Training Log Archive: TomN

The first 3 controls went really well, and I had visions of brilliance, but it was only an illusion. A good plan on #4 fell apart when I misinterpreted a small swamp I came to. I thought it was the one just north of the control, so I went south and ran off the map. Took a long time and a lot of climbing to get back on. Also lost time on #10 when I doubted my position and backtracked to get back on the route.

Other than that, a good run in classic West Point terrain.

Day 1 - Lake Frederick - GreenY - Splits

GSFC perimeter road at noon. Around 50F when I started. Got up into the high 60s by late afternoon. The pace turned out faster than I thought. It was supposed to be slow.

Morning run. Unexpectedly chilly, with a breeze coming up.

I took Jasmine and Justin Pham, the children of a college friend of Florence's, out on the Orange course. They had both done "orienteering" before, with their respective scouting groups, but I wasn't sure how well the skills would transfer. A perceptive question from Justin when I handed him the map: "What's the declination here?" Great, we got started with map orientation.

Given the Mason Neck terrain and Jon T.'s recent map updates, rootstock was the feature O' the day. We used them as waypoints and destinations, and for relocation purposes when we didn't execute the plan from 3 to 4 correctly. My fault, I should have stuck to the bottom of the reentrant, which was the safe approach, but I tried to hit the control on a parallel route up a couple of contours and we missed it completely.

For the most part I let them lead, and kept up a running commentary, a lot of which was clearly absorbed (particularly when it involved rootstocks). If we'd been a little faster we would have avoided the rain, but we were mostly prepared for it and carried on without complaint. Pretty cold by the finish, which forced the only actual running of the day.