Training Log Archive: Nadim

From the field in Bon Secourse Spiritual Center to the start of the QOC Ran-It-Granite meet.

QOC: Ran-It-Granite on the Driver Road map which covered part of the Bon Secours Spiritual Center and McKeldin State Park, MD. I hadn't really formed any expectations for the day other than to try to have a good run. I knew we were running a middle distance course but hadn't read the notes, known the distance or the climb. I got to the park with about 45 minutes to get ready including getting Max into the day care. I started well, pacing myself a bit after the sprints yesterday. Physically I was feeling rested and better than the day before. I found a bit more green on the course than I would have guessed from the map but overall I ran where I intended to. I probably missed a better route choice going to #5 and lost around 30-40 seconds on #10. I certainly felt the climb and walked up several hill; #9 and #11 come to mind. In the poor shape that I'm in, I didn't expect to come away leading the M45+ age group so that was nice.

At the QOC Rani-it-Granite races I had run my first race kind of late compared to most. I hadn't talked with anyone about joining a relay team so I got Max and myself some food. I would have joined a team up to the point of getting food but afterward, I was just as happy to stay out of it. I figured the rest would do me good in a number of ways. My knee has been having some warning aches and with a long race tommorow, resting was the wiser decision. I briefly had the opportunity to join up with some very fast team mates.

Instead of racing, I donned my camera gear and walk/jogged from place to place taking videos and pictures. I've done a lot of photography in the past and miss doing this a lot. Other QOC people graciously watched Max for me as Peggy was still working as a volunteer. I felt rusty with my cameras, trusting more in the camera than in my technical skills used to enable me to, but those skill started coming back too. At most meets when Peggy and I are taking turns watching Max, there's no time to do this and doing nature photography away from these events has taken a back seat to other priorities.

Red X Day 1 - Splits

Event: Ran-it Granite
 

Cabin John Regional Park. Max and I had tried to use the playground area but the rains the previous night made things wet. He had slipped walking on some plastic steps and bopped his nose so we decided to go for a hike instead. We ended up on the sometimes slippery trails going clockwise completely around the kid's railroad track. As we were walking we stopped to watch some maintenance going on. A dead tree was being cut down by some workers and we eventually got to see it fall. The initially cuts had be be proceeded by some dangerous follow-up cuts. When the follow-up cuts failed it was still leanding over at a 75 degree angle and resting on other trees. A pulley system and a truck pulling on it eventually was enough to finish the felling.

McKeldin State Park, MD. Having not done much all week, I wasn't feeling ready to do an orienteering sprint race. When Peggy returned from her lunch after vetting activities, she took over watching Max and I went back and forth near the parking area for the starts.

QOC: Ran-it-Granite at McKeldin State Park. Starting on Sprint 1, I did okay. I had started about a minute after Glen Tryson and chased him for much of the course. My biggest gain on him seemed to be on #5 which we both attacked low but I was higher. Toward the end after passing Glen, I was pushed to pass one of the younger women. Someone, male or female was making a run at me after the Go control so I reluctantly sprinted hard to stay ahead. It was a fun run but the big hills and my weight took it out of me.

QOC Ran-it-Granite at McKeldin State Park, MD. For a while after the first race I wasn't feeling much like running hard again. I was feeling better just before starting again but I decided not to push it too hard on this go. The navigation on this course was a bit too easy too. It with just a few exceptions it was in narrow valleys or right on trails. I did manage to lose time getting to the Go control by being a bit wide to the right.

McKeldin State Park, MD. I had intended to go out and follow some of the model event course with Max while taking pictures of racers. It was getting late in the day so most people had been finished with their courses already. Max, who hadn't had a nap or a proper lunch, kept wanting to go downhill and didn't have the patience to follow the map. He had it in his head that if he just went the direction he wanted, he'd find a control (how nice would that be?). It worked part of the time. He also complained about the waiting when I took, videos of racers. I do have to give him credit however for wanting to get out on the course and that's why I kept my promise and had brought him along. We eventually got down to the river area. Had I purchased the camera lens I'd been thinking about, I might have had a wide enough view to properly capture the great views. Racing by the areas in the past, I hadn't been able to take them in before. Max also chose to go out to a point which I don't remember seeing with some waterfalls and a great pool where the river bends. On the way back up, Max's energy was running out and he got cranky.

Sprint 1 - Splits

Sprint 2 - Splits

After the training at Rosaryville State Park, I was a bit tired but to other things kept me from doing any training. I got very busy at work (with some late nights) and it was too rainy/cold to ride in. After the training at Rosaryville, I also had felt some pain in my left knee reminicent of the pains preceding my meniscus tear last year. I figured the rest wouldn't hurt too bad though my weight spiked.

Rosaryville State Park, MD. As training lead for QOC, Jon Torrance setup a course to fill-in the club's pre-A-meet lull in the Spring schedule. It was quite fun. Many legs gave us a chance to test our compass bearing work in open woods. As always at Rosaryville, route choice problems were presented too. I hadn't orienteered for this distance for a long time so the length, billed at 10.5K was helpful too. Using 15cm bags gave us an extra challenge. I did pretty well. Perhaps I started out too fast. However on the 5-6 leg, I like a few others, got confused and ran to #9. It was en-route finishing a butterfly loop in the area and I just lost focus as I spiked it. I realized my error somewhere in the loop so after going from #9 to #7 and #8, I ran to #6 to make sure that I got to all controls. This cut the course short just a 100m (I couldn't reconcile the Condes measurement of 9.51k vs. 10.41k by hand measurements on the regular course).

I started things off well spiking #1 as Pat Zerfas was in the vicinity. Before going out I'd seen Corine Porter start and knew that Tom Nolan had left before me too. I'd seen Tom headed to #8 as I approached #7. Getting there ahead of Tom, I'd seen Corrine leaving #8. Since I had to make-up for my earlier error I went the longer distance to #6 and saw Tom again after I'd left #10. When I'd gotten to #11, I saw Corrine on the south side of a stream seamingly back-tracking or heading to #12. I had seen a reentrant that she was headed toward too but coming off a trail bend, I figured the control was further ahead. I later returned to the reentrant that Corrine had back-tracked to also. I think the trail we'd both come off of on the north side of the stream might have more of a bend than the map showed. I was a bit wishy washy going to #12 so I didn't see Corrine again until the long leg to #13. Corrine was ahead most of the way up a hill in the power line crossing when I saw her and she was headed toward a different trail than I'd chosen. I wanted to stay low initially and take advantage of a more gradual climb with fewer turns on the leg. I was tired and moving slow up the grade but kept an honest effort. My heart rate was over 160 most of the leg. Though she came from the other direction, I got to the control just as Corrine had been leaving. We both were too far right going to #14 but I corrected on the second trail and got there first. I ran a bit faster than I should have going to #15--it's my old bad habit of trying to run away instead of navigating carefully. I was just a bit to the right when I'd passed what was supposed to be a distinct tree in some light green. On the run I couldn't make it apart from the others though when I got there after turning around it was a bit bigger than the other trees. I went right a bit at first going to #16, then had to cut back. I stayed off the road most of the way by using the white woods to cut just a slice of the longer paved route. Going to #17, I cut in a little too early, after the reentrant on the SW side of the stream. I read the map incorrectly at one point and followed a reentrant up to the ride and almost the road before turning around. This cost me 2:30 minutes according to my GPS track. I saw Mark Mace and a new deaf orienteer named Gail again. I moved well going to and spiking #18. I was tired but chugging well to #19. The distinct tree fooled me again. I passed the control and didn't see it until turning around near the downside of the ridge. I spiked #20 and was glad for it. The run to the finish was fun and beautiful. I came in just about when Corrine was. I thought I'd see a control but Corrine and Patti Mace clued me in.

Many thanks go to Jon for setting this up. I'm sorry that I couldn't help pickup controls afterward but as it was, Peggy got late getting to the map stuffing party for the Ran-it-Granite. I'm looking forward to running it even though I'm a bit slow these days.

Splits:

Leg Split Pace
1 3:48 7:27
2 1:34 9:47
3 3:20 8:53
4 1:08 9:26
5 1:15 10:25
6 6:34 7:08
7 5:06 9:26
8 1:58 8:11
9 5:48 10:44
10 6:32 8:42
11 6:25 7:58
12 5:03 11:28
13 13:37 8:19
14 1:47 7:25
15 2:49 16:34
16 5:40 8:02
17 5:27 13:58
18 2:26 7:36
19 5:52 10:34
20 2:05 8:10
21 4:30 7:19