Training Log Archive: Nadim

Kansas City, MO. As I drove in from the airport, the temperature was 20F and dropping quickly with 30mph winds, and light snow. It was whiting out and there were lots of little wrecks. You know it's not good when you look in your rear view mirror and a snow plow is bearing down on you kicking up snow while a car in front is slowing down. Though the snow had stopped by the time I was done with work and ready to run, it was getting dark, still icy, getting colder and still windy. I opted to use a treadmill to get a better run. I started slowly and gradually increased pace. There were a couple interruptions when my arm swing inadvertantly hit the quick stop button. I still don't believe the work incurred on a treadmill is the same as running in the great outdoors but according to the machine, I was averaging somewhere just under 7 minute/mile pace. I was running in the 6:20's at the fastest. Despite the treadmill, this was still a decent workout.

C • falling temp 2

Kansas City, MO. After the treadmill run in the hotel, I took advantage of the pool that I had all to myself. I cooled down floating on my back, kicking gently and using my arms a bit to do laps. These days, I have enough body fat to float reasonably--it's too many cookies the last 2 days. After backfloating, I hit the hot tub for a while. Yes, work trips can be busy.

Washington, D.C. From 14th & Independence Ave. SW. to the Reflecting Pool, to Lincoln Circle, to the Rock Creek Trail around the Kennedy Center and the Watergate complex to Virginia Ave. NW. to Roosevelt Bridge, to the Mt. Vernon Trail to Memorial Bridge. to the Lincoln Circle, to Daniel French Dr. SW. to Independence Ave. SW, to 14th St. SW. to C. St. SW to 13th St. SW. My legs were heavy and dead feeling but with travel to Kansas City, MO scheduled for the next 3 days, I need the time on the roads. The run was a little longer than I expected. I plodded along, picking up speed whenever the grade angled downward. The tailwind the last two miles was good. It was nice and sunny by the time I finished. Sweating on the run was a welcome change since my office is rather cold these days.

C • Instead of riding to work o... 2

C • Thursday 2

Event: QOC: Lake Fairfax
 

QOC: Lake Fairfax, VA. After Peggy had a go at running, I did the Advanced Sprint 1 course. My warm-up consisted of doing a few figure eights in the cabin. It was about 39F. I planned to use the races today as an interval workout but I wouldn't have done much faster in any case. I'd seen a runner before me walking up a hill toward #1 but when I started, I had trouble locating the start triangle and #1 on the map. I think the line color was too close to the contour color and perhaps too thin for me. I did okay through #5 but on the way to #6, I dropped a bit low about 30m away from the control. I found some extra ditches or at least a longer one than was mapped. The rest were sort of okay but slowish. Climb shown is from my GPS track.

Lake Fairfax, VA. Warm-up jog to the start of the Advanced Sprint 2. I jogged with Dann Quinn and John ____.

QOC: Lake Fairfax, VA. While waiting I saw Ted Good then Jon Torrance finish. One adventure racer went out ahead of me on the flat. Ted was encouraging me to go; I expected it to be amusing for him. Dan Quinn was going to start after me but planned to go slow. I went ahead. I made a good choice to #1 but not without first stepping into a icy puddle while reading my map trying to find #1 on the map. I moved okay but on the way to #3, I kept getting a bearing that took me too far to the right. I ran across a reentrant junction and mistook it for one further to the left. This resulted in me stopping one ridge too soon. Not until another slower racer came through and I had checked out the ridge I was on did I realize that I needed to go further. A similar thing happened to me on the way to #7. I ran a good bearing into the woods off the field. My compass was confusing me as I hunted the ridge. After an errant loop, I finally found it. On the way to #8, my bearing was again disagreeing with the valley. I trusted the valley and got there fine. The rest were okay. After stopping, I checked the roads and they seemed to align fine; perhaps it was the bubble that formed in my compass that was throwing me off.

C • Number 3 5

Lake Fairfax, VA. Warm-down jog to the cabin. I again jogged with Dann Quinn (and his dog) and on other racer.

QOC: Lake Fairfax, VA. I hadn't planned to go out again for the Beginner Sprint course. Since there was still time to finish the course, since Valerie Meyer informed me that it counted for the Peter Gagarin Sprint Championship Series, and since it'd be a good speed/strength workout, I went ahead. Bjorn Johanson and Andy Britton had just finished and indicated that it was a fast course. The first 3 controls were the reverse of the Advanced 1 course. With the wind at my back, it felt nice however I again had difficulty locating the start on the map and was slow to start. I cruised through things smoothly. I took the road to #7. I cut through the woods to #8 but did it too early, incurring some uneeded climb. On the way to #10, I was getting a bit out of breath and lost concentration. I was confused about which side of the creek that the control was on and went a bit out of the way. From #11 to #12 and #13, I was poking. The wind had picked up and made the climb in the open field harder than I was happy with. I saw both controls from far off. I went around the fences to #14. As for the race, I was pleased that I could still run a decent pace after all the earlier races and big increase in trail running earlier in the week--it was probably the first week with over 40 miles of running since I did a rogaine with Dave Onkst about a year and a half back.

Beginner - Splits

Adv Sprint 1 - Splits

Adv Sprint 2 - Splits

I spent the morning doing some plumbing and then helped my mom and sister get dinner arrangements setup for guests who came for my grandmother's memorial service. I got home late so there was only time to ride. I did it pretty close to a 65rpm.

Lake Frank, Montgomery County. From the Meadowbrook Nature Center parking lot I covered some of the trails to the west and south. Once again, I was surprised at just how many trails there were. I probably only went over my footsteps more than once for half of this distance. I captured the trails via GPS for future mapping. The areas within and surrounding the Smith Environmental Center will make some interesting sprint terrain due to the many small trails and scattered point features. A lot of the trails were icy. Packing in a hurry prior to this, I forgot to bring running sweats so I ran about in the 34F air with cotton sweats and a double t-shirt. My legs were tired.

Once again, I had the opportunity to get out on a work day because of bad news. My dad's step mother had died (the only mother he knew) so I was at the service and funeral earlier in the day. I think she was in her 90's. Having not seen her much throughout my life (she was mostly in Oklahoma the last few years) and being unable to communicate with her when I did see her, I wasn't close to her. However I was glad that I could help support my dad through this. He is now the eldest in the family. I had only found out about this yesterday and services happen quickly in my geneological culture. My parents were among the earliest of what was then East and West Pakistan to immigrate to the US so I didn't see much of this culture. Growing up as American perhaps with this chip on my shoulder, I did not take to a lot of the rituals and beliefs. Running was often one escape. Even now, I continue to gain insight whenever my relatives get together.

C • I never knew your backgroun... 4

A short run would have been nice but I was feeling chilled from being in a cold office all day (energy saving measures are in effect) and it was a cold and windy night. I spinned trying to take it easy but feeling like I still had to do some work to keep a cadence averaging right at 65.

Lake Frank, Montgomery County. From the Meadowbrook Nature Center. parking lot I covered some of the trails north of Muncaster Mill Rd. (up to where the ICC will be built) and all the remaining trails south of Muncaster Mill Rd. on the east side of the main stream feeding the lake. I ran with a park trail/topo map but didn't use it much. In terms of distance, there were many more trails than I anticipated and much more than is officially shown. There were also many animal trails that I didn't cover. I had to go out and back on several segments. Of course, I ran with my Garmin 305 so as to capture the trails for future mapping. The mostly open woods and many boulder features increase my appetite for getting this into OCAD and walking it for more thorough field checking later.

This was a sort of bonus day for me. Max had an upset stomach so instead of working I stayed home with him till Peggy could take over during a conference call that I couldn't miss (Max got better). Since Max had his nap after I was done, I had daylight to get out in. I had been planning a street/trail run at lunch at work which would have been more usefull for rebuilding speed. The trails I ran on were often icy and sometimes muddy (it was 40F when starting but cooled). My legs were feeling a bit shot not long after starting out. By the end, I knew I had been running long enough; going up steep hills didn't feel much different than running flat ones.