Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: Victorian State Series #7, Mt Franklin Gorge
 

State Series at Mount Franklin Gorge. Not quite the running intensity of yesterday and felt a bit ordinary in the warm-up but built into it nicely, and starting to become quite strong on the hills in the second half. Fine navigation almost flawless but exited a couple of controls slightly poorly, and lost a bit of time on my route choice on the last section of 10. Still a solid run.

Bruce was a bit over a minute ahead of me, and Warren got me by 6 seconds (almost exactly reversing yesterday's result). Still reasonably happy with my current form.

Event: Victorian Relay Championships
 

As hard as I've run on an orienteering course for years (not entirely coincidentally, it's also the fastest km rate I've done in a bush event since the late 90s). Had a limited warm-up after switching from third leg to first at the last minute and dropped off the lead bunch at the very start, but had them back by the first control because of a slightly better route. From there it was a lead group of three, which became two when we dropped Leon Keely about halfway around. Liggo and I took several different routes but were never far apart at controls, and I was just about thinking about my spring finish prospects when I ran above the (split) fourth-last and lost 30 seconds. I thought the race was gone there, but in fact it was exactly what was needed to break the race open - Liggo missed his by more.This left me to come in 40 seconds clear - which then became 2.30 because Liggo had punched the wrong last control and had to go back for it.

Yarra Valley didn't have MFR's depth so I never expected us to win, but I thought if we were lucky we might be in the mix for second. Evan's great second leg for Bendigo put paid to that, and in the end Warren (MFR second team) got Ted in a sprint finish.

Pretty happy with the intensity of this run. I've now been in three intense head-to-head battles in the last couple of weeks, which will hopefully set me up for some of the more significant races ahead.

For the second time in a week a planned morning swim became an evening swim because I'd left some gear behind - this time at home (must have been the annoyance at whoever it was who parked across my garage). Once the session finally happened, it was OK but nothing special at the end of a long day (coming off an hour of riding).

As I've posted elsewhere, the leader of the free world really distinguished himself today, starting off by saying how pleased he was to be at the OPEC meeting and then expressing his thanks to John Howard for the work of the Austrian troops in Iraq. You couldn't make this stuff up.

C • George is just proving Latham correct 3

Struggled through the streets of Eaglemont for the first hour, as weak on the hills as I was yesterday morning. Gradually started to build into it and the last half-hour was respectable if not brilliant (the long gradual descent through Rosanna Parklands is one of the kinder ways to get back to my place, too).

Another indicator of spring: there was at least a little bit of light when I started.

Felt very flat for much of this run, despite the lovely morning. Was glad to get it over and done with which isn't normally the case for this type of run.

Arrived at work to see some numbers which can only be described as shocking - the Arctic sea ice area for August is nearly a million square kilometres (or close to 20%) below the previous lowest on record for this time of year. This is starting to look horribly like a runaway process. The ugly picture can be seen at http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/ima....

C • Not Good 1

Expected very little on the Tan after this morning's dismal effort, but ended up pretty similar to last week after an indifferent start - 4 seconds down at 1k but only 3 at the end. Lost a little time dodging some wheelchairs on the Botanic Gardens bend which might explain some of the initial split. Got in a good pack which always helps. Definitely encouraging to do a time like this on a day when things didn't go right - suggests potential for a sub-13.10 further down the track. Conditions perfect.

Splits: 3.32, 3.35 (uphill), 3.27, 3.26.

Going to/from the Tan. Running a bit late heading down so a bit faster than usual.

Didn't expect a great deal after the way I was feeling last night. Not the worst run I've ever had but not brilliant, and seemed to be struggling to find any real speed despite working hard. Fastest loop 9.18.

A panelbeater in Melbourne will be several thousand dollars richer after I saw someone on the way into work drive straight into the back of another car for no obvious reason. They were on the other side of the road so I wasn't close enough to see whether or not a mobile phone was involved.

Did this in the evening after discovering in the morning that I'd left all my swimming gear at work last week (and you can imagine how pleasant the towel was after having being rolled up wet in a bag for four days :-). Was rather wishing I didn't because I never got going at all - shoulders pretty stiff for no obvious reason. First time I can ever remember being rained on during a session at Fitzroy (being rained on at all in Melbourne these days takes a bit of doing).

Very slow Monday night blob with Dion and Nicola - the crowd has got pretty thin lately. Leg 3 of the Monday night triathlon (although I haven't logged the ride to get here). Felt very ordinary throughout, perhaps a little better on the final loop. Maybe I haven't got through the cold I thought I was getting last week as well as I thought I might. Best part of the night was definitely the food at Lentil as Anything afterwards.

As regular readers of this log will know, I often use my runs when travelling to explore places that most tourists wouldn't get to, and a piece I read on the weekend emphasised that I really have got into some weird and wonderful places. The run in question was through the industrial back blocks of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan during the APOC tour in 2004. It turns out that, in a past life, the Ulba Metallurgical Factory was a top-secret Soviet nuclear installation, and the article on the weekend was about what happened next. The Kazakhs inherited several hundred kilos of highly unstable weapons-grade uranium on independence. They didn't want it. The Russians didn't want it. The Americans didn't really want it either, but they wanted even less for those who might want it (like Iran, Iraq, North Korea or Osama bin Laden) to get their hands on the stuff, so they arranged to haul it away under cover of darkness and fly it halfway around the world (refuelling in mid-air because no country would allow them to land with such a cargo) to be reprocessed in Tennessee. Not sure how long all of this has been public knowledge for, but it would have been fun to have known it while we were there...