Training Log Archive: Nadim

From my training Archive: In the 365 days ending 2006-12-31:

Orienteering 192hrs +370 miles
Running 69hrs 520 miles
Bicycling 51hrs 808 miles

Overall, training quantity was much lower in 2006. It was not necessarily a bad thing since my priorities were elsewhere. Most of it is accountable to becoming a parent. Some illness and injury also played a part especially in the lack of intensity 5 workouts. Improvements in the quantity and quality of training will be pursued in 2007 as will work on getting more sleep.

From the Ken-Gar Palisades parking lot, to mile marker 5 and back with Max. I was slow getting going and had to stop several times (off the clock) to pickup a blanket that Max kept dropping. We had bagels afterward. Available mile splits: 7:57, 7:42.

Blockhouse Point Conservation Park, MD. Since Max had only a half day session at his daycare, I took the full day off and got into the woods to work on the northwest part of the park. I had trouble right off with contour detail not showing up enough. Later, I found multiple areas with lots of point features. I had to map each of these twice to get them right. As a result, I didn't cover much ground at all. Perhaps next time it'll be better. The woods were much more open in this area than I remembered. That's good becauase it was less steep too. I rushed back to pickup Max before his daycare closed at noon and we went to a playground.

St. Paul, MN. From Montrose Ln. Randolph Ave. to the trail along Mississippi River Blvd. to Marshall Ave. (E. Lake St.) to the Boundary Trail (along W. River Pkwy.) down to the Ford Bridge, back over the Mississippi River to the trail along Mississippi River Blvd. to Hartford Ave. to Montrose Ln. It was in the low to mid 30's F. My shin had felt much better after a night of rest and I wanted to get in at least one longer run so I went for the standard bridges loop. It's quite a pretty loop overlooking the river from over 100ft above it on both sides and I could see much more in the winter time (and daylight) than is usual. There was a bit of a wind from the SW.

St. Paul, MN. From Montrose Ln. to Hartford Ave. to the trail along Mississippi River Blvd. to the Ford Bridge, to Minnehaha Park (Minneapolis), to the bridge over Minnehaha Falls and back. I felt I was running a good pace. After I got into Minnehaha Park, I ran across some grass to get to the paved trail. At one point on a small rise which I climbed at an angle, I found out the hard way that what looked like some old snow was really ice. My right leg went out from under me just as I as pushing off. I went down hard onto my right shin. I got my hands up in time to ease the fall but bent back a finger a bit and bruised my right palm. I popped back up but was slow for a way. I shook it off and was more careful going back. I pushed in the last mile or so. After the run, I found a scraped-up shin under the knee and felt enough pain from whatever was internal to expect not to be running the next day. The nice presents received and time with family sure helped me recover.

St. Paul, MN. From Montrose Ln. Hartford Ave. to the dirt trail along Mississippi River Blvd. northward to the memorial near Summitt Ave. then back on the paved trail to Randolph Rd. to Montrose Rd. The dirt trail was full of short ups and downs. The further north I got, it split and merged many times as people tried to follow the ways past the portions of trail that had been washed out. The washouts dropped either onto rocks at the shore or into the cold river waters. Reentrants were the cause for twisting turns. It was quite scenic to the point of being distracting. The dirt trail was often so narrow that even on the good parts, a misstep could have led to a bad slide and some parts were wet with melt water. It took about 19 minutes for the first 1.8 miles.

St. Paul, MN. From Montrose Ln., Mt. Curve Blvd. to Woodlawn Ave., to Goodrich Ave. to Cretin Ave. S. to Summit Ave. to the trail along Mississippi River Blvd. to Randolph Ave. to Montrose Ln. There was a bit of slush on the ground, making this a little slower for me. It was in the mid 30's F but a pretty nice day.

From Rosedale Ave., Battery La. to Glenbrook Dr. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Maple Ridge Dr. to the NIH Trail, to Jones Bridge Rd. to Maryland Ave. to Rosedale Ave. I felt pretty slow.

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD, to Montgomery Ave. via the Georgetown Branch Trail with Max. I dropped him off, then went on to C. St. SW., Washington, D.C. via the Capital Crescent Trail and Independence Ave. It was about 49F. I felt a bit tired and let two others pass without much effort to even try to keep up.

From C. St., SW, Washington, D.C. to Montgomery Ave. (to pickup Max's trailer) in Bethesda, MD; to Rosedale Ave. Leaving work after sunset, it was still nearly 70F. This time I had my headlamp. Initially it seemed almost harder to see with it because of the contrast with areas not lit-up. It sure was helpful on the trail. I steadily passed people despite being faster last Friday. Perhaps is was the headwind. I also felt heavier. Perhaps that was the many recent cookies.

Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. Instead of going to the QOC local orienteering meet at Greenbelt, Peggy Max and I went to Blockhouse so I'd get another chance to look for our camera. Max and I hiked from the central parking lot to the western overlook while Peggy ran. Max did well, walking half the way. It was a bit frustrating with him stopping and started just about every 10ft. but he had fun. I was running short on time for my rendevous with Peggy so I put Max in the backpack and he went willingly. The views from the rocks were better than previous day.

Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. From the western most overlook, I hiked the steep hillsides looking for my camera which I'd lost the day before. Though I was able to retrace my steps and often sight the leaves I had disturbed, I couldn't find it. Peggy hiked back with Max while I did longer rough terrain search loop but at their pace, I caught them about halfway back. Max had run out of steam. I carried him on my shoulders the rest of the way while Peggy carried the backpack. Max started slumping over to sleep at the end.

Prince William Forest National Park, VA. Checking out places for the Day 2 U.S.Individual Championship competition with course setter Keg Good.

Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. After fighting traffic coming back from VA, I stopped off to finish off the last big chunk of what I originally planned for in the southwest part of the park (I probably will extend this further west to the next canal lock since the park has added this terrain and there is another parking lot which will make point-to-point orienteering down to Swain's Lock or loops involving the towpath possible. The areas to the west continue the bluff but with smaller and less steep hillside. There is also flat terrain near the western lock that I hope to be interesting). It was a nice sunny day (over 60F) and the views from the bluffs were excellent. I labored up and down the 100-150ft steep embankments. I got into a small area with a lot of rock at the exteme SW part of this area. There were nearby ruins. It was a good outing except for my camera falling out of my jacket pocket. I was late returning due to retracing my steps to where I last knew I had it but couldn't find it. It probably got buried under leaves or slid down the steep hillsides off a cliff edge--bummer.

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD, to Montgomery Ave. via the Georgetown Branch Trail with Max; drop him off, then to C. St. SW., Washington, D.C. via the Capital Crescent Trail and Independence Ave. It was about 43F and slightly foggy. With all the hurrying getting ready to go, I forgot to pack my light for the ride home later.

From C. St., SW, Washington, D.C. to Montgomery Ave. (to pickup Max's trailer) in Bethesda, MD, to Rosedale Ave. I left work just after sunset. The sky was great with blue, pink and orange colors on the puffy clouds; it reflected off the smooth Potomac River. I may have had a slight tailwind. I got to Georgetown quick and there wasn't much traffic. It was truely dark by the time I crossed under MacArthur Blvd. but I could see pretty well. It's easier to ride and see in the dark than it is in the summer when the trees block out whatever light there is in the sky.

From Rosedale Ave., roads and sidewalks around East Bethesda. Afer Max ate dinner, he and I went on an evening run together to see the holiday lights. It wasn't very cold out; maybe the low 50's F. We stopped briefly every once in a while Max enjoyed the lights and made comments most of the way. He could say "penguin" by the 3rd house with one. There weren't as many display out as I'd hoped but it was nice.

Event: Mid-Atlantic Championships
 

Patapsco State Park, McKeldin Area. Mid-Atlantic Championship warm-up trip to the bathrooms and back.

C • Development succestion 2

Mid-Atlantic Championships. Patpsco State Park, MD. McKeldin Area. I ran Red. Since the water had been high recently and the weather colder, course setter Ted Good had to use less optimal courses that didn't take advantage of the new terrain acoss the river. This gave the QOC'ers a little extra advantage. The map was in the process of updating and many questioned the mapping around control #5 where I and others made errors. There were several dog-legs on the course. I don't know if I picked optimal routes or not but did okay with the navigation. I finished 3rd on the course behind Vadim M. and Dann Quinn by about 11 and 6 minutes respectively. A bunch of people were just seconds behind me. The courses were steep. See the Split List.

Mid-Atlantic Championships. Patpsco State Park, MD. McKeldin Area. I ran the lead leg of a team with Jon Torrance and Joe Garmin. We finished second by time but when the handicap was added, we were 5th overall. I felt slow and finished third behind Wyatt Riley and another DVOA runner who was younger. I bobbled #5 and #9. See the Split List.

Red - Splits

Relay 1 - Splits

Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. Being in the southwest part of the park, I suppose it was fitting that was a day of lawlessness. I suppose I could begin with myself, since I'm still at the point of seeking use of the park for orienteering but have been working in earnest to map it anyway (at least it's good map reading training for me). Early on, I encountered two male teens with overnight backpacks. Camping isn't allowed in the park. After doing our own separate thing for a while, I later came in view of their tent near a marked trail and an overlook. Boom! Boom! They were discharging a firearm somewhere just over the edge of the hillside. I stayed away from their tent but did get a little nearer to finish the area I was mapping. Later, I descended a trail I hadn't used before, when heading back and noticed for the first time a sign about entering an environmentally sensitive area in a reentrant. People are supposed to stay on-trail there. Too bad. I stayed on trail having mapped it earlier but there's a lot of natural erosion and a snaking stream that might have for made some nice control locations. I came upon an older man who was standing off trail and getting a closer look at the erosion. He moved on. As I left the sensitive area too, I cut across the park and happened upon a couple who were rat-a-ting paintballs at each other across a reentrant. I left without further incident. Despite all of this, it was a good day to be out

I've nearly completed the mapping of the southwest part of the park now. I've gotten the steepest and probably worst hills out of the way. There was a lot of rock detail and large cliffs. A reentrant I covered appeared to have been lived-in long ago. I found the remnant of a dam and some interesting earth banks. On higher ground I came across two other formerly inhabited areas with old foundation earth works and pits. These would make for some interesting navigating but they are not very big.

Blockhouse Conservation Park. After a interesting day of some meetings about o'mapping and o'meets, I got to an even better part by doing more field checking in the park. It was about 32F and 3:45pm when I finally got to the woods so I didn't have a lot of time. I mapped some of the steep slopes on the southwest end of the park. There were many large uncrossable cliffs and unfortunately a fair amount of green to light green woods. I don't expect people will get much use of this area because of the steepness and rocky ground.

From Rosedale Ave., the Two Mile Loop. Seeing all the light displays around the neighborhood reminds me that I need to get ours up. On the run I tried on some new sweat pants. Technically, they were track pants which I got via mail order. I anticipated them being like nylon wind pants but they were more like a cross between lycra tights and the old cotton/poly sweats which I wore in high school (except lighter). They felt comfortable and the big winds didn't go through them.

30 situps.

From Rosedale Ave., Battery La., to the NIH Trail to Rosewood Dr. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Glenbrook Rd. to Battery La. to Rosedale Ave. It was cold but less windy. I got out for another short evening run.

From Rosedale Ave., Bethesda, MD., the Two Mile Loop through the neighborhood. It had been a long time since I've gone out for a training run in the evening after work. Since Peggy and Max had just gotten home before I did, I had the time. It was about 33F and windy.

From Calvert Rd. Park to Greenbelt Park at the corner of Kennilworth Ave. and Good Luck Rd. I warmed-up playing see-saw, climbing the slide and pushing Max in a swing while Peggy ran. Later I jogged over to the start of training that Jon Torrance setup.

Greenbelt Park, MD. Jon Torrance setup a control picking training event with emphasis on reading vegetation. There's lots of that in Greenbelt; live dead and otherwise (I got a thorny vine twisted on my neck). I ran modestly and was fairly accurate most of the time. It helps that I'm very familiar with the park. Jon did manage to route the courses to some parts which I hadn't actually been to before. It was nice. I kept pulling-up short a lot but didn't make a lot of errors.

Greenbelt Park, MD. to Calvert Park. Warm-down across the disc golf course back to Peggy and Max.

Training - Splits