Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

In Yangshuo. Headed north along the river and immediately discovered I'd fallen on my feet; was out of town within 400 metres and onto a quiet road above the river, with almost no cars/trucks, although a steady procession of scooters, and one or two contraptions with small truck bodies and two-stroke engines which weren't going much faster than I was. Ended up in a couple of villages at the far end. Quite cool (although warmed noticeably when the sun rose higher towards the end), and mist in the river valley which shielded some of the views but added to the atmospherics. Good to take advantage of running opportunities while here; the conditions won't be as good again, either (probably) in terms of places to run or in terms of the environment (everything else from here will either be at high altitude or in tropical heat). Felt reasonable.

The morning and early afternoon was spent exploring the countryside. It's a thing to hire bikes (or scooters) here, but having seen some of the driving on the way here (not least the driving of some of the vehicles I was a passenger in), I thought that might be taking my chances, so I booked a tour. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this "tour" consisted of a car which provided transport to a couple of scenic spots (for myself and the Chinese family I was sharing the car with) and that we were left to our own devices once there. The viewpoints were spectacular, particularly the first one, over the Li River with jagged karst peaks all around (and a small flotilla of motorised rafts below, which is the other main way to see the place).

Was pondering whether I'd take probably the last opportunity for a while for Western food, but didn't, and was rewarded with the unpromising-sounding-but-wonderful-tasting "noodles in miscellaneous sauce".

C • food choices 2

Started to head out but back a bit iffy today (woke up stiff so this wasn't a massive surprise). Was rather taken aback on walking back to the hotel to see the square in front of the shopping mall occupied by police with riot shields and someone wearing a balaclava throwing plastic bottles at them. Given the lack of commotion (to say nothing of any obvious reason for riotousness at this time and location) I assume it was riot police training.

With the World Cup now out of the way, it's time for the next stage - the overland journey ending up in Singapore. The first step was today, heading to Yangshuo (famous for its jagged karst mountain peaks). Managed to negotiate my first few bits of independent travel in China without too much trouble (including working out the local public transport to town - high-speed rail stations in China, like airports elsewhere, are often a fair way out of town - and thus being able to brush off the taxi touts), although Yangshuo is pretty touristy so the degree of difficulty is relatively low (plenty of English menus, for example). Handed over a picture of the district to get to town - said picture is on the 20-yuan note.

And I look forward to the day when a climate change sceptic on the internet, when he (it's almost always a he) is presented with convincing evidence that he is wrong, concedes that he's wrong and backs down from the original comments.

Orienteers taking over the world department: an e-mail came in today saying that the agricultural climate guides project (the one which was responsible for my SA road trip with Simon Allen in July) has brought in someone to do, among other things, the data visualisation work - one Jonathan McComb.

C • J Mc 1

Run around the sprint controls, a bit closer to the first start than I would have liked (the controls were put out quite late because a lot of taping needed to be done). Spotted a couple of bits of additional taping which needed to be done, a control which I moved slightly because it would have been knocked over in the first five minutes of the race had it stayed in its original position, and a control official who I moved slightly because she would have been knocked over in the first five minutes of the race had she stayed in her original position. Felt reasonably good running; Achilles fine once warmed up. Significantly less humid than it has been (dewpoint almost got down to single figures).

I thought this area and event would be pretty special and it was - seemed to be very well received, with the only disappointments I heard relating to competitors' own navigation. The organisation also went more smoothly than on earlier days; it's clearer now who is responsible for what. Still felt quite relieved when 4.35 ticked past and the time limit for complaints had expired (without receiving any).

Was always planning to take the day off today but as it turned out woke up with the most painful Achilles I've had for a while - I suspect it would have loosened up running but another reason why a rest today wasn't a bad idea. Much of the day disappeared on a trip to be involved in the official opening of an orienteering museum (yes, really) in a small town a couple of hours' drive away, north of the airport.

Looking forward to tomorrow: it should be a great orienteering experience (just hoping for a lack of controversy).

C • sprint race 5

After another attempt at a jury meeting (having pressganged Anna into the jury after various others were eliminated on the grounds of either conflict of interest or being unable to be found), I made it out to the event and jogged round all the controls - as always in such exercises, being slowed down by deciding what to do with any issues encountered, although I had the sense my body might not have appreciated anything more ambitious. (It is the first time for a while I've managed to do something on four successive days).

Relieved that today seemed to go pretty smoothly - if anyone noticed that the map at control 42 was slightly wrong they haven't told us about it. (The map shows two low crossable walls not joining but in fact they do - not sure if this was an error which wasn't picked up or late building work - so we made the control as visible as possible from all likely approach directions on the basis that if you see the flag you don't usually ask too many questions).

And we finally managed to conclude a 24-hour saga late in the day. In case you're wondering, the hold-up was that a written response to the original complaints, which we're used to being a rapid and straightforward process, is much more complicated in a place where any written communication has to go through a formal process, and without a written response to a complaint there cannot be a protest. In the end I sought, and received, approval from the IOF to refer the complaints directly to the jury - once that was done (and a certain juror had finished her race) the actual meeting was relatively quick.

One benefit of the drawn-out jury process was that I had the chance to have a good conversation with Lars Lindstrom (Danish coach and one of the jury members), and get a bit envious of their resources (their annual high performance budget is roughly ten times ours).

C • HP 11

Running (using the term loosely speaking) some middle distance controls before the start of the World Cup. Doing a lot of walking on the steeper ground but didn't feel too bad otherwise, nothwithstanding the humidity. Everything was more or less OK from that angle, and the event seemed to be going smoothly for a long time - just a pity that it's blown up in controversies over people going through forbidden areas (something still unresolved at the time of writing).

This time did more or less what I was intending to do, getting around the lake near the Xiqiao Mountain Hotel. A promising start to the run which didn't quite carry through (quads a bit sore and weak), but at least back was OK today.

Spent some of today dealing with the clause in the IOF Competition Rules which requires a new construction site to appear on any sprint competition area within 72 hours before the event taking place (fortunately we hadn't printed the maps yet), and other parts of it dealing with various random questions and issues, including how to get a couple of stranded Australians up to the middle model (at least the transport snafu was today and not tomorrow), what to do about an accidental gender reassignment in the start list, and being asked by the opening ceremony MC how to pronounce the name of Astrid Waaler Kaas (not sure I was much help on that one).

Had a go at getting out further this morning but never loosened up properly. Maybe tomorrow - feel like I'm reasonably close. Humidity not too excessive - definitely a welcome change from September (the athletes don't know what they're missing out on). Very noticeable change in traffic levels between 6.50 and 7.20 in the morning (i.e. at 6.50 crossing the main road was quite straightforward) - I've noticed that this is one area where most people do actually stop at pedestrian crossings (if you're assertive enough), although I'm not game to put that to the test without local company.

Spent the rest of the day doing some final checks of the sprint and middle areas, and doing a fair bit of waiting around while other people did things (I'd come prepared for this likelihood and thus got halfway through a book on 19th-century weather observers in Canada).

I'd picked a place to stay in Hong Kong which was within walking distance of both the airport express and long-distance stations (the logic being to minimise my dependence on the local subway, which has been the target of some of the turmoil of late). The price of this was a lack of good places to run, but that turned out not to matter because my hip flexor was still pretty sore post-flight, and after a few minutes of trying to pretend it wasn't, I abandoned my original plan of intervals in Kowloon Park and went for a walk instead. Hong Kong doesn't seem to be as much of an early-morning city as I expected, and I found it surprisingly hard to find anywhere to eat at 7.30 (having decided to pass up the A$40 breakfast at the hotel, perhaps a bit harshly because I was getting a room for $130 which I suspect in less turbulent times goes for at least three times that amount).

Once again no obvious sign of trouble (although rioting tends to be a second-half-of-the-day activity in most parts of the world), and the train trip went smoothly. A bit of a mix-up with plans meant that I didn't get out into the field today as I'd hoped to, but at least I've seen (and am happy with the look of) the printed middle distance map.

Some wandering around the neighbourhood (about 3km away from where I stayed last time) led me to the local supermarket, although "supermarket" barely does justice to the establishment (in the basement of a shopping mall). Joined the checkout queue to be greeted by some familiar faces - Krystal and Lizzie.

C • Last time I bought instant ... 10

Travel day from Melbourne to Hong Kong. Thought I was going to squeeze a run in before going to the airport but didn't feel up to it (perhaps I should have tried doing it in a shopping centre car park), so instead the session was at the other end of the day, on an exercise bike in the hotel gym - assisted by the flight being 30 minutes early. Good to turn the legs over and gradually loosened up.

Most of the trouble in Hong Kong has been at weekends; there's graffiti everywhere, but I haven't seen any other issues yet (nor is there a major police presence around the stations, which surprises me a bit).

Not the best night's sleep I've ever had (for reasons which will be apparent to most readers of this site), but still managed to get out of bed for the early pilates session. Not too bad once I got warmed up.

The ride into work was even more of an obstacle course than usual, but at least I can think of it as good preparation for the chaotic streets of Asia (not that I plan to do too much cycling on the chaotic streets of Asia).

Not sure I got everything done before leaving work that I wanted to, but did get the most critical things done, and once I'd handed over my drought report to the colleague who will see it through to publication, I headed out the door and in the direction of the pool (probably the last time I'll have a session in the pool for a while). Not usually at Fitzroy in the evenings, and although it was cool the clear skies had the air of a summer evening. Working pretty well for most of it, particularly in the second half.

Another milestone of sorts - my longest non-orienteering run since mid-year, and in somewhat harder terrain than most of my recent non-orienteering runs, with the ups and downs which are part of life in sand-dune country. Started out at Sorrento (after a session scoring for my cousin's son's under-14s cricket team), with the first half on the back beach track as far as Koonya before switching to the front for a while. Hard work at times uphill and a bit of back soreness on a few of the uphills (especially the sandier ones), but the hills never last for long here. Slow in the sandy parts, but once off the sand settled into a strong of kilometres in the 5.30s, and was starting to flow quite nicely before hitting a harder section in the last 2km. Good to get this on the board.

Sprint into Spring at Kurunjang in Melton. I missed out on running here last year at Melbourne Sprint Weekend because I'd got injured in the morning, but remembered a map with a few complex school buildings and route choices involving gates and uncrossable fences. No injury problems this time round - the physio obviously did her magic on the hip flexor that was giving me trouble over the last couple of days - and whilst this was slow, it was definitely a bit less slow than last weekend (i.e. my percentage behind Aston started with a 5 rather than a 6, and I was ahead of some people I was behind last weekend). Quite technical in the first few controls (the splits suggest this was my best section), then opened out into more of a running race after that. Dicing with the similarly-paced Steve Bird from #9 onwards; a couple of times we took different options on route choices, to his slight advantage on 13 and mine on 19. (I think going left on the second-last, as I did, might have been a slightly better option too from the splits, even though all the big guns went right). Only glitch was pausing briefly at a wrong control near 21 before realising and moving on.

Starting early was an advantage; some heavy showers moved through later (although not as heavy as one I encountered on the road post-event around Carrum). Now down on the Peninsula for the rest of the weekend.

Hip flexor was the trouble spot this morning - meaning missing a nice running morning at a time of year when you're conscious that such mornings are fast running out (although I'll be postponing that moment by a month by going to another hemisphere). Physio had a good crack at it this evening so hopefully will be OK for tomorrow's event.

One of my colleagues decided to get poetic on his last day in his current job - since it will disappear from the website by tomorrow morning I'm recording it below for posterity.

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
Victoria

Notes on the Weather
Issued at 4:30 pm EDT on Friday 18 October 2019.

Recent Events

A cold unstable airstream blew throughout upon this Thursday last
As a result of this the list of rain reports was rather vast
The highest fall to 9am was at Thompson-Yarra Divide
20.6 millimetres - into their rain gauge it did slide
But most saw less than half that fall, and none in the parched far northwest
Along the Great Dividing Range we saw the falls that beat the rest.

The morning lows were rather cold with many 6 below the norm
As temperatures were wont to dip from clear skies the frost did form
The coldest of this icy bunch were alpine peaks with minus four
But all along the Bass Strait coast were many spots with 9 their score.

After some frosts the day grew mild with cloud increasing from the west
The northwest wind grew somewhat wild putting the trees all to the test
A cold front reached the distant west around the middle afternoon
And showers fell within its wake with cool west winds and cloud and gloom
Rainfall totals to 3pm were nothing much to talk about
The highest score up to this time Portland Airport with 2 tipped out.

The afternoon saw maxima in line with norms for October
The highest in the State today was 28 at Mildura
Most ranged from 17 degrees to low twenties across the south
But in the north the 20s ruled with clear and sun drenched skies about
The southwest was cloudy and cool with 17 the highest score
But on Mount Hotham's snow clad peak the maximum was 2 - no more!

In Melbourne town the start was cold, 7.3, 6:41
And as at 3pm today the city temp was 21
To 9am some rain did fall, just nought point 8 and that was all
And since that time the streets stayed dry as cloud increased with no rainfall.

Explanatory Notes

A high is in the Tasman Sea but it is moving to the east
A cold front over our southwest will soon join it by morn' at least
A deep low passing to our south will bring a cold unstable wind
But as it moves further along the wind will ease by Sunday's end
A new high will arrive next week and bring the sun and lighter wind
And bring some warmth into our State as northerlies bring dry air in.

Hips sore today so swapped out with my planned Friday session. Seemed to be working reasonably well once I was in the water (and dodged most of the showers from above).

Continuing to get things ready for my trip (and scrambling to get everything done that I want to get done before I go away). One item I was attending to was getting some US$ cash (needed for the Laos visa fee). In this process I discovered that my bank - even its main CBD branch - no longer keeps foreign cash unless you order it in advance, but they helpfully pointed me to somewhere which did. I was expecting a rip-off on venturing into one of the old rabbit-warren multi-storey buildings on Swanston Street full of offices for outfits with names like Honest Immigration Services, but in fact the deal I got was unusually good (only a couple of % off the financial-market rate, and no extra fees) - perhaps the lesson is to go where the immigrants go and not the tourists. (If you go to one of the foreign-exchange booths in tourist areas in Australia you will do well to emerge with more than 75% of the money you should have had).

C • Exchage rip-offs 2

In a fit of stubbornness I attempted to go out in the morning (having managed to get back to sleep after hopefully managing to sound intelligent between 3 and 4am), but that didn't work out. A second attempt at lunchtime was better - back to the South Wharf intervals for the first time in a long time. Fairly similar to my other attempts at intervals in recent weeks - started out not too badly but started to go very lactic on the 5th and 6th (I'd hoped to push it out to 8 if I'd felt better). Still, good to chalk this one up.

Warm-up and down, taking me via the same side-of-the-road path we used across the final bridge on Sunday (a fair bit of pedestrian congestion there on a weekday lunchtime). Definitely struggling in the later stages.

Got round which I'll take as a plus - it's more than I've been able to manage for weekday early mornings the last couple of weeks. Not the most energetic run I'll ever have but did manage to finish as intended (in fact did slightly more than intended). Nice morning to be out. My watch told me it will take me until Friday night to recover from this - hopefully it's wrong. No injury issues other than a slight twinge early on.

C • Rest 2

Woke up pretty stiff from a relatively modest run; think I would have struggled to run today, but I'd never planned to. Still managed a worthwhile session here.

The second stage, again sluggish early on but got going eventually. By the end of it I was even reasonably awake (not sure how a 4am start for a teleconference on Wednesday is going to go).

One useful side benefit of Sunday's course was pointing me to eating places tonight - I had a meeting this evening in the vicinity of control 11.

Got into the office to the news that a certain columnist in a certain national newspaper had had a crack at us again. Turned out their claims related to two issues, one of which we dealt with in 2011 and the other of which we dealt with in 2017.

Melbourne City Race. Woke up with a stiff back and had no confidence whatsoever that it was going to get through, but it warmed up OK and, apart from some short-lived tightness around the 10-minute mark, didn't cause me major trouble on the run. Glad to get through without too much drama; pretty slow (though improving in the last quarter), but at the moment just rebuilding fitness is my main priority.

With a certain amount of home-ground advantage in Docklands (although the only time I normally venture into the area west of the start where the first few controls were is when I'm in need of a post office), I knew that the navigation was probably going to be reasonably macro but that there could be some interesting route-choice challenges involving multi-level areas around the stadium and the Collins Street bridge. (Put the home-ground advantage to good use before the event by dropping in to set a large data download going, faster on a Sunday than it would be during the week). That indeed proved to be the case (and knowing where the optimally-located stairs were was an advantage on 17, my best split of the day). A bit annoyed with myself to lose a little time on 9 (reading ahead to the next leg); thought I'd lost a bit on 10 not seeing the route round the south edge of the building but that was a decent split too. Managed to work out the not always obvious mapping around 11 and 12 in the Harbourtown (is it still called that?) shopping centre, then lost a little on 14 (on the wrong side of the feature), but clean after that.

Further behind than I expected - I thought the winning time would be in the upper 30s but Peter did 35. Closer to the bottom of the field than the other two days because the slow ones mostly either did shorter courses or mispunched...

Interesting format for the weekend, although I think a long-form urban race of this type is probably better suited to some other cities - could see it working very well in certain parts of Sydney, for instance.

C • Permission 17

City Race Course 1 - Splits

Second stage of the Melbourne Sprint Weekend at Kensington. I've done a few street-Os here (and plenty of runs) and had long thought it would be fun to get on here in a sprint. It turned out to be a reasonably straightforward area tchnically - some decent route choices but only small patches of complexity - but was still fun. Struggled with the running early on and spent the first few minutes thinking my back would probably freak out as soon as it saw a contour, but it actually managed OK and I was feeling like I was running decently (by 2019 standards) in the final third. Was hoping for a sub-24 (having seen before I went out that Kerrin was in the 16s); didn't quite make it, and the 50% benchmark came down a bit anyway with Aston and Brodie in the 14s, but still a bit closer than yesterday. Slightly below halfway.

I was chasing Milla for a bit through the middle controls, only staying within sight of her because she hasn't quite got the bit about planning your exit direction before reaching the control yet (I'm sure she will by this time next year). Every now and again the vagaries of the start sequence give one a chance to get a good look at how one of the juniors orienteers - last year at Sprint Canberra it was Ella Cuthbert (I doubt I'd be able to hold onto Ella - who, assuming the relevant rule changes go through, has a somewhat unexpected personal WOC place next year after her Oceania sprint run - for long these days).

Sprint into Spring 2: Mo - Splits

Opening race of the Melbourne City Race weekend at Edgewater, in the vicinity of the Mervyn G. Hughes Oval, although the only time we saw the Merv was running across it on the green jersey leg (not so good for those of us whose weight post-elite career has gone the same way as Merv's).

I've barely got through an evening run in the last two summer seasons so it was good to at least tick that box - had to keep reminding myself to get up regularly during the afternoon at work. Didn't feel entirely convincing but did manage to run up all the hills/steps (an advance on last week), and loosened up somewhat in the last third. Pretty slow, though, which I was aware of pretty early on when Asha burned past me, and at the end when Tash (who is my age again as of today) went through. A few interesting route choice legs in the Victoria University section, but otherwise a pretty straightforward course. Didn't get close to my sprint benchmark of 50% behind the elite winner, although Aston is better than most of the people I've run sprints against lately (he was in the mid-18s).

Was a bit surprised to see a bit of Belinda in the later stages taking routes which made no logical sense, but it turned out she was running course 2.

The run to the start triangle involved going through a culvert under the main road with perhaps 1.5m clearance - memories of the pipe under Hindmarsh Drive which was an occasional training route for me back in the day (and for Tara and possibly others more recently, if I recall correctly). My neck did not enjoy this.

And some excitement on the way home when, stopped in traffic, the person in front of me engaged reverse and backed into me (at some speed) for no obvious reason. No apparent damage to my car apart from a bent number plate, but his vehicle's rear end was looking a bit worse for wear.

C • Second courses 7

Sprint into Spring 1: Mo - Splits

At Northcote. Seemed OK at the time but a wrist which has been intermittently a bit sore over the last couple of months flared up after it (at least the angle which troubles it is not one which is tested writing or typing, otherwise I'd be in trouble). Guess I know what's caused it now.

Brought the bike home on the train tonight (staying at work late so I'd be on a less crowded train) and then couldn't find my tyre levers, so it looks like it will be another day before I use the bike again.

I'm currently collating information on 2019's climate extremes for this year's annual statement. One of the better snippets was that Israel had its highest temperature since 1942, 49.9 at Sedom (otherwise known as Sodom), which means we can say that Sodom was hotter than Hell - even though Norway was having a heatwave of its own at the time. I have no information on whether anyone sought to blame the heatwave on vice, promiscuity, homosexuality or any other alleged sinfulness.

Familiar names popping up in the news (an occasional series).

Still didn't feel quite right for running - made a bit of a false start. Probably not such a bad thing to have a quiet week after a big race week (in a normal season I wouldn't do much the week or two after nationals, but given how little I did before nationals I do want to continue building training if I can).

Spent some time today trying to determine the veracity of some extreme satellite rainfall reports from parts of east Africa (up to 300mm in a day in places which would normally get half that in a year), which I think are broadly correct but don't yet seem to be accompanied by reports of flooding on the scale that one would expect from those sorts of numbers. Made me wish briefly that Cristina was still in Djibouti (which was near the centre of the action), although I'm guessing that Cristina isn't desperate to go back there.

C • Djibouti 4

Got up feeling very flat and sleepy indeed this morning - must have slept badly although I didn't think I had (hopefully not getting sick). I'd originally thought of going out in the morning but deferred to lunchtime (this was also influenced by an early radio interview). The lunchtime attempt, though, only lasted a couple of minutes. Definitely appreciated a massage tonight.

Didn't do quite as much riding as I'd planned today either - went down to the bike room at work this evening to discover a flat rear tyre and a tack well embedded in it.

Didn't feel terribly awake for this, probably because my body thought it was still 6am. Nevertheless, the resistance seemed relatively light on some of the exercises, so maybe I've got a bit stronger through a week of competition. Probably useful to loosen me up, too.

I'd forgotten how flat I sometimes feel on the day after the end of a competition week. Definitely felt like I was a bit short of energy, and shoulders quite stiff for the first half, which made for a rather slow session. Felt cool outside after the week in the mostly warm conditions further north.

Had more energy later in the day, judging by a couple of quick bursts on the bike (nice not to have to use lights any more) to catch traffic lights on the way home.

Oceania Middle. Not sure whether I should count this as getting through five races or not - I did get around the course, but the back was bad from the start and I wasn't really racing at any stage, walking much of it and jogging the rest. Ended up in the bottom half, as I deserved to (and lost time on the second-last to add a bit of insult to injury). Had it been a training run I'd have bailed in the first five minutes, and I might have done it here too had the configuration of uncrossable fences not meant that I had to get as far as #5 anyway, by which time things had loosened up (a little).

Despite finishing on a poor note personally, the week was still better overall than I was expecting. On a more general note, the event week was excellent - one of the biggest we've had in Australia (and one of the most complex to organise - Stephen Goggs definitely deserves plaudits for extreme skills in cat-herding), and very little significant went wrong.

And my car didn't even smell as bad as I thought it would, and the bags fitted into my bin which is being collected tonight (the rubbish being joined by the underpants I wore today, whose elastic made it known that it had reached the end of its useful life).

C • Your AP readership 4

"Hello, is that ACT Policing? I'd like to report a robbery in Homebush..."

C • Absolutely 1

Kangaroo Crossing has been pretty kind to me over the years (including winning a World Cup trial there in 2000); perhaps I instinctively understand the internal logic of the terrain. It worked again today with probably my best result since the 2017 nationals.

Not terribly fast through the early controls, which were mostly downhill, and perhaps went a bit further right than I needed to on 2, but was hitting them nicely, and by the time of reaching the scarily-downhill-into-low-vis-vagueness 5, I was beginning to think that today was not just about survival, there was a decent chance of getting a result. Started to wobble a bit in mid-course on 8, 9 and 10, but probably only dropped a maximum of 15 seconds on each, and was further encouraged by seeing Andy, who started 4 minutes ahead, coming out of 11 (turned out he'd made a big mistake on 4 and then gone back through me on 9). 12 was a long leg but less rugged than it looked at first glance; walking the significant hills, as was the case all day, but running the rest.

I haven't been beyond 70 minutes in training all year, so it wasn't too surprising, on a warm day, that I started to feel as if I was hitting the wall around 12. By then, there were only three more shortish uphill legs to go then the rest was downhill. Didn't run much of 13/14/15, but didn't fall apart and was able to make a reasonable fist of the final downhill section (although the two-contour climb across the creek into 19 was as much of a test as I could handle).

Ended up 4th, at the head of a fairly close bunch but 90 seconds behind Scott in 3rd (just like in M12 at the 1982 nationals). Bruce blitzed the field with 70 (but 16 minutes is still closer than I was last weekend, on a longer course), Carsten did 77. Was thinking so near and yet so far, but I'd forgotten that Carsten isn't (yet) officially a Kiwi until I got called up at the presentations for 3rd Oceania.

Not especially energetic in the rest of the day - at least there were sufficient control collectors that my services weren't required (except to transport some of the stands, and some of the rubbish - my car will smell interesting by this time tomorrow - back to Melbourne). Probably not too many sports where you'd see the national president collecting money at the entrance to the car park and then a world champion pointing people to their parking spots.

C • Passports 5

The purest place for a pool session is, in my view, under a clear sky in a small country town's War Memorial Pool (or equivalent). Wagga isn't quite like that, but the backdrop of Willans Hill was still nice to have, and the clear sky was definitely there. Also nice was the fact that almost all of the 50-metre outdoor pool is deep enough for this so I wasn't going round and round in circles.

Headed down to Beechworth today - was thinking about it and I don't think I've actually been to Beechworth since the NOL weekend in 2014. It's even longer since I ventured into downtown Wodonga (my lunch stop) - probably 15 years or thereabouts - and the centre is unrecognisable. The good news is that it's good to see the central area has had a fair bit of investment (and has been made pedestrian-friendly), the bad news is that what they've actually built looks like the central shopping centre of a treeless outer-outer-outer suburb on the northern or western edge of Melbourne.

Decided after yesterday that I'd rather not go out after a session on the mike so instead jogged round some controls before the start. I think the only time I've previously run on Pomingarlana was a NSW Relays about 20 years ago; it's an area which looks pretty straightforward gully-spur but it's easy enough to find yourself on the wrong level if you're not careful. Good to do some control-picking, and feeling a bit better running than I was on the weekend (at least I could jog gentle hills, if not steep ones).

The Schools relay lived up to its reputation. NSW always looked in the box seat, and with both their junior teams getting maximum points they'll probably be up the top for a while. Random piece of trivia: it's the first ever winning NSW team which did not contain at least one Meyer.

And a rather sad day for the map nerds among us.

Didn't really feel like going out on a hot day after a long commentary stint, and a brief attempt at warming up reinforced that. Might try and go out before the relay tomorrow. Good day of competition though - and there are still five states in with a chance (although NSW are definitely in the box seat).

The ACT senior girls swept the board again (not even the legendary early 1990s teams ever managed that), and no New Zealanders ran a place in anything (but their teams are still leading).

The introduction of GPS tracking means that we now have to work out how diplomatic to be in commentary when someone is making a Very Big Mistake.

Currently looking at early Australian Middle/Short Championships from before they became an all-ages event in 2006, and some of the convoluted things which were done to incorporate the juniors - perhaps the most convoluted being in 2003 when the 21E course was two loops, the 20s results were declared at the end of the first loop, and juniors could continue if they wanted to to get a 21s result, which is how Grace managed to come first in 20s in 25.53 and fourth in 21E in 36.15 in the same event (not sure how we'll handle that one if we ever get round to getting all of the results into a single database). Until the early 2000s there were qualifiers (to match the WOC format); the 1998 men's qualifier, with the top 19 to go through and the cut 4.06 behind the winner on a technical granite area (Kahli's Rocks), must be one of the deepest elite races run domestically in Australia.

C • ACT senior girls 3

The Wagga aquatic centre was conveniently close by, and on the way to the sprint, so I thought it was a good opportunity for a session, chalking up another pool swum in (apparently there are 900-odd public pools in Australia and someone's embarked on a quest to get the lot; I think I'm in the 40s). Stiff early on but got into it pretty well in the second half.

C • Pool visiting 1

I was originally thinking of sitting a day out but thought I might as well at least give this a go and see how it felt. The answer was not terribly good, which is a pity because it seemed a pretty interesting course on a small area (long since being past the stage of beating all the kids, I'd set my target time as Leith Soden's 18, after the numerous close contests we had at Sprint Adelaide). Standing up for a while beforehand worked for me at the Victorian Long but not so much today (perhaps four days in a row was asking too much).

Commentary seemed to go pretty well today, although the results feed wasn't really giving me all the information I wanted so I fell back a fair bit on old-school methods (i.e. a start list and a watch).

Later in the evening, I made a confirmed sighting of a rug shop closing down sale where the business in question actually appears to have closed down.