Training Log Archive: Nadim

After a day of shopping, Max and I went on a bicycle ride together. We just got him a new bicycle so he was pretty eager to use it. He had already been taking laps near the house and showing it off to friends. From Northfield Rd., we went to Jefferson St., to Roosevelt St., to Garfield St., to McKinley St. to Ewing Dr., to Wilmett Rd., to Bull Run Pkwy., to Singleton Dr., to Beech Ave., to Johnson Ave., to Heampstead Ave., to McKinley St., and back the rest of the way the same as we'd come out. Max said he'd like to do this every day. Most of the route is the reverse of what I'd been using as a local 4 mile loop when running. It would have had longer downhills going in the reverse direction. I was glad to seem Max being enthusiastic about it all. My right leg had been feeling sore behind the knee but it didn't bother me while riding at Max's pace.

No ride again today since I had to take our sick kitten to/from the vet.

No ride today since I had to take our sick kitten to/from the vet.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. It was 59 F, starting out. Cooler than earlier in the week. After dropping the kids of to school before the ride, I'd seen my neighbor Jonathan, just starting his ride as I returned home. It took me a few minutes to get myself out of the car and ready but I had it in mind to catch-up to him as I'd done on occasion previously. That's not a good thing to do when not in shape but the strong tailwinds helped and I eventually caught him at the Kennedy Center. There were only a few places where the winds created more work. Passing through one tunnel along the river, I emerged and got pushed to the side by a blast of wind suddenly. I had both hands firmly on my handle bars so I recovered without further incident but it surprised me and could have been worse. There were relatively few people riding to day.

From 13th & C St., SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. The traffic was busy clearing through Georgtown. It bunched up the cyclists so immediately I was leading a small train. With passing the slower riders, the group split-up but I continued to ride and trade places with others in a unorganized way.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. I felt less sore today. It was pretty humid and warm. Since they were single-tracking the Bethesda station for some reason, the trains were backed-up, crowded and slow.

C • secret training? 3

Washington, D.C. From 12th & Independence Ave., SW, down Independence Ave., to 17th St., along the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial circle, to Ohio Dr. to the Rock Creek Trail, to P St., NW., to 20th St., NW., to the Dupont Circle Metro Station at Q St., NW.

This was the first time all year so far that I went on a run leaving work. I felt way slow and a general lack of energy on this run. It was warm and humid but in retrospect, it's not that far off some of the times I'd run the same route before. It partly must have been that I wasn't used to doing the running and was more used to things passing by at a cycling pace. There were lots of tourists out in the warm weather, and some running groups. I thought I'd seen Amber at one point but must have been in a daze when I concluded incorrectly, that it was someone else. Later, just as I reached the Dupont Circle Metro station I saw Hinda from the MCRRC. She called over and asked what I was doing there (she lives a block away). She was waiting for an out of town friend to arrive but it was good to see her too.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. It was nice to cool off on this ride. Max was playing basketball down the street when I got home and Samantha was visiting our next door neighbor.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. I was tempted to ride all the way to work again but I knew that it'd be better for me to rest after the last few days. It turned out that my back was hurting and I was feeling pain and weakness in my right leg in a more pronounced way again.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. I left work just after a thunderstorm had mostly passed so I was suprised to find dry ground at Bethesda when I started riding. It had been a long day at work so I was tired. My right leg was definately not giving me as much push as my left one.

Event: QOC Balls Bluff
 

QOC: Balls Bluff, VA. I went out steadily and was reading the map well through the first 13 controls. I hadn't orienteered at this park in a long while. Starting at the southern end from Edwards Pavillion was nice. The contours had nice detail and the hills, though significant, weren't too big. The course was set very nicely. I had almost caught Charles Carrick at control #3 but mostly chased him through #8. He'd pause more than I did partly because he was ahead but I think I was reading the map better and deciding quicker too. I passed him on the way to #10. At the end of the butterfly loop at #11, I saw Peggy and asked her what course she was on since she came in from an unexpected way. It turned out that I was just catching her at #11. I led to #12 and #13, spiking these pretty much as all the rest (with about 2 times of being a little off target by 20-30m).

Going to #14 it seemed like I was pulling ahead of Peggy and Charles. I wasn't feeling strong at all. It turned out that they took a different route. After reaching the field using the trail on the right, I angled across but got confused by the edges. I also went pretty close to a cemetary with a wall around it and the wall wasn't on the map. I concluded that I needed to continue across and drop down. As I did, Peggy and Charles emerged running along a trail. I had half a thought to follow them but decided to stick to my navigation. I hit a reentrant that looked right but there were a lot of what I thought were unmapped cliffs there. It was very steep and slow to move along the sides so I dropped down to figure out if I was in one reentrant over. The bottom was green and wet and I kept seeing more cliffs. I climbed and dropped again, then made my way back to the field. When wandering, my energy gets sapped. I felt the warm air and the humidity. From the field, I finally figured out that the cemetary was mapped with open (not rough open) ground and that the wall there wasn't mapped. I proceeded from there directly to the control but lost a lot of time and energy.

Going to the next control feeling tired, I decided not to go up and then along the hillside. I tried contouring over but even that was steep and slow. The very bottom was too narrow, green, and wet. I thought I'd counted reentrants okay but I ended up turning up one reentrant too soon, to the wrong control. I must not have been thinking that well at that point, probably due to fatigue. I didn't check the code as I had been doing on most of the other controls so I didn't realize that I'd mis-punched #15.

My mispunch at #15 meant that I started from a place different from where I thought I was. I angled across the hillside, eventually dropping down to cross the reentrant. Other people were searching there and it had a shape similar to what I was expecting. I climbed the hill ran back along it, and searched without success. Because I'd seen unmapped trails in the butterfly loop, I didn't think much of the trails that I was seeing--I was kind of confident that I was on the right hill but I was wrong. I should have realized it when some younger teens appeared to be following the trails but I let that slide for a while. The climbing and searching further sapped my energy and I eventually left on the trail to proceed and spike the rest of the leg to #16 (with my big error), on the next hill.

Finishing-up the course, I was wish-washy going to #17. I didn't stick with my plan of going the the left. Instead, I took a straighter path that went over an extra hill or 2 and was closer to the neighborhood houses. I caught Gary Smith and Lydia, then some other younger kids. I was moving rather slowly but spiked the rest of the controls. I was surprised to see Lydia approaching the Go control as I was leaving it but that's how tired I was. AP shows errors for the last 2 controls but I was just moving slowly. I guess the bicycling to work for the first time this year, the field checking on Saturday, the errors, and the heat were just more than I was ready for. I still had fun.

Red - Splits