Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Final day of the 3-day in France. An easier area physically than yesterday - not as many brambles or as much loose rock - and more limestone depressions on a basically flat plateau - an enjoyable area to orienteer in, although still a little on the green side. More errors than yesterday but with one exception they were small ones (the largest was 1.5 minutes at 17). Was struggling a bit for concentration towards the end, and having some difficulty holding a straight line in flat terrain at times (a problem that's afflicted me in Europe before). Probably a bit better than yesterday physically. Not quite as far down as yesterday, but still 7 minutes behind the lead.

The gaps on both sides of me grew so I ended up staying third - the first time I've placed in a European event of any description (apart from a couple of days placings once in a Norwegian multi-day) since winning M18 at the (British) November Classic in 1989. This meant my first exposure to the prizes on offer at European events. I'd heard rumours that a couple of kilos of cheese was involved which might have made things tricky, but it turned out to be a bag of items, all of which are either edible (biscuits), drinkable (mineral water) or potentially useful and not too heavy (car warning triangle and reflective vest, T-shirt and cap).

Even though the result wasn't my main priority here, it was still nice to get one - although if I'm to have any realistic chance of a top-10 result next week then a placing in this company is the minimum standard.

If I was chasing a result the start draw hasn't done me any favours this weekend: in the storm yesterday and early both today and tomorrow, which means no tracking, and this morning also meant fog (not something I'm used to seeing in Europe in July). This weekend, though, isn't really about the result (although I won't complain if I get one), so getting the chance to prepare for WMOC in the most difficult conditions possible is a plus rather than a minus.

Except for one control my fine navigation was functioning very well today. Unfortunately, that one control (#15) cost me a fair bit of time, probably 4-4.5 minutes. It was a textbook Continental terrain mistake - small boulder on a vague slope in green - and was all the more frustrating because I'd successfully made it through the limestone section (which I read reasonably well, but the rock underfoot was hard going). Only other time losses were route choices, most notably 1-2 where I probably cost myself a minute or two by trying to go straight across the slope rather than dropping to a track, not yet appreciating how slow the forest was. Not especially happy with my uphill strength in soft ground, but then I never am when I first arrive.

Two European orienteering features I haven't missed: charcoal burning grounds (the only way I recognised any of them was by the orange and white flags) and yellow that turns into green in summer.

I was surprised how slow this was - even on rock-free legs I wasn't getting much under 7-8 minutes/km. There was a fair bit of undergrowth which slowed things down, but at least I now have a better indication of just how wide it's worth going to use tracks here. (That said, at WMOC's altitude I don't think there will be as much undergrowth as there is here). When you finish with a kilometre rate not much into single figures you worry that you might be totally off the pace, but in fact I was fifth on the day and moved into third overall. There's a bit of space on either side of me so unless either I or someone in front of me screws up I should stay there. Glad I didn't run 21E - I would have been looking at 95-100 (and probably the same tomorrow) which wouldn't have done me any favours at this stage.

Unusually for Europe, I had to hire a car to get to the event areas, so took advantage of this mobility for some afternoon exploring. I was a bit sceptical when one of the main tourist attractions was labelled as the 'source of the Loue' (the local river) - I'm not used to river sources being exciting, but this one was a full-blown river emerging from a cave (limestone country). There were also a few other interesting features, including a narrow-slit gorge of a kind I've previously only seen in Karijini. A few of the features of this landscape (especially the underground rivers) featured fairly prominently in the fantasy worlds I was creating when I was ten, probably influenced fairly significantly by what I was reading at that stage.

I'm planning to be in Zermatt Tuesday/Wednesday. Anyone got good advice for the best runs to do there whilst not destroying myself a few days out from the World Masters? (Runs done with the police in hot pursuit don't count).

First race of this trip, a sprint-style event (but longer) in Besancon - starting in the citadel then moving down into the old town before an easier finish through riverside parks. There was a fair bit of rust early on, both physically and mentally (although I don't think the multi-level 1, where I lost a bit of time, was really mappable); also missed a little at 8 going up a ramp I didn't need to, and was rather tentative on wet steps and pavement, in a run which coincided neatly with a thunderstorm (it wasn't ultimately a race which counted for that much, after all, and I have a somewhat unfortunate history with sprints in the wet). This manifested itself most on the leg down the city wall staircase at 15. Started to stretch out better in the second half and got back the people who'd gone through me from 1 and 3 minutes behind. (I'm running 35s here, but the 21Es had the same course tonight).

Fastest time up when I left was 31, although that was done in the dry which might count for a minute or two. Didn't see what Olivier Coupat (eligible for 35s but running 21s) did. As always with European old town orienteering, it was a lot of fun even if I wasn't especially hapy with my performance.

On another subject, my last reflection from London is on how difficult it is to get a profile in a small sport. One of the people I saw there was an old school friend I hadn't seen since then (in other words 22 years). I knew he'd been active in fencing at a junior level at school, but it turned out he'd had an elite career probably on a par with, say, Shep (captain of Australia, in the world top 50 for a time, narrowly missed out on making the top-32-of-rankings cut for the 2000 and 2004 Olympics) - something I had absolutely no idea of.

Travel day from London to Besancon - my first taste of the Channel Tunnel and associated high-speed trains. It was also my first experience on this trip of an obligatory experience on all my European trips, the tight connection (even with having to cross central Paris it shouldn't have been desperately tight, but in one of a few minor annoyances on the day I didn't have enough euro coins for the metro ticket machines, they wouldn't take my card and for a time all the ticket windows were shut). Made it with five minutes to spare (and without having to run the length of any platforms with full pack).

As noted yesterday I've spent the last couple of days mixing in generally more affluent company than is usually the case, which reached a slightly incongruous height yesterday in the form of being dropped back to the London Central YHA in a Porsche. (OK, so it was a second-hand Porsche picked up for a bargain price in the middle of the GFC - there were a lot of luxury cars going cheap in London circa November 2008).

First foray onto the orienteering scene in Europe tomorrow. It's a 3-day, town sprint tomorrow, Jura limestone terrain the next two days. Saw Eddie Wymer (whose home area this is) at registration.

Swapped sessions around between yesterday and today because I thought that the Lake District was more suited to a long run and central(ish) London to an intervals session. Regent's Park was the venue, being the one bit of greenery reasonably close to where I was staying, and I even found a bit of a slope (so half the reps were up and half down). A rather patchy session but had its moments.

Mega-cities aren't really my style so the principal purpose of my visit here is social, involving catching up with various people I haven't seen for between six months and 22 years. Last night was interesting on a number of levels, partly for its insight into possible alternative trajectories my life might have taken. My companion was a school friend who was the smartest person in the year two years below me. Like me, he did a PhD (physics in his case), and like me, he got offers from investment banks towards the end of it, and decided to go down that route. He's certainly making a success of that in the terms that success is defined there (i.e. he almost certainly makes more money per month than I do per year), and seems to have at least something resembling a life as well (unusual in that industry), but I still don't think I'd trade places; I doubt he would either. I do things that, perhaps, three other people in the world can do at the same level, and that kind of job satisfaction doesn't have a price.

My lunch company today was Jamie Potter, who is well settled in the law in London - I doubt we'll be seeing him back in Australia (except on short visits) any time soon. He's moved into public law (reviews of government decisions and the like) rather than commercial law, which seems much closer to what I thought he really wanted to be doing. I won't be surprised to see him end up as a judge.

C • Yep 2

Going to/from Regents Park, with fewer traffic interruptions than might have been expected - although this was partly because I did as London pedestrians (and cyclists) do and ignored all traffic lights.

It stopped raining briefly around dawn but had started again by the time I headed out, but only very lightly. The cloud base was a bit higher which was enough to encourage me onto a run which is apparently on a well-trodden Lake District runners' list (or at least that's what I read in Bilbo's Cafe yesterday), the crossing of Loughrigg Fell, before going north as far as Grasmere and returning along the ominously-named Coffin Track.

Loughrigg is a long way from being the highest fell in the Lake District and the track doesn't go particularly close to its top, but it was still a fairly solid 150 metres of climbing to get above the treeline. Looks like nice orienteering country when it doesn't have bracken, and nice running country too, which may explain why this was my best session since the Cairngorms. Lots of gate opening and closing which was a bit of an annoyance. The ground is quite hard underfoot so mud wasn't really a factor, but some tracks were almost streams and I had fairly wet feet by the end of it.

The rest of the day was spent travelling to London (the first sunny break appeared just as I was leaving). Now here for a couple of nights in pursuit of a hectic social calendar before moving on to France.

C • France 2

Today wasn't any more amenable to going up on the fells than yesterday was (in fact the cloud base was even lower - 250 metres or so - and the rain was hevier). This run stayed at low elevation and was sort of reasonable once early Achilles tightness (which has come back a little in the last couple of days) eased. The rain has obviously been very heavy at higher elevations and the rivers are running very strongly indeed, which at least meant it was a good day for looking at waterfalls, but not much else. (At least this meant I didn't feel bad about losing an hour of potential sightseeing time in the process of doing an international teleconference out of an Ambleside phone box).

The forecast for tomorrow morning is better which may provide a final opportunity to get up onto the lower fells, but I'll believe it when I see it. Off to London after that.