Contribute  :  Web Resources  :  Past Polls  :  Calendar  :  Advanced Search  :  Site Statistics  :  A Bit About Me  :  Site Index  :  Gallery  :  Our Store  
    Nordic Walking US.com Nordic Walking - Simple, Effective, Fun!    
advanced search  
Menu
Why Nordic Walk?
Tell us Your Story
User Functions
Username:

Password:

Don't have an account yet? Sign up as a New User
Events
There are no upcoming events
Sign up for demos
Home
Gear News (34/0)
News (10/0)
General News (46/0)
Older Stories
Saturday 06-Jun
Wednesday 07-Jan
Friday 21-Nov
Thursday 04-Sep
Monday 18-Aug
Sunday 06-Jul
Saturday 17-May
Friday 11-Apr
President Barack Obama
See The New President's Agenda
SpringBoost
Springboost
Democratic Voice of Burma
Democratic Voice of Burma Support the heroic struggle of the Burmese people!
UC Tours
Life Assurance
YouTube Nordic Walking Video
A nice, friendly, Nordic walking-related video on YouTube.

Technorati
Add to Technorati Favorites
Polish Nordic Walking Association
Polish Nordic Walking Association
HostiCan Rocks
Validated

Valid CSS!

BlogCatalog
 Welcome to Nordic Walking US.com
 Thursday, March 18 2010 @ 05:03 PM EDT

My Nordic Walking Diary, Part V

    
Wednesday, March 17 2010 @ 03:07 PM EDT
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 807

Had to give in to MySQL limits. Since the database exceeded the pre-set limit, the continuation of the diary resides here now. Link to the first, second, third and fourth parts of the diary are just below.

Results, so far - with no dieting, after 4,947 miles - lost some weight and body fat and in general I am staying in great shape due to regular Nordic Walking. This diary was started on May 16, 2005, as a way to keep track of my walks both publicly and for my own, private reference. Just think what kind of results YOU could achieve with Nordic Walking and a rational diet!I have also gotten faster, as proven by steadily tumbling personal records.

On June 6, 2009 I have been persuaded by Gottfried Kürmer to switch over to a regimen recommended by an Oxford University study, which proposes conducting relatively intensive workouts for 30 minutes a day - seven days per week. Yes - no break days, but none, or fewer one, two, or three-hour intensive walks.

Therefore, my optimal mileage will hover between 15 and 20 miles per week, instead of 25. I still intend to do at least one longer walk per week and even take a day, or two off sometimes, to even things out.

Of course, if we get enough snow, I will be cross country skiing and as things stand now in the Washington, DC area, skiing is the norm, until the snow melts :)

The 1st part of The Nordic Walking Diary

The 2nd part of The Nordic Walking Diary

The 3rd part of The Nordic Walking Diary

The 4th part of The Nordic Walking Diary



November 21, 2009 Riverbend Park, from Great Falls Park, Virginia. About 6 miles. 1:39. This route leads through hills and valleys and along the Upland Trail and the Potomac River.

With Ania. About 50F (10C), mostly cloudy, but very nice. Got to meet a surprising number of friendly dogs (and owners too).

21.25 miles for the week

November 22, 2009 A circuit of Lake Thoreau in Reston, Virginia, with a partial loop of Lake Audubon. About 3.5 miles. 1:01 With Ania.

55F (12.5 C), sunny and gorgeous.

November 24, 2009 Streets of Vienna and Oakton. 2 miles. 0:30. 47F (8.5C), with a light drizzle. (5.5).

November 25, 2009 Streets and parks of Vienna, including a 3/4-mile stretch of the W&OD Trail. 4 miles. 0:55:30.

52F (11C) and drizzling. (9.5).

November 26, 2009 Walk through the streets of Vienna, in the evening. Mostly to walk away the Thanksgiving dinner. About 1.5 miles 0:30. With Ania. (11).

November 28, 2009 A circuit of Lake Thoreau in Reston, Virginia, with a partial loop of Lake Audubon. About 3.5 miles. 1:04 With Ania.

50F (10C), sunny, but windy.

14.5 miles for the week

November 29, 2009 Great Falls Park, Virginia. Matildaville, Carriage Road, Cross County/Difficult Run (all the way to the Potomac River), Ridge trails. Return by the Matildaville Trail.

About 6.5 miles. 1:35. With Ania. 64F (17.5C), sunny, gorgeous day.

December 1, 2009 Streets of Lakevale neighborhood, near our house. 4 miles. 0:54.

52F (11C), sunny, with a noticeable breeze. (10.5).

10.5 miles for the week - a couple of dentist's appointments prevented me from doing at least a couple of walks

December 6, 2008 Along the Glade Stream in Reston, Virginia. About 4.5 miles. 1:20.

With Ania. With about 2-3 inches of snow, which fell yesterday, it wasn't quite enough for cross country skiing, but quite icy and slippery on the paved paths, which made us walk mostly on the dirt trails - a bit muddy in places.

32F (0C), sunny and beautiful. Wish we got more snow, but the forecast says that in about 48 hours, more might be coming :)

December 8, 2009 Streets and parks of Vienna: Peterson Lane Park, Tanglewood and Glencannon Community Parks - including a delightfully hilly and shaded section of Lawyers Road. 3 miles. 0:45.

40F (4.5C), mostly sunny. About 1-2 inches of snow left on grassy areas. Paved paths and sidewalks mostly clear, with some slippery ice in shaded areas. (7.5).

December 11, 2009 Streets and parks of Vienna and Oakton. About 4.25 miles. 1:02.

35F (1.5C), sunny, but quite windy. (11.75).

December 12, 2009 W&OD Trail, to Lake Fairfax Park and return. Varied, hilly route through the woods, with several stream crossings. A longer route, with a bushwhacking section. About 5 miles. 1:20. With Ania.

38F(3.5C).

16.75 miles for the week

December 13, 2009 A two-mile walk with Ania through Vienna at night, checking out some of the more extravagant Christmas light displays. 0:30.

32F (0C). Foggy, but after today's rain, the stars were showing again.

December 14, 2009 Streets of Vienna and Oakton. 2.25 miles. 0:32.

47F (8C). mostly sunny, damp everywhere after yesterday's rain. (5.25).

December 15, 2009 Parks and streets of Vienna. About 3.75 miles. 0:52.

53F (11.5). Partly sunny, damp from last night's rain. (9).

December 17, 2009 Streets of Vienna and Oakton. 3 miles. 0:44:30.

30F (-1C), sunny, breezy and quite beautiful. (12).

December 19, 2009 Cross country skiing through the streets of Vienna. About 2.5 miles. 0:50. With Ania.

We got about 20 inches (55cm) of snow. And it is still falling. About 20F (-6.5C). Very little car traffic. A few walkers and a couple of other x-c skiers. Gorgeous, except for the need to shovel our long driveway :(

14.5 miles for the week

December 20, 2009 Cross country skiing through the parks and streets of Vienna. About 2.5 miles. 0:57.

Pretty heavy workout through the deep, largely untracked trails in the parks. About 23 inches (60cm) of snow. 32F (0C), sunny and gorgeous.

December, 27, 2009 Boston, Massachusetts. Downtown area, including the Boston Common, Public Gardens, the Esplanade, along the Charles River, the harbor area and the de rigeur Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall environs.

About 5 miles. With Ania, Monika, Sherry, Wojtek, Melina and Linnea. Fairly cold, but with little snow. Lots of Christmas visitors.

December 29, 2009 Parks of Vienna. About 3 miles. 0:49. With Ania.

27F (-2.5C), sunny, with numerous icy spots along the trails.

December 30, 2009 W&OD Trail, from Vienna, Virginia, west to Hunter Mill Road in Reston and return. 5 miles. 1:12.

29F (-1.5C), a bit windy, with numerous patches of thick ice in shady places.(13).

December 31, 2009 To cap off the first decade of the 21st Century, a walk through the streets and parks of Vienna - what I came to call "The Salsbury Spring loop". About 2.25. 0:37.

32F (0C), after this morning's freezing rain, there was a tricky layer of ice almost everywhere, requiring a slower pace and lots of attention to the footing. (15.25).

January 2, 2010 W&OD Trail, west from Hunter Mill Road, then on the Cross County Trail, north and return. About 4 miles. 1:05.

With Ania. 19F (-7C), sunny and windy. Quite a bit of snow and ice left in many places. The Difficult Run Stream was not frozen.

18.5 miles for the week, 3 miles for 2010

January 3, 2010 Streets and parks of Vienna: Peterson Lane Park, Tanglewood and Glencannon Community Parks plus a hilly section of Lawyers Road. 3 miles. 0:42:30.

20F (-6.5C), sunny, but very windy. Many, packed, hard and slippery patches of ice.

January 5, 2010 Streets of the Lakevale neighborhood, near our house. 4 miles. 0:55.

28F (-2C), sunny and a bit windy. Still many patches of ice left all over the place. (7).

January 9, 2010 Streets, parks and trails of Vienna and Oakton, including a one-mile section of the W&OD Trail. About 5.75 miles. 1:30.

30F (-1C), sunny, a 1-2-inch layer of snow in many places, with patches of older, hard ice treacherously hiding underneath. Bare tips on my LEKI Speed Pacer Varios.

12.75 miles for the week

January 10, 2010 Great Falls Park, Virginia. Swamp, Cross County/Difficult Run and Ridge trails. Return by the Matildaville Trail. About 6 miles. 1:44.

This is a hilly route, not only providing beautiful views of Mather Gorge, the Potomac River, Difficult Run and other places, but also a great workout. With Ania. Just enough snow to make it super pretty :).

January 11, 2010 Streets of Vienna and Oakton. About 2 miles. 00:29:30.

28F (-2C), sunny. Quite a few icy patches here and there. (8).

January 12, 2010 Streets of the Lakevale neighborhood, near our house. 4 miles. 0:56.

27F (-2.5C) and cloudy. (12)

January 16, 2010 Riverbend Park, from Great Falls Park, Virginia. About 6 miles. 2 hours + With Ania and Ewa.

This route leads through hills and valleys and along the Upland Trail and the Potomac River. About 48F (9C). Mostly cloudy, with some left-over snow in places.

18 miles for the week

January 19, 2010 Streets of Lakevale neighborhood, near our house. 4 miles. 0:53:30. Pretty fast pace.

52F (11C), sunny and unseasonably warm. A bit of snow still left over in a few places.

January 20, 2010 W&OD Trail to Lake Fairfax Park and return. The route goes through a forest trail with quite a few hills and stream crossings.

About 5 miles. 1:13. 40F (4.5C). Lots of mud, squished up by mountain bikes. (9).

Just 9 miles for the week. Work commitments, plus an unpleasant dental procedure, didn't allow for any more miles

January 25, 2010 Northside Park in Vienna, Virginia, next to the W&OD Trail. About one mile. 15 minutes. Examining and photographing still another beaver dam on the Piney Branch stream.

January 27, 2010 Streets of Vienna and Oakton. 2 miles. 0:32. Fairly relaxed pace.

37F (2.5C) and sunny.

January 30, 2010 Cross country skiing on the W&OD Trail, from Vienna, to the Piney Branch bridge and return. About 3+ miles. Just over an hour. With Ania.

About 3-4 inches of snow on the ground and falling. 18F (-7.5C). Great skiing with blue wax. Saw a few people running, a few walking with dogs and about half a dozen deer. Glorious all around!

Getting back into a swing of things, after having to pretty much stop exercising for a week, after a dental procedure. Yes, it required stitches. Growl!

January 31, 2010 Cross country skiing around Burke Lake, counterclockwise. With Ania. 4.5 miles. About two hours.

Cloudless skies, 24F (-4.5C). Gorgeous. Hopefully the snow will stick around for at least another day.

February 1, 2010 Cross country skiing in Vienna parks. About 2 miles. 0:25. 30F (-1C), sunny and nice, but I have used a wax that was a bit too hard for the three-day-old snow. (6.5).

February 5, 2010 Cross country skiing in Vienna parks. About 2 miles. 0:35. With Ania. In evening, but in the great semi-lightness, that comes with the reflection from the snow.

26.5F (-3C). Falling snow, the predictions range all the way up to 30 inches by tomorrow afternoon. We shall see :)

February 6, 2010 Neither Nordic Walking, nor cross country skiing ( I was planning to do the former), but shoveling snow for about 2.5 hours. That must count as a good workout. Doesn't it?

Tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny and with nearly 30 inches of snow on the ground, cross country skiing should be very nice indeed :)

February 7, 2010 Cross country skiing in Vienna parks. Three miles. 0:45.

Tough going through almost untracked 2.5 feet of snow. Used too hard a wax for these conditions. Fast, but with little grip. As far as I can tell, a little klister would have gone a long way.

25F (-4C), sunny and gorgeous. After another 1.5 hours of shoveling snow.

February 11, 2010 Like seemingly every day for the past week, or so, neither Nordic Walking, nor cross country skiing, but shoveling snow for about 1.5 hours. A heck of a workout!

February 13, 2010 Cross country skiing to Riverbend Park, from Great Falls Park, Virginia and return. About 6 miles. About 2:30. This route leads through hills and valleys and along the Upland Trail and the Potomac River.

With Ania for the first two miles. Unfortunately her old skis have delaminated (I have never seen anything quite like that) and she had to turn back.

28F (-3.5C), gorgeous, with an at least two-foot snow cover. We have met several cross country skiers as well.

February 14, 2010 Cross country skiing in the Great Falls Park, Virginia: Matildaville (quite a climb in the final section - glad I had klister on), Ridge, Difficult Run/Cross Country Trails and the Carriage Road. About 6 miles. 2:21.

34F (-1C), sunny and beautiful. Too bad that despite trying really hard, we couldn't buy new skis for Ania today.

Quite a few walkers, trampling the ski tracks. It was kind of funny to see many people sinking up to their butts in snow. Snowshoes, or skis anyone? :)

February 16, 2010 Cross country skiing on the W&OD Trail, from Vienna, to the Piney Branch bridge and return, alternating between the now invisible, paved and flat railroad grade and the more natural and hilly, parallel horse trail. At the end did a circuit of the hilly Eudora Park. About 3.5 miles. About an hour.

32F (0C), sunny and beautiful. Pretty good ski tracks all over. A few inches of klister under the foot. Last night's 1-2 cm of snow didn't make much difference on the fast, crusty surface.

February 20, 2010 Cross country skiing in the Great Falls Park, Virginia: Mostly Matildaville Trail and the Carriage Road with a few forays into the woods. About 4 miles 1:10.

With Ania and her brand new skis.

42F (5.5C), sunny and beautiful. The snow was OK, but not as nice anymore as last weekend.

February 21, 2010 Cross country skiing around Burke Lake, clockwise. With Ania. 4.5 miles. About two hours.

47F (8.5C), mostly sunny, some bare patches in sunny areas, but still plenty of corn snow to ski on. For how long will this manna last? No idea :)

February 22, 2010 Cross country skiing on the W&OD Trail, from Vienna, to the Piney Branch bridge and return, alternating between the railroad grade and the more natural and hilly, parallel horse trail. 3 miles. 0:50.

42F (5.5C). partly sunny. Used Ania's waxless skis., mainly to test them and to avoid having to mess with klister on my waxable ones. Pretty good and convenient, but the performance of properly waxed skis is noticeably better. The snow cover is still quite good, but I wonder how it will change after the rain predicted for tonight...

February 27, 2010 Cross country skiing on the W&OD Trail, from Hunter Mill Road west. About 2.5 miles. 0:55. With Ania.

42F (5.5C), sunny. Snow conditions varied widely from nearly perfect, with 6-8 inches of snow, to extensive, bare areas. Found some nice hilly sections in wooded, shaded spots.

February 28, 2010 Cross country skiing in Lake Fairfax Park, Virginia. Again, about 2.5 miles and a faster-than-yesterday 0:45. With Ania.

40F (4.5C), mostly sunny and windy. The very extensive athletic fields had a pretty good layer of wet snow left. In fact there was more snow on the exposed fields than in the woods. The open areas must have had quite a bit more accumulation of the white stuff to begin with.

March 2, 2010 Nordic Walking on the streets of Vienna and Oakton. About 3 miles. 0:38:30.

Pretty good time, considering the need to go around very numerous 1-1.5-meter piles of snow left-over on sidewalks from shoveling, snow-blowing and plowing.

40F (4.5C).

March 6, 2010 Cross country skiing at the White Grass Touring Center in Canaan Valley, West Virginia. With Ania.

About two hours and some 5 miles through the lower parts of the mountain.

35F (1.5C), sunny, beautiful and plenty of snow. Lots of people as well. Finished the day with a great dinner at the White Grass Cafe, with live music and some friends.

This is Ania at about 4,000 feet, next to the "Upper Slope Outhouse", between Roundtop and Bald Knob. March 7, 2010 More cross country skiing at White Grass. This time, we climbed through the fairly easy, but long Three Mile Trail, above Roundtop, just below Bald Knob, to the altitude of about 4,000 feet. About 7 miles. Four hours.

The higher elevations have a markedly different type of snow and vegetation. Skied a tiny bit into the incredible Dolly Sods Wilderness area.

The weather and the snow are simply perfect!

March 8, 2010 Third day of country skiing at White Grass. After about an hour, I left Ania to enjoy the lower glades and trails and headed to explore some of the mid-mountain intermediate and expert trails, where I have never skied before.

About 6 miles and two hours. Some of the steeper, slicker and narrow trails had a definite "oops" factor to them, as my skis are not equipped with steel edges.

Another cloudless, gorgeous day - about 45F (7C).

It was hard to have to head home, as this could be the last hoorah for this winter season.

March 9, 2010 Nordic Walking in parks and streets of Vienna. About 3.75 miles. 0:48:30. Probably my fastest time for this particular, varied and somewhat hilly route.

59F (15C), sunny, with piles of snow left over here and there.

March 14, 2010 Nordic Walking along Glade Stream, in Reston, Virginia, from Twin Branches Road, to Soapstone Road and return and about one-third of the way around Lake Audubon and return. Around 4.75 miles. 1:18. With Ania.

Light rain and 45F (7C). Serious rehabilitation work going on along Glade Stream. Machinery, wide, wooden "roadways", etc. I seems to me like too many trees have been cut in the process...

March 16, 2010 Streets of the Lakevale neighborhood, near our house. Four miles. 0:54.

After three days of rain, the sun finally came out. 53F (11.5C).

March 17, 2010 - Saint Patrick's Day Complete circuit of Lake Thoreau and one of the shores of Lake Audubon in Reston, Virginia. About 4 miles. 0:52.

63F (17C), sunny and beautiful.




What's Related

Story Options

My Nordic Walking Diary, Part V | 4 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
My Nordic Walking Diary, Part V
Authored by: ironmaned on Saturday, December 19 2009 @ 08:45 PM EST
Hey Marek! You should now be ready for the Birkie! Merry Christmas!

Ed
My Nordic Walking Diary, Part V
Authored by: ironmaned on Saturday, February 06 2010 @ 11:46 AM EST
Marek, you will probably have more "ski time" than 50% of the Birkie participants this year! Have fun!
Ed
 Copyright © 2010 Nordic Walking US.com
 All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.		 Powered By Geeklog 
Created this page in 0.07 seconds 		 Nordic Walking US.com RSS/XML Syndication