Training Log Archive: Nadim

Blue Mountain, CO. Warm-up on the road and around the start for Day 2 of the Colorado 5-Day.

Colorado 5-Day: Day 2 at Blue Mountain, CO. A poor showing for me. I boomed 31:11 on the first control--it should have taken 6 minutes but I kept running up and down reentrants and missing. I had lessor troubles at the end of legs 6 and 7 also. Altogether, errors added up to about 29 minutes...

Warm-up near the start area for the US Night-O Championships at Manitou Lake Experimental Forest, north of Woodland Park, CO.

US Night-O Championships at Manitou Lake Experimental Forest, north of Woodland Park, CO. The course would have been tough for a daylight run. The first few controls in the detailed parallel reentrants had reasonable catching features but #5 and #6 were harder. The vegetation was poorly mapped if at all and there was plenty of debris on the early part of the course to make running fast hazardous. I had a big error at #6. My battery didn't charge properly so I did most of the event on low power (5 watts). The last half of the course was easier. Sam Listwak had the best finish for QOC, beating out Ted Good and myself. He even beat Eddie Bergeron. The winners finished in the low 50 minute range.

Red - Splits

Red - Splits

San Isabel National Forest near Buena Vista, CO. Warm-up in the parking/start area for the first day of cummulative competition for the Colorado 5-Day.

Colorado 5-Day in the San Isabel National Forest near Buena Vista, CO. This physical and technical course got the better of me. There were some problems with the setting at #10 and #13 but I made my worst errors on #2 and #12. For #2, I was off on the wrong hill, 400m away from where I should have been. Had not the course ran that way and I ran into Peter, heading to another control on the course, the error would have been worse. I had problems with scale and with reading the very detailed rock but I ran okay when it was possible. I was well off J. Brautigam's winning time of around 59 minutes. Eddie B. was leading Blue when I left at about the same time for a kilometer longer. A light rain fell with a cool breeze in about 50F weather. The altitude was somewhere between 8,000 and 9,800 ft. See the Split List.

In North Cheyenne Canyon Park (North Bear Canyon Park) near Colorado Springs. After the debaucle with orienteering I thought to try something else for diversion and accompanied Gayle Ryan on attempts at 5 caches. We got them all. The first was down a steep eroded mountainside so we decided to skip it and went to the next. We found it by following a winding trail. It was under a UPW--or as the aficianados say: under a Ubiquitous Pile of Wood. Being near the one we first attempted, we thought to try again and located it after climbing on an unmapped trail, bushwacking to a rock formation, scrambling 50 ft. up a chute and searching under a precariously balanced 4 ft. boulder to eventually find it. Others we found were: in a bark covered jar sitting on tree branches, in a pill box screewed onto a false branch which fit into a hole in a tree, and in a guard rail with a hollowed wooden 4x4 that only appeared to be nailed to other wood on the rail. While looking for one cache I turned over a rock to find a tiny live scorpion. It was fun and we got great views of Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods. Light rain continued.

C • Cache Run 2

Red - Splits

Event: Colorado Five-Day
 

Badger Gulch, CO (west of Lake George). Warm-up to the start and looping until my turn.

Colorado 5-Day: Prologue (Attack Badger Sprint). The first control was streamered. There were 30 second start intervals. I caught people at the first two controls, set a bad bearing for #3 but recovered quickly, and kept catching and passing. I definately enjoyed the open terrain and felt I navigated decently. I caught Fritz at the end. He spurred me to push which gave me the seconds needed to place well--somewhere around 14th or 15th. I was out of breath most of the time. I guess the altitude is around 8,000 ft.

Warm-up at Badger Gulch, CO for The Chase. I started the warm-up too early then after being informed the starts were at 12:30 plus the time from the Prologue, I sat around for 15 more minutes.

Colorado 5-Day: The Chase. Mark Voit won the Prologue so he started over 2 minutes ahead of me with many others following (Magnusen was second, Mook was 5th, Eddie B. had made a few errors and was only two ahead of me followed by Tom Carr, myself and J. Brautigam whom I had edged out by a second). Most took it easy saving the hard running for the cummulative racing which starts tommorow. I felt better than I did earlier in the morning so I ran a normal pace. It was a confidence builder for me with being able to run at altitude and navigate in the terrain. I passed a lot of people early including Tom Carr, Wyatt R., and Eddie B. Eddie could hold back no longer and cruised ahead to ultimately place 3rd. I trailed a pack of people many of whom I didn't recognize but it included Ross Smith and Robbie Paddock. They were taking it easy although Ross got out of breath going up some climbs and took to walking. Robbie helped untangle me from a barbed wire fence crossing. I navigated okay except going to #7 where I left the pack climbing a ridge needlessly for a shorter route. At #13, I like many others climbed to the ridge and cut right when I should have kept straight--I had stopped reading the map but a quick glance let me recover fast. Robbie got ahead there and tried to close going into the finish but he heard me coming and put on the jets just as I was running out of gas. I think I finished 10th. Mark Voit lost to Magnusen by 3 seconds. Mook took it easy.

Prologue (Attack Badger Sprint) - Splits

The Chase - Splits

Curicanti National Recreation Area, Colorado. Peggy and I hiked from the parking area off Rte. 50 near the bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir, up the Dilon Pinnacles Trail. The easy trail climbed slowly from the lake up to a spur (~7,700 ft.) below the pegmatite spires for excellent views. Following it west we reached the end loop and then scrambled up to the rocks for a proper perspective of Peggy and the pegmatites. I scrambled up the scree between the spires and could see a way up above them. I wanted to go up but I turned back. The area reminded me of the hoodoo's in Utah.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO. From the North Rim Ranger Station, North Vista Trail to Exclamation Point, to Green Mountain Summit, back to Exclamation Point, and some side trails. The views were exclamatory as the name implies. Clear views of rock cliffs dropping almost vertically ~2,000 ft. to the Gunnison River were augmented by the surrounding mountains. The top of Green Mountain (8,563ft.) wasn't much but it did put the canyon in perspective and allowed a view on end. Temperatures were comfortably in the 70's and 80's F--we heard Denver was to be 96F. Peggy and I skipped the also aptly named SOB trail which doesn't show-up on the maps; it climbs/drops 1,800ft. in a mile with some rock scrambles to/from the river.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We scampered around on the south rim overlook hikes after driving the +80 miles around (only 1/4 mile from the North Rim as the crow flies). Sunset View was a great place even around 6:45pm. At Rock Point lightning and showers threatened.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO. From the Medano Creek parking area, Peggy and I made our way up to High Dune (~8,600 ft) and back. We curved our way up counter-clockwise trying to find the fewest ups and downs. We started after noon and expected it to be hot but a nice breeze kept us cool most of the way. Occasionally as sand filled our shoes my toes felt it (surface temperature can get to 140F). The climbs weren't bad except for a few steep parts where soft sand would slide back half a step for every one forward. Quick steps could help from losing too much. It took 54 minutes to the top with a few stops. Going down we bounded in huge steep steps onto soft sands on a route back. We were careful to avoid Ted Good's experience from 2 years back where he suddenly hit hard packed sand on the way down and wrenched his back. The sandy Medano Creek cooled our hot toes at the end.

After traveling all day to get to Alamosa, CO, I felt the urge to run in the cool night and also see how the altitude felt. I think it's around 6,000ft.above sea level and I felt good on the flat ground. I went from Rte. 160 east of Rte. 17, to Rte. 17, northward to somewhere past both Curtis Dr. and a sign for a Vetinary place, then back. Running in the dark on the shoulder was a bit odd in the unfamiliar surroundings. I couldn't see my feet nor much else with few houses or street lights near. However, I could recall the feel of the landscape from biking through here almost to the week around 1996 when I did the Ride the Rockies. A cool thing that I did see was all of Scorpio and Sagaterius popping out of the sky in front of me even when cars passed going the other way.