Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Scaled back my Thursday ambitions a bit in the circumstances (and I plan to go significantly longer on Saturday). Eventually got to bed around 12.30 after the end of the third meeting, unsurprisingly fell asleep very quickly, and must have ended up on my right hand because it was completely numb when I woke up....

The run was another small step up from yesterday on both the performance and injury front. Being in the core of peak hour after a later-than-usual start, I wanted something with as few road crossings as possible so headed from Northcote (base for this evening) down the Yarra to the Walmer Street bridge, back through Kew and Willsmere then out to the Chandler Highway bridge. Another nice running morning in what's been a rather cold April.

To make the times even more unsettled, for some reason breakfast was served three hours before landing (i.e. at 2.30am Melbourne time) rather than the more typical 1.45 or so. As I quite often do with early morning arrivals, I dumped my bags at the office and then went for a run while I was still awake (more or less) - this one based on the Tan (backwards) but extending to Walsh Street and then doing a loop around the MCG.

This run was definitely better than Monday's though felt sleepy at times (which isn't surprising given that by this stage I'd had perhaps 4 hours' sleep in 48, to become 4 in 60 by the time the day was done). Hamstring a little sore later but definitely improved on Monday, too (even on the steep Walsh Street descent).

Just to add a few points to the degree of difficulty, I had no fewer than three meetings more or less back to back tonight (a heavy schedule even without jet lag), the first in person and the last two by phone - Ivanhoe Branch Executive at 7, OA Board from 8-10.15 and an international meteorology committee at 11. I've held up better than I thought I would (though with the inevitable flat spots during the day) and at the time of writing have almost made it to the 11pm one and actually feel reasonably awake. Don't think I'll be getting up at 5.15 for a long run tomorrow though....

Last time I passed through Dubai Airport the transit was sufficiently frantic that I recorded it on AP as an intervals session, but this one was much more relaxed - 3 1/2 hours, which meant plenty of time to take advantage of the (small) gym which I discovered when staying in the airport hotel last year.

Like last time, the treadmill was broken (I don't know if it has been unbroken at any time in the interim), so the bike was the best available option. Nice to have a bit of a hit-out in transit during a long trip, although a stationary bike is about as interesting as always (even with the backdrop of what I think was one of the Beverly Hills Cop sequels on TV).

The first leg of the flight from Zurich to Dubai had been quite empty, and I had a row of seats to myself - though it's a sufficiently short flight that there were only about three hours to take proper advantage of it. I certainly wasn't so lucky on the Dubai-Melbourne leg; I normally sleep OK on planes, but this time had a seat which didn't recline (presumably broken rather than someone using a devious device behind) and intermittently noisy small people in the general vicinity. Probably didn't get more than 90 minutes sleep on the flight.

C • Broken seat 3

Nice setting but one of the more dismal runs I've had in recent memory - sluggish and took a very long time to loosen up. Went along the flat parallel to the lake from Vanessa's place for the first 4k or so, then gradually uphill to get to the top of the ridge behind Pfaffikon from the back side (the climb was probably the best bit of this). Felt a sharp twinge near the base of my left hamstring on the sharp descent coming off this - this eased once the gradient did, and was more or less OK on the flat last 10 minutes, but doesn't feel quite right walking later in the day so will need watching. It will, at least, get plenty of rest over the next day or so.

Today's main activity was a trip to the University of Bern to do a seminar there and meet with some of the people in their group who are working on an EU project in the same field that I am. (Continuing the fine tradition of acronyms for European research projects, I saw a document referring to the HADES project - disappointingly, this doesn't seem to have anything to do with extreme high temperatures but looks to be related to nuclear waste management).

Heading home tonight (the return trip to Zurich cheapened slightly by the 5-franc railway discount voucher I got for travelling to Sunday's event by public transport and presenting my ticket at registration). I noticed an ad for trips to Australia in the window of the station travel office, which suggests that either the Swiss Railways also do more general travel-agency stuff or there's been a lot of new infrastructure built while I've been away. (Any Swiss visitors to Australia who expect our railways to be anything like Swiss ones are going to be sorely disappointed).

Swiss WRE sprint in Weinfelden. There was a certain amount of "what am I doing here?" about this event - Swiss elite events don't have the bottom end of the field that their Australian equivalents do (as far as I can tell, anyone can run elite, at least at events of this type, but most people stick with their regular A/A medium/A short class, all of which are still run at sprints), and I knew that unless someone screwed up badly, I was probably going to come last. Nonetheless, I decided to run elite rather than M40 anyway, to get the experience of running a high-level sprint in a high-level orienteering country (and in my various IOF/OA roles, there's no better way to find out how things are done at a race in country X than to run a race in country X).

In the lead-up I'd suggested that my objective was to finish within 50% of Matthias Kyburz and Daniel Hubmann. Neither of them were here (Daniel is injured), but Martin Hubmann and Fabian Hertner were. The actual on-the-day goal was to try to stay in front of my 4-minute man, Terence Risse (who won M21 at last week's event) - the 3- and 1-minuters didn't turn up. (My start position was a lot further into the field than it should have been, presumably because I've got more World Ranking scores - albeit not very good ones - than most of the locals).

Ran the course, which was a reasonably typical central European town centre sprint, fairly well. (There were a reasonable number of irregularly-shaped buildings and laneways, and enough fences and walls to create traps for the unwary, but it certainly wasn't as intense as some southern European towns can be). The only leg on which I felt like I lost any time was 5, where I hesitated a bit through not quite reading the gardens right at first glance (although it's difficult to judge time losses when your split is in the bottom six even on your best legs). Felt as if I took simple options on a couple of legs (notably 2) but looking at it afterwards the complicated options were riskier and probably no faster. Almost held off Terence - he caught me at the second-last.

I was, I think, 5.56 down on Martin Hubmann (who just beat Fabian). This is very similar to the margins by which I've trailed Oscar in the two National League sprints so far this year, which means either (a) Oscar is going to win the World Championships this year or (b) I ran better here than I have been at home. Australian orienteers will be hoping it's (a) although I suspect it's probably (b). (I do like Oscar's form, though, and think he's well and truly capable of coming within a minute of the lead in a WOC level sprint - which he may well need to do to make a final).

As for the coming last bit: I was a bit over a minute behind Lukas Funk, and 2.40 behind anyone else. Haven't enjoyed a last-place result so much in ages. It's fun to be able to compare yourself with (close to) the best in the world even if the comparison involves a big gap.

C • Well done 1

I suspect the AP algorithm for climb-corrected kilometre rates is somewhat over-generous. I didn't do 4.19 for any individual kilometres today, even the downhill ones.

I'm staying with Vanessa this weekend; the main game for me competitively over the weekend is the sprint tomorrow, but she was doing a run today on what sounded like a nice course (promising, and delivering, "Panoramenblick" over the lake and mountains behind), so I thought I might as well run too. Coming off the long run yesterday, going flat-out was never part of the plan, but it was definitely more than a training pace - the competitive juices get going even when one's trying to hold them in a bit. Felt better than I thought I might after yesterday. Quite a hilly second half; interestingly, I was gaining a fair bit of ground on those around me on the 6%-for-a-kilometre grind, but not on the short sharp one later on. Judging by the signposted kilometre marks, the Garmin was short-changing me a bit on the sections on forest tracks (and also said that the distance from the 10k mark to the end was 480m, which may indicate either that the run was 10.48 or the 10k mark was in the wrong place).

I haven't done a road 10k for a while (partly, implicitly, out of knowledge that the performance would inevitably be an embarrassingly large PW). My feeling over the last couple of years is that I definitely wouldn't break 40 and would probably be closer to 42, and today (which probably equates to about 46 for a flat 10k) isn't dispelling me of that notion.

There were plenty of prizes on offer and a presentation almost as drawn out as Easter 2014 to present them (I didn't win anything, Vanessa did). Also spotted was the Swiss equivalent of a bogan wedding (one of the cars in the procession was a BMW being revved up at regular intervals).

I may or may not live to regret kicking the ball back to some footballing kids on my warmdown - my big toenail did not enjoy the process of trying to get my foot under the ball enough to give it the elevation to get back over the fence.

Long run done as (re)planned, heading initially west through the suburbs to the footbridge across the Rhone, then on paths essentially along the river for about 40 minutes, then back through Bernex and Onex. Nice stretch along the river (although I wasn't running that brilliantly at that stage), even if I did come out at the rear of the place de reception de dechets urbains (as noted previously, the French can even make rubbish tips sound attractive). Realised about 30 minutes from home that I was further away from home than I'd thought, but picked it up nicely and was moving quite well in the last 20 minutes after a not-always-smooth run.

Distance is a guess - my Garmin isn't charging properly and ran out of juice. Another power problem is that my laptop cable has failed, so unless I can find a replacement you may not hear much from me for a few days.

Changed plans a bit today - partly because I got home so late last night (and sleep was further foreshortened by a couple of incoming calls on the mobile around 4am), and partly because I realised that the available time window between 7.30am pool opening and 9am meeting start was narrow, and I'd have a better chance of fitting inside it if I didn't also have to finish packing my bags and check out of the hotel, as will be the case tomorrow. Hence I swapped days for a swim today and long run tomorrow.

Since 11-degree water is a bit cool for my taste (and I didn't totally fancy being somewhere where people throw knives around), I went for the pool rather than the river (or lake). As previously noted this isn't my favourite pool - it's a bit crowded and people tend to be a bit less predictable than they are at Fitzroy - but the session itself was OK. Wasn't sure how my finger would like swimming (I'd somehow ended up on top of it while sleeping, which it didn't appreciate), but no problems on that score.

There were reports in the news today (of possibly dubious authenticity, although the principal does have form in the religious-craziness department) that an Islamic school in Melbourne had stopped girls from running cross-country because it would allegedly cause them to lose their virginity. As someone pointed out in the comments thread, there are undoubtedly cases of virginity being lost in association with cross-country races, but not while the running itself is taking place.

Wouldn't have been able to do this run today - I'm pretty sure its far end would have been within the exclusion zone for the current eruption in Chile.

Made plans to catch up with Neil for a run this evening. He thought this was an opportunity to get into the surrounding countryside and I enthusiastically agreed, so we headed up after work to an old glacial cirque about 50km east of town (a couple of valleys north from Chamonix) - fairly flat along the bottom until you got to the end, but lots of spectacular mountains all around, waterfalls everywhere and plenty of stunning scenery generally. The valley floor was at around 1000m with the surrounding mountains getting up into the upper 2000s.

The run was up the valley until it started to get steep - generally a decent run without pushing too hard. Reasonably happy with the climb at the end although Neil demonstrated some downhill speed in a couple of patches coming back. There were a few creek crossings, one of them shin-deep and fairly fast-flowing (it looks like there is a temporary bridge in summer - this is a popular walking track - but it hasn't been put up yet).

Finished up pretty much on sunset, and then took in dinner in one of the local village - not a bad way to spend an evening all round (though we didn't get back until after 11, which meant some rearrangement of plans for the next day).

And it still seems a novelty to go to another country to go for a run....

C • I lived in France for a win... 1

C • I lived in France for a win... 5

10x1 minute on the Geneva lakefront. Didn't catch alight in the way the equivalent session in January did, and was tiring a little at the end, but not too bad on the whole. Certainly more people out and about than there were on the equivalent morning in January,

Spent quite a bit of this session thinking about drugs. Before you start getting any ideas, what I was actually thinking about was competing jurisdictions in national and international anti-doping rules - prompted by having to sign an anti-doping declaration as part of the entry for Sunday's WRE in which the Swiss Olympic Committee claim exclusive jurisdiction. Since I have no plans to commit any doping offences while I'm in Switzerland (unless watching dodgy internet feeds of Essendon games has been declared a doping offence while I wasn't looking) I didn't have any issues personally with signing it, but I don't think it's actually consistent with the IOF anti-doping rules (my reading of which is that alleged doping offences at IOF events are either dealt with by the IOF or referred to national anti-doping authorities in the athlete's home country). I want to find out exactly what's going on here, if only so I understand properly what our obligations are with respect to foreign athletes at WREs in Australia.

Warm-up and down from the intervals session.

Not for the first time on a visit to Geneva, the Local de Vote has been in action. This time it was local council elections which took place on Sunday. I'm not sure who won, although from the local paper headline "La Ville de Geneve sera tres difficile a gouverner", I'm guessing the answer is "nobody".

Morning run in Geneva, not especially early given it was relatively short and the meeting didn't start until 9.30. Headed to the north, up past the UN buildings and into Pregny, with some fairly solid climbing in the first couple of kilometres - slow but steady. I've been out this way before (albeit in the middle of a snowstorm), but came back on a somewhat different route taking in some surprisingly-close-to-the-city farmland with some good views on a very nice morning. Started to get into it as it went on and enjoyed the downhill over the last couple of kilometres.

Exploring some new terrain included seeing some new buildings, including the missions of France (a larghish place which nonetheless had the air of a country farmhouse), the Czech Republic (a slightly scaled-down version of same) and Bulgaria (a squat, slightly decaying lump of socialist brutalist concrete bristling with aerials, which definitely looked like it saw abundant spy action in days of old). The route also took in the premises of the International Labour Organisation, a concrete monstrosity which would be a strong contender for the title of the ugliest building I've seen anywhere on the face of the planet (at least the topography makes it not especially visible from a distance). The construction unions should have black-banned it on the grounds of architectural bad taste.

Saw the splits from Sunday. I'd sort of expected that my biggest time losses would be on the steep downhill legs and they were. On #5 (a short downhill leg), I hit the control pretty cleanly and did 1.00. Matthias Niggli did 27 seconds....

I imagine it helps to go into this type of terrain a lot. It was steep almost throughout - the only flat sections on the course were a few sections traversing slopes on tracks. Gully crossings were particularly challenging with many of them having steep banks, although it wasn't until #10 that I encountered a bit of OMG-I-can't-even-stand-up-on-this. Never felt as if I was going that fast; climbing OK in the first half but less so in the second, probably drained a bit by climbing on soft ground. I think I got the route choice on the long leg (8-9) right but others will have executed it much better than I did. Hit most of the controls pretty cleanly, not something I always do on a first foray into central European terrain (though some of the sites were pretty easy), but lost 60-90 seconds on 11, a depression in green which I didn't see.

I knew the locals would be better at this terrain than me and expected the winning time to come down quite a bit from the 59 it was when I left, perhaps into the high 40s or low 50s. And then Matthias Niggli did 39....
(His allegedly-retired wife cleaned up by 9 minutes in the open women against a field of which at least 50% have run at WOC, a week after winning a middle distance by 4.5 minutes in a near-full strength field). I'll be interested to see the splits to see where I was losing most of my time - would not be surprised if the biggest losses were on the downhill legs.

Took a bit of a fall coming out of 6; not too dramatic a slide but must have caught my left little finger. It was painful while walking back from finish to assembly and I was wondering if I might have broken it, although it seems to have settled down now so hopefully just bruised.

The event could probably be described as being of roughly equivalent level to a State League in Australia, and it was interesting to see how things were done (the previous Swiss events I've done have all been major international affairs) - one surprise was not having premarked maps. (I was trying to remember how long it's been since I saw a master map in Australia - three years, maybe?). Registration was by SI card, which meant I caused some confusion because my card wasn't in the system, this being my first event with these organisers. A well-run event, though; about 500 competitors, fairly well spread across age groups.

Not unusually for here, the start and finish were both about 2.5k from the event centre (which, of course, was accessible by public transport). It didn't involve climbing a mountain this time. The event centre was at least convenient - I stayed within a few hundred metres of it last night.

And, while on the subject of public transport, another thumbs-up for it - I got on the bus to the nearest station at Huttwil, asked for a ticket to Huttwil, was asked where my final destination was and was pretty surprised to learn that the system is so well-integrated that the local bus driver could sell me a ticket to Geneva, and didn't baulk when I only had a 100-franc note to pay for it. (Any Swiss visitors to Australia who try to buy a bus ticket with a $100 note will probably learn some of the more colourful parts of Australian English in the process).

C • swiss topo 4

A change of hemisphere, a big change of time zone and not really a big change of season. I got in to where I'm staying tonight, a village in the bucolic surrounds of the Emmental, about 6.30 and headed out more or less as soon as I'd checked in and dropped my bag. In this part of the world you can't go too far wrong following yellow signs and yellow diamonds, and this particular Wanderweg took me on a reasonably solid climb, some of it through forest but mostly through fields (disappointingly, no cowbells) to a ridge with a good view of the surrounds (including the steep-looking forest where tomorrow's event is). Felt like a bit of a struggle as you'd expect after having been on the move for a day and a bit (and at 3am in the home time zone), but nothing that's going to worry me too much after a decent night's sleep, I suspect.

I was last in these parts (though the next valley over) for a couple of World Cup races in 1996, best remembered (by us anyway) for Steve Craig's encounter with a bull. (We then moved on to Leuk for an event which will never be forgotten by anyone who was there).

The trip went reasonably smoothly; slept at least intermittently for about 9 hours of the Melbourne-Dubai leg (having an empty seat next to me helped), the first leg was on time and the second leg not too far beyond it. Made the train I was hoping for, then on gradually shrinking modes of transport on the Geneva-Bern-Langenthal-Huttwil-Durrenroth route (big train to not quite so big train to little train to bus). Didn't have to do an intervals session to make my connection in Dubai this time but was a bit disappointed not to get the chance to replace my finally worn-out radio - that sort of thing is too old and boring for the airport electronics shops these days. (However, if you feel so inclined and have a spare A$660,000, there is a shop at Dubai Airport which will sell you a full set of Grange).

If I understand the directions correctly I'm staying pretty much next door to tomorrow's event centre. Will find out soon enough.

Looking at NSW Champs weekend at Molong. Assuming no other Vics want to make the trip up given there's an NOL the following weekend (though it's a terrific area), and not really wanting to do two big road trips in successive weekends, is there anyone who's interested in sharing transport from Sydney or Canberra?

C • I may be... 10

Session at Ivanhoe. Felt as if I was working a bit of stiffness out of my system (the massage last night helped in that respect, too). They've been dragging on for a long time, but the renovations here now look very close to being finished (talk in the water is the week after next or whenever the Mayor can be found to officially open the place, just in time for my departure from the district).

Departure of a different sort is on the agenda; after remaining in Australia for a full 2 1/2 months I'm off again - once again the principal destination is Geneva, although I''m taking the opportunity to do some Swiss orienteering first. Judging by the vital statistics of the course and the local topographic maps, it will be steep. (The Swiss topographic maps website is a marvel of the modern world - you can zoom in or out to pretty much any scale you want and download PDFs, all for free).

First time for a while that I've done one of my classic Thursday morning long runs, complete with the 5.15 alarm. Turned out it was a reasonably undistinguished effort; I've felt pretty tight this week (perhaps through being overdue for a massage, which happened tonight), and it wasn't until beyond 10k today that I began to feel as if I was moving respectably well. Probably at its best coming back past Willsmere around the 18k mark. Slow, especially considering that this route doesn't have all that many hills (or all that much rough track).

Didn't sleep much last night (it's been a rather turbulent few days at work), and thought I'd struggle today. First outing onto the old fartlek circuit for a while (and one of the last while I'm still here) and it showed - for the first couple of reps I didn't feel as if I was going any faster than when I was jogging. Felt faster after that but wasn't actually going any faster, and outside 11 for both loops. Had an unexpected surprise with a big bang in mid-run; initially it wasn't obvious what it was coming from. (The storm then developed more over Bulleen and Templestowe).

Interesting literal translations department: I was looking up the event information for Sunday's event in Switzerland (will certainly get some training on steep ground: M40 is 5.2km/320m). The section which tells people to park in the designated parking area, and not willy-nilly through the village where the event centre is, translates literally as "Please, no wild parking". (You can find plenty of wild parking in a country not too far to the south, especially from Rome southwards).

A decent morning's effort after the inevitable slow start, up through La Trobe Uni and Springthorpe then looping through Macleod. A bit longer than I'd planned on but not too upset about that at this stage. Also hadn't planned on morning rain but that had more or less cleared up by the time I finished. A little hamstring tightness at times.

The Rosanna level crossing gates were closed when I got there. Not being a participant in Paris-Roubaix, I didn't go around them but instead amended my route to the next crossing.

Didn't feel as if I was moving terribly well, and left shoulder feeling a bit sore at times (perhaps I was working it harder than usual and my left arm was actually doing something useful), but going a bit faster than on some recent swims. Quite a crowded lane by its usual standards today, though no great dramas ensued.

Sort of the return of the MFR Monday nights: the club AGM was tonight, at Kerrin's place in Kensington, and I went out beforehand. Thought there might have been some company but it was limited to Clara, which was enjoyable enough. Headed out initially into the newer bit of Kensington, including the path with all the cattle fences along it (this pocket of Kensington, as I think I've noted before, would make a good sprint map - though sorting out who owns what, and therefore who permission would be needed from, would be tricky). After that headed up on a loop into the south part of Ascot Vale - a surprisingly leafy pocket which I suspect provides some of the northwest's more expensive real estate. Felt a decent run after early stiffness worked itself out.

The AGM went OK, and we didn't even need to count the youngest Baker in order to reach a quorum. (I think the Australian orienteering record for the youngest contributor to a quorum is held by Belinda Lawford, who got the numbers up to the magic 30 at age minus 3.5 months at the Orienteering ACT AGM in 1991).

Rounding out the post-Easter week with a not-especially-bushy first event of the Melbourne Bush O series at Brimbank Park. This is an area which gets pretty rough on the steep escarpments going down to the river, and route choice here often involves staying off them as much as possible, but that wasn't so much of a factor today as most of them didn't have much grass cover so were still reasonable going (not sure if they had been burnt off?). Not very fast, as evidenced by Rob Baker going through me at speed between 4 and 5, but hills decent so last weekend looks to have been no fluke in that respect. A few reasonable route choices (notably 6-7), but the course could probably have made a bit more of the area's potential for that.

Since I don't wear a heart rate monitor, I can't provide information on whether my heart rate at any time during this course reached as high as it did during the last minute or two at the MCG later in the day.

Headed down to Blairgowrie overnight to join Cassie, Jim and family for their last night in Australia. Joined by Jim for a run out to the back beach as far east as Number Sixteen. Fairly hard going today, and slowed by the sand, but still nice to get a bit of a hit-out; as previously noted, next week will be where it gets more serious again (at least that's the plan).

The day's main event as far as I was concerned was the house auction. The good news is that the house sold; it would be fair to say that the price matched expectations without exceeding them - I'd perhaps hoped for a bit more given the bubbly nature of parts of the market of late. The settlement's in June, which on the plus side means I'll be able to organise the move without being between houses, on the minus sign it complicates the finances a bit. Still good to get that side of things out of the way.

Morning session at Fitzroy, nothing to get too excited about, except for being in daylight which wasn't the case last time. A bit more energetic than I was yesterday morning. Hoping the property bubble lasts for at least another 24 hours.

Started with a PW first kilometre on the climb to the top of the Heidelberg hill (soon to be graced by a 80-metre apartment tower if the developers' surely-this-must-be-an-ambit-claim proposal gets up at council next week), and didn't get a lot better after that - perhaps my recovery isn't going quite as well as I thought it might have been. (Feeling sleepy at 9pm last night may have been the first sign on that). Originally had 90 minutes in mind but there didn't seem a lot of point in pushing through this week (will be a different story after that).

After the aforementioned late return home last night, the alarm went off at 6 (or, to be pedantic, 5.59). It being a post-race week, I quickly selected CBF mode and decided to run at lunchtime instead (plus I wanted to be in earlyish because there was a drought statement waiting for me to sign off on - I'm supposedly running the show this week).

This one was Fishermens Bend to the Port Melbourne waterfront, although not as far round at the Westgate Park end as usual because that section's messy due to roadworks, so went through the core of the industrial area instead - not too exciting but I did get to find out where the Vegemite factory is. Got better once on the water's edge, despite the wind. A fairly nondescript run but you expect that in a recovery week.

The real estate agent's getting excited in advance of Saturday's auction. Not quite sure what to expect myself but hoping for a pleasant surprise - the market's still quite bubbly. Also crossed paths with my cousin (who's currently living with me) for dinner for the second time in two months.

Plan from here is, after this week, to go into a high-volume phase up until the WOC trials in late May, then look to peak for WMOC - in Sweden I'd expect to have to run well just to make finals, although on entries received as of a couple of weeks ago, Swedes are conspicuous by their absence (at that stage there were fewer Swedes entered for 2015 in Goteborg than ran in 2014 in Brazil). Easter was satisfying as far as it went, but I doubt I would have won in a full-strength field (at best I would have been a distant second to Bruce), nor would I have come particularly close to Ecmo in M45.

I'll be doing a bit of acquainting myself with running routes in my new neighbourhood soon enough, but this morning was about acquainting myself with someone else's new neighbourhood - a morning session with Jenny from their new place in Clarence Gardens, up to Brown Hill Creek, then down more or less parallel to it (including a certain amount of posh real estate). Also took in a complex rail/road/footpath underpass of the sort that makes for interesting sprint challenges (if mapped properly). Predictably slow early on but certainly not as hard work as is often the case on Easter Tuesday.

Also on this route was Orphanage Park, the feature after which it's named having long since ceased to exist. The 1937 map of Adelaide (if I'm not mistaken, one originally salvaged from a Bureau of Meteorology scrapheap; maybe moving will be my impetus to sort the other several hundred maps I still have from the same source) that's framed and hanging up in their house entrance contains a number of other features that you won't find these days, including a Consumptives Hospital and a Reformatory.

Plan for the rest of the day was to drop into our Adelaide office in the morning and then drive home in the afternoon/evening - had tentative plans of going for a swim in Horsham but spent more time at the office than planned (thanks in part to the discovery of 30 years of 19th century temperature data for Adelaide which I'd previously thought had been lost) and didn't get home until 11.30 as it was. Long drive but not terribly hard until the last hour. One for the "what will they think of next" department - a pub in Horsham does drive-thru parmas.

C • Goodwood Orphanage 2

Last day of Easter - certainly feeling a lot better for not having done 16km the day before. Still a bit slow out of the start as evidenced by the fact that Ellen Currie (W14) was outrunning me to the start triangle and to her first control which was on my straight line (perhaps this got her a bit too excited because she lost 8 minutes on her second). Not 100% smooth on the first couple but got them more or less OK, and then settled reasonably well, apart from 7 where I thought I wasn't quite far enough along but decided to check the flag I saw anyway just to be sure (not much time lost there). Ran the long 10th fairly straight, went round the top on 11 which was a good move, and reasonably strong for the last big climb on 15, but wobbled a bit in the erosion stuff in the big gully from there to the finish - lost a bit of time on both 16 and 17 (16 through drifting wide, 17 through not noticing the control was above the cliff part of the gully) - not huge amounts though.

Did the necessary, finishing 3.30 ahead of Dion on the day, and 8 minutes ahead overall (first time for 17 years I've taken part in an Easter presentation, other than in the capacity of giving speeches or announcing JWOC teams). Would have been good to have had a bit more opposition and I presume I will in October; Bruce would certainly have beaten me comfortably (his elite results might encourage him to run that in the long after all), and I think the likes of Jase and Andy would have given me a strong run for my money at the very least. Kilometre rates suggest Ecmo would also have been some distance ahead; we're in the same age group next year so will find out more then.

The events generally went off very well; it's not the most technical of terrain but was generally enjoyable (today, with lots of moderately subtle gully-spur but no really vague flat stuff, was the pick of the three), and the organisation went off without obvious hitches - not bad considering that two of the three areas were a plan B after the Wirrabara fire in early 2014.

Day 3 Course 5 - Splits

Spoilt an otherwise good run with a mistake on the third-last in the vague stuff - drifted down the hill and came in underneath a creek junction, which then meant that I found myself too far over. Dropped about 2.5-3 minutes there, which was enough to cost me the win on the day as Dion had an excellent run (although we were close most of the way - indeed we were tied at controls 12 and 13).

I actually thought I might have had a bit more in hand than that because otherwise I felt quite a bit better than yesterday, and when taking the no-guts-no-glory option on the hilly 8, felt as strong as I've felt up a big hill for a long time. Still have what should be a reasonably comfortable lead (4.44) going into the last day, as long as I don't do anything stupid. Dion starts 4 minutes after me, but I don't intend to try the strategy of waiting for him and staying on his back for the rest of the course.

It's actually an unusual experience for me to be leading into the last day of an Easter. I've won four, all in juniors, but three of them were coming from behind after two days (two by seconds, one by 9 minutes). One of them was M20 here in 1990, when Ant Burnett was about 15 seconds ahead of me after two days, and was none too impressed that the start draw had me two minutes behind him. On that day you ran some distance from the 6-minute pre-start to where the maps were, and he took the opportunity to swap his top over so I wouldn't know what I was chasing. As it turned out, I never saw him, but gained enough ground (a minute or so) to take the win anyway. (No splits in those days - I suspect a lot of ground might have been made up at the end). Pity Ant isn't here to renew the contest, although he's a year older than me so would have been in M45 in any case.

Day 2 Course 5 - Splits

It's a quarter of a century since I last fronted up on Easter Saturday to run anything other than M21E (coincidentally, last time was at exactly the same venue). It was a bit of a culture shock not to have a middle-distance day today (that part wasn't quite a quarter-century ago - my first couple of 21E Easters had three days of similar distance), and to have to check what course number I was running - although last year's WMOC debacle made me careful of that at least (Tara was today's victim in the wrong-course-number department).

I started last of the four M40s. It's also a bit of a culture shock to go into a race as a warm favourite (the last time I can think of this happening was probably the NT Championships in 2009). The other three, Greg, Dion and Tate, are all good enough to be competitive but I'd expect to beat them on a good day. Fairly steep on the first few and didn't feel that fast, and drifted a little of 4 (no real time lost though), but settled down quite well after catching Dion at 5. For the next few we had a nice scrap - he was running a bit faster but didn't have quite the same flow, especially at controls - until an elegantly-executed drop manouevre at 11 (a while since I've done one of those) as he missed it to the left. Caught sight of both Tate and Greg on the long 14, but then lost time there in my only significant miss of the day, hitting the creek a bit high and thinking I'd hit low, dropping 90 seconds or so. Clean the rest of the way and got Tate at the end, though just behind Greg (on the ground). Between 4.15 and 6 minutes ahead of the rest of the field which is probably close to a par result.

Today will be remembered, apart from the orienteering, for the copious quantities of dust - I will need to ask my colleagues in remote sensing when I get back whether the dust cloud along the road was visible from outer space. Late in the day I assisted in providing some muscle power to help extricate a car which was stuck in its parking spot. We got it out and then noticed that the rear wheels weren't moving; it turned out that the driver (who shall remain nameless) had forgotten to disengage the handbrake.

C • Dust cloud 2

Day 1 Course 5 - Splits

Event: 2015 Australian Three Days
 

Easter prologue at Jamestown. It was a bit of a battle just to get a run in this race (a long story that I'll let others tell if they want to), so I didn't want to embarrass myself by coming last or close to it - something I thought was a real risk in a sprint I expected to be a running race. (Jenny and I explored for sprint areas here two years ago on the way back from the outback and didn't find a lot we thought promising).

Didn't feel super-sharp at the beginning, but got into it as the race went on. Gradually pulled in the Hong Kong runner a minute in front of me and had caught him by 8 (whereupon he was one of, I suspect, many to infringe on a poorly defined OOB area), then settled into a nice pace and generally didn't do anything silly until the school section - a reasonably technical finish to the run. Had my only time loss there, aiming to exit 21 through a southern gap which didn't exist (maybe 10 seconds?), but generally contented with the way it went - although the gap to the big guns is a bit scary. A virtually identical result to UNSW in terms of time behind the winners, ending up about 2/3 of the way down the field.

The course made the most of an unpromising area, and putting us into the most technical bits at the end caught a few people out.

And I knew Clive Palmer's mineral businesses were struggling a bit with low commodity prices, but perhaps he's fallen further than I thought, because Clive Palmer Photography and Framing is to be found on Jamestown's main street - not exactly a bustling place on Good Friday. (The bakery, missing a massive opportunity, is closed all weekend, but at least the supermarket was open, which provided a banana-acquisition opportunity).

C • Bakery 2

Elite Prologue Course 1 - Splits

Got this under my belt before an earlyish start at work (with the plan of an early getaway to SA - albeit not quite as early as I'd planned as the Etihad Stadium car park now doesn't give you the early bird rate if you leave before 1.30pm, so going at 12.30 as per my original plan would have cost an extra $22). Started well and truly in the dark, and not many other people around. Seemed to be working pretty well.

Oddity of the week: during school holidays, the morning traffic is much lighter than usual in the suburbs, but as bad as ever near the central city.

Broke up the road trip with a quick stretch-the-legs out jaunt up Mt. Wycheproof, advertised as the "world's smallest mountain" (43 metres above the town). The mountain will be known to those of you who've been around for a while as being the place where Jim won the annual race up it several times - the degree of difficulty being increased considerably by the fact that you had to do it carrying a 60-odd kilo bag of wheat on your shoulders. (Judging by my conversations in the shops afterwards, Jim's exploits are still remembered in these parts). Perhaps not surprisingly, the race became a casualty of insurance issues in the early 2000s.

I didn't have any bags of wheat to carry (although I guess I could have hauled my pack up if I'd really wanted to). Back was a bit tight which was expected given I'd been sitting in a car for three hours, but definitely better for having done this (thanks Hanny for the tip).

Despite the story which appeared on the Age website to that effect on April 1, there was no sign of any work to erect a giant statue of Peta Credlin (a local girl) on the top of the mountain.

The trip up was a bit slower than I'd hoped (including three stops in 800 metres in Charlton - one to buy a chair, one for a phone call and one for a random breath test). Some of the things spotted en route included a sign advertising a Thai restaurant in Korong Vale (prominent, alongside Licola and Lima South, in a discusson on my log a few years back on the subject of the biggest backwater in Victoria), and another sign noting that a certain street was the Leading Garden Street in Nullawil, an honour not contested by an especially large field as Nullawil only has about four streets. (I also suspect the 16-room motel for sale in Sea Lake probably costs less than the house I've just bought in Fairfield).

In Renmark tonight.

C • Lima South 5

Not terribly awake this morning, for a jaunt which initially took me along the Yarra in the approaching dawn (this featured the sighting of a wombat), then up into Macleod (no wombats there). Haven't been getting enough sleep lately but will hopefully be able to do something about that tomorrow night (not while I'm on the road).