Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC Lake Needwood
 

QOC: Lake Needwood Park, MD. After coming here for many runs and mapping efforts, we were finally able to have an official orienteering meet in this nice but steep park. Dave Onkst set the courses. With the tropical storm rains for 5 days through last weekednd, he had to make major changes to cross Rock Creek only at designated bridges. The result was that courses were a bit easier than expected. Dave had trouble with my mapping which admittedly could use improvement. The mapping in the far south was started around 2006/2007 and I learned a lot as I went along here and at other parks. I think the mapping in the north was much better.

From my run, it sunk-in how poor my reading while racing is. Of course I knew the whole park pretty well. For most of the control features used, I could conjur-up a visual memory of the feature or at least of the area around the feature. I set off to the very easy first couple controls this way, running far too fast. By the 4th control, I had overrrun a point where I should have started climbing and subsequently lost time. I also had glanced at the map and the control and was thinking it was going to be much higher so I lost more time by climbing too high. Dave had set a lot of controls and the park is narrow already. This meant that many of the leg lines were close together. Glancing again, I ran to the 11th control, a little out of my way and on my run to #6. For #8, the control circle covered some of a contour so I mistakenly had thought the control was going to be much lower--I was running along the way to it, thinking about not remembering a cairn that low... On leg 12, I contoured, then dropped down as I should have, yet I climbed back up too early--I was rushing and not reading the features. On #14, a ditch feature, control #29 was nearby but at a legal distance on another ditch. I went to #29 first because I was just glancing at the map. With #17 and #18 close together, I was recalling my glance of the map backwards, thinking of the terrain around #17 while approaching #18. Perhaps the worst error was going from #18 to #19 by way of #23. #23 was almost along the straight line path but much higher than I needed to go. My map reading was just very poor and it wasn't just because I had confidence that comes with having mapped the area.

I had some slight errors on #25 and #27. At #25, the control circle obscured the trail so I ran past the trail bend thinking the control was ahead when I'd just passed it. The fence drafting (a small rectangular enclosure) was also not appropriate for 1:10,000--in the year that I'd mapped it, I was starting to get convinced to print everything at 1:7,500 so I drafted accordingly before later switching. For #25, the control was probably on an unmapped root stock but I could have mis-mapped it too. My slight time lost at #30 was from running up slope too early again.

The one thing that worked pretty well for me was being able to run fairly strong the whole distance. My return to a weight that I didn't see much over the last 2 years probably explains much of that. I guess I've stayed healthy enough months in a row by cycling for that to happen. My strength running was more surprising with having been dehydrated in the morning. The lack of water and a drippy head cold were combining to give me a very rare headache. It made me wonder if I should go out before the race but this all faded when I got started. I even had drank enough right before the start to seriously think about stopping along the way but I didn't.

I did hurt myself when approaching #20. I don't think it'll take long to get better, and it only slowed me down for a little while. I was contouring a slope on a deer trail and at least trying to focus on my map. I stepped on a flat rock that was probably covering a burrowing animal's hole. When the rock shifted, I went down hard on my good right knee. It was bruised pretty badly but didn't show any discernable swelling compared to my left knee.

I had fun getting to run Dave's course through this park in some nice weather. When having used it previously for training events it was generally very hot and humid and I usually set the courses.

QOC: Lake Needwood. Since it was National Orienteering Day, I had setup a Super String-O for the club. It had 30 controls. I used the trees around Shelter A mostly, trying to keep people off balance by making changes in direction, placing some controls so that they were visible and some that were out of sight behind trees, by making bends around trees without having controls, by varying distances between controls, and by varying the heights. I got to try my own torture and enjoyed it. There must have been +100 other runners young and old doing it too. I was fairly smooth but not moving too fast either. I got tired a bit over half way through. Maybe I would have been better doing it before the Blue course but in this order, I didn't start the much longer Blue course by being tired. My time was 3 seconds off of the 3-way tie for the lead.

Lake Frank Park, MD. Ted Good drove us south of Lake Needwood to shorten our control pickup. I tried to checkout a +2 years old report of a second depression near what used to be called the Mark Twain School grounds. I only found one. There were 2 control stands to pickup and they felt surprisingly light. Finishing-up, I walked a steep slope with Ted Good to the parking lot. There was a lot of stilt grass there which had not been there in the winter 2 years back. Ted told me that he's working on a special symbol for it for his maps since it's becoming so prevalent in the summertime. Since it's not there in the winter, he can just hide the symbol as needed.

Blue - Splits