Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Spent some of the waking time on the flight alternating between reviewing a draft IPCC report and doing some more work on the historical results archive. Was wondering if I'd got the two mixed up when, in the space of a few paragraphs of each other in the former, I came across references to Sinickas et al 2015 and Round et al 2017, to say nothing of quite a few Hogg et als a few pages later on. (In case you're wondering, Alex was writing about avalanches, Vanessa about unstable glaciers and Andy about various things to do with the Southern Ocean).

The actual results I was looking at involved presumably the youngest participant in an elite race in Australia: in the 1980 Australian Relays Kathryn Tarr, who I think was 11, teamed up with her mother and Libby Meeking in Yarra Valley's W21 team. Those of us with experience of M/W12 courses circa 1980 will know that a 21s course wouldn't have come as quite as much of a technical shock to an 11-year-old of that vintage as it would now. (One of these days I must get round to scanning and posting the M12A course from day 1 of Easter 1982, which was 4.5km long and featured controls which I would consider bingo controls even on a hard-navigation course; somehow most of us got round it, and a few even broke the hour).

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The original plan for this run was to head out early in the morning before leaving Melbourne. My back was giving trouble then, but one of the benefits of the date line in this direction is that you get two bites of the cherry for a 1 January run, and I took advantage of the second of them after arriving in Vancouver. This was a straightforward shake-out-the-cobwebs and orientate-myself run along the shoreline and through the West End; slow, but no injury problems except for a little back tightness on the steepest climb. Lots of people out on the shoreline path, as you'd expect on a public holiday on a nice afternoon ('nice' being defined here as 'not precipitating', but in fact it was quite pleasant - weak sunshine and around +4); not concerned at all by the cold were the participants in the Polar Bear Swim, which had recently finished.

The flights were both on time although I didn't get as much sleep as I'd hoped for. Had 5 hours in Los Angeles (an airport which has improved significantly since my last visit, with immigration being particularly painless), and decided I didn't want to spend that long hanging around the airport, so decided to get out of there for a couple of hours to the nearest beach, Manhattan Beach. Not a cheap excursion (taxi was the only option given the time window and that it was 7.30am on a public holiday), but glad I did it. Manhattan Beach is the spiritual home of beach volleyball and there are nets set up for at least a kilometre along the beach, but none were being used on a chilly morning (plenty of people walking or running along the esplanade though). With clear skies most of the way, the flight from LA to Vancouver was scenic, particularly a fairly close pass of Mount Rainier.

(Manhattan Beach would have been a decent place for a run, too, had I had anywhere to stash my gear).

Tofino, my tentatively planned destination for Thursday night, is famed for surfing in summer and storm-watching in winter. Current forecast: about 100mm of rain in 18 hours from 6am to midnight tomorrow, with clearing showers and high winds to follow on Thursday. Should be fun (providing the road's open).