Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Best swim I've had for a while despite still feeling a bit clogged-up. A classic cold-outbreak morning which makes for an interesting time getting in and out of the water, but nice once in.

Oddest sight on the road yesterday - a 4WD with the number place 'MUDTAX'. Maybe the owners think there is a tax on mud because the 4WD looked like it had never been contaminated by any contact with the substance concerned.

From work at lunchtime around the Tan. A fair to middling run, still didn't feel brilliant, but not particularly weak uphill. A nice lunchtime for running, but the Tan is even worse than it was last week - the builders have taken over all but about a quarter of the width (as well as using the track for freelance rock and sand dumping). Wednesday could be chaotic.

ACT Long Championships at Boboyan Divide. One of these days I'll run on this area when healthy, but today wasn't it - didn't seem to affect my endurance (I felt better in the last 10 minutes than at any other time during the race), but no strength on hills or for the large amount of log-jumping. There's a lot of interesting rock in the area, although it's also a frustrating area with the fallen timber and tussock grass - you always feel as if you should be going a lot faster than this on a map which is mostly fairly flat, and has about 40% yellow and not much green.

Worst time loss of the day was at 7, through trying to crash the green on the near side of the control - would have been much better off going around. Apart from that, a 20-second overshoot at 11 and a few wobbles was just about it. Strangely, the one split I won all day was 16, a downhill leg mostly through yellow - did everyone else try to go through the green on the straight-line exit from 15.

Impressive run by Ben, who did 84, just behind Grant. Dave squeezed me out of a place.

The weather held during the day, more or less. I was expecting some excitement on the way home and got some excitement, although the bag containing sleeping bag, Trangia and emergency supplies proved surplus to requirements. It was snowing quite heavily for a lot of the way from Cabramurra to Corryong, although it was only in the last bit that any was settling on the ground (or the road), as the ground was still relatively warm (it being the first snow of the season). This made for some interesting sights because metal cools down much more quickly, so there was a car park with quite heavy snow on the parked cars and road signs but none visible on the ground. I suspect it would have been a much more challenging trip had I left two hours later.

Event: Victorian State Series #2 & #3
 

ACT Middle Championships at Honeysuckle Creek. It's thickened up significantly since the ACT Championships in 2006, and was now pretty tough going almost throughout, with visibility often quite poor. This mattered because a large part of the course was in the vague, essentially gully-spur, terrain immediately west of the assembly area.

I never felt comfortable in this terrain - didn't feel as if I was running with any real aggression, but everybody else found it testing too. Several legs where I was hesitant and wobbly, but not much in the way of meaningful errors - at least not until the last control where I ran for the end of the streamers, which was 50 metres left of the actual control. That cost me a place as Ben Rattray was 12 seconds ahead of me for third (although Grant was well clear of the lot of us).

Event: ACT Championships
 

ACT Sprint Championships - the first forest sprint I've done for a while, in generally low-visibility pine forest without a lot of features other than root mounds/stumps. Only one mistake of any size but it was a whopper - lost direction coming down a vague spur into 13 and ended up near 14, losing about 2.20. You certainly can't recover from that in a sprint race. The positive was that I was running better than I was expecting to, given that it was my first attempt to run hard (and that I was still feeling sniffly today); had I got down into the upper 17s (Kerrin won with a time in the high 15s) I'd have been reasonably happy.

Rushed home to watch the football, but I shouldn't have bothered. Rushed home from the 1990 Australian Championships to watch an Essendon-Collingwood game and I shouldn't have bothered that time either (but at least that time I had my best-ever run as a consolation).

Morning session at Fitzroy before I head up to Canberra this afternoon. Autumn is well-established - a cool clear morning with plenty of mist coming off the pool (nice once you're in). The swim seemed to pass quite quickly, even though I didn't have much of a rhythm at the start.

Many of us will be experiencing foreign public transport systems in the next few months, and if we make a mistake in understanding the finer points of the local ticketing system I hope we get a more sympathetic hearing than the young Chinese with very little English who I saw yesterday being booked on a tram for a technicality (changning trams on the only type of ticket in Melbourne that you can't do this on). Then again, not many cities have a ticketing system as user-hostile as Melbourne's.

C • At least 2

The original plan was that this would be the first proper long run of this training cycle but backed off a little on that. Another run similar to yesterday, lacking in inspiration and spark but able to grind away the kilometres without exceesive difficult, although the hills (of which there were a reasonable number at the Balwyn end) were a challenge. Didn't take the straight line across the hilly end of Bulleen this time.

The forecast for ACT Long Champs day is looking increasingly interesting. I don't think it will snow during the event (although it is quite likely to fall at the event site on Sunday night), but the drive home through the mountains could be a challenge. At least my workplace should be sympathetic if I fail to make it in on Monday because of extreme weather. The official alpine forecast for Sunday is 'blizzards developing'.

I'm not sure exactly how many minutes elapsed last night between walking in the front door and falling asleep, but I suspect you wouldn't have needed to take your shoes off to count them. Unsurprisingly much better for a decent night's sleep and up to a slowish run this morning, based from near work and going up the Maribyrnong past Flemington racecourse. Somewhat clogged up and wouldn't have wanted to have been doing anything intense, but coped with this OK.

I suppose the only thing that should surprise me about getting sick after what I've been doing is that it's taken this long.