Training Log Archive: Nadim

Cabin John Regional Park, MD. From the playground parking lot off Tuckerman Rd., I went north and did a trail loop. On the way back, I ran in the central section of the park by following the trail parallel to the power lines, and the loop up besides the kiddie train. The conditions were not great--34 F with sometimes icy and muddy footing; it was also past sunset when I finished. I don't think my watch picked up the full distance since just before 2 miles, it took about 20 seconds to cover 0.01 miles. I weighed out at 191.5 despite having a pretty good lunch.

From Cedar Ln., to Knowles Ave. via Beach Dr. and back. Before going on this run, I was feeling poorly. I thought I was going to have a pretty slow run. My stomach was a little unsettled earlier. I picked the location partly since it was flat. The road was closed as it had been most of the time since Spring due to COVID-19 related social distancing efforts by the park. The road being closed was nice since it was dark and elsewhere wet, with some icy areas from partial melting. Passing by earlier in the daytime, I knew Beach Dr. had relatively good footing. The temperature was 34 F. As I neared the first mile, I was surprised that I had been running as fast as I had been. I was not pushing. The good footing may have made the difference since the footing was poor on my last 2 runs.

From Northfield Rd., I went into Greenwich Park, to Old Georgetown Rd. to Alta Vista Rd., to Locust Ave., to Acacia Ave., to Chandler St./Benton Ave., to Cedar Croft Dr., to Rockville Pike. to the NIH Trail to Maple Ridge Rd., to Goddard Rd., to Custer Rd., to Northfield Rd. After the storm yesterday, it got cold and froze. The sunny daylight melted some of it and left ice and slush elsewhere. I decided to use my Ice Bug trail shoes which have waterproofing and have small nubby spikes. Going out, I was slow. The worst ice was on my street and in the park. The pavement was much better on all sides of NIH and even in the Alta Vista streets. It was in the mid 30s F.

From Northfield Rd., Custer Rd. to the Huntington Pkwy., to Old Georgetown Rd., to Battery Rd., to Wisconsin Ave., to Woodmont Ave., to Bethesda Ave., to Arlington Rd., to Wilson Ave., to Custer Rd., to Northfield Rd. It had started snowing this morning in wet flakes, and accumulated almost 2 inches before it changed over to rain. As I went out, it was 33 F and it was still raining with flood alerts. Though the rain wasn't heavy, the snow melt helped make a stream flow down the street. There was enough slush that it channeled where cars had driven. I made up the route as I went and thought I'd run a shorter distance due to the weather. I reasoned that there was a better chance of people having cleared sidewalks in downtown Bethesda so I headed there. Walkways were better in general, but not always. Since the wind was kicking up, it was magnified around the tall buildings and swirled. I plodded along at a comfortable pace not wanting to slip where it was icy. I dressed right with Goretex up and down but there was still the rain and spray blowing around. Some sidewalks on parts of Wisconsin Ave. are still closed due to building construction so I hustled one block when there was a lull in the cars. It was a nice adventure overall since it had been a while since running in similar conditions. My feet got cold initially on the first ice dam puddles but I warmed up and sweat too.

From Northfield Rd., Mooreland Dr., to Glenwood Rd., to the Bethesda Trolley Trail on the south side of NIH, to Jones Bridge Rd., to Maryland Ave., to Fairfield Dr., to Lynbrook Dr., to Chestnut St., to Kentbury Dr., to Chelton Rd., to East-West Hwy., to Old Georgetown Rd., to Huntington Pkwy., to Custer Rd., to Northfield Rd. I felt low energy during this run and I felt like I was moving slower. It was about 38 F starting out. The route doesn't have a lot of climb but the middle sections feel that way.

From Ray's Meadow Park and the Ohr Kodesh Congregation parking lot (near East West Hwy in Rock Creek Park, MD), I ran up the Rock Creek Trail to the trail intersection with Kensington Pkwy., then ran back. The heavy rains had stopped for a few hours before I started but it was wet out. The creek was raging but not overflowing its banks. Though the trail is paved, there were some places where drainage was flowing over it. I had to get in some mud in a few places. I felt tired going out but a little less so when returning, which is generally down the stream course. It was in the upper 30s F and breezy.

Event: QOC PWF Oak Ridge
 

QOC: Prince William Forest at Oak Ridge. This event was QOC's National Ranking Event (NRE). I had done some of the original scouting of this area with others and had even gotten to checkout an early draft of the mapping done by John Torrance. Instead of running my age group, I ran up, in M45+ on the Red course. Had I been further along in my rehabilitation training, I'd have run Blue. Today was a good day for me overall. While not always in contact with the map, I read it well. I used some new 2.0 diopter glasses and that may have helped. Though not all flat, the contours here are subtle. The terrain is a bit more open than many of QOC's maps but there was enough deadfall and other low vegetation to keep one looking for footing a lot. My routes today were rather straight--an 8.0K course is 4.8 miles, and I only ran 4.98 miles to complete the course, including my one mistake.

S-1 - I opted to go high, over the ridges to have more to navigate by. I stayed above the green portions before turning down. The longer route to the left along the steam was probably quicker but I hadn't waited long enough to analyze that before running.

1-2 - I've been feeling too slow to go far around obstacles so I decided against going NW along the stream and around the green. Instead I went pretty much straight, over the high part of a ridge mapped green. The green wasn't very bad. I went left to get past the roughest parts and only walked a short way.

2-3 - On this turning leg, I could see the control after taking about 4 steps away from #2. Another guy was ahead of me too and I guessed he was running Red too.

3-4 - I took off quickly going straight. I'd partly wanted to get away from the other guy who'd just punched. He hadn't taken a step since getting to the control before I left and didn't look back. I kept a pretty straight route but I struggled matching-up contours. It was often the case that I was confusing up and down. I knew I was on target seeing David Onkst punch on a dot knoll, about 1/3 of the way--I'd remembered seeing this dot knoll when I originally had done some scouting here. I started getting a little to the left to reduce climb 3/4 of the way but I was able to read my way in. I was concerned not seeing the control as I neared the green and saw the stream, but it was just a short way in.

4-5 - I left #4 a little to the left and later compensated. As I popped over the ridge I saw the control and I was on target. Starting this leg, I again was having trouble understanding up and down in the contours.

5-6 - I continued having trouble understanding up and down leaving #5. It looked like I'd be going down across a reentrant, but I started climbing some more first. Very soon after as I was crossing a longer formline contour and on flatter ground, I lost solid contact with the map. I hit some green and went around most of it on the right side. I kept my bearing and kept skirting the deafall by going right. In reality, from my GPS track, I was going fairly straight. I was just not matching things up. I kept doing this as I was looking for a steeper downslope. As I finally found one, I cut left to try to compensate and checkout a valley, but finding what I thought might be my gully, I was actually on a stream. I noted a bend and stopped. About here, my son Max came out of nowhere. He'd been lost for 30 minutes on a control. I told him I was lost too but eventually I told him where I thought we were and I took off. I had to climb another ridge and drop into the next valley. As I did this, the map made sense to me again. Nearing the control from above, I could see Diana Aleksiev heading toward the control on a more direct route. I saw the control seconds later and pushed to get there ahead of her.

6-7 - I've been running slower than last year and a few times last year Diana had passed me on a course. I was expecting that to happen again so I pushed a bit more. I had to leave #6 to the left a bit to get past the deadfall, but after that I went straight. I was looking for a side reentrant and it was the only one before the large reentrant ended. I just kept myself high enough above the larger reentrant to spike it. I think I'd been in this area before when scouting too.

7-8 - Diana was not far behind as I left #7. I headed just to the left of the first big deadfall to start out. I kept going straight afterward, making slight adjustments for what I was seeing. I did drift right near the clearing on the ridge at about midway (I'd been there when scouting previously too--I think the leg line for #2 was covering up some of the large depressions that one time were mapped as ruins) but that also helped me find a good way through the deadfall ahead. I kept moving and spiked the control.

8-9 - As I left #8, I could see that Diana was not far behind again. I went straight at first but adjusted to the right to get around the green on the map. The rest was straight. I picked-up the pace on the flatter ground up top that was very open, and I spiked the control seeing just left of my bearing.

9-10 - With a few shorter legs, I wanted to run faster. I was concerned about making a bonehead mistake but I wanted to stay ahead of Diana. With the open running it was okay, though instead of seeing just one dot knoll in the terrain as mapped, I saw 3. I kept my bearing and used the subtle reentrant to spike it. It was green in the area. Another QOC racer was standing looking at his map with the control about 10m away.

10-11 - I ran straight and spiked it. A family had just left the control about 30 seconds before I'd gotten there.

11-12 - I was getting tired. I started out straight. At one point I was going around some green and fell as I tripped. As I got up, I had suddenly thought myself to be further ahead. I kept my bearing and calmed down reading more while pushing a little less, and recovered to spike it.

12-13 - I was getting a little careless, reading my compass less. I did seen the reentrant off to my right that points to the control. I drifted a little left but saw the green ahead, and then the open ground behind it. I corrected and ran faster.

13-F - I tried to push harder about half way there.

As indicated, this was a good run for me overall. With some more training I hope to regain some speed and strength climbing. I felt that the terrain today was championship quality and so it's good to end the orienteering competition year on a high note. I was right at 10 minutes/K and I haven't been running that fast on most courses this year.

Red - Splits