Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NZ QB long. Once again, the coastal strip was my undoing - headed out there for controls 3, 4 and 5. I didn't really have a clue on any of these, not getting a grip on which features I could and couldn't rely on and which bumps were mapped, and lost significant time on all of them (in the company of a number of similarly befuddled people, mostly Australian junior men).

By 5 I'd probably dropped 8 minutes or so. From there it was a pretty reasonable run; didn't feel especially confident in the macrocarpa section to 10 but hit them all OK, then much more confident as the forest opened out from there, although still lacking pace even in the flatter country; soft ground was a bit draining and a couple of times took partial track options to give myself a bit of a break. A few small wobbles in this section but nothing worse than 20-30 seconds. Knew there was another coastal loop right at the end and was extremely cautious on it, but this time got through with only minor losses and found something at the end to get under 2 hours.

I clearly need to do a lot more training in this sort of country if I want to be competitive next year. I'm sure I didn't find coastal dunes so difficult on my early trips to NZ - indeed APOC 1994 at Knottingly was one of my best major-event runs (and certainly the only time I've beaten a current world champion). On the positive side, reasonably happy with the way the body held up for the distance, though I'm sleepy this evening.

QB3 (the NZ version), first day on the World Cup middle map from 2013. Not much confidence on 1 (the flat bit on the map - often a good feature in this terrain - didn't seem to have much of a counterpart in the terrain), but hit it more or less OK. Then ran into trouble on the open dunes at 4 and 5 - a bit wide on 4 (maybe 45 seconds-1 minute) and a bigger one on 5, staying too close to the coast and misreading the elongated flat depressions, probably another 2 minutes there. Got a bit easier from there and my navigation improved accordingly, except for 14, where I couldn't quite make sense of which gullies were/weren't mapped in the circle, perhaps 1.5 minutes there? Finished off reasonably well, helped by getting a bit of a pull from Brodie.

The result was a bit of a shock. I dropped 4-5 minutes over the course, but even without that, I still would have been last (apart from the mispunches) and about 5 minutes further back than I would expect in a field of this strength. Nick Hann did 31. Shows that experience in the terrain counts for a bit.

Original plan was another tourist run somewhere in the Nelson Lakes area, but I woke up to be greeted by low cloud, so decided to rearrange things a bit and do a run in Murchison, in the hope that this would give the cloud a chance to break up by the time I got to the lakes. I wasn't especially confident that it would break up (low cloud like this can persist in late autumn/early winter for weeks in Geneva, which is at about the same latitude as Dunedin), but it did.

Headed up a side road from Murchison. I expected it to be quiet and it was (saw two vehicles, one of which was a farmer's quad bike). Steady, if very gradual climb out of town and was feeling yesterday a little early on, but nice in the second half. One plus of the low cloud was that the temperature was above freezing (although not by much).

I think it would be fair to say that waiting for the cloud to break up before I got to the Nelson Lakes was worth it....(and the Marlborough Sounds aren't bad either, once you get clear of the mudflats at the Havelock end). Now on the boat across to Wellington in anticipation of the weekend's events.

One of the opportunities which arises from being a tourist is to do a tourist run, and this was an opportunity par excellence. My chosen target was the southernmost kilometres of the Abel Tasman coastal track, on a gloriously clear (although cold) day.

This turned out to be probably my most enjoyable run of 2016 so far. Took a couple of kilometres to get going, but then settled into a nice rhythm and flowing very well by 4k or so. Couldn't have asked for a better track (even leaving aside the views, which were excellent) - mostly on the contour 20-40 metres above the water, weaving in and out of gullies and no mud. I'm sure there are locals who run the lot (I'm also guessing it gets a bit more rugged further in), but I settled for an out-and-back to Yellow Point about 8k from the track start. Started to tire a bit in the last 20 minutes but definitely a good day.

Spent the rest of the day exploring various bits of the northern South Island (not always the bits I'd planned on - I took a wrong turn out of Motueka and didn't realise until I was 30km up a road I hadn't planned on taking) and have ended up in Murchison. Nelson Lakes tomorrow before getting an evening boat across to Wellington.

As one might expect of a remote settlement with a mining background, Murchison has a reasonably colourful history - including abruptly losing its publican in the 1950s after it was discovered by the local law that he was wanted in Western Australia for armed robbery.

Travelling from Melbourne to NZ, leaving home at 6.30am and getting into Nelson around 7pm. (The Melbourne flight was a little late into Wellington, killing off any chance of getting onto an earlier flight to Melbourne). Thought about doing a short run from Wellington Airport between flights if I could find somewhere to stash my gear but I couldn't, so passed it up.

NZ is going to be under high pressure for the next week (this is half of a "blocking pair", the other half of which looks set to unleash mayhem on various parts of the east coast of Australia over the weekend), and the views of the northern South Island coming in were sublime. I'll see them at slightly closer quarters over the next couple of days.

A fairly standard Tuesday run - no sign of any injury trouble, although rather sluggish until the last couple of kilometres. Based around the Yarra and Merri Creek but a few more short sharp climbs than such routes sometimes have.

It was the first proper cold morning of the year, with some frost in the lower parts (and some frosted windscreens, although I didn't see anyone trying to deal with them). Didn't quite manage to hold out until the end of autumn before turning any heating on.

Off to New Zealand in the morning - spending a couple of days in the northern end of the South Island before moving on to the weekend's events.

C • Our windscreen was frozen, ... 1

A long day which, perhaps inevitably, became longer - I was planning to be up at 5 for a 6.30 flight out of Launceston but in fact woke up sometime before 4 (cross-matching with yesterday's entry will indicate that this means not very much sleep). Expected to feel awful later in the day but didn't.

Had time in the evening for a swim or a run but not both. I'd expected to be flattened by a long race yesterday, which wasn't quite to be, but still settled for a swim (also felt a bit uncomfortable walking after taking a knock on the shin yesterday, although I expect it's bruising which would have been fine running). Went to Northcote, the first time I've been there in the evening - which was a big mistake because almost all of Northcote's indoor and outdoor space is devoted to other activities on a Monday night (be it squads, lessons or water polo), and after getting kicked out of two other lanes, I then attracted the ire of someone who considered me too slow for a medium lane (quite accurately, but as the only remaining public lane I had nowhere else to go). I think I'll head elsewhere the next time I'm doing something after work.

I had not previously been aware until the activities of this charmer that using a carriage service to create offence is actually a crime (at least in NSW). I've got off surprisingly lightly in the online-abuse department but many of my scientific colleagues have not been so fortunate.