Training Log Archive: Nadim

I decided to take Rich Feliciano's advice to explore the trails off Rock Creek and near the Army Medical Center. I ran the paved trails there last summer. Riding out from Rosedale Ave. on the Georgetown Branch Trail to the Rock Creek Trail, after crossing the bridge I turned left and stayed along the creek when the trail split. It was flat and a bit wet initially (0.88 miles to the next bridge). Someone had blazed the trail purple not long ago. Cutting right I went up more of the purple trail eventually reaching the northern most paved trail and going up to Linden La. I came back and turned left when I could on the purple trail. Not very suitable for my riding ability it got to me to the southern paved trail and into the medical center. Eventually I rode back up the Rock Creek Trail to Connecticutt Ave. and home along Jones Bridge Rd.

In Greenbelt Park, MD. I flew back to BWI and found cold rain. Having to pickup Tango from the specialist vet in Bowie I decided to take advantage of the proximity to the park to run the Perimeter Trail. Getting there I found it sunny and in the 50's F. I ran without sweats. The trail was a bit mushy in places with new sections of downed trees (I stopped the clock for most of these). I ran right into one of the low tree branches at almost full speed and bruised-up my left shoulder good. The soft ground was good for my left knee. I pushed some but I was still slow on hills. I was glad to run this pace again especially on this course.

In New Orleans, LA. My late dinner the previous night led to staying up to revise my Thursday presentation. It went well but left me tired today. With one night left and my knee needing a rest anyway, I decided to make it a rest day and reward myself by exploring the town more. I quickly did 45 situps and 20 pushups. The pushups hurt my right shoulder. With my right front shoulder, my left shoulder blade and left knee all hurting, I feel somewhat banged up. Walking about I found another nice place to eat. Upon finishing, standing up and walking, I actually hurt for eating too much and finishing the sampler--a substitute for the Cookie Diet. The waiter pining for a good tip gave me one first--I went to Frenchman's St. and Snug Harbor and heard Tuey Connell's 4 piece jazz guitar band. The music and improv was excellent but Tuey could be richer sticking to what he does best and not sing so much--ahh but it not always best separate talents from what feeds the soul. Other club's on the street were good too and could be heard almost as well from outside as from in. In contrast, on the southern Sin City's famous Bourbon St. the bands there made up for talent by adding good looking and synchronized dancing lead singers along with more amplification. Too bad my other rest days aren't this good.

In New Orleans, LA. I took another slow streetcar up Canal St. to the end of the line at the cemetaries to get to a starting point. Dark when I started, I took City Park Ave. to Marconi Dr. where City Park starts. I followed Marconi Dr. all the way to Lake Pontchartrain (28:55) and dipped my fingers in before returning. I had wanted to run inside the park more but with it being dark and knowing that most of the roads on the Internet map dead end I just stayed along the edge. Most of this didn't have sidewalks so I used the grassy shoulder. The early part near the cemetaries did have a sidewalk but the concrete was broken up and very uneven. My left knee hurt enough on it that I probably should have stopped but I was eagar to use my tourist time here and went on slow. The knee felt better before long. Though I didn't see any Snowy White Egrets in the trees like yesterday, it still would have been prettier in the daylight. At the dark lake I could just make out the far shoreline of the inland sea. A slight rain started on the way back.

C • 7

In New Orleans, LA. with temp. about 60F. After work I took the St. Charles St. streetcar (a.k.a. "Streetcar Named Desire") from Canal St. to Audobon Park (The tourists, commuters and I had bad traffic for 4 blocks--accounting for 15 minutes--then stopped about every other block after that so it took 40 minutes). Finally there I jumped out and ran around Audobon Park clockwise taking the extension to the Mississippi River. According to a runner the short loop would have been 1.8 miles and the long one 5k. It seemed to be taking longer and with the sun setting and the bends of the river confusing me, I made a wrong turn at Magazine Rd. I ended up looping back to the river the way I had run earlier. I reversed steps and completed the full long loop of Audobon Park. Since the streetcar had taken so long getting to the park I decided it would be good to run back. I was warned that people (students from Loyolla and Tulane) don't usually run in Audobon Park in the dark due to crime but they do run in the dark right on the dirt between the streetcar tracks in-between the cars going both directions. The usual pattern is for someone to run on the tracks facing the oncoming cars then move out of the way to the other track when the car gets somewhere within 100m. It worked for me. I was told getting back to Canal St. would be 3.5 miles. Though tired from Sunday there's no way I ran that slow and think it was 4 miles. The run on St. Charles St. was nice with antebelum mansions (some of which have become hotels) and big churches. Going back to Canal St. (30:42) I passed about 6 streetcars going the other direction. None passed me but I caught and passed one.

I flew to New Orleans for some meetings this week. I had intended to do a little more than 45 situps and 10 pushups but arrived too late with thunderstormy warm weather. The pushups were weak but my right shoulder hurt less than it had last I tried. Running this week could be difficult here in the French Quarter and the gym charges each day. I suppose some rest would be okay. My last week paltry 3.5 hours of running was the most I'd done since August when I ran the Catoctin Trail. Before that I had to go back to February 2004 just before getting an achilles injury.

In Westmoreland State Park, VA. Warm-up for QOC's meet. It was a nice sunny day close to 50F at the start. I did a couple of strides too. My right knee complained a little.

QOC at Westmoreland State Park, VA. The 20 year old map had been updated partially by Scott Pleban who was also the course setter. Heavy blowdown from a hurricane 18 months back made the flatter tops and a couple of the bottoms of reentrants rough running. Reentrant bottoms were often mud-sucking flat wet marshes. Hillsides were very steep and tall. Though the contours are advertised on the map at 5m, the originals were 20ft. so I don't think these had been updated. If true, this means the climb was higher and it felt like it. There were several doglegs on the course but route choice was emphasized in design. I mostly did okay on route choices but my #3-#4 leg was not optimal partially due to on-the-fly adjustments for unmapped blowdown. Some real dog legs appeared at control #7. A big black lab (one of several things today reminding me of Piper who was also black) left it's owner and followed me through almost 6 controls. We crossed the park over two big ridges and two marshes. At a campground, he either got too tired or decided the campground was a people place and he should stop. A couple minutes later I was stopped by it's owner who drove around and luckily recognized me as just as I was crossing the park road. I directed her back (17 seconds) to the campground where after the dog followed two other runners, dog and owner were reunited. I caught Ted Good when he made an uncharacteristic error and though he out-navigated me from controls #13-#19 (I made three less than optimal route choices), I cramped less than he and got in first. See the Split List.

C • Westmoreland Contours 2

Meet director Mike Brooks had controls all over the place and due to the remoteness of the park, no pre-assigned volunteers for pickup. Ted Good, Francis Hogel, Michael Warlters and I split it up. I picked-up the far away ones by driving around. I picked-up #5-#11 of the Blue course in the exact order of the race. I certainly wasn't runing as fast. Getting to #5 I had to cross the grain of the blowdown for half a kilometer. I was cramping good by the end.

Blue - Splits