Training Log Archive: Nadim

Rosaryville State Park, MD. Using Jon Torrance's draft map, I wandered about the park to get a better feel for it. Peggy and I got married at the mansion in the park but we'd only been in a small part of it. There are tons of trails--they could make championship White courses. Many of these are very twisty. There's a good bit of contour. Jon hadn't finished modifying the LIDAR based contours upon which he started with but there was definite evidence of the need to extend the reentrants. Having run on and mapped other areas using LIDAR based contours, I expected to be able to see more of the subtle reentrants. Even some of the larger ones in the northern area seemed to need some fixing. Off trail, the terrain was a big mix of things. Parts of it resembled Fair Hill State Park (also in MD) with open fields and horse trails. Generally, the hills were larger or at least steeper than Fair Hill. The woods had many nice areas along with all other shades of green in equal abundance. In the center of the park were distinct groves that were probably once clear cut; they are now tightly spaced trees like tall saplings. I think Jon has yet to add more point features though some that made it on the draft were small. Small streams, gullies and ditches weren't on the map yet and will definately affect navigation. Many gullies are deep. Streams and gullies can have steep sides. Main reentrant bottoms tended to have clutter. As usual it was fun exploring. I stayed out in the 35F windy weather longer than I expected; probably because I didn't have my watch with me (I timed using my car clock). I'm eagar to see how Jon finishes this area. The first QOC meet here should be in April 2008.

I kept moving through almost all of this. I hadn't gone this long in a while. My back felt good despite tightness after the race yesterday; it wasn't tight after today. I'm going to declare myself healed for now. This makes 4 days in a row when I've gotten out into the woods in the daylight. Maybe I should bite the bullet and start running at lunchtime--something I've resisted for a long time. It's amazing how much more I feel I can do and how quickly I can improve when I have the time. In other words it's nice to know that I can bounce back for now. I don't expect to have the time after the holidays and may not always be able to bounce back.

C • Championship White courses 2

Event: QOC: Manassas
 

Stuart's Hill, Manassas, VA. With dire weather predictions, QOC went ahead and had an nice meet. It stopped raining by the time I got out and the temperature was in the low 40's but very damp. It didn't get windy until the end. I ran pretty well in this fairly open, less technical, and flatish area. There were a few baubles like at #1, on the way to #7, and #15. The rest weren't all easy but I got through them fairly well. The complexity was raised by a problem with the map printing; the rough open came out as white. Fortunately there were distinct vegetation boundaries on the map. I felt decent starting out but on the way to #3, I felt odd and needed to slow. It was sort of like being out of breath but somehow different; more in the stomach and head. I started feeling tired toward the end and got a little more complacent than is wise. My back/tendons felt good through the run. I was thinking about declaring myself healthy again but I could feel things tightening at the base of the spine and through the right buttock afterward.

Red - Splits

Rock Creek Park, DC. From the DC/MD border, I ran the Western Ridge Trail to Bingham Dr. to the Valley Trail, then back to the parkinga area at the DC/MD border. It was right around freezing starting out but the damp parts of the trail hadn't frozen hard. I got out early; too early and slow for me to feel the hills much until later. I ran in tights which I don't usually do. They felt fine for the weather and almost like shorts feel. They spurred me to run a bit faster on the flat areas and down hills. I also had some women runners who were going parallel along Beach Dr. that spurred me to push a little. It was hard for me to keep pace with them due to curves and the trail obstacles. This was a nice way to start the day.

Rock Creek, MD. From the southern Lake Frank parking area off Avery Rd. Using just a USGS topo, I ran west across the valley then north over the hills to viewpoints above Lake Needwood. I looped back counterclockwise up and down a lot. It was a beautiful sunny 45F day making it well worth the hassle of getting around the holiday season traffic. In the past I had mostly run in these areas at night. It was really nice to see in the day becuase I could really tell how open the woods were. I think the areas I ran in can be mapped fairly quickly if using a GPS for the point features. It's unfortunate that there aren't a lot of features one the hilltops. There is less rock than the areas I had mapped to the south; there are various dot knolls, rootstocks, areas of stony ground, a ruin, a cairn. Though off trail almost the whole time, I ran in some trail shoes that I hope will be useful for a rogain in 2008. They were a little harder to use running across the steeper slopes on damp leaves. I hardly felt my back at all.

I got a late night ride in just before going to bed. My back feels better.

My back was feeling a bit tight after running yesterday and we decided to do some shopping too. I came back and rode after that watching a Southpark episode on imagination.

From Rosedale Ave. Battery La. to Glenbrook Dr. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Maple Ridge Rd. to the NIH Trail to Jones Bridge Rd. to Maryland Ave. to Rosedale Ave. I did this about 40 seconds slower on 11/20/07. I hadn't been feeling much from my back the last two days so I thought I'd try a run. It didn't take long to fee something though not exactly where I expected it. I felt a bit of soreness in the right buttock but after the run, the mild pain and tightness sort of migrated more the left side of the base of the spine. Weird. I've been eating too much.