Training Log Archive: Nadim

Prince William Forest, VA. From Pine Grove, I jogged to the start of the Blue course. Heidi and Virginia were behind me for part of the time.

QOC: Prince William Forest, VA. I was starting pretty late and was in danger of not finishing before the course closing.

The first leg had an unexpected problem with a cabin area on the route becoming out-of-bounds since another group was using it. I took the trails around to the left. In retrospect, crossing the creek would have been better but I didn't want to get my feet wet.

That same thought set me off to the road route for #2. I eventually left the road following an intermittent trail most of the way to the control. I cut left at the end of it when if I'd read it better, I would have cut right. David Onkst was just leaving it and he'd started ahead of me. However, as I discovered later, David headed off on an unexpected direction, away from the next control.

I moved for the roads again. Reaching them, a combination of roads, cut throughs and more trails got me to #3. It was greener getting up the hill than expected.

For #4, I went fairly straight. I climbed over the earthbank from below to get to the control. I slowly dropped to the valley criss -rossing the streams to get into the right reentrant for #5.

I went straightish for #6 and landed in the right reentrants again.

Legs 4, 5 and 6 were slow and hilly but they did take some concentration. I followed the side of the reentrant to get to #7 and along the way, I saw David Onkst again, making his way up toward #6.

For #8, I used the road and stayed to the right after crossing the creek. I was happy to spike it.

I sort of dog-legged back to avoid steep climbs as I headed toward #9.
I got on the trail along the main creek and followed that past the road. Along the way, I noted how the trail had been re-routed just before the road. My heel/arch had been hurting for a while by this point but added to that, I was becoming tired. I ate a Gu. I did cut across some of the trail bends efficiently however at a point that I'd intended to leave the trail, I changed my mind. It looked greener than mapped so I decided to stay on the trail much further--in retrospect, that was a mistake. Once I attacked from a trail intersection some deadfall pushed me left and hitting the stream with the control, I turned more left when I should have turned right. I didn't lose too much time.

I crossed on the suspension bridge for #10 and remembered the area from when I was vetting and doing map updating for the 2007 US Championships.

I moved slowly but fairly straight to #11; I cut left around most of the green areas and read my way across pretty well to spike that.

The last part of the course was where the Sprint Championships were held in 2007 and I'd done spring map updates throughout--these weren't on the map we were using. I spiked all of the controls except #13, by going fairly straight to each. I had just gotten a little past #13 before crossing a reentrant but realized it right away. I was dismayed by having to drop down to #17 when so close to the finish. I was moving rather slowly by this point.

After punching #18, I did a 180 briefly but when I got on track, the original QOC founders were finishing-up going the other direction--nice to see all of these people who started something (QOC has as good a claim to being the first orienteering club in the US as does DVOA) affecting thousands.

I felt like I was running better today and perhaps continuing to get stronger again. My right heel/arch hurt a lot afterward. One more casualty was the continued destruction of my Garmin 310. The top had gotten pulled-off at Patuxent when I was course setting there. I ran with it open a few times. Today, the display fell out. Oddly, it still worked as evidenced by the beep every I got every mile. I have to push on the circuit board to start/stop and take laps or clear it.

Blue - Splits

From Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD, to 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C. It was around 57 F this morning. I felt a bit weaker than normal for riding in but there were headwinds. My late start probably was a factor in seeing fewer riders.

From 13th & C St. SW, Washington, D.C., to Northfield Rd., Bethesda, MD. I flew out of the office, hitting the traffic lights just right and getting up to the little bridge where the Tidal Basin empties out into the Potomac River in just under 3 and a half minutes. However, after that I hit headwinds going to Georgetown, and some traffic once there too. On the CCT, I kept a steady pace, gearing down to try to keep up my cadence. I felt slow but finished faster than I had anticipated. Maybe hitting the remaining traffic intersections near Bethesda in a good way helped. I had been lugging some extra weight with my work laptop. Once home, Max and I went out again and saw The Martian with some friends. We all enjoyed that.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. in the dark.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. in the dark. I had planned to run but ended up working late.

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd. in the dark.

I was a little sore from running the Highlander, but not as much as expected.

Event: Hudson Highlander XVIII
 

HVO: Hudson Highlander XVIII: Harriman State Park, NY. I had a lot of worries going into this. A huge lack of training and coming off of an injury was at the top of that list. I must admit some intimidation at not having run a Hudson Highlander in 4 years. The technical terrain and somewhat difficult to read map of Surebridge Mountain, the map of the first loop and also the longish trail run leg, was also intimidating. Once started, it took me a while to get used to reading it (I was fairly busy this week before the event so the only look at the map that I had was when David Onkst shared it with me the night before). Fortunately, I was able to dial it back a bit by planning to do the run with Peggy and Bernie. All 3 of us had ailments. They always are good company too.

On the Surebridge Mountain loop, we picked-up a few others running with or around us. We followed the trail up to the top of the mountain for #1. We fell off route a bit to the right going to #2 and had to climb back to the ridge. At the Time Square intersection, none of us saw the nice flatter route to the left :(. Bernie and I spiked #3 swinging to the right a bit. We spiked #4 too, coming over, then down just a tiny bit to the control. Control #5 was one that I was intimidated by. I Bernie and Peggy suggested the trail route to the right. I lost place of where we were more than a few times. They pulled us right to it. I had some similar confusion on #6. The rest on the Surebridge map, #7, #8, #9, were fairly straightforward. We did pass some cadets along the way.

The trail run back was fine. Rocky though it was, we moved steadily. There were a few times when whomever was leading (me at least once) missed a trail bend so we doubled back very short distances. At the end of it (6.7K?), we took our time at the aid station.

On the Rockhouse map, I led getting to # #11. Approaching from below, the actual area still didn't seem to be what I expected but we lost no time. Going to #12, I swung right a little to get higher and above what looked like greener terrain. We soon regrouped and saw a few of the faster runners getting close to finishing the map. I led on and spiked the control. Reading the vegetation helped. Going to #13, I had intended a straighter route, punching through the green on the ridge, and droping into the control down the reentrant. After the snow shower (Graupel was technically what fell), I stopped for a nature break. the group chose the left route down the long white reentrant so I moved to catch-up and did. The map showed some age with the green extending further so when we cut right, we were below the control closer to the marsh. Bernie figured this out and set us on the right direction and I saw the control about 150m off. For #14, we went down the alley between the green, then left on the trail. I wanted to use the trails to the right for #15 but we chose the intermittent trail that appeared to punch through the green on the left. The unfortunate part of that was that it didn't quite punch through and ended up being a slow route. Phil Bricker got ahead of us again there. We took the trail to the marsh north of #12, on the way to #16. I saw #12 as we passed it and we spiked the control. We dropped low early for #17. Control #18 didn't quite turn out to be what I thought but Bernie was leading there. At the aid station we again took our time and got a report on Max, who was already doing some burger grilling.

Peggy took off first, followed by a West Point woman who'd stuck with us since early on Surebridge. Bernie was not interested in running at first (he'd been recovering all summer from Lyme disease). We eventually caught up at #20. We passed Phil Bricker again at around #24. I led us into #25 and spiked that. Along the way, we passed Tori Campbel going the other way, and we also figured out our route to #31. I got a bit mixed-up going a hybrid route from the group to #26 but we didn't lose any time. We spiked #27 but Peggy got a little low going to #28. We hit #29 well. The misalignment of the north/south lines with the paper got me off bearing when leading to #30, but Bernie straightened us out. At the water stop on the way to #31, Phil Bricker passed us--he'd been carrying water on his back. After the dam, and going into the cabin area, we caught him. He was going a straighter route. Something in the trails there seemed a bit off so I got a little high too, but to the right of Phil. The group wanted to take the trail, so they quietly pulled me over. It was faster. We got into the control ahead of Phil, moving at a slower effort level, by about 40 seconds. We doubled back but there was confusion a the power lines. We eventually got onto the right trail but Phil was close behind. I expected him to catch up but that was the last time we saw him. We hit the road briefly before cabin hopping our way up to the reentrant that led into #31. We went straight to the road and I dopped back so we'd finish together. Jessica, the West Point woman who'd been with us nearly the whole way, pulled ahead. No matter, it was a fun outing and we were all just glad to finish. It was less a race for us than an experience. For Peggy and Bernie, and the rest of the Fab 5 who've done every Highlander that'd been run, the streak continues.

My right heel/arch had hurt most of the way through this run. It started hurting somewhere about the start of the trail run. I was partly surprised that it didn't get worse along the way. Taking an easier pace might have been part of the reason for that. I didn't feel so wiped-out at the end of the run like I have felt in earlier Highlanders. Additionally, unlike other Highlanders, I never cramped in this one, and I had to take more nature breaks.

I took some photos and short videos along the way. They are posted here:
https://youtu.be/LjgQEsDHaZ0

Harriman State Park. From Kanawauke Circle to the start of the Hudson Highlander on the Surebridge map.

HL - Splits