Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Mason Neck
 

QOC: Mason Neck State Park, VA. Blue. I felt faster today and ran pretty well overall. That however was not what was needed at this often tricky park.

S-1 - I ran down the road and cut in using the place where the foot trail on the south side of the road gets closest to the road, to attack the control on the north side. I got just a little to the right and had to come through some deadfall.

1-2 - out across the road, I used the paved trail bend to the left. I rounded the green in a broad curve, crossing the trail that was covered w/leaves, without noticing it. As I came back I saw the trail and used it for 100ft. I went straight next, emerging just on the west edge of the control circle.

2-3 - Straight all the way, making minor adjustments, and I spiked it. This probably got me a little overconfident, though I didn't think going straight was easy.

3-4 - I went straight, making early adjustments for deadfall. Across the fist broad reentrant, I hit a minor-ditch-like one almost perfectly so I thought all was well. I continued straight but ended up well past the control at the next reentrant system. I didn't see the marsh or the mapped deadfall for where I ended up, except for the deadfall right at the reentrant. I spiraled outward after exploring the reentrant slowly, due to the deadfall. Eventually I looped south of the control and came up the correct reentrant system from the SW. My GPS shows that if I'd have hit the control correctly, that I'd have taken 2:14. As it was, I lost 8:13 minutes. AP shows me losing more but that's because I made other errors.

4-5 - I ran down the reentrant and then on bearing, going straight. I must have been a little to the left. I dropped into the reentrant before the #5 and found a different control there. I rushed and punched. Though I'd been reading other control codes, I must not have checked this one. It was #132 and this one was #131.

5-6 - I'm surprised that I didn't see the correct control #5 on the way since I'd mispunched one reentrant early at #5. It was practically on the way. Continuing straight, I went over hills and deadfall to spike #6.

6-7 - I ran straight at #7, perhaps getting too high to the left along the way. I corrected and even thought things were good when I came up on the rootstock 200m away, and a little deadfall 100m away. Stopping just beyond the rim of the broad shallow reentrant, I didn't see the control. I did however see the NE side of the trail bridge that was beyond the control. I came back but still didn't see it. I circled back toward the bridge and took a better bearing. This time I went slightly farther and was on target. My GPS shows I had ran out and back the same way. My GPS track shows I lost 1:55 minutes.

7-8 - I tried to go straight but I arced there from left to right.

8-9 - Straight to the trail. I went to the trail bend before going straight again. This time I was a little left, and went past the correct spur, to the next. I crossed the reentrant to get back. I lost 41 seconds.

9-10 - I was a bit sloppy going too far to the left initially but I spiked the control.

10-11 - Straight but it seemed like I was off to the left a little.

11-12 - Straight to the marsh, checking things off along the way. I was closer to the left (east) side of the marsh so I went around it on the left side. That was a pretty good attack point but I used the reentrant near the end.

12-13 - Straight, and I spiked it, but I adjusted along the way.

13-14 - Straight, noting the edge of the green. I didn't discern the scattered rough open just past it. I kept straight and spiked it.

14-15 - I pulled to the left and stopped at the rim. Not seeing a reentrant, I went on. This would have been execution of aiming off, but I hadn't been trying to do it. I lost about 15 seconds.

15-16 - I ran a little right of straight, planning to hit the paved trail. Mostly, I ran to avoid green. I adjusted left and right. I hit the trail SE and beyond the bridge, then used the paved trail.

16-17 - I ran down the road, cutting in just before the parking lot. Just past the parking lot, I cut in again, having to cross the reentrant to get to the control. It was higher up than I'd expected it, but I saw if from far away.

17-F - I tried to run harder but never at 100%. I was pretty tired.

Overall, I think I lost right at about 11 minutes. It was disappointing but not so much as finding out that I'd mispunched again.

Blue - Splits

MCRCC Winter Trails at Black Hills Regional Park. It had been a while since I'd been to Black Hills State Park. The last time was summer cell phone orienteering on a partially completed map the the Lennon's had started. I was astounded to see so much open forest. The clean ridges were only rarely interrupted by a rootstock. There were some ditches but not many, except for one place.

I'm happy that the Winter Trails program has started. Peggy signed us up again. It's motivating to get out early, run with a lot of people, and to not have to do much planning. I wore my Ice Bugs and they felt nice. Starting out with the faster group, I tried to keep my pace comfortable. The temperature was in the mid-30s F. I didn't plan to run the whole 10 miles and was concerned about that for several reasons. The biggest was my weight gain since September, at least partly caused by the lack of training. Stress and not sleeping enough caused setbacks too. I fell in step behind a young woman and was comfortable to pace with her. I couldn't hear her well but she was saying something about our pace. An older guy passed us, and then as we shifted directions, the woman slowed down. I passed her and focused on the guy in front of me. We went past a convergence of trails. It seemed like we'd lost the woman awfully fast and I hadn't caught the guy in front of me. On the drive to the run, Peggy asked me if I'd seen the route map and I hadn't. I usually know most of the trails and I was going to stay w/others. It turned out that the guy in front of me had signed up the night before and had never been to Black Hills SP. When the trail ran into a paved one after a mile, the other guy had stopped and I told him I thought we needed to go back. We did and this time saw the ribbon up high on our right at the intersection I'd passed earlier. The rest of the route was a lollipop route. We did our loop, seeing others along the way. The intersection closing the loop wasn't marked, so the other guy (Richard) that I'd run with, and I passed it and ran off course again. Not seeing any more streamers, I figured we needed to turn around again. We did and made our way back on course. Again, other runners were seen. The official 10 mile route had people doing the lollipop course twice. Since I'd already run +2 miles out of the way the first time, I was done upon returning to the parking lot. Though I wasn't very fast, I felt nice on the trails and some of the old liquid feeling of flowing over the ups and downs was there. I look forward to more.

Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park, MD. After a while at home recovering, and drafting some of my earlier field checking, I went out again to use the daylight. At first, I checked on the magnetic north alignment on the fence again--disappointingly, it was still off a bit so I noted a correction. I focused on an area not far from where I park since time was short. I was amazed at how many boulders I found. The density is much higher than most of our parks except perhaps the rockier lowland parts of Great Falls, MD where we're not allowed to run any more. I was also mapping corridors and gaps where the thorns start. Some of the boulders were at the edges among mostly distinct clumps of greenbriar. I also got to the edge and a little beyond actual parkland. The fences were not on the border so the mapping time there was mostly wasted. It was a bit junky there so not a big loss. I did however see a somewhat wall of greenbriar, cutting off potential navigable routes.

Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park, MD. I spent the first +2 hours adjusting point features that I'd mapped earlier. I had to make more adjustment to the magnetic north on the map. Using a long straight fence, where it was broken by a treefall. I could see a long way and felt reasonably assured that the fence was not interfering magnetically. It didn't line up with my previous attempt to align the map. When I re-checked the alignment of the fence in a different part of the park to what I'd just aligned it with earlier, it didn't align again--this makes me wonder about iron ore or something else throwing off compass bearings. Except for a light rain shower, the rest of the time was good. I found great point features. There were more rootstocks than boulders but I did find a lot of those. crossing to the south side of the power lines there were some really nice woods with widely scattered boulders. I look forward to getting past the greenbriar near Greenbriar Branch for more of that open terrain. I know it's there from the reconnaissance that Peggy and I did a few weeks back.

From Northfield Rd to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From Bethesda Metro Station the Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From Bethesda Metro Station the Northfield Rd.

From Northfield Rd to the Bethesda Metro Station.

From the Bethesda Metro Station, Woodmont Ave. to Wisconsin Ave. to Norwood Ave. and Norwood Park, to the Capital Crescent Trail, to the Bethesda Metro Station. I was feeling tired so I kept this to a short run.

From Bethesda Metro Station the Northfield Rd. A little tired from running.