Training Log Archive: Nadim

From Northfield Rd., to the Bethesda Metro Station. It was the first day of school for the kids and a very warm and humid morning. I had my laptop. All of this led me to not bicycle in all the way to work this morning. I felt guilty about it but it, but even with bicycling only to the metro station, I got a little sweaty, and later in the afternoon there were storms with lots of lightning.

From the Bethesda Metro Station to Northfield Rd.

Bethesda,MD. We left Denver on 9/2 and got home after midnight on the 9/3. I cleaned-up some things around the house and got some pictures downloaded. My left heel was really hurting during the night and for a while in the morning. It was hard to walk. It got better and later on 9/3, I felt about like I had on 9/2--odd.

Western States Day 2 Green - Splits

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; Day 3, East Pelican Bay map. I went to the start with Max.

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; Day 3, East Pelican Bay map. This was my warm-up trip to the start.

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; Day 3, East Pelican Bay map, 7,850ft altitude. This Green course was fun and tiring. I had early trouble with #2--even afterward I was feeling like the control might have been in the wrong place. Unfortunately my GPS track never got started--I hit the start/stop button twice at the start without realizing it. I had trouble with #3 too--I somehow missed my attackpoint, a reentrant leading up to the ridge with all the rock detail. I wandered around on the other side of the ridge, turning the wrong direction initially, then coming all the way back and more. I realized where I was when I got back on top at the 3 trees in the field. I hit everything else on the course pretty well but got a little confused on the way to #11.

This was a walk to the start again, but with Samantha. We got there as they were packing up.

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; Day 3, East Pelican Bay map, 7,850ft altitude. I went out with Samantha on the White course. Since we'd gotten there late the first control had already been picked-up. As we started, Samantha got to punch it immediately, from the hand of one of the organizers who was doing the starts. We went through the whole course. Samantha didn't complain much and actually had wanted to do this. We saw a lot of other orienteers including Peggy who was not having a good day. My heel was hurting through most of this.

Ted Good finishing his Red course:


Samantha on the White course:


Peggy on the Green course:


Peggy on the Green course:


Samantha on the White course:

Western States Day 1 Green - Splits

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; Day 3, Middle, on the Granite Planite map — This was part of my warmup for the National Ranking Event. I started to walk to the start with Max and Peggy; but I’d left my camera. I jogged back to get it and then jogged to catch-up. Max was a first starter and ran Yellow. The terrain looked great! I would have taken pictures of him finishing but he came back so fast that I only had time to watch it. Max won his course.

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; Day 3, Middle, on the Granite Planite map — This was the second part of my warmup for the National Ranking Event. I’d started walking and realized that I’d forgotten my control description holder. I jogged back to get it and to get to the start.

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; Day 3, Middle, on the Granite Planite map — This was fun. I started pretty well spiking everything through 8. I may have started reading the wrong line going to #9 since I turned and went down a reentrant instead of moving straight to it as I had been. I figured it out going too far, after next turning the wrong way, and then slogging uphill to the right place--probably around a 2 minute error. I was doing well again after that but started to get tired or excited. I was right on at #17 and knew the control on the boulder in front of #17 wasn't mine. I went behind the boulder expecting to see the cliff but I didn't venture into the trees where the cliff was. Instead I cut right to 2 more boulders before coming back. I definitely was tired near the end as I was trying to catch-up to Greg Lennon about 10 seconds ahead--I read my own way but was hesitant. The depression was much deeper than expected. I sprinted in passing Greg and unfortunately, in the process, Greg re-aggravated a hamstring injury.

Medicine Bow Wilderness, WY. Starting at the parking lot on the West Lake Marie Trailhead, Peggy, Max, Samantha and I went past Lake Marie, Mirror Lake, and up to Lookout Lake. This was a very nice hike against the backdrop of Medicine Bow Peak in the Snowy Range. I'd been tempted to hike the circuit, an +11 mile hike with much more climb. That would have been too much for everyone after all the orienteering we'd been doing. We enjoyed the boulders and the lakes, snapping a lot of pictures along the way.

Middle Green - Splits

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival. Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie; on the Rattlesnake Hill map. Day 2 — One-Cowboy Relay. Peggy, Max, and I each ran our own races today. There were 5 loops, Motala style. This format was done with a mass start which further encourages racing. My first 3 loops were all 1.3k. The 4th was just 300m and the last was 2.5k. The altitude was between 8,000ft ant 8,250ft. so all the climbing seemed hard. The courses were much more technical today. The last loop required the most skill. I saw Max a few times on my first loop. As I was going out on my 3rd he has going out on his 2nd. When I’d finished and had gotten some water, Max had just finished his 4th loop. He was resolved to finish and did so, mostly alone; few people were behind him. I never saw Peggy who’d started with the short fist loop. On my last loop there was a lot of exchanging of leads. Glen Tryson had started that loop ahead of me about 150m. Some RMOC people were near as was Charlie Shabazian. I finished in the midst of these people. I was most happy about never blowing a control today. Just 2 or 3 times I could have been a little more efficient with my routes. It was a fun and sunny day with temperatures in the 70 F range. After the race I could feel pain in my left heel area, like I had a couple of nights ago, but less severe.

Loop A Video

Event: 2018 Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival
 

Rocky Mountain Orienteering Festival Medicine Bow, WY; near Laramie. Day 1 on the Lights of Cheyenne map. Max and I did the Red course together. The gentle climb at the start of this mass start race was hard. Max and I were out of breath. The altitude was between 8,000ft ant 8,250ft. We later walked almost all of the uphills throughout the course. There was a line of people leading us into controls up to #5. People such as Gary Smith, Kathleen Lennon, Sharon Crawford, Kean Williams, Chris Beecroft and more were near us a lot. Max had gotten a side cramp earlier which prompted more walking. It went away later. He did pretty well getting through the distance—though he’s gone farther, I don’t think he’s done this distance as quickly before. I went his pace and waited sometimes but my own condition is not that strong. I did the navigating but pointed out features along the way to help him learn. The few places I may have lost us time were probably at #4 and perhaps at #5. Everything else was spiked. I needed a bathroom early on, and Max needed water earlier than control #10. It was fun being in this open terrain again and to be able to run and finish. My back held up well. Both of my feet were tingling and sort of numb, more than has been the case.

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. From the Old Trail Ridge Road, Peggy, Max, and I hiked up to Marmot Point. The dirt road up had lots of great views. In several places the road had been blasted out of sheer cliffs. There were many sharp drop offs right next to a gravel edge. The hike started steeply but didn’t seem too hard. Samantha made a fuss right at the start so we let her wait in the car. It was windy and cold enough to need a jacket. I wore pants too. We heard a siren and saw a helicopter while climbing. There were some marmots to be seen too. At the very top the wind was stronger but the 360 views were wonderful. We could see the Apline Visitor Center slightly below our elevation (somewhere around 12,000ft.). I was convinced that the view we got was much nicer than the one we’d have gotten from the high point next to the Visitor Center up the paved stairs.

After getting back to the car we saw a second helicopter go over to the Visitor Center and land. We had to wait in line 20 minutes just shy of it because they were using the parking lot for a landing pad. At the Visitor Center finally, we relaxed and got to some things. We never found out the reason for the emergency aircraft.

Rocky Mountain National Park. From the Trail Ridge Road, Max and I hiked to Mushroom Rocks and a little further. Peggy stayed with Samantha who was feeling sick. This was nice, but still very windy. We both felt the altitude climbing but not so much on the way down. Max, Peggy, and I had hiked this 4 years ago, just before we’d gotten Samantha from China.

On the drive down we saw 2 elk. 4 years before we’d seen a herd. We learned to find out that it was becoming more common to see the elk in Estes Park than the National Park. We ate lunch in Estes and Samantha felt much better. Of course w did more shopping. Samantha bought a stuffed dog.