Training Log Archive: Nadim

QOC: Wheaton Regional Park, MD. I ran the Green course and was able to keep up a slow jog most of the way. There was about an inch of soft snow today. Because of it sometimes there were long elephant trails between controls. I ran 7.6K on the 6.2K course, and climbed 169.6m; optimal was rated at 155m.

S-1 I should have takent the trail, but after zig-zagging across the parked cars in the lot, I was low enough, and not reading the map well enough at that point, that I passed the control ending up closer to where the old totem pole used to be. I came back and found a guy in orange, with his dog having just punched.

1-2 - I shot the gap in the green by the train tracks and hit the south side of the lake. Approaching the dam, I could see the guy in orange (from control 1) going straight into the forest. I took trails past #10, and caught up to the guy in orange west of #2. I passed him and he followed me in.

2-3 I crossed the creek a little downstream of #2, and got on trails. I was running rather weakly so I stayed on trails to the second bridge NW of #3. I went up from there. The guy in orange with his dog got there just ahead of me by going directy from #2.

3-4 - I went straight while the guy in orange appeared to head SE to the trail. I think I got there ahead of him, if he was going there.

4-5 - I started going straight, but soon I though it'd be better to use the bridge south of #5 and come up through what was mapped as open forest. Cross the forest hillside, I made a bad turn and ended up close to #2. I took the trail from there to the bridge I'd aimed for earlier. I lost at least 75 seconds ending up by #2. At the bridge, I saw the guy in orange coming more directly from #4. I used the 2 rootstocks to attack from, and I got there just ahead of the guy in orange.

5-6 - I took the unmapped elephant trail to #6. The guy in orange followed.
It was visible from the trampled snow and vegetation and easy to run. It stayed high and a little left initially, but it curved right to the gully system. I saw the gully, then the control. The elephant trail went around the gully system to get there the most energy efficient way.

6-7 - This was a major route choice leg. I got on trails climbing just east of #3 and #4, then broke off at a trail bend that got me around where there used to be a mapped earth bank crossing a reentrant. Approaching the road, I saw Sylvia ahead. Though I closed in on her going over some of thge spur on the other side of the road, she started running on the down hill and go there just after her. I didn't see the guy in orange anywhere.

7-8 - I recall hearing that the vegetation going up the reentrant that #8 was in, was okay. It was more like I'd mapped it in that it was slow for about 100m. I got to the dirt road and then at the paved loop trail, I went left of straight. On the other side, I used the trails to get close before attacking and spiking it.

8-9 - I intended to get back to the trail I'd attacked from, but further north. I may have set out on a bad bearing. I didn't get to the trail until near a trail intersection. I moved better passing the next 2 intersections, and left the trail before the 3 prominent rootstocks on the left. Going on bearing, I got to the spur and followed it across a trail to the control. As I got close, I'd seen it but started going left a little bit when I lost sight of the control and saw a guy in an orange jacket (not the same guy I'd seen earlier).

9-10 - I went straight but weaved around the rootstocks. 3 people (one with the orang jacket) were going there too. When the vegetation got thicker, I went right to avoid it. When I got to the reentrant (I saw Celia Landers there and she said she didn't want to break my concentration), I had to turn left up it, but I got there ahead of others.

10-11 - I took trails to the lake, then came up the reentrants. When I punched, I saw the guy in orange whom I'd seen early in the course--he was coming from the opposite direction so I figure he must have been on the Red course (that had a lot of common legs with Green). I didn't realize that the old trail was still there paralleling the mapped one along the lake. It stood out with snow on the ground and was clear. Perhaps it was blocked from rejoining the lakeside trail but I left it before then.

10-11 - I went south to the paved trail, then left past a bend NE of the control. I never found the old intermittent trail leaving #10, and it was thick there. I spiked the control, seeing the rootstock long before seeing the control.

11-12 - I took the elephant trail to the paved trail. It wasn't so trampled after that because some probably opted to go around on the paved trail. I went straight past the 2 prominent rootstocks, then to the rootstock with the control.

12-F - Straight to the bridge, onto the trail, then across the dirt parking lot--basically straight as one can. I'm moving so slowly that AP will probably show this as an error leg for me.

It was a pretty fun course. It was about 32 F when finished--warmer than when I started.

Green - Splits

Starting from Germantown East Local Park, MD, I went down Gunner's Branch getting some features but mostly doing vegetation mapping. Later I got to the nice woods north of Hugh Network Systems. The mapping there went much faster! I passed through the Montgomery College Germantown Campus (field checked earlier) and covered some other smaller wooded areas that I'd not gotten to earlier. That about does it for the park! Three good days of field checking was all it took (if one doesn't count the very extensive base mapping and drafting)! Sure I'll go back sometime to refine some things but it's rather amazing to have been able to complete the park so relatively quickly, compared to my progress at Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. it says a lot about the openness and the difference in the level of detail.

It was cold today! When I started just after noon, it was 23 F with almost an inch of snow on the ground. By the time I finished, it dropped to 19 F. It was windy too, though in the woods it didn't feel bad at all. After getting home my toes were white for a long time and there's still some numbess. Some of that may have been a remnant from frostbite when I was about 20 years old.

My general practitioner postponed my appointment again today--3rd time in a row and now a 2 month delay.

From Northfield Rd., to Custer Rd., to Park Ln. to Battery Ln. to Exeter Rd., to Edgemore Ln. to Glenbrook Rd, to Moorland Ln. to Wilson Blvd., to Hampden Ln. to Charlcotte Rd., to Northfield Rd. I went at a little more relaxed pace so that it wouldn't hurt my ankles too much. It was in the 30s F and breezy with snow on the way.

My old college roommate connected with me after about 30 years. Somehow we'd lost contact when he moved to California. He did some detective work finding my email address. We used to race together in college. We had a great phone call. He was talking about getting himself back into racing again--appropriate for our age of course. He sounds like he's doing a lot better than me with being in shape. That motivates me and it's good to hear that he's doing pretty well!

On a sad note, he shared that our coach from college, Todd Scully, died in a car crash last September. Todd was an Olympian race walker (20K). When Todd was at his best in 1980, he wasn't able to compete due to the US boycott that year. Todd had been able to break the world record in the 1 mile walk several times. He was a great coach who'd taught us well and his motivation is with us today.

https://www.usatf.org/news/2021/usatf-mourns-the-l...-

Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. I started from the ball field parking lot off of White Ground Rd. The overall purpose today was to do more field checking but I spent the first 90 minutes picking-up just some of the controls I'd set out on the recent MLK weekend. I did take some update notes for the areas I'd mapped long ago too. On one long leg over the flat terrain, I missed. I had not played it safe by going a little out of my way to use mapped features. Though I missed, I was glad about recovering without hitting the road. I think everyone who did the training missed on this leg. It was also nice to see the area east of the road again--it looked so much more open than the mixed green areas I'm mapping now.

Later I got over to the western edge of what I'd mapped. I found it hard to believe that there were more cairns to Cairn City. I did find a couple of old walls that were very short too. I also found 2 rocky pits. I wonder what they had been doing in this area long ago. It must have taken a lot of work to move all of that rock--was it by hand? Later I set to work on the vegetation mapping. The good news was that it looks like there are going to be significantly more open areas in some places than I thought I'd find. I think I got a lot accomplished with the vegetation mapping, but there's a lot more left to do.

Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. I started from the ball field parking lot off of White Ground Rd. I tested a jog to get down the road more quickly, but that hurt too much to be worth the effort. I aimed to capture vegetation in some areas already mapped, and to cover new terrain today. I went further west, still north of Little Seneca Creek. I found more cairns to extend Cairn City. There are so many that they don't fit in the area that they actually take-up. I still used the standard cairn symbol, which is a point symbol. Because of the density of mappable cairns, in some places this will be more like an area symbol. When I was at the road and near a private driveway just outside of the park, I stumbled upon an unexpected trail. The trail became intermittent but went 0.4 miles which is a lot for this area. It got me to the main creek--pictured below. Unfortunately, most of the way getting there was through light green or green forest. Across the creek the woods are open but on the north side where I was, there were barberry bushes and other low vegetation. For a side stream that paralleled the trail I'd found, in the flats along the creek the LiDAR didn's show where the stream was. I followed in and tracked the course via GPS. That meant a lot of crunching across ice that sometimes held me up, and sometimes didn't. All day long, the ground itself was frozen mud from recent rains and snows. My steps would crush the ice crystals on top, thus making unstable footing. It was kind of fun at times but also like the effort it can take to walk across loose sand.

QOC: Balls Bluff Regional Park, near Leesburg, VA. It was a cool day--it never got out of the 20s F where I was. It was sort of nice to see ice floes on the Potomac River. Matt Smith did his first course setting for the club apart from Summer Short Series training courses. The course I ran was set nicely and was fun. The park is quite open for the most part and that helps, but Matt kept the climb to a minimal amount and had some interesting legs.

S-1 - Very short leg--Straight on bearing until I could see the reentrant. Next I did a little weaving to get around vegetation.

1-2 - I went to the right to get above the many reentrants on the straight route This required a steep climb early, but then I was on trails for most of the way and didn't have to go up and down a lot. In some places it was hard to see the trails. Snow and ice was plentiful. It helped to run on the side of trails, to get off the hard and irregular surface. Spikes helped too. I was moving very slowly, walking early but jogging when it wasn't too steep. My right knee was not feeling good. This was the first running I'd done in a week and longer before that. I also sometime felt my ankles; tired from trying to walk fast over the last week.

2-3 - I got on the trail and left it at the bend. I hit it well but had drifted off to the right at the beginning of the attack.

3-4 - After passing the playground, I was flagged down by a father-daughter group. The were running Yellow or White, but were lost. I quickly figured out that they were south of the map they had. I pointed out the way. They followed me to my control, only 100m away, and then I had to convince them to keep going. I lost about a minute or more helping them.

4-5 - I went straight, but did pause to again convince the father-daughter group to go over the hill. I think they were looking for a trail option to get there. After crossing the reentrant, I got to the trail intersection at the top of the hill. It was hard to see the trails there, due to the snow. I ran around the reentrant tops to the right to get to the control. I could see the rootstock, but not the actual control, from about 175m away.

5-6 - I ran in the reentrant until it got messy. Near the bottom and past most of the junctions, I paused to check the control description and to decide if I should climb out of the reentrant or go to the bottom. The controls was at the bottom of a narrow reentrant amongst multiple mapped cliffs, so I went to the bottom instead of climbing over a ridge, which was a shorter/straighter route.

6-7 - I stayed along the river on trails where I could find them until past the second stream. From the map, it wasn't clear that I'd descend to the barn, nor whether I could go through it from the south. I did go through, knowing at least that the control was under a roof, from the control description.

7-8 - I went somewhat straight as I weaved through some green. Marie Pangracova passed me, but she didn't see the control. Soon we were both looking amongst 3 dot knolls with depressions. It seemed we were in the right place since we were looking for 3 close depressions. We both walked within 6 ft. and didn't see it for a while. The control was touching the ground--it was hung, but on a fallen branch laid across one of the dot knolls.

8-9 - The contours leaving #8 didn't look right so I was hesitant. Marie moved ahead easily. Seeing the 2 mapped ditches gave me confidence. I wasn't reading the well since I came up to the dirt road without expecting to see it. Once across, I got a little high and passed a junior (ROTC?) going the other direction. He turned around. I saw the cliff formation from above but I briefly convinced myself that that was only the first cliff. The junior approached the control from low on my left. I hustled to get there first but had to jump down--that hurt my right knee more that it was hurting before. I did get there first.

9-10 - I went straight, hitting the fence above the control. The junior was moving faster but he left the fence. The control was on the fence bend.

10-11 - I'd punched #10 first but I presumed the next leg was on the lower side of the fence. I let the junior punch #10, and when I realized I needed to cross the fence, the junior was ahead. I took a fairly straight approach and got through the green pretty easily.

11-12 - I went straight across the field and the road, then tried getting through what was mapped to be fight. There was fight there, but I got through without much trouble. Once in the nice part of the map, that Peggy likes, I ran along the reentrant, past a mapped hunter stand with a control, to the control in the small side reentrant.

12-13 - I went just right of straight to avoid loosing elevation crossing the reentrant too early. Once cross the road, I saw that I was catching-up ot the junior that I'd first seen on the way to #9. I crossed the reentrant and climbed at an angle. I probably climbed too high because I had to descend the next reentrant, before getting up to the control. I'd seen the feature before seeing the bag. A Blue course runner approaching from a different angle got there first, but not without looping back.

13 - F - I stayed straight getting to the field. The Blue course runner went more to the left in nicer vegetation. There were many single trees in the field, but only one of them was mapped. I used the contours to figure it out, and got there ahead of the Blue course runner.

It was a nice sunny day--nice to enjoy the orienteering. I hope didn't set myself back too much with my knees problems getting worse.

Green - Splits

From Northfield Rd., to Charlcote Rd., to Hampden Ln., to Wilson Ln. to Maiden Ln. to Old Chester Rd., to Marbury Rd., to Wilson Ln., to Aberdeen Rd., to Aberdeen Pl./Garfield Rd., to Northfield Rd. My ankles still hurt but not as much as on other days.

From Northfield Rd., to Jefferson St., to Garfield St., to Greentree Rd., to Ewing Dr./Roosevelt St., to Jefferson St., to Northfield Rd. There were more patches of ice and snow on the streets. More is expected to fall tonight.

From Northfield Rd., Grant St. to McKinley St., to Old Georgetown Rd., to the Bethesda Trolley Trail, to Battery Ln., to Goddard Rd., to Custer Rd., to Northfield Rd. It was in the mid-30s F, with a gibbous moon rising over NIH. Ice from the Sunday night storm was here and there but not too much. I hustled but walking that fast still hurts my ankles at the point when the forefoot lands. I saw lots of runners out and was a little envious.

Little Seneca Regional Park and Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. Starting from Little Seneca Regional Park I set controls for a training event that's happening the next day. I was glad to see that just about all of the snow was gone. There were still some slippery spots. Leave on a steep slope had me land on my butt one time. Also with the rains and snow melt, the intermittent marshy areas are finally wet again. Along the way I did some map improvement. In several places I was only seeing the place for the second time. I aligned some point features and even mapped some missing boulders in places where there was a lot of complexity. I also tried improving some of the vegetation mapping. All of the remapping took extra time. It was all harder to do in the cold. I had my gloves on almost all of the time. The temperature when I started and when I stopped, was in the low 20s F. A breeze made it feel cooler. I made 2 navigational errors along the route but I think that had more to do with shuffling things I was carrying and walking with the map in a folder.

From Northfield Rd., to Grant St., to Southwick St., to Garfield St., to Northfield Rd. I was rushing to get back in time for dinner to arrive.

From Northfield Rd. I ran up to Custer Rd., to Huntington Pkwy., to Old Georgetown Rd., to Maple Ridge Rd. to the Bethesda Trolley Trail to Glenbrook Rd., to Exeter Rd. to Wilson La., to Custer Rd. to Northfield Rd. I was hustling but my ankles were hurting from going too fast. At least my knee wasn't bothersome.

From Northfield Rd., to Grant St., to Sonoma Rd., to Hempstead Ave., through Ayrlawn Park past the school, to Henning St., to Ewing Dr./Roosevelt Rd., to Jefferson St., to Northfield Rd. This seemed to go quickly. It was cool out.

From Northfield Rd., to Charlcote Rd., to Hampden Ln., to Wilson Ln. to Maiden Ln. to Old Chester Rd., to Aberdeen Rd., to Aberdeen Pl./Garfield Rd., to Northfield Rd. There were still some icy spots but it was finally nice enough to get out again. The temperatures in the 20s F didn't seem bad.

Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. After dropping Samantha off at a friend's house, I started from the ball field parking lot off of White Ground Rd. For the first 2 hours, I tweaked things I'd mapped before. It was hard to do with about 3 inches of snow on the ground; temperatures in the 20s F. There's not a lot of contour so unlike other places with snowfall, things didn't pop out so much. I did get confirmation from deer tracks that various corridors and open areas I'd mapped were rea/advantageous in difficult to map terrain. I heard a few animals but never saw any deer. For the 2nd 2 hours I worked my way up a ridge. The rock there was good with many sizeable boulders. I'm glad that the density of rock has continued westward though it does take more time to map. What was unfortunate is that the rock was mostly in light green forest or forest with low vegetation. There were some green areas too. On the other side, I reached more white forest. Several of the rocky knolls were where the trees fell. The terrain got nicer the higher I got and I think it's all very usable, especially during the dead of winter. Speaking of dead, I had mixed-up the days. Near the end, I saw a bright orange spot 100m off. It turned out to be a hunter on a tree stand. While talking to the guy, I checked and indeed, I had my days mixed up. This was a hunting day. There was some blood on the ground underneath the hunter. I apologized for disturbing him and left the park.

QOC: Greenbelt Park, MD. This park is my old stomping ground from the late 1980s and through 2002. I used to live less than a mile away for a while, then about 2 miles away- close enough for me to loop through the park. Peggy and I met here in a PGRC Saturday club run. Peggy set the courses today. I almost didn't come but she did say the park has gotten more open than it is currently mapped. I signed-up online with about 10 minutes left. The idea of a rainy day run through this historically green park wasn't so appealing, being out of shape and with my right knee hurting too. I could have gone field checking and continued progress at Hoyles Mill. However I did and I enjoyed Peggy's courses, and it didn't rain on me. I just moved very slowly. I didn't make any errors but lost 2:20 minutes for a bathroom stop in a campground--the bathrooms at the Sweetgum lot where we started were closed.

S-1 - I went about straight, using the open woods even where it was mapped much more green. I slowed to a walk getting through the gullies to the parking lot. I wasn't seeing the control from the parking lot but did when I got closer.

1-2 - Out to the road, then across open woods to the Perimeter Trail. By cutting out the switchback, I got around a runner who was just in front of me when I got to the trail. I dropped at a trail bend, went past the mapped sewer, then crossed the creek. I had to climb out of an embankment on my knee.

2-3 - I went almost straight but climbed a litte to get around vegetation and a gully mapped as a ditch. In retrospect, dropping lower below the ditches and gullies and the spur at the end, would have been better.

3-4 - Angling to the road, I minimized climb and distance. At the bottom I got back into the forest just after crossing the creek. I crossed the marsh and went to the end of the earthwall before attacking.

4-5 - Up to the road, then down. I was trying to follow a straight path, but I think the gully that #5 was on was mapped further uphill than it really was.

5-6 - Up to the campground loop road, I ducked into the open bathroom, losing 2:20 minutes, then angled up more to the road. I left the road at a bend and followed the reentrant to the control.

6-7 - Up to the campground road, then continuing straight to the road (vegetation seemed off here). Another racer warned me of yellow jackets straight ahead so I went around the road railing on the right side. Straight from there.

7-8 - Down the reentrant then angling right. At the creek, I had to go more to the right to find crossing point at the stream junction. I angled up from there, using the edge of green on my left.

8-9 - Straight. I hit it well.

9-10 - I climbed out to the left some, where the woods were more open. Going right after cresting, I found an alley through the green and was able to keep running to the bottom. Hitting the trail, I crossed the gully on the bridge, then crossed the main creek. I went over the top of the small mapped marshy area and to the control.

10-11 - I went left of straight, using the mapped open areas. Some of these areas were no longer open with new treefalls. I hit the road SE of #6 and crossed there. I could have gone more to the left to get to the road earlier but that would have involved more green, dropping and climbing and more distance. I was able to see #6 but didn't go to it. Hitting the Perimeter Trail, I took that to the intersection with the intermittent trail, past the depression on top, and to the control. I had gone left around an almost unmapped fallen tree, and had to go back to the right, making it seem like the ditch was higher up than mapped.

11-12 - Up to the trail, then straight across. I passed a control on a ditch before getting to the trail and parking lot just south of the loop road. I went past the the intersection of the loop road, though the open area. Crossing the creek at or near the earthbank was slow, but I was on target, spiking the control that couldn't be seen coming from my direction.

12-13 - Straight. The map was hard to read. It seemed like the tree was more in the green.

13-F - Straight but slow.

This was pretty good. Having taken some medication before I ran may have helped cut down on some knee pain I've been having, as did the soft damp ground. Too bad I can't run on soft ground regularly.

Green - Splits

2021 Summary

Activity # time miles km Climb +m Accuracy
Orienteering 85 205:18:57 378.53 (32:33) 609.19 (20:13) 39536 296 / 336c 88%
Running 112 73:50:13 451.46 (9:49) 726.55 (6:06) 6055
Hiking 57 46:34:11 92.39 148.69 2466
Bicycling 20 13:51:14 194.65 (4:16) 313.25 (2:39) 2411
Rowing 1 1:27:09 3.33 (26:10) 5.36 (16:16)
Calisthenics 39 39:00
Swimming 1 20:00
Other 1 20:00

Total 278 342:20:44 1120.36 1803.04 50468 296 / 336c 88%
averages - sleep:6.6 weight:193.3lbs