Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Closed out training for 2018 with a session in the pool; my parents are still working out when to switch on and off the solar heating so it was a bit on the cool side, but still perfectly tolerable. The view definitely compensates for the going round and round in circles.

It was another rather frustrating year in which I never really got going, but still had plenty of enjoyable runs during the year (even if most of them weren't very fast). The competitive high point in something that mattered was probably the 3rd at the North American Middle Distance (if you took in things which didn't matter, I'd almost call it the pre-WMOC indoor event in Denmark); the most enjoyable probably the Flinders weekend in June; the most out-there my first taste of Chinese village orienteering in April; and the "did that really happen" moment was beating Martin Dent on the last control to finish split at the ACT Middle Championships.

Off to Vancouver via Los Angeles tomorrow for the next IPCC meeting (depending on the flight path and time zone configuration, I might even dip briefly back into 2018). I'm assuming that the real Los Angeles of 2019 will be somewhat different to the fictional one (although not even the most dystopian 1980s science fiction scriptwriter could have come up with a President Donald Trump).

C • President Trump 1

A run in three parts. The first part was at the usual level of sluggishness, but without any real signs of injury. The second part was the best I've felt on a run for ages (certainly since the calf injury), moving smoothly and feeling like I had a bit of strength for the small ups and downs. The path alongside the road between St. Pauls and Koonya, though, seemed fine at the time, but its ups and downs were enough to set the Achilles off a bit, so the last 2.5km was a bit of a struggle. Made it home, though, and stretching the boundaries a little bit further.

A bit of a thunderstorm was lingering over the bay to the north, but it didn't come our way. I was wondering if there might have been lots of people on the beaches collectively blowing the storm towards the MCG.

A nice change this morning - a reasonably normal run. Obviously the calf work yesterday had the desired effect because the Achilles had only the mildest of twinges today. (I did take the precaution of avoiding the sand today - back down the peninsula but stuck to the streets and suburban paths, so got the many small ups and downs but not the softness).

Dug this out from the archives. I was right that New Zealand would be more formidable at home - they creamed us, with help from some very New Zealand terrain (this was the year of Kapamahunga).

Achilles getting worse rather than better during the early stages of the run. At least I ended up with some tangible evidence that I wasn't imagining things when the physio/masseur thought my calf (which is the trigger for this) was the tightest she's seen for a long time - which prompted some serious needlework.

And there was a false start for this as well - I thought I'd booked in for pilates at 10 and massage at 6 (with the cricket in between), but was under way with this when the masseur dropped past and wondered where I was - I'd got the appointments the wrong way round...

...but at the second attempt it worked out as planned (which is more than can be said for most of today's batting on both sides). Was a bit apprehensive about this because, post-needles, I'd barely been able to walk during the lunch and tea breaks at the cricket, but the ride from the MCG to Northcote loosened me up nicely and the session was fine.

Thought I was feeling better at the start today but it was a different story when I hit the sand (mostly Achilles this time - clearly overdue for a massage), so quickly switched from thoughts of an hour or more to minimum viable training unit. I guess we can just about classify this as such, although it's a tight call. Hoping for something better tomorrow.

Back playing up today so, after an initial attempt, instead had my first go at the new pool - certainly one of the nicer views you get from a pool (there's a good view to the north as far as Arthurs Seat, although no ocean). A fairly routine session once in, ahead of a reasonably inactive day in front of the cricket (with one eye on the WA current observations).

A Christmas morning run from a new base, and a very nice setting it was - the first half along the back side of the peninsula, first along the clifftops at Bridgewater Bay and Pearses Beach, then through the bush for a while once the track runs inland. A cloudless sky and a timeless scene - I think teenagers have been jumping off the rock tower above the Bridgewater Bay rockpool since before the word "teenager" was invented (certainly at least as far back as when my parents were that age).

This was a bit shorter than most recent Christmas efforts, but still a reasonable run - tougher in terms of terrain than anything I've done since the injury (lots of short hills, and a bit of sand which was slow going, especially the climb out of Pearses). Reasonably happy with the way it went; back only briefly troublesome although Achilles sorer than they have been recently.

Nice not to have to drive anywhere on Christmas Day, either...

Didn't get a lot of sleep last night because of a persistently barking dog (presumably left behind by its owners who have gone elsewhere); eventually moved to the front room. Felt like I was rather lacking energy for the swim and it showed in the performance; at least the brilliant sunshine woke me up. (The new goggles also worked pretty well).

An old Canberra Christmas tradition which I thought had disappeared in the big city was leaving beer out for the garbos (along with the carrots for the "reindeer" and the beer for "Santa" - I recall asking if the latter would put Santa over the legal limit for driving a sleigh), but there was one lot of it on top of a bin this morning. This (and other similar episodes elsewhere in the suburb) would explain why the garbage was a bit late in being collected.

There's not a lot of traffic around in the inner city on a Christmas Eve Monday, although I did steer well clear of the Queen Victoria Market.

Another step forward, reaching the hour for the first time since the injury. Didn't always feel especially convincing but a steady accumulation of distance, and no real calf or back issues (I was a bit worried when a bit of calf soreness appeared last night after getting off the train from the football, of all places). A brilliantly clear morning - the clarity of the Australian summer sky is much more striking when you encounter it after returning from somewhere like China - but relatively cool, a reminder that this is probably going to be the last cool-weather run I get until heading to Canada (where there might be a bit too much of a good thing in that respect).

Most of my Christmas shopping involved books this year. One of the occupational hazards of this is coming across a large number of things that you want to buy yourself. (I resisted temptation other than to take notes for a post-Christmas return visit). Managed to avoid setting foot in any shopping mall (or, even more perilously, wheel in any of their car parks), which I was quite pleased about.

A bit later than usual this morning, partly because I slept in a bit, partly because I spent some time ascertaining that after a week of drying out my old computer would start (not especially convincingly) - it was coming to the end of its useful life anyway so I'd already got a new one, but it's a relief to be able to recover the material since the last backup without having to find someone else in the Christmas-New Year week able to get stuff off hard drives.

This was a slow run but otherwise felt OK, with no real trouble from either calf or back. Took the chance to check out some of the Merri Creek flood debris (having seen it in full flow a week and a bit ago). Quite cool - enjoying this while it lasts because it's not going to, although Melbourne will probably only catch the fringes of next week's heatwave.

One of the consequences of all my travelling is that I'd done almost no Christmas shopping, a deficiency partially remedied today (without setting foot in any malls, I'm glad to say).

Not the easiest of flights - took the best part of an hour to get through security and immigration in Guangzhou so didn't have much to spare to make the flight, and ended up in the last row, which wasn't particularly conducive to sleep. (Airline toilets make a lot of noise when you're within a couple of metres of them). At least it was early.

The pilates session was a good one for such circumstances. Generally felt OK, although quads freaked out a bit with the one exercise in the set which sometimes makes them freak out. A bit damp going there, but certainly not as damp as this time last week.

And another day, another scandal. Best comment I saw was from someone who suggested that if there is indeed a George Christensen sex tape in existence, it is very much in the public interest for the government and the AFP to do everything in their power to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day.

C • GC ST 2

Bit more of a mixture today - first three in a village, then a bit of forest, then parklands of assorted formality. Back wasn’t really playing ball and I even had to stop briefly on the climb into 6 - always a bit of an embarrassment in a sprint race. Didn’t really miss anything. Crowds a minor nuisance at times - both a big group on the course and then a tour group in the gardens, which I encountered twice- but I can’t blame that for my slow time. Expected the big guns to break 12 and they did.

Heading back to Australia tonight. I think preparations are going reasonably well - still a few things they need to work on (and the courses still need to be set) but it should be an event well worth coming to.

Stringing four days together turned out to be the limit for now; back, which was showing signs of trouble yesterday, was more troublesome today. A very hard bed probably didn’t help.

Did spend quite a bit of time walking around the middle and sprint areas. The main issue with the latter, as with yesterday, is that some of the alleys are so narrow that you can’t run down them (only walk sideways). I think my edict is going to be that it needs to be at least 60cm wide to be mapped as passable.

As some will know, I’m gradually working on the Australian Orienteering results archive. At the moment it’s getting first names for the 1985 Australian Relays, which only showed initials; I’ve come out of this convinced that there should be a rule that if you have two children of the same gender sufficiently close in age that they’ll be running in the same age group, they’re not allowed to have first names which start with the same letter. This process also revealed that the 1985 Relays (which took place two days after WOC) had a lot of ring-ins, the best being the second-placed M35 team from the old Scrubrunners club, which as far as I could tell contained no actual Scrubrunners and only one who was even from NSW. I’m not proposing to make them unofficial 33 years after the event.

Since I first saw the original proposed World Cup sprint area in April, I’d been telling anyone who would listen that it would be the most technical World Cup sprint ever. The World Cup itself has been moved to another area for largely logistical reasons (the new area also looks very good from the old map, though I’ll get a closer look tomorrow), but we were on the original area this morning. I was looking forward to this.

I was not to be disappointed (except by my performance). This was the most difficult sprint I have ever done, and I’ve been to Venice - an absolute maze of lanes and passages with some random thickets thrown in. Perhaps it would have been a bit too extreme for a fair World Cup race (though I think that could have been largely dealt with with careful setting) - some of the passages were so narrow you couldn’t really run through them - but everyone was raving about this, and with good reason. (Nothing quite like actually running a course to focus your mind on the key issues as a controller, either).

I didnt feel as good as Sunday, and navigation was a bit patchy, losing 30-45 seconds apiece to a poor route on 3 and a dead end at 8, plus a few other bits and pieces. Would have been satisfied with 26; Tim won with something in the high 16s.

They operate in a different financial world in some other sports; a piece I’ve just read on the sacking of Manchester United’s coach said ‘it is understood the compensation due to Mourinho will be no more than £15 million’. (That said, there’s some good money around this week by our standards; found myself handing over an oversized cheque to Tim for something close to $2000).

C • Financial mindset 1

I’ve spent enough time in urban China to know that any opportunity where you find yourself in a good place to run is to be grasped. We were staying across the road from a large lake so I headed out along its shore. An early start and it was only just getting light when I began, but it gets light quickly in the tropics, so there were good views of the small jagged peaks rising out of the other side of the lake - what I think of as a classic Chinese scene (not that I’ve seen too much outside the urban agglomeration).

Slow to get going - it was the fourth kilometre before I broke 6s - but again positive on the injury front. Better than my two early runs last week, too.

Spent the rest of the day checking things out for World Cup - arenas for the middle and sprint, a more extensive look at the sprint relay area which I hadn’t been to before. I came out happy.

Seem to be making a habit of being here for fruit harvest festivals. The mandarins are divine.

And since when has New Idea been in the business of breaking political stories which actually appear, from the speed of the resultant resignation, to be true? (As someone put it, did they find out before or after Harry and Meghan conceived triplets?). Best hashtag spotted so far: #malleeroot.

Ran the sprint in China after the field proper. This well and truly lived up to expectations; as with the April event, much of the map was based around complex old villages, with alleys everywhere and just enough irregularity in the alleys and courtyards to make it very intense. In April the courses didn't really make the most of complexity, but here they did - apart from one long transport leg, you rarely got a chance to relax with rapid decision-making required most of the way. If the World Cup individual sprint area and courses are as good as this I'll definitely be happy.

Felt pretty good running, too, by recent standards - no real niggles (apart from brief back tightness) and generally more lively than on any other occasion since returning. Held the navigation together, too, with only a couple of 5-10 second wobbles on an area where disaster was possible (Peter Hodkinson dropped two minutes on the last control, of all places). I didn't manage to get within 50% of the winner in any of the Sprint Into Spring races so to get within striking distance of it in a field of this quality was pleasing. Robert Merl won with something in the 16s, beating the likes of Yannick Michiels and Tim Robertson (although Tim is on the comeback trail after shoulder surgery). The internationals ranged down to the 20-21 range but when all the locals were thrown in I was a bit over halfway down the list.

We're staying in Zhouqing, another in the long list of Adelaide or Perth-sized cities in China which I had not previously heard of (about 100km west of Guangzhou). It has a nice-looking lake whose shores I intend to explore more in the morning. On a pleasant Sunday afternoon (it's a novelty to be in this part of the world without serious humidity, although had I been here last week when a couple of days only got to 10, it may have been too much of a good thing) lots of people were out and about, although the parklands are large enough that the crowds weren't as overwhelming as they sometimes can be here.

And you have to put up with canned carols everywhere here, too...

C • Guangzhou 4

C • WRE results 5

Another incremental advance - had originally been thinking in terms of an hour but ran out of time for that. As with Thursday, felt rather slow and sluggish (perhaps not quite as slow as Thursday), but no signs of trouble on the injury front. Saw plenty of signs of the storms last night - Darebin Creek is still high and there were big puddles everywhere.

And in the latest edition of today's Saturday, so it must be (insert place here), I'm off again - this time for another SEA visit to China. Have landed this evening after a fairly routine flight. Looking forward to seeing the events tomorrow (and properly checking out the areas and how things are going for next year).

Morning session at Fitzroy. Fairly routine, although it's good to see that my calf is no longer tightening, even slightly, after this session - the physio was pleased with its progress when she saw it later in the day, too.

I dodged the rain in the morning, but there was no such luck in the evening. Looked at the radar before leaving work and knew I was going to get wet (I couldn't delay because of said physio appointment), but didn't realise just how wet - 17mm fell in 5 minutes at the peak, and all up 36 in 15. I made it - there was a lot of streaming water (and a bit of uncomfortably close lightning) but no real flooding - but some of the contents of my bag didn't fare so well.

The last of four domestic trips in rapid succession - this time to Sydney for a Sport Australia meeting. Stayed with Tracy and Paul last night so headed down the river in the morning - always a nice place to run. Slow and sluggish (and I don't think I can blame all the slowness on the sometimes rough tracks), but at least both the calf and the back were basically OK, so that's an advance on the last couple of days. Also advancing the boundaries of length a little bit each time.

Interested to see a news story that the Australian media is being very coy about for legal reasons. Let's just say that one of the buildings we ran through at the 2015 Australian Sprint Championships is probably going to be getting a new name.

C • Coy 1

Undeterred by going out early not working out yesterday, I went out even earlier this morning. Can't say it was great, but this time early back stiffness eased after the first few minutes.

First time I've done pilates after a run (necessitated by the change of day this week). The plus was that I was already well warmed up (sometimes it takes me the first few sets to loosen up properly), the minus was that it took a few sets before the sweat stopped being a nuisance. Not too bad as a session, except for the one bit that relied on my left shoulder (still a bit sore after an injection yesterday).

You learn something new every day: the expression "Blind Freddy" comes from the exploits of Sir Frederick Pottinger, a British aristocrat who led the police force which attempted (conspicuously unsuccessfully) to track down Ben Hall and his bushranging gang in 1860s New South Wales.

First time for a while I've tried to do something first thing in the morning. It didn't work out - back showed no signs of warming up. The ride into work was somewhat lacking in energy, too. (I don't feel that bad, but a colleague said to me in the lift that I looked tired, so maybe I am).

Yet another day trip, Canberra this time. With an 8.30 departure decided to drop into Coburg for a swim on the way there. This turned out to be a rather scrappy swim, in a crowded lane with people who were all going significantly slower than I was (and some of whom were walking, notwithstanding that there was a lane marked specifically for walking next door). Never felt as if I got going properly.

That was a scrappy start to a scrappy day; booked on Virgin for the first time, I got to the airport to discover that they'd overbooked the flight by the small matter of 25 people and couldn't get me onto another one until the afternoon (which wasn't much use when I was speaking at 1pm). Fortunately the department's travel agent was able to book me on a Qantas flight 30 minutes later at not much extra cost. It seems hard to believe that they would overbook a flight by that much just to cover possible no-shows; maybe I'll get an explanation if I can be bothered writing them a letter of complaint, having ascertained that they've breached at least two of their stated policies. (My guess is that they might have been trying to route people booked on a cancelled Brisbane flight through Canberra). In the EU they'd be up for 250 euros; Australian consumer protection law is some of the weakest in the developed world.

And then the bus driver in Canberra closed the door on me. The day got better after that.

C • Overbooked flights 2

Headed down to the Peninsula today to a near-completed house (the certificate of occupancy is expected to come through this week) to deliver a carload of stuff and then spend most of the rest of the day in front of the cricket.

Something I've had sort of in my mind for a while is to seek to visit at some point all of Victoria's national parks (for these purposes, driving along one edge of it doesn't count as a "visit", so I'm not counting Murray-Sunset or Hattah-Kulkyne, bisected by the Ouyen-Mildura highway). I haven't had much in the way of spare weekends this year so haven't made any inroads into this, but thought I'd bag some low-hanging fruit here, in the form of Churchill National Park in Melbourne's southeast suburbs. (Presumably its "national park" status is a historical quirk as it's really just an area of remnant bush on the suburban fringe).

It was actually quite a nice spot for a run, starting out along an old aqueduct before climbing gradually to a spur, before dropping back. I imagine there would be some good longer runs here too, linking up with the tracks in Lysterfield. Probably not a lot of orienteering potential though (even if we had access, which I presume we don't) - most of the bush is pretty scungy, as it is across the road in the Police Paddocks which used to be mapped, although I've never run there.

Calf a little tight in the second half but seemed to handle it reasonably well, so I'm thinking that I can probably start to step things up a little. Felt somewhat better running today than Friday, too (probably because I've actually had proper sleeps the last two nights).

C • Churchill NP 4

A warm morning where I was happy to be in the water (and also a morning when the water felt cool). Fairly routine; didn't feel much tightness afterwards.

Feel as if I'm rather tired at the moment, which I guess isn't surprising given my recent travel schedule. This week isn't going to be any easier on that front (except that I shouldn't have any 11pm arrivals).

It's Friday so it must be Canberra. Staying in somewhat more upmarket surrounds than I'm used to (at the expense of the organisation I was giving a talk to), and headed down to explore new territory in the form of the Kingston Foreshore. Strictly speaking, it's not new territory - in its previous incarnation as The Causeway it had such features as the Canberra morgue and a cricket ground whose outfield grass was long enough to constitute a fire hazard. I think the only feature from then which is still there now is the electricity substation.

Felt pretty ordinary running, but the good news was that my calf was better than it has been at any time this week (and didn't come up post-run, either).

First session of this type for a while, in a Northcote pool which was a good deal less crowded at 7am than I suspect it was going to get at 5pm (first 35+ day of the summer). Felt as if it was a fairly routine session. Calf OK when in the water, a little tight afterwards (similar to swimming).

In Sydney for the day for work and, with Summer Series pretty close to the centre (in Balmain), thought I'd have a go at squeezing an event in before flying home. This was a bit of a logistical challenge (nice, though, to go to an event by ferry, not something you'd do in Melbourne), but managed that side of it OK.

The running wasn't so good - back was troublesome early, at which point I remembered that my physio had said to avoid running up hills for now (something I may have conveniently forgotten on a better day). For the remained, walked the hills and jogged the rest (and didn't do quite the full 45, although the way the course was configured I'd probably have needed to do at least 40 to get any more points). Some nice exploring to be done - although I was a bit disappointed that they didn't put a control on the rock with the plaque marking the founding of the NSW ALP - and even started to loosen up a little in the later stages. Managed to butcher the levels on 129, mixing up a vertical wall for a track on the map (was thinking ISOM and not ISSOM). Calf similar to yesterday, a bit sore but not causing too much difficulty.

C • Rockface = track 2

A bit of a mixed bag today; a bit tight early (both calf and back), settled into a nice groove after a few minutes, but then the calf started fatiguing in the last few minutes (and was tighter post-run than it has been of late, although the physio, who I saw this evening, didn't seem too concerned).

Saw a parked 4WD near where I started which was comprehensively splattered with mud; so there is at least one such vehicle which goes off the bitumen.

And a very seasonal crime story was that of the person who was arrested after getting stuck in the chimney of a pharmacy he was attempting to burgle in Lancefield. Perhaps he should have had a bit less of the Christmas cake.

Back to pilates. Calf strong enough that I felt I could have a go at getting through the full set, and did so. Muscles somewhat unused to this as I felt a bit stiff afterwards.

Not sure where all the traffic was; it's usually light on builder-RDO Mondays at this time of morning, but not that light.

On to Fitzroy, which was also reasonably quiet, although that's partly because I arrived after the early-morning peak. Felt lively at times, less so at others, but ended up bringing it home reasonably well.

Unsurprisingly, the building works which were supposed to be completed in November weren't.

Headed out with Jenny before conference proceedings started, heading over Gossan Hill and into Aranda (although not as far as my old home turf). Tried to take a short cut back past Calvary but ended up in a marsh on an overgrown track, leading to a bit of terrain running. (Was also feeling like exploding at this point - often my internals are the last thing to get back on a normal timezone, although given that I was awake at 4am I don't think my sleep patterns were back on a normal timezone either).

Felt pretty ordinary, though the first runs back after a substantial layoff often do. Calf starting to fatigue somewhat in the last 10 minutes and feels a little tight later in the day.

With some time to fill between the Conference and a flight home, I headed off to Weston Park to relax on the grass with some reading for a while. Shortly into this I saw someone walking with an orienteering map and visiting what was clearly a permanent course control, and thought "good to see the permanent course getting some use". A few more people later I was beginning to suspect that something more organised was happening, and when I started spotting familiar faces that was much clearer. It turned out I'd stumbled across the Parawanga Christmas party.

The good news is that my calf seems to be functioning OK. The bad news is that my back isn't (at least after sitting all day in the OA Conference). Headed out for a course on Stirling Park (at least as I refer to it) but gave it away fairly early.