Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Not quite back to square one but back to where I was a week or so back; didn't feel too bad while running but lacking power on even slight hills. (Oddly enough, and not for the first time with this injury, it feels much better several hours post-run than it did before it). A loop north through La Trobe University, predictably under-populated on a Saturday morning; didn't head for the river this morning because it would most likely be crawling with SES people. (I didn't think the combination of three-year-old, street next to river, autism and fascination with water was going to have a happy ending, and sadly it looks like it hasn't).

For the first time this season in Melbourne it was warm enough and humid enough to be a factor (27 by 9.30), although still well short of Thursday Island, in the humidity department at least.

Retired the old shoes (deeply ingrained with dust from the length and breadth of this wide brown land) yesterday.

My optimism from yesterday was misplaced; came up a bit sore this morning (although I never had any intention of running today in the first place). Swimming at Richmond for the first time in a while; not a bad morning to be indoors because it was raining for the first time in a while, threatening to turn to thunder but not doing so. A fairly placid session with goggles problems from time to time.

Andrew Bolt was in fine form this morning, dissecting the ARC grants for this year and working out that 10% of them mentioned climate change in some form or other. Naturally we're all in this for the money, which is why I turned down two offers from investment banks a few years ago which would have seen me making several times (at least) what I do now (and probably hating every minute of it). He also dragged out an old chestnut, 'name 10 members of the Stolen Generations', to which my response is 'name 10 members of the Australian forces at Gallipoli'. I can manage four (five if you count the donkey).

A bit more like the combinations I'll do through summer, although certainly not as long as a typical Thursday long run will be (feel just as tired in the middle of the day, though). I'm still trying to stick to the flatter ground and spent a lot of this run along rivers and creeks - initially the east side of the Yarra at Bulleen, then across to Darebin Creek and up there to West Heidelberg. Never a particularly inspired run but I've had far worse backing up from the Tan-street O double. Heel not too bad, although worsened a bit in the last 20 minutes; it's getting close enough to being right now that tomorrow's scheduled rest day will just about do the trick with a bit of luck.

The Tan. Certainly couldn't claim lack of support today - was near people just about all the way (could claim a couple of bits of baulking from pedestrian traffic). In general I just didn't quite have the sharpness today and ended up 4 seconds outside my season's best. The most encouraging aspect of the day was that the heel pain seems to be just about gone (and this race doesn't seem to have set it off again like last week's equivalent did).

Km splits 3.34, 3.42, 3.35, 3.34.

One of my colleagues claimed my scalp for the first time in six years of trying, which pleased him greatly. He ran a 9-second PB to do it so he earned it; I got within 10 metres of him at the top of both hills but never quite got onto him.

To/from the Tan. Tried to solve the world's environmental problems on the way.

Opening race of the Eastern Summer Series, fairly close to home at Belmore. This is a combination that comes up two or three times a year and I can't say I enjoy it greatly, but it is good preparation for the occasions when we have to race seriously twice in a day (something which will happen on the first NOL weekend next year). The degree of difficulty was a bit lower than last time I tried this - it wasn't a 35-degree day and the second part of the task was 45 minutes rather than 60.

It was a bit of a worry when three-quarters of the field left the first control in the opposite direction to me, but both options proved to be fairly even. That landed me into a head-to-head with Ian Davies which lasted for the duration of the course; one of the Scotch boys was in the mix for two-thirds of the way but fell away dramatically in the last 3k. I wasn't feeling too bad on the flat but had absolutely nothing on the hills (of which there were quite a few), and thought I was destined to lose the battle when Ian had opened up a break of 50 metres or so with four controls ago and seemed to be edging away a bit with each leg. I then got a bit of a second wind with 2k to go (the fact that the last hill of any consequence was with 2k to go was purely coincidental) and started closing the gap, although it wasn't until the second-last that I thought I had a real chance. I punched the last control 5 metres ahead, which would not normally be a winning position for me, but Ian's a fair bit older than most people I might come against in a sprint finish and I had enough to hold on - also just getting Schweppes from the opposite direction. Bryan Ackerly beat us all by about 90 seconds.

The performances weren't great but pleased to get through the day, and things do seem to be improving gradually on the injury front.

C • "a fair bit older" 2

Another cool crisp morning along the Yarra Flats, heading south and west this time towards Ivanhoe before coming back through the suburb. A nice day for it and flowed pretty well through the first half, a bit less so in the second. Heel continues to improve gradually (and more so after the run), but tomorrow will still be a test for it.

Rumour has it that we are considering changing the number of our tsunami hotline from 1300 TSUNAMI, because nobody can spell it.

Another bit of news that got my attention (but apparently not that of too many others, at least not yet) was a piece in the 'Financial Review' to the effect that Cubbie Station is in serious danger of bankruptcy; it's been on the market for a while and none of the offers apparently come close to meeting its debts. While I'm not one of those who blames all of the Murray-Darling Basin's ills on Cubbie and its comrades (even without upstream extractions, not much water makes it to SA from the Darling part of the system except in a big flood year), I can't say I'm deeply distressed by the prospect.

C • Latest 2

C • Tsunami... 2

Morning at Fitzroy. A nice (if slightly cool) sunny morning and more crowds than have been the case through winter - a taste of what's to come. Not an especially strong effort, but at least my foot no longer hurts when pushing off.

Oddball coordinates of the day: the pre-1942 Wagga observing site is allegedly just about underneath Briohny's house. I think this is just a precision issue (probably to the nearest minute) as it was supposed to be in Kooringal.

C • As you have been there 2

A nice lunchtime to be out. Decided I wanted to steer clear of hills with a bit of soreness still persisting when walking, and did a rather convoluted route exploring various bits of Docklands and South Wharf, some of which I haven't been into since their developments were finished. This included an uninspiring stretch round the back of the white elephant (aka the Southern Star, or what's left of it), but also a few good finds, not least that there is finally a decent-sized bookshop within lunchtime walking distance of the office as part of the South Wharf development.

Loosened up nicely and barely noticed the heel by the end, although the closest I came to a hill today was going across a couple of footbridges.

Had a bit of a setback with the heel today, perhaps through doing a fair bit of driving yesterday. Still felt manageable on the run but not as good as it has been the last couple of days, and this length (which was what I'd always intended) was plenty.

Did this one with Bruce from his place - a fairly standard run based on the Yarra at Studley Park, with a section at the end up to Merri Creek. Like areas further up the river, this has dried out a lot in recent weeks with no signs of mud or slipperiness anywhere. No shortage of people out today.

There is apparently a suggestion to turn Kryal Castle into a Harry Potter theme park, not the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. It would presumably generate a bit less work for the local hospital than its current function of playing host to raves.

Earlier than I usually go out on a Saturday due to other commitments, and felt a little bit out of sorts at times. Still handled things OK for the most part. Heel soreness gradually receding but not gone yet, and still a factor on the steeper hills, but this won't give me pause for thought unless it's still troubling me when I next try to go hard on Wednesday.

Longest run of this week so far (which isn't saying a lot), early in the morning along the Yarra up to Finns reserve, then doing a bit extra in Banksia Park to add on distance at the end. (I don't normally get into Banksia Park as it's a bit of a dead-end and too close to be an end-point target). Soreness continuing to recede, and is now only at nuisance-niggle level on the flat, although a bit more significant on hills. Started well but didn't quite finish off; still enjoyed myself though.

It was the first time I've been on the Banyule Flats singletrack for a few weeks. Last time it was a skating rink. Now it's just about bone dry except in the lowest-lying patches. Everyone was getting excited about Melbourne being a few millimetres above average for September, but we're probably going to be at least 40 below average for October. (There is still an outside chance that Melbourne could have its driest year on average, although a rank somewhere between 3rd and 6th is more likely). The local rabbits, however, have been breeding like, well, rabbits - they were everywhere.

I didn't go past any schools so didn't get to see any end-of-Year 12 exploits. These have attracted a bit of media attention in recent days, and some outrage from that portion of the community who think it should be a crime to be under 30 in a public place (and that portion of the media that panders to their prejudices). This year's shocking highlights was that someone threw an egg at a school (there must have been a severe news shortage because that scored number two position on the ABC radio news), and traffic was briefly disrupted when a group spilled out onto a road outside a school. One wonders what would have been made these days of the exploits some years ago of the Knox Year 12s who successfully impersonated RTA workers and diverted the Pacific Highway through the school grounds.

C • Yr 12 shenanigans 1

It won't be long before the 5am Thursday start again becomes part of my routine (something I wouldn't have appreciated this morning because I did a climate change presentation out at Steels Creek yesterday evening, and didn't get to bed until 11.30), but it's not quite happening yet. Today was reshuffled a bit further, partly because of a date with the dentist and partly to give the Achilles a bit more recovery time - it had gone backwards a bit this morning (probably because of racing up hills yesterday) but seems to have settled well this afternoon.

Anyway, it was a short and fairly easy run, from a Hawthorn base out to the Yarra. Lacking power up the hills but otherwise pretty smooth. A nice morning.

I'm currently in the process of going through information related to our long-term stations and noticed a bit of a problem with some of our co-ordinates: according to our database the old Darwin Post Office was a couple of kilometres out to sea (WNW of East Point). That said, that might have been where bits of it ended up once the Japanese Air Force had finished with it. (Previously during this exercise, I've discovered that a site purporting to be 'Dubbo State Forest' was plonked squarely in the middle of suburban Dubbo).

Second part of the morning's work was a rather slow and ponderous swim at the Hawthorn pool. Definitely late enough to miss all of the crowds.

The Tan. A catch-up run for missing last week. I don't expect a lot of these - typically a solo run will be 20 seconds or so slower than a race one - and was a bit apprehensive about the injury too.

This wasn't quite a solo run as a couple of colleagues who were running in the low 14s came with me, which meant I had someone to run with for the first 500 at least, to get me started. Tailed off after that and lacked a bit of power on the hills, although no signifcant pain; definitely seem to be on the improve. Quite an encouraging performance and suggests I may be able to have a decent crack at sub-13.30 next week.

Km splits 3.35, 3.47, 3.38, 3.34.

Getting to/from the Tan. The building works under the Swan Street bridge are finished at last (a bit closer to 30 September than I thought they might have been), although we didn't go that way.

Testing the Achilles out, always noticeable but it only impeded me on the hills (which meant I chose a route without too many of them). The rest of the body was working pretty well, especially in the second half.

It has been a very cool October so far in southeastern Australia (as WMOC attendees found out), but that is changing, and today was the first day for a while with a warm north wind (the last one was the Saturday of SA Champs weekend). Unlike last time it doesn't seem to have brought any dust with it.

Monday morning back at work, starting with the Fitzroy pool. Languishing a bit for most of the way but brought it home reasonably well. Achilles not great in the morning but had improved somewhat in the afternoon; will see what it is like tomorrow.

I'm not really sure why I did this; perhaps it was because my Achilles wasn't particularly tight and I thought it would warm up, which it didn't really. Perhaps it was to get a bit of exercise into a day that would otherwise be spent sitting in a car.

The run itself was a not-particularly-fast circuit of inner Bathurst, taking in a Labor sacred site - Ben Chifley's (unsurprisingly humble) house. (Much to my disappointment, on this trip I was unable to locate the 'VOTE 1 CHIFLEY' on a Portland railway underpass that was still there on my previous visit in 1991). Nice morning for it; doubt I'll see 1 degree again for another six or seven months (unless there's a trip to the Northern Hemisphere happening that I don't know about yet).

Spent the rest of the day on the way home, in the process seeing the Hume roadworks for probably the last time (they look like they'll be well and truly finished by Christmas). After spending so much time on the road in the last few months it will be nice to be able to settle down for a few weeks at least.

Part of my WMOC-week reading has been a book on 1970-2000 Ireland (picked up from the bargain bin of a Darwin bookshop). I had thought that Silvio Berlusconi was the greatest rogue to hold a position of power in any Western democracy, but based on what I've been reading Charles Haughey would have to give him a run for his money (estimates vary on exactly how much he trousered during his career, but even the more conservative estimates appear to have eight digits - and that's before we start on any of the bits that didn't involve financial corruption).

Might give it a break tomorrow unless I feel better in the morning.

C • I'd have thought a run 1

C • Mount Ainslie... no visit! 5

C • rogues, crooks and gombeen men 7

WMOC Long Distance final. Gave it everything but in the end wasn't quite good enough, losing to three very good people in Carsten, Grant and Nick. I feel better about this than the equivalent result last year, because I was closer and the opposition was better. It's still a bit frustrating to miss a medal (although I've had plenty of practice at this - I've come 4th or 5th seven times in national long distance championships), but it's hard to see where the 1.30 I needed to bridge the gap to bronze would have come from.

Started reasonably smoothly and caught Joaquim Sousa at 2, a slightly strange feature I hesitated briefly on. I thought this might be the beginnings of a train and it was. Grant's strategy was clearly going to be to catch me if he could, and he managed this by 6. From there we settled into the race through the faster gully-spur sections. I got a little bit of a break, but only 10 seconds or so, with a route choice on 8, but lost that quickly, and we all wobbled slightly on 10, though only 10 seconds or so. 11 was the big route-choice leg of the race; I was hoping that Grant hadn't seen the right option, but he had.

Grant and Joaquim got a bit of a break on me going through 11 (steep-enough-to-be-scary downhills are not amongst my stronger points). I wasn't totally upset about this as the only way I was going to beat Grant was a mistake and the chances of that happening were greater if I wasn't around, but was a bit concerned that Joaquim might get the two minutes back. That concern was gone by 14 and from there it was a case of finishing off as best I could, slightly relieved that the course was short as my Achilles was starting to give trouble (interestingly, it hasn't tightened post-race as it did on Thursday).

This was just about as good a run as I could have managed, with only two 10-second mistakes, and pretty solid physically as well - certainly better than the two qualifiers (or the two sprints). It might be 40 years before I get another medal chance as good as this, though :-).

So ends my season. It's been a fairly similar year to the last two, with lots of solid performances but a lack of real standout results - the curse of the late 30s elite orienteer. I'll have a couple of fairly quiet weeks now and then into base training in earnest.

A casual swim in the Bathurst aquatic centre, which is new since the last time I was here (it's not the one that Tooms will remember). Both indoor and outdoor options but I wasn't hard-core enough for outdoor this morning (still cold enough for snow flurries near Oberon again last night). Water was cooler than I'm used to finding at an indoor pool, which is no bad thing. Felt OK, but intermittent goggles problems were annoying.

Finished just in time for the influx of kids (it's still school holidays in NSW).

Left Achilles is less sore than yesterday evening and I could certainly run on it if necessary, but it would still be nice if it improved a bit more between now and tomorrow morning.

Also did a trip up to Hill End today. Naturally in an old mining area I was at least as interested in potential terrain as I was in historic buildings and mine installations. There's a bit around, though whether National Parks would let us use it is another question (and it's a pretty remote location).

Today's weather report for New York: low 7, high 7, 13mm rain. Brings back a few memories of the approximately equivalent day in 1993.

C • I remember 1

I'm still not especially happy with the way I'm running but the results are encouraging. Held my 5th place after the second qualifier, on a day when two minutes covered positions 2-7. Carsten is a warm favourite but everyone down to 10th is, I think, a possibility of a medal in what's turned out to be a decent field at the front end (although it drops away quickly after that).

Today's course was in quite steep country early on; essentially gully-spur but with some broken sandstone-type rock. Once through that we were into vague, flattish country; the long 5th was scary with heaps of parallel error potential (I thought there might be some European blowouts here, but from the splits this doesn't seem to have been the case). Missed 9, a small rock on a slope, to the tune of 45 seconds or so, but otherwise reasonably clean.

Achilles was a bit sore before the start and more so after cooling down, but fine during the race itself.

It gets serious from this point. Saturday is a wide open race, and should be more technical which I think is to my advantage.

C • why 2 qualifiers? 6

WMOC, first long qualifier at Long Swamp. This course started in the heavy rock, but after the first six controls only touched on the rock intermittently (and we got into it more than most courses did). Didn't feel particularly aggressive in the terrain early on and encountered a few traffic jams (I was nicer to little old ladies today than may be the case on Saturday); also made a bit of a mistake on 5 but got out of it with 30 seconds or so lost. Once in the more open terrain, I still didn't really feel as if I was hitting my stride but got the course under my belt without too much more drama, with only one 15-seconder at 21. Still don't seem to be quite at a physical peak.

Ended up 5th, 3 1/2 minutes down on Carsten. It's quite a good and close bunch at the front end. Always hard to tell how hard everyone is trying in a race like this, but the result was quite encouraging and suggests there might be a possibility of a medal on Saturday if things went well.

I thought the course-setting was a bit disappointing today - I can understand why the courses only spent a limited amount of time in the rock (getting to the rock here involves a fair bit of climbing), but the gully-spur sections of the map had a lot of potential for long-route choice legs that wasn't realised, and the last section in the paddock was a total waste of time.

C • are the maps posted anywhere? 4

C • M50 Day 2 5

Stayed in Katoomba overnight and did what was essentially an out-and-back along the Narrow Neck fire trail (with camera in hand). For the first time since Thursday this felt like a reasonably normal run, which suggests I'm getting back to something close to normal. A nice track to run too; quite hilly but not outrageously so, and often spectacularly scenic. I suspect this is a regular long-run haunt for local runners.

Quite a few campervans were parked in out-of-the-way places along the track; it was early in the morning.

Spent a bit more time during the run thinking about the Torres Strait and the vulnerability of its lower-lying islands. The risk of cyclones is lower there than it is further south, but not zero, and some of the islands are so low-lying that a two-metre storm surge at high tide would be enough to obliterate the island and everyone on it, and I haven't seen a lot of evidence that there are plans in place to do something about this (in my view the most practical solution is probably elevated storm shelters of the type used in the delta regions of Bangladesh, which probably saved several tens of thousands of lives the last time they had a serious cyclone in 2006).

Finished the day at the WMOC opening march in Lithgow, which the locals turned out in pleasing numbers for. (The town doesn't look quite as desperate as it did on my last visit in 2005, and the number of local eating places appears to have increased fivefold, albeit from a very low base - in 2005 we found ourselves in a dodgy pizza joint that appeared to have been the inspiration for Fat Pizza). Unfortunately the one significant shower on the Sydney radar found us, which made for a rather wet choir - most of them could have taken shelter as 29 out of 30 appeared to be as surplus to requirements as the other guy in Wham.

The Lithgow visit also reminded me of a great line on the local news during a previous visit, about the questionable prospects of the railway workshops: "the future of the Lithgow loco depot is in limbo".

Along with quite a few others, I'm staying in Bathurst.

C • The same groups of people h... 3

C • Emergency Shelters 1

A casual morning session from Macquarie, down into the Lane Cove valley then up the Great North Walk track for a bit. There's some great running to be had along the sandstone valleys of Sydney but I wasn't really in the mood for it this morning; feeling a bit light-headed much of the time (perhaps an indicator that I'm still not quite 100%). Did handle the hills getting there, and getting out of the valley, OK. A very nice morning for running.

C • Lane cove 3

WMOC Sprint Final. Improved a little on yesterday, although not as much as I might have hoped for, and scraped into the top ten.

I definitely felt better than yesterday and got into the mood by the time I hit the start boxes (although surely I wasn't the only person who was doing laps of the -3 minute box out of nervous energy?). Before today most of us were expecting a fairly straightforward sprint between big buildings, but had heard on the grapevine from the early starters that it was quite technical, and so it proved - first some complex sections in garden beds, then at the end another tricky section involving multiple levels in the Showgrounds arena. It was mainly about speed of execution although there were a few decent route choice legs too; excellent use of what I thought might have been an unpromising area.

I made one annoying mistake, a 10-seconder on the third-last through not reading my description properly, plus a couple of hesitations (one where a marquee blocked my planned line). Probably ninth was the absolute best I could have done. Looking at the splits, I unsurprisingly lost a fair bit of ground on the longer 'transport' legs between sectors.

Nick Barrable won from Carsten - no surprise there. Bruce was a slightly more unexpected bronze medallist (on a day when MFR, were it an independent country, would stand fourth in the medal table). I didn't really expect to be competitive in this but still think a medal in the long might be within reach with a good run next weekend.

The start was next to a cafe which was pumping out not-very-good 80s music. Those who've done road trips with me will know that I'm definitely a child of the 80s, but this was rubbish and I was worried it was going to be stuck in my head all race. It wasn't. (On the subject of misguided choices of music, it was difficult to argue with the people I got the train home with that having Australian Idol people playing at the opening ceremony didn't quite fit the demographic).

Event: 2009 World Masters Orienteering Championships
 

WMOC Sprint Qualification. My objective today was simple - to get through. I'm feeling better than I was yesterday but still some way from 100%.

There was no possibility of transport dramas for me today - the place I'd booked on Wotif turned out to be 200 metres in a straight line from the finish (although more like 1k by the route we used to go to the start). I was mistaken, though, if I thought that that meant all would go smoothly - I opened my bag to discover that my long-serving SI stick had lost its head after nine years of loyal service. (Funeral arrangements will be advised in due course). This was replaced impressively quickly and I made it to the start on schedule (although caused some trouble for start officials damnedlies and M.J. by engaging them in conversation when they were apparently under instructions not to).

The run was about doing the necessary. I didn't miss anything and think I got the critical route choices right; didn't feel as bad as I thought I might have, but was definitely below par (and was weak enough on the few hills to indicate that anything longer would have been a problem). Matt Scott had almost caught me a minute at 9, but made a mistake there and ended up catching me at 16. From there he was running faster but making more mistakes and we finished together.

I wasn't feeling entirely secure when I finished - 9th on the board, with 14 to qualify, and I knew that Matt and Grant had also got me. I've had enough qualification near-misses at senior level not to take anything for granted there, but as it turned out they were the last two to get me.

Nick Barrable was a clear winner today and will be hard to beat tomorrow. I'm not surprised by his time but thought Carsten and Grant might have been closer. As for me, with another 24 hours behind me (and a proper meal for the first time since Thursday), I'll hope to be in better shape for tomorrow. A place is out of the question (the long distance next Saturday will be the opportunity for that), but if I can pick off a few of the group in the minute ahead of me today and finish somewhere around 7-9 I'll be pleased.

C • and starts tomorrow 2

C • silent starts 6

Things didn't end up too smoothly on Thursday Island - I'm blaming it on having eaten Australia's northernmost dodgy chook. Seem to be through the worst of it now but glad I don't have a race today. Last night I couldn't do so much as look at food ads on the television without feeling nauseous.

Originally I was thinking of trying to squeeze in a swim at Cairns (where I am now) in my three hours between flights, but that is definitely off the agenda now.

Something which I'm a bit puzzled about is the spectacular price of real estate on Thursday Island - rents here are at Port Hedland levels without the mining/oil/gas money to pay for it. Seems to be a supply/demand issue (most of the long-term locals have public housing so the private market is small and very tight). It flows through into hotel prices too - $185 a night for something that would have cost half that in a normal town. Unfortunately our expenses system treats it as a normal town so I end up stuck with more than half the bill myself (but as it would have cost me vastly more to get here of my own volition I'm not complaining too much).

The World Masters Games are on a larger scale than we're used to and the accreditation queue was an indicator of that. I thought the 50 minutes that it took me was bad enough, until hearing the stories of those who had been there for three or four hours earlier in the day. By the time I got there they'd given up on putting photos on accreditation passes which removed the major roadblock - but surely it should have occurred to somebody somewhere to check how long it look to process each person, divide that into the number of participants and staff the process accordingly?

Thursday Island is not a big place and the running options are about as limited as they were in Kalumburu. I did a lap of the island, about 7.5k, then went up and back down the central hill and finished off with an extra couple of ks. At the end of it I'd seen pretty much everything there is to see on the island (having walked up to the old fort, which is where the old weather station was, yesterday afternoon).

The conditions were not as formidable as I'd feared - 27 degrees, dewpoint 21 - but still didn't feel brilliant, and faded quickly in the last 15 minutes once the sun got stronger and I was sheltered from the southeast breeze. I would have struggled to go much further (but then if I was going much further I'd have carried water).

This is a much larger community than the other remote communities I've been to (about 3,500) and feels more like a normal town. Also less of an indigenous population than I expected - probably 50% or so (although it's more like 95% on the outer islands). Seemed to be a reasonable amount of interest in my talk; the big local issue is sea levels because some of the northern islands are extremely low-lying and go under even on a 'normal' spring tide. Another 20cm of sea level rise would make a big difference to them.

A tsunami watch was issued this morning just as we were about to get under way. I suggested that if people saw me running uphill they should try to keep up :-). (On this subject, I heard on the grapevine that we are considering changing our information line from 1300 TSUNAMI, because nobody can spell it).

This is a quick visit; I'm heading back to Sydney tomorrow, leaving early in the morning.

A run from an airport motel in Sydney before flying north. I didn't expect this to exactly be an ideal running environment but it was better than I thought - quite a few parks and even a small pocket of bush (which turn up in Sydney in unexpected places). The more secluded parks just off the end of the runway look like locations for the terroristically-inclined to engage in missile-launching (although the dismal failure of the one serious attempt to do this, in Kenya a few years ago, suggests it doesn't work that well). Also encountered the enormous premises of the Brighton-Le-Sands Amateur Fisherman's Association (pokies! pokies! pokies!) and an unexpected area of market gardens in inner suburban Sydney (I assume it is too flood-prone for anything else). Went almost out to Botany Bay but didn't think it was worth crossing a main road twice for the sake of two minutes on the beach.

Felt pretty good once I got going - certainly better than yesterday. Flowing well in the second half. Ideal running conditions too in a cool dry southwesterly; not sure how I'll cope with a temperature 15 degrees higher (and a dewpoint 20 degrees higher) this time tomorrow.

Ran from work after dropping my car in for a service (the unexpected trip north has meant compressing four days of planned activities into one and a half). One of my usualish runs from work, along Fishermans Bend and the Port Melbourne foreshore before returning along the tram line, only to find the path blocked by building works (a common hazard around here).

This wasn't a great run. Legs felt OK but body was sluggish. Hopefully not an indicator that I'm getting a cold, although it sort of felt like that.

A chilly morning with a fresh, chilly wind - ideal acclimatisation for the Torres Strait. I head to Sydney this afternoon and then north tomorrow.

Headed to Ivanhoe while waiting to pick the ASC funding acquittal up from the auditors. A fairly smooth session and kept my mind more active than it usually is chasing the black line.

Justice Done and Seen To Be Done Department: to the northern suburbs bogan who decided to engage in Melbourne's fastest-growing sport, racially abusing Indians. He made the mistake of taking on a group of Indians on their way home from a wrestling tournament, and came out rather the worse for wear from the encounter.

MFR Monday night from Simon's place in Carlton, as far as the zoo. A surprisingly good run for the day after an Australian Championships weekend - hardly felt stiff at all. Knee wasn't great at the start but fine once running; it probably doesn't help that my bike seat post slipped to its lowest position before my ride there (will need to tighten that before my next ride).

I thought doing this eight hours after a calf needlework session would be difficult, but it was fine (four hours after would be a different story).

Unusually for an MFR Monday night, pasta was on the menu - I guess it could be safely assumed that Suse wasn't coming this week.

Event: Australian Relay Champs (SILVA NOL)
 

Australian Relays, running second in the second Victorian team. I've often struggled to come up for the relay in recent years and didn't feel great in the warm-up; not too bad once running but certainly not as strong as yesterday.

I went out a couple of minutes down (and lineball with Bruce in the first team). The first couple of legs were a bit wobbly and I lost Bruce quite quickly (on a different split as it happened), but then settled quite well technically through some tricky sections (especially 8, which was a bit scary). The juniors must have been common with us through this section because I saw a few of them - dealt with Kas and Chris Firman without too much trouble, but needed several legs to make much of an impression on Ollie, who ran an excellent race. In the process I'd slipped up into third, but there was a pursuing pack of Robbie, Kerrin and Bruce. They were almost on me at 15 and then went through me on a route choice to 16, although I was able to get back onto Kerrin, more or less, and through Bruce who had a different split. Bruce ended up doing me - just - in the sprint (we started the leg within five metres and ended it within five metres), but Victoria 2 ended up beating Victoria 1 pretty easily after Bryan had a last-leg blowout (and Toph didn't). We were fourth and fifth.

Knee didn't feel great in the warm-up, but was fine during the race. I'd be a bit apprehensive still about how it might respond to large volumes of training, but as I have no plans to do large volumes of training for a month or so this is not an immediate concern.

I now have the grand total of one and a half days in Melbourne before heading for Sydney and then Thursday Island (assuming no late hitches in the travel arrangements). Should be an interesting destination, although I can't say I'm looking forward to reacquainting myself with the joys of running in 25-degree dewpoints. I also hope the Hume is a bit less stressful on Tuesday than it was today (Tuesday is not the last day of Victorian school holidays so that's a reasonable assumption).

Some of the Queensland girls were asking me today about a bus-related scandal that apparently occurred at the 1990 Schools. I wasn't at the 1990 Schools and don't recall hearing about it; does anyone who was there want to enlighten us? (I presume it is not a reference to the 1989 SA bus which broke down five times between Adelaide and Newcastle, the first time before it got out of the car park).

In the absence of any other information I suggested that they should refer their questions to the Queensland Minister for Transport (who was on that team if I recall correctly).

C • 1990 Schools Champs were in SA 5

Event: Australian Long Champs (SILVA NOL)
 

Australian Long Championships. Ultimately a bit disappointing; running reasonably strongly for much of the course, but lost about 5 minutes, 3 on navigation, 2 on route choice, and missed the top-10 place which was my principal target. Ended up 12th.

Slightly hesitant on 1, but ran 2 (which troubled a lot of people) well and caught Steve Todkill there. We were together for a couple of legs which settled me down, then I got clear on 5 and had a good stretch up the hills to 6 and then into a section of short legs - but then made a mess of 9, on a clearing in the green, and lost about 2 minutes. Recovered through the middle, but things then went wrong on 14 - took too conservative a route out on the track to the right (and then lost time on the control too). On the other hand, the conservative route on the track on 16 paid off, both on the leg itself and in leaving me with something for the big climb to 17, after feeling like cramp might not have been too far away a bit earlier. Ran the control-picking finish well and gained a couple of places.

This was certainly a better run than last year but also a better field; I feel as if I'm not going backwards, but also not making much progress, which isn't much surprise in my late 30s. There's no reason to move up, though, while I'm still regularly a scoring runner for the Nuggets (and there wouldn't have been much motivation in winning M35 by 20 minutes here). There's still the relay to look forward to, and the Masters next week too. I certainly won't have the pace to match Carsten, Grant or Nick Barrable in the sprint, but the long could be interesting; Grant, myself, Nick and Bruce (in that order) were all within three minutes today.

This was a really nice forest to be out in at this time of year (although the drizzle was a bit miserable) and the low visibility in many places made for quite technical orienteering. Another addition to the list of good NE Victorian maps, and it's showed what potential the Warbys have if mapped properly.

Event: Australian Sprint Champs (SILVA NOL)
 

Jog around the Australian Sprint Championships controls to make sure everything was in the right place. There were quite a few elephant tracks from the control-placers even when I was out - there must have been heaps at the end.

Hope everyone enjoyed it, despite the rain. It seemed to go off almost without a hitch (the only drama was that one of the BMX kids moved a control near the start, but that was fixed pretty quickly).

Now for the big one tomorrow. I have a pretty reasonable history in NE Victorian granite, so am hoping for a good result.

C • elephant tracks 1

A fairly casual swim at Collingwood - pretty routine. Putting in a day at work today before heading up to Benalla tonight, hoping to finish off a paper I've been working on (and made good progress on yesterday afternoon - Maldon's not a bad place to do some writing).

Forecast tomorrow looks pretty miserable - steady light to moderate rain. This is a pity because I think it's an excellent spectator area on a nice day.

Also looks like there's a chance work might be sending me to Thursday Island next week. Will await developments.

C • Thanks 1