Training Log Archive: Nadim

Hay Creek Park, PA. I warmed-up between the start and finish of DVOA's Fall Orienteering Festival.

DVOA's Fall Orienteering Festival at Hay Creek. This event used new and old parts of a map. I found the course and terrain to be quite physical though my feet hurt more from being banged-up on the day before.

I started well. Ali Crocker was running Blue and we both ran up the same trails toward different controls in the same area. I felt much better running than I had yesterday. I spiked the control.

Going to #2 I forewent the trail route to the left over the hill that offered easier navigation. Risking going through some green terrain when I'd seen some bad woods near the start, I was happy that I could run through the green by zig-zagging only a little bit. I came upon a hunter stand but wasn't sure it was mapped. I'd been climbing or contouring most of the way so I thought I might be left of the straight route. I let myself go downhill to the right a bit and soon saw Ali Crocker again just before I got to the first trail. I paused knowing that I should know pretty well where I popped out onto the trail before leaving it, however I made a hasty decision to go on. Something in the contours was telling me that I was okay. I might not have let the compass needle settle enough. I crossed the second thinking that I had to cross a reentrant to find the control on the other side, but still much lower. At the bottom of the reentrant, I realized that I was too low. I climbed out on the other side and ran up strongly to another control. It wasn't mine. I paused a longer while and hesitantly went off to my next guess. Fortunately, that one was correct. However, I lost 2:30 minutes and used a good bit of energy. It was a good recovery for as big an error as it was. I would have liked to go back and see why I made my error.

For #3, I aimed off to the right to get to the trail, bore left, and went in from a trail bend. I was a little slow finding the control but had no real time lost.

For #4, I ran the trail and left it to climb the knoll. I was planning to go around the knoll but it seemed to have white woods that looked better than the green rocky terrain to the left. I missed seeing the trail option further down the hill on a side trail. As I went down the ridge, I though I'd counted flat spurs pretty well but I pulled-up short anyway. I even backed up a little to check out some rocks that I don't think were mapped. Eventually I went on and found it. Another guy had been leaving before I got there but I wasn't sure which rock it was.

Leaving #4, I made the mistake of not going straight down to the right. I had planned to go straight down the ridge but that was getting green. I cut left instead to use what were relatively white woods. I hit the trail at good speed but had incurred extra distance. At the stream crossing, I thought about using the lower and flat trail but I was worried that I might miss the control. The high route offered a better attack. This was however, overkill for such an easy control. The extra climb was more than I thought it'd be too. I passed a young guy whom I'd seen at #4 and punched.

I hesitated leaving #5, almost going up at first. After that I ran the trail quickly trying to put some distance on the guy whom I'd just passed. The control was easy but I guess it was just to ensure we used the bridge.

As I crossed the bridge going toward #7, I didn't look at the water level. I also started veering to the right before going back to the road. I stayed ahead of the other guy whom I'd passed earlier but got passed by another faster runner. Going uphill, I kept moving but slowed enough to get passed again. It was an easy attack to the rock but a few others were also walking up to the control.

For #8, I planned to contour across but ended up climbing a bit. The terrain was pretty rocky and made slower by not so nice vegetation. Two guys followed me for a little while. I popped out on a major trail but I wasn't sure which one. Fortunately I could see an intersection below me and that let me know I was too high. I corrected angling down to the trail that led right to #8. The guy I'd seen since #4 was just ahead of me.

For #9, I ran straight. The younger guy was ahead of me doing the same for a while but he eventually dropped low. I thought I could get ahead of him. I saw some prominent boulders so I thought I was doing okay. I crossed a leaf covered ditch and wondered why it wasn't mapped--later I figured out that this was mapped as a trail. Soon I noticed that I was too high. Just afterward, I heard noise and looked back to see Ted Good closing in on me. Bummer. I'd had about a 12 minute head start. I dropped lower then hesitated at a reentrant that looked pretty boxy above me. I concluded where I was and angled a bit upward to the next reentrant. In the process I must have gone just over the control. I went on across several reentrants but they seemed more widely spaced than I expected. That was a sign that I was too high. I crossed an intermittent trail without knowing it. Ted turned around there. I did soon after and went to the control. That was a 6 minute error. The low route was easier and I should have taken it.

For #10, I went low along the lake and ran hard up the white reentrant. A fast runner was near and I had picked up the pace. I spiked the control but it wasn't hard.

For #11, I went low again, using the first trail I hit. I followed the trail below the dam and across the stream, still ahead of the other fast runner I'd seen at #10. I crossed the creek well and spiked the control.

For #12, I crossed the creek back to the road. The faster runner had decided on this route as I was guessing at which option was better, so I followed his lead. He pulled ahead on the road. I thought he was going too low and would have a steeper climb at the end. I left the road, crossed the creek and angled up the steep slope. It wasn't bad but not real fast either. The other guy might have come around the steep slope from past the control but if that was him, he didn't gain anything on my route.

For #13, I headed to the bridge. I feared a difficult and slow creek crossing. I used trails to the east of #13, and angled up too. It was a slow slog but others were doing it too. I probably lost 30 seconds by using the bridge.

For #14, I headed to the trail bend and crossed the intersection (going over the log). The climb after leaving the trail was slow. A younger guy was on my right but I kept my own bearing and passed him. Ahead, I could see that I was closing-in on Ted Good again (he happened to be very near cramping). Ted walked slower than I did but still got to the control before I did.

For #15, I ran trying to contour over to the trail but it was taking long. I eventually cut more to the right and uphill a little. Apparently this lost me some time. Once on the trail, I eventually saw Ted Good again but knew there was no way to catch him.

For the run-in, I gave it a good push.

Overall, this was a disappointing day for me. It started when I cracked the glass of my IPad when trying to put on my spiked o-shoes. I was doing this in the car on the way to the meet on a rolling road and the IPad fell over getting under my foot. The disappointing second leg took the wind out of me and I never really recovered. I need more steady training and I hope I can start doing that now.

Hay Creek - Day 2 Red - Splits

Event: DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival
 

French Creek Park, PA. Warmup from Campground Loop A back and forth to the start of DVOA's Fall Orienteering Festival. I forgot my eyeglasses and had Togo back to the car.

DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival at French Creek State Park. The event was on the North map. I ran the Red course as M45+. I had zero expectations going into the event; I just hadn't been thinking about it. I may be too complacent about it but it was just good for me to get a run in. Overall, my errors weren't big or bad. I was running too slowly and a lot of that I'm hoping was due to profound fatigue. I didn't feel all that tired starting out nor during the race but upon seeing my finish time not breaking 10 min/k, I was surprised. I think the total of 8 hours of sleep that I got over the past 3 nights had a lot to do with that. I also had some less than optimal route choices.

I did lose concentration twice during the race. The first was after I ran up the trail to #1, and punched it. I'd felt like I was just starting out when I headed into the woods for #2--after getting to #2, I thought the code was wrong despite the features matching. I had been looking for #101 which was the code for control #1.

Going to #3, I was lazy. Instead of going up toward the trail, I ran straight to save climb and distance. I navigated well but the forest was slower than using the trail.

I spiked #4 by trying to keep level &straight and attacking from the boulders.

I wanted to run through the valley toward #5 but I felt it'd be too green. I was worried about not having an attack point if I ran along the edge of the reentrant. I decided to compromise but I drifted down into the reentrant anyway as I was climbing it. I did a sort of S-pattern going out again and not seeing the control until I was on it due to some unmapped vegetation around it.

I ran straight at #6 and was pleased a third of the way there to come across a charcoal terrace that I hadn't seen earlier (all the map symbols were smaller than they should have been). The charcoal terrace was right on the straight path. Another third of the way there, I saw some mountain laurel which I interpreted as the mapped light green splotches that were also on the straight path. I saw the control soon after.

I debated going straight to #7 and started to do it but later reasoned that I could run the trail to the right better. The trail however, was slow with leaves hiding rocks. I left at a bend, crossing to another and turning left. I didn't see the ditch that I was looking for, to lead me in but saw some weird contours in about the right place. Going down, I soon saw the ditch, saw the stream reentrant, and spiked the control. The trail route however, was a bit on the slow side.

I took off trying to run the flat going straight to #8, and to leave a guy who'd started out of #7 about when I had. A guy was ahead of me too but I couldn't see him ahead. I spiked the control.

For #9, I ran around to the left past some vegetation that was on the straight route.

For #10, I ruled out going low for the trail route because of the green terrain I'd have to cross to get to a trail. I climbed to a higher trail, then cut across to another. I was only on that for a short while before I headed on bearing again. I tracked my progress fairly well until near the end. I got more left than I thought was correct as this took me to a control. It didn't look exactly correct but I went to it anyway because of the location of it relative to a stream. When I found out it wasn't mine, I stopped to tie my left shoe. I was a bit worried because I couldn't see another stream. When I finished with my shoe and looked up, I saw the correct control not far away, across a sort of deep and narrow reentrant.

For #11, I just kept plugging away at a steady pace to get to the top of the hill. From there it was easy to attack off of the ridge.

For #12, I started out well, going on bearing, and staying off of the ridge to my left. Before I'd gotten to #11, I'd seen Jeff Seeger seemingly closing in. I didn't know what course he was on but I thought he might be running Red. As I headed to #12 and looked to my left, I could see Jeff moving off fast. At the same time, I checked my compass bearing and it was wrong--I incorrectly concluded that I was following a wrong bearing and I turned left to follow a correct bearing that also happened to be somewhat in the direction that Jeff had run. At some low vegetation areas I couldn't tell for sure if it was the clearings marked on the map. I couldn't see any rootstocks which were mapped into the clearings so I went on. Very soon, I hit a trail. After 40 seconds or so, I relocated at a trail bend. Correcting, I went past the clearings, and then paused again because I hadn't seen the control. I soon saw the control but I'd lost about 3 minutes--worst of the day.

Going to #13, I ran straight initially. I should have cut left and used the trail that I'd relocated on earlier. I was getting confused because I was going uphill when I thought I should be going downhill--this was due to the way I'd folded my map. I hit another trail, went left to an intersection, then turned right until I saw a charcoal platform on my left. I then went on bearing but not seeing the control until I was right about on it. I was slow to read the control description (rootstock); it would have made me a few seconds quicker by letting me know that I should have run toward the green.

For #14, I was getting tired and running through the rocks made me feel it more. I knew not to go to the control to the right on the depression and soon found the boulders. I was expecting 3 but it seemed that there was only one of mappable size for this map.

For #15, I took off on a poor bearing but corrected before getting to the road. I adjusted my route to use the more open gaps that connected the different campground loops and got to the control pretty well.

Being out of shape, I didn't think running in hard would benefit me the next day so I ran an almost regular pace. I was surprised when I looked at my watch, realizing that I didn't break 10 minutes per K. Oh well.

French Creek - Day 1 Red - Splits

Carderock, MD. I got myself out, having missed some opportunity the day before. I've been busy. It occurred to me that I hadn't ever run Section C of the Billygoat Trail. I'd heard Peggy talk about having run it many times. Since high school age when I began coming here to run, I've always opted to run on the towpath or Sections A and B which are longer. As Peggy had told me, Section A was the least rocky of the 3 sections but it still had places that required me to walk over boulders. I got out on Section C as the sun was getting low in the sky and it happened to be directly upstream. With the rocks in the water and the autumn colors this made for really nice scenery. Maybe that kept me slower too; my eyes were distracted to my surroundings instead of watching the rocks under my feet. I started from the southernmost parking lot and when I hit the big bend, I stayed low following the river for another quarter mile or less on an unofficial trail. This brought me back up to the towpath less than a quarter mile from the American Legion bridge. I headed north, then got on the proper Billygoat trail to go back down to the river retracing my steps. When I hit the intersection near where I'd started, I stayed along the river and followed the Section A Billygoat Trail to the north to just before where it hits the C&O towpath again. Parts of this were hillier than I'd expected. From near the northern end of the trail, I followed the main park road back to my van. I was tired during this run but it was good having gotten out to do it.

C • billygoat trail 5