Training Log Archive: Nadim

Washington, D.C. From 12th & Independence Ave. to the WWII Memorial, to the north side of the Reflecting Pool and south side of Constitution Gardens Lake, to the Lincoln Memorial, to Parkway Dr. NW., to the Rock Creek Trail to 24th St. NW, and the Woodley Park-Zoo Metro Station. The weather was perfect for running (upper 50's F and sunny) and the Cherry Blossoms were great too--they are in full bloom. Despite the winds few petals were being blown away. I left work after 6pm and felt okay starting out. I had to weave through the crowds until I got to the Reflecting Pool but there were still lots of people out after that. There was an inordinate number of women runners. I worked on getting back to an efficient stride and was pretty smooth. My arms were dead. By the time I got to the climb up to Woodley Park, I was fairly tired all around. I trudged up steadily but not very fast and ensured lots of personal space by sweating on the metro trains trying to cool off going home.

From Northfield Rd. to Maple Ave. with Max in his trailer, then to the Bethesda Metro Station via the Georgetown Branch tunnel. It was windy but most of it was coming from behind. I was glad to be able to ride-in again even if it's only to the metro station. My legs felt a bit tired from the weekend racing.

From the Bethesda Metro station to Maple Ave., then to Northfield Rd. via the Georgetown Branch Trail. As I pulled in to Max's day care, Peggy was there just getting ready to take him home. Instead, Max rode with me. We had to stop off at a playground of course. After that we fought the winds and I struggled on the modest grades. To make it harder, my tires started exhibiting the mushiness of what is perhaps a slow leak. To make it more urgent, Max indicated needing a toilet. The traffic slowed us but we made it home without incident.

QOC: Ran-It-Granite Long-O in McKeldin State Park near the old Nike Missle Site off Hernwood Rd. I was to volunteer helping with the meet later so I had an early, 9:00am start time--first on Red. I enjoyed the initial downhill start though the course made everyone pay for it getting to the finish from the other end of the map. For the initial going I was fairly accurate but feeling like my legs were dragging. On the low route going toward #10 I took a Gu only 30 minutes into the race. After that, I did feel a little better but never was fast. As our routes merged on a trail for a short way while I was going to #13, Vadim, on the way to #2 was easily running much faster. My accuracy remained good until after #13. I didn't see many other people through the run. It might have helped or hurt as I went into the technical section at the end. I knew I'd need to be careful and attacked #14 by going out of the way a little to come off a clearing. I just had trouble reading the map in the area. I saw the top contours but not the lower one that the control was on where the slope changed. I hunted around to the left and not reading the map I eventually got to #15 since it was the only thing I could see. Finishing #14 and getting to the next two were easy though I had a little hesitation on #16. I got to #17 just a bit high. Going over near the top to #18 I again couldn't read the detail on map in the area. I hunted many deep depressions not seeing the one with the control further down the hill and again abandoned reading the map which would have shown me it was near the trail. I did better on #19, by recognizing the longer depressions and navigating up higher after checking only one wrong depression. I lost over 4 minutes the last part of the course but the other competitors were just doing better today. I had the 5th fastest time on the course and dropped to second on M45+ for the two-day event. It was still fun and I did well overall for having little in the way of placing expecatations. I look forward to more races and losing my recent weight gains. Maybe my metabolism has slowed again.

Red X Day 2 - Splits

From the field in Bon Secourse Spiritual Center to the start of the QOC Ran-It-Granite meet.

QOC: Ran-It-Granite on the Driver Road map which covered part of the Bon Secours Spiritual Center and McKeldin State Park, MD. I hadn't really formed any expectations for the day other than to try to have a good run. I knew we were running a middle distance course but hadn't read the notes, known the distance or the climb. I got to the park with about 45 minutes to get ready including getting Max into the day care. I started well, pacing myself a bit after the sprints yesterday. Physically I was feeling rested and better than the day before. I found a bit more green on the course than I would have guessed from the map but overall I ran where I intended to. I probably missed a better route choice going to #5 and lost around 30-40 seconds on #10. I certainly felt the climb and walked up several hill; #9 and #11 come to mind. In the poor shape that I'm in, I didn't expect to come away leading the M45+ age group so that was nice.

At the QOC Rani-it-Granite races I had run my first race kind of late compared to most. I hadn't talked with anyone about joining a relay team so I got Max and myself some food. I would have joined a team up to the point of getting food but afterward, I was just as happy to stay out of it. I figured the rest would do me good in a number of ways. My knee has been having some warning aches and with a long race tommorow, resting was the wiser decision. I briefly had the opportunity to join up with some very fast team mates.

Instead of racing, I donned my camera gear and walk/jogged from place to place taking videos and pictures. I've done a lot of photography in the past and miss doing this a lot. Other QOC people graciously watched Max for me as Peggy was still working as a volunteer. I felt rusty with my cameras, trusting more in the camera than in my technical skills used to enable me to, but those skill started coming back too. At most meets when Peggy and I are taking turns watching Max, there's no time to do this and doing nature photography away from these events has taken a back seat to other priorities.

Red X Day 1 - Splits

Event: Ran-it Granite
 

Cabin John Regional Park. Max and I had tried to use the playground area but the rains the previous night made things wet. He had slipped walking on some plastic steps and bopped his nose so we decided to go for a hike instead. We ended up on the sometimes slippery trails going clockwise completely around the kid's railroad track. As we were walking we stopped to watch some maintenance going on. A dead tree was being cut down by some workers and we eventually got to see it fall. The initially cuts had be be proceeded by some dangerous follow-up cuts. When the follow-up cuts failed it was still leanding over at a 75 degree angle and resting on other trees. A pulley system and a truck pulling on it eventually was enough to finish the felling.

McKeldin State Park, MD. Having not done much all week, I wasn't feeling ready to do an orienteering sprint race. When Peggy returned from her lunch after vetting activities, she took over watching Max and I went back and forth near the parking area for the starts.

QOC: Ran-it-Granite at McKeldin State Park. Starting on Sprint 1, I did okay. I had started about a minute after Glen Tryson and chased him for much of the course. My biggest gain on him seemed to be on #5 which we both attacked low but I was higher. Toward the end after passing Glen, I was pushed to pass one of the younger women. Someone, male or female was making a run at me after the Go control so I reluctantly sprinted hard to stay ahead. It was a fun run but the big hills and my weight took it out of me.

QOC Ran-it-Granite at McKeldin State Park, MD. For a while after the first race I wasn't feeling much like running hard again. I was feeling better just before starting again but I decided not to push it too hard on this go. The navigation on this course was a bit too easy too. It with just a few exceptions it was in narrow valleys or right on trails. I did manage to lose time getting to the Go control by being a bit wide to the right.

McKeldin State Park, MD. I had intended to go out and follow some of the model event course with Max while taking pictures of racers. It was getting late in the day so most people had been finished with their courses already. Max, who hadn't had a nap or a proper lunch, kept wanting to go downhill and didn't have the patience to follow the map. He had it in his head that if he just went the direction he wanted, he'd find a control (how nice would that be?). It worked part of the time. He also complained about the waiting when I took, videos of racers. I do have to give him credit however for wanting to get out on the course and that's why I kept my promise and had brought him along. We eventually got down to the river area. Had I purchased the camera lens I'd been thinking about, I might have had a wide enough view to properly capture the great views. Racing by the areas in the past, I hadn't been able to take them in before. Max also chose to go out to a point which I don't remember seeing with some waterfalls and a great pool where the river bends. On the way back up, Max's energy was running out and he got cranky.

Sprint 1 - Splits

Sprint 2 - Splits

After the training at Rosaryville State Park, I was a bit tired but to other things kept me from doing any training. I got very busy at work (with some late nights) and it was too rainy/cold to ride in. After the training at Rosaryville, I also had felt some pain in my left knee reminicent of the pains preceding my meniscus tear last year. I figured the rest wouldn't hurt too bad though my weight spiked.

Rosaryville State Park, MD. As training lead for QOC, Jon Torrance setup a course to fill-in the club's pre-A-meet lull in the Spring schedule. It was quite fun. Many legs gave us a chance to test our compass bearing work in open woods. As always at Rosaryville, route choice problems were presented too. I hadn't orienteered for this distance for a long time so the length, billed at 10.5K was helpful too. Using 15cm bags gave us an extra challenge. I did pretty well. Perhaps I started out too fast. However on the 5-6 leg, I like a few others, got confused and ran to #9. It was en-route finishing a butterfly loop in the area and I just lost focus as I spiked it. I realized my error somewhere in the loop so after going from #9 to #7 and #8, I ran to #6 to make sure that I got to all controls. This cut the course short just a 100m (I couldn't reconcile the Condes measurement of 9.51k vs. 10.41k by hand measurements on the regular course).

I started things off well spiking #1 as Pat Zerfas was in the vicinity. Before going out I'd seen Corine Porter start and knew that Tom Nolan had left before me too. I'd seen Tom headed to #8 as I approached #7. Getting there ahead of Tom, I'd seen Corrine leaving #8. Since I had to make-up for my earlier error I went the longer distance to #6 and saw Tom again after I'd left #10. When I'd gotten to #11, I saw Corrine on the south side of a stream seamingly back-tracking or heading to #12. I had seen a reentrant that she was headed toward too but coming off a trail bend, I figured the control was further ahead. I later returned to the reentrant that Corrine had back-tracked to also. I think the trail we'd both come off of on the north side of the stream might have more of a bend than the map showed. I was a bit wishy washy going to #12 so I didn't see Corrine again until the long leg to #13. Corrine was ahead most of the way up a hill in the power line crossing when I saw her and she was headed toward a different trail than I'd chosen. I wanted to stay low initially and take advantage of a more gradual climb with fewer turns on the leg. I was tired and moving slow up the grade but kept an honest effort. My heart rate was over 160 most of the leg. Though she came from the other direction, I got to the control just as Corrine had been leaving. We both were too far right going to #14 but I corrected on the second trail and got there first. I ran a bit faster than I should have going to #15--it's my old bad habit of trying to run away instead of navigating carefully. I was just a bit to the right when I'd passed what was supposed to be a distinct tree in some light green. On the run I couldn't make it apart from the others though when I got there after turning around it was a bit bigger than the other trees. I went right a bit at first going to #16, then had to cut back. I stayed off the road most of the way by using the white woods to cut just a slice of the longer paved route. Going to #17, I cut in a little too early, after the reentrant on the SW side of the stream. I read the map incorrectly at one point and followed a reentrant up to the ride and almost the road before turning around. This cost me 2:30 minutes according to my GPS track. I saw Mark Mace and a new deaf orienteer named Gail again. I moved well going to and spiking #18. I was tired but chugging well to #19. The distinct tree fooled me again. I passed the control and didn't see it until turning around near the downside of the ridge. I spiked #20 and was glad for it. The run to the finish was fun and beautiful. I came in just about when Corrine was. I thought I'd see a control but Corrine and Patti Mace clued me in.

Many thanks go to Jon for setting this up. I'm sorry that I couldn't help pickup controls afterward but as it was, Peggy got late getting to the map stuffing party for the Ran-it-Granite. I'm looking forward to running it even though I'm a bit slow these days.

Splits:

Leg Split Pace
1 3:48 7:27
2 1:34 9:47
3 3:20 8:53
4 1:08 9:26
5 1:15 10:25
6 6:34 7:08
7 5:06 9:26
8 1:58 8:11
9 5:48 10:44
10 6:32 8:42
11 6:25 7:58
12 5:03 11:28
13 13:37 8:19
14 1:47 7:25
15 2:49 16:34
16 5:40 8:02
17 5:27 13:58
18 2:26 7:36
19 5:52 10:34
20 2:05 8:10
21 4:30 7:19

Lake Bernard Frank, MD. For the first day of Spring, from Bauer Dr. I entered the park and finished field checking the last area that I hadn't been to around the lake. It was a nice day. I didn't see any hungry deer; perhaps they've been hunted out now. I did see a few birds of prey. One hawk squawked at me personally as I unbeknowingly walked underneath his perch atop a tree. Later I saw a bald eagle headed out over treetops and out across the lake.

After again finding much more detail than I'd anticipated in the last area to finish, I rechecked some of my earlier work south of the lake. I made some adjustments to earlier rootstocks and found a couple features that I'd missed before. I then went to areas that I'd field checked and drafted SW of the lake last July. The vegetation was much more passable today and I found several good sized boulders that I'd missed before. My technique at mapping vegetation and other things has improved a lot over the year so I was able to improve upon the mapping of a tricky hillside that I kind of gave up on before. I rechecked some cairns that I'd mapped earlier too. A few cairns were really too small to be worth mapping so I removed them from the map. I guess I'd been a bit too happy to find them in some great open woods before. For the other cairns that I got to, I spent some time improving the stacks of rocks. Under one rock that I lifted I found the biggest spider that I can ever recall seeing in the wild--almost the size of my palm. What he was doing out at this time of the year when there are still freezing temperatures had me almost as curious as why he was in these woods at all. All of the work today took longer than expected.

It is satisfying to now have the big and detailed Lake Frank area field checking done. I've been doing the drafting after every field checking session so the map of the area should only take a few more days to be ready :)

C • Huge spider 4

From Northfield Rd., Custer Rd. to Wilson Ln. to Glenbrook Rd. to Bradley Blvd. to Kennedy Dr. to Dorset Ave., to the Capital Crescent Trail, to the Little Falls Pkwy. to Bradley Blvd. to Huntington Pkwy., to Irvington Ave. to Roosevelt St. to Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. With Peggy back home and watching Max at the playground, I squeezed in a pleasant run in the neighborhoods around home after work. It was in the 50's F but felt cooler. I started a bit slow and improved more as I went along. Instead of making it a clean figure 8 loop, I added on at the end to get to 35 minutes. The hills were mostly long grades. The cherry trees along Kennedy Dr. didn't yet look like the ones around the D.C. Tidal Basin that I saw on my lunch walk. A few of the ones downtown had buds with a petal or two showing.

With it being somewhat rainy during the daytime, I chose not to try to run at work. With Peggy out on a rare work trip, I had Max duty in the AM and PM. He and I got our haircuts and ate out. Later I just did some spinning.

From Northfield Rd. to Maple Ave. with Max in his trailer, then to the Bethesda Metro Station via the Georgetown Branch tunnel. I considered riding all the way in to work this morning but it was a bit foggy and in the 40's F.

From the Bethesda Metro station to Maple Ave., then to Northfield Rd. via the Georgetown Branch Trail. Once out of the downtown Bethesda area, I had a bit of a tailwind. I carried my gym bag with clothes from the day before in the trailer.

From Northfield Rd. to Greenwich Park to Old Georgetown Rd. to the Bethesda Trolley Trail at Charles St. to the Capital Beltway bridge and back. After arriving home on bike I figured that Peggy and Max had gone to the playground. I changed quickly and got on the road and saw them in the park, then went on. I figured that I could use more running and with Peggy gone the next day and a half, I'll probably not be able to run then. On this run I felt a bit sore from running the day before. My right hamstring and right bicep were both hurting a little. I was 13:04 at the turnaround (1.78 miles) so my return with a little more climbing was a little slower.

From the Silver Spring Metro Station, Colesville Rd. to 2nd Ave. to Hanover St. to Warren St. to Brookville Rd. to Stewart Ave. to the Georgetown Branch Trail to Woodmont Ave. to the Bethesda Metro Station at Edgemoore Ln. With some rest I felt much better than I had been feeling when running lately. A stranger encouraged me on as I was climbing away with a smooth gait up and away from Colesville Ave. and the encouragement never hurts either. The fact that the sun had come out in the evening after being cloudy the last 2 1/2 days helped too. I was pretty smooth throughout the run and I haven't done that for a while. I wore sweats and took off the top on the run. It was just right. I also carried some minimal necessities to get back to work with tommorow. I was able to record some half mile splits most of which were on the uphill grades: 3:39, 3:46, 3:52 (a bit over a half), 3:46, 3:43. It's nice to have the option to run in places like the Georgetown Branch Trail which is mostly bluestone cinder surfaced and tree lined but alas, the planned Purple Line, a light rail/street car, is to be built here one day when governments have money again.

Event: QOC: Wheaton
 

QOC: Wheaton Regional Park. While Peggy ran the Red course, Max and I walked and jogged the White course. There was some slight rain at times. Max's concentration is still not really on the map but he enjoyed the running and walking. He has a lot of competitiveness in him. He was able to plan legs between controls when I emphasized it. He did tell a few others that we saw that he was learning to read the map and I think he genuinely did. While going through the course, I did find some features which could have been added to the map including a nice sized boulder off a paved trail.

Warm-up between toilets, the start, epunch registration and my parked car with some repetition due to forgetting to do various things like clear my epunch.

QOC: Wheaton Regional Park, MD. The course was fun and I did get to one area which I hadn't been to before. It was also one year ago when QOC held it's last Spring meet in the park that was the last straw for my knee before needing surgery. Today was much better. For the race last tune-up before the A-meet season begins, I did okay. The park is not that difficult and I'm fairly familiar with it. I was steady though a bit slow. The challenge was in keeping my concentration reading and running. It was good practice for that as well as for practicing good process and technique. I made a clear error on #1 by going more or less straight and being too high but the rootstock may have been off a bit. I was pretty clean through #12 but the mapping is out of date in the area of #13. I got hung up in some green there and had to go past the control and around it to come back to the control. There were a few unmapped features en-route there too. Going to the Go control, I made another error by being too high but I've wondered about the contours and placement of the trails on the map in the area too as they may have contributed to my problem. Some questioned whether the rootstock that the control was on was correct or not. It seemed to line-up with the building at the finish but to be sure, I would have to validate it without being in a rush to finish.

Red - Splits

By playing with Max and lifting him repeatedly to give him a ride (e.g. "ju-jai" style), I did some abdominal work. This was done lying on my back with my knees up like I was going to do situps but Max sat on my ankles and I lifted my legs pivoting at the hips. I sometimes catapulted him (while holding on) over and behind my head too. I could feel the strain of the work with some cramp like pain. Later Max returned the favor by walking on my back and legs. He thought this later part, a massage for me, was great fun because he liked to fall down off of me onto some cushions. A birthday party for one of Max's former classmates took up most of the rest of the day.

I just did a bit of late evening spinning after doing some errands.

Getting home a bit late cascaded so instead of running, I ended up spinning and watching a movie. I felt stronger.

From Northfield Rd. to Maple Ave. with Max in his trailer, then to the Bethesda Metro Station via the Georgetown Branch tunnel. It was a little damp and cloudy and there was a bit of traffic but as I write this and see the sun shining outside, I'm happy to have ridden in.

The dampness was fine all exept for the last 20m. As I was riding over a large, almost unavoidable metro venting grate up a grade to lock up, I noticed my tires feeling mushy. Next I realized they weren't mushy, they were sliding. It was practically dry leading up to the grate and I almost went down on it. I made it safely and instantly recalled a similar experience in western Maryland on a multi-day solo ride in which I zoomed near 40mph down a hill over a slightly foggy steel grated bridge at the bottom. In both instances, I think training on rollers and a lot of time in the saddle saved me.

From the Bethesda Metro station to Maple Ave., then to Northfield Rd. via the Georgetown Branch Trail. I got out of work a bit late so it was starting to get dark on the way home. The winds were picking up enough that I felt the need to pedal downhill.

From the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Station to Tuckerman Ln., to Rockville Pike to Beach Dr. to the Rock Creek Trail, to Connecticutt Ave. to the Georgetown Branch Trail to Woodmont Ave. to the Bethesda Metro Station at Edgmoore Ln. I was tired all day at work but felt reasonably well going homeward on this run. I did feel I was struggling to keep up a decent pace. I carried some essentials.

The total time is estimated because I pressed the wrong button on my new watch at one point. The watch is okay but not quite as useful for running as my old Accelerator which finally died; the new Casio G-Shock holds more splits (100) but only can record two different runs. I based the time on measured half mile splits, most of which were taken going up a slight grade.

On the segment of the Rock Creek Trail that I ran, they've added a lot of new mile posts. I don't think I'll like them. The old ones were fine; just every mile. The new ones are sequenced every quarter mile but the marker number can only be seen from the trail when looking perpendicularly away. To make it more confusing, there are separate posts used for each direction of travel that are less than 50m apart.

From Northfield Rd. to Maple Ave. with Max in his trailer, then to the Bethesda Metro Station via the Georgetown Branch tunnel. It was in the mid or upper 50's F. I probably should have planned to ride all the way in to work but with our bodies still adjusting to the daylight savings time change we got a late start.

From the Bethesda Metro station to Maple Ave., then to Northfield Rd. via the Georgetown Branch Trail. After picking up Max's trailer, I felt headwinds drag on it a fair amount. As I was near getting home, I met Peggy and Max as they were headed to the playground.

Cabin John Regional Park, MD. Starting from the playground area off Tuckerman Rd., I went southward mostly and covered more trails up to Democracy Rd. I did a lot of short out and back segments to capture spur trails with my GPS for later mapping. I'm sure the odd out and back running on spurs affected my overall pace a bunch but I wasn't running that fast either. I covered some of the unofficial intermittant trails. Several of these were very steep. The elevation gain posted was recorded but is suspect. It seemed that I really had climbed much more. At one point, my path joined up with a younger trail runner. As we ran together at more his pace (I was moving pretty slowly by myself), I explained what I was doing and a bit about orienteering. His name was Peter. He may bring his two kids and come to the QOC Wheaton meet next week. I was a bit glad to be able to slow down again after turning off to climb up another long spur trail.

From Northfield Rd., Custer Rd. to Wilson Ave. to Glenbrook Rd. to Falls Rd. to the Capital Crescent Trail, to the playground in Little Falls Park. There, while I talked with my next door neighbor Jim, Max played with Jim's son. After a good while there we rode back via Kennedy Dr. It was a great day with the temperatures in the 60s F while we were out. Jim had Caylin in a rear seat carrier and rode a bit faster than I usually go with Max. Max rode on his trail-a-bike behind me.

Lake Bernard Frank, MD. Starting from Trailways Dr., I had tried to finish-up the field checking around the lake. I made good progress but the remaining amount was just too much. I did enough to connect the loop but I left bit of a spur to the park still to do. I actually got part of that spur too. I found a lot of features throughout including plenty of cliffs of good size. The field checking went fast in the white woods of which there were many but the light green areas had a significant quantities of features too thus making things slow.

From Northfield Rd. to Mooreland Ln./Grant St. to Sonoma Rd. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Oak Pl. to Heampstead Ave. into Ayrlawn Park at Oaklawn Ave. around the school to Lindale Dr. to Bradmoore Dr. to McKinley St. to Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. I had expected Peggy and Max to be home earlier than I so after getting home and finding them not there, I rushed out for run in the 54 F weather. It was good to be running without sweats. I had on a long sleeve t-shirt and it was just right. I started a bit slowly and felt some tiredness in my legs and for just a short while some pain in my right hip but the farther I went and the darker it got, I started to feel faster.

From Northfield Rd. to Huntington Pkwy, to Old Georgetown Rd. to Maple Ridge Rd. to the Bethesda Trolley Trail going eastward and along Rockville Pike to W. Cedar La. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Greenwich Park to Northfield Rd. After work it was still light out and a bit warmer than it had been. I puttered around on this route feeling much more tired than I think I should. Coming up the W. Cedar La. hill, a hill that I rarely go up, I was steady and did not hurt as much as I thought I would have.

We celebrated what we're calling our Family Day on the 3rd. It was the day we brought Max home with us 3 years ago. Life has changed in so many ways, mostly better.

I was running out of energy in the evening so I just did some spinning.

From Northfield Rd., Custer Rd. to Wilson Ln., to Maiden Ln. to Whittier Blvd. to Woodhaven Blvd. to Bradley Blvd. to Valley Rd. to Ridge Rd. to McKinley St. to Garfield St. to Roosevelt St. to Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. With Max's school closed due to snow, I stayed home to watch him again. We got to do a little sledding. I think it was the first time he really got to go down a hill by himself. Late in the afternoon with Peggy home I went for a run. The streets had been mostly cleared but there were some snowy and icy areas. I was just slow. I had on a good bit of clothes. It was enough to not feel cold with it windy and about 25F outside.

Event: QOC: Westmoreland
 

I was a bit loath to go out for a run today. When the snows started, I did some spinning.