Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A bit of an oddball morning. I was supposed to be doing an interview on ABC radio in Melbourne at 6.45, so got into work about 6 to do the preparatory work for it (a 5.10 alarm's just what you want on a Monday morning...). The phone stayed silent and I was wondering if they were going to stand me up altogether, but the interview finally happened around 7.15. Presumably somebody more important filled the 6.45 slot.

Once the interview was done I headed down to Albert Park for a swim before starting the normal working day. Back rather stiff early on but better in the second half (a major objective for these sessions is to loosen up various bits of the body after hard work in the days before, so mission accomplished).

MFR Monday night from Bruce's place. Made the mistake of not checking the radar before I started riding from work and got soaked for my trouble (there must be a lot of rubbish clogging drains because there was a remarkable amount of standing water for a 0.6mm shower).

It had more or less stopped raining by the time we ran, or a route which, unusually for a run in this area, didn't feature the Merri Creek (except to cross it). Took in the oval where the Plugger Toyota ad was filmed, and Nicola showed off Westgarth Primary's new kitchen garden at the end. The run itself? - pretty ordinary, with back again a little stiff, but I think just generally tired at the end of a very long day.

Mud, mud, glorious mud! It was terrific to reacquaint myself with such things as mud, puddles and slippery ground, things I've always enjoyed right back to the days when I used to hope for rain on school cross-country day (our course turned into a skating rink as soon as it got wet and I thought such conditions would be to my advantage, but never got the chance to put it properly to the test). It drizzled steadily for the first 45 minutes, which is, I think, the first time I've run in steady rain since Canada in November.

Had a terrific first half-hour, heading out over the hills of Templestowe. Didn't quite develop as well as I thought it might given that start, and was definitely ready to finish when I came in, but still a pretty good effort. Slightly faster than most of my long runs during the summer. I realised on the Candlebark Park section that this is the first time I've run that track in that direction, and therefore got to see a few new sights.

C • surprised i didn't see you out there blair. 2

Event: Training day for WOC trials
 

Training day at St. George's Lake. Was feeling half-asleep before the start and expected it to be unpleasant physically. It wasn't actually too bad, particularly in the second half, although I wasn't pushing that hard. Handled the mining detail OK but then lacked confidence in a flat section where there seemed to be a lot more detail on the ground than there was on the map; my other time losses (non-major) were partly products of flags on the ground or not quite in the right place.

Early on there was a lot of fallen timber on the ground; with the overnight rain I wasn't very confident on this, especially on the steeper ground. Will want to be better at this next weekend, although I don't expect as much fallen timber on the other side of the road.

A session at Kew. It's a convenient location for when I have a massage at Richmond on Friday morning, but not my favourite pool, rather crowded and one always feels that you're trespassing on the locals' turf. Swim itself went fine though.

Another sign of autumn: the smell of wood smoke in the air. Melbourne doesn't have anywhere near as much of this as Canberra or Launceston but it can still be noticeable.

Most unusual interview request: SBS radio rang yesterday and asked for someone to do an interview on the drought - in Portuguese. As my Portuguese is pretty well non-existent that one was handpassed to a Brazilian in the meteorology area at Melbourne Uni. (Enough of the terminology is common that I can usually make a reasonable go of understanding written climate material in most European languages - one of the major sources I use for European climate is met.no's media release page - but putting sensible sentences together is another thing altogether).

I was also gratified to see that in the list of nominees for the Fugly Awards, one of the nominees for Worst Female TV Personality is the woman from the Australian Pensioners Insurance ads.

C • fugly's 2

Longest run for a few weeks. Original plan was to take the radio out and be accompanied on the run by the sound of the World Cup semi-final, but the dismal performance of the South African batsmen meant this didn't happen (at departure time of 6 there were only 14 runs to win).

Another cool clear morning. Much better than yesterday morning; it was a run that occasionally threatened to turn into something special and never quite did, but still a good solid effort and didn't really tire until the last few minutes (and even that, I think, was mostly stiffening from a long wait at a road crossing).

Latest accessory spotted: in the first few minutes of the run (when it was still dark) I saw a dog with a flashing white light on its front. The owner (who wasn't flashing) came shortly afterwards.

C • What world cup? 4

Listless and lacking energy for most of the way. Usually that sort of run doesn't come good, but this one did, picking up greatly in the last 10 minutes.

Started to the tones of the national anthem filtering up from the Anzac Day service (the local war memorial is a block down the road).

Out at Monash. The main purpose of this run was to test out some route choices after a morning checking the NOL sprint map and controls. It's a bit of a last-minute job but I'm now confident that everything's under control, and it's definitely a good area for a sprint. Another nice day for running - sunny and pleasantly cool. (Nice day for watching football too - just a pity about the result).

C • Error 6

Back to the fartlek loop with the usual accompaniment of the Tuesday morning even-number waterers (hopefully the forthcoming Big Wet - at least I hope it's forthcoming because I was telling everyone about it yesterday - will reduce the need for this). Felt good and a reasonable pace (9.07 fastest loop), helped along by a gorgeous morning, at least if you're not a farmer or gardener.

C • big wet? 2

Morning session at Fitzroy. Rather stiff in the shoulders this morning. Another sign of advancing autumn - first sighting of mist over the water at the pool.

Looks like I'll have to change my cycling route in - one bit of it in Ivanhoe has been turned into a one-way street (the wrong way). This is a pity as it allowed me to avoid about 2km of pretty heavily trafficked road.

C • Risk It 5

A not particularly stellar, slow run from Dion's place, the main highlight of which was a couple of excellent views of the Melbourne night skyline from Quarries Park and the Studley Park golf course. A bit of a stitch towards the end.

Decided to take on the Maxi 3-hour score event at Sailors Creek with the intention of treating it as a training run and staying out for around 2 hours. Bruce had the same idea and set out in the same sequence. It quickly became apparent that we were going to get all the controls well inside 3, or even 2, hours, even at less than full speed - we already had 6 on the board inside the first 10 minutes.

Bruce pulled away a bit on the second quarter of the course, mostly because he was a bit more aggressive than I was on the numerous erosion gully crossings, but I caught up again after a slightly suspect control and then a split on route choice across the green main creek (the only time all day we weren't in sight of each other). The next control was overrun by wasps - as I'd been warned on approach. I stopped to see if a safe approach could be made; Bruce went straight in, punched, got stung and fled the scene with the wasps in hot pursuit. He also dropped his map and control card in the process and wasn't about to go back in to retrieve it. We ran together from there and predictably finished way inside the distance.

I was pretty happy with this one; certainly stronger than most recent days and running hills decently well. The navigation was fairly straightforward (especially as I had Bruce to show me into so many controls in the first two-thirds) but still pleased to do nothing silly. 97 minutes was a nice length for this stage of training.

It may seem like poor course-setting to set a 3-hour score event where people get them all in just over half the time (and we'd probably have broken 90 if we'd been going flat out), but I don't think much more could have been done given the limits of the size of the map.

Thought our kilometre rate might have been a bit faster given the open nature of most of the forest (and the modest climb by Sailors Creek standards), but the gully crossings definitely add up.

C • But did you punch control 21 3

Once again feeling a bit flat - think I may be fighting off a bit of a cold. Something of a nothing run as far as the Gresswell reserve; Springthorpe is much less of a construction site than it was a few months back. Went out too early to have the rare opportunity to run in the rain.

Just about the one moment of peace in the last 24 hours. Shoulders stiff early but loosened up nicely in the second half.

I don't expect too many of you were watching Sky News at 6.05 this morning, but if anyone was, did they use the picture of me from the Barambogie event last year? (They wanted a digital photo of me to use as a backdrop and the only one I had to hand was the one off the OA website).

Current interview score: 16 (with at least one more to come). A few of these were with international wire services so I await, with bated breath, potential sightings in Aftenposten/Helsingin Sanomat/the Almaty Herald. (I won't be awaiting sightings in the U.S. - as one travel guide I saw put it, "unless the U.S. is currently bombing your country, don't expect to read about it in an American newspaper").

C • Big time 4

Another pretty uninspiring run, although better than yesterday. Had my first taste of the new bit of the Plenty River trail (linking up from the back of Viewbank to Main Road), which I suspect will become a fairly regular haunt for me on runs out to the north-east (a good place to find big hills). Saw a remarkable number of kangaroos coming back through the Gresswell reserve - they're obviously used to runners because all but one stayed still rather than scattering.

Had an uncomfortably close encounter in the last few minutes with a P-plater in a white van failing to give way whilst making an illegal right turn.

A crazy day at work today courtesy of the PM's comments on water - 7 interviews so far with several others to come.

C • I'm hiding 1

A pretty uninspiring hour around the Yarra Flats and the streets of Viewbank.

Yesterday obviously fooled me into thinking that I was still in reasonable shape. Today at the Tan was a very different story - felt weak from the outset and didn't get much better, although picked up a little (only a little) later on once it became apparent that I was in danger of failing to break 14. Somehow managed to find myself with 50 metres of clear space in front of me towards the end, which rarely happens anywhere on the Tan at any time (except possibly 3.30 a.m.).

Splits: 3.36, 3.47, 3.39, 3.37.

Going to/from the Tan. Had to stop to pull some wood out of my foot, although it was only about as long in millimetres as Bruce's was in centimetres.

The prize for most unsuccessful political media stunt of the week goes to the ACT Shadow Police Minister, one Steve Pratt (who non-Canberrans may remember as the aid worker who was arrested by the Serbs during the Kosovo war in 1999). He's been on an anti-graffiti crusade of late and took it upon himself to invite the media to bring themselves and their cameras along to watch him paint over some "graffiti". Unfortunately, the "graffiti" in question was a perfectly legal mural which had been commissioned by a local sporting group. He may now get the opportunity to find out just how soft the laws are against defacing public artwork (and his researcher is probably seeking alternative employment). Full gory details at http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21575892-2,00....

C • pratt 1

Tuesday night street-O at Windy Hill (something of a personal sacred site). Ran alternate legs hard/easy after a 15-minute warm-up. The course was long enough to keep things interesting, not always the case at score events (often the course is too short for a 60-minute time and the decision-making is only about deciding the most efficient way to get them all), but always felt like I had a little in hand, given that the controls were closer together in the second half. Finished with 2.5 minutes to spare.

Quite encouraged by the way I was feeling; didn't push it flat out but felt strong on the faster legs and could have gone quite a bit faster. The Tan tomorrow may be interesting.

A rather sluggish swim at Fitzroy after the long trip home and not enough sleep.

MFR Monday night run from Kirsten and Keith's place. Pleasant enough - didn't feel as stiff and tired as I thought I might after a hard week.

Probably my best run of the week, physically at any rate, and kept my navigation together on a day when quite a few others made some surprisingly big mistakes on a relatively easy area (I'm particularly mystified as to how anyone managed to make a mess of 23 or 24, both of which stood out like sore thumbs in the middle of paddocks).

Caught Lee Andrewartha at 4 and spent the next 5km trying to get away from him. Trying to make and sustain a break on someone who's just a little bit slower is something I really enjoy doing, especially in this sort of country where it's possible to miss a bit in the circle; you need to be absolutely precise or you'll get swallowed. Didn't get properly clear until 17, having also gone through Dane in the interim. After that I soon had another target in Craig, who appeared about 300 metres ahead on the way to 20. This gap stayed pretty constant the rest of the way but he was still a useful target, not least because I saw him bend down to punch the second-last, a control which caused some grief (very publicly) to several people, not least the race winner.

4th, 3 minutes down, was on paper probably my best National League result since around 2000, although in reality it owed more to others having ordinary runs - Matt sounded like he was all over the place and Simon made his biggest mistake for several years at 7 (i.e. he lost more than 2 minutes). In the end I missed out on getting a place because Simon was able to find another gear when he caught Matt Parton and I couldn't do likewise once I sighted Craig.

Thumbs-up to the post-event catering - lots of goodies courtesy of the Hellenic Gun Club, whose premises we were using. I'm not sure how what happens at a Hellenic Gun Club varies from your average everyday firing range, although Craney suggested that they shoot at plates instead of clay targets. (I did see a shattered plate on the ground near the start, although I'm not sure bullets were responsible).

All in all - a steady race week but I'd hoped for something a bit more, especially over Easter and in the longer races. Definitely good to see the Nuggets in prime position though (and a shock to see the Cockatoos in wooden-spoon territory).

Australian Middle Champs at Pewsey Vale, 8th. Another run more or less from the standard mould - didn't miss much but not as fast as I'd like to have been, and at the back of a fairly close bunch which meant the placing wasn't great.

Continued a close tussle with Craig over the week - this now stands at 3-3 with a cumulative margin of 14 seconds to him. Bizarrely, two of my three wins have been in the two sprints. Today we were within 12 seconds of each other on every split and even made the same mistake (a 15-seconder missing the first one after the spectator control a bit to the left - a miss we had in common with plenty of others).

Felt slow and sluggish even by my usual not-exactly-stellar sprint standards - certainly well down on last Friday. AJ caught me reasonably early on, and obviously decided that he enjoyed that experience so much that he did it again (having navigated from 13 to 14 via 15 in the interim). At least avoided doing anything stupid, and saw my placing rise from 18th when I crossed the line to 11th at the end of the day courtesy of the transgressions of various people.

Another not-exactly-stellar recovery run in Port Lincoln. Hope that I'll feel a bit sharper on returning to racing tomorrow.

An easy run around the Parnkulla trail on the Port Lincoln waterfornt. A nice setting for a run - some very nice views and interesting sea birds in places - but a less than stellar performance. It was emphatically obvious for the smell near the wharf that this is a fishing town.

Over on the Eyre Peninsula for a couple of days in between races. A gentle recovery session in the Whyalla pool, conveniently close to where we were staying.

A tough final day. Again just about optimal perfectly with only tiny wobbles. Perhaps a bit ambitious in my early route choices in the steep country and paid for it in the last 15 minutes, although I think it also hit me hard mentally when AJ (and later Eric) caught me after what I thought was a reasonable run to that time. Ended up dropping a place when Craig edged 2 seconds ahead of me - didn't help that I had to wake all the SI units up on Sunday as second starter, but them's the breaks. Still, 8th is my first top-10 finish at Easter since 1998 (surprising as I have five top-5 results in Australian Champs in that time).

One thing that's evident from the Easter results is that we had better hope our best four are all fit and available. If we lose any of them there isn't a lot around, with Simon, AJ and Eric all not nominating for various reasons. The selectors will be desperate indeed if they have to call on me but it's hard to see what their alternatives are if they need to find an extra person, given that the younger prospects who might be considered aren't really plausible candidates for the long. Here's hoping everyone is OK.

C • Except of course that candidat... 43

Didn't miss a thing (although a couple of routes might not have been quite optimal). Handled the distance well for most of it - and achieved one target, that of defending a four-minute start on AJ and ten on Shep. Faded away a bit in the last 20 minutes, which was rather disappointing given my work over the summer - I held ground with the field, but the opportunity was there to take a couple of minutes out of them over that stretch and I wasn't able to take it.

A solid run without being totally convincing. One annoying 30-seconder but otherwise clean, felt good in the warm-up but not quite the speed that I might have hoped for. Moved up in the standings though, and now well inside the top 10.

Event: Australian Easter Orienteering Carnival
 

Easter prologue. About a par sprint performance for me, 2.5 minutes down. Drifted a little on 2 but nothing serious. Thought I was really struggling because Simon caught me so quickly (by just after 1k), but that turned out to say more about him than it did about me.

The Tan. Last hit-out before Easter. Was in two minds about whether or not to do this but thought a quick 13 minutes wouldn't do any harm and a decent time would help my confidence. Felt excellent in the warm-up, but then was a bit slow out of the blocks (again). Picked up as it went on and a good finish, with some speed at the end - 62 is the fastest final 330 I've done for a long time.

It was my best time this season but I might have hoped for something more, especially given the excellent conditions and lack of other pedestrian traffic (although I think the latter is more annoying than time-costing).

Km splits: 3.34, 3.40 (uphill), 3.29, 3.27.

To/from the Tan. Felt good, particularly on the way there.

Went to a pub quiz night last night with a group I go with every month or so. We win about 50% of the time (which essentially means we get a fair number of cheap meals at the same venue next time). My contribution last night wasn't as great as usual because there were a lot of TV and movie questions, but it was certainly useful for one question: 'what sport combines map-reading and cross-country running'. Just to leave it in no doubt, I was wearing a 2003 Australian Championships polo shirt at the time...

(Shameless plug department: I'm organising a quiz night on Friday 27/4 as a fundraiser for the election campaign. All comers welcome. The only hint I'll give is: know your gangsters...)

Ran from near work on a loop which went as far north as the sacred site of Windy Hill. Last run of any length before the weekend, although I may go out hard for a bit tomorrow depending on how I feel. This one went well for the first half, but suffered a bit from lower back tightness in the second half, not sure why.

Signs that make you wonder: in Ascot Vale, 'Weighbridge and Aged Care Facility'. Is this a nursing home for old truckies?

Swim at Fitzroy. Normally swimming is pretty visually unexciting - from the time I've spent chasing a black line I can understand why so many swimmers retire so young - but a diversion was provided today by a large column of smoke not too far to the south (turned out the fire was in a church in Collingwood).

Had the usual quasi-fortnightly session on my calves afterwards. I do this with one of the Australian athletics team doctors which gave me the opportunity to catch up with news from the World Cross Country Champs in Kenya (as well as to ask a few questions about how unusual a testosterone ratio above 4:1 really is). The team did pretty well in spite of very hot, humid conditions, and managed to get back in one piece despite much apprehension caused by an alleged terrorist threat before the event. Like most such threats, this one came to nothing. I suspect the process of making one goes something like this:

(warning: kids - don't try this at home. Making terrorist threats is illegal and can get you in a lot of trouble).

1. Look up the name of a group that has done something in your country of interest in the past. If no such group exists, pull a few words at random out of an English-Arabic dictionary. Don't worry that what you've called yourself might translate as the Martyrdom Brigades of the Flying Spaghetti Monsters - no-one in the Western media will be able to tell the difference.

2. Put together a few paragraphs of suitably blood-curdling rhetoric. Mention words like 'jihad' and 'infidels' a few times and make a big deal of your connections to Al-Qaeda. Mention as many countries by name as possible to maximise the number of places you get media coverage in, and throw in a couple of small inoffensive ones to keep everyone guessing (Scandinavian and Baltic countries work well for this, as does New Zealand).

3. Attach a bin Laden video you found somewhere on the Internet.

4. Send to Reuters, the Associated Press or any News Limited newspaper. Steer clear of Al-Jazeera - they actually know enough about what's going on to be able to see through this stuff.

Fortunately for all of us, actually carrying out an attack is considerably more difficult.

MFR Monday night cruise from Nicola's place. It's the first time for a very long time I've attempted to run on the same day as getting the needlework done on my calves (which causes them to tighten dramatically for a few hours), but a 11-hour gap was enough and it was fine. Bruce decided that even this was a bit too much for his taper and gave it a miss (to be fair, he was feeling slightly off and was coming off an exceptional race - one to watch this weekend).

Left dinner early to go home and find the source of the $2,519.10 gap in the OA accounts that the auditor found (now traced to some double-counted GST and a 10 cent transcription error in the MTBO WOC account, so I can sleep now).

A solid effort after a very ordinary night's sleep which I suspect I'll pay for this afternoon. Steady climb through the first half-hour, then lost most of the altitude gained in one plunge - some sharp roller-coaster stuff in the final quarter to keep me honest. Saw various wandering farm animals and woke up quite a lot of the district's dogs, which won't have endeared me to the locals on a Sunday morning - maybe it's as well I'm leaving the district today.

C • Balloons 1