Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Patapsco Granite
 

QOC: Patapsco Granite. I started out intending to run both the Blue and Middle courses but only had time for the Blue course. I started okay, yet feeling tired.

I just about spiked #1 reading contours (actually getting about 5m past the control).

On the second leg, I got across the creek and started climbing while rounding the curved hillside. I didn't see it and figured out correctly that I was just a tiny bit low.

On leg 3, I seem to recall an extra trail (this might have been another leg), and it threw me off a little. Next seeing what appeared to be extra ridges got me confused. The ridges were fairly well defined and the contours on the map seemed too soft or generalized. As I got too far, I went ahead to a trail to be sure of where I was, before turning around and hitting it easily.

For leg 4, I thought about going around the ridge but didn't take long enough to assess it. I was trying to run too much instead of navigating. I was kicking myself as I got to the bottom of the reentrant and still had a ridge to get around. The trail I got on seemed a little off. I figured there were too many new trails so that I should just ignore differences. Rounding the last ridge, and attacking off of the trail at the bottom of a reentrant, I spiked it but I was slow.

For #5, I went straight predicting the tree the control would be on as soon as I'd gotten to the field. I was still just too weak to run this faster.

I went pretty straight toward #6. I got into some unmapped deadfall south of the control. Kim Jepsen was coming in from my left headed to the control more directly. I had to adjust left at the end.

I ran smoothly and made up some distance on Kim. I realized I was getting too far to the right by looking at the reentrant to the left. I adjusted and so did Kim. I think he got there just before I did.

I ran confidently toward #8. Kim's bearing seemed to be wrong because he appeared to me to be heading to another control. I climbed the hill after crossing a reentrant and saw the ditches ahead. I thought that all was well but I didn't see the control. I hunted around, mostly in the control circle. Other people were hunting farther away. Eventually, I walked straight over from the top of a mapped ditch and found the control deep in the pit. I must have missed it by only 10 ft. or less on my first pass. Kim passed me on this though he was on another course. I didn't see when he punched, but I did see him leaving the area.

I ran well and fairly straight toward #9. As I was getting close, I saw Kim running up the reentrant that I was angling down. I realized that the control was not in the ditch at the crease of the reentrant, but I was just low enough again, that I passed the control a slight way. I climbed and hit it without a lot of delay.

I ran straightish again but up the left side of the first hill. I'd gotten confused in the field thinking that I was suddenly further ahead. I kept m bearing and recovered from the mental lapse without any loss other than going down one reentrant that I didn't have to (still on a straightish route). Eventually, I attacked from where the ride SW of the control, hit a field. I spiked it from there.

For #11, I must have drifted too far to the right. I knew I was getting a little off to the right but did this to get around unmapped deadfall. I was surprised at how far ahead I had to go when I'd finally gotten into the correct reentrant. Greg Lennon was converging on this control too, but I got there ahead of him.

For #12, I ran straight and got into a reentrant. I'd intended to basically follow a stream to a stream junction, then attack. However I wasn't thinking so well. After crossing the first creek, I got to thinking I'd crossed much lower and didn't have to cross a second. To make matters worse, as I was attacking I found control #118, which was not on my course. Greg Lennon got to that just behind me and went on. I started going off to where I thought #13 would be--a short distance away. The contrours were close but not matching-up. I ran back to #118, then ran the other direction past it. There was a lot of rock there that I wasn't expecting. That was enough to wake me up and move on to get over the second creek. I spiked the control from there, but not without losing a lot of time on the leg. Others were converging on the control just ahead of me.

For #13, I ran straight. The others I'd seen at #12 were faster but they were not running on a good bearing. I made up time on them but they still got to the control first.

For #14, I ran straight, catching one or 2 other runners but the faster runners I'd seen the last 2 controls stayed ahead.

For #15, I was tired and not feeling that a sprint to the Finish control would help me. I walked the steep little hill.

I liked this terrain but need to get used to the mapping. The extra trails and generalized contours and higher threshold for mapping rock threw me off. I would like a do over but I think the biggest trouble I had was making mistakes due to being in poor physical condition. I could have run slower and would probably have been better.

QOC: Patapsco Granite. I was getting ready to go out on the Sprint course but my daughter Samantha wanted to go out on a course too. I acquiesced. Nicole Aleksieva came along. Once again, the contrast in the two was interesting. Nicole was ever cheery and helpful. Samantha wanted to do her own thing, including running off down the trail near the start triangle if I would have let her. Samantha didn't want much to do with the map for a while but eventually she did read what I showed her and she figured out some routes. I helped her orient the map--she didn't want to wear a thumb compass either. For the 6th control, it was getting late so I took them off path and along a stream for a shorter route. Both girls seemed to do okay with this, and Nicole liked the variation--she'd done the White course on her own (with her mom shadowing) earlier. After finishing-up, I had to hustle to get Samantha to her swimming class so there was no time for me to do my sprint.

Blue - Splits

From Northfield Rd., to Custer Rd., to Huntington Pkwy., to Old Georgetown Rd., to Beech Ave./Burley Dr., Johnson Ave. to Heampstead Ave., to Bradley Park. It was a cool humid evening after a few days of rain. I felt better starting out today than I did doing a similar route earlier this week. By the end however, I was sore in my quads and moving slowly.

From Northfield Rd Bethesda, MD., to Old Georgetown Rd. via Greenwich Park, to Johnson Ave. to Heamsteadt Ave. to McKinley Ave. to Garfield St. to Roosevelt. Ave. to Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd. It was in the mid 50s F and a little humid. It felt pretty good for running and so did I for the first quarter mile. At least that got me up the initial hill. I plodded along after that, still a bit full from dinner.

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., to the Woodley Park/Zoo Metro Station. It reached +80 F but it was breezy and comfortable. There were a lot of other runners, including a big group. They were nearly all going the opposite of the direction that I was running. Initially, I had been running just under 8 minute miles. After the first mile, I slowed but I think I was still going around an minute mile pace.

From Northfield Rd., to Old Georgetown Pike via Greenwich Park, to the Bethesda Trolley Trail, to Rockville Pike, to the Bethesda Metro Station. I should have been running more at night for a long while. Many things had come up including laziness. I had some extra motivation today, to retrieve my bicycle. It had been locked-up at the metro station since last Friday morning. On the run, I felt rather awful, like I was plodding along. However it was a pretty nice evening and I saw a moonrise from the hilltop near the sledding hill in NIH.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. It was dark and quiet. I didn't push hard but had few traffic stops too.

Summer Short Series Prologue: Peggy had been wanting to get the Bolger Center in Montgomery County, MD mapped for a long time. We'd had base data but not much time to do the work. We refined the base data during the last week, and Peggy got a rather wet morning trying to do some field checking on Saturday, the day before she setup training. I think it was successful in that everyone seemed to like the terrain. Over half the area (just about 1 square kilometer) is open with scattered individual trees and buildings; much like a college campus. Trails in the forest along with a good set of ditches, a stream, a few rock features and other man made items were shown. A more thorough field checking will make this area a nice training or sprint or relay map for the club. The course set was fun. I helped set it on paper and Peggy adapted it. I had never set foot on the grounds before so it was interesting running around things that I had gotten familiar with from aerial photos. Though I had worked on the drafting, I hadn't realized that one big hill on it was going down instead of going up. I didn't know there were several depressions until Peggy had modified the base. The first few controls were hard--picking out the right tree amongst many lone trees. I didn't find #1 and the #2 I found may have been for a White course. The lone tree section reminded me of a training event that Spike had setup near Kansas City many years back. Peggy or I will need to fix some trees that didn't get mapped or may have been mapped as a pine instead of a deciduous tree. Many trees had grown-up too. The forested areas were white, with few exceptions. The ditches were more detailed than mapped and will definitely need some fixing. Lunch on the patio at the hotel restaurant afterward was fun too!