Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Rosaryville - MTBO Part Cancelled!!
 

From the Van Ness/UDC Metro Station in Washington, D.C. down Connecticutt Ave. to the Melvin-Hazen Trail, to the Rock Creek Trail to Broad Branch Rd., trails on the west side of the valley to Military Rd., then up the unpaved trail to the Western Ridge Trail, to Wise Rd. to Chestnut Rd. to Winnett Rd. to Brennon Ln. to Thornapple St. to Brookville Rd. to Underwood St. to Meadow Ln. to Thornapple St., to Leeland St. to 46th St. to the Georgetown Branch Trail, to Woodmont Ave. to Edgemoor Ln. and to the Bethesda Metro Station in Maryland. I was pretty slow early on this run. By the time I'd gotten to the bottom of Rock Creek, I figured I'd set out to do too much today with the Billygoat coming up. My quads were surprisingly sore and it must have been from riding home fast on Tuesday. Rock Creek is pretty hilly where I ran. I climbed out of the valley and across several big reentrants. There were some deer (and horses) in the park--the deer, surviving from recent culling, were not very afraid of me. I struggled up hills saved only by inspiration from the beautiful spring weather (it was in the low 70s F but a little bit humid). It was quite nice looking coming across Chevy Chase (best time of the year for the lawn and gardens there), but I was hurting too much by then. Besides tiredness, I had a lot of pain from callus on my right foot. It may have been making me run imbalanced so the ball of my right foot began to hurt a lot too. When I got stopped at a stop sign and started again, the pain would go away for a short while. Filing the callus doesn't seem to help much more than 2 days and leaves the skin underneath inflamed and sometimes sensitive in-between runs. Despite the pain and tiredness today, my overall time was only 3 minutes off my 2011 run which was slightly shorter.

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to Arlington Rd. with Max on his bike, then to 12th and C St. SW, Washington, D.C. It was in the low to mid 50s. After leaving Max, I moved well on Arlington Rd. but quickly got winded. There were headwinds from the south. I continued to move pretty well but slowed after the Lincoln Memorial.

From 12th St & Independence Ave., SW, in Washington, D.C. to Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD to pick-up Max's bicycle, then to Northfield Rd. I left work late again so I first had to ride through the courtyard. Once outside I let loose aided by a nice tailwind. It's always fun if not a little crazy to be able to pass or ride pace with the cars that way. It was starting to get dark and I hadn't brought a headlamp so that added to my motivation. Overall, I was flying with the tailwind on the ride. I knew to gear appropriately especially when I hadn't been riding much. I was more disciplined about it once past Fletcher's Boathouse. I kept passing cyclists so that was fun too. After picking up Max's bike it was dark. I moved fast with it as a car was taking the same route behind me, falling behind at intersections and catching up on narrow streets. I used my stopwatch to time but it is more of an estimate with keeping it running when I was going up al elevator at work, and forgetting to start it after a stop at another place.

Event: QOC Combat Village
 

Quantico Marine Base, VA, on the Combat Village map. I circled the field at the start of QOC's event 5 times. Just before going out, I heard that Valerie Meyer had gotten hurt (injured or broken ankle?) and needed the help of an ambulance--ambulances are not usually waiting at QOC local events but because we were on the base, there was one waiting this time.

QOC: Combat Village on the Quantico Marine Base. This area was great terrain for orienteering. The woods were rather open with just a few exceptions. The hills were mostly moderate with several wide and flat areas of to be crossed. Though the map was old (US Championships were held here 1997) it was fairly accurate. The contours were just about spot on. The scale was 1:15,000. That threw me off for one leg--it was #6. It should have been short and easy with a road or direct option. Going directly, I pulled-up short circled back, got caught in some scary concertina wire w/o injuring myself much, then had to go to the road to relocate (about 2 minutes lost). In another area (I missed the map update that had been posted near the start so when I came off a small field that had been enlarged, I had to circle back to the control--I actually recovered from this very quickly, losing only between 1 and 2 minutes. I did blow 2 controls that others had trouble with too--I missed #2 and lost 3 minutes coming back to it, then I lost a minute by going right past #10, a pit on a hill top. The rest was good running. I was kind of tired, not feeling nearly as well as at Cabin John Regional Park last week, nor when at Little Bennett 2 weeks back. I made a smaller error trying to stay ahead of David Onkst; when i passed him at #18, went around unmapped green vegetation getting off-line and had to correct. Dave got to #19 before me but that got me riled in to running harder into the finish ahead of him again. It was a fun day.

Blue - Splits