Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A bush sprint at Granite Hills Park, near Mernda. This area had been on my radar for a while (Bruce and I went to check it out in 2011) but this was the first time it's been used.

The arena was on top of the hill and had great views of the CBD (the carpark, looking northeast, instead had views of those great suburban icons, an enormous Bunnings and the golden arches). Of course, such a location meant an uphill finish was inevitable, as was a downhill start. Quite a tricky area with some vegetation, and lots of small rock and earth mound detail without always a lot of definition in the contours; with the 1:4000 scale, lots of overshooting was happening (I only did it once, to the tune of about 20 seconds at 10) and lots of mistakes were visible. Not a lot of speed, but handled the downhill and flat bits respectably; couldn't run much of the hills, and trying to run the last two legs uphill resulted in feeling pretty ordinary at the finish, but I did make it.

Sprint relay at La Trobe. My back hasn't been too bad this week but this was one step too far for it - started playing up early on and I would have stopped had it not been a relay. Instead, I struggled round at a slow pace (slowest by a couple of minutes, I think) - didn't miss much but at this pace I wouldn't have wanted to. Didn't quite achieve our objective of not getting lapped (I was running third leg with Clare, Matt van der Peet, and Mel Gangemi).

There was carnage amongst the rest of the field and at one point it looked like we might have been in danger of being the scoring Victorian team, but one of the other four teams did manage to get across the line.

Race 4 C1 - Splits

Event: Melbourne Sprint Weekend
 

Checking controls for race 1 of Melbourne Sprint Weekend at Overnewton. Everything was where it was supposed to be - the only annoyance was the mud (not surprising with construction around and heavy rain on Thursday), which made the later part of the course a bit unpleasant (the runners found this as well). Body functioning acceptably by current standards.

The event seemed to go pretty well - only complaints I heard were over the aforementioned mud, and an issue with the finish which affected the first couple of finishers (sorted). Good reception for the courses, as I thought there would be (and I think the long leg down to the fence maze is definitely a World of O Route To Christmas candidate).

Got to compete in the afternoon (I was going to say "race", but there are laws against misleading and deceptive advertising). It was Deakin University, which remarkably enough I've never orienteered on despite several events over the years (usually when I've been in Europe). Turned out to be one of the more technical sprints I've done in Australia, with quite a bit of multi-level stuff - starting with #1 which I didn't make a good job of the route choice for. Was struggling a bit with the back and walked some stairs, but that at least gave me the chance to plan legs like 8 which a lot of people must have had trouble with (judging by the fact that my split place was about 10 better than on any other leg). Didn't come last, but the winning time was a fair bit lower than I was expecting - thought this was a 50-60% behind the winner performance, not a 70+.

C • 8 1

Generally a fairly relaxed session. Surprisingly quiet around this morning - I assume lots of people took an extended long weekend (or at least enough to make a difference).

In Canberra. Wasn't sure how this would work out but ended up OK - even coped with a bit of climbing, albeit the gentle climbing to the top end of Ainslie (once I never would have referred to this as climbing, but times have changed). Steady rain throughout; stayed in the suburb - exploring in the process a few streets I don't think I've seen since my driving test - because venturing into a likely mudbath when you're travelling with hand luggage only didn't seem the smartest of ideas. Bit longer than I'd planned on, which suited me too.

I think the last time I finished a run with gear dripping wet as much as that was Singapore, but it wasn't raining there...

Decided to have a crack at intervals for the first time in ages. The warm-up was unpromising but it went OK once I was under way, although starting to go a bit lactic on the last one (6 x 1 minute all up). Doing this a bit later in the morning than I usually would, which may or may not explain why, for the first time in recorded history, I did not see any illegally off-leash dogs in the on-leash bits of All Nations Park.

Warm-up and down. A bit of a struggle in both directions but at least it didn't hurt too much.

Up in Canberra for a day and a half now. Thought about trying to get out to the Wednesday night event but the logistics looked a bit challenging even before it became clear that today would be very wet.

Deals you probably wouldn't have expected to have been offered in 2020: an aquarium shop is offering a free roll of toilet paper with any purchase over $500.

Felt very tight last night and still somewhat so today; a lunchtime attempt didn't last long. A solid massage this evening should have helped.

My discovery of the day was a list of 19th century words deserving of revival. Perhaps the best is "scurryfunge" (the act of hastily cleaning before a guest arrives), but I was still amused to learn that "trumpery" meant "things that look nice but are actually pretty worthless" a couple of centuries before the first Trump hotel came on the scene.

C • Scurryfunge 1

Monday morning Pilates session. Still getting the hang of the new program and didn't feel quite as good as last week. The instructor survived her half Ironman in Geelong the weekend before last.

There are a lot of things I like about March, but being barely light at 7am is not one of them.

C • Barely light at 7am 4

With a stack of February and summer climate summaries to get out as early as possible today (certainly wasn't lacking in material for the extreme events section of the ACT summer one), I thought it best to save my swimming for the evening. Going OK for most of it but drifted out of it later on and seemed to be flailing around a bit (even by my standards) in the last couple of laps.

One of my afternoon engagements was to accompany our state manager to a meeting with the MP for Gippsland East to discuss concerns he (or his constituents) had with gaps in rainfall observations. I learned some time ago that a good way to win brownie points with any MP (especially regional ones) is to express an interest in their electorate, so my weekend activities came in useful (especially as it turns out he grew up in Metung). Also learned a few things, such as that the irrigated river flats I went past on the way from Bairnsdale to the Mitchell River NP produce 60% of Australia's lettuces.