Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Didn't expect a lot from this one either, this time because of a very poor night's sleep (for no obvious reason apart from possibly eating too much at a colleague's 40th last night) on top of yesterday's long run, but a pretty good one - a very nice morning helped. A bit faster than usual for a recovery run, too. Out quite early again because of commitments later in the day (see next paragraph). Did feel again as if a tougher course would be a test.

The reason for this weekend's arrangement of runs was that I then spent most of the rest of the day making a visit to Benalla to check things out for next year's Sprint Championships (I'm controller). The grass seed on the river flats is ferocious but hopefully it will be better in early October than it is at the end of November, and the assembly area will be terrific for spectators.

Benalla is the furthest afield I've been this month; it's the first month since June 2007 in which I haven't left Victoria at least once.

Cricket as a sport seems particularly prone to commentators of the everything-was-better-in-my-day variety, and there was a particularly bad example yesterday when Tony Greig was ridiculing the softness of present-day players and saying that the sore backs and sore shins they used to play through in his day were now "stress fractures" and "compartment syndrome". As someone who's had both of these, I can confidently assert that Mr. Greig has had neither. (Of course, what used to happen is that a lot of conditions which are treatable today caused people to disappear without trace; in an earlier era I would most likely have been forced into premature retirement at 31).

On the subject of obnoxious sporting commentators, Rex Hunt came before the courts on Friday on charges of assaulting a cyclist in an alleged road-rage incident on Beach Road. If he gets sentenced to X hours of community service he will presumably be able to carry this out by not commentating on X/2 football matches.

Was a bit apprehensive about this one, given the limited time for recovery from Thursday and that I wasn't quite feeling 100% this morning (bit of a runny nose).

It turned out to go pretty well, although it was low degree of difficulty for a run of this length; benign conditions, few hills of any size and a not-especially-fast pace (even allowing for the slippery state of the rougher tracks on the Yarra I think this was a bit slower than usual). Comfortable at cruising speed but had the feeling that anything more ambitious would have been hard going. With Bruce and Liggo for the middle 90 minutes, with additional loops at the start and end; all based on the Yarra, starting and finishing from Bruce's place. Felt in danger of dropping away a couple of times in the final half-hour but held it together reasonably well.

It isn't a great weekend to be a public transport user in our part of the world; in an impressive feat of coordination, the railways people are digging up the train tracks at Clifton Hill on the same weekend as the trams people are digging up the tram tracks at Clifton Hill. Had to detour around one of the building sites at one stage.

Moved on to another couple of hours on my feet handing out at the Council elections. Highlight this time was a man who sounded like he was ready to explode at any time, who came up and announced 'Who are the racists? I want to vote for the racists!'. At first I thought he was taking the mickey but it became apparent he was serious. As no candidate was admitting to being racist I'm not sure where his vote went.

Not surprisingly, after this I fell asleep in front of the cricket.

The main function of today's swim was to reinforce how close to (or possibly beyond) the edge I took myself yesterday. Not an enormous amount of energy but the main issue was that my feet and calves were threatening to cramp at just about any moment (and did several times, having also done so during the night). I must have looked even more clueless in the water than usual on those occasions. The swim will do me good but it didn't really feel like it while it was happening.

Went past the Council elections polling place on the way home last night (election day is tomorrow). Unusually for a local council election our ward, which is a particularly bitter contest this time around, even made it into the 'Herald-Sun' (the highlight being that the local state MP has admitted that he referred to the sitting councillor as a "bitch" and a "stupid cow", but has denied attempting to run over her son).

Essentially a repeat of two weeks ago, backing up for a long run after a street-O on a warm night and in the end not being up to the job. I underestimated the conditions somewhat; it was a windy 21-24 degrees, which means you don't feel hot but lose a lot of fluid - and occasional bubbler stops aren't enough to replenish it. (Post-run weight was 68.5, 3-4 down on the norm).

Took a long time to get properly going as I started through the hills of Bulleen (more often a finishing section). I then had a good stretch on the long gradual climb up the Koonung bike path into Kerrimuir, but didn't feel great on a sharper climb out of Box Hill at about 70 minutes and knew then that it was going to be a struggle. Kept plugging away, but felt very weak on a small hill at about 100 minutes which was an indicator of significant trouble. I would have liked to cut this one off at about 110 but was at a point of no return; made my job a bit easier by taking the (flat) low road rather than the high road to get across the east end of Eaglemont, but was still thinking seriously about pulling the plug and walking in for much of the last 20 minutes. In the end I almost made it but decided that the final 90 seconds up Hawdon Street was a challenge too far and stopped at the bottom. A tough morning's work.

A morning run from home which developed into a nice one, particularly in the second half. Did the Yallambie rollercoaster for the first time in a while, taking me past the new prison (it's actually called Streeton Primary School, but the intimidating high fence would do justice to a minimum-security penal facility). Particularly nice rolling down the gentle hill through Rosanna Parklands, always a good way to finish a run. Would have been quite happy to go on for longer so hopefully tomorrow is similar.

My good mood continued to the bike but was rudely interrupted when I experienced my worst bit of road rage for several years, from the unlikely quarter of a fifty-something woman in an expensive car, her tirade finishing with the charming sentiment that "I hope someone runs you over sometime". If she'd been concentrating on the road rather than her horn she might have noticed that the reason I'd moved out from the gutter (the presumed casus belli) was because there was a fallen tree half-blocking the lane 50 metres up the road and she would have had to have gone around it whether I was there or not.

We get a few of the rural papers at work ('Queensland Country Life' often provides a bit of entertainment with their rants - they sometimes left the impression that if they were in a room with Peter Beattie, Osama bin Laden, a gun and two bullets, they would shoot Peter Beattie twice). I noted that 'Stock and Land' had an ad for socks which supposedly don't catch grass seeds. If they actually live up to their claims I can imagine they might have a market in Queensland orienteering.

I also got a bit of a laugh this morning on seeing a headline on the 'Guardian''s website, "Rachel Johnson wins Bad Sex Award". (In case you're wondering, the Rachel Johnson they were talking about is a British writer, and the award is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek one bestowed every year by some British literary worthies for the worst depiction of a love scene in literature in the preceding 12 months).

There was probably a certain amount of karma to the fact that, after having a bit of fun at Rachel Johnson's expense in the previous entry, I would spend a fair proportion of this evening's run looking at her rear.

The event was at Tunstall Junction in Doncaster East (presumably not named in Arthur's honour) and was advertised as 11.1k, on the long side for a warm night. (The courses are often long here because of the limited number of freeway crossings and a convoluted street pattern in places - it's one of the few places where I've failed to get all the controls at a score event).

The start was pretty fast despite Bryan's absence, and for the first three controls I was only about sixth or seventh, but had worked my way to the lead by 14 (about 3k in). This was the critical decision point - I got the selection of controls right but lost concentration and got my route to the next control wrong. This did have the effect of causing an explosion of the lead pack (and flinging Adam into outer space, or at least onto a route that was at least 1k longer than the rest of us); once the dust had settled at the next control I found myself about 100 metres behind Rachel and Peter Hobbs. Both of them were moving very well (I needed to look at the Garmin to reassure myself that it was them being fast, not me being slow) and it took me a few controls to make much headway on them, but I ended up going through them on some small hills in the middle and built up enough of a lead to be comfortable. Faded a bit in the last quarter but the race was won by then unless I did something stupid (and I'd exhausted my stupidity quota for the night). Rachel was about 200 metres behind and Peter another 100 behind that; Adam was about 4-5 minutes down.

C • You really 4

Back on the usual Banyule fartlek loop (which may not be long for this world if reports in the news today are correct - there is speculation of a new freeway joining the Ring Road and Eastern Freeway and the Banyule Flats are on the obvious route). A better run than last week's Tuesday speed session, but that isn't saying much. Fastest loop 9.30 which is definitely at the mediocre, if not disastrous, end of the scale.

A nice reflection of relative priorities on the newspaper posters today. The 'Age's one was about saving the world's biggest bank, the 'Herald-Sun''s was about saving Ben Cousins. (I did, however, like the letter in the Herald-Sun which said that Mark Webber had finally got into a fast, reliable vehicle - unfortunately the vehicle in question was a Tasmanian ambulance).

Swim at Fitzroy. Started fairly sluggishly but moving as well in the second half as I have for a while.

Shock news in the Herald-Sun today: apparently the Melbourne City Council director of tourism, major events and marketing has been on four overseas and five interstate trips this year. I'd be more concerned if someone in that position wasn't travelling. (Coincidentally, this is exactly my tally for work for the last 12 months; being on the end of the Herald-Sun blowtorch is something which is always at the back of one's mind in our game).

Lunchtime around the Tan. A smooth and generally pleasant session on a cool day (don't expect to see 14 at lunchtime again for a while).