Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I had good reason not to like my chances, once a look at flightradar24.com revealed that the incoming flight was on the ground - in Basel. At that point I was prepared to settle for getting as far as Copenhagen, and that's what eventually happened - we got out of Geneva a few minutes before its midnight curfew (after a further delay when the deicing truck ran out of fluid). This was an uncomfortable flight on a crowded plane and I probably haven't been in "are we there yet" mode more on a trip since I was around the same age as the person who was the pretext for my Oslo excursion - checking my watch every few minutes. Made it to Copenhagen shortly before 2, and hit the mattress in an airport hotel sometime around 2.45 (with an alarm for 6.15).

I got to Oslo just in time to make it for the first of the weekend's two parties (the family one, which given the size of Jim's family involves abundant uncles, aunts and cousins). Knew I'd struggle today given the lack of sleep and would probably hit a flat spot around 2 - which I did, falling asleep in a chair despite a munchkin background soundtrack of some volume - so planned to run as late as I could in the afternoon without hitting proper darkness.

The major challenge today was to avoid falling over. The snow is less icy on the "here be dragons" side of the Oslo county line than it is in the city, but that didn't mean I was feeling comfortable on the steeper downhills. Not a great run as a run, with back having one of its periodic off days (more so in the first half), but managed to grind up the big final climb, an inevitable part of any run which finishes at Cassie and Jim's place (today's was 110 metres in a bit under a kilometre, in snow). Predictably slow given the ground conditions.

And it may well be in the if-your-auntie-was-a-man-she'd-be-your-uncle territory, but I couldn't help thinking that if she'd managed to hold her seat in 2012, then there's a pretty good chance that Rachel Nolan would have been about to become Queensland Premier now. (Without knowing anything much about what she's been doing in the last three years, I'm a little surprised that she didn't line up for another go as some of her former colleagues did).

Morning swim at the Varembe pool following an early-morning hookup with my colleagues back home. Not as crowded as I've often found it at lunchtimes (in part because there was an extra lane open), though still had its moments. Shoulder a bit stiff early on but got going (in as much as I ever get going swimming) later on.

Flying out of Geneva tonight: hopefully to Oslo, but with a tight connection in Copenhagen and snow about, I don't like my chances of getting all the way tonight.

In five trips to Geneva spanning the best part of three months, I think this is the first time I've seen proper rain - every other time it's either been bone-dry (often foggy), or cold enough that anything that has fallen has done so as snow.

I feared the worst for the conditions today - steady rain and temperatures around 3 degrees - but with an extra layer (yes, I'm getting soft in my old age) it wasn't too bad (and in any case the rain had eased to nuisance level by the second half). Headed out on a tour of various old Geneva highlights - first through the old town, then down past where I stayed in 2011-12 and along the river, then up through some of the more upmarket suburbs and over the top of the Cologny ridge.

This wasn't a fast run, but the combination of darkness and, sometimes, mud contributed to that. Steady for the most part, felt like I was tiring a bit in the last half-hour but it didn't really show in the performance.

Exploring more of the town meant seeing a few more things which have changed, notably the appearance of a very big hole in the hillside on the other side of the river section, revealed by some post-run googling to be part of a new rail line linking Geneva to the French towns to the south. (Geneva's existing connections to France run south-west towards Grenoble and don't serve the commuter towns). Just to show that the Anglo-Saxon world doesn't have a monopoly on very long gestation periods for public transport infrastructure projects, this particular line, due to open in 2017, was originally proposed the best part of 150 years ago. (Also to show that the Anglo-Saxon world doesn't have a monopoly on NIMBYism, the project was held up for several years by legal actions from residents of Geneva's posher suburbs objecting to tunnelling beneath their houses).

The post-run googling also revealed that in a referendum late last year, Geneva's voters decided they had better things to do with a billion francs than use it to build a road tunnel across the end of the lake which would drop its users into a part of town already gridlocked at peak hour.

Linked up with Neil and headed out from his place just west of the city centre, on (mostly) trails on both sides of the river. These were of varying degrees of roughness, muddiness and gnarliness (definitely a test for my newly-acquired light), and involved quite a lot of up and down, so not particularly fast going. Only ended up on my backside once which isn't too bad. Felt reasonably good with the sharp climbs - certainly better than on some recent occasions. Good to put a face to another AP name.

Neil also introduced me to the Swiss hiking routes and topographic maps website. I foresee myself wasting a lot of time looking at this at some point in the future.

Did a bit of a double-take, this being January, when I saw the headline in the Age "Deadly Pyalong crash: ice link probed", and then realised it was a reference to drugs.

Intervals session on the inner city waterfront, notionally 10x1 minute. Headed for the inner city because I was worried about black ice in parklands (in the dim early morning light), though it turned out the temperature had risen slightly above freezing overnight and it was a non-issue.

My expectations weren't terribly high given stiff quads and tight Achilles in the warm-up, but this turned out to be an excellent session, gathering pace as it went on and feeling sharp off the mark, particularly on the later reps. Dropped from 63 at the start to 55 at the end, although it's somewhat sobering to think that there was a time that I could run for 20-30 minutes at the pace I was managing for 55 seconds today (at 270 metres, this is 3.23 min/km, slightly under my 10k PB pace but outside my 5k one).

Warm-up and down. As expected, felt rather better on the way back, buoyed by a good session.

Went looking for a replacement for my intermittently misbehaving watch today, but fairly quickly discovered that the types of watches which are sold in shops in central Geneva aren't the types of watches that I was looking for (and not just because of the number of zeroes in their price tags).

Predictably stiff in the early stages, especially in the quads. Loosened up a bit eventually but this was really just a grinding-out-the-cobwebs run - wouldn't have expected anything else the day after my longest one since June. Combined it with a fact-finding expedition to ascertain such things as whether the swimming pool is open this week and what coins the nearest laundromat takes. Dry morning with temperatures just above freezing, but a bit of snow in the afternoon (more than I was expecting).

Not sure which bit of news from home in the last day or so left me more gobsmacked - the knighthood for Prince Philip, or the president of the NT Labor Party going off to fight for the Kurds in Syria. (With respect to the latter, the thought did cross my mind that it would have been considered only mildly eyebrow-raising for his equivalent three generations ago to join the action in the Spanish Civil War).

Question to those who experience cold climates more often than I do: if you use a Camelback or similar in temperature below 0C, how do you stop the water in the outside tube from freezing? (It wasn't quite cold enough for this to affect me today, but wasn't far away - certainly noticed the difference once I'd been drinking for long enough to be drawing on the water from the main pack).

C • you can get a thermal tube ... 6

I need to get at least a couple of good long runs under my belt in the lead-up to Six Foot. The first full day after arriving wouldn't necessarily have been my first choice for this, especially after a not-brilliant week of running, but I'm starting to run out of weekends so decided I needed to go for it, with an initial target of 2.30 and then see how things were going.

Chilly and windy but just above freezing (somewhat against my usual instincts, I wore a long-sleeved top which I was to appreciate afterwards). Started out northeast into the wind (along a main drag which was quiet on a Sunday morning), then turned uphill away from the lake at Versoix, with my target an area of forest on the northwest side of the motorway. I was struggling through this section but in a sense of not being great now, not a sense that it was falling apart. Picked up a bit once in the forest and tracking southwest, with snow an increasing presence off the track/road on the higher ground (though never on the track/road itself), crossing the border into France at around 14k. The French section was quite reasonable; thought at one point I might be stuck on a main road for a while but found a decent alternative. (A certain amount of main-road running is inevitable on this route because of the limited number of ways to get around the airport, but most have footpaths/bike paths of sorts). Took a second gel at the two-hour mark just after crossing back into Switzerland, but from there the run started to drop away a bit with the left Achilles starting to give trouble. Decided that I'd already achieved a reasonable amount and that 2.30 would be a reasonable day's work (and thought that going all the way back to the hotel would be beyond 3 hours; it turned out I was a bit closer than I'd thought and it probably would have been 2.55 or so), and pulled up at the first tram stop after passing the 2.30 mark.

Going home via the main station did solve the picking-up-lunch problem - the area I'm staying in has virtually nothing open on Sundays. Started to cool down and definitely felt the cold in the couple of hundred metres from the bus stop to the hotel.

This run never sparkled, and I'll need to go for close to twice as long in March, but I was pleased that this distance didn't feel as intimidating as it has at times lately and that I was able to get into a mode where 90 or 120 minutes felt again like a staging post (I tend to think of long runs in half-hour blocks).

Not very energetic in the rest of the afternoon.

Not a bad trip on the whole - perhaps too many babies in close proximity, but had an empty seat next to me on the first leg and got a reasonable amount of sleep, and despite being an hour late on the first leg (and having gates so far apart in Dubai that I was starting to wonder if the connecting flight was actually leaving from Abu Dhabi), made the connection, albeit without an awful lot to spare. Spotted quite a few tennis players on their way home from early exits from the Australian Open, although a certain well-known Swiss and his entourage were not among them (I presume with his money that private jet is the travel mode of choice).

It was dry and chilly when the plane landed (with snow cover as soon as you got off the valley floor but not in Geneva itself), but by the time I got off the tram and was walking to the hotel it had started to snow lightly, and by the time I was ready to run the snow had become quite heavy. Nonetheless I headed out - of course. It didn't actually feel that cold, but the snow was wet which made things a bit uncomfortable (it wasn't settling on hard surfaces, but was settling on grass and trees, especially away from the city centre).

Did an out-and-back along the lake, crossing over at its west end and along the southern shore as far as the main beach. Did a bit of an extra loop through the gardens at the end coming back, cut a little short after my insides decided to wake up (a common first-run-off-the-plane issue). Otherwise it was a fairly typical first run off the plane, OK without feeling as if I would have appreciated anything harder. Saw a few other runners (all wearing considerably more than I was) but the streets were quiet - how much of this was the weather and how much of it was all the locals being off in France shopping is unknown (at least to me).

I was last here three years ago, and no doubt I'll learn in the next few days what's changed (and what hasn't). The main station renovations do appear to have been completed at long last.

Got a single 200-franc note from the airport ATM, worth about $280 at current exchange rates. (Switzerland isn't Argentina, where you'll get dirty looks for using a 100-peso note to pay a 70-peso bill, so I was able to break it without difficulty at the supermarket). I've decided to try to convince myself that the exchange rate is the 1:1 it was last time I was here to avoid too much sensation of pain (in any case I'm being paid in francs so the rate is largely immaterial).

At Ivanhoe for the first time since I've been back from South America. To my complete lack of surprise, the long-running renovations (which I think were originally supposed to be finished in May last year) are not complete. Latest claim is "by end of February" but on the evidence I've seen, this is true only if a number N is inserted into the sentence where N > 2015.

The session itself was quite reasonable, working out various bits of stiffness before going home and sorting out the last bits of packing - I'm off to Geneva tonight (via Dubai). A bit of a spanner was thrown in the works yesterday when my phone slipped out of my pocket on the train and subsequently did a bit of a tour of the Melbourne rail system, but a maintenance worker found it (and answered when I called) and I ended up doing a late-evening trip out to the Epping maintenance yards to retrieve it.

One of my colleagues mentioned today that he had been listening to something on the radio when his four-year-old daughter came in and said "I don't like that man - can you turn it off?". Smart kid - it was an ABC interview with Alan Jones.

Decided to back off on this one after last night's shocker. The first half, taking me into some of the hilly bits of Templestowe where I haven't been for a while, was good only by comparison with last night, but picked up somewhat after a drinks stop on about the hour mark (on a humid morning by Melbourne standards), though the few bumps left between there and home were a reminder that all is still not completely well. By the end I was starting to feel as if an extra half-hour wouldn't have been a totally silly thing to do, which is promising.

That. Was. Awful. And I can't even blame the heat for it (although it didn't help) because I felt terrible from the first slight hill, on the way to the second control. It was as well that it was a short one tonight because if it had been a 10-11k night I would have thought fairly seriously about pulling the pin. Certainly as bad as Sunday, and don't have an obvious reason for it. Will play things a bit by ear tomorrow but my confidence is pretty down at the moment.

Does feel a bit strange to think that my next run but one will (probably) be in snow.

Back felt rather dodgy this morning and I had second thoughts about going out, but did (while avoiding hills for the first half). Ended up going more or less OK, although not terribly strong. Revisited the Banyule Flats singletrack - the fallen tree from a few weeks ago is gone thanks to either Parks Victoria or the mountain bikers (probably the latter).

We're getting towards the later end of January - the traffic on Rosanna Road was banked back as far as the eye could see just before 7. Not having been around for the last couple of months of the election campaign I'm not sure exactly what promises were made to do something about this (although I don't need to know exactly what the promises were to be reasonably confident that they won't work).

Meanwhile, political life in Argentina has just got a lot more interesting, thanks to the sudden death of a prosecutor who was going to present evidence to Congress the next day about an alleged conspiracy between the governments of Argentina and Iran to engage in a cover-up over the latter's alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires. Outwardly it looks like a suicide but there are a lot of people in both countries, from the President (whom Twitter has already convicted of murder) down, who stood to lose out from whatever evidence was going to be presented, which will make the affair very fertile ground for conspiracy theories which may or may not be accurate. (Buenos Aires is run by the opposition front-runner for this year's election, so one might expect, at least, that the city police will be diligent in their investigations).

Swim at Fitzroy. Felt pretty sluggish early (although somewhat better than I did yesterday after a decent night's sleep), but gradually built into it as it went on.

Noticed on the way into work that a La Trobe Street convenience store which got repossessed just before I went away in September is still untouched (with stock inside). The fridges must smell interesting by now.

Had had plans to go out at lunch but didn't have time, so went out after work instead, still around the Tan. More traffic hold-ups to and from, but decent once going properly. Southbank also crowded with various things set up (including a "grandstand" where you can sit and watch the Australian Open on TV, and assorted buskers).

Too much burning the candle at both ends as it turned out. I'd hoped to do something long today, but realistically thought I might struggle after another 2am finish (clearly I haven't developed the tolerance of sleep deprivation that's necessary for parenthood). Felt weak and light-headed throughout. Thought I'd give it until Greensborough - having taken my Myki in sort of anticipation - to see if things got any better (as they had on Thursday), but they didn't - that long run will need to wait until next weekend. Pity to waste such good conditions (for summer), but then excess heat won't exactly be a problem for me this time next week (current forecast for next Sunday morning in Geneva: -4 with light snow flurries).

Haven't been feeling quite right in other respects this weekend either (very dry and thirsty yesterday, and a slightly elevated temperature), so probably should make sure I get myself right.

On a Sunday morning you spend a bit more time waiting for trains than during the week; spotted while looking around on the platform at Greensborough was a lookalike for Alex Idnurm (early 1990s model). For those of you who weren't around then, Alex was part of the legendary 1991 ACT Schools team (he was its only member who hasn't gone on to represent Australia at some level), got a number of decent midfield junior results in the early 1990s, and was part of the team that won M16 in the 1991 Australian Relays (in somewhat contentious circumstances). He was last heard of in Kansas City doing scientifically interesting things with fungi.

This could be quite a challenging weekend given the late nights for IOF meetings (2am last night and I'm expecting similar tonight). Had planned to sleep until 8 or so but a media call on the global temperatures came through at 7.15.

The run was hard going in the first part - partly sleepiness, but also rather sore Achilles at the start (that eased over the first couple of kilometres). Much improved over the second half although still not stellar. I'm hoping to go long tomorrow and will want to be in better shape for that than I was today. (At least the weather looks like being kind).

Didn't have the most energetic of afternoons, and felt very thirsty for no obvious reason.

Back to the old haunts at Fitzroy for the first time since coming back from Tasmania. The sort of session which shows this session's usefulness - rather stiff at the start but much less so towards the end. Slightly to my surprise (in a session where it sometimes shows up in a susceptible state), no sign of cramp.

A few minutes from the end, one of the other regulars mentioned in passing that the Swiss franc had just gone up 30%. I worked out why this had happened fairly quickly but spent the rest of the time trying to digest its implications - after all, I'm heading to Geneva this time next week. Assuming the rate now stays fairly stable at its new level (which, once the initial spike was out of the way, is up about 15%), I should actually do OK out of it because the amount I get for expenses is paid in francs and I usually don't spend it all, but in a volatile situation there's plenty of potential for mismatch between the exchange rate when I get paid and the exchange rate when the bills are due.

This weekend's going to be one for weird sleep patterns, thanks to the IOF meetings (which run from midnight to 6am our time; I think midnight-2am on both days is probably going to be about as good as I can manage). Adding to the mix, reports (which I've already seen) are coming out overnight about 2014 global temperatures, which will probably create something of a splash (and may generate a bit more media action for me than I've seen recently).

One of those days I sometimes have where the time I woke up was somewhat after the time that the run started. That means the first 40 minutes of this run were pretty unpleasant going, but got it together after that and had a good middle section, sometimes bordering on very good. Started to fade away a bit in the final half-hour and had a couple of bad patches around 19-20k, but got enough of a second wind to think it worthwhile to do an extra around-the-block at the end to get it up past the 2-hour mark. Still have a fair way to go to double the distance (and more than double the time) in two months' time.

Had a couple of minor calf cramps on the ride in afterwards, which surprised me a bit given that it was cool both last night and this morning.

C • Cramps 3

Street-O at Smiths Dell. Promising start but ended up drifting out of it a bit, struggling somewhat on the hills (though without muscular issues). Closer to Bruce than I normally expect to be at halfway (i.e. I could still see him), but didn't keep that going. Most of us went the same way, I think; I was chasing Peter Hobbs for much of the way but he was pulling away at the rate of about 10 metres per control. (Peter had a much longer weekend's effort than I did, so he deserves points for that). Cool night, and a different map than usual, going south (other side of the creek/freeway) rather than east, taking advantage of the new bike bridge.

Perhaps my good start was due to being fired up from what I heard just before leaving work, namely that a political staffer in the NT government (also a weather nut, and the only person I've ever dumped on Facebook) has put in a formal complaint with the minister over an innocuous FB post of climate stats made by one of my colleagues. The complaint won't go anywhere (I hope) but it's still annoying. If you're a candidate for public office, having your opponents trawl every public utterance of yours for dirt is part of the game these days, but if you're not it seems a tad unreasonable.

On a happier note, two other work colleagues of mine, along with their 10-year-old son (who has already shown some significant trail-running talent), made their orienteering debut tonight and enjoyed it. If the name Baden Wheeler pops up in a team sometime in the early 2020s you heard it here first.

Felt pretty sleepy before I started but turned out to be a fairly reasonable run. Thought it might be a bit steamy ahead of the day's approaching rain (which, as it turned out, central Melbourne only caught the fringes of), but it was less humid than I anticipated. Felt better on the climbs in the second half than in recent days.

Since I'm clearly still in OK form for road/track running it's a bit of a question as to why I was so ordinary in the terrain last week; difficult to escape the conclusion that limited recent terrain training has a fair bit to do with it. In the days when I was sometimes running the 5-days moderately seriously, I usually didn't perform that well at it but had usually attributed that to the large volumes of training I was typically doing in December, but lack of terrain work at that time of year is also likely to be relevant.

Morning swim at MSAC after coming off the ferry from Tasmania - first time I've been here for a while. This was a reasonably bland swim but seemed to pass the time OK. Didn't seem excessively stiff from yesterday, which may say something about yesterday's performance (or absence thereof).

Number of orienteers sighted on boat: 24.

Evening run after picking my car up from a service in Fishermens Bend - a venue partly chosen in the name of not going home until a bit later and missing the worst of the traffic (though there isn't really that much traffic at this time of year).

Headed out to the beach at Port Melbourne, coming back through the middle of Garden City - a corner of town I haven't been into for a very long time (apart from a street-O or two, perhaps not since I lived in Albert Park). Heading for the beach was partly in the name of finding a seabreeze on a hot afternoon, but there wasn't much of one; 31 degrees is the hottest I'll run in for a while, because it probably won't reach that again in Melbourne before I leave for Geneva at the end of next week. Not the worst of runs in the circumstances.

I can't recall seeing a beggar (let along being hassled or abused by one) in two months in South America, but no such luck in a Melbourne lunchtime...

Once upon a time I used to be a good orienteer. Today was an indication that I've fallen a long way - not so much technically, but in terms of strength in the terrain, of which I had none whatsoever today.

Bruce went through me 2 minutes on the way to 3 (by which time I'd already found a very marshy bit of yellow and struggled to run up a couple of modest hills). He then passed me again later in the leg, having found what was evidently a less good creek crossing, and I had him sort of in sight until 5. Reasonably happy with my (northern) route on 6 but not the speed of its execution. The time losses came later - missed a crossing on the way to 10 and unwisely tried to crash the green, which cost me a couple of minutes. Started to feel a bit better after that but had small errors in the circle on 13 and 14. Ended up 5th, 11 minutes behind Bruce, which was where I deserved to be - didn't beat Bruce (or Matt Sherlock) all week, and my only win over Craig was in the relays where he stopped to extricate a bogged sheep.

I seem to be making a habit of shockers on the second Sunday in January, although they're more often deployed on the Two Bays (where, in addition to Briohny's excellent run, a couple of my work colleagues did themselves proud).

Despite the disappointment with my own performance - clearly my decent running form of a couple of weeks ago hasn't translated into the terrain - from my official point of view I was very pleased with how the week went - everyone involved is entitled to give themselves a pat on the back.

C • Two Bays 1

World Cup long. Didn't plan to train today and didn't.

The day seemed to disappear very quickly - it wasn't until after finishing my commentary stint that I realised I'd been going more or less non-stop for 5 1/2 hours. Hopefully this meant it was an interesting day for the rest of you too (at least those at the venue - not sure how frequent the online updates were).

Today's World Cup race felt to me to have a sense (and I mean this in the best possible way) of old-school international orienteering - out in a forest in the middle of nothing much, and an uncompromising style of long distance courses (though a little short for genuine old-school, something I'd thought on the cards all week - unless it had thickened up a lot since Constable Creek 2002, I couldn't see an international field being kept to 7 min/km on it). Seemed to be received very well by the competitors from the feedback I've had so far. Feedback on the week was also very positive. I didn't see anything that went obviously wrong (other than one anthem mix-up), with the only negative of consequence in my view being something the organisers had no control over - a disappointing turnout by international teams.

The conditions were excellent for running. Certainly there was no chance that anyone was going to die as a result of excess heat - the subject of the headline on a rather over-the-top article (about heat risks to summer sport in Australia) on the ABC website this morning which contained numerous "quotes" from yours truly. This took me by surprise as the person I'd been corresponding with hadn't even said he was working on a story, let alone ask me if it was OK to quote me. (I didn't have any problems with the actual quotes, but thought giving them without checking with anyone might land me in hot water, though it looks like it hasn't - if I'd known he wanted quotes I'd have given them as "Orienteering Australia President and a professional climatologist" rather than on the Bureau's behalf.

Fairly easy run with Jenny, Zara and Lauren from the house at Coles Bay. Didn't feel too sharp but didn't expect to as this was very much a recovery session. Much cooler morning than yesterday.

Got to see a bit more of Freycinet in the remainder of the day, walking the Wineglass Bay circuit (surprisingly the first time I've been to Wineglass) - a nice part of the world even if it wasn't really beach weather. Plenty of people around.

Unsurprisingly, lots of familiar faces both on the walk and at St. Helens.

Started yesterday to the background of one of the local councillors giving a welcome speech. Last time we were here he was the mayor, but he lost that position last year after making some less than flattering comments about some of his constituents (the word "bogan" may have been involved).

Also on the theme of local councils in places we've been orienteering recently, the York council, which we heard a few rumblings about when we were there last year, has been suspended by the WA government and replvced with an administrator.

My one foray into the elite ranks for this week - the World Cup/Oceania middle (taking advantage of the fact that with the races on different days at different venues it was possible to run both M21E and M40). Had the first start, which, as noted previously, meant my main objective was to sit in the "hot seat" (first place in Oceania with its associated WOC place) for as long as possible.

This was probably my best run of the week, although still not strong enough to be as aggressive in the terrain as the terrain required - something which showed most on the grunt leg out of the arena passage. Probably dropped 2 minutes or so in increments of 30 seconds or less, 6 being the worst of them (a bit low). 20 was a scary downhill leg into green and I missed it a bit but got out without too much time lost. Very humid.

Was the first male finisher (which meant I got to turn on the control that the organisers forgot about, and open the drink cups packet), and spent about 20 minutes in the Oceania lead before Mark Gregson took it over. (In the end Matt Ogden took the small matter of 21 minutes out of my time). Messrs Hubmann and Lundanes certainly provided a bit of perspective on just how far I am off the elite international pace these days.

C • Control Descriptions 3

Public race after the Schools relay. Warm-up a bit limited for this (due to late finish of my commentary stint) but that didn't seem to do me any real harm - felt stronger than I have earlier in the week (though still some way short of where I was a couple of weeks ago). Slightly rattled when Bruce went through me at 4, a control I'd gone downhill a bit early on and lost 30 seconds or so - thought he'd caught me 3 minutes in 13 but it was actually 2. Then got through him again in the rough stuff on 7 (where he lost some time) before he went through me again. Fairly clean through the rest but without massive speed, but felt like I was flowing better in the terrain. Great views across to Freycinet from the top, if you had time to appreciate them.

It was a pity for the Schools relay that two of the four races were over because of mispunches before they were halfway through. Thought we might have had a bit of dead air to fill on the microphone but we seemed to manage it reasonably well in an occasionally somewhat flippant performance, some of which might have gone over the head of late arrivals such as whether CSIRO could develop a machine to make time run backwards and allow Jarrah Day to run the final loop in minus six minutes, which is what he would have had to do to beat NZ from the position his team were in. (Jemery works with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Hobart, and yesterday in M50, along with Mike Burton (astronomy, UNSW) and Simon George (geology, Macquarie) formed possibly the most intellectual podium seen in Australia since the Trewin-Hawkins-Schulz one in an early 2000s Queensland Championships).

Very strong seabreeze in Swansea tonight which spoilt the planned waterfront festival. World Cup middle tomorrow - my one chance to match it with the big guns (or perhaps not).

Oceania Middle Championships (M40), 4th. This was another rather disappointing run in what hasn't been a great week for me. Somewhat scrappy, again weak up hills, and often seemed to be getting bad lines (although it's the sort of terrain which looks more open than it is, so I suspect there aren't that many good lines). Probably would have struggled to get to the placings even with a clean run, though. Bruce did 29.

Came in a bit low on 1, which I suspect was a contour or so too high (quite a few others had trouble on 2, perhaps through starting the leg in the wrong place). Fairly clean through the rest of the first half though my route to 7 wasn't great on the micro route choices. Once again a bit low on 10, but the biggest time losses, around 45 seconds apiece, were on 13 and 16 - dropped low too early on 13 (a leg where I had a lot of trouble reading the yellow), and also a bit low on 16, both of which meant crashing bits of green.

Once again this event went well and it was a good area for a middle - introducing the visitors to our rocks (they'll get many more chances to enjoy them in the remainder of this week).

Probably more ambitious than I would have done on my own, but worth it. We were staying at Western Creek, at the foot of the Great Western Tiers, and Jenny was keen to go up to the Higgs Track creek crossing - a solid climb and further than normal for a recovery run, but suitably scenic, especially at the far end. Felt pretty reasonable and quite a good pace on the return after a slow start.

The rest of the day was from there to Ross via the Central Plateau, with side trips to Liffey Falls and Lake Ada. The latter was last visited in 1988 as the start/finish for what I think is the only UK-style mountain marathon run in Australia (for those unfamiliar with the format, this is a two-day event with very long courses and an overnight camp for which you have to carry packs; teams of at least 2). Adam Smith, one of the other top M18s of the day, and I were both entered on C course with our respective fathers; both of us, once we knew we were both entered, were keen to dump our partners and run together on B (which, as it turned out, would have taken us into the Walls of Jerusalem, a largely unknown area in those days), but couldn't convince the organisers to give us an exemption from the rule that all teams had to have at least one member over 18.

And a priceless paragraph from an article today about anti-vaccination campaigners:

"Messenger is an activist who runs the Vaccination Awareness and Information Service and has published a book, Melanie’s Marvellous Measles, extolling the upsides of preventable childhood diseases."

C • mt marathon 1

C • Don't tell me 1

Oceania Relays. Running 2nd leg in the Australian M40 team with Bruce and Craig. Bruce led off pretty well - put us well clear of the others in our class, which was expected, but it turned out that we were also on the same course as the junior men and open women. This meant I set out in some pretty good company - my partner in crime for the first few controls was a certain Ms. Alexandersson. Somewhat to my surprise, she didn't blow me away immediately, rather edging away (mostly in the rougher bits of ground) over the first 10 minutes or so. As I wasn't running that well, and struggled even at my peak to match it with the best women in the world (at the 2000 World Cup at Badja, where the women ran two of the three loops of the men's course, I was a bit behind Hanne Staff and Simone Niggli on the common sections), I take this as an indication that she wasn't going flat out. I was, however, gratified that Tove doesn't appear to be any better than me at getting over rickety barbed-wire fences.

Once off the back of that contest, and out of the open country, I made a couple of mistakes on my first two controls in the green, with one-minuters at 6 and 7 - not getting to grips quickly enough with which rocks were/weren't mapped at 6, and going in too early and getting caught in some green from 7. Fairly clean from there (in the navigation sense, definitely not the mud sense), but struggled for strength and terrain fluency in the uneven and soft ground. 6 down on Bruce which was about where I deserved to be, but at least we did the necessary (which in the absence of NZ opposition, was to get around three legs without a mispunch).

We couldn't have chosen a much more NZ-like piece of terrain for the relays and still been on this side of the Tasman, so it was perhaps not surprising that NZ managed to draw 10-10 - their best result ever in an away Challenge (and matching the 2013 result in NZ).

Oceania Sprint Championships. This was a disappointing performance - didn't have the top couple of gears today and drifted out of it more as the run went on. I never expected to be especially close to Bruce (who probably should have been running a different course a couple of hours earlier), but behind some I shouldn't really be, and clearly third of the three M40 team runners (ended up 7th). One small but visible hesitation at the start triangle when I changed my mind from left to right to left again, but otherwise reasonably clean. Warm (31-32), though nowhere near as bad as it would have been on the mainland.

World Cup again went pretty well - very impressive runs by Tove and Matthias Kyburz to get the margins they did in such a strong field. We also had some solid results from our runners without cracking the top 10; I think Rachel will be happiest with her day's work.

Event: Oceania 2015 and World Cup Round 1
 

Morning swim in Launceston, after coming off the boat but before picking the rest of my load up from the airport. Didn't sleep too well on the boat (not the boat's fault I suspect, rather from having messed up my body clock the previous night), but got off it efficiently - it helps that the quarantine checks are at the Melbourne end these days.

Got to the aquatic centre (which the locals seem quite proud of - both the Mayor and the local MLC mentioned it in their speeches at the World Cup opening) a bit too early - it was still on holiday hours and didn't open until 8. Clevrly I wasn't the only one who didn't know this as there was quite a crowd milling outside. Once in, headed for the outdoor pool. Not the most relaxing of swims as the lanes didn't have speed markings and the other two in my lane were much faster than me - always feel like I'm intruding on the turf of others in such a situation (I chose that lane because they were doing slow breaststroke when I got in, but that was their warm-up). Decent on the performance front though.

First day of the World Cup seemed to go off pretty well - the Basin was an excellent arena and provided a better orienteering challenge than I thought it might. We were flying by the seat of our pants a bit in commentary because we weren't getting a good feed of results from the finish so had to result to old-school start list-and-stopwatch methods. The opening ceremony also went well, and I think I achieved my objective of giving the shortest of the five speeches :-). (I was a bit worried I'd be underdressed for this, but these worries ceased when the (very friendly) Mayor turned up in shorts and sandals).

Had thought of going out for a token trot on the map afterwards, but decided not to. I'm staying with Bruce and Louise Fairfax (with whom I go back a very long way; Bruce was my school coach as a junior). Louise is making her return to competition after a long time away and I had to give her a crash course in ISSOM mapping - she's never run a sprint race on an ISSOM map.

First session of 2015, not a particularly good one. As is the case for many people on this day, I was coming off less sleep than would have been optimal, which may have contributed to a general sense of sluggishness. Also a few hamstring twinges although still better than the weekend.

First weather station visit of the year: probably my most frequently visited one, the automatic one at the back of Viewbank (which is the closest one to where I am). Not sure what inroads (if any) I'll make into my list of 17 unvisited Australian sites this year - as noted earlier, all the easy ones are done now. Thinking 2017 (with WMOC in NZ rather than in Europe, and no IOF Congress) might be the year for another major outback Australian trip, though a lot of things could happen between now and 2017.

Heading to Tasmania on the boat tonight. Had expected to encounter a few familiar faces on this but most of those I've talked to so far are going earlier or later.

One 2014 'award' I left off the list I posted last night: most (least?) photogenic injury suffered. I had a few good ones last year in that department. An honourable mention goes to the cut knee (and consequent ample quantities of blood) in the NAOC long, but the winner is my backside-plant at Radford during the Canberra sprint series in January, which produced a very purple bruise the size of a dinner plate on said buttock. There are photos of the former online, but not the latter.