Training Log Archive: Nadim

UMD, College Park, MD. Warm-up from Cole Field House to/from the Student Union.

QOC at UMD College Park, MD campus. Dave Onkst (course setter for the A-meet sprint to be held in conjunction with the 2007 U.S. Champs) applied new ideas to the College Park map which has been in-use for a few years. His Sprint A made use of uncrossable barriers such as fences and walls to give route choice and keep one thinking most of the way. I unfortunately did not think it out well enough. An unmapped structure in a fenced construction area threw me off for control #2. I made a 180 leaving #3 for another minute or so loss. I calmed down after that but was tired. I felt weaker from running long at Patuxent River Park. See the Split List and Route Gadget (on QOC's web site).

QOC at UMD College Park Campus, MD. Dave Onkst's Sprint B was not quite as tricky as the first but I made some poor route choices, then a bad parallel error when I lost my place on the map while trying to focus on passing some people. I was headed toward #6 when I suddenly thought I was heading toward #7 from #8. The route was parallel. As I passed the other runners, I passed the control too. This threw me off at the next where trying to make up for it led me to not checking the clues. I went to the wrong side of a wall. I think fatigue made errors on the next two controls. Next, I got passed. I think it was by Peter Forester who eventually won. Had I just been in the shape I was a year ago, I probably could have kept up. As it was, I trailed behind him the next few controls. I lost site of him by the last two controls and wasn't focusing much. I mispunched the last control by going to the first control from Sprint A which was around the corner and closer than where I should have gone. Had I checked the code, I would have realized it and had about the same finish time but I didn't. See the Split List.

Sprint A - Splits

Sprint B - Splits

Patuxent River Park, MD. My job helping out at the Boy Scouting event organized by Dave Linthicum was to be the event photographer. Max and I started this together by hiking out partly on a new trail in the south, to a dead-end at a marsh stream crossing. The best route for the Super Advanced scout orienteer course was to cross at this point. Rains had swollen the stream somewhat so it was about 1.5-2ft deep and made for a good action shot when the scouts finally plunged-in. Max and I walked a bit of this but I had to carry him most of the way. I got some other shots of scouts climbing a hill and getting lost leaving the trail.

Patuxent River Park, MD. After Peggy was freed-up from starting the Super Advanced scouts and scoring the route-o, she watched Max so I could do more videography. I recorded the mass start of the team Score-O where what seems like a thousand scouts all charge-off in pairs in all directions. I followed some scouts running to controls while holding both my camcorder and camera in hand. Some scouts were pretty good. Some had no clue. Others went over-technical by figuring out the degree of direction and following the bearing while ignoring faster trails. I could keep up with even some of the faster scouts while videoing them but it did get tiring holding my arm up at the right angle and trying to keep it steady. I'll put an edited video together eventually. We had pretty good weather. The rains cleared-up and I managed to keep the camcorder and camera dry without falling into the marshes.

Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. Having worked off-site again and gotten off at a decent hour, I got through traffic in time to put in some work on mapping Blockhouse. I covered the major reentrant in the SE section of the park and a little more. It really helps to start with good contours!

Carderock, MD. I went north on the C&O Canal towpath to the second (northern) trailhead for the Billygoat Trail Section B, then took the Billygoat Trail to the southern trailhead, then back on the C&O Canal towpath to Carderock, finishing at the climbing cliffs. I ran a little loop in the middle too. My mind is on mapping these days. I kept thinking how fun it'd be to map these areas for a sprint or Pink course from Great Falls. Much of it is technical yet close to the river or towpath. Even the part between the canal and MacArthur Blvd. is usable. My knee felt okay though the rocky trails tested it.