Training Log Archive: Nadim

Hoyles Mill Conservation Park, MD. I ran the Blue course of the USA Team Trials. I'd mapped the park and had been involved in the revisions made from Dave Linthicum's original course designs. Though the course had been vet by David Onkst and Peggy, I also had been to all of the control locations and most of the legs between the controls. All of this gave me a lot of leg-up on getting through the course.

It was unfortunate for so many good orienteers to experience the park in the overgrown conditions that are just normal spring to summer growth. It is normally difficult to navigate in the park during the winter, but today it was much harder to see mapped stone that is key to refining a bearing. I was amazed at how fast the top men and women runners finished. They were just above target times, and given the conditions, that was remarkable.

I ran pretty cleanly, being able to recognize places and even what particular mapped rock looked like. It still took me paying attention to what I was doing. Physically, I kept a steady pace, not pushing hard. My back and left knee have been hurting so I've been taking time off. Like many, the control I had the hardest time with was #1. I attacked from a known stony ground but had a bad bearing putting me left of where I needed to be. I lost about 30 seconds. I paused in a few other places and perhaps lost time that way. I was leaving #2 when I realized that I didn't start my GPS track correctly. I started it just a short way after #2.

Middle Blue - Splits

South Germantown Recreational Park and Maryland Soccerplex. I helped pickup controls for the USA Orienteering Team Trials sprint course. As I did this, I noted a few features for the map. The map was originally just a part of the larger 1:10,000 map of the Soccerplex and Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. 3 weeks before the race, I worked on converting the Soccerplex part of it because our other planned venues fell through--they wouldn't let us use other places due to COVID-19 pandemic related issues. It took a lot of work to get the Soccerplex into the shape that it was in on race day, but still, I know it wasn't perfect. We did vetting and had various course planning discussions remotely. We could have used more time.

Hoyles Mill Conservation Park. This walk was in warm and humid conditions. Light rain fell sometimes. My back had been hurting but this seemed to help.

QOC: Patapsco, MD. The woods were pretty good overall but the hills felt steep. I made a slight error on the way to #2 when turning left instead of right on a trail :(. My route on the road to #5 may not have been the best. Going to #11, I hit more green than expected. I got a little confused going over the hill to the Go control but overall, I did okay. I was just slow. Not running due to my back and knee was having an effect as has spending a lot of late nights doing map work.

Green - Splits