Training Log Archive: Nadim

Saguaro National Park (East), AZ. To start off the morning, Peggy, Max and I went out and back on a short hike off the Bajada Loop Rd. We went on the Valley View Overlook Trail. For a short hike it was quite nice. The desert around here looks better than most pampered gardens. Max enjoyed it though early in the hike, Peggy had an unfortunate brush with a Chainfruit Cholla cactus. The slight brush had gone through her insulated US Team windbreaker and into her arm. We got it out after a few painful moments. My left knee felt a bit awkward and sometimes hurt; like it was just a bit out of alignment. It was good to give it a rest. Later in the day we walked a bunch at the Desert Museum. It was a nice way to end the mini-vacation.

Western States Championships & Intercollegiate Championships in the Coronado National Forest near Sonoita, AZ. I jogged up to the start area with plenty of time before my race. I was to start with Peggy and chase Ed White by two minutes. I was about 1 minute behind Ed in the standings from the day earlier. Just as it was time to go to the call up line, I saw the e-punch and realized I'd left mine back at the car. I ran back, got it, then ran to the start again. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long to find get a new start time; just a few minutes past my original start of 10:30am.

Western States Championships & Intercollegiate Championships in the Coronado National Forest near Sonoita, AZ. This was run on the Kentucky Camp map, 1:10,000. I started out okay. For the first few controls the best way seemed to be straight over several ridges. These were somewhat long legs. It got a little less steep after that but I felt the need to pace myself by half-way and probably was too conservative--it had been a long 4 days of orienteering leading up to this.

I bobbled #6 by reading the short leg incorrectly. I went too low; nearly to the bottom of the reentrant, then had to climb back up. I was pretty clean after that until #10. This seemed to be in the area where made my first error in the sprint. Coming perpendicular over a ridge I was a bit to the right. I saw a control in a reentrant to my right and checked it, then came back and found the control on the saddle tucked low. I felt the placement was a bit off (in a reentrant rather than a saddle) but I am not sure. Getting tired and drawn off a bit by other orienteers, I messed-up #12 coming down one spur too early and going too far down. This was my biggest error of the day. My pulse dropped down to 130 while I was figuring things out. It cost me about a minute. Going to #13 after this, I had a good line initially but not thinking carefully enough, I just took a bearing over a bland hill into the wrong spur. I should have cut left a bit more first to get a closer attack point.

This was a good run for me but not as good as the day before. I was generally slower; the course was steeper. I made more errors and got sloppy toward the end. My consolation was that I managed to luck into 3rd in the M45+ age group. Ed White had a larger error on #8 which I spiked with just a bit of hesitation. Tom Hollowel was again 8 minutes ahead of me and Greg Balter was about 11 minutes up. I look forward to getting in better physical shape but know it will be a long road ahead. My left knee has been aching a bit after the last 4 days--part of it might have come from resting with my weight on my knees while typing Attackpoint entries on Friday--having the notebook located high was the best way to get wireless connectivity.

After the racing, Peggy, Max and I toured Colossal Cave. It was about a half mile hike with somewhere over 100ft. of climb. It loosened us up but made us late for dinner with Christina, some of her friends, Kris Beecroft and Michael Platt. It was a nice way to end the weekend. The cave was not as interesting as Luray Caverns in Virginia but was interesting because it was different.

C • dinner companions 3

Red2 - Splits

Event: Western States + Intercollegiate Championships
 

Western States Championships & Intercollegiate Championships in the Coronado National Forest near Sonoita, AZ. This was run on the Greaterville map, 1:10,000. The terrain was mostly open grasslands with scattered trees in the reentrants. Though it sounds easy to run in, the grasses hid many loose rocks. The start was at just above 5,000 ft. so I felt the altitude a little. I ran pretty well with probably less than 1:30 minutes in error. I was pleased with the run and just wasn't in shape to do much better. Maybe if I hadn't gotten sick earlier in the month it might have made a difference. I had started out the race cautiously; at one point on the way to #1, I came to a dead stop for 15 seconds to make sure I was following the right reentrant. Like the training in the preceding days, the terrain kept me slow enough to keep in contact with the map pretty well. I just had a slight error after getting to the bottom of the reentrant after #8--I had followed a bad bearing over a fence that I shouldn't have crossed and was tentative for a little way. My other error ocurred coming into #11 high from the road and the broad spur--I was reading the control to be the reentrant junction when it really was an earth bank just before it. I'd gone over the top of the earthbank not seeing the control in the bottom and had to turn back after reaching the reentrant junction. I did have a poor route choice at the end when I chose to go along the longer way along the wash to the finish but this couldn't have cost me much. I was concerned about making it in under an hour and did. For my efforts, I landed in 3rd place in M45+. I was 8 minutes behind Tom Hollowell and about a minute behind Ed Hicks. Greg Balter would have beat me too if he hadn't made a 11-12 minute error at #1. He finished 4 minutes behind me. If Eric Buckley or Mike Eglinski had run I'd likely have been further back; Eric didn't make it and Mike was sick.

Western States Championships & Intercollegiate Championships in the Coronado National Forest near Sonoita, AZ. For the afternoon, I did the sprint. I did poorly and had trouble reading the contours. They appeared to have just been blown up from 1:10,000 to 1:5,000 and missed some detail in areas--still, I could have just been trying to run too fast. The start was in a very open area and people went in many strange routes. Many had wondered a bunch about which way was best. Near the last moment, I chose to go the way JJ Cote did; around the first reentrant low (many had crossed this), then up. I spiked #1 and then did the same for #2. Things were going by so fast that perhaps I got over confident. I went around along the wash toward #3 but missed it by being too far right--I misread the contrours and went way past where I should have gone, incurring some extra climb too. I was clean to #4, and #5. I was pretty close on #6 but going to #7 I was just a bit high. Passing the control, I could have seen it if I'd just turned around. I convinced myself that I'd mis-counted the reentrants we were crossing and went too far north. Looping around low but rather confused, I saw #8 and figured it was the wrong control. Not matching up anything else, I went to #8 then turned back to go the #7. After that, I was fairly clean on the rest but I'd lost a lot of time and was tired. Lynn Walker had started behind me by a minute and had made some errors too but we were together at #8. The total error was probably over 5-6 minutes. This didn't help me much for tommorow.

Red 1 - Splits

Sprint - Splits

Arthur Pack Regional Park, Tuscon, AZ. The US Team setup a compass bearing training exercise in this very flat park. It was a good place for it since there was enough spotty rough vegetation on the map to make some obstacles. To keep on course, I went through greener areas than I otherwise might have chosen. The point of the exercise was to keep on track using primarily bearings. I didn't use the trails which sometimes might have been better to go on. I had trouble early. The exercise was made tougher by the use of orange and white streamers instead of actual control bags. I was often near Kesenya, Stanislav and one of his friends. They sometime drew me off my line and sometimes helped. It was quite fun. The mapping was rather good though I'd be more likely to map a lot of this light green rather than white. The saguaro catcus made good controls as well as good landmarks to read along the way; they were mapped as green boulders. Though my spike accuracy rate looks low, I was often very close. My GPS track of this looks rather odd for an O-course with mostly straight lines.

Event: US Team training activity
 

Coronado National Forest, AZ. From the Italian Flats parking area, I did a contours only course with some line-O sections. This was a pretty area with great views of some snow topped mountains. We started at around 4350 ft as my GPS read it. I did okay in the first line-O section finding both controls. In the second, I drifted a bit too low to see another. The course portion was to be 4.8K but by the time I got finished with the line-O sections and the regular course, I'd done nearly 5 miles or 8K. I was fairly accurate on most controls but lost contact a bit for #9 and though I tried to backdoor #10, I cut in a bit soon for a slight bobble. I am not physically in shape to run hard yet. I?m still weaker than normal from being sick earlier this month. It showed in tight calves, in twisting my ankle slightly in one easy area and had to walk up the steeper hills. There was substantial rock in this area which did often slow the pace.
Splits:
From the parking area, through the start of the line-O, to the first course control, to the first course control. 22:15 (1.54 miles).
1-2 - 4:27
2-3 - 6:42
3-4 - 3:39
4-5 - 4:53
5-6 - 4:31
6-7 - 7:33 ? I got a bit low at the end and had to correct (0:45 time lost)
7-8 - 3:43 ? 50m out from 7, I could see 8 but lost it again.
8-9 - 9:45? lost contact toward the end but I recovered well.
9-10 - 3:52 ? I came around the back side but cut in too early.
10-F & Parking ? 3:11. I used the trail and road.

C • Coronado? 2

Coronado National Forest, AZ. Chimney Rock map. After eating a sandwich and waiting with Max for Peggy to return from her run, I went out. I was tired both from having run earlier and eating too soon after running. I was confused by the abundance of rock and steep reentrants on the way to #1, making a several minute error. The terrain was rougher than earlier in the day. There was mostly a lot of rock under foot but a lot of pointy vegetation to run around too. I got better as I went.

S-1 - 8:06 - leaving the road on the trail to the right, I started to go straight but the contours and abundant rock detail weren't making sense. I didn't see much rock on the map and the reentrant looked way too steep. I got off on the wrong side of things but corrected back after losing a few minutes.
1-2 - 4:08 ? I went high to #2 but was slowed by the much rougher than expected terrain.
2-3 - 3:45 - finally, I started getting on track but was slow.
3-4 - 1:23
4-5 - 5:44 - past the campers, then I took the high route in.
5-6 - 2:22 - fairly straight.
6-7 - 4:19 - down along the reentrant then over and up. I wasn't sure which side of the cliff it'd be on.
7-8 - 2:22 - it was hard to tell where things turned from spotty woods to open. Once in the open, I saw the control from far off. As often is the case in areas like this, I lost it again but went almost straight to it.
8-9 - 4:41 - I stayed a little high on the left but eventually did drop down to the reentrant. I should have stayed high.
9-10 - 5:59 - I thought this was the trickiest control of the course. I read it very well up until the end when I got too low.
10-11 - 1:11 - spiked this.
11-12 - 4:03 - fairly straight but around the right side to the knoll at the end.
12-13 - 3:49 - This was tricky. I got just a bit to the right but corrected well.
13-F - 1:14

From Rosedale Ave. I did the Two Mile Route. This was run the first thing in the morning and my body was not awake. I needed to do it early because the rest of the day is for traveling to Tuscon, AZ. I felt rather sluggish and didn't want to push so as not to aggrivate my calfs.

On the walk home from work my calfs were hurting. My legs are still not used to running. It was also cold out so I opted to ride the cycle trainer. I kept the average cadence above 65 rpm.