Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd. to the Bethesda metro station. There was a bit of traffic but most of the areas where construction was taking place are now smoother.

From the Bethesda metro station to Northfield Rd. It was raining lightly. My new lighting works great so far. I could tell that I was getting more respect from the cars along the way and there were many of them along the back streets.

Event: DVOA Fair Hill, Mid-atlantic champs
 

Fair Hill State Park, MD. Warm-up in the cold windy fields with Dave Onkst who was patient enough to wait longer than the warmup took.

Mid-Atlantic Championships, Fair Hill State Park, MD. After an inordinate amount of flip-floppy internal debate, I had decided to run the Red course as I might have a chance of placing and scoring points for QOC. The starts were self-managed. Directed to a Red course start area, I grabbed a map from the bag and didn't look at it. While getting ready to go, I checked for north at the start and noticed my compass not settling right, perhaps affected by a big bubble. This caused errors last week so I switched to my spare then grabbed a map and started running. I ran pretty well over a kilometer to the first control and was feeling better about the bearings on my compass. When I got there, the code didn't match. After looping around a bit I realized that I had a Blue course map and had navigated correctly according to the map. I lost 2:40 minutes as recorded by my GPS). I decided to continue running Blue even though it was 2km longer. Leaving control #1, I saw Karl Alswede who had started behind me a bit and was running Red. I wanted to make up for the lost time to still have a chance to try to score for QOC but it wasn't to happen. I became a bit too hasty. I ran okay but got a little off-track going to #4 when I over-thought and deviated from my planned route. My more difficult approach got me on the wrong trail and I was slow to correct while trying to read detailed trail intersections. I was very slow going to #5 on more tricky trails and took a longer easier route to #6. I did fine on a short ridge hop leg going to #7 but on the critical long leg to #8, I didn't do well again. I started going back where I'd come from when approaching #7 but didn't like the thought of a dog-leg to a bridge that I'd run past going to #6. I ran back and took a route to the right that would take me across fields. The problem was that I had to get across the river first and didn't see that the way to the right across the highway bridge was blocked by fences. I took the next bridge up which was just in sight, 40m off the map. I had to fight through some thorny green to get back on track. I kept running and once up the big hill, I did okay. There was a small error going to #10 when I didn't establish a correct bearing leaving #9. I had a bigger error going to #12. It was a short leg which I thought I was executing well. My bearing was wrong again. To make it worse, instead of reading the map while running I ran fast past a trail that I should have turned on to go to the control. I halted at a rootstock on the other side of a stream, perhaps 150m from the control. I still haven't mastered Fair Hill but sometimes I run okay here.

The free bus ride that QOC had provided up and back to the meet was fun and comfortable. It gave me a chance to talk to a lot of people. The time past quickly and Max seemed to enjoy it too.

Mid-Atlantic Championships, Fair Hill State Park. About 15 minutes after finishing my unexpected Blue course, it was time for me to go on a QOC relay sprint. Unlike other relays, this one didn't involve handing off maps. Instead, people ran about 30 seconds apart and their times were added up. Watching others go ahead, I wasn't sure what to make of the first control. People who went ahead of me were zig-zagging though pretty much everyone started off the same. Once I got my map, I decided to go to the right, around where everyone was zig zagging. It might have been okay except that I lost track of where I was as I rounded a forest edge and I moved rather slowly. Going to #2, I recalled a previous sprint here with a similar leg and just went off on the same direction. I missed a shorter route. Ted Good, who started just behind me had already made-up the stagger. We traded leads through the rest of the course, hitting everything pretty well. I lost a little time with hesitation going to #8, and managed to stay ahead of Ted at the end by just a few seconds. It was fun and over very quick.

My special thanks go to Tim Good who, injured with a broken ankle from the Susquehanna Stumble, made the trip any way and had volunteered to watched Max. Max kept moving about a lot so it probably wasn't easy for him with an immobilizing cast. He watched Max the whole time I was out running both courses. If he hadn't stepped forward, I may have run a bit less or not at all, hoping to trade time watching other kids.

Blue - Splits

Sprint Course #4 - Splits

Lake Frank, Montgomery County, MD. I did more field checking. Recording a lot of detailed vegetation. I didn't cover a lot of ground however, I also got more detail on the area around the Nature Center. It was in the 60s F and humid. I got out just before a cold front brought rain.

Cabin John Ice Rink, Montgomery County. Max had quite a full day with a play date with a Russian pal, pizza lunch, a puppet show and ice cream. I got him to nap, then topped off the evening with his first ever try at ice skating. Keeping him up kept me busy. My arms felt it more than my ankles but Max was able to keep his feet under him at times. We probably were going at about 2 minutes per lap at our fastest. We wondered what Peggy was doing out in the woods this evening.

45 situps.

45 situps. With another wet and busy day I was lazy.

Stuck home because of plumbers working on our hot water heater replacement and working from home all day, I didn't do a proper workout. It was rather dreary outside anyway. 45 situps.

With the day off for the Veteran's Day holiday, from Northfield Rd., I towed Max around Bethesda from playground to playground. The public schools in the area were open so we kept changing our destinations. Finally we ended up at Hillmead Park. It was a bit cool out but it was warming quickly. After going home, Max helped me clean up leaves.