Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The sign as you enter the region fo today's event stated that 'You Are Now Entering A Drought Area' - although the sign's age can be gleaned from the fact that it was erected by Beaudesert Shire Council, an organisation which has not existed for several years.

Hopefully this will be my worst run of the year - I certainly wouldn't want to post anything else as bad as this. Got off to a bad start when I realised at the last minute I hadn't cleared my SI stick and missed the start by a few seconds, not that it mattered as much as it normally would in a pack race because it was quickly obvious that my body was not up to the task of running fast today (or doing anything much out of the ordinary, come to think of it). Perhaps worse, I never got into the map, featureing rather vague gully-spur and lots of termite mounds and lantana, at all - didn't spike any of the first three but escaped without much time loss, but then dropped 4-5 minutes on a major parallel error at 4, whereupon my running and my navigation descended into a negative feedback loop. Hoped that picking up my second map might improve my enthusiasm but it didn't, and when I missed the first control of that, too, I decided I'd had enough and couldn't face the prospect of 2 hours plus, much as I hated the idea of letting the team down (it probably only cost us one point in the end as we wouldn't have had a full team anyway thanks to Bruce's injury).

This was a very disappointing effort - the lack of energy makes me wonder if I'm getting sick, although it was a day you needed to be up for and I clearly wasn't.

First stage of sprint at Kelvin Grove, and a race which was effectively over for me almost before it began after I got caught on the wrong level coming out of the start and lost a minute. From there it was difficult to find much to run for, but did manage to build up through the course and was running a bit better by the end of it, having been pretty slow at the start (and worse in the warm-up).

Second stage of the sprint at the University of Queensland. This was much more like it - running a bit more strongly and only two very minor wobbles.

It was a chasing start. After my morning performance I was all of 6 seconds ahead of Geoff Lawford and thought I might have trouble getting away from him, but managed to edge clear. Tim Effeney, running much too fast for me, went through me at 5. By then the next two in front of me, Kurt Neumann and Jim, were starting to appear occasionally, but it took until three-quarters distance for a pack of sorts to form, involving us and Kieran Sullivan. By 26 I'd worked myself to the front of the pack and gained a little more on working out an old sprint trick, a control site on a convoluted disabled access ramp, at 27, but it wasn't enough to prevent Kieran and Jim blowing past me at the end. Still ended up gaining four places and finishing in the points, which salvaged a little.

Brisbane is a subtropical city and this morning brought some subtropical rain, which I was out in the heaviest part of. Headed out towards Slaughter Falls, which I didn't quite get all the way to as the track was closed. Felt fairly similar to yesterday but a little better on the hills.

Most inspired idea of the day: Wendy's for a Trail-O/biathlon cross - you have to identify at each control which one is the correct flag and then shoot it.

C • inspired thinking 4

Looking for not-excessively-steep runs in what's supposed to be an easy week. There aren't a huge number of options for such in this part of Brisbane - went for crossing through the saddle into the next valley, then an out-and-back down the Enoggera Creek bike path. This took me past several Ashgrove sports facilities which have presumably had vast amounts of money promised for them (an opportunity was missed when no bid was made for a couple of million for a Cyclones clubhouse in The Gap), although the only evidence of the campaign itself was one 'Keep Kate' sticker on a car. (Clive Palmer, in his usual classy style, said of Kate's future employment prospects that his company had vacancies for toilet cleaners).

Still no energy on the hills that were there but otherwise not too bad a run. Brisbane wakes up earlier than Melbourne does and there was a lot of traffic on the roads at 7.15, but with only one major road crossing that wasn't too much of a problem.

Run back to Bardon (where I'm staying with Lance and Wendy) from the city. Took a route past Government House which would have been a nice route if (a) I wasn't running with a backpack and (b) I hadn't been spending the day on sand dunes with a consequently iffy Achilles. Since I was/had been doing both of those things, the hills made it pretty hard work and the run quickly became a means of transport which I was happy to see the end of.

The sand dunes in question were on Moreton Island where I spent the day - mostly in pursuit of site number 91 (Cape Moreton), but because the easiest and cheapest way to get there was to join a tour I got to see quite a bit of the island (and even slide down a few sand dunes).

Recovery swim at the pool opposite Lang Park on the way into work - a pleasant 25-metre pool tucked into some of the parkland and lush trees that Brisbane has its share of. A pleasant swim without as many sore bits to deal with as I thought might have occurred.

The least enjoyable part of Easter is attempting to warm up for the last day. It wasn't easy today either - not much soreness, just no energy, and that carried over out onto the course, on an area which was slower than I remembered it, probably mostly because of the long grass (not usually a factor in winter or spring).

Came in a bit high to 1 and dropped 30 seconds, but technically good after then for a while, and happy to nail the potentially scary 5. It was coming out of here that I got my first sight of Craney (who started 4 minutes behind me) as he headed down to where he thought 5 was; it was to be the first of several opportunities I got to see a run which probably won't go into his scrapbook, as I saw him again at 8, 9, 10 and 12 (and I wasn't going that fast). Was reminded on every climb about my lack of energy. Dropped a minute myself on 9, heavy rock in green, mostly just through mucking around in the green; brought it home OK from there but not in a particularly inspired way.

Yesterday's carnage meant that I ended up with 10th place - never looked like catching Olly (let alone the 22 minutes to the next place beyond that) but managed to hold Lachlan off by 5 seconds. Only about half our field finished the four days. It's not a bad result in headline numbers but I'm not getting any closer to being on the pace.