Training Log Archive: jtorranc

Terrain scouting in Prince William Forest Park related to QOC's intended US Champs bid. We started off with a short map walk on a section of the South Fork map for which Greg Lennon had produced LIDAR-derived contours. The consensus appears to be that they're pretty good, certainly usable as base map material, though it will definitely be helpful to provide contours with a smaller interval than the intended 5 meters for the final map - we had one map that had been produced with a 2.5m interval and it definitely showed some subtle detail that was lost on the 5m interval maps and that would be useful to the field checker in coming up with their interpretation.

After that, we split up and I scouted an area inside the scenic loop to the north of the Turkey Run Ridge campground that Francis had visited on the last scouting trip. It was mostly nice woods with relatively few point features and thicker vegetation up on top of most spurs and ridges. Having finished up there I struck off west and somewhat south to meet Nadim at the SW corner of the scenic loop. The terrain crossed here was more or less similar to what I'd seen earlier. I ran across one particularly nice large steep hillside incised by a fairly complex set of reentrants and spurs.

Did some abdominal and other core strength exercises while watching "The Fellowship of the Ring" on TV.

Transporting myself from home to dance class to pool to home.

Dance class, Helen subbing for Deborah. I enjoyed the combinations - having been the week before to work off some of my rust may have helped, making me feel less clumsy. Signed up for a Monday evening class starting in January and culminating in performances in mid-March. Didn't occur to me at the time that this will have me regularly missing the beginning of '24' but it wouldn't have moved me to change course.

Mostly front crawl and flutter kick with some breast stroke and back stroke and the tiniest bit of butterfly. It had occurred to me that the Department of Parks and Recreation land the swim center sits on plus the contiguous grounds of Coolidge High School might just amount to a usable sprint map. On looking closer, it would be a short and technically easy sprint, even taking into account some large buildings and lengthy uncrossable fences that would force some legs to be much longer on the ground than as the crow flies but I think it would be fun. I'll have to acquite the DOQQ and add it to my list of mapping projects I have no time for.

Run in through Rock Creek Park and two to three inches of wet snow.

Commute in as yesterday. I think this really may be a rare instance of it making sense to ride on the sidewalk. 16th St having been layed out as a ceremonial route leading to the White House, it has enormously wide sidewalks. A good thing since it has no shoulders whatsoever.

Reevaluating, there is somewhat more climb from my new abode to the office than there was from my old one but the impression of increased climb results more from there also being a couple of significant descents to set up more long, gradual climbs than would otherwise be possible.

Commute home by way of volunteering at PCRM.

A 3 to 6 inch accumulation of snow and sleet is predicted from late tonight through tomorrow morning. I may do a very easy run to work through Rock Creek Park despite my plan to avoid running a bit longer - the opportunity to run in the snow is too good to be missed.

Some abdominal exercises, back extensions and bridges while watching CSI.

Commute from new place - significantly more continuously uphill than the old route, though the slope is mostly very gentle. As of this morning, my cold has reached the productive coughing stage. Home again by way of food shopping, a swim and returning some materials to the main branch of the library.

Easier swim - 16 lengths of breast stroke, 8 of front crawl and 16 of flutterkick.

The sore throat that started on Sunday and peaked yesterday with my voice almost non-existant seems to have turned a corner. My voice is gaining volume although it still sounds awful. Not sure whether I'll try cycling home tonight or not but road conditions will be more of a factor than my health.

Cycled home after all, by way of Takoma Park where the Co-op was unfortunately closed for their staff holiday party. Fortunately, I was able to pick up what I wanted at Senbeb Natural Foods on Georgia Avenue heading home from there.

Just a bit of core strength given my cold.

I went to a shamisen ensemble concert at the Japanese Embassy in the evening. Walking home, I confirmed my impression that Rock Creek immediately west of Connecticut Avenue will be a convenient place to do hill training. There are a couple of grassy slopes that climb around 20 meters vertically over the course of 150 to 160 meters (measurements courtesy of Google Earth). I'll probably do hills there as part of my running form workouts. I may also start doing my long intervals there although another nearby offshoot of Rock Creek Park, Pine Branch Park, is probably a stronger candidate for that.