Training Log Archive: Nadim

Great Falls, VA. Choosing not to travel to the A-meet this weekend and with no local QOC meet scheduled, several of us got together for some training. I set a course and got out with controls a bit late. The first leg angled up a ridge across some ribs to a hidden dot knoll. After some initial unmapped green, the woods were wide open. I spiked it and was able to run up with the control bag. A short next leg climbed further up some splitting narrow and deep reentrants. A third leg crossed the ridge and dropped for faster running along less steep contours. The fourth leg was short with a change in direction to a hidden cliff. Can you tell that I had fun setting the course? I had done it on paper and was happy that things were matching-up until the 8th control. It was in the midst of a lot of boulders and cliffs on a steeper than expected hillside. I was able to read my way down carefully and place the control correctly. After this, the map was less true to reality. I was also hampered by proximity to trails. I had to keep a few controls low enough so that casual passers-by would not see them in the woods. The area was technical enough that it made it hard for me to place correctly and others who were training were sure to have had a difficult time. I got back late but fortunately I had left the maps with Peggy and she was able to get people started close to on-time.

This morning hadn't started so good. I discovered that my van had been raided and my automobile GPS taken. It's not normally visible but the crooks knew where to look in our somewhat hidden 3rd glove box. I was distracted enough by this that as I was driving to the park, I missed an exit and had a hard time turning around getting back.

Difficult Run, VA. While others were out training, Max and I hiked along Difficult Run. I had intended to go to the Potomac River but it was farther than I had expected. We got to an old quarry and did some rock hopping on the creek. Max also needed a toilet so we turned back.

Great Falls, VA. From Rte. 193, I picked-up some of the furthest away controls. Mark Mace was picking up some too and we joined-up briefly. We were going to leave them all out but there was a chance that some of them could have been seen so we only got a few. The rest were to be picked-up by others on Sunday. After the training and control pickup we retreated to Cabin John, MD and had a nice lunch together.

From Northfield Rd. to Maple Ave. via the Georgetown Branch Trail, then to the Bethesda Metro Station via the Air Rights Building tunnel. I had a bad start this morning having overslept, then discussing things with a building contractor, and forgetting Max's lunch after driving him to day care. The traffic had been bad so I got out the bike after returning home for Max's lunch and rode. It was much quicker than driving and quicker than usual since I didn't have to tow Max and his trailer. I reached Maple Ave. in 8:52 despite some normal traffic on the neighborhood route that I take--its much quieter than the shorter way on main roads that commuting cars have to follow.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It started sprinkling a little just before getting home.

Washington, D.C. Having a rare opportunity for a date night with Peggy, I planned ahead so I could run at lunch time--another rare ocurrance lately. I was hungry well before going out which is one of the main reasons that I don't run at lunchtime. Weather and time/distance limitations are other factors in my not running at lunch much. I did what I call the Memorial Tour from my office (From 14th & Independence Ave. SW, past the Tidal Basin, and Jefferson Memorial over 14th St. Bridge to the Mt. Vernon Trail, past Lady Bird Johnson Memorial to Memorial Bridge past the Lincoln Memorial, along Independence Ave., over the Kutz Bridge, to 14th St. to C. St. SW. to 13th St. SW). Temperatures were in the 60's F. Though I started pretty strong and felt quicker early, I was tiring before getting to Memorial Bridge (<2.6 miles). I could have used a bathroom along the way too.

From Northfield Rd., Greenwich Park, to Old Georgetown Rd. to Beech Dr. to to Singleton Dr. to Bulls Run Pkwy., to the trail along the school to Bradmore Dr. to Folkstone Rd. to Hartsdale Ave. to Heampstead Ave. to McKinley St. to Garfield St., to Roosevelt St., to the trail at Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. Peggy, Max, and I had been out after work and school looking for Halloween costumes and the right paint color for our room addition to our house. That didn't leave much time to digest dinner and run. I watched more of the enthralling National Parks series on PBS but even after 11pm, I was still feeling full. I finally got on the road 15 minutes before midnight. I was a bit tired but wanted to go to get 60 miles (running only) for the month and to complete the whole month of doing some kind of loggable workout each day. Though I took it at a calm pace, my left knee troubled me a bit. The temperature was supposed to be only around 57F but it seemed a lot colder. With a long sleeve t-shirt I managed to sweat some and it felt better than being inside since with the construction work at our house, the heat was not working.

From 12th & Independence Ave. to the National Mall, crossing at Madison Dr., NW to the Washington Monument, past the WWII Memorial and the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial, to Ohio Dr. to the Rock Creek Trail, through the tunnel near the National Zoo, back to the Rock Creek Trail, to the Melvin Hazen Trail, to Connecticut Ave., NW, to the UDC Metro Station. I left work around 6:30pm. At first I felt a bit of sciatica down my right leg and but it went away and by the time I got to the Washington Monument, the sun was hitting the horizon in Virginia and blinding me. Left knee discomfort (where I had surgery) was feld earlier during most of the day but that went away when I was able to pop it right before the run. I moved along quickly, feeling good from the cool weather, a rice filled burrito lunch, and spurred along by feeling like I needed to pass other runners. I was probably running too fast sometimes but I backed-off the pace more than once. It was getting dark fast in the Rock Creek Valley but I decided to push on instead of turning off at Woodley Park as I more often do. I slowed down in a few places when it was too dark to see the paved trail or when I was getting blinded by cars driving on the parkway with their lights aimed at me. My run before I turned off the Rock Creek Trail, was later calculated at 7:14 pace. Next, the real darkness had me walking several times as I made my way up the dirt, root and rock strewn Melvin Hazen Trail. It was dark enough that I lost the trail at a forked switchback and I used street lights above to guide me out on some light underbrush. Once back on the lighted and paved Connecticut Ave. sidewalks, I got moving fast again all the way to the metro station.

From Northfield Rd. to Maple Ave. with Max via the Georgetown Branch Trail, then after dropping him and his trailer off, to the Bethesda Metro Station via the Air Rights Building tunnel. Max and I were a mail delivery truck today (according to him). We dropped off some bills in a mailbox en-route. It was a bit damp here and there still.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Maple Ave. to pickup Max's trailer, then to Northfield Rd. via the Air Rights Building tunnel. I also stopped to pickup some milk.

Event: QOC Patuxent
 

QOC: Patuxent, MD. Peggy was course setter for the day. I started-off by running her Blue course. It had rained a lot the night before and the sun had poked through the clouds for an hour or so before I ran making it a bit humid by not really hot. I ran pretty well for most of the course. Of my 3 errors, one was a repeat from last weekend when I did a 180 leaving a control. The other two were affected by vegetation. Vegetation played a more prominent part of the runs today. QOC usually runs here in the colder March weather, after winter has already cleared out the leaves and underbrush. There were several times where my progress was hampered by hitting unexpected green so I guess it's not too bad that only 2 of them caused outright errrors. Heidi Onkst who was behind me at #15 and running the Green course, beat me on the short leg to #16 when I banked upward trying to avoid the vegetation. I lost a lot of time unexpectedly by hitting a wall of green when trying to cross a marsh stream. I crossed that stream easily and quickly but ended up in taking several minutes inching my way through about 20-30ft. of thorns. I made an error on #18 after passing Heidi who was by this time going to a different control and hadn't had my #17. I drifted left in the green and had never done that on very similar legs on Springtime runs. Upon relocating I had bumped into Tim Good who had also been wandering; I was able to get us both to the control. While these errors sound back, they probably were 1.5-2 minute errors each. The few walls of green that I hit were probably as big a part in my slower than expected pace. I was not so energetic this day either but Peggy's often deceptively tricky course setting gets credit too. I ran the Blue course planning in advance to run the Orange Long course afterward but probably wouldn't have run much faster even if I hadn't planned for the second course.

QOC: Patuxent River Park, MD. About 20 minutes after having finished the Blue course and getting some refreshments, I got out again on what was dubbed as an Orange Long course. I had actually encouraged Peggy to set this course not because I expected to run it but I thought it more appealing to adventure racers and we had some success drawing them to a similar course last year in Pohick Regional Park, VA. Peggy obliged by using controls she had planned for other courses. Peggy recommended that I run it instead of the Green course which duplicated a lot of the Blue course.

I wasn't executing very well at first, taking a less than efficient route to #1. There had also been a change in trail heads on the way, where I was expecting to find an intermittent trailhead but it had become enough grown-over that it wasn't there. The map had been updated regarding this but I was kind of on autopilot having been to the area on many previous courses. It threw me for a few seconds and I backed up to make sure I hadn't missed it. Since this was an Orange level course, I ran trails a lot. Attacking #4 from a trail intersection, I found myself a bit left and missed seeing a large reentrant. Thus I lost another minute :( Can I chaulk this up to being tired? I executed the rest of the controls well.

The course was sort of two loops with the last one being most of the Yellow course. The second loop crossed a large historic field several times that is used for growing corn now but it was once the first African American owned airport in the country. The corn had been cut with the stalks remaining and pushed in alternating directions. Sometimes they were like little gas pedals to step on and sometimes they were like daggers aimed at my shins. I ran across pretty fast but I was too tired to run really fast. Control #13 was a water control but with only 5-6 minutes left I didn't stop to drink there. On the way to #14, I was again crossing the flat field when suddenly my energy level just fell through the floor. I took this to be hitting the wall and being out of glycogin. It was odd in that it was just so sudden. I almost had to start walking whereas I was just cruising along before it with no redline type of warning. I later checked my heart rate monitor and was rather surprised to see that my heart rate had dropped from 156 to 108 in about 30 seconds while still trying to run. It stayed low just over a minute until I got to the next control and had a chance to catch my breath just a little. I recovered my pace after that and my heart rate had climbed back up to 157 right afterward, in the same 30 seconds. Wierd. If it was hitting the wall, that's good. I wanted to get a longer run in today to train for the Hudson Highlander and I'd take this as a good chance for my body to get reaccustomed to switching over to using other fuels. Too bad I didn't have longer to go after that...