Training Log Archive: Nadim

Highland County, VA (between Monterey and Highland). From Rte 637, west to Rte. 250, then south to an overlook. From the overlook, I cut across farmland and eventually descended back to where I started from. Following through on an invitation from a friend of Peggy's at work, the family went to a farm for the weekend. It was in an area of some of the best scenic areas in Virginia. It's still somewhat unknown with few amenities. Though there are inns and B&Bs, there aren't any big parks in the immediate vicinity. Douthat State Park, where Peggy is considering doing a rogain, is about 30 miles away. Highland county is said to be the highest on average in Virginia. The headwaters of the Potomac River are near here and I think the easter continental divide runs through it. After driving up to the farm and spending some time visiting, I left the house (at about 3,220 ft.) and went down the 0.4 mile dirt driveway; a 200ft. vertical drop. The paved road to Rte. 250 was a bit up and down but mostly up. In .75 miles, I'd made up the vertical elevation loss. As I climbed Rte 250, headed up the mountain another 300 vertical feet, I plodded slowly and steadily, There wasn't much of a shoulder and the road had many blind curves. Fortunately there was little traffic. I cut off the road at an unofficial overlook and skirted a field edge somtimes using cow paths and sometimes just treking. I had thought I was crossing into our friends property but in fact had to cross several fences before landing in the right "yard". It was a 42 acre plot with sweeping views of the valley and ribbed mountain pasture lands. I'd taken my camera along and stopped several times for shots. I had to walk a few times where the hillside exceeded 45 degree slopes. The autum color was still in peak, with some trees already past it. To finish up, I ran almost straight down the grasses. I tried to do so softly and did feel a little pain in my knee. Though it wasn't a very far run, it was some really beautiful terrain. This climb gave me plenty of work too, as my pace would indicate.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD to Montgomery Ave. via Bethesda Ave. and the Georgetown Branch Trail, to 13th St. SW, Washington, D.C. via the Georgetown Branch Trail and the Capital Crescent Trail. Like on Tuesday, there was a detour for contstruction in Bethesda. This detour was a little longer. I pumped up the one tire which flatted on my last ride so it felt good but it'll feel better when they finish fixing the road and curbs. I need to do some maintenance on Max's trailer. We had to stop because with broken snaps and the plastic wind break in the down position, the wind pushes it loose and onto his face. After dropping Max off my ride was initially fast. The winds were from the north and were aiding me but as I moved along the Capital Crescent Trail the wind was less than helpful. I slowed from 23mph down the hill to 18mph on the flats. Part of the slowness is from being overtired. Eventually an older commuter overtook me and I latched on. He was doing 23mph on the flats but must have been pushing hard to do it because he slowed a lot once we hit the streets in Georgetown.

From 13th St . SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I had a fast start with some drafting for a half mile but the rest was into the winds. I carried a few extra things including my headlight and a charger. I charged the light at work thought I'd need the light based on my earlier returns home this week. I left it off most of the time. It was only helpful as a safety item for me at the end. I rode at mostly a relaxed pace.

From Northfield Rd., Jefferson St. to Heamstead Ave. to Sonoma Rd. to Lindale Dr. to Johnson Ave. to Old Georgetown Rd. to Huntington Pkwy. to Custer Rd. to Northfield Rd. This was basically out to then looping around Ayrlawn Park. I had almost foregone running tonight. I'd originally intended to run a lunchtime at work but my knee was hurting too much everytime I walked anywhere today. I suppose it was either the run yesterday or the changing weather that was causing the pain. After getting Max to bed, I finished unloading boxes from our storage crates and the weather was half of what got me going. It was a full moon with partly cloudy skies and a breeze of change moving about--very comfortable. I started out gingerly. My knee felt better the farther I went but my legs were getting tired quickly and feeling worse with distance.

Washington, D.C. I was a bit late starting my run after work, and a bit tired. From the Tenleytown Metro Station on Albermarle St. I went to Nebraska Ave. to Military Rd. to Rock Creek Park. Once in the park, I ran parts of the Western Ridge Trail. It was already getting dark but I shuffled along the sometimes steep hills. I had planned to run the Western Ridge Trail all the way across the park but in a section I was less familiar with that wasn't blazed very well, I got off track. It started to get too dark and I the run was turning out to be longer than planned so I resorted to the roads. I returned to Oregon Ave. at Wise Rd. then got on Beach Dr. at Wyndale Rd. Now in Maryland, instead of using the Rock Creek Trail, I kept to Beach Dr. to keep the run short enough. I turned onto the Georgetown Branch Trail in the dark. A few bike commuters buzzed by with lights that were a bit blinding. I finished up on Sleaford Rd., Kentucky Ave., and Cheltenham Dr. before stopping at Tilbury Rd. in Bethesda. This was a very hilly route, some of it on dirt trails in the dark and it was a little on the warm side. I had a good sweat and enjoyable run.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD to Montgomery Ave. via Bethesda Ave. and the Georgetown Branch Trail, to 13th St. SW, Washington, D.C. via the Georgetown Branch Trail and the Capital Crescent Trail. There was a slight detour for contstruction. I had pumped up all the tires recently, including Max's trailer. They were all rather low so I think it helped. It was nice and sunny and cool this morning. I moved along well, gradually increasing speed to about 23mph on the downgrade. I caught another guy who then tailed me for a few miles. He pulled me for a half mile before pulling off at the Glover Arcbold Trail. There could have been an ever so slight tailwind that flags in the Georgetown Waterfront registered but the weeping willows on Ohio Dr. did not.

From 13th St . SW, Washington, D.C. to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. After about 1 mile, I realized that I'd gotten a flat rear tire. Fortunately I was able to change it. My initial repair failed and I had trouble pumping it up. Either the tube was defective or I'd pinched it when putting the tire back on. I was curious why I'd gotten the flat to begin with since the tire was relatively new and I have a Mr. Tuffy protector inside. I went home with a squishy tire that was just good enough for me to finish with.

Once moving again, going home seemed very fast. There was a bit of a tailwind on Ohio Dr. After rounding through Georgetown, I'd caught a group of cyclist whose draft I stayed in for a short while. They started to break up as we hit the uphill grade to Bethesda. The initial leaders backed off their solid pace which I'd struggled to initially catch them with. A non-commuting mountain bike rider pulled ahead but since I was at the back of the pack, I stayed behind another rider before passing the former leaders. He was moving rather well and trying to bridge the gap with the leader but he started to slow fairly soon. I started to take a turn pulling but I dropped him in the process, going 18mph up the hill. Eventually, by struggling I caught the leader and hung on to him. I took a turn pulling for a mile but he moved ahead and kept going strong through the Woodmont Ave. intersection and the Air Rights Building tunnel. It was fun. I was 38:31 at Max's day care facility. I can't understand why the time wasn't faster because it seemed that every step along the way I was moving faster than average.

From Northfield Rd., I rode across neighborhood roads to Greentree Rd., then up Fernwood Rd. to Democracy Blvd. I picked up the Cabin John Trail from there following it all the way to Seven Locks Rd. Heading north on Seven Locks Rd. I used Bradley Blvd. to get to Huntington Pkwy. then back to Northfield Rd. Since I'd gotten my mountain bike back from storage and had a little time, I used it for the best. A lot of this was on paved roads but there were almost 3.2 miles of moderately difficult single track. The single track is what I chose the route for. An expert wouldn't think twice about cycling the Cabin John Trail but it was a fair accomplishment for me. I was happy to be able to get past many obstacles which I seriously doubted my ability on. I guess I've retained my balance and am in a moderate enough of a cycling condition to have pulled it off. I got snagged in a few places and needed to put a foot down. I only fell over once climbing out of an S-curve both rooted and rocky. There was a drop off to my right with some not so nice vegetation and in slow motion I lost enough balance to end up with the bicycle higher than my head. This was on the part of the trail between River Rd. and Seven Locks Rd. That section was rather overgrown and not so easy to get through. I rode with my GPS watch and on the roads home I kept trying to lower my average pace to get it under 6 minutes a mile. I'd been slow enough on the single track that even climbing, I lowered the average from almost 7 minutes a mile to the 5:55 range. It was a fun outing with more great weather.

Today before the ride I got Max a pumpkin. I sort of named it Max on the drive home since my son's shirt was orange too--this both chagrined and amused him. My parents finally gotten to see our new house this day too and after the bicycle ride I got very close to finishing the unloading of the storage crates that were delivered last Saturday. I guess that's not bad for a Columbus Day holiday.

Event: QOC: Pohick Bay
 

QOC: Pohick Regional Park, VA. I woke up this morning feeling rather positive about being able to run and for the most part I was successful. I ran without knee problems during the race. I created my own navigational problems but recovered fairly well from these. I guess it's to be expected to not have any problems, having been the course setter for the event. However, I hadn't actually been in the woods prior to the event. Kris Beecroft and Valerie Meyer did all the work of putting out controls, epunch boxes, and water. There were several areas of the map needing updating which contributed to a few of my errors. I made my first error going to #2. I was a bit careless relying on memory rather than reading the map when I crossed the power line ride. I turned on it thinking I was turning on a road which was ahead. After correcting I attacked that control from the stream junction well below and missed, hitting the road right of the control. Going to #6, I started to make a error when crossing the reentrant junction but turing up too quickly but I recovered from that almost instantly. I ran rather inefficiently toward #7 by starting low, then going high and finally overshooting the spur a little. In my desktop thinking about designing that leg, I thought a good way to go would have been going low to the trail/field corner, then in but one does weird things once in the woods. Going high all the way would have been good for that control too. Getting to #8 I made my worst error by getting too high. I had a hard time convincing myself where I was when I pulled up at control #139 just before the road on the Green course. I couldn't remember which course it was on when I was there in the woods but knew enough to recover quickly (about a 2.5 minute error?). Going to #10 I got a bit distracted by some wayward cadets who were yelling for help. After finding them, I could see that they weren't hurt so I gave them a safety bearing to relieve them of being lost. I came to #10 via a western approach but was a bit too far north and in the green. I tried to go straight to #11 thinking the green would be the same mountain laurel that I'd just run through but it was a blowdown fight. I ended up going through more green than necessary and eventually using the trail past the control to get there. The rest was pretty clean for me and enjoyable running. Sorry about #14 being a bit deep. The map seemed to not be so deep. The area around #15 seems to have been changed by some serious erosion. I think I'd map it with an earth bank. That control was down on the ground when I came through. I set it up again but lost a slight bit of time when I was above it and I didn't see it where expected. I was kind of happy to spike #18 but realized as I was leaving it that I would be just a bit too slow to better Dave Pruden's time.

C • Flying hands! 3

Pohick Regional Park, VA. After finishing the Blue course, Kris and Valerie asked for some help picking up controls. I figured that they really needed the help since and that I'd have just a bit of time so I acquiesed. I kind of missed picking up controls anyway. It's a good warmdown a both Kris and Valerie had suggested but it's also some good practice since it focuses me on reading more than running. As I started down the dirt road to my first control, my knee started complaining. It was just too hard for too long with my O'shoes still on. I walked a little before starting to jog again. I made a slight boo boo leaving a big reentrant. Also, as I look at the map now, I hope I didn't leave one which might have been assigned to me...

C • Don't worry 3

QOC: Pohick Regional Park, VA. As we got to the park, Max expressed interest in wanting to run the streamer-O course. He hadn't done so for a long time. I suppose my promting him sometimes sunk in. I quickly got him out there before he got distracted. I started to try to teach him about aligning the map to north but it was quickly giving him a glazed look. I navigated him to the first control and we picked up the streamers from there. Max was actually running for a lot of this. Crossing the disc golf area the trails seemed incorrect and the streamers followed an old trail that doesn't really exist at one point. Nicole Lennon passed us just after the 4th control with Kathleen Lennon right behind her. As we neared to finish, Max started to get distracted having seen Alex Merka. I made sure we finished. He got a certificate and two sticker for having completed this course and one from earlier this year.

Blue - Splits