-O Championships on the Rocky Ridge map near Milton, ON, Canada. While warming-up, I passed JJ Cote who was going to start before me. Upon wishing him good luck, he said it would be skill and not chance. In my mind, I mostly agreed with him though I suppose I meant my comment more as an encouragement to do what he's capable of and not to fall short.

North American Long-O Championships on the Rocky Ridge map near Milton, ON, Canada. I had a decent day. The key to winning Long-O is in picking the right route choices and executing. I did about half of that by executing most things well. However, my route choices were less than optimal. Adding to poor route choices, the mapping of the marshes left a little bit to chance since a bad looking marsh on on the map could be quite easy to cross, while a decent looking one on the map might be a mess. Given JJ Cote's comment before the race, I have more to ponder. JJ beat me out by about 1:30min for 3rd place in the M45 category. See the Split List.

Long Course 6 - Splits

Rocky Ridge, outside Milton, ON, Canada (near Toronto). Peggy and I did the streamer-O with Max first. He liked the e-punching and seeing the Winnie the Pooh characters. Max went in daycare right after that. To warm-up, I ran from the meet HQ to the start area on the rocky and twisty trail.

North American Middle Distance Championships on the Rocky Ridge map near Milton, ON, Canada. This was a pretty area. The leaves were orange and yellow. The terrain was tough to run on with lots of rock and what's called "limestone pavement" in area. The limestone pavement was eroded flatish rock with fissure-like breaks, and irregular shapes. With the fallen leaves it could be rather dangerous. I ran okay. I had many slight errors but was reading my way acoss most of the time and the errors I made were often corrected by sighting the control when I guessed I'd gone the right distance or was otherwise drawn in by nearby features. I was surprised to get 3rd in my age group. I guess it helped being the youngest in the age group, having somewhat low attendance, and probably having kept from making big errors that others probably did. See the Split List.

Middle Course 6 - Splits

Event: 2006 North American Championships (Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest)
 

N. American Champs model event at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Max wouldn't sleep in the car so I got my chance to warm-up on the model area quite late. It was straighftorward and easier than College Park because it was flat. I'd gotten a little in the parking lot at the first control.

McMaster University, Canada. Golden Horshoe N. American Champs Sprint 4. I got to the starting line late and ran the race without a compass. My real time to complete the course was 19:57. I didn't do bad considering this but I made a few mistakes and lost my place several times. See the Split List.

Sprint 4 - Splits

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD, to Montgomery Ave., then to 12 & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. going around the Tidal Basin as I usually go. I towed and dropped Max off at daycare then took off on the trail. Going downhill I was riding faster than I had recently been doing at around 21-22mph. At the bottom near Fletchertown Boathouse, I got passed by an older man doing 24mph. We traded some pulls on the flats doing 21-22 through Georgetown and then split. I'm sure to feel it later. The cookies really hit the G-factor but they'll balance out soon enough.

From 12th & C St. S.W., Washington, D.C. to Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD. It seemed that I had early tailwinds. Overall I felt stronger than I had been.

From Rosedale Ave. Pearl St. to W. VA Ave. to Kentucky Ave. to East-West Hwy. to Wisconsin Ave. to just past Cheltenham Dr. I got out for a late slog. My legs were rather dead. I finished the somewhat hilly run at the local drug store to pickup diapers and cookies.

C • and 1

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD, to Montgomery Ave., then to 12 & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. via the CCT and Independence Ave. I towed and dropped Max off at daycare. I heard nary a word as I used the plastic bubble to keep the cool 50 F breeze off of him. He's now able to recognize the daycare building from the bicycle path in the back and started to cry when we got in sight. I guess he wanted more time with Peggy and I with the daycare being new and him not seeing us much yesterday. Going on to work, I was somewhat slow; perhaps a bit tired from The Stumble. My left knee was giving warning signs and my gut is hurting like it was last Spring. Due to the late opening of the daycare (7:30am), me being a bit late getting myself and Max ready, I'm still getting to work (8:30am) a half hour later than I should be. I suppose getting up earlier might be in order but 5:30am sounds a lot earlier than 6am for a night person.

C • 5:30!!! 6

From 12th & C St. S.W., Washington, D.C. to Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD via the Georgetown Branch Trail. It was more great weather out. I was slow starting out. It felt like a headwind but there wasn't a lot. I could only muster 16mph into Georgetown. I picked it up on the CCT, then climbed most of the trail at 16mph, averaging that same speed to Max's daycare. Max had already been picked-up by Peggy but I had to pickup his trailer that I had left there in the morning.

Event: Susquehanna Stumble IX
 

SVO Susquehanna Stumble IX. I went in with no real expectations but came away with one of the better results in a long while. Mostly, I was happy to be able to finish without dieing too badly; due to my generally poor fitness level. The early pace was quick as is with most mass start events. By around the 5th control Ted Good and I started running together and stayed that way until just after control 24. I pulled away mostly because Ted was slowing faster than I was. I'm sure Ted and some others kept me from making errors at times and I hope I did the same. My window choices were: [B, C, A], [G, D, F, E, H], [K, J, L, I], and [O, P, M, Q, N].

I had intended to go [C, B, A] on the first window but Ken Walker Jr., Eddie Bergeron, and Chris Gross (Short Stumble) were going [B, C, A] and I wanted to maintain contact. I was planning to do [H, E, F, D, G] for the next window but Ted and I discussed it on the run and did [G, D, F, E, H]. I almost missed seeing control L on the map but being with Ted helped out there. Going to #24, I started to pull away from Ted but I missed seeing an attack point and ran almost 400m out of the way. I did pull away on the way toward #25 but saw Ted again leaving control P as I was coming into the area. I probably took a sub-optimal control order in that last window but stayed ahead of Ted to finish 4th overall.

My overall endurance was okay. I slowed when needed to keep from cramping badly.

Long - Splits