Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Up in Canberra for the OA meetings (before heading to Vietnam on Saturday night). Got a swim in at Belconnen after a long day of Board meetings. OK on the whole but a bit of back stiffness later on.

Swimming generally is pretty boring because there isn't much to look at other than the black stripe, but Belconnen seems particularly devoid of in-water "landmarks". At least Fitzroy has the (heritage-listed) 'ACQUA PROFONDA' sign written on the bottom of the pool to look at as you're approaching the deep end.

Quite an impressive light show in Canberra as I write.

Something of a midweek epic - equalling the longest I've done midweek this century (and certainly the longest I've done the morning after a Summer Series), a big loop starting from Clifton Hill, along the Yarra for a while, then along the Outer Circle through Camberwell, back along Gardiners Creek and through Richmond. I expect next week's training to be a bit curtailed (for long runs at least) so am trying to get a big week in this week.

Steady without sparkle for much of the way, then had a good stretch beyond 100 minutes, but I was obviously taking it beyond reasonable limits because I hit the wall in a reasonably big way in the last 10 minutes. Managed to struggle to the finish but I wouldn't have appreciated even another 5 minutes. Hopefully this is only because I did this backing up after a big day yesterday; I'd be worried if I'm struggling to go 2.18 in normal conditions.

Off to Canberra tomorrow, then Vietnam on Saturday night. Updates may be somewhat intermittent.

Started/finished in Surrey Hills, getting out as far as Blackburn Lake - a very nice place to run. Blackburn as a suburb is a nice place to run too, especially along the creek. Quite a humid morning; didn't feel sparkling, but steady enough.

It's been reasonably quiet for me in the last couple of months on the media front, but not today - took a call from 3AW at 6.15 this morning. This all followed from an interview yesterday for the Australian, in which I spent as much time (off the record) discussing preference flows in O'Connor as I did talking about the weather. (I'd like to think that I'd be able to do a reasonable job as a stand-in should Antony Green ever fall under a bus).

C • Antony's magic moment 2

A somewhat mundane performance, on a pretty good course - the pack was split up quite early on thanks to some interesting route choice. I'm not convinced I got the best option but I'm not convinced anyone else did either. Running somewhat mediocre, a bad patch about two-thirds of the way in but better at end. Lost a bit of time again courtesy of a mapped lane being non-existent on the ground, although it didn't have a major impact on which controls to go to. Saw Bryan 100 metres in front and heading in the opposite direction at my second-last control - thought I might have had a chance if he still had a control left as well, but he didn't.

Had to negotiate a traffic jam on the way to the event caused by a stray tow-truck from Kerrigan's Towing. Fans of 'The Castle' will be impressed.

C • when will it stop? 1

Improved by a little on last week (fastest lop 9.21), seem to be working my way out of a bad patch. Starting to get humid - we'll see more of this over the next week.

I noticed in the process of searching detailed results from rural Queensland in pursuit of largely non-existent evidence of political impact of council amalgamations that Labor won Stanthorpe, which must be a first, and got close to winning Warwick. Sam Wilson will be pleased.

A morning session at Northcote, generally reasonably mundane although a bit faster than it felt.

Monday night from Nicola's in the People's Democratic Republic of Westgarth. (The ALP two-party-preferred vote here was 84%, which I suspect is pretty close to the highest in the country except for Aboriginal communities, and the Greens topped 30%. Unsurprisingly, the only two booths in Australia actually won by the Greens were Nimbin and The Channon, which is just up the road from Nimbin).

The run was pretty patchy, although it's always nice to get into Darebin Parklands, a nice patch of bush for the inner city (sort of).

Not one of the finer hours of my athletic career, although 2 minutes on the course for 2% extra on the swing is a pretty good trade. I'm not really in racing shape at the moment anyway, and being up until the early hours of the morning and election-day nutrition (lots of protein and charcoal, very few carbohydrates) didn't make it any easier. (Even regarded the concession speech as being sufficient grounds to start on the champagne, not something which features in my usual habits).

Had a fair start - got jumped a bit at the very beginning but settled into a spot about 50m behind Bryan Ackerly and Max Howard (from the Midday Milers) through 3k. Bryan started to pull away a bit on the first hill and I didn't see much more of him again. Had a bad patch after coming off the Anderson Street hill (which is a downhill in this), then recovered a bit, but faded for good after the later part of the Shrine hill - a bit of back stiffness on the downhills too. A very weak field at the front end (probably because of the meet in Geelong next week) - judging from where people went past on the out-and-back section around 7-8k, my 1996 time of 34.01 would have been enough for a top-five result. Overall numbers were also well down, probably a reaction to the ridiculous course that was used last year, but in my time range there were still plenty of people around.

The Kevin07 T-shirt got a bit of audience reaction (most of it positive). There were a few others in evidence, as well as somebody who had got his hands on a 'Peter Costello - Getting Results For Higgins' T-shirt and amended it to 'Peter Costello For Opposition Leader'. To his deep distress (I'm sure), such hopes were to be dashed within a few hours.

C • Excellent result 1

C • 10k course 2

The big day has arrived. The nerves I had last night were on a par with those experienced the last time I went into a selection trial with a serious chance of making a team. (In orienteering I've long said that if you're not nervous before the start of a race, it's a sign that the race doesn't mean enough to you).

After a stint setting up from 5.30 this morning I found time for a run later in the morning (I'm on again from 2). Naturally in accordance with the theme of the day I planned a course to go past as many polling booths as I could - managed 10 in all (most with a more visible Liberal presence than they managed at Rosanna). It was a pretty ordinary run, especially uphill, but if the result tonight is the right one I won't care.

Very slow early but got into it a bit more as I went on. The sluggishness I had after everything yesterday seemed to disappear with a good night's sleep (not something I'm expecting to experience tonight).

A funny sort of run in the first half - felt reasonably good while I was running but rather light-headed whenever I stopped. Fortunately the latter didn't occur very often - I had an excellent run with the traffic. Settled into a more normal Thursday run in the second half, working reasonably hard on the (small) climbs later on. Woke up a few times during the night with cramps in my feet for no obvious reason (and again after the run).

Spotted on the way in to work - a truck parked (illegally) in the vicinity of the Commonwealth ministerial offices in the Melbourne CBD, with the number plate 'SHRED-2' and the name 'Iron Mountain Shredding Services'.

C • Classic 1

The annual tournament between the Bureau, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, and the meteorology sections of Melbourne and Monash unis - 30 minutes for each game, and with substitutions I think I spent about 2/3 of the time on the field. My usual role in these games is to run around a lot in the vicinity of the opposition players and hope that they don't notice that I can't do very much with the ball once I get it; this time round I started most games in defence and moved into midfield later on to try to open up the opposition as they got tired. Given the morning's efforts I was fresher than expected on the field, but fell in a heap afterwards.

We managed to find yet another way to lose this tournament (and we've had a few over the years). In the first two games we beat CSIRO 2-0 and then unexpectedly managed to hold Melbourne (the dominant team of the last few years) to a 0-0 draw, which meant all we had to do was better Melbourne's result in our last game against Monash. We dominated possession for most of the game but couldn't find the back of the net - and then in the last couple of minutes, throwing everybody (including our goalkeeper forward) Monash broke from defence. One of our players got back to the ball and cleared it - straight into the back of our own net. Melbourne had been 1-0 down against CSIRO but equalised in the last seconds to take the tournament win.

I wasn't the only orienteer in action today - Dave Mallen's doing work experience with us this week so we signed him up. He was probably our best player, including one spectacular shot late in the Monash game which drew an equally spectacular save. Also saw Ilka in the midst of the Big M Mile, but I'll let her say more about that if she wants to.

First wet-weather run for a while. Did it from work for complicated logistical reasons relating to tonight's venue. Not bad conditions for a run, pleasantly mild despite the rain; did some pretty hard work into the wind along the Albert Park foreshore for about 20 minutes during the heaviest of the rain, but then finished off well with a good last 20 minutes. A night's rest seemed to help the hip - warmed up pretty well after the first 10 minutes (and didn't flare up afterwards to anywhere near the extent it did yesterday).

Street-O at East Hawthorn. This is really too inner-city a venue for a Wednesday. It's just as well it rained because if there had been a normal Wednesday night roll-up the nearest legal parking places would have been in Surrey Hills. (The locals can't have many friends who come to visit because almost the whole area is residents' parking only after 5.30 p.m.).

It was a bit of a wild-card night, which is often when I get my best results (most memorably on the 1998 night at Upwey which started in 40 degrees, finished in a thunderstorm, and somehow left me seven minutes in front of a decent field). This was partly because of the weather, and also because of a mapping error (an alley which was mapped as going through and didn't) which killed off the planned route choice of the lead group and forced us to come up with a plan B on the spot. Probably more significant in my result was that both Bryan and Adam missed the start.

The first half of the run was moderate, but it picked up later on - felt quite fast in the later stages. With the misadventure at the missing alley there was always a chance that someone with a different plan had got the jump on the rest of us, so I wasn't hugely surprised to see Ian Davies 50 metres in front at the second-last control. (Ian was the one who pushed me all the way at Wattle Park, albeit on a night when I was in much worse shape than now). He took a poor route to the last control which cost him that break, and I was able to win the sprint home which was pleasing. It turned out he'd missed a control anyway.

It being three days before the big day, I had the Kevin07 T-shirt out, to fly the flag in the soon-to-be-marginal seat of Kooyong.

C • Kevard07 2

A session which was largely about heat tolerance - 31 degrees at 8 a.m. Found it pretty hard work despite the short duration, and pretty slow (9.29 fastest loop). A bit of a hip twinge again. At its best on the uphill sprints as was the case last week (the tail wind helped).

Some last Sunday might have heard me comment on Heidelberg's lack of appeal to amphetamine manufacturers - the 'Sunday Age' ran a map showing the location of all the labs which have been busted in Melbourne in the last year and this was the one part of town where none were to be found (the closest was in Montmorency). Lo and behold, I woke up this morning to hear news of one of Melbourne's largest-ever busts, in Ivanhoe just down the road.

C • Suburbs 4

C • predictions 18

Went to MSAC in Albert Park, the outdoor pool this time instead of the indoor one. It's a nice pool to swim in - only negative was the sunglare on every second lap (it runs N-S, not E-W as Fitzroy does). A fairly comfortable session.

It was going to be from Suse's place but we adjourned to Middle Park beach because of the hot weather (although as it turned out a sea breeze dropped it from 37 to 25 not long before we arrived). Slow at times but felt reasonably comfortable in the patches where it got faster. A hint of hip soreness at times for the first time in a few weeks.

Event: Victorian Sprint Champs, Monash University
 

Ran a reasonably good technical race for the most part, with the exception of 3 where I let my concentration slip on the previous leg and therefore arrived at 2 without a plan for what to do next - dangerous in a sprint race. Didn't cost me much time though. Felt quite sharp running while I was out there, but no closer on running speed than I usually am - although I can't expect too much when I do lead-up runs like yesterday's. Some morning rain but slippery ground not a major factor, despite my pre-race worries (given my rather unfortunate history in similar circumstances).

We will be doing plenty of racing in hot weather next year, so it is as well to get some more practice in handling it. It was a pretty tough morning today, rising to the mid- to upper-20s by 8 (as it turned out I would have had more comfortable conditions waiting).

My only concessions to the Sprint Championships tomorrow were doing 2 hours instead of 2.30, and doing it on Saturday rather than Sunday (this says everything that needs to be said about how seriously I'm taking tomorrow's race). It was a steady but unspectacular run for much of the way, initially going north into Bundoora and then south-east across Montmorency to the Yarra. Water availability was again a problem - I'm sure there used to be taps at Watsonia shops and Partington's Flat (maybe Banyule Council has taken them out as a water-saving measure?). Did get something at Montmorency. Faded a bit after a couple of tough hills around the 90-minute mark, but then revitalised a little when something bearing a vague passing resemblance to a cool change came through about 15 minutes from the end. Not the most comfortable of runs, but need to get sessions like this on the board if I want to be able to cope with Dubbo in March (or Portugal in July, or Queensland in September).

(By the way, it looks like I've added a sixth overseas trip to my schedule for the next seven months - this time Fiji in March for a Pacific Islands climate training workshop).

C • Water availability 3

Swimming at Richmond. Pace a bit more up and down than usual (even managed to go slightly lactic at one point in the process of passing someone who was even slower than me).

You usually get to see some interesting driving after work on a Friday night and today was no exception. Highlights were someone trying to turn left out of a right-turn lane and someone else driving the wrong way down a one-way street (and we're not exactly talking a back lane here - it was the end of Queens Parade in Clifton Hill). No accidents as far as I could see, although I did see the remnants of this afternoon's little train-shunting misadventure at Spencer Street.

Thought this was going to be a tough morning's work after a pretty hard day yesterday (and a bad night's sleep). The first 45 minutes, through the hills of Eaglemont and North Balwyn, were indeed tough (although never as bad as the equivalent run last week), but it improved considerably after that. The last hour was very solid which is pleasing, although I had most of the hills out of the way by then; the gradual descent through the Ruffeys Creek valley was particularly nice. Still had a bit left at the end (although the last climb up Hawdon Street - 200 metres at 15-20% - is tough no matter how good you're feeling).

Even political campaigns have their priorities - at a meeting on Tuesday it was suggested that we should run the local briefing session for scrutineers next Wednesday, and about half the meeting immediately said 'We can't do that - it's Chaser night'.

C • swedish rainfall 4

C • Chaser 2

A pretty nondescript morning's effort, rather on the slow side and didn't feel stunning at any stage. Not the stiffness that I had early on over the last couple of days. Unusually for this time of year, was running in dense fog early on, although it lifted to low cloud later on.

Acquainted myself a bit more with Indonesian geography today (had to convert the coastline into a set of coordinates for a figure in a paper I'm working on), finding out exactly where various islands are that one normally sees only in DFAT bulletins advising Australians not to go to them.

Street-O at Bulleen, a score event, which meant it was a bit longer than usual. For once it wasn't a formality to get them all, and it wasn't until the last two legs that I was confident that I was going to manage it. It helps in that respect when there's a freeway through the middle of the map requiring some more convoluted route choices.

I'd had a big lunch (someone's retirement at work) and paid for it a bit at times, with a bad patch (including a stitch) in the middle. Much better in the last third. I hesitated a bit at the start working out the best route and found myself about 20th in the pack heading for the first control, but bizarrely punched it first because everyone else played follow-the-leader and overshot it. It then settled down to a two-way race between Bryan Ackerly and myself. Bryan's running pretty fast at the moment and that was always likely to prove decisive, although the inevitable was delayed when he overshot 4. He pulled away over the middle part of the course when I was at my worst; I came back at him a little at the end but not enough to be in with any chance of winning.

This was a big day and tomorrow will be too. I'm appreciating the cool conditions while they last; this time next week has the potential to be ugly.

C • Cool conditions 5

C • Results.. 1

Sunday definitely took more out of me than I expected - still a little on the stiff side today. No real speed at any stage, but did feel quite strong on the uphill parts of the loop, which may suggest that I'm getting more into base mode. Fastest lap 9.24.

Pretty stiff when I got into the pool but seemed to loosen up nicely once in, which was the principal objective of the exercise. A good session with just the odd bit of goggles trouble proving a bit of an annoyance.

A pretty slow Monday night session from Dion's around Studley Park. I thought I might have got rid of remaining stiffness in this morning's swim but it didn't happen - the first half was a real struggle. Loosened up a bit later on but never really comfortable. Picked up the first grass seeds of the season - another harbinger of summer.

Reuben dropped off halfway round, having already done 4 hours of riding today. We weren't entirely sure he would find his way back to Dion's, being relatively new in Melbourne, and indeed he wasn't there when we got back. We had just started to speculate about which way he might have gone and where a search party might usefully be sent when it occurred to someone to check inside to see whether he'd beaten us back (he had).

Did my most oddball media interview for a while today: the ABC wanted comment about the meteorological background to the sinking of an oil tanker off the Black Sea coast near the Russia/Ukraine border. Flew by the seat of my pants a bit so I hope it went OK.

First proper long run of the summer and probably my best run for a couple of months. Quickly hit a good rhythm inside the first 15 minutes and held it for much of the way. A somewhat oddball route - because of some fairly complex arrangements with visiting family, started my run at home and ended up at my grandmother's place in Essendon, going through Latrobe Uni, Edwardes Lake park, then long stretches along the upper parts of Merri and Moonee Ponds creeks and the bike path that runs parallel to the Ring Road.

Only really started to fade in the last 15 minutes - handled the climb through Strathmore (the steepest of the run) well but tired a bit after that. It was a reasonably warm morning and I didn't get to drink, courtesy of the northern suburbs' many diligent vandals who ensured that the taps en route were non-functional. Didn't seem to affect me much on the run but I certainly did plenty of fluid replacement in the hours following.

I'm not sure if the planners of the City of Moreland think it's never going to rain properly again in Melbourne, but if I were an owner of one of the new houses alongside Moonee Ponds Creek at Gowanbrae (which I wouldn't be because I'd never buy something in such a location), I wouldn't be putting any expensive carpets on the ground floor.

A solid run on a warm morning, with some good stretches in the middle after a slow start, and feeling quite strong on some of the later hills.

A bit of excitement in the later stages in Bulleen as it gradually became apparent that the area was crawling with police, then two people appeared carrying a blanket which seemed to have a small body inside. It turned out it was a dog which had been mauled to death by two other dogs and the police were looking for the offending dogs (and hopefully the offending owner(s)). I decided that a neighbourhood with two dangerous dogs reported wandering probably wasn't a good one to be running in and headed elsewhere as quickly as possible. Given it's the Victorian police we're talking about, one might also have cause to be concerned about crossfire (as it was I almost got cleaned up by a police car which appeared from behind a fence driving across a park).

In the pool for the first time in a couple of weeks. Had a bit of a sore arm courtesy of an injection yesterday (one of the joys of going to a developing country), but it was one of those things which didn't impede me, it just hurt, and so could be dealt with with a certain amount of application.

The standard of driving this morning was even lower than usual. Scoreboard: three cars failing to give way when turning right, and one moving into my lane without indicating.

First go this summer at the Thursday morning long run after Wednesday night street-O combination. The midweek long runs will be a bit more important than usual this summer because I'll be spending almost half of summer's weekends in the air.

It was a bit of a grind most of the way, although better in the last 20 minutes. Found a stepping-stones crossing of Merri Creek I didn't previously know about, which goes to show that I don't know that corner of town quite as well as I thought I did.

A long section of the run was along a path which is a dog-on-leash zone throughout, so I decided to do a count to see how well this was being observed. Off-leash dogs beat on-leash dogs 6-4. Of course your chances of seeing anyone from the council there at 7.30 in the morning are approximately nil.

Started slowly but settled into it quite well, with some good stretches around the Yarra in the second half. Quite strong up the hills.

Street-O at Mulluana. Definitely an improvement on last week - it helps not being sick and not having raced at lunchtime. Was on my own for most of it, although Rachel Johnson sort of hung on for a while. Felt pretty good on occasions, especially through the middle, although not quite as much power as I would have liked on the (small) hills towards the end. I wasn't expecting a lot of competition, as Bryan and Adam were both talking themselves down in a big way (understandably, given that they were coming off the Four Peaks, even if it was the 3.9 Peaks this year thanks to Sunday's weather). Bryan must have found something because he was only 10 seconds behind me at the end, having gone in the opposite direction.

Nice to have a win, although I think I'll miss too many Wednesday nights this year to be in contention for any overall honours.

I'm organising tomorrow night at Montmorency. There are a few bits of the course that are designed to sort the men from the boys on A, but if the field is a usual Thursday night one there may not be much sorting out to be done, which is a pity.

C • lucky 4

First bit of speedwork in this phase of training, although 'speed' is probably a misnomer on this occasion - didn't have any zip at all, perhaps not surprising at this stage. Fastest loop 9.29. Brilliantly sunny morning (and rather later than usual because of the public holiday).

Driving atrocity of the day: I spotted somebody who was talking on one mobile phone with one hand and texting on a second phone with the other, all whilst driving (or attempting thereof).

Being Cup Monday (the easiest commute of the year) there wasn't much of a crowd for Monday night - just Torgeir and myself. Headed from the Abbotsford Convent up through Yarra Bend to the pipe bridge, then back on the east side, mostly on the single track - always a lot of fun. Started out very sluggish, and rather stiff (maybe through not swimming this morning?), but settled into reasonable shape after the first 10 minutes.

Much better this morning. It was a nice change (a) to do a run where every step didn't seem like a struggle and (b) to do one where all the creeks were running strongly. I've been waiting four days for the former and the best part of three years for the latter (at least in Melbourne).

I headed out after the heaviest rain was over - just some light showers from time to time and a stiff southeast wind. Headed out to Montmorency to check a few remaining things for Thursday's event, but nowhere near as hilly as last weekend. Not a stellar run but better than I'd expected. Faded a bit in the last half-hour.

If I was going to get sick it wasn't a bad time for it to happen, as it was always planned to be a relatively low-volume week. Will be ramping things up significantly from this week onwards.

C • Rain? 8

Event: Four Peaks
 

Still feeling rather out of sorts and this was a bit of a token effort. Tried taking one of Slimes's cans of harden up but it went through me as quickly as everything else has in the last couple of days. Managed to plug away without falling to pieces but it certainly won't go down as one of my finest hours. Did manage to cope with worse in early 1997 (with a couple of 40-degree days thrown in) so hopefully will be able to see this out over the next couple of days. Not the worst time for it to happen if something was going to happen.

Felt a bit improved today so decided to head out, not really having much idea before the start of whether I was going to be totally hopeless or fairly reasonable (I didn't hope for anything better than fairly reasonable). The first hour was at the fairly reasonable end of things but faded away somewhat after that. 80 minutes was a little short of what I'd hoped for in a best-case scenario but satisfactory in the circumstances.

Only saw one Peter Costello poster on the streets of Toorak, and no Petro Georgiou ones in Kooyoong (was rather less surprised that I didn't see any posters erected on behalf of their ALP opponents). Our politics are, however, a good deal less complicated (and thankfully less violent) than those in some other parts of the world, as summed up by the description in the 'Economist' of those groups purporting to represent the anti-government cause in Darfur:

"The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army is led by Abdul Wahid al-Nur, perhaps the key rebel leader, who says he will not attend the meeting in Libya. Then there is the SLM/A-G19, which probably will come, but may or may not be talking to another SLM/A faction loyal to Ahmed Abdel Shafi, a rival of both the SLM/A-North Command and the SLM/A-Union Front, to say nothing of the Great Sudan Liberation Movement. The fractious SLM/A may in turn co-operate with a faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the other big umbrella group, led by Khalil Ibrahim. But that depends on the attitude of another JEM faction led by Idriss Bahar abu Garda - not to mention the Revolutionary Democratic Front Forces, the United Revolutionary Force Front or, for that matter, a faction of the National Movement for Reform and Development."

C • Those guys oughta see the L... 2

Feeling a bit better this morning after a night's sleep, but still rather weak. Have shuffled my planned run for today to tomorrow - will see how it goes then.