Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

There were times leading into today when I wasn't quite sure whether I was doing the right thing by orienteering the day after such a long run, but I felt that I needed to push myself out of a comfort zone (to say nothing of preparing for running relays after a long distance, something I haven't been great at in recent years), and this week's schedule was a good opportunity for it. Being a score event with a limited field was a plus here, as it meant that if things went pear-shaped the opportunity was there to bail out or back off without too much drama.

After the first leg or two I was feeling OK and decided I might as well have a go. On an area as fast as this getting all the controls within 90 minutes was always going to be on, barring disaster. I wasn't quite going flat-out but certainly at a decent pace and felt surprisingly good - perhaps a little weak on the hills but I've had plenty of worse runs this year with much less severe lead-ups. The fine navigation was pretty easy - there was a night-O using the same controls last night and the tape hung above the control stands was often visible in daylight from 100 metres or more - but there was enough subtlety between the controls to keep it interesting. (Smiths Reef is a very under-utilised area). Not many options off the straight line on such an open area - the Garmin distance was only 14.7.

It's very pleasing to have stressed my body and have it respond positively - this was a tough five days (probably close to the longest week I've put in for the last seven years) and, after feeling it on Thursday, I seem to have come through it pretty well.

48 hours can make a lot of difference. On Thursday morning it wouldn't have seemed likely that I could come up for my first really long run since August two days later, and do it well, but that is what happened. A little uncertain at times in the first hour, which had plenty of hills (on the way out to Eltham), and had a bit of a bad patch after a very steep downhill in Eltham that my quads didn't like, but the final hour was terrific - one of those days when you don't really want to stop. It was tempting to go out to 2.40 or 2.50 or even beyond 3, but I'm not quite ready for that yet (plus I'm orienteering tomorrow - not the most serious of events, but still a bit more demanding than the usual post-long-run blob, especially if I stay out for the full 90 - it's a score event).

It helped that it was 15 degrees cooler than at the same time two days earlier, and that most of the last 30 minutes was into a light, cool breeze.

There might have been cause to have been a bit apprehensive when I noticed at one point in Eltham that the police helicopter was circling directly overhead - not much to be done except hope that one had sufficient speed to run away from whatever crime was in progress if necessary. (No idea what it was but there was nothing in the news so it can't have been too drastic). Also spotted, on two separate occasions, a famous Melbourne name which I thought had long disappeared on the rubble heap of history - Whelan the Wrecker.

Swim at Fitzroy. Unsurprisingly stiff when I woke up but fine once in the water. Also seem to have replaced everything lost between Wednesday lunchtime and Thursday morning, although not without feeling awful for most of Thursday (it's not a good sign when you drink 3 litres over 8 hours before anything comes out the other end).

There were thunderstorms about early this morning (cleared out before the swim, otherwise I would have had to switch to the indoor pool at Collingwood), and the usual quota of drivers with water-soluble brains. Once again a bit of lightning was enough to throw most of the Melbourne train network into chaos. Can any of our Brisbane readers enlighten us to whether half their train system shuts down every time there's a thunderstorm, and if not, what it is that they're doing that we're not?

The annual soccer tournament between the Bureau, CSIRO and Melbourne and Monash Unis (the Priestley Cup) - three 30-minute games with unlimited subs. I arrived a bit late and then played about half the time, and got my name on the scoresheet for the first time in a decade. Unfortunately it was at the wrong end, but you can't have everything.

My role in these games is to run around a lot and hope the opposition don't notice that I can't do much with the ball once I get it. I think I touched the ball six times in the first two-and-a-half games, one of which was a throw-in, one sort of accidentally colliding with the ball in a goalmouth scramble, and one the aforementioned own-goal (although I'm not convinced it should actually count as one because it would still have gone in if I hadn't got a foot to it). As usual, had a bit more of it towards the end as everyone else got tired. I did lose my 2004 record for the worst miss ever by a Bureau player in this competition when someone had an air-swing two metres out, although he redeemed himself by scoring 30 seconds later from the subsequent corner.

Melbourne once again had by far the best team, even if the geology postdoc who'd played for PSV Eindhoven reserves was just a scurrilous rumour. They won all three games with a bit to spare. We put ourselves in the box seat for second by losing to Melbourne by less than everyone else did and then settled it by beating CSIRO 2-1.

Unexpected orienteering connection: came across Bruce Duncan at the post-game BBQ. He's out here for the Rat Race next weekend and is staying with a friend who was playing for Monash.

Leg 3 of the epic sequence. At least it was cooler than it was for either of yesterday's runs - it was only 27 at 7 a.m. :-)

I didn't exactly go into this one with high expectations, despite rehydrating as best I could after last night - not that I needed the scales to tell me, but any weight with a 6 in front of it is a sign that I need to replace a fair bit of fluid (my normal post-run weight is about 72). Didn't sleep very well either.

For the first 80 minutes it was better than I dared expect, which meant that it was a smooth and reasonably routine run, although with a few hints that there wasn't much extra left in the tank for hills (this didn't matter in the first half which had almost no hills). Not surprisingly, 24 hours of very hard work eventually caught up with me and the last 40 minutes, especially the last 10, were a struggle (not least the last hill up to my place).

A possible explanation for the good start: the song running through my head for most of it was the exuberant 'Sun City' by Artists United Against Apartheid, which I heard for the first time in 20 years on the radio last night. (Political songs sometimes have a limited shelf life if their cause is either achieved or goes pear-shaped - does the line 'peace has come to Zimbabwe' still appears in performances of 'Master Blaster' at Stevie Wonder concerts?)

C • peace has come to zimbabwe 2

We've been lucky over the years with the Corporate Cup; I can't previously remember having had a seriously hot day for it, which is a bit of a surprise given that it covers March and November. That luck ran out today; 34 degrees at running time (and 35.3 and counting as I write).

The field took little notice of the conditions initially as the start was unusually fast; many of them paid later. My own start was reasonable and I was level with last time at 2k, but gradually fell away in the second half despite having some good battles to fight. I was making up ground towards the end so others were obviously falling away faster (and 6 seconds slower than last time seemed like it was at the low end of the population).

Km splits: 3.33, 3.43 (uphill), 3.36, 3.33.

To/from the Tan. One of my colleagues showed me a short-cut through the Arts Centre carpark and up a ramp which I have not-so-fond memories of trying to walk down because the gear return for the 2005 Melbourne Marathon was at the bottom of it. It didn't feel like a short cut but it obviously was because I went back the old way and he was well in front.

Doubling up is not easy even under ideal circumstances, and two factors served to increase the degree of difficulty further. One was that tonight was a score event, which means for us, unless the course is short enough for us to get all the controls well inside the distance (which happens as often as not), it's up to 50% longer than usual. The other was the heat; it had cooled a little by 7, but was still over 30 at start time (this could be determined more precisely than usual because the Scoresby weather station is on the map - just south of control 5).

The event was at Blind Creek, in the as-close-as-Melbourne-gets-to-a-Bible-Belt suburb of Wantirna in the City of Knox (a.k.a. 'Knox - City of Fear' for those who remember the serial-killer episode of 'Frontline'). This was where I did my first Melbourne street event back in 1984. The map's gone backwards since - none of the substantial thick vegetation in Lewis Park is shown. There was a bit of bunching in the first few controls, including the leg which took us down through the outdoor-restaurants alley of Knox City shooping centre (this wasn't exactly as it looked on the map, either), but Bryan soon pulled away, and I similarly pulled away from Adam. The first half was reasonable, but an 800-metre leg of continuous uphill at about two-thirds distance took a lot out of me and it was a struggle to the finish from there. Adam recaught me two controls from home but I had nothing left to fight with.

I'm not too upset that I won't have this combination of races again until March at least. The initial reaction from most of you is probably "are you crazy", but it's not too different from running two middle-distance races in a day, which means that it's probably good preparation on occasions for international aspirants (and central Europe has been known to get that hot, too). I shouldn't be an international aspirant, but on current indications somewhere between 1 and 3 of the present Australian top 10 are going to be available for next year, which in turn means that at least one, and possibly more, of the WOC team will be people ranked outside the top 10 (this means there will be opportunities there for any of the younger brigade who are prepared to take them). The part that's real fantasy is that racing twice in a day requires qualifying for a final. (The middle's also spread over two days next year).

C • 1 Middle + 1 Middle = Long 2

Uncertain through the first half, not particularly strong on the numerous small hills through Banyule and Viewbank, but picked up after that; another run which finished very well. Definitely a nice morning for it too, cool and clear.

It was a nice morning for riding, too. The traffic was especially heavy (a couple of recent debacles on our rail line haven't helped) and I decided to count the number of cars I rode past in the traffic jam stretching back from the Alphington paper mill; the number was 151. I wonder if any of the drivers looked at us and thought there might be a better way of getting to the city than the one they were stuck in?

Also noticed that Sterling airline has gone bust. Having seen the debacle which unfolded at the gate next to us in Oslo which they were using (among other things, they made an announcement which said that the airport staff didn't know why there was a delay and advised waiting passengers to call head office in Copenhagen for further information), I'm not surprised.

A morning session under the Fitzroy sun. A little earlier than usual and hence a little more crowded (the swimming culture is such that most of the crowds have cleared out by 7.30). Felt a bit stronger than usual, especially in the second half. Left arm a little sore at end.

More intense than usual for a Monday night - two sprint courses, one on Carlton Gardens, one on Melbourne Uni. Slow initially (although, I suspect, less so than I would have been coming off a longer weekend), but picked up well later on and felt pretty good. Some real rabbit-warrens in the Melbourne Uni campus - this will be a great area if we can ever get to race on it.

Getting to, from and between the sprint courses.