Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The surgery seemed to go pretty well - the doctor said there was less damage in there than he expected, always a good sign. In a sling at the moment but should be out of it by Sunday. Only glitch was eating too soon after the anaesthetic (memo to all newish parents out there: sometimes having your children throw upon you isn't something that disappears from the duty statement when they turn two). Still expecting at this stage to be training again by Cup Day.

C • ooowwhh! 5

Started out as unpromisingly as last night did but turned nice after about 10 minutes, and going along fairly smoothly for most of the rest of the day. Calf again tight and hip twinge was back (a little), but a couple of weeks off should do wonders for that sort of minor niggle.

This will be my last run for a couple of weeks - I'm going in tomorrow to have the wiring removed from the elbow I broke in a sprint race in NZ last January. Shouldn't be too much drama (one night in hospital and a few days in a sling), but will be my first extended break for a while (like since the injury which led to this in the first place).

C • sluggish start 2

MFR Monday night. The end of the season but Mad Monday it wasn't. Felt pretty sluggish, and calf tightest for a while, but at this point I don't really care.

If we had been trying to replicate a football Mad Monday, we would have got ourselves spectacularly drunk, and ended up with someone getting arrested for groping someone else in a sleazy King Street establishment and/or urinating against the side of a police car, but orienteers aren't like that (most of the time). Definitely good marks for Kirsten's risotto though.

Event: Victorian Long Championships
 

Victorian Long Champs, 4th. A race that promised a lot but didn't ultimately deliver that much. Much stronger on the hills than yesterday (and there were some big ones - no easy way to the top of Mount Beckworth). Simon and Warren caught me at 11 (I'd earlier gone through Warren without seeing him, so he was 2 down and Simon was 2 up). I then thought I'd blown it when I (and Warren) ran underneath 12 and lost 1.5 minutes - I wasn't expecting Simon to give me a second chance, but he did and we were together again by 16.

My plan was to try to break him on the second 'king of the mountain' leg into 20 (100+m climb), knowing that the only thing I might have on him was endurance. We went different ways and I did get a bit of time out of him on the climb (and broke away from Warren), but lost it by being slightly wide of the control. That was game over unless something unexpected happened, and as it turned out, he got a better line than me downhill through some heavy rock into 22, got a break of 20-30 seconds, and I never got it back. The last 2k was a bit of a struggle with blisters, although that part of the course was physically kind.

Duels like this are fun. I can't say I like losing them, but I picked a very good young orienteer to lose to. I was a little surprised that Adrian and Jim were faster than either of us.

C • Surprised 5

Event: Victorian Middle Championships
 

Victorian Middle Champs, 5th. Technically good with only minor 10-second hesitations, and was lucky enough to trip over the bingo second control which others lost a fair bit of time on, but lacked much in the way of good running rhythm, and will want to be stronger on the hills tomorrow than I was today. Annoying to be on the back of a close bunch, although I certainly couldn't have done Simon's time.

Back in Melbourne. Felt smooth, started well and never really got tired, although didn't reach any real heights either. Rather taken aback to see how brown all the grass has got in the space of a few days away.

Just for Runo: the hot chocolate report from my travels of the last week:

Ararat - brilliant - one the best I've had anywhere
Cairns - not very good, especially at the price

Was planning to go with Troy this morning but had to head out a bit earlier than he was ready for. It turned out I found the track he was talking about (the Red Arrow) by accident - quite a sharp climb in the middle. I'm learning that Cairns runs are either flat or vertical. Came back along a mangrove-lined creek where you didn't need any warning signs to tell you that it was crocodile country.

Quite a decent run after all that. Noticeably more humid than in recent days but still quite tolerable.

C • Red Arrow 1

10 x 1 minute reps on the Cairns waterfront, 1 min jog in between. Felt pretty ordinary warming up but much better once I actually started sprinting - plenty of zip and didn't go lactic this time.

A pretty nondescript effort, this time in the other direction from Kuranda. Took ages to get going and not as scenic as yesterday (when you set out not knowing where you're going, you win some and you lose some).

Drove past Walsh's Pyramid on the way back to Cairns - do people really run up this? It looked a pretty daunting prospect to walk, never mind run.

C • Robbie and troysee did !!! 3

Up in the Cairns area for a few days - conference on Tuesday/Wednesday but came up a bit early to have a look around.

I didn't always feel comfortable on this run, but as is often the case when exploring, the time seemed to go very quickly and the hills didn't seem that big (and there were plenty of them, although none were very big). Was up in Kuranda on the Atherton Tableland - ran from where I was staying (a couple of k's the other side of town) to Barron Falls and back. Remarkably pleasant conditions for the tropics in October (even allowing for the 800m elevation) - low 20s (it was late in the day) and not particularly humid.

Not bad after an unpromising first few minutes - definitely nicer conditions than yesterday. This week is very much a recovery mode one and the run was in keeping with that, but it's definitely the best I've felt this week.

Rather struggling for motivation at the moment. Plugged away without really feeling strong at any stage.

Conditions were tolerable at the time I went out (about 23 degrees at 6.30) - actually good preparation for Cairns next week (well, perhaps not for the humidity). I'm glad I'm not out there at the moment, though (36.2 at the time of writing). Keep an eye out for me on SBS tonight (although I thought I'd be totally run off my feet and so far it hasn't happened).

C • Nice Tie 6

Tan - km splits 3.37, 3.40 (uphill), 3.37, 3.36. Not a day for fast times thanks to (a) the conditions (hot with a strong north wind) and (b) the weekend's exertions - the rest of the field was pretty slow too (a lot of them were coming off the Melbourne Marathon or portions thereof).

The first kilometre was dire but felt reasonable after that; OK at the speed I was going, but no real ability (and no real desire, to be honest) to accelerate. Thought I might be over 14 after 1k but at least ended up better than that.

Warm-up/warm-down for the above, even slower than usual.

Trying as best I can to hold a peak for another two weeks, which may or may not be possible. Didn't expect a lot of this session - not feeling especially well. Felt slow but wasn't as slow as it felt (9.18 for fastest loop).

C • nice work on the individual bl... 3

Not a run I was particularly looking forward to - partly because of post-championships tiredness, but largely because of post-journey tiredness. Our scheduled arrival in Melbourne at 11.30 or thereabouts would have been just about manageable, but we were two hours late, then my bag was just about last off, then I got to the front of the taxi queue to discover that there were no taxis left at the airport (not surprising as no flights normally arrive anywhere near 1.30). Eventually made it home at 2.40, but a sleep-in wasn't an option - I had to be in work in time to have briefs ready for the Prime Minister (on the drought) and the Minister for Agriculture (on the northern Victorian frosts a couple of weeks back) by lunchtime. All fairly tame compared to the misadventures suffered by the Victorian women's team, but I'll leave Ilka to say more about that.

Anyway, after a very average first few minutes, it was a reasonable enough slow run - probably even slower than normal for a Monday night. Not a huge turnout (and most of the ones who were there hadn't been to Perth).

Yesterday may have been a season highlight but this was a season lowlight. Went out second in the Australian Relays and was never able to summon much energy. A couple of small mistakes didn't help - losing a minute on the easy 10th was particularly annoying - and neither did being on my own the whole way, but even if I'd hit everything I wouldn't have gone under 48 on a day when I should have been around 45. Possibly not 100% well (runny nose may or may not be a precursor to a cold, but it didn't seem to do me much harm yesterday). Team a disappointing 5th.

My recent Australian Championships history is one of either running a good individual and poor relay, or a poor individual and good relay (2000 and 2005).

Australian Long Distance Championships, 4th M21E. Really pleased with this result - I didn't think I had something like this still in me, and while it was faintly disappointing to drop out of the placings at the end of the day, I'd certainly have settled for 4th this morning. The only time I've been better is 1998 (2nd), and that was in a very weak field.

The run itself got off to an iffy start when I dropped a minute on 3, but that was just about my last significant error - a couple of 10-second wobbles and that was it. Paced it conservatively early and felt steadily stronger throughout, only tiring a little at the very end, but still felt as if I had something left.

Australian Sprint Championships. My main objectives here were threefold: (a) not injure myself, (b) score a National League point, (c) defend the two-minute start I had on Grant. All three missions were accomplished, and in fact 12th was a pretty respectable result for a sprint race.

Bruce was chasing me again and gradually hauled me in, but I didn't do much wrong - lost perhaps 5 seconds starting the wrong way out of 15 - and felt reasonably sharp too. A good day.

A nice reasonably easy run around the hills east of York - took a few minutes to get going but some nice stretches after that, particularly on a long climbing stretch on a dirt road along the railway line. Not quite so nice coming back the last 3km into town on the main road but I can live with that.

National League race after the Schools Championships. A rather disappointing run - bizarrely left the start in the wrong direction (but didn't lose much), then dropped 2 minutes coming too high into 5. Bruce caught me there and I was 50 metres off him for most of the rest of the day. Didn't feel that sharp physically either (often a problem this day after a long session on the PA), but better in the second half.

My usual objective on this day is to beat all the Schools people (just made it in 2005 and just missed in 2004) but I feel about a minute short this time.

The area must be a bit slower than it was in 1993, because even Julian was slower per km than what I was doing in 1993 and there's no way I was remotely as good then as he is now.

A pretty slow and easy recovery run around Lake Monger and Subiaco Oval (where there was surprisingly little evidence of post-premiership celebrations). Felt pretty awful to start with, better in second half but still a bit on the weak side.

As bad as yesterday was good. A very tough, rugged area and never really came to terms with crossing the thick slopes - was already a fair way down at halfway before things really started to unravel on the physical front. Hit wall badly at about 80 minutes and from there struggled to run even the smallest hill. One 2-minute mistake on 13, and a few annoying smaller ones. Not completely sure of the reason but suspect I may not have eaten enough yesterday. Next weekend will want to be a lot better.