Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd Bethesda, MD., to Old Georgetown Rd. via Greenwich Park, to Johnson Ave. to Heamsteadt Ave. to McKinley Ave. to Garfield St. to Roosevelt. Ave. to Jefferson St. to Northfield Rd.

From Northfield, Rd., Grant St., to McKinley St., to Old Georgetown Rd., to W. Cedar Ln. to the Beach Dr, to Jones Mill Rd., to the Georgetown Branch Trail, to East-West Hwy., to to Old Georgetown Rd., to Huntington Pkwy., to Custer Rd., to Northfield Rd. I had just enough time to get some final mileage. I had coasted on the mileage since October, but that had a lot to do with being rather busy at work, and with some other activities on the weekends. This mileage got me to where I'd gotten in years past but it was also nice to just get out for a ride where I wasn't commuting. The winds were slowing me down in places.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was about 33 F this morning. My right leg was feeling a little weaker and my back hurt a little.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd.

Washington, D.C. At lunchtime I did a version of what I call the Memorial Tour from my office (From 14th St., SW to Independence Ave. SW, to 15th St. SW., past the Tidal Basin, and Jefferson Memorial over 14th St. Bridge to the Mt. Vernon Trail, past Lady Bird Johnson Memorial to Memorial Bridge, along Lincoln Memorial Circle. to Daniel French Dr., along Independence Ave. past the Martin Luther King Memorial, over the Kutz Bridge, to 14th St.). It was 46 F and damp. A breeze was kicking up and as I was finishing, I got lightly showered on. I felt pretty good the first mile but had to keep a focus to keep up the pace. Overall, this felt easier, being in the relatively warmer east coast weather. My new shoes seem to help with that too.

Bloomington, MN. From Metro Dr., American Blvd. E, to 28th Ave. S, to E Old Shakopee Rd., to American Blvd. E, to the Long Meadow Lake Trail head, then American Blvd. E. to Metro Dr. It was warmer and drier today. We weren't busy so I went for a run after breakfast. This was a rather casual run. I sped up and slowed down for icy spots on the sidewalks. There was a good breeze going but it was in the upper 30's F or close to 40 F.

Maple Grove, MN. Christmas Day 5K. Peggy, Max, and I started the traditional holiday race together while Samantha waited inside. The whole course was a sheet of wet ice. I thought about not running. It was 33 F with a strong wind. Iran as much as I could on the side of the trail where there was granular snow/ice. Some had spikes or strap-on Yak Tracks they could grip the pavement with. There were some small hills. We had three loops to do, of roughly a mile each. I hit the mile in 10:49! I got lapped about 1/3 of the way around the second loop. I think the only people ahead of me had spikes or Yak Tracks. A few more passed me then half way through the second loop I lapped others. My 2 mile split was better due to some packed snow but still only giving me a 10 minute mile. I pushed a little more on the 3rd lap to pass back but as I was about to catch-up the trail narrowed. I hit an icy spot on the pavement and a gust of wind blew me over. I got up and renewed my effort and did pass the all back. I stayed in the snow or icy pavement the whole way. There was an option to get on a drier road for a stretch but I was worried about being disqualified and didn't. I'm surprised I finished and didn't get hurt (my back was hurting yesterday, our travel day). It was a nice way to start the day. Afterward I got a Skype call from my mom and visited with Peggy's family at her brother Paul's house.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. I had an idea to ride all the way downtown, but given my shape, it seemed too cold for that at 27 F.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It was nice to ride in evening daylight for a little bit.

From Northfield Rd., to Moorland Ln., to Charlcote Rd., to Moorland Rd., to Lambeth Rd., to Overhill Rd., to Hampden Ln. to Wilson Ln. to Aberdeen Rd., to Aberdeen Pl./Garfield St., to Jefferson St. to Lincoln St., to Grant St., to Northfield Rd. I just got in an easy run to round out the day. This was a rolling route through the neighborhood. I enjoyed seeing all the variety of Christmas lights. While there are multiple houses on our street with lights, the houses on other streets seem to have them more consistently. We had dinner with the Lennon's afterward.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

Washington, D.C. From 14th St., SW, Independence Ave. to 15th St., to Main Ave., through the Fish Market, up to Le Enfant Plaza, through the Enid Haupt garden at the Smithsonian Castle, along Jefferson Street, to 14th St. I almost didn't go on this run as I was getting wrapped-up in work. However checking the temperature I my flailing fell apart--it was a sunny 55 F! I got slowed-down going through car and pedestrian traffic at the fish market. I was trying to get to the old walkway along the waterfront, and down to Ft. McNair but construction of a string of buildings closed that off. The finish was improvising.

After finishing, I went out briefly to bring lunch back to my desk. It was already turning colder with the NW winds coming in.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. in the dark. There were headwinds and my legs felt sore.

Washington, D.C. From 14th St., SW, Independence Ave. to the Reflecting Pool to Lincoln Memorial. Circle, to Daniel French Dr. NW., to Ohio Dr., and the Rock Creek Trail, to E. Basin Dr., on walkways along the Tidal Basin, and around the north side of the Jefferson Memorial, to 15th St., to Independence Ave., to 14th St. SW. I escaped work with just enough time to run during lunchtime. It was in the upper 30's F and sunny, but with little wind. This was very close to the exact route I ran on Monday. However it was warmer. I wore long sleeves and gloves but no sweats--not usual attire for me in cool weather but it worked well. It was only 47 F. I didn't feel quite as tired after the first half mile, like I had earlier and also didn't need a rest room so much.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was about 30 F. I caught the traffic lights well.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. in the dark. Oddly, there was still some traffic as I went along the way. During the daytime my right arch was aching. I was too busy to run (I had planned to) but that was probably a good thing in retrospect. There was additionally some soreness in my quads which I found to be sort of silly for the short workout on Monday.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was a crisp but sunny 21 F. I was dressed pretty well with a headband over my ears, but my nose was getting cold.

Washington, D.C. From 14th St., SW, Independence Ave. to the Reflecting Pool to Lincoln Memorial. Circle, to Daniel French Dr. NW., to Ohio Dr., and the Rock Creek Trail, to E. Basin Dr., on walkways along the Tidal Basin, and around the north side of the Jefferson Memorial, to 15th St., to Independence Ave., to 14th St. SW. It was in the upper 30's F and sunny, but with little wind.

After getting home and while putting my stuff away, I noticed an interesting thing. The wear pattern on my running shoes has changed. Ever since starting running, I had always worn the right shoe out faster with a heal strike. Now my left forefoot shows more wear which to me tells indicates that I'm favoring my left leg quite a bit. The change in pattern is significant since these shoes are old enough to almost pre-date the more serious of the back issues I had in 2015.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It was cold with a bit of a headwind and some traffic.

Event: QOC Swanson Road
 

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. Some traffic along the way in the cold.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. It was getting windy. I left work too late to go for planned run but I got a workout in carrying by clothes around again.

Event: QOC Balls Bluff
 

QOC: Balls Bluff, VA. Peggy, I and the kids arrived late so we rushed out. I didn't get a clue description on. I'd skimmed the course notes the night before and recalled a bit of trail-o being mentioned but I thought it was going to apply to the White course. Just before going out, Peggy and another guy did. The other guy seemed to take a while to leave the start. It turned out that I did that too; I just couldn't find #1 or the start triangle. I lost between 45 seconds and a minute. It didn't help that I went to the wrong control. I did the same for #2 and for that I had little excuse but not having control descriptions on my arm. I didn't want to unfold the map for them as I was reading it. I only went to one of the wrong controls for that.

I was a little shaky going to #3 because I was getting used to the mapping of the reentrants and kind of lost count. I wasn't sure which ones were counting. I didn't lose any time. I was solid going to #4 too.

For #5, I did pause a while looking for a good route. I ruled out going to the right along the cliffs because it was a long climb with a steep climb through green at the end. I thought going left was too far around and didn't eliminate enough of the trails. I went straightish taking some trails and bearings across open forest. I got forced by vegetation more to the right and the trail at the end, but I spiked it leaving from before the knoll at the end. I spiked #6 going straight too.

For #7, I was happy to be able to run through the low vegetation. I came off the road at a fence end and had a small animal trail leading to the reentrant. I went around on the left to the trails, including the vehicle track. I spiked that coming in off of the fight vegetation corner to the north--I could seen the control from there almost 100m out.

For #9, it was just straight on. I was not sure how high it'd be--the hill kept on going!

For #10, I went just right of straight and ignored most of the trails near the parking lot. I dropped into the big reentrants and came up the spur at the end. I went a little left at first for #11 to maximize the runnable terrain.

For #12, I got left of the reentrant and onto the dam. I took the road up and attacked from about the corner to spike it.

For #13, I went straight but at the stream, I had to pause and turn to get to another crossing. I'd hit the stream at an earth bank. I read the contrours on the other side well and didn't get fooled by the dot knoll higher up. I did however have to drop a short way to the control. I'd understood that the rootstock could have been the dot knoll because it was too small to be classified as a root stock on this map. Somewhere around here, I'd realized that I hadn't made a mistake yet--a rarity. I hoped to keep it up.

For #14, I ignored the trails, passing just north of the parking lot, and down a spur toward a steep climb. To not get slowed too much by it, I angled left. That meant I had to correct to the right once I got on the ridge. I ran around the large reentrant and dropped right into the reentrant at the control.

For #15, I moved a little to the right initially, but mostly went straight.

For #16, I hugged the property line. I made sure not to get into the open area crossing one reentrant along the way. I saw the control from across the last reentrant.

For #17, I went straight and into the stream valley. For #18, I got my feet wet crossing the first stream. It was wet and leafy enough that I decided that climbing to the right would be best. I did that and passed Amy Loudoun who was walking the hillside below me. At the end, I crossed the last reentrant and walked-up to the control.

I wasn't that strong so I went a bit to the left, partially crossing reentrants near the tops. I was able to keep running the whole way and I hit the finish right at the control (seeing the pavilion from far off made it easier but I didn't see the control until the very end).

This was a pretty good run for me. I was happy to not have made any errors. :) Having gained some weight, I did feel it climbing hills. If I can stop working late, and hit some better weather on nights that I get off closer to on-time, I really need to do more running. I thought Daniel Heimgartner set a great course for the available terrain. The terrain was also a star with really open forest most of the way. I'd seen a few areas driving-in and near the finish where someone had been doing a lot of work to pickup the deadfallen branches and put them into piles. That really helped too. I tend to make more errors in places that are green and I didn't have much of that to deal with today. On a side note, I was wowed by how close the splits were for Vido and I. He and I compared them and our routes afterward. We'd taken a lot of very different routes but got to a lot of those controls only seconds apart.

Red - Splits

From Muncaster Mill Rd., I ran to just south of the Inter-County-Connector Hwy. (ICC) and added onto the map. Initially I went east over a ridge and into a valley for a side stream to North Branch Creek. This wasn't a particularly interesting or difficult area, being narrow but it had enough useable features. It took some time to capture them because many were linear--flood plain ditches, old rides, and a stream that I hadn't earlier gotten off of imagery. There were a few point features too. Visibility was mixed. The need to get it was that it connects to one of the 3 ICC underpasses

Afterwards, I went north of the ICC. The east side of the creek that I mapped is narrow but the woods were almost 100% wide open. There was an abundance of features low along the stream and the North Branch Creek. I found a few trails too.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfeild Rd. There was a headwind and I felt cold.

Event: QOC Patapsco Hilton
 

QOC: Patapsco Hilton. I had been working a lot earlier in the week and didn't get much training in. I did however get some good sleep the previous 2 nights and that helped me. This is a hilly area and though I walked a few hills, I kept running through the rest pretty well up to the end. I struggled most early, getting a little disoriented entering the woods from the start, and taking a trail around to #1. I hit that well. I quickly discovered there and on the way to #2 that the deep leaves on the ground, and the hills weren't such a good combination for me. After that, I tried to keep to trails, hitting #3 from the amphitheater loop, going around to the right through the large reentrants for #4, getting into the power line ride for #5 and #6. For #7 and #8, there was little choice but to chug straight for #7, and to contour for #8.

For #9, I went around to the right on the road and trail. However I misread the control location and climbed the spur to the south. From there, I still didn't see the control until dropping down and doing a smallish loop when I saw that I was too close to the road. I lost about 45 seconds to a minute.

I got a bit disoriented going to #10 on the left side of the stream until the trail. From there I hit it efficiently and right on.

I used the trail going to #11 and came in just a tiny bit to the SE of the control.

I again got disoriented going straight to #12. When I hit the road, it had been at the trail intersection, only it didn't look right to me at first. I came to a full stop and convinced myself that I'd done a 180 for a for more seconds before moving on. I came in over a spur due west from the control, across the stream. There were more root stocks than were mapped and when I dropped to the water, I saw the streams converging. I thought I was at the lower convergence so when I saw rocks further NE, I went to them. After climbing I realized I was due north of the control., and stumbled over the rocks and leaves a 100m south. I probably lost 1:45 on this leg.

I ran straight to #13 but used one trail that I crossed for a very short way to get to a good attack off a knoll. I was feeling tired on the climb part of this leg and walked briefly.

I went straight to #14 and all seemed well until the end. I'd dropped down too far and had to climb at the end. This probably only cost me 10-15 seconds.

I started going straight and down toward #15 but paused. I then decided to go around on trails so I climbed to the east. I also had to take an emergency stop, losing 50 seconds or so for that. Once on trails, I moved okay. I came through the campground loop road and a trail to the power line ride. I spiked the cliff control from above but had seen a guy punching just before I got there.

I took the trail and road and trails around to #16. I finished a tiny bit high so I must have lost a few more seconds.

I went straight to #17 and #18.

I got a little to the left starting out toward #19 but corrected, going over the spur at the end. I saw the control from across the creek but when I got closer I'd lost it again. I stopped but saw it after about 10 seconds.

I ran straight to #20 and started straight toward #21. I dropped down and came in along the wall at the end for #21.

I ran straight up toward #22. When I hit the trail, I started to drop down and cross the green reentrant but turned back and hit the field.

For the run in, the Coast Guard or Navy cadets were cheering people on. I had passed an older man, a coach for one of those groups as I was headed to #22. That man didn't have to go to #22 so at the end he and I were both converging to the finish. I pushed but didn't have a chance to get there ahead of him. My run in seemed much longer than 17 seconds--I think there was a timing issue on that split.

Overall, it was fun and I felt good about running after doing so little training this week. I'd gained weight and these hills make you feel it.

Blue - Splits

From Muncaster Mill Rd., I had only a little time so I mostly went over areas I'd already field checked and adjusted the alignments of point features. I feel much better about them now, especially on the flood plain. I also adjusted some ditches and trails, and I added more mapping of vegetation. I found a few new boulders too.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. It wasn't that cold out. I felt a little overdressed but that seemed better than the alternative. There was a pretty good tailwind but I couldn't muster much speed. One guy went past me kind of slowly and I let him go.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C., to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. There were strong headwinds from the NW. I was slow getting to Georgetown but it was better after that. The wind would catch my puffy jacket which is warm and windproof--unlike the morning, I didn't feel overdressed at all. It felt nice to ride to and from work again. I paced myself and kept a good cadence but it was a lot harder than not long ago.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. We went out to eat when I got home, to celebrate Max's 12th birthday. He picked Japanese steak and we got a little show.