Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Mass-start race at Sparrow Hill, a pine forest with some areas of poor visibility and a lot of small scrappy rock. I grew up on this stuff so was reasonably comfortable in it, but others seemed to lack confidence at times.

Fell off the lead pack at the very start, but quickly found myself in a bunch with Glenn and Bruce, although I lost them with a bit of a wobble on 7 (I think Bruce had broken off on another split by then anyway). Running pretty solidly the rest of the way, although a poor line to 2 on the second loop cost me a chance to get onto Bruce and Andy again. The only other person I saw for the rest of the course was Rob Preston in the second half of the second loop. Finished reasonably strongly and ended up in what's becoming my traditional position - tenth.

Some excellent views from the finish of one of the more colossal wastes of public money in recent memory, namely the new Defence HQ (a.k.a. the "Gary Nairn Memorial", in honour of the now-former member for Eden-Monaro in whose name this particular piece of pork got barrelled). Allegedly the logic of putting it here was so it would survive if Canberra got nuked; it didn't seem to occur to anyone in Defence that the enemy could aim its nukes at the Defence HQ instead (or as well), and there are even lots of shiny buildings so they can see exactly where to send their bombs.

Event: ASC Galaxy & Canberra Cup
 

Galaxy sprint at Uni of Canberra. Made a horrible mess of the route choice from 7 to 8, anticipating a gap which didn't exist, which meant that instead of my usual 2.45 behind the winner I was 3.30 behind instead and failed to trouble the National League scorers. In my defence the map was pretty hard to make sense of - partly because some features were mapped oddly, but mostly because the multi-level areas were not really effectively mappable (which is why there's a guideline somewhere saying that they shouldn't be used). Didn't feel that comfortable going up and down stairs - in that sort of "terrain" I always feel as if everyone else is being much more aggressive than me - but stretched out pretty nicely once Robbie caught me about two-thirds of the way through. No issues with the knee.

Sprint relay at Radford with two loops. I may not be the world's fastest sprint orienteer, but the advantage of my relatively plodding speed is that it makes me more likely to manage things like actually visiting all the controls. Victoria had four teams in the race, and we needed all of them to get the necessary two across the finish line.

I was teamed with Sophie, which became less of a making-up-the-numbers prospect after her unexpected win in the morning. Ran pretty well (by my sprint standards) with only a couple of minor (<5 sec) hesitations and route-choice wobbles. I think we ended up seventh after all the carnage played itself out.

It was a fun race, although not especially fair as not all teams ended up with the same splits. A mixed relay is definitely worth repeating, although I wonder if a better model would be teams of 2+2, and perhaps a middle distance rather than sprint format.

We didn't spend much time on Radford's ovals, which got a bit of press a couple of weeks ago because the Radford First XI managed to get themselves bowled out for 7 (and Canberra's a small enough place that this performance scored a third of the back page of the paper).

Lake Ginninderra circuit from the swimming pool car park, taking it fairly easy. Knee still not brilliant but not bad once warmed up, and no sign of stiffening today (although if my long-downhills theory is correct that wasn't tested today).

Not sure if it's been recently rediscovered or whether I just haven't noticed it before, but the Belconnen skate park has a plaque stating that it was officially opened by one Craig Duby. I think I've mentioned Mr. Duby, probably the biggest rogue in the rogues' gallery that infested the inaugural ACT Legislative Assembly in 1989-92, before in these pages; Canberrans would probably prefer to forget him as quickly as possible (he must be the democratic world's only minister for transport and police who got done twice for drink-driving during his term in office and kept his job, although if I recall correctly he only managed about 200 votes in the whole ACT in his bid for re-election). I wonder where he is now?

Forgot to mention on yesterday's run that there was a sign stating that Environment ACT was carrying out a "Warren eradication and fumigation programme". I presume it was a reference to rabbits.

Followed up the run with a swim at CISAC under the watchful eye of lazydave (who resisted the temptation to sledge my eminently-sledgeable swimming technique). Less slow than recently. Quads seem pretty stiff - I don't think Red Hill was steep or long enough for quad destruction, but running with a somewhat unnatural style towards the end yesterday with a knee not quite right might have done it.

Missed the bus to ANU by 30 seconds and had to wait 35 minutes for the next one, but if I'd made it I wouldn't have seen Nicki and family en route to Aranda Pre-School (I think it went over Annabel's head to hear that I was a fellow student of that august institution 32 years ago). There are worse places to do 30 minutes' file sorting on the laptop than a bus shelter on a cool, bright morning, too.

The main target today was probably my favourite run in Canberra, the Red Hill ridgeline, on a perfect morning for it - sunny and about 5 degrees (hopefully we get conditions as good as that for the marathon). Started from Barton and spent the first few kilometres taking in the streets of old southern Canberra before heading up the ridge from the Deakin 'telephone exchange' (occasionally rumoured to be a top-secret ASIO installation), and along the ridge all the way to Hindmarsh Drive before coming back, initially north parallel to Mugga Way, and then east.

There's now a vehicle track along most of the ridge (and even some bitumen sprayed on it near the Davidson trig), with only the southernmost section remaining as the old rocky single-track, but the views are as good as ever. It's probably at least 10 years since I've done this run as it's not in range from my house on anything except the longest of runs, but many of the features are still there, right down to the Argentine ambassador's residence which doubled as the 1km to go marker on our school cross-country course. (The ambassador and/or his colleagues treated us to several horn-blowing laps around our school when Argentina won the 1986 World Cup). There's a 'no bicycles' sign on the single-track down from the saddle (the windiest place in Canberra, and my idea of the start triangle for the (insert distant year here) Canberra WOC sprint final), but unless people's travel modes from Garran and Hughes have changed a lot in 20 years I suspect this is honoured more in the breach than the observance.

The run felt pretty good on the whole, with plenty of strength on the numerous climbs. The knee was essentially fine for most of the run but again stiffened suddenly with about 20 minutes to go - it seems to be long gradual downhills that set it off.

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First post-Easter run on what felt like the first day of real autumn - fresh after yesterday's rain. Felt very ordinary in the first 5 minutes with Achilles tightness, then gradually improved and feeling pretty good by the middle - before my right knee suddenly started feeling numb and stiffening up after about 40 minutes - no pain but annoying. This is something that used to happen to me a bit as a teenager but I can't remember it occurring for about 20 years (and I don't have any real history of knee problems) - will need watching. Two obvious potential suspects are the bruising from Sunday's fall, and the first run in new shoes.

A bit more bikepath-alongside-main-road running than I'd planned on because I remembered halfway through that the Uni of Canberra and Gossan Hill (which I'd planned to come back through) were embargoed - not that having prior knowledge is going to help me much in a sprint race.

Recovery swim at Belconnen in the evening (found myself with a few too many things to do in the morning). Not bad for the purpose although the pool was a little too crowded to make it genuinely relaxing.

Damage from the weekend: one bruised right knee, one left heel blister, one stiff right shoulder (although I'm not sure orienteering's responsible for that) and various scratches, bumps and brusies. Nothing too serious, pretty standard really. Woke up with a bit of a sniffle this morning but that seems to have been just from a lousy night's sleep (possibly something to do with the last line of yesterday's entry).

It rained almost all day today; I'm struggling to remember the last time I saw such a thing happen in Australia (the only such day I can recall in recent times was the day of the Georgia Navigator Cup). There was ample evidence on the roads that, like their Melbourne counterparts, a significant number of Canberra drivers have water-soluble brains.

The 'Canberra Times' column for 'On This Day: 50 Years Ago' reported that the NSW Department of Main Roads had plans for a new alignment of the coast road which would remove the steep grades on the Clyde Mountain. We're still waiting (although I'm not quite sure how they proposed to go about eliminating the steep grades, short of demolishing the mountain).

Final day of Easter with a chasing start, the first one of these I've run in for a while, and a lot of fun. Went out 19 seconds behind Andy, 8 seconds ahead of Dave Meyer and about a minute ahead of Reuben in the battle for positions 9-12. Not surprisingly, there was a certain amount of pre-race banter (I am reliably informed that Dave was writing out his intended sledges in the car on the way to the event).

Once we were actually under way, Dave predictably caught me quickly (at least he didn't do it before the start triangle) and went ahead when I got caught in a fence on the way to 1, which suited me fine. Reuben had caught us by 2, and I dropped behind a bit on a route choice to 3 (the route itself was fine, but I didn't commit to it quickly enough), at which point I was about 20-30 seconds behind the other three. I'd made this up by 5, partly through going wider on legs across steep gullies, partly through being able to run up hills on the less steep angles. (I must have done something right on 5 because it's the first time in living memory I've won a split in a national event). 7 offered a left/right option around the hill and we split - Andy and Reuben went left, Dave and I went right. I dropped Dave on a climb on this leg and didn't see him again, but the other two reached the control about 50 metres ahead of me. This gap remained until 12 when Reuben surged away; I then lost another 50 metres to Andy on a route choice into 14, had minor wobbles and hesitations on 15 and 16, and that was that. Ended up 10th courtesy of Shep's injury.

Reasonably happy with my endurance, something which has let me down on the last day of recent Easters, and also to get through three days at Sappa Bulga with only one fine navigation error larger than 15 seconds (and that about 45), although I'm not aggressive enough in the rock - I'd really like to have a look at someone like Julian here to see what they're doing that I'm not.

(and, now that it looks like there is going to be an appeal over the JWOC selection, please do not ask for comments on that selection as a refusal may offend).

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