Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NOL Long. Went in thinking this might not be too extreme by long distance standards, given that the course stats were basically those of the World Cup course for which Jules did 89 and Simon 93. Apparent early on that it was quite junky, though, with masses of fallen timber (extra challenging given that it was still wet after the heavy rain a couple of days earlier), and even though the first few controls were mostly contouring or downhill it was tough going. Got the first three OK (not without a certain lack of confidence on 1), but lost significant time on 4, seeing a large boulder and not registering that it might be my control after going into the circle somewhat unsure - dropped 2-3 minutes there. The bad news was still to come, though - on the climb of only a couple of contours into 6 my back threw one of its occasional wobblies. Knew the next few controls were relatively flat and hoped that it would settle down, but it didn't (and in the meantime I'd dropped another minute at 9), and when the two contours into 10 were a struggle, and knowing that (a) 11 was a point of no return (b) nearly all the climb was still to come and (c) a likely finishing time was somewhere north of 2 1/2 hours, I decided that was my day done. Picked up a couple of controls on the way home.

On days like this, I'm reminded that I have made noises at various times in the last couple of years about retiring from elite long distances and maybe it's time to do it properly (although the way things went today I probably wouldn't have found an M45 long distance much easier) - not just yet, though, because I'm entered for one in NZ next weekend (it was advertised as a middle when I first entered it but I'm going to give it a go). I'm staggering towards 300 NOL appearances (currently 289), but my tally at the end of this year looks like being one lower than it might have been because I'll probably be replacing Eric as IOF event adviser for the Australian Sprint Championships. (There are worse fates than a controlling trip to Queensland in winter...).

Surprised the winning time blew out that much (Craney won in 108) - shows how much difference course design makes in an area like this. One key difference is that the really rough stuff (around 12-15) was an area which the World Cup courses traversed downhill on a (very) long leg.

No rest for the wicked: IOF teleconference from 5-11.15 (at least it didn't go to the scheduled midnight).

C • Winning time 6

Event: NOL Round 4, Race 11, / 12 (WRE), St Helens, Tasmania
 

NOL Middle on the north end of Golden Fleece - mostly pretty thick and low-visibility (and the mapped vegetation was somewhat outdated, so what was light green and white on the map wasn't a very good indication of what was what on the ground). A challenging middle distance; found it hard to run in the areas with lots of fallen timber and scrub, but technically mostly reasonable - dropped a minute at 14 in the circle, and some not-great lines. Bit disappointed that Matt Patten (who I'd got away from at 10) and Simon Rouse got through me at 14 (and Matt ended up getting the two minutes back), but did show some craftiness on the second-last by dropping low and stealing a (slight) march on the Simon/Craney train. Probably about a par result in the end, but a lot more points than par results normally get me because the field's pretty thin.

At Northcote - had to do some guesswork as to the time because there is no external clock (apart from a 60-second one). Not too bad as a session once I was in - getting used to the water temperature was OK (at 25, it's lower than normal for a public pool), and I also picked up some nasty chafing walking around in the humidity on Wednesday which was painful on first contact with water but settled down quickly.

Lunchtime run on the Tan in the middle of a day of work in which I didn't seem to get much done other than clear out and respond to a week's worth of accumulated e-mails. Reasonable run in conditions considerably less humid than what I've been used to this week. Lots of people in very old-fashioned white gowns on Southbank near the Arts Centre in what I'm assuming was some performance art of some description.

Headed down to Tasmania tonight.

Full travel day today - left the hotel in Guangzhou at 6am and was in the door at home around 10pm. Long day but everything went smoothly (apart from the roadworks coming out of the airport at the Melbourne end), and the plane was fairly empty (also seemed to be an unusually large amount of legroom so I'm wondering if I scored an upgrade of sorts). Winter has definitely arrived in my absence.

I'm around for about as long as it takes to swap one lot of gear for another (there's not an awful lot of overlap between my gear for Guangzhou and my gear for Tasmania), although I have found enough time to wash the stuff that's come home from Guangzhou - it probably wouldn't smell great by Monday otherwise.

Oddly enough, the text that Bruce sent me on Sunday with the football scores only came through when I landed back in Melbourne. Maybe the Chinese censors were upset about Lin Jong getting reported.

Significantly more humid today (the difference between a dewpoint of 21 and one of 24 is very noticeable), and I thought my original aim of 90 minutes might be a struggle, so decided to commit myself to something like 65-70 and see how I felt. Headed north and then north-west, initially through the city (under a few elevated roadways - the anti-Skyrail people wouldn't cope too well with Guangzhou, although I suspect most of them don't cope too well in general with years which start with a 2) but ending up in a nice park surrounding a lake, meaning an essentially traffic-free middle 20 minutes or so.

Coming back, I was to remind myself that a good way to see a foreign city is to get lost. On this occasion, my navigational misadventure was to hit a road running SW-NE rather than the one that I thought I was hitting, running W-E; I then couldn't make things fit the map (although as it turned out I was running on the other side of the same road I'd been on on Monday), and ended up using a Metro station to relocate. (Another few hundred metres and I'd have reached the zoo, which I certainly would have recognised). That wasn't quite the end of my route choice misadventures, as what looked like a short cut on the way back ended at a boomgate and a sign 'Military Administrative Area'; I beat a hasty retreat. Ended up getting close to the 90 minutes anyway.

Don't think I was quite getting full value for my kilometres from the Garmin in the concrete jungle (or perhaps the green jungle for that matter), but this wasn't a fast run. Held up OK though given the conditions. The extension placed me firmly in the middle of peak hour, with some interesting traffic conditions. Also spotted two people handing out flyers outside a station; if I was at home I'd have a fair idea what they were doing, but I suspect handling out those sorts of leaflets outside a station in this part of the world would quickly result in an invitation to have a deep and meaningful conversation with the Public Security Bureau.

The meeting finished at lunchtime which allowed some time to explore a few neigbourhoods, both in the older part of town (where we stayed in 2004) and the rising centre to the east, none of which existed in 2004 but now plays host to three buildings in the 400+ metre range (one elegant, one reasonably graceful and one spectacularly ugly monolith) - in this part of the world, if it's decided that the CBD is going to move 8km or so to the east, that's what happens. Made some good use of the Metro too, including exercising a certain amount of brute force to get myself off a peak-hour train (when in Rome do as the Romans do....) - having successfully negotiated the Sao Paulo metro with a pack at peak hour this was pretty tame.

Whilst getting into the park yesterday morning wasn't an option, I noticed there was a large open forecourt which would provide enough space for an intervals session. (This isn't a bad sort of session for this type of environment - doesn't need a lot of space and fairly short and sharp when there's humidity to be dealt with). There were a few people to dodge who were doing tai chi - there always will be early morning in any open space in China (the only thing that's changed in a century is that there days the backing soundtrack comes from a strategically placed smartphone) - but not too many. Felt pretty reasonable, and some liveliness on the later reps.

Warm-up and down. A bit of a struggle for the first kilometre but worked out OK in the end. Went out a bit earlier this morning, but still quite busy around the place by the end.

Arrived in Guangzhou without any undue difficulties late yesterday afternoon, and did enough walking in the evening to get some basic neighbourhood orientation. My previous visit was in 2004 (one night each way en route to/from Kazakhstan), and one immediate surprise is that the air was cleaner than I remember from then (i.e. it is actually possible to see the surrounding hills and cloud-free portions of the sky are a visible shade of blue) - this may be because it rained heavily on Friday night and pollution hasn't yet had a chance to reaccumulate, but it's at least vaguely promising.

Headed out in the morning to do some exploration. Like Beijing, Guangzhou has relatively large "main" blocks - not huge amounts of traffic on the minor roads within blocks, but getting across the main roads between blocks is a challenge - there was one where the only option I could see was to go through the metro station (so I did). Starting to learn where the overpasses are. Headed on the map towards a green area - this turned out to be part zoo, part enclosed park, and all closed until 8am, but there was a nearby bike/pedestrian path next to a freeway which worked OK for a while. Relatively quiet when I set out at about 7, but much busier by 7.30 (both vehicles and pedestrians - seemed to be school drop-off time), so I might head out a bit earlier tomorrow. Not as humid as I was expecting, with dewpoints around 20 and not in the mid-20s.

I came off the plane with quite a bit of soreness on the side of my right knee; there's still a bit there, but it was a non-issue running. The run itself was nothing to get too excited about but good to see something of the neighbourhood.

I was wondering what goes on at the Beauty Exchange Center. (On the other hand, had I previously known of its existence I might have been tempted to stay at the Guangdong Geological Landscape Hotel).

By the way, orienteering.asn.au (including eventor.orienteering.asn.au) appears to be blocked in China. I suspect this is because it runs off a Wordpress platform and not because anything particularly subversive has been published on its pages. (I was wondering if my log would be blocked because I once made a reference to seeing a protest by a certain religious sect, but it isn't).