Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A bit of a theme of conversation from time to time this weekend was things which happened 30 years ago which wouldn't happen now, so it was perhaps fitting that we weren't that far away from Pheasants Brush, the day 1 Easter 1988 area which leaves one wondering (a) how we ever got permission to use it and (b) why anyone thought it was a good place for orienteering in the first place. (Perhaps my views were coloured by the fact that I had an early start, in an area which was largely heathland which tracked massively).

Like yesterday this was largely a "tourist run" - doing lots of volume wasn't really part of the plan for this weekend. I didn't go to Pheasants Brush, but I did head up to the top of the escarpment to the Barren Grounds, broadly similar terrain on the next plateau to the south. Solid climb up there (first 1.5km up the road which was a little hairy, next 800m up the park access road), and further in than I thought, which meant I gave away ideas of doing a loop track and just went out to a bit past the Illawarra lookout and back. On a clear day the views from this lookout would extend a long way, but this was not a clear day, despite the sunshine (lots of burnoff smoke). Still a decent view in the foreground even if you could only just see the shoreline in the distance. Most happy about the fact that I was able to handle a 2km/200m climb directly from the start without my back, my Achilles or any other body parts completely freaking out, even if it was very hard work aerobically (and also happy that at the time of writing my quads seem to have survived the descent).

It was definitely a good weekend; 30 years is a long time but we quickly slipped back into a mode as if it had been only 30 days. Now for the second leg.

Up for the weekend at a place near the top of Jamberoo Mountain, with a group from school - some of whom I've been in regular touch with, others I haven't seen for 30 years. This run was mainly devoted to exploring the surrounds - I'll do something a bit more ambitious tomorrow. The first half was a footpad through rainforest, almost terrain running in places, then an out-and-back on a side road. Some nice forest and some excellent views.

The rest of the day involved lots of hanging out, various card games, some go-karting, and trying to recognise people in old photos (one of the Girls Grammar people I might have suspected of being Tara Melhuish had it not been that the photo in question was taken at least a decade before Tara was born).

The earliest I've started a run in many years - had an 8am flight to Sydney (and not a lot of obvious opportunities to do anything once there), so the best available option was to head out before the flight; in the name of getting 20 minutes' extra sleep, I decided to do it on the way to the airport rather than from home and got under way about 5.45. (Being able to get a shower at the airport helps).

This took me to Airport West, not a place I've done much running (occasionally ventured in here from my grandmother's old place nearby in Essendon). It's flat and not terribly inspiring, but the former is good for a recovery run and it doesn't matter much how inspiring the scenery is when it's dark. Started from the vast car park of the Westfield (bigger than it needs, which may be why a circus has set up in part of it) and essentially did a lap of the suburb. Quads tight early, but once I'd shaken that out, not a bad run (although fairly slow).

The locals may not have appreciated my presence, as I managed to set off not one, but two, burglar alarms at businesses I was running past (can't remember ever doing that before). The second of these was outside the Airport West Sexyland, something which has been generating a certain amount of mirth on social media.

As noted a couple of days back, I'm doing three trips back to back. With a very wide range of gear requirements and climates (there's not that much overlap between a work meeting in Fiji and an orienteering trip to NZ) my bag is even more packed than usual. Fortunately, I managed to find a spot at the terminal end of the long term car park so I should be able to do a gear swap in between the Fiji leg and the NZ one.

Longest run for a while. A slow start in the dark - took me until 6k to start getting under 6 min/km with any consistency - but felt like it was going to be OK in the injury department, and so it proved. A steady grind of a run, and certainly knew that I'd been going for a reasonably long run in the last 20 minutes, but happy to get this one on the board.

Quads were quite stiff through the day. It's a bit of an indicator that I haven't done a lot of long stuff lately that a not-particularly-hilly 100 minutes had more impact there then a lot of runs which were a lot hillier and a lot longer did.

A rare-this-year Wednesday evening outing at Camberwell to mark World Orienteering Day. For the first couple of kilometres, I thought it was a case of here we go again - struggling quite significantly on uphills - but something clicked about 2km in, and from there it was a pretty nice run. Seem to have got a pretty good route, too, coming in about 500m shorter than most of the others I talked to.

Unlike last year, I confined myself to doing a single event, in my home state.

C • You got me by 20 seconds. R... 1

C • You got me by 20 seconds. R... 1

Still not in a great state (one wonders what it's going to be like trying to come up in the evening for World Orienteering Day tomorrow), so took to the water instead - once I'd negotiated the traffic jams to get there. (These seem to be unusually bad at the moment; I guess people are avoiding Hoddle Street because of the roadworks there?). A reasonably mundane session in the pool, which seemed a bit cooler than usual but the numbers don't suggest it was.

I do get around a bit, but the next couple of weeks are going to be particularly busy in that respect. I was already going to NSW this weekend, and to NZ the following weekend - and now in between it turns up something has come up with work at short notice and I'll (probably) be spending most of next week in Fiji. (Before anyone starts talking too much about junkets, I don't expect to see too much other than an airport hotel and whatever there is within running distance of there). The timings are sufficiently tight that I don't expect to have time to go home between any of the three legs. Would have been a lot easier if I could have flown direct from Fiji to NZ, but that's far too complicated.

Monday morning pilates session. Woke up with a pretty stiff back - at least this was tangible evidence that I wasn't imagining things yesterday (I sometimes wonder about this) - but this loosened up after the first couple of exercises. Seemed to be working a bit harder than last week, possibly an indication that I'm doing the exercises closer to properly than I was last time.

Lots of fun and games in Senate Estimates today (we were up, but I haven't heard about any crazy climate conspiracy theories being aired today, unlike some previous occasions). There was even something which came up about the Great Barrier Reef which had nothing to do with climate - Border Force pranged one of their patrol boats into it. (Maybe one of the few positives of sea level rise is that it will make it less likely that Border Force will prang patrol boats into the Reef).

C • Border force boat 1