Training Log Archive: Nadim

Wheaton Regional Park. I provided beginner instruction for QOC's event. Heidi and David Onkst had organized it as they've done the past several years. The instruction included walking through a very short model course a few times. Near the end, one late participant came so I walked the first 5 controls with her, while picking them up. Along the way, I found a minor new trail. It was a pretty nice day with plenty of participants. Perhaps the heat and humidity helped my back; it didn't hurt to walk much. I didn't try running but think I could have. Afterward several of us (Maces, Daniel Heimgartner, Peggy, Samantha) ate lunch but Heidi had signs to pickup.

From Northfield Rd., to the intersection of Rugby Ave. and Auburn Ave. I had a doctor appointment this morning so I worked the rest of the day at home. There's more to come regarding my back but I'll start with a steroid and go from there. With some simple tests the doctor confirmed weaknesses in my left foot; he called it a "drop" of some sort. After I got home, Max got home from his camp so we rode over into Bethesda together for lunch.

From the intersection of Rugby Ave. and Auburn Ave., to Northfield Rd. After lunch, Max went off on his own to hang out with a friend. I rode home slowly, being full from lunch and tired. As I was going up a small grade, I heard "passing on your left" and a guy on a long board went whizzing by. It was motorized and he controlled the speed and braking with a hand remote. I passed him back at the next intersection on the downgrade.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. The winds were more from the east this day so I had some headwinds. I was more tired. I rode alone.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. My leg wasn't hurting when walking about as much again today. However, while walking back with Mark Mace from lunch, I did stumble and almost fall from an uneven crack in the sidewalk. It was the weakness in my left ankle that I'd been feeling since Sunday more than the slight unevenness in the sidewalk. Riding back, there were slight headwinds similar to the previous day. I had my laptop in my backpack so I had a little extra weight. I kept spinning and felt a bit weak but my time was okay, all considering.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. The winds were coming from the NE. That is rare but it seemed favorable much of the time. I also carried my work laptop in my backpack. I passed a guy who had just gotten on the trail ahead of me. He passed me a mile later and led me a few miles. However when we hit the flats near Fletchertown Boathouse, he slowed and I went ahead. The trail was busy.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. It was a little easier when walking and standing this day. The pain in my leg comes and goes. On the ride back home, there were some headwinds but it wasn't bad. Getting through Georgetown with traffic, I got ahead of a guy who passed me back pretty quickly. He slowly pulled ahead and I slowly caught up again. Eventually, when passing others we broke apart again, only for me to catch him again and pass him just before Falls Rd. I got home and over to pickup Samantha just as she was getting concerned about being the last one in daycare.

Similar to Monday, I had little time to workout and was not walking well.

I didn't bicycle since I had an offsite training class. With Peggy out of town for work I didn't try to run either. I was limping about throughout the day, and feeling like my left ankle was still weak and would roll over easily.

QOC Summer Short Series at George Mason University, VA. The Lennon's setup a sprinty score-o with a few variations. The map was 1:6250, so a little hard to read at times. It had been updated by Tom Strat so it was pretty good (a few times trails seemed a little off but it was hard to be sure not stopping to check. First, there were 30 controls. 10 of them were connected pairs--dog bones. Individual controls were 5 points, but dog bones were 20. The dog bones made people do more route planning and longer distances. To make it even more interesting, at one end of the dog bones were several Mardi Gras necklace beads. The first few people doing a dog bone leg were to take and wear the beads for extra points. I didn't realize there were more than one necklace at the dog bones so I started out doing one of them that was the furthest away. Dave Pruden passed me on that. I made a mistake going from #56 to #60. I went a long way around a construction site to correct it. Going to the start of my second dog bone, I saw Max who was already on it. I caught up to him a couple of controls later and we ran a few controls close together or with him following. I fit in a few single controls when Max decided not to go for them, and later we met up again. I made another error at #33, being confused by the wall--I ran to the correct area and didn't see it so I went around up to the top only to not find it there either. Down below I was convinced it wasn't there, but Max had found it misplaced a little. We were overtime at that point so we headed in. I never got to the dense area of controls in the middle of the map, nor the ones in the south. I was just running too slowly. I got all 5 dog bones and 9 other controls for 145 points. Max said he got 120.

I was lucky to have been running at all. At times when I started feeling some more pain, I thought I was being fairly stupid for just being out there. The longer I went, the more I loosened up or something. I worried less about it. I did however worry throughout the run since my left toes were numb and I kept feeling like I was going to twist my left ankle. I took it easy or walked on steep ground.

After the running and cleaning-up, most of the attendees went to Tom Strat's High Side Craft Beer Restaurant. I didn't sample the beers--that would have all been wasted on me, not knowing a good beer from a bad one. I happily never acquired the taste. The food was pretty good, and unusual. Some things like popcorn chicken were easily consumed by the kids. Others like a fried shrimp tofu didn't sit well with them but I liked it all. Max did get adventurous enough to try a Carmel Flan and he liked that. Nicole Lennon drove the kids home and treated them to ice cream.

C • Max 2