Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Slept more than I have for a long time, with some assistance from the once-a-year daylight saving bonus. Still feeling ordinary and did a rather unambitious run, along the river and then back through Ivanhoe. Managed it OK but wouldn't have wanted to do much more than this, in terms of distance, speed or hilliness. Starting to get warm by the end - probably won't have many more mid-20s runs in Melbourne for a few months (but do expect a few in South Africa).

Event: Australian Ultra Long
 

Didn't feel good when I got up this morning. Probably shouldn't have even considered going out in a race like this, but was sufficiently stubborn to front up at the start line in the vague hope that maybe I might feel OK once I started running. 10 minutes in it was pretty obvious that wasn't going to happen; I hadn't even made it to the first control (although did pick up a few coming back, not very convincingly). Maybe next year. Would have been over 4 hours if I'd made it all the way, I suspect (Bruce did 4.02). Good to see the event go well, though, and some worthy winners (in fact anyone who finished the longer courses is more than worthy).

The local talent (mostly involving trailbikes) made their presence felt at various points during the day, the lowlight of which was the three blokes on the back of a ute who mooned us as they drove past. Made you wish that the event was in the ACT and that Constable Frogga was there.

Autumn is gradually making its presence felt, in the form of the steam coming off the pool when I arrived. (It will be the last time for a while that I'll be starting in the dark, too). Feeling a bit better this morning, if still some way from 100%, and had a reasonable session.

First chance to test out my new toy this morning. On its default settings it produces a split every kilometre so it was a bit disheartening (if not very surprising - it's uphill and I start slowly these days) that the first one started with a 6. A newsletter delivery run - they're getting shorter these days as the ranks of local comrades not on e-mail dwindles. Still feeling below 100% and struggling on anything that isn't downhill (and struggled a bit for inspiration at work, too); might be in better shape by the weekend but I'm not especially confident of that.

C • new toy 3

The post-Easter cold looks like a reality; one of those ones which isn't showing especially dramatic cough-and-splutter symptoms but is still rather draining. In the context of a run, this meant moving along OK on the level, more or less, but weakness at any encounter with a contour (to an even greater extent than has been typical this year). I will want to be in somewhat better shape to contemplate taking on Saturday's course.

Some during-run thinking may not have helped the process of being in a positive mood. Quite a few studies have come out in the last few weeks in support of the general proposition that reduced Arctic sea-ice cover is contributing to Northern Hemisphere circulation changes which result in more northerly and easterly winds (and hence colder winter temperatures) in northern Europe and eastern and central North America, and unusual southerly flow/warmer temperatures in Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands and central and east Asia. (As some readers will know, March 2013 has been a particularly spectacular example of this). Whilst certain bits of the media have been getting excited about British snow, the implications of accelerated Greenland warming, which I realised during the course of this run, are scarier - at the moment, 2 degrees of global warming is generally accepted as the upper limit beyond which there is a high risk of ultimate collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, but if Greenland is warming faster than other high-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere, that global upper limit may be quite a bit lower than 2 degrees. Staying below 2 degrees is already hard; staying below, say, 1.5 will be a lot harder.

A somewhat desultory post-competition swim at Ivanhoe, a pool whose warmth always seems to send me partway to sleep (or perhaps it was just not getting enough of it last night).

The champion club trophy was decided on Sunday's results. I belong to three clubs (one in Canberra, two in Victoria), and on Sunday those clubs filled the top three places, with Melbourne Forest Racers a clear winner and Yarra Valley and Bushflyers tied for second. (Had I actually scored any points - not a likely scenario since it would have required a top-five placing - they would have been for Yarra Valley).

And I'm learning that one of the consequences of being President is that you're the first port of call for a range of complaints, some of which have little or nothing to do with anything you're responsible for. Amongst the grievances aired in my direction in recent days have been over the font size on the Eventor website, and the lack of specific awards for M/W10A placegetters.

C • Grievances 61

Lunchtime on the Tan. Didn't feel particularly inspired before going out but a reasonable run once under way. Still plenty of fallen branches and other debris around from Thursday afternoon's squall, especially around the Domain.

Started to feel the worse for wear after this: seems like what was once my traditional post-Easter cold might be making a reappearance. I think I might pick some other morning for checking street-O controls for next Wednesday's event (this has to be done in the dark as controls are supposed to be on functional light poles).

Last day of Easter. Didn't put a foot wrong technically in fairly simple terrain (also very fast except for a few hills at the southern end), but not fast enough or strong enough for this terrain - it says something for my consistency that my placing was between 26th and 29th on 11 of the first 14 splits. Continuing to struggle even on fairly gentle hills, such as the longish leg to 6.

Started the day thinking a good battle was in prospect with 18th to 24th separated by about four minutes. It wasn't a huge surprise, though, that my lack of running speed would work against me in this terrain. Patrik had almost caught me by 3 and was through me by 4, but had enough wobbles that I was able to stay just about in touch for the remainder of the course. Geoff Stacey also went through us at the end; the only person I caught was Andre Morkel, who was with me for most of the second half. Ended up dropping one place to 21st overall, a long way from being competitive.

(Craig must be going backwards at a similar rate to me - although he has a better excuse. In the last six years our Easter battled have included margins of one second (to me) and two seconds (to him); it wasn't quite that close this time, but he closed to just under a minute behind me).

With my work done for the day (and, for the first time in 17 years, without a JWOC selection meeting to go to), it was time to relax - and the organisers were even starting to seem a bit more relaxed (they've well and truly earned it). Not terribly confident that I'm up to 26km next Saturday, but I guess we'll find that out in five days' time.

Andrew Barnett's selection for JWOC means that my secondary school now has 4 JWOC representatives to its name, leading my primary school with 3. I expect Aranda Primary to add substantially to its total during the course of the 2020s.

C • School representatives and WOC 4

Day 3 M21E - Splits