Training Log Archive: Nadim

Bigelow State Park, CT. Max and I walked quickly together from the Boat Lauch area of Mashapaugh Pond (near where the US Orienteering Masters Championship finish was. We got down to the north end of Bigelow Pond, before heading west on a trail to the start area.

2022 US Orienteering Masters Championship, Bigelow Hollow State Park, CT

Day 2.

S-1 - The nice voluneer start people were just getting going (I started at 9:08am) and probably forgot to warn me about needing to go to the start triangle. I just ran up the trail. After messing-up at the start on Day 1, I should have been thinking about being careful, especially on such a short leg. I guess the excitement got me. I did 180 with the map. I climbed instead of cut back towards where we got our maps. I got twice as far away as the control was because I was running towards some green. I got to the ridge in the green, then headed back, realizing what I did. I didn't go back to where I got my map, but left the trail at a bend and found the control almost right away. I lost over 8 minutes. :( Sergey Velichco had also missed and was in the area.

1-2 - After getting #1, I headed straight towards #2, but decided to climb higher to avoid dropping across the reentrant. Sergey Velichco soon passed me as did a junior cadet. I got too high and saw the large reentrant ahead. That prompted me to drop back down to the cliff. I lost about 90 seconds.

2-3 - I started straight but soon cut left to avoid the uncrossable cliffs ahead. Vadim M. and later Alex Jospe passed me but I got to the control pretty quickly near them.

3-4 - I threaded the way through the green using the most of the white forest. I hit the correct knoll and looked around without seeing the control. I then went on to the next knoll and saw the trail there. Looking back to the knoll I'd been on and moving closer, I then eyed the control in the green. Vadim came in behind me. I probably lost about 75 seconds.

4-5 - I got on the trail for a little while, and hit the creek. Stopping, I saw the large boulder behind me. Ioana Fleming had seen the boulder too, but she didn't have to come back like I did.

5-6 - I got on the trail as was having a difficult time seeing because my glasses were all fogged-up. I stopped to clear them but it didn't help much. At the trail intersection, I went east along the edge of the green. Eventually, I cut right across the open marsh and hit the hillside. Some juniors were leaving so I kept going and found it.

6-7 - Since I was having a difficult time seeing, I couldn't see the trail through the green. I might not have taken it anyway since there was still green forest in the way. I took the road heading southeast. I turned north on the jeep track, to climb the ridge. I thought to turn right on the next trail but decided against it realizing that it dropped down, and I'd have to climb again. I cut off in a vague area but quickly got to the west side of a stone wall with white course controls on it. I still couldn't see well due to my foggy glasses and I couldn't read where the stone wall was. I ran along it and got north of the green before cutting right. As I headed east, southeast, I passes some knolls and gained confidence in where I was. The quicker that I ran, the clearer my glasses got. I recognized a slight reentrant ahead and cut right. I stopped at a rock just south of the big boulder that was just south of the control. Recognizing the boulder, I went north to the control. I may have lost 15-20 seconds.

7-8 - I took a straight line that had me climb. I could see the control and the reentrant from 50m away but lost sight of it as I dropped to get closer, and to go around the green.

8-9 - I went straight, but wasn't reading the area well. I had to go further after hesitating past the trail.

9-10 - Over to the trail, then left a bit to go around the green. I passed the boulder on the spur, then threaded my way through the green to come out right at a trail bend. I went to the next bend 50m away, then cut west down ot the marsh. I went a little longer to go around the ridge, then followed the marsh until I could see the green ahead on the left. I went through the green and dropped right into the reentrant.

10-11 - I went straight. Ioana Fleming was in the area. I kept going with her behind me and spiked the control.

11-12 - I went straight again--this is how poorly I was reading the map, I didn't think of the trail options. I was hard to see the one on the left. My straight route eventually went through the green and got me to the formline reentrant SW of the control. I paused to read the map more carefully, again clearing my eyeglasses, then knew to keep going to the control just 15m away.

12-13 - I went north to the smaller trail and turned right. Taking trails I crossed the bridge, then kept straight as I could. I heard my son Max lament his performance on the course behind me, but I didn't look back. He pulled ahead of me just before I got to the control.

13-14 - I chased Max going straight and we spiked the control. Someone else was behind me.

14 - 15 - Max led the way on the trail toward the bridge. I next heard Greg Balter's voice behind asking to pass. He did almost right way as the forest opened before the bridge, and he then passed Max too. We left the trail at a bend and ran quickly. There seemed to be more going on than was on the map and I was losing contact but we reached the control soon enough.

15 - F - I still chased Max, who was chasing Greg Balter. Another person passed me and looked like he might have been in my age group, only I didn't know who he was. We ran along the shore on the trails to the finish. It was nice to finish quickly with people to push me. I hadn't been running quickly much since my right knee started to bother me (it was not hurting today).

GreenX - Splits

Event: NEOC - 2022 Masters Nationals
 

022 US Orienteering Masters Championship, Bigelow Hollow State Park, CT

Day 1

S-1 - Right off the start, I cut right on a smaller trail. I didn't take a good look at the leg but when the trail bent, I felt I needed to go straight. This was 90 degreees off. I soon realized what I'd done, since the contours didn't match. I corrected climbing, and found another control before finding mine down lower.

1-2 - I angled to the trail, passing a control on a dot knoll. I heard my son Max's voice behind me as I was walking up the hill-- decided to stay safe and climb since I didn't feel I was moving so fast, nor competently in the forest yet. Though I started to run, Max passed me. We both bore left at the intersection and left at the sharp trail bend. I lost sight of Max but followed the change in steepness of the hillside. Eventually, I cut up higher when the same bearing hit a spur. I got much higher than expected and ended up at a knoll which I found on the map. From there I dropped more than a contour to the control, and saw Max closing-in on it as I approached.

2-3 - I went straight and could see Max going to the left a bit. I got slowed in the rocky ground. When I hit bottom and the green, I cut right to go around the green. It seemed a long way--further than what was mapped, and I never found a clear opening; just a thin spot. After crossing the marsh there, I hit the trail but it didn't look like where I expected I'd be. Max had just got there coming up the trail from the SW. He didn't think it was where he'd come from but I wanted to be sure for myself, and I went SW. Soon I saw the trail was too straight ahead and that I'd actually come out to the trail originally, at the right place. I went back and again found Max where I'd left him. He played it cool so as not to give it away but I felt he had just come from the control. I went in, crossed the marsh and found it on the second boulder that I went to. I lost about 2 minutes altogether.

3-4 - I went back to the trail, and around the ridges. Somewhere NW of #6, I cut in and went along flat lands and the edges of the hillside. I got on the right ridge, and found a trail. Going further, I hit the flat lands south of #4. Climbing, I checked a lot of boulders before moving more to the SW side and higher. Eventually I found it was where a lot of people could be seen. I lost about 90 seconds for coming-in too far to the south.

4-5 - Lydia Andrews had punched a little before I had. I figured I would catch her, but I was moving up the hill at her pace or slower. We went to the east a bit so that we could get a more gradual climb in an area with few rocks. At the top, Lydia got into the light green. I went around her on the east side in white forest, and I started moving better. I passed the small line of cliffs and headed to the next hillside. Vitolin A. was leaving the area. I kept going and hit the control well.

5-6 - I went due south, for a gap in the rocks. I crossed the marsh on the north end, then climbed the next ridge. Keeping a SE bearing, I got just below and SW of the uncrossable cliffs. On the next small ridge, I recognized some of the small knolls and felt confident. I crossed the big trial that I'd run earlier and kept going across the marsh. Emerging on the other side, I was on the leg line. I could see the reentrant to my left, and I saw the 2 green areas. It took me a while to climb to them but I went right in to spike it.

6-7 - Someone had come into #6 from another direction just before me and seemed headed towards #7. I passed him going more or less straight. I dropped to get across rocky ground but used the change in slope to keep me on target. I didn't see the smaller trail but did see the bigger one going more up and down the ridge. I got to the flat ground below a rocky area after the control, and passed Sandy Fillebrown. From there I ran to the only boulder visible and spiked it.

7-8 - I angled down to the trail, and ran on it a short way past the stream. The woods looked good so I cut across the trails, going on the south side of a small mapped marsh before hitting the next trail. I turned left and got to the GO control.

8-F - I followed the trail to the finish. I finished more confident than I had started.

GreenX1 - Splits

Peggy, Max and took an Admissions Tour of the University of Connecticut in Storr, CT. The campus was pleasant. Lots of students were walking about. Max was able to imagine himself being there.

Bigelow State Park, CT. Peggy, Max, and I all went on the US Master Orienteering Championship model course. The terrain seemed to be thicker than mapped. Not only were rootstocks not mapped, but deadfall and smaller areas light green were not on the map either. I got a good sense of which boulders were mapped and which weren't. I didn't need to but staying in-bounds, I got off trail where I could. We were still digesting lunch and this was a good way to walk it off.

From Northfield Rd., to Custer Rd., to Park Ln. to Battery Ln. to Exeter Rd., to Edgemore Ln. to Glenbrook Rd, to Moorland Ln. to Wilson Blvd., to Hampden Ln. to Charlcotte Rd., to Northfield Rd. I felt slow. There were a lot of people out including hired hands doing construction or yard work. I felt sore and tired running.

From Northfield Rd., to Norfolk Ave. for lunch. It was nice and sunny and comfortable outside--nice after almost a week of rain. There was a little traffic.

Rock Creek Park, MD. From Cedar Ln., the Rock Creek Trail to just past Kensington Pkwy., then the trail on the left to Kingston Rd., to Saul Rd., to Kensington Pkwy., to the Rock Creek Trail, to Cedar Ln. Things were drying out, but there were a few puddles to go through or around on the Rock Creek Trail. I felt like I was laboring for a lot of this run.

From Northfield Rd., to Georgetown Pike via Greenwich Park, to Beech Ave., through North Bethesda Middle School to Bradmoor Dr., to Folkstone Rd., to Hartsdale Ave., to Heampstead Ave., to McKinley St., to Garfield St., to Roosevelt St., to Jefferson St., to Northfield Rd. It was in the low 50s F, raining, and windy. For clothing, I felt pretty good in a long sleeve top and running shorts, but I didn't feel so well physically. The weather made that harder. Also, as has been the case on many of my runs this year, my left foot was numb and tingling. I felt a little tight in my right calf. My already short steps kept me moving.

Rain all day, and busy at work.