Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Once again on the move - the two international expert groups that I'm on each have a meeting every couple of years, but have decided to have them two weeks apart. (Had it not been for Six Foot and last week's State of the Climate release, I'd have tried to find a way to stay over). The meeting's in the Netherlands, and I'm then staying on for the weekend to go to an IOF Foot Commission meeting in Hungary (and running an event in Hungary next Sunday if my foot is up to it).

The foot seems to have improved a bit in the last 24 hours; there's now only slight discomfort walking (something I've put to the test a bit in 7 hours between flights in Hong Kong), though it's still not exactly in a state which makes me want to burst out and go for a run. At least the place where the meeting is has a pool, and being the Netherlands I'm assuming it won't be too hard to find a bike, or somewhere to ride it, if necessary.

Six Foot Track. After all the build-up over several months, it was over before it had really started; cruising along at about 7k in fairly innocuous terrain (for those who know the course, the footpad across the paddocks just after you leave the fire trail), one step nothing was untoward, the next step my left foot was hurting - badly - with no obvious incident to cause it. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was getting worse and not the sort of thing that would blow over; had it been with 5-10k to go I might have tried to push through it, but not with 37k to go.

It's all the more frustrating because there had been no trace of this injury in the build-up; it would have, perhaps, been more comprehensible had one of my various long-term issues flared up (my back had given a hint or two on the very small bumps found in the early kilometres that it might not have appreciated the Pluvio, although I know from experience that it sometimes handles 20-contour hills better than 2-contour ones). It feels vaguely like an injury I did in early 2011 (which suddenly appeared in even more innocuous circumstances - walking to the station). That one settled within a week or so and I'd be satisfied with a similar outcome here; at least that would leave my orienteering season reasonably intact and give me a chance to get something useful out of the endurance training of the summer.

It's uncomfortable to walk or stand on tonight, and I'm certainly satisfied that I made the right call on it; even if the problem is not structural, doing 37k in those circumstances is an open invitation to cause trouble elsewhere. One consolation was that it happened at almost the easiest place to DNF from (near a road crossing with a decent number of spectators, allowing me to hitch a ride back to Katoomba without much trouble); another was that it was early enough that, leaving aside the injury, I haven't smashed myself for no result.

It almost seems superfluous to talk about the small proportion of the run that happened, but what there was was on track - very early days but, once out of the steep stairs and congestion of Nellies Glen, I was cruising along on gentle downhills at around 4.30-4.40/km without feeling in the least bit stretched. I was a bit concerned about being underdone - would have liked a couple more really long runs under my belt, and losing a couple of weeks of serious training with the fall in late January didn't help - but I'll never know how that would have worked out in the later stages here.

I don't like leaving unfinished business so am already thinking about next year; the scheduling stars were unusually aligned this year (no NOL and a late Easter), but next year should still be OK (and this year's Two Bays already gives me a qualifier).

Last hit-out before Six Foot, at Ivanhoe. A fairly standard session. The long-awaited renovations there have started (six months late, which is about par for the course for Banyule), leading to a somewhat circuitous route in and out but no major changes to the pool (yet).

Headed up to Sydney, and on to the Blue Mountains, this afternoon. I'm glad I don't have to deal with Sydney traffic every day - I think I covered about the same distance in my first hour out of the airport as Martin Dent probably will in the first hour tomorrow. (The climb up the Blue Mountains wasn't a lot of fun, either). Intercepted an intense but brief thunderstorm in western Sydney; there was also some severe thunderstorm action in the Lithgow area, which hopefully won't have too much impact on the river levels.

Saw during the week that Gina Rinehart is patron of Volleyball Australia. While we could do with some of Gina's money I can't say I'm too upset that she's gone elsewhere. According to the report she particularly likes beach volleyball, although I'm assuming she doesn't play it - the thought of her in beach volleyball gear (or absence thereof) is too ghastly to contemplate.

O-intervals with MFR at Darebin Parklands. This is the first time I've actually managed to get to one of these sessions since they started up on a Thursday night about 6 weeks ago (mostly through being away, sometimes because in the build-up I've had other training priorities on Thursday). Nice set of courses set by Kez and a certain amount of frenzy in the mass starts - tended to get out of the blocks slowly on each interval and come through the field a bit. (Getting out of the blocks a bit slowly has become commonplace for me; perhaps I shouldn't anticipate being too close to the front of the wave at the top of the stairs on Saturday). Not massively strong up hills but otherwise a decent session; fairly short, but couldn't linger because of an OA Board hook-up.

Street-O at Heyington. Spoilt the race by failing to notice that there was no way out going from 4 to 2, the last control, and wasting 250-300 metres, but otherwise there were some good positives to take from this. A slow start, but after 3k got into a nice scrap with a group of four schools people from Trinity and Camberwell; stepped up a gear for this and was able to keep it going. We split apart for a bit later in the course through different control-drop options but came together again at the end; you won't be surprised to hear that they outsprinted me although it was a bit more of a contest than I thought it would be. The second half was probably the best I've run in one of these since the Camelot event in November.

A little shorter than planned because I was running late, and in general a run for which I was a little bit down on enthusiasm and spark. Once again had to make a mid-run pitstop - one of the hazards of a recent large time zone change (hopefully one which will have sorted itself out by Saturday). Grinding up hills OK though, and not as much calf/achilles tightness as the last couple of days.

Heard it said today that "in the 21st century, countries don't act in a 19th century way by invading another country on a trumped-up pretext". It's an admirable sentiment, but I'm not sure that a US Secretary of State (who in a past senatorial life voted for the Iraq war) is exactly occupying the high moral ground in saying it.

A pretty ordinary session - felt a bit like a post-long run (or race) Monday morning without the preceding long run or race. Didn't help that for most of the second half I felt like I was about to explode (body internals take longer to readjust timezones than sleep patterns do; I ended up sleeping essentially normal times last night).

Noticed in a local council newsletter yesterday that, under changes to Victorian tobacco laws to come into effect next month, among the places which it will be illegal to smoke within 10 metres of the venue of an organised underage sporting event. This raises the question of whether the "venue" for an orienteering event is the whole map and whether it becomes "underage" merely by having participants under 18. It's a somewhat amusing thought to think that, say, Asha or Patrick might be able to render an entire suburb legally smokefree for the duration simply by turning up to a street-O event taking place there.

C • rendering entrie suburbs... 5

Moved on to swimming, approaching from a bit further away than usual because the police (who outnumbered protesters today at the drilling site by a margin of several dozen to 0) had taken up all the nearby parking spots. A fairly sluggish session. Back not great today.