Training Log Archive: Nadim

Head cold.

Lake Frank Park, MD. Having the day off and it magically being nice and warm was a great way to end the weekend. I covered areas with much detail. There were lots of rough open clearings--odd shaped and often linear and parallel. I went over an area with much more open woods too though I managed to find a few thorns there too. There were lots of rock features to map though a disappointing number of the larger ones seemed to coexist with green or thorny vegetation. I saved a steep hilly slope to finish the day with. Dehydrated, it tired me out a lot. Even the open slopes of this area had to be carefully trod upon since the leaf cover would sometimes slide out from under me. It was a pretty nice day. As much of a challenge as it was to field check, it'll be an equal mental challenge to translate it all to the map. My GPS tracks alone (mostly vegetation boundaries and cliffs) totaled close to 3 miles. My knee was hurting much of the day; either from the run yesterday or the change in weather.

Event: QOC: Meadowood
 

QOC: Meadowood SRMA, Fairfax County, VA. I wasn't really sure if I was going to this event until I woke up a bit late in the morning. It was nice to have slept in after a busy week. In the night, I'd woke up with a cramp in my right hamstring. My thanks go to Kris Beecroft who, working the meet, agreed to watch Max for me when I started my run since Peggy was still out. I felt tired starting out on the course and trudged on that way for a while. I started well but in the early loops where there were lots of immature trees and small branches, I made two bad errors. Part of it wasn't being used to the 15ft. contours which also were not quite as sharp as I would have expected. I screwed-up too of course. I got control codes and control numbers mixed up when leaving #3 to go for control 4 which was code 103. I ran out like I was leaving control #4, perhaps because the 4-5 leg was a parallel route or because control #5 was code #104. Figuring this out after a little while I recovered from the error somewhat poorly. I made a mess of going to #5 later as well. What I was seeing in the woods and what I seeing on the map wasn't matching. I had to use the catching trail and line-up with the start area which was nearby the trail. I slowed my running and things got better.

Going on the long trail run leg to #12, I could have saved a lot of time by just sticking to the trail. I cut off some corners but one time I stumbled and aggrivated my right ankle which I'd hurt the day before. Losing my place, I turned up a reentrant far too early in the vicinity of #20. I corrected running high but was tiring. I ate a Gu and things got better again. I think the vastly more open woods had a lot to do with that too. The rest of the way, my navigation was smooth but not perfect.

I thought Dave Pruden did a fine job with the course setting. I hadn't read the course notes prior to running and was surprised to see butterfly loops. They seemed to work pretty well for the mapped areas which was somewhat figure 8 shaped. I certainly had to keep reading and keeping on my toes. I look forward to coming back and perhaps doing better next time.

Blue - Splits