Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. After the busy weekend I thought it wise to not push it, and rest.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd.

QOC Junior Training Weekend at Prince William Forest, VA, Happyland. The training for the morning was a control picking exercise in which people were to move quickly in and out of a control. I had only 3 beginners since 2 left early. We started out individually with the plan to have everyone meet at control #4. Matayas, the youngest wanted to go first. We started 30 seconds or so apart. I passeed one of our group just before #1 and caught Matayas around #2. I too the trail around to #3 while Matayas was thinking of going straight. Matayas came in behind me as I had already taken off into the forest to getup a hill to a road a short way away. Shouting clues, I helped Matayas slow down enough to see control #2 before he passed right by it--this enthusiastic 8 year old just wants to run and beat other people. I presume Matayas would come behind me, as I went on and found #4. The father of the other beginer who'd started with us, had gotten to #4 minutes later, but then reported that Matayas had gone up the trail from #2. We waited a while before I did a loop back half way to the control. Returning to my 2 beginners at #4, I let them go on, then went searching more for Matayas. I found him just as he relocated near where we'd started. Matayas probably got confused the a second power line. He thought he'd gone to #4 but didn't really. He seemed a little shaken and didn't want to go out again. It was probably a good thing that he had this less than pleasant experience since it might help him slow down enough to read the map and his compass more in the future. Matayas' father went over the course with him afterward. One good thing for me about this run is that I felt better running! Perhaps it was having a pretty good sleep in the cabin that did it. A second good thing was that I was comfortable running without a compass.

QOC Junior Training Weekend at Prince William Forest, VA, Happyland. I continued the control picking session, after leaving Matayas at the start area. I somewhat followed the course backwards. I found my other 2 beginners around control 8 and continued giving some coaching tips to the father while his son moved ahead.

QOC Junior Training Weekend at Prince William Forest, VA, Happyland. The final training session was for everyone. Students ran independently of their coaches. It was a mass start one-man relay. The advanced course had 4 loops. A nice route choice for me starting off, seemed to get me to control #1 ahead of everyone else on my loop. We did get to places I would normally have used a compass at, but I was okay without it. Even where green, the leaves were off and I could see the contours enough to know where to go. I finished my first loop just behind Peggy, who'd been on a different first loop.

On the second loop, I repeated a leg from the night-O where I'd gone to the wrong control--this time it was the right one. Max was ahead of me initially, but staying to the right where the running was better, I passed him. I thought he might catch me as I left #2 and ran to a road. Max stopped at the road while I turned left to get to a junction that was just out of sight. I hit the next control well and saw Max with Wyatt Riley as I was already heading off to #3. I was again feeling good about places where I was able to be pretty efficient without using a compass. I finished the loop with Max somewhere behind me.

Going out on my third loop, someone told me that Peggy was a minute ahead of me. Some loops were shorter than others so it didn't worry me and though I was moving better, I still wasn't moving that well. I did a short loop, and realized that the mapping was not so perfect on one gully that I attacked from a distinct location up high above.

On my last loop, I moved well until control 3 or 4. I was following a stream and stopped early at a stream ditch junction. It was a bit green in this area. Going on, I saw Rick Oliver coming in more directly--a benefit of having a compass. I saw the control first but Rick was closer and punched it first. I took similar routes for the next 2 controls and punched our Go control just behind Rick. There was an obvious route choice to dog-leg on the trail we'd come down, or to go straight. Rick suggested we go different ways and I chose going straight. After cutting through a short bit of forest, I adjusted my route to use a second trail or ride and got ahead of Rick. I then saw Peggy converging but just ahead of me. Family pride was on the line and others were shouting. I picked up the pace. Peggy did too, and warned me not to injure myself running too hard. I was happy to match pace and finish together. It was again a nice exercise and it turned out to be pretty good weather to run in too.

Event: QOC PWF Spring Weekend
 

QOC Junior Training Weekend at Prince William Forest, VA, Turkey Run. I was a trainer for a group of relative beginners. One was only 8 years old but he was enthusiastic After surveying what they knew, we did legs individually and talked them over after each control. I had a small group. They were pretty good and enthusiastic. We talked about and practiced things like reading along the way, and aiming off. Our course was structured to get people off trail a bit. I really didn't feel like I was moving well whether on trail or off. My injured calf was part of it but not all of it. I had to lend out my compass and extras to two trainees who didn't bring any. I was fine reading things without one. This area had lots of trails and our course was primarily on trails anyway.

QOC Junior Training Weekend at Prince William Forest, VA, Turkey Run. The afternoon exercise was for technical compass bearings. We went control to control on bearing. It was setup to be run with partners where one person had a full map, and the other could only see part of the map on each leg. The people in my group were okay and did this well. They even managed to find controls when there were things making them hard to see like 4 feet of stacked deadfall right at the control. Some drifted a bit but mostly they were good. Since we had a short course, we did a true point feature as an extra bit of training--it was a depression on a plateau on the other side of a reentrant system. We got to that too after I helped. Unmapped new features were making it difficult.

QOC: Prince William Forest--Happyland. I went out on the Short Advanced course. Glancing at the course starting out, it looked a bit easy. In the forest, it turned out to be more difficult. This was mostly due to changes in vegetation that the map didn't show. There was a lot of deadfall that made even simple legs hard. The deadfall from what was a new storm at the time, was reason for cancelling this same event in 2018. I hadn't felt good earlier but by the time I got going, I was feeling a bit better. I used my nice headlamp and put it at low power most of the way. Low power was sufficient for all the dense woods. It helped a little in some open areas.

S-1 - I headed straight to the control but pulled away just short of it when I saw a reflector to my left. The reflector was from a control set for Sunday training exercises. After checking the other control, I turned back and hit the control I needed, well.

1-2 - Since experiencing the thickness of the forest, I went out to the road on the shortest route. I turned left and ran through the junction. I was slow. Leaving from before a road bend, I found a patch of white forest to get into the nicer terrain and spiked it.

2-3 - I ran back out to the road (It would have been nicer to have another control in this part of the forest like the long advanced course did but Gary said he wanted to shorten the Short Advanced course. As it was, the control for the Advanced Course had gotten set on the wrong marsh) and turned left. I took the left fork which had a shorter route but a longer distance through forest at the end. In retrospect the longer route out of the forest was faster. Though I didn't make any mistakes following a stream from a powerline ride, deadfall slowed me again.

3-4 - I left #3 going to the cabin roads. Turning left, I thought to cut some distance on a short stretch across the forest. I really didn't know what I'd really done until looking at my GPS track. I made a complete counter-clockwise 360 as I tried to make my way around deadfall. I came out close to where I'd started at #3, and then took a while with a incorrect explorations to figure out where I was. Best that I can guess, I had at some point held the map at 180 degrees which is something the beginners that I was coaching to day were worried about doing. Finally I relocted myself on a road bend and proceeded straight to the control on bearing from far away. I had a little help at the end when I'd seen some headlamps across the road where I was heading--they were from Matyas and his father--I'd been coaching Mayas earlier in the day so it was good he didn't see me making my horrible 6-7 minute mistake.

4-5 - I went off straight but drifted left in some deadfall. The vegetation here wasn't as bad and I was being more careful than my last leg. When I hit a stream ditch, I realized it wasn't the stream closer to the control that I was aiming for. I had been aiming off a bit and I followed the stream to a junction and until I was in sight of the control. Someone was closing in on me

5-6 - Initially I headed off straight. I realized after going that I would have to cross the stream so I cut left more to get across and not have to climb. I was going to come down the stream on the other side of the ridge but I kept getting pushed back by deadfall at the top. I ended up following the ridge until it ended, then following an intermittant trail along the creek to the next stream junction, and to the control.

6-7- I thought the intermittent trail going along the creek was okay so I dog-legged back the way I'd come. This also seemed better than crossing the creek twice--I thought it looked deep. The vegetation started getting rougher and once around the creek bend. The trail completely disappeared where there were big trees that'd fallen amidst mountain laurel and thorns. I picked my way through climbing and descending a few times. The area mapped open with a trail on one side was completely green too--saplings had grown-up in it. Only after hitting the flat ground did it open up. I ran past two people who recognized me but whom I couldn't verify. I spiked the control but this felt very slow. I heard from some who had crossed the creek who did better and some who also found thick vegetation.

7-8 - Instead of following the creek a ways, I took a bearing straight and ran it to where I started climbing. I come see a slope to my left and thought it was the reentrant. I didn't descend into it so I wasn't sure if it was the one I needed or a wider one along the main creek. I climbed higher to see if I was going to get to the ridge top. Using my bright light for the first time, I could see a mess of vegetation that was still climbing, so I dropped back down into the correct reentrant. It still seemed a long way to get to the control but I stuck with the reentrant until finding it.

8-9 - I headed out straight across instead of angling toward the road. I crossed the stream and hit the road soon after. Jody was running along the road so after a slight bobble, I eventually passed him getting into the field. I didn't feel the need to go to the corner of the field so I went straight in. I misread the control being lower than it was--the circle coverd-up a contour but I probably should have known better. After getting too low, I climbed up to the control.

9-10 - I angled back to the field and past the backstop onto the roads. I read everything well on the roads and trails I used getting to a cabin above the control.

10-11 - I went straight, eschewing the longer trail route to the right. Initially this was okay. I got to a road at a powerline junction right where I wanted to be, without much trouble or really bad vegetation. However, going across the next reentrant was different. I hit big tree fall and drifted right. I came out into the field without hitting the trail I'd intended to, which would have gone to the control. I ran around the cabins until I got there.

11-F - I was not far behind someone who'd come up the trail. I tried to catch him but only closed the gap.

It was fun to do night-o again but this wasn't so great a place to do it any more. I was happy that all the climbing over deadfall seemed to loosen what'd been bothering my calf to an extent. I finished running better than I had earlier in the day. After the run, my stomach didn't feel right and I'd passed some blood again.

Night - Short Advanced - Splits

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. I had some headwinds but it was warmer and I felt better.

Washington, D.C. From 12th and Independence Ave., SW, I went to The Mall, then up to 3rd St., SW/NW, and then back down The Mall to 14th St. NW/SW, the back to 12th and Independence Ave., SW. Starting out, I walked a short way, and then broke into a jog. I figured it'd be better on the gravel parts of the Mall would be easier on my right calf. Whenever I tried to pickup the pace, I'd feel pain and would have to back off. There's almost a concrete under the new gravel that was put on The Mall when it was rennovated. I was surprised that I was able to keep running but the 75 F sunny day may have had something to do with that. I felt self-conscious going slowly but it was better than doing nothing.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. It was nice out.

From Northfield Rd., to Folkstone Rd., then back. I went out pulling Samantha's bicycle as I rode. On the way back, Samantha rode her bicycle as I followed along. It was a nice warm +70 F day and the first time Samantha had ridden her bicycle home.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, to Northfield Rd. It was pretty warm outside. I felt like I was cutting through thinner air. I had thought about running at lunch but ended up meeting a friend instead.

From Northfield Rd., to Woodmont Ave., via Bethesda ES. After getting home I went to pickup Samantha. It was so warm that I wanted to bring her bicycle so that she could ride home. She had similar thoughts, suggesting that we bicycle somewhere to get dinner. Samantha had never done this previously, while riding her own bicycle; she'd only done it on trail-a-bike with me. It started okay but as it was still during rush hour there were more than the usual cars on the residential streets. She stopped for one car to pass and was slow descending into intersections. However, by herself, she did look ahead and moved to a sidewalk on the narrow Park Ln. where there was an approaching car. She maintained good control and balance in areas that I've seen bug adults who are not so used to riding in traffic. Max didn't want to ride slowly and met us there, where we had dinner.

From Woodmont Ave., via Bethesda ES to Northfield Rd. Max took off as soon as we started and we lost him at the first traffic light. Samantha rode a steady pace and enjoyed her ride. It'd turned dark out so she got to make use of the lighting I'd setup a long time ago. This was her first bicycling in the dark. She did well again on the harder to see bumps.

Kansas City, MO. I walked around The Plaza, from Summit St., and W. 47th St., to Jefferson St., to Nichols St., to Wyandotte St., to West 47th. St., to the JC Nichols Pkwy., to 47th St., to Summitt St. It was cloudy out and I ate dinner before walking back in a windy rain.