Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Greenbelt
 

QOC: Greenbelt Park, MD. Sam Listwak set a pretty nice Red course (Red, Blue, and Green were fairly similar) made more fun by a few inches of remaining snow. We got to several control locations that I don't think anyone used before. I ran pretty smoothly and accurately. Most of my time lost was for what turned out to be poor route choices. I did miss on #13 by going down the wrong ditch--one to the west. Had I focused more when crossing the road and if there had been less snow, I might recognized my location for a better attack. The route choices that I think I lost time on were for #1 (pausing at the start to set my watch and then using the road most of the way), #6 (I should have cut in earlier but I followed the elephant trail instead), #8 (I ran up along the creek and up the reentrants), #14 (I used the road), and #16 (I went wide right to the parking lot). I finished second on Red and had less than 2 minutes of error, but mainly I was too slow for lack of training and having time to train.

Red - Splits

Potomac Falls, VA. I had to clear more snow in my mother's back yard to allow movers to get a very large ceramic pot.

I stood or moved boxes and other items for almost the whole day, and that amounted to a lot more work than the shoveling.

I cleared through the mess left by a snow plow.

I got into some serious shoveling even though I probably shouldn't have. Since movers were coming to move my mother's belongings from one house to another the next day, I had to clear a way from the front to the back yard. In the back, I cleared space down a stair well by throwing the snow up and out.

I also did several hours worth of packing and then moving delicate items into my mother's new place.

This was just more clean-up after the storm.

I'm not supposed to do much of this any more. Peggy got the first round so when I went out I only removed 3-4 inches off of the ground, and cleared a foot or more off of the cars. I could feel it in my back later that evening but not too much.

Seneca State Park, MD. From Riffleford Rd., I continued mapping areas southwest of Riffleford Rd. I found many places of pleasant solitude. I continued around a ridge and along the main creek, as well as re-checked various parts I'd covered earlier that were difficult to map.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was in the 20s F and I carried my laptop.

From the Silver Spring Metro Station, to 2nd Ave. to Grace Church Rd., and following the Georgetown Branch Trail over the road portion, (Talbot Ave. Pennsylvania Ave., Kansas Ave. and Stewart Ave.) to the unpaved portion, to Woodmont Ave. in Bethesda, to the Bethesda Metro Station. I felt pretty weak on hills and sore from the earlier run this week--that's part of getting in shape. I ran this just a bit faster +2 years back when carrying a backpack with clothes but I'm surprised I wasn't slower today.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. I took my time strolling back home.

Washington, D.C. From 12th & Independence Ave., SW, down The Mall along Independence Ave. and the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial, to Ohio Dr. to the Rock Creek Trail, to Calvert St., past the Woodley Park/Zoo Metro Station. to Connecticut Ave., to the Cleveland Park Metro Station. Before the run, I had lower back aches and pains. I felt tired and even sore, early during this run. I just kept myself moving through it, feeling a little better by the end. It was a nice quiet evening to be out. The high winds predicted didn't come until later. I did discover it snowing when the first flake noticed landed in my open mouth. That stopped but it was going again and even sticking for a while once I got to Bethesda.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. Northerm headwinds were blowing. I aborted a planned run since I'd worked late.

Event: (CANCELLED) QOC Patapsco
 

Seneca State Park, MD. From Riffleford Rd., I continued mapping areas southwest of Riffleford Rd. It was possible to do this since the QOC orienteering at Patapsco (another state park) was cancelled/postponed due to wet conditions. My time started off being rather warm in the 50s F. I only wore a t-shirt. As the hours passed, it clouded-up again and even rained. I was glad I'd taken along a light jacket. I waited out the rain but my paper got wet and I couldn't do any work for a while longer. It stopped raining again. It next started getting windy and cold. It was in the lower 40's F when I left, before it got dark. I covered some areas that I'd passed earlier, then got to more places that I hadn't been to. I walked a lot of boundaries and ditches with my GPS. A lot of time was spent trying to map tricky vegetation changes. There were nice forests and rough open areas. A steep man made slope had some boulders and steep areas--I'll need to go back over them to get it all right. More prevalent in the grounds covered today were man made objects of various sorts. I didn't get much time to workout on Saturday but my back was aching a little--maybe that was due to weather changes.

It rained so I didn't ride my bicycle to work.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From 12th and Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. to 17th St. SW., to Constitution Ave., to 23rd St. NW, to New Hampshire Ave., to O St., NW & the Dupont Metro Station. I was short on time after leaving work a bit late. I improvised a run across town on mostly concrete city street sidewalks. This took me past the State Department, GWU, and the business part of downtown. I was overdressed so I got fairly sweaty. I'd stopped my watch at a light and forgot to start it again until 1/3 of a mile later so my time is estimated. It was nice to run in some different areas. There was some uphill to this route.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was only 17 F.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. I had an extra heavy backpack, and I also temporarily lost a pant leg strap that I had to turn around for.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was 14 F this morning and breezy; being late I started to drive-in after dropping off Max and Samantha at school. However traffic was heavy. It seemed better to turn home and cycle from there. I suppose I was partly shamed by seeing some kids wearing only a heavy sweatshirt on their ride to school. On my ride, I encountered more traffic and even slowdowns on the metro system.

From the Tenleytown Metro Station, to River Rd., to the Capital Crescent Trail (CCT), to Bethesda Ave./Woodmont Ave., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was just at the freezing point when I started but the winds had disappeared. It was nice starting at the top of hill for a run after work since usually I'm running uphill toward home--I still did finish uphill, but gradually. I hadn't run this route before. As much as the houses in the area cost, the DC government seems to do little to maintain the sidewalk. They were broken or bulging in many places but I didn't have much trouble since there was pretty good lighting. I saw only one cyclist and one other runner on the CCT.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. Because I had run, I was only a little cold while wearing light sweats and a sweaty shirt.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. I was running behind after rousing the kids and gearing them up for school--they'd been on winter break and were not motivated. It was cool, right at freezing. A strong northern tailwind made it easy.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. I had intended to run on the way home, however I had forgotten to pickup my backpack as I was getting ready to ride to the station this morning. I had also considered riding the whole way to work this morning but judging from my short ride back, it would have been rough-the headwinds were strong and cold.

Event: QOC Fountainhead
 

QOC: Fountainhead. I enjoyed the course on the east map. We had arrived late so I only ran the Red course--Blue was 2K longer and hillier.

John Baker had started before me so as he did I talked-up some trash about seeing him out there soon.

I was doing okay until after #3. I'd just passed a person at #2 and saw Mihai Sirbu ahead. Having set courses here for the US Ultralong Champs a year ago, I headed for the trail but got off of the ridge early rather than go to the next intersection. That gave me a few extra hills. I popped out on the bigger ridge trail about 100m ahead of the guy I'd passed at #2. Further down the ridge, I left shortly after a clearing. I had been running with some effort and didn't slow as I entered the woods going downhill. I wasn't checking things off really well but had some confidence in where I was. When I got to the reentrant and location that I was looking for I didn't see the control and went on. I looped back higher and the even went to the previous large reentrant. I doubled back even higher, then returned to where I had originally searched for the control. Still failing, I went out to the trail and worked my way back. It was only then that I spotted the control above the reentrant. The control was on a small dot knoll and hung low but I was surprised I hadn't seen it in all of my back and forth searching. I must have ran right past it and may have been distracted by other runners--Chris Gross passed me there and I lost at least 9 minutes.

The rest was fairly easy. I spiked 6, using the trail to get there, and #7 and 8 going straight. I hit #9 as I passed John Baker but came in a little lower than expected. For #10, I paused on a shelf below the control and near the road so I lost about 25-30 seconds on it. I spiked #11 and #12. I stopped early at the wrong control for #13. I used the road going to #14. I didn't feel like I was running well and was tired finishing-up. Overall, it was a little disappointing to have such a big error on #4 but it was good to be out and running.

Red - Splits

I had a bad stiff neck this day. I'd never had one that bad. It didn't go away until I'd slept. Maybe it came about from being in the cold for a long while field checking while a little underdressed.

Seneca State Park, MD. From Riffleford Rd., I started mapping the areas to the west on the south side of the creek. I'd been running on the Seneca Creek Trail and on a short run through the areas the previous week. I'd even started a small part of a ridge near the road before so I had a good idea of what I'd find. Starting with the low flood plain, there were ditches that had shown-up on LiDAR. They weren't always neatly defined, with the same ditch varying in depth and width. The forest in the lowlands was just fairly open so it'll be fast when people race through. There were some somewhat interesting linear marshes and short streams popping-up and disappearing. On the higher ground the vegetation had more light green forest and an area of deadfall near the road. An old homestead had a lot of manmade features. Some of it was trash but derelict cars, a doghouse and a small wall were there too. I covered an area of about 600m x 300m and that was fairly productive given the features. I look forward to doing more. There is a good amount of rough open that I'm hoping will be easy to map, along with an area of light green to green bushes. A big field on a ridge where a shooting range used to be still has small buildings and should be really easy to map. I'm hoping to get part of this area south of Riffleford Rd. mapped to use before QOC's April meet, as I'm the course setter for it.