Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Day 1 of QB3 at Coffs Harbour. This sounds like (and is) a fair way to come (especially with Kooyoora as a rival attraction), but it's the first major event to be staged by any of our new post-2012 clubs and I thought I should put in an appearance.

It turned out to be a pretty interesting bit of terrain - a strip of sand dunes 200-300m wide between the railway line and the beach, with a real mix of vegetation and enough yellow patches to make it reasonably runnable if you chose your routes carefully. After the first couple I also got into reading the vegetation, and once I could read that I always felt reasonably in touch with the navigation - a couple of wobbles but not more than 15 seconds (certainly a vast improvement on last weekend). Didn't feel very aggressive with the running, especially when there was lantana about. Shep blew us all away, but I wasn't too far away from the rest, without claiming many notable scalps (Andy Hill being the most notable). Fairly happy with this.

One thing you certainly wouldn't have had at Kooyoora - seeing dolphins on the warm-down.

Having a direct flight certainly made the trip easier. First time I've flown Tiger - didn't expect any frills and didn't get any (the Melbourne terminal 4 certainly has "cheap" written all over it), but they got me from A to B when they said they would, which is the main thing.

C • Mapper 3

Hard 1 Day1 - Splits

First stage of a Friday morning double from Fitzroy Pool. Managed to find a route which didn't involve crossing any really major roads and didn't have any crossovers, although it involved a bit of convoluted stuff around the Exhibition Gardens. Stiff early, but going along reasonably well after the first 10 minutes or so.

Spotted the first defaced poster of the election campaign (someone had added "AND GUNS" to the Liberal Democrats "Tax Cuts For All"). They're a bit slow off the mark this year - usually by this stage at least a few candidate posters are sporting Hitler moustaches. There was a poster sighted in my part of town yesterday "Bruce Wayne for Batman", but sadly, when the list of nominations was announced today, Mr. Wayne was not amongst them.

The swim didn't go so well. Was having trouble with foot cramps almost from the beginning, and when I started to get calf cramps as well it was a worry - one particularly sharp one was enough to convince me enough was enough. Not sure what the problem was - there was no sign of trouble on the run, I don't think my diet this week has been unusually salt-deficient, and lack of hydration certainly hasn't been an issue. To add to the mystery, no sign of feeling untoward through the rest of the day, either.

It may not have been exactly as scenic a setting as this time last week, but this was also a pretty good run. Settled down nicely within a couple of kilometres, and flowing pretty well through the first half, including up some some reasonably solid climbs in Balwyn. Tired somewhat in the second half but still moving OK, and had a nice sharp finish. This was a bit longer than planned (I'd been aiming for 1.45), but not too upset about that - thought the only consequence of the longer time might have been having to get a slightly later train, but my normal train was running a bit late so I didn't even have to do that.

Not terribly fast, but darkness in the first half and mud at times along the river in the later stages may have contributed to that. (Something I've noted here is that if you're not running with a light, there are limited options for getting across the river and associated parklands in the dark, as one has to do to get to the south or southeast at this time of day at this time of year).

One interesting piece I encountered today was on the rise of Icelandic football (Iceland have qualified for a major tournament for the first time, having just missed out on the last World Cup). They've invested very heavily in coaching infrastructure, to the extent that even under-10 coaches are expected to have a UEFA B accreditation (which I think roughly equates to a Level 2 in the Australian system). Something to think about, even if we don't have the financial resources that they do (EUR 11 million, their cut of UEFA's TV income, goes a long way in a country the size of Iceland).

Not a great start, but settled into it and was enjoying myself by the second half. Noticeably more mud and general slipperiness than there had been the last time I was in these parts, particularly in Darebin Parklands (but probably not as much as there would be had I been attempting to do this run in northern Tasmania, eastern NSW or the ACT). No injury issues once warmed up.

Not for the first time, some of this run involved dropping something off to Hall Street which was delivered to Rushall (they're three blocks apart). Hopefully not too much is going astray in the reverse direction.

At Fitzroy in preparation for a day which I expected to be (and was) largely devoted to crunching numbers on the last few days' meteorological excitement (among other things, the 2015 World Cup sprint prologue arena at Cataract Gorge is currently under a couple of metres of water). Fairly standard session - felt a bit odd to be starting it in something resembling darkness (although that was partly a result of being a little earlier than usual).

Wasn't feeling great this morning - probably a combination of tiredness and a bit of a cold (had a sore throat of sorts, although it's settled this evening). The last two days were the important races so today was about enjoying myself, so I thought I'd give it 20 minutes to see if I felt any better once running. That question was answered in the negative (back also wasn't great today) and I wasn't really in the mood for the 90-100 minutes it was looking like being. By then I'd already made one error of some consequence.

Rather disappointing end to an enjoyable few days. I've been rather disconcerted by how much difficulty I've had in coping with a terrain type which I've run well in in the past (albeit 20 years ago). I've also noticed more difficulty than I can remember in reading detail on the maps. I haven't noticed anything similar in other terrains (including complex granite), so wonder if a contributing factor might be the low light levels in the forest here - although I'm also well aware that not too many orienteers get past 45 without needing glasses and I'm only a month away from that milestone.

C • Map colour? 5

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.