Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Victorian Middle at Borhoney Ghurk, starting from the east side of the map rather than the west (as at the Australian Relays) but spending a fair bit of time in the same area of mining. A good course with plenty of technical controls - the low visibility in places adds to the challenge.

A reasonable run technically - a few wobbles (too low in vague contours on 8, 11 and 17, and went wider than I needed to on 14), but none bigger than 20 seconds or so. Not aggressive enough in the terrain, though, and well off the pace on a day when the five fastest times on course 1 were done by an M16, an M18, an M55, an M40 and an M35.

Very stiff on arriving after sitting in the car on the way up - maybe getting out of the car for 'tourist runs' isn't going to work so well on various forthcoming travels. Hamstring held up OK on its first workout in the terrain.

C • What's the rule on going to... 27

Was expecting to be doing this first thing in preparation for a morning on the hustings, but got word late yesterday that the planned stall was cancelled so headed out at a more typical Saturday time on a somewhat atypical mid-May morning. Achilles tightest for a while early on but got going within 10 minutes or so. The run then settled down well but didn't end up quite living up to the potential of its first half.

Spent more time on the Studley Park singletrack than I have for a while, which generally went OK.

An anniversary which I let slip last week was that of 10 years on AP (or at least posting training on it). Hope I've provided a reasonable amount of interesting reading during that time.

C • Happy Anniversary! 14

Taking to the water on another warm May morning. Nothing too unusual about this, but seemed to be working reasonably well. Perhaps my mood would have been less positive had I seen the front of the "Herald-Sun" - as someone who's had experience of being singed by the News Limited blowtorch, to see it turned full blast on an ordinary person whose sin was to ask a Liberal an awkward question was nauseating.

Started out this run with a sinking feeling after a morning of (round-ball) football watching - Norwich won but so did Sunderland, which confirmed the relegation of the former (as well as Newcastle). Went out with something around 1.45-1.50 in mind, but hamstring felt a bit iffy after coming down the steep hill off Eaglemont so thought it best not to push things too hard (the iffyness stayed but didn't get any worse). Didn't feel that brilliant on the run in any case - have been a bit sneezy the last couple of days which may tell you something.

Election campaigning 101: if a party leader does a campaign event in a not-obviously-marginal seat (other than his or her own), it's normally a fairly good indication that their internal polling is telling them that said seat is up for grabs. The fact that Bill Shorten launched an education policy yesterday in Mackay, in the seat of Dawson (sitting member George Christensen, margin 7.8%) should be read in this context. Certainly, if it comes to pass, it would be fair to say that there will be a lot of people who definitely won't miss George.

MFR's contribution to World Orienteering Day - a club run using a course which Carl had set using OpenStreetMap. Fairly straightforward course (with just a bit of minor route choice) but still fun, and good to be part of the festivities. Made the mistake of trying to go from the gun without a proper warm-up (having had a bit of trouble getting my newly-acquired headlamp to shine white instead of red), but eventually loosened up and was going at street-O pace in the second half without any obvious ill-effects.

As I've noted elsewhere, the clash with Naplan testing meant we couldn't really have a serious go at doing anything major in schools today, but next year is late May rather than early May so that shouldn't be an issue. I'm also pondering the question of whether it might be logistically possible to do events in four states on one day (start in Brisbane or Adelaide, fly to Canberra, do events on both sides of the ACT/NSW border, then fly on to Melbourne for an evening event there), and if it is whether I'm crazy enough to try doing it next year.

C • *openorienteeringmap - tool... 1

A solid morning's work; any hint of the hamstring issues now seems to be behind me. Dodged a few remnant bits of floodwater on the Merri Creek track and got a few showers from above. Not quite sure what the Dalheims have planned for the MFR World Orienteering Day tomorrow night but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

The Philippines seem to be doing their bit to prove that even if he's elected, Donald Trump will not be the world's craziest President. Apart from promising to kill 100,000 "criminals" in his first six months in office, the winning candidate also committed to riding a jet ski across to some disputed South China Sea islands to claim them in person. Part of me thinks that the interests of regional peace might be best served if he actually tries to use such a vessel for such a purpose (especially if there is a typhoon in the vicinity at the time).

Not sure I appreciate this headline.

C • You would have loved the UK... 2

Swim at Northcote, my morning logistics being slightly rearranged because I wanted to catch the local bakery's 8am opening time (having forgotten to buy a week's supply of rolls on the weekend). Shoulder a bit sore to start with but not a bad swim thereafter, and I don't think the water was quite as hot as the sign (31.5) suggested.

Heard Malcolm Turnbull's name mentioned as I was going past the spa on the way out. The accompanying words weren't especially complimentary, which is not altogether surprising given that this is a part of town where the Liberal vote percentage will probably start with a 1.

Headed out on the Tan after work - had been sort of thinking of doing this anyway but the heavy rain around lunchtime (and its expected clearance) provided more encouragement. A rather slow run although traffic had a bit to do with that; felt reasonable, though, and no sign of hamstring issues.

While the storm surge flooding was nothing like Adelaide's, the debris marks suggested that the path under the (soon-to-be-expanded) Swan Street bridge had gone under at some stage in the preceding hours.

I wonder just how much energy is wasted in Crown's hourly fire-jet display?