Training Log Archive: Nadim

Great Seneca Stream Valley Park, MD. From Watkins Mill Rd., I went north on the Greenway Trail. I'd been wanting to do some trail running this long weekend but was too busy earlier. I picked the coldest day in a year. It was 20 F with a 9 mph wind when I started (it'd been 9 F this morning). The temperature was fine and at one point, I thought I was overdressed. After starting out, soon after the stream crossing, I cut left (west) on side trail. I thought I was taking one that I'd been on before, which would loop along the side of the ridge, and come back to the trail. However, I'd gotten on a newer trail; one that mountain bikers had made. It was intermittent but fairly visible from a 1/4 inch layer of snow over it (that little bit of snow softened the hard frozen ground). I set out from there to run just about all of the trails on the ridge. Eventually, I went on toward Brink Rd. doing some side trails along the way too. After crossing Brink Rd. on the main Seneca Greenway Trail, I got on another side trail. This one went about 1.5 miles up Goshen Branch Stream Valley. It was flat and through scattered rough open terrain. I turned around at Huntsman Rd., but went off on some side trails there too. Coming back, I branched off on the ridges near Watkins Mill Rd., to get more trails that I knew I'd missed earlier. The terrain in the forest there is very open and nice. If I can get some good LiDAR, I'll probably make a small map of the area. Though the bicycle trails get to a lot of them, there are enough nice features in the area that would be good for training. A larger adjacent area, North Germantown Greenway Stream Valley Park is across the Great Seneca Creek, but looks promising for potential mapping.