Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A rather lethargic session after a big weekend. It was also a big weekend for the host venue, Fitzroy, which marked its 100th anniversary as a swimming pool on Sunday (if I recall correctly public swimming had barely been legalised in 1908 - or was that only in the ocean?).

Something from yesterday I neglected to mention was a near-miss of a truly historic event: Henry Post almost got what I presume would have been the first badge credit of his career. He did 98 and for a fair while the leading time was 50, but Hugh Moore did a 44 to put him outside the 100% cutoff.

Mad Monday this wasn't. It was supposed to be the MFR Monday night from my place but everyone else was obviously too exhausted from the weekend to make the trek out to Heidelberg, so it was just James Allston and myself on the Banyule flats. A reasonable but not sparkling run at a slightly faster pace than we usually do on a Monday night.

Orienteers (at least in this part of the world) don't normally replicate footballers, so I am not expecting to hear reports of any (male) members of our fraternity being spotted in Federation Square at 5 tomorrow morning wearing a dress and brandishing a "sex toy".

C • are you sure.... 1

Vic Long Champs. Another near miss, this time doubly so - I finished on the same minute as Bruce and Liggo but behind both of them.

Stronger physically than yesterday but still lacking a bit of aggression in the terrain. The first five controls were very hilly indeed and I thought it was going to be a very tough day (and was perhaps over-conservative in some routes as a result), but it got easier after that. A steady run technically, with the worst misses being successive 15-seconders in the mining detail on 21 and 22. I thought I'd got some of the numerous route choices wrong (I thought going straight on 27 was a particularly poor move, but it can't have been too bad as it was one of three splits I won), but the one that was decisive was a surprising one - the long 24 where Bruce took a minute out of me and Liggo. Our routes weren't enormously far apart so perhaps he just ran the hills there stronger (or perhaps I lost more time cutting through 150 metres of pines than I thought).

I belong to three clubs in two states, with the rather quirky result that I've had an organiser's crack-of-dawn start in three state championships in the last year plus a day. (I wonder if this news will filter through to Queensland?). The temperature was reasonably even through today; I had to wake up half the SI units (and open the drink cup packets) but I don't think I can find 46 seconds from that, perhaps 20-30 at most. Bruce also went early (4 minutes after me); I saw him going into 30 as I was coming out of 32 and thought I was probably gone at that point.

Thus ends the season for all practical purposes (still a Victorian Sprint Championships in late November). It's been a frustrating season at home because I feel I've been capable of orienteering as well as at any time in the last few years, but haven't really got results to show for it (and it was definitely frustrating to be on the wrong end of two close results this weekend), in a year when there were two very winnable state championships and a shot at a national championship placing, too. WMOC was a definite highlight, though (and probably will be again this year). A couple of fairly easy weeks await before I start going back into Serious Summer Training Mode.

C • perhaps if you didn't do a ... 1

Event: Victorian Championships
 

Vic Middle Champs. A near miss, losing to Bruce by 7 seconds. Felt very ordinary before the start - I've been fighting off a cold over the last couple of days - but better once actually racing, and a downhill track run (what was the course-setter thinking?) on the first leg gave me a chance to settle into the race physically. (Bruce obviously settled faster - he took 30 seconds out of me on it). A steady run after that, no errors of real size but 10-seconders count for a lot in a race as close as this. Handled the grunt uphill legs later on pretty well. We were level with 300 metres to go but Bruce got me at the end. Not as hot as I'd feared, thanks to high cloud.

Fairly routine swim at Richmond. Definitely feeling better than I was yesterday. Using some new goggles because I lost the last pair on Monday - they don't leak or fog up which is a good start.

C • Fogging Goggles 2

A pretty ordinary effort, not feeling comfortable at any stage until the last quarter and pretty weak on the (modest number of) hills. A bit of a runny nose which hopefully isn't the precursor to anything (it's disappeared this afternoon so I'm vaguely optimistic).

Went up the Yarra in the other direction this time and then through Ruffeys Lake Park on the way back. The grass is already starting to brown off (and with no meaningful rain likely in at least the next 10 days it's probably going to get browner before now).

An odd sort of run, based on the southern end of the Yarra Flats. Felt like I was about to fall asleep for significant bits of it but was going at a reasonable pace by recent standards. Felt good in the last quarter, especially the last few minutes.

Saw quite a bit of evidence of people engaged in Ride to Work Day (one of them, unfortunately, by the side of the path with a flat tyre). One thing missing on the way in yesterday on the way in was the Mafia truck in the no-standing zone outside the Queen Vic market (mentioned before in these pages). If reports surface in the next few weeks of the disappearance and/or murder of one or more City of Melbourne parking inspectors, you heard it here first.

Lunchtime around the Tan. This was a bit more like it, although still only mediocre (as opposed to dreadful); I would want to be under 13.20 before I could be reasonably happy. (The PB+GST benchmark I've been using a bit lately would be 13.28). Still, this felt like a reasonably good run, settling into a decent pace after an unpromising warm-up and then a quick second half. Still not much of a pack by usual standards after the first hill, but had one person to chase and that was enough. Excellent conditions - light southeast wind which this course is quite sheltered from.

Km splits: 3.34, 3.42 (uphill), 3.32, 3.29.

Going to/from the Tan. Felt very unpromising on the way there but that didn't seem to affect my race. A bit slower than usual with traffic light hold-ups - normally I'd ignore these but there's a jaywalking blitz on at the moment.

Fartlek on the old course. A bit more lively than some recent sessions but still not quite at the level I would like (9.19 fastest). Feeling as if I was attacking the hills with a certain amount of vigour, though.

Mystery of the day: why is it that I can break 5 min/km in a technical sprint at Cantara Dunes but not at the Maryborough Showgrounds?

C • Good question 12