Training Log Archive: Nadim

Scottish 6 Days: Day 5: Glen Affric. My scratchy throat grew to a drippy nose and.a low grade cold. I jogged toward the start catching Peggy and Max is who left almost 10 minutes earlier. My back was sore in ways it hadn't been in a long time. I felt it in the tail bone area. It took a while for a it to loosen. It felt a little bit better by the time I was at the start. I did catch Pegy and Max, so I walked Max to his start and due to mixing up my own and Peggy's starit times I got there with only a minute to spare before I was called-up.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 5: Glen Affric. This was not a good showing for me. I'd been warned by an official before going out that it was brutal out there and the first control was tvery true to that. I followed the pack on elephant trails till just before the cliffs,'and when I attacked, I went left of the rest of those I started with. My control description was a 5m cliff. I assumed it to be the bottom of the cliff but my inspection didn't turn up the control. I went back up and down several times nearby since movement along the stream was mostly not possible--there were some fallen trees and a waterfall. At one point I saw the control but a re-reading of the control description led me to think the control was above the cliff. The description actually didn't indicate top or bottom. The second control was the first to indicate which direction the control would be relative to the feature and it said 'top of', so I went to the top. Each trip up and down was dangerous being very steep, eroded, and muddy. After finally finding the control, I was too tired to even notice the cliff and check the height but the gorge was more than one contour rep.

Subsequent controls were better both in my navigation, and in the physical conditioning needed to get to them. However, I was just slow moving through the terrain. Most of the ground was wet or hard for me to run on. Tufts of grass, mud, and sharp/stiff needled evergreens were on route. I nailed #2, pulled up short a bit for #3 before hitting it and move through pines to #4. I nailed #5 in an area where others seemed to be getting confused. I planned to take it safe going to #6 by going high and using a ride. It was slow getting there and moving on it. Where I left the ride there was thick undermapped deadfall. I got around it and haphazardly set across a slow felled area to a stand of forest. While in the stand of trees I saw all the orienteers well below me in another stand of trees and there were no elephant trails. I got to the other end of the trees and decided to drop down to another stand. There I realized that I had been in the right trees. If just missed the control earlier as the boulder was covered in vegetation on all sides. I found #7 with ought much delay but the placement confused me greatly. It seemed to be on ground slopping the wrong way, and the depression feature was hardly mappable with other similar small dips between pines. I went around the right side of marshes going to and spiking #8--I helped a girl relocate,who asked for help. I pulled up short on #9 in a sort of parallel error only the area I stopped at initially was not mapped the same--there were similar vegetation boundaries and even mor distinct contours were I stopped. I spiked #10 and moved better with it being downhill mostly, and there being trails to use. I took trails on the left to spike and get ahead of others going to #11. The rest was just a mad dash for high I was in no condition to dash for. 2 hours into the course, I'd wondered if I was going to have a legal finish inside 3 hours because I was moving so slowly and having so much difficulty with the controls. I was thirsty and tired upon finishing.

We tried to go to Urquart Castle along Loch Ness after the event but missed the last entry by 5 minutes. Getting to our cabin from there took us toward Inverness so we got hung up in traffic again. All in all it was another disappointing day.

S6D - Day 5 Glen Affric - C26 - Splits

Scottish 6 Days: Day 4: Darnaway: It wasn't quite as good a day for me as the day before. I started off fine and saw Peggy when I was on the way to #2. I took a slow route to #5 but was okay. I was slow reading my way across to # 6 but I spiked it. At #7 I had my first real error. I started off on a bad bearing and recovered relocating far to the right of my eft hand route, but I missed on the attack enough to make it hard to figure out where to go next. I recovered from that to spike #8 which I thought was pretty easy but others seemed to have trouble with it. Going through the green I was off to the right on #9 and because of vegetation I had a hard time seeing the proper reentrant. I was really hesitant and not reading the map well to #10, I also was tired. I got off track early but relocated. I felt a little lucky to hit it. I was confident about #11 but should have slowed down. I'd misread a depression for a knoll so I ended up passing the knoll I needed. Making a parallel error I fumbled in a second area of green before running back. The rest were fine for me. I was just slow. On the last 2 run in legs I couldn't move much faster and felt like I was barely passing the older men.

After this we got stuck in traffic leaving the event. A temporary road needed to be repaired so we sat in a hot car in line for 40 minutes. It was long enough for us to drop plans to see Broadie Castle. We did however get to Fort George, despite continued slow roads, in time to walk through the fort and on the parapets overlooking the Moray Firth. We saw a pod of dolphins go by. I ended the day with a scratchy throat.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 4: Darnaway: I warmed up by jogging over to the finish, then over to the grassy ground beneath the castle, then over to he start.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 4: Darnaway: Samantha wanted to run so I walked her over to the White course. At the fist muddy stretch she wanted me to carry her. For both my back, and to get her used to going through mud I mostly did not acquiesce. It was very slow getting the to the start as she became uncooperative. I encouraged her and we finally got there.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 4: Darnaway: Samantha and I got started on the White course but before the second control she became uncooperative again. I tried waiting her out but eventually started walking to #2. She followed but continued to not have try. I wasn't going to go back through the start and almost walked to the finish skipping controls but finally got her there. She did actually start running the last few controls but wouldn't look at the map. It was a frustrating experience since she dragged us out there to begin with and the time it took meant they we got stuck in traffic leaving the event. That cut down on tourism opportunities. After finishing Samantha was better and proud of her accomplishment and she slept in the car. Lack of sleeping properly probably contributed to her behavior.

S6D - Day 4 Darnaway - C26 - Splits

Scottish 6 Days: Day 3: Darnaway: I jogged somewhat hurriedly from our parked car to the toilets and to the Red/Blue starts. I made it with 6 1/2 minutes to spare which was good since I was already tired when I got there. My legs felt uneven in the mental efforts to move them. I wasn't fluid at all.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 3: Darnaway: I started fairly accurately, despite the difficult footing early on the course. The early footing kept me from running much. The jarring was even hurting my back so I slowed things down for a while. The worst was in the open at #4. I suppose this was a felled area. I came out of the forrest into it a little off. I relocated at a big depression but didn't straighten properly as I left to attack from a corner. I didn't get far away but the area was so slow for me to traverse that it cost me. It was the only significant mistake of the course. At #5 I lost contact with the map briefly but continued on to he control. I was a little wide to the left going to #6 but corrected well. I hit everything else and the footing improved for the rest of the course. I saw Peggy ahead of me going to our next to last common control. I shouted her name as I closed in to pass. However, she picked up the pace and finished just ahead of me.

S6D - Day 3 Darnaway - C26 - Splits

We went to the O-festival at Darnaway and saw a little of the WOC. Mostly we waited in lines for the children adventure events and for stuff to eat. Though it was fun seeing the kids in the Wow balls on the water, doing the archery, and climbing the wall we ended up spending all the usable parts of the day there. I didn't even get to see much of the WOC and the nearby attractions got closed or weren't there; one of the few castles we located from our GPS (because our Internet connection wouldn't work). Having waited so long for vacation and having little to show for it after 4 days, other than the orienteering (which was fun) I was feeling a bit desperate. I set us out on a drive through the Cairngorms. We got on some nice back roads that would be to die for if we were bicycling but there were slow for driving. We finally got out of the car for 5 minutes at Cargill, a pretty skeletal remnant of a stone arch bridge that Max, Peggy and I saw 2 years ago. Dinner near Inverness followed. All in all, the day was disappointing for it seeming to be like a wasted yet precious vacation day.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 2: Glen Strathfarrar: After. 45 minute delay driving the last mile to the event parking area I was too late to make it to my designated start time. I jogged the 2k up the flattish paved road up to the event center with my backpack on. The rains from the morning and night had stoppered but the event center was full of mud and wet cow pies. The mud was the reason for the driving delay too. Cars were getting stuck at the entryway into the field parking.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 2: Glen Strathfarrar: This jog from the event center to the Blue/Red Start Area was more uphill than the last 2K to the event center. I walked the steeper parts and was getting tired just doin that. I was surprised to see several people racing with maps just before leaving the road. I was tired already at the start but able to get into the late start line and start about 90 seconds after Peggy did. Peggy appeared out of nowhere at the start ar a not long before I had gotten there. She'd gotten the kids to the event center, settled them in, and made it to the official start of her race just in time. She was so focused that she didn't even notice me saying hello in from the late start line.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 2: Glen Strathfarrar: The steepness of the early part of the race kept me slow but I managed to get around alright. I didn't understand the mapping at my #1. I anticipated the control to be above a forested field edge and in amongst some low vegetation. I veered away from a visible control in the forest to get into the low vegetation , only to find out that it was my #1 and that I should have checked it after all. I hit the next several controls well enough though I pulled up short on #4 and I hesitated on #2 figuring out that the power lines weren't mapped; that fact was in the course notes which I hadn't read. At number 7 I had been off to the right just a bit. I fell apart after crossing the river. I came to an stack point (a stream) but with it lacking an elephant trail like most of the controls to this point, I started to go to the control, then turned away. For #12, I got to just the right distance but was too high. It took a while to realize this and my discovery of the control was almost like stumbling onto it. Going to #15, I'd just Ben passed by an older man. He headed to the wrong knoll and I headed toward the right one. I even found the small dot knoll on the other side but not seeing the control there I turned away from a short distance to go back to a visible control where the older man went. Discovering that control to be wrong, I went back to the first knoll again and went far enough to see the control this time. I tried to push it in on the last 2 controls. I was moving faster but overall I was just too weak. After finishing, like the day before, I limped about and felt pain similar to radiioculopathy in my right heel. I finished somewhat toward the end of the other M50S competitors.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 2: Glen Strathfarrar: After lunch and shopping for o clothes, and waiting for Peggy to get the kids through the the string-o, I walked waited and stopped with Samantha a few times on the hike from the event center to the car. She was tired and wanted me to pick her up. Sadly, this is something that I should not be doing for a while more, due to my back injury and surgery. I got her to walk and she even ran sometimes after saying she was tired, in an attempt to get away or to have me chase her. I didn't mindshort waits as long as we got back on track moving in the right direction. At the end I did carry her more to get her across muddy stretches.

On a sad note, literally just as the kids had been finishing string-o, I'd gotten a call from my sister who was watching after our sick kitten, Grey. Grey had been fading again the week before we left and the vet my sister took him to confirmed that Grey had to be put down. His liver stopped functioning and he wasn't eating. The kids and Peggy took it well (I explained it to them after driving to our cabin). We all knew that was a possibility before we'd left on our trip.

S6D - Day 2 Strathfarrar - C26 - Splits

Scottish 6 Days: Day 1: Achagour: warmup from the arena to the start. Peggy and I had late starts. Max had been encouraged by seeing the WOC Sprint Relay and Sprint Qualifier to do a course too so he set out to do a recreational course. The few Americans we'd seen and sat with (the Bressman's) had just left by the time we were ready to run so that meant Samantha would have to stay with our stuff and without any other people she' d known. We were woried about this setting out. I jogged the whole way to the start.

Scottish 6 Days: Day 1: Achagour: My run started well by spiking the first 4 controls. I got wide to the right on number 5 and couldn't read the edge of marsh and land well enough. I was only slightly to the left on number 8. On #9 in the archery area, I thought to take the edge of the marsh and land to the control but perhaps my experience at 5 colored my choice to use trails instead. I pulled up shot because of that and lost some minutes in the green hunting around before using the edge of the marsh to work it out. On the long leg to #11, I ran okay till the end when I pulled up short into the wrong reentrant. I guess I was getting tired there. Going to #12 I paused to help a little girl who was screaming and frantically running around with one of her shoes in her hand. She needed relocating and once pointed to the trail, she calmed down enough to keep going. I was getting worn out in the deeply rutted tree plantation area having some warning signs felt deeply in my back so I took it easier. I was just a bit off to the right but relocated quickly enough. I made a bone head turn to the left as I went for #14 and I saw Peggy all serious hunting too. In all of the mistakes I was able to correct pretty quickly but going slower as I was I'd hoped not to make as many errors as this. I guess the terrain was just tricky and unfamiliar enough. My legs felt the running afterward and my back held up enough for now. When I returned to our family spot in the arena, Peggy, Max, and a happy Samantha were waiting. Samantha wanted to run too so she and I did the String-O Course together.

S6D - Day 1 Achagour - C26 - Splits

Nairn, Scotland, UK. Peggy, Max, Samantha, and I started the day by walking through a park. We were planning on walking along the beach on the east side of Nairn. However, going on memory, I ended up on a different street on the east side of the creek splitting the town. We saw the banners for the WOC Sprint Finish and found a playground near the shore. The area turned out to be where the WOC courses went through. After returning to the area later in the day, we saw the Sprint Relay but had to walk to there from a ways off at the Farmer field. The relay was fun to watch. I took pictures mostly of the US team. Later we walked back to the park where the kids had played in the morning and saw the controls from the relay. People who'd bought maps were running the courses. After that we walked back to the car.