Training Log Archive: Nadim

Sagehen Summit near Truckee, CA - Warm-up on the dirt roads and trails prior to the start of the North American Long Distance Championship. I did okay on this race but 2 mistakes were ones that shouldn't of been.

S-1 - I left the trail when it felt right, rather than from some mapped feature. I gradually dropped, going on bearing. However, I dropped a little too low. I turned upward when I saw the reentrant ahead but still below me.

1-2 - After climbing a way, I crossed what I thought was the mapped trail. In reality it was probably a ride. I had turned right from that point, only to hit a trail intersection and have to come back left when I figured it out.

2-3 - I used the road.

3-4 - I was worried about the climb at the end of this via the road route. In retrospect, I should have used the road anyway. It was probably what cost me a position or more. I climbed gradually toward the control but mistaking some boulders in the terrain for others on the map, I thought was doing okay. If I'd have trusted the vegetation, I'd have stayed low enough but I kept on my bearing until I got to a cliff; then another, and another. Were I at the right height, I should only have seen one and it was pretty green there. Another orienteer was confused but I knew that I had to drop. It was low going with the steepness and the vegetation so I lost time, but I did go pretty much to the control after realizing I was too high.

4-5 - I dropped down and kept a pretty good bearing. Crossing the road, I knew I needed a little adjustment to the left. Doing that I spiked the control but slowed toward the end when I was less sure.

5-6 - Straight, but Ted Good caught me a little bit before the control.

6-7 - Straight. Ted had gone more to my right but we converged, with him putting more distance between us.

7-8 - I climbed to the road and came down from a dot knoll. That was probably a good choice for me since I could run better on the road than in the terrain. It felt slow getting up to the road.

8-9 - Straight. I seemed to see Ron Birks making an error after I crossed the road. I hit the control well.

9-10 - Straight. I picked-up speed going down hill through the open forest and got a little reckless. When I hit the road, I was on target but something didn't look right to me. I went on and into the reentrant and didn't see the control. I started to go back to the road and almost got there when Ron Birks came up. He went a little left of where I'd been, but in the same reentrant. After getting around some bushes we could see the control.

10-F - Ron explained as we headed to the road that his hamstring or something else had been injured and that he wouldn't be racing me in. I moved ahead and heard footsteps from behind. Getting reckless again, I punched a White control before the turn to the left up toward the finish. The footsteps got closer and just before the left turn, Ted Good passed again. He'd made a big mistake on #8 when he went straight and I took the road. I didn't so much as chase Ted to the finish as watch him pull away but he did spur me to keep running up the hill.

The was a little disappointing again but not altogether bad. A lot of people were making errors on #1. I shouldn't have had the mistake on #2 and shouldn't have made the bad route choice to #4. Even #10 was an unforced error. Since I've been running a little better, I've got to get more disciplined about when to step on the gas and when not to.

After the event I took some more pictures of the participants.

C6 - Splits

North American Orienteering Middle Distance Championship at Little Truckee Summit, CA. Knowing that I was in risk of missing my start time, I jogged the road and parts of the trail to get to the start. The distance and time are estimated since I had started my watch during the jog.

North American Orienteering Middle Distance Championship at Little Truckee Summit, CA. I settled down with my navigation a little more on this course than I have in races all week.

S-1 - I ran straight on bearing but noted the lone tree along the way--I was looking for it to assure my position and there was a control on it. I kept going straight and recognized the tree grouping from the map. That was good because there was some thicker shrubbery that I had to go around to see the control.

1-2 - I went around the vegetation to the left, then spiked the control.

2-3 - I tried going straight but drifted too low. Hitting some boulders, I surmised my position and was able to correct quickly.

3-4 - Straight and I spiked it.

4-5 - Initially, I aimed and did cross the bottom of the hill where the vegetation started to get thick. While climbing and early on, I didn't see a boulder that I expected to. That had me guessing if I was too high or too low. Overall, the contours put me back on track but for a little while the contour and my bearing seemed incongrous. I paused but ultimately trusted my bearing. I passed a boulder once then went back to check it again. There was a control on it but it wasn't mine. Going on, I hit the correct boulder.

5-6 - Straight but I think along here is where Ted Good passed me.

6-7 - Straight and I hit it well.

7-8 - I largely went straight and judged distance by the the changes in vegetation. I'd drifted a little high and when in the low vegetation past the white forest, I thought I'd gone far enough and I paused again. I went futher onward and found it.

8-9 - I went straight but hesitated around the road. Glancing down at the map cleared it up but I lost a few seconds. I'd drifted left a little bit.

9-10 - At this point I felt like the race could have been longer. I moved okay finishing but was concious of needing to be careful not to hurt myself.

After the race, I took a lot of photographs:

C9 - Splits

Event: 2023 North American Orienteering Championships
 

Northstar resort, Truckee, CA. Going back and forth from the parking area to the event center to the start. I'd forgotten my eyeglasses in the car. Part of this time was walking with Samantha, getting her to the event center. Earlier in the day, we'd visited Donner State Park.

North American Sprint Championship at Northstar resort, near Truckee, CA. I got thrown off early by the extensive use of barricades. Though I recognized it I more than once misjudged which side of the line a control was on. Correcting for it involved long jaunts around. When we hit a control that required going through a small condo building stairway, I recognized what to do quickly. However when emerging from the building, I suddenly thought that I was emerging from another building. This ended up causing me do do a 4 minute loop right back to where I started. When emerging the second time, I went right to the control. It was a disappointing day. Adding insult to injury, I was on the way to #11 when I passed the Lennons on a staircase who weren't racing. I suddenly skipped to going to #12 on the other side of the same building, and thus mispunched.

After my race, I took a lot of pictures:

Northstar resort. I walked from the event center to the parking lot with Samantha.

C5 - Splits

After a leisurely morning and brunch with my college roommate Dan,we drove to Truckee and to the model event for the North American Championships. The map was in the same place it was 2 years ago. Several of the controls were the same and maybe all of them were the same. The area is kind of thick for ground cover. Some places were easier to read than others. Though I was mostly walking, I didn’t spike every control.

After this we checked in to Northstar Resort and went to Truckee Thursdays in Downtown Truckee. We ate with Paul Hession there and saw other orienteers there too.

California Orienteering Festival 2023. Morgan Territory. Long. I had a rough day. I went 5.1 miles and climbed 367m on this course.



S-1 - I moved slowly up the small initial hill out of the start. One I was heading down the other side I realized that I had forgotten to put on my eyeglasses. Going back was out of the question. I also realized that I’d I had to make do. Fortunately it was sunny and that helps me with reading. I left the trail just a little early and got on the wrong spur. I didn’t lose much time and went to the next where the control was.

1-2 - I went between the knolls, then along the hillside.

2-3- instead of using the road, I crossed it and got onto the intermittent trail. Eventually getting back to the road I soon left it. I tried to follow the vegetation and to be on the west side of the bigger reentrant. However, I must have left the road late and I had a hard time following the rental from above and couldn’t clearly tell where the light green mapping began. It seemed to me that scattered rough open terrain was mapped as light green. There was some deadfall that was mapped light green too. The main thing that slowed me was the steepness. I’d followed the wrong reentrant down so I ended up doing a loop. Seeing the fence let me know where to go.

3-4 - I went over the saddle.

4-5 - I went on the left side, staying high. Then I took the road until due east of the control. I could see the control from the trail

5-6 - After getting to the big reentrant, I got distracted by a nearby orienteer and crossed, rather than following the reentrant up. I must have misread my compass. The other guy followed me and I eventually turned around after going a long way. We consulted briefly and turned back. I read my way back much better.

6-7 - Over the ridge and all the way down to the rocks east of #7. I contoured over but still had to climb a contour or more.

7-8 - The right side was uninviting due to the steep climb at the end. I climbed up to the trail and took the trail and road to east of the control. I could see it from the trail.

8-9 - I followed the cow path until it split and then mostly took the left, higher on. I knew that I needed to go up 2 contours.

9-F - I was pretty tired and moving slowly.

After this my shoes and socks were caked with woody grasses and seeds that penetrated every thing. I was glad that I had good gaiters and I-pants that Ted Good lent me. In my rush to catch an early plane on the way out here, my o-pants had gotten left behind.

After driving to Elk Grove , near Sacramento, I saw and stayed with my old college roommate whom I hadn’t seen in decades. We’d lost touch until he found me through my pictures on Flickr. We had an enjoyable evening catching up and eating dinner.

C8 - Splits

California Orienteering Festival 2023. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA. The start was off JFK Drive. As others described it, this was like a long sprint. I was getting winded early but I was fairly accurate. Once or twice I pulled up and had to look left or right to see the control. I thought my route choices were mostly good. A few times I opted for a safer but longer route. I caught a guy in my age group somewhere around control #19. I didn’t go far enough so he came in right behind me at#20. He made a mistake getting to #21. I thought I was ahead for good but I stopped at the lone tree for#24 without seeing the control on the other side, and got caught again. I got to #25 ahead of him but I went the longer way around the small lake and was behind at #25. I made up ground on the way to #26. As I chased him to the GO control he cut down the hill early. I’d seen a few people finish when I was getting ready and it seemed like the people who descended later got there faster, and that’s what I did to get ahead for good. I ran much better to the finish than I did yesterday. Clint Morse was shooting away as I came straight at him. Clint had finished earlier, 2nd to Tapio, whom had the home court advantage. I was 4th when I finished. The guy whom I traded leads with was local and was sixth when he finished.

After the race, Peggy, Max, Samantha, Matt Smith, and I went to Haight Asbury for lunch and shopping. We had a good time in a high end tie-dye shop that only sold original artist products. It was a fun place. https://flic.kr/p/2oQq4Ws They wouldn’t print a receipt for me to save paper. After we parted with Matt, we drove to Twin Peaks where Max and I got blasted by wind and fog at the top. We drove to Oakland and Jack London Square for dinner. A guy there was about to try to steal stuff from my backpack while it was on my back and while I was photographing flowers. I finished before he got a chance. Doing laundry in the hotel in the evening was much calmer. https://flic.kr/p/2oQrZAP

C • "steal stuff from my backpack while I was photographing flowers" 2

C7 - Splits

Event: CalOFest 2023
 

California Orienteering Festival 2023. Presidio, San Francisco, CA. I ran the sprint fairly clean, but I moved slowly and had come to a full stop between 5 and 6 when I briefly lost contact and position on the map. People were gaining on me before then and I think I heard Greg Balter give me a hint when I’d stopped by telling me what number was next. I lost a few seconds upon arriving at a control on a tree, but not seeing it in front of me—the high wind had knocked the control down on the other side of the tree. Getting to the control after that one, I found another on the ground. Overall, my speed was just too slow. I think I ended up in 4th in my age group.

This was a nice place to do a sprint; the Golden Gate Bridge was in sight, as was the Bay. We ate food truck lunch with Keg and Ted Good, and Matt Smith. https://flic.kr/p/2oQfmzQ. It was cool and a bit windy at times:

C6 - Splits