Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First ad of the election campaign (not sure if it's for the federal or state one); a billboard featuring the beaming face of Clive Palmer at a Port Melbourne intersection (surely he doesn't seriously think he can resurface politically?). The pedant in me noted that the billboard did not appear to have any small print which might contain the legally required "authorised by" tag.

C • Plus 7

From Fishermans Bend before getting my car serviced - the loop out past Westgate Park (a bit easier to negotiate now the roadworks at the port entrance are done). Pretty tight at the beginning and wasn't sure in the first 10-15 minutes whether I'd go on with it, but pushed through and got something at least vaguely respectable on the board. Also had the chance to familiarise myself with something which those who've been in Melbourne for the duration have been very familiar with - wind (more so on the more exposed parts of the run).

C • Wind 3

Right hamstring still a bit iffy this morning so took to the water instead (the logistics tomorrow probably work better for running anyway). First time back at Fitzroy - reacquainted myself with feet on cold concrete on the way to and from the water. Not the smoothest of swims I'll ever have and the time showed it, but got the job done.

An impressive smoke plume in the background from a big factory fire in the western suburbs.

C • I actually ran from the poo... 8

Because I can't stay in the one place for long, after all of one night at home I was back on the road - but just a flying visit to Canberra this time. (Would probably have preferred not to have done this one, but work needed someone).

Canberra was doing its winter thing this morning: -5 at the airport overnight. Being aware of the findings of Trewin (2005), I knew it would be warmer than that on the ridges, and headed from where I was staying (near the St. Clare's roundabout) for the Red Hill ridgeline, doing a section of one of my classic runs from back in the day. It's sufficiently classic that I have some of my own placenames for bits of it, on a section that runs from Hindmarsh Gap to Davidson Trig to Windy Saddle (only the second of these is an official name, but I don't think anyone familiar with the area will have trouble working out where the other two are).

This was more ambitious than most of my runs of its type recently, and I was satisfied with how I handled the climbing, although the steeper bits were definitely hard work. Later in the day I saw an information board about the environmental work that's been done on Red Hill since the cattle were removed in the 1990s, and it's certainly evident on the southern end of the ridge - in the 1980s this was almost completely covered with thistles (except for the path), but they're nowhere to be seen now. Good views as always on a clear morning (although the truly classic time to do this run is when it takes you above the fog), and the number of dog-walkers on the ridge (compared to the number on lower ground) suggests that at least some Canberrans are familiar with the principles, if not the text, of Trewin (2005). Didn't feel quite as smooth as I'd hoped on the descent, and a bit of hamstring soreness later in the day, though it seems to have settled now.

Just looked at the (disturbingly small) entry lists for the Queensland NOL events. Looks like I haven't had my last NOL top-10 after all (as long as I finish the middle). Not totally beyond the realms of possibility that I haven't had my last NOL placing...

C • NOL 4

An early run on a frosty morning; a little apprehensive about how the tightness on the outside of my knee would work out but it was fine once warmed up. Started this run by checking up on the progress of the local infrastructure projects (pedestrian bridge across the new railway cutting finished, new Chandler Highway bridge still looks some way away - suspect they'll struggle to get it done by the election), then along the river and up into Westgarth. Not the most sparkling of runs but it will do for now.

C • Infrastructure promises 3

Reacquainting myself with the pilates exercises, once I actually got there - after the train took 10 minutes to get from fairfield to Dennis I decided to cut my losses, got out and walked the rest. Session itself was fine although back was tight on some of the exercises (suspect the scheduled massage on Thursday could be pretty ugly).

The trains hadn't improved a lot afterwards, either.

First session of this kind for a couple of months, at Ivanhoe. Started somewhat later than I'd planned because my parents had forgotten where they'd left my car keys (remembering the last time I was away for this long and returned to a stone-dead battery, I'd asked them to take it out occasionally), but eventually made it. Not the sharpest of sessions as you'd expect, and a bit of tightness on the outside of my right knee - will be interesting to see how this comes up when I try to run on it (probably tomorrow).

Seem to have got through the day more or less OK. Spent most of it doing fairly intellectually undemanding things, like clearing a backlog of administrative paperwork.

Continued my occasional plane activity of working on rebuilding the Australian results archive, which took me to the 1991 Australian Relays. One of the first major things I pushed for when getting involved in orienteering administration was to make the Australian Relays a state competition rather than a club one, and an aspect of the 1991 results illustrates why - only one club was able to field a team in W13-16, but there were at least 23 other W13-16 competitors scattered across other classes (I say 'at least' because I only included those who I definitely know were born between 1975 and 1978), including more than twice as many girls in M13-16 as in W13-16. They could also be found in Mixed Junior, Mixed Senior, W17-20, W21A, W21B, M17-20 (where Grant Bluett suffered what I believe is his only loss to his little sister - a fate I've thus far avoided, although there was a near-miss at QB3 in 2000) and M21B.

(When we were preparing the formal proposal, in the year we looked at - 1995, I think - more than 50% of the participants were running outside their age class).

C • Relays 36

Travel day(s) - Vancouver-Tokyo-Melbourne. One of the pluses of this route is that I seem to have managed to get most of the jet lag out of the way while I was still in the air - my number one trick for dealing with it is to keep myself up until 10pm or thereabouts on my first day, and I managed that stretched day into Tokyo. An upgrade on the second leg (thanks to Dad's vast number of surplus points) didn't hurt either.

The blast of hot air in the aerobridge at Tokyo certainly wasn't an encouragement to get out of the airport in the 4 hours available. (I think it was about 35, with lots of humidity to accompany).

Staying at the right end of Vancouver this time so couldn't pass up an iconic Vancouver run - Stanley Park. Wouldn't normally do something this long the day after a race week but didn't want to miss the opportunity. Like my last visit, you couldn't really see the mountains, but now it's because of light rain and low cloud (a wind change on Thursday finally cleared out the smoke), which I think the locals are happy about. (They'll be happier if the rain gets to where the fires actually are, but it probably won't in useful quantities).

The run itself wasn't one of my best; a bit of hamstring soreness early (which first showed up in the final controls yesterday), and a bit of Achilles soreness late. Still, plugged away steadily on my longest training run for a while. A reasonable number of people out, although there would undoubtedly be more if the sun was shining (and slightly later in the day).

Headed for the airport after a late breakfast at the Granville Island markets, and am now waiting to head home (via Tokyo). Not sure if I've got a red flag in the system in Canada because every time I've gone through an airport here I've been "randomly" selected for extra searching - in Whitehorse they pulled my bag apart (although, being Canada, they were polite about it).

Canadian Middle Championships, equal 4th. Not a bad way to end the week (and vindicated my decision to pull out early yesterday, rather than push myself into the ground for a bad result and then probably not be able to run today).

Not the ideal preparation for this - I realised when we reached the event that I didn't have my passport (first time I've managed this in 30 years of independent travelling), and decided I'd go back to where I was staying to try to find it rather than have that hanging over me during the race. This mission was accomplished (it had fallen off the bedhead and was under the bed - no wonder I didn't notice it when I checked the room this morning), and I got back to the event site just about in time to do my normal 30-minute pre-race routine (and with enough running to and from the car to make it clear that I was feeling better than yesterday).

Once under way, it was a technical middle with lots of short legs in complex terrain, but the forest was more enjoyable than yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Hit the early controls well but made a silly 30-seconder at 5 (forgetting to look at my description and looking for a gully rather than a spur), and another 30 seconds at 8. Running strongly by my recent standards, though, and hit the flat vague controls at the end reasonably well. Ran hard at the finish in the hope of getting under 30; my watch said I did, the official results said I didn't (the start must have been a little out of sync), but the sprint - in as much as anything I do can be referred to as such - didn't go to waste because I ended up in a dead-heat for 4th. A bit under a minute to 3rd which might have been reachable with a clean run; 1st and 2nd definitely out of reach (Brent did 25).

So ended a fun week with a number of decent runs - just yesterday when it didn't work out - and a lot of interesting areas to be in. (One of the drawbacks of having an IOF responsibility for evaluating major event bids is you find yourself wanting to go to more events than anyone, with the possible exception of Annika Bjork, could possibly manage). On the way home now; Vancouver tonight, and then Melbourne via Tokyo tomorrow afternoon.

C • Always checked but... 1

COC Middle - C-9 - Splits

In the words of a legendary (in the ironic sense) AFL Grand Final pre-match singer, two out of three may not be bad, but five out of six has proven a bridge too far for me on this trip; for the third time of asking, I've failed to come up when attempting a fifth event, with the back playing up (and Achilles not great too). I knew by halfway to the second control that my prospects today were in similar shape to Malcolm Turnbull's career prospects, and with less at stake than on the other two occasions, decided it best to cut my losses early and maximise my chance of being able to come up for a decent run tomorrow (not an option which is available to Mr. Turnbull).

At the rate we're going, five out of six may also be an expression we can use to describe Liberal Party leadership spills in their current term of government.

COC Long - C-9b - Splits

Rest day in the NAOC/COC week today. The forecast was fairly ordinary so I didn't think it was worth going out to Kluane NP (in any case it's hard to get into the best of there without either a multi-day walk or a flight); instead we focused closer to home and a walk up Grey Mountain, the peak on the east side of Whitehorse. This tops out at around 1500m; the top of the road is at about 1300 so it was a reasonably straightforward walk. (The road itself needs a bit of clearance to get up it; the tank I've been driving this week may have the turning circle of the MV Malaspina, but it was useful here). Forecast today was pretty ordinary but the rain ended up holding off all day.

The planned exercise for today (other than spill-watching) was a swim, but the Whitehorse pool was closed for maintenance which scuttled that. Not sure where the nearest alternative is but Fairbanks is probably a reasonable guess.

NAOC sprint, 10th M45 about 3 minutes behind Brian May. A fairly disappointing run both physically and technically. Never really got myself going, having perhaps the run I expected to have yesterday after limited preparation (my warm-up was running to the start after a commentary stint). Achilles, which has been good this week, also a bit iffy at times. Navigation was pretty wayward too; dropped about 30 seconds after ending up on the wrong side of the buildings at 3, then had suboptimal routes to 4 and 6 as well. Still a good sprint area - they did a good job with what they had.

Carcross has also become a bit of a mountain biking mecca (Anna and Marquita did some exploring in the afternoon). A lot of this was built as part of an indigenous development project (as noted on the display in the town, building trails is part of the culture of the local people, situated as they were on the trade route between southeast Alaska and the peoples of the interior) - perhaps something we could learn from in Australia?

NAOC Sprint - C-6b - Splits

NAOC relays. Structure for this for the non-elite teams was a three-person relay in three different categories of which ours was the highest (although we would in fact have been eligible for both the others). I ran the third, longest, leg; Anna and Liggo ran first and second for 2.2km apiece.

Didn't have much of a warm-up after doing commentary early (especially once it became apparent that the leg times were short - Anna and Liggo did 16 apiece), but felt good in such warm-up as I had, a rarity of late. Went out in second but didn't expect to stay there, this leg being where a lot of the good elites not in the US or Canadian national teams ended up.

The course itself was in a ski/biathlon area, with lots of tracks which weaved around a bit, and generally slow forest in between, so the trick was to link the tracks and gaps between them in the most logical way. The first leg was quite long and Nick Barrable burned past me. The running side didn't go quite as well as it promised to beforehand (and there was a bit of a stumble on the start line when Liggo gave me the wrong map before correcting), but hit the controls OK with only one 15-seconder.

Turned around at the finish to see Timo Sild behind me - he'd given me 11 minutes' start and had made up 10 1/2 of them. (I'd actually thought he was in front of me, after seeing him out there and thinking he was on the way to 7 when he was actually on the way to 1). His first runner was Daniel Antonio Pereira from Hong Kong, whose name I remember for mispunching in all four events at a past JWOC. We ended up 5th; a team of the Falck Weber brothers and Annija Bjork won.

Relay - Expert 3 - Splits

North American Middle, 3rd. Made the most of a very technical course, with only one error of any size (about 1.5 minutes on 10) to get probably my best result this year. Wasn't running terribly fast, but this wasn't an area for it - rather it was an area for avoiding disaster, particularly on the flat and scary section from 4 to 9. Apart from 10, I was a little wobbly on the way to 1, but ended up hitting the control OK. Didn't run any of the steep hills, but I'm not sure if too many others did. Definitely a day for the navigator (although astonishingly Timo Sild did under 7 mins/km on this). About 2.30 off the lead - was actually in front before my mistake at 10 (it's been a long time since I've seen a red number against my name on Winsplits).

Very scenic arena with a backdrop of Lewes Lake and the mountains beyond that, although fine dust became more of a nuisance as the day went on.

Yesterday we were sharing a course with the M18s, today it was the W18s. I know the junior fields here are some way below full (North American) strength but the results were still a bit of a shock - fastest time in W18 was 110(!). By way of comparison, I'd probably expect to beat the current crop of Australian junior women in this type of terrain, but would expect at least some to get within a few minutes. (In less technical terrain, some do beat me at least some of the time - Asha gets me every now and again in Melbourne Bush-Os, for instance).

C • Strength 3

NAOC Middle & WRE - C-9 - Splits

NAOC long, 6th M45. Brent (on his home turf, although he hasn't run on this specific area) won with 51 but no-one else was under the high 50s.

Apart from the first control this was a pretty good run. I was wobbly on the first, having a bit of trouble getting into the map initially - didn't actually go too far off the line but had enough hesitations and pulling up short to drop a couple of minutes (according to the split comparisons I've done so far). From there, although I was still finding it hard to hold a bearing in the flatter regions (I wasn't the only person to notice that my compass had trouble settling, presumably due to the proximity of the magnetic pole), it didn't really cost me anything. There were a few controls in vague and greenish terrain (4, 9, 10) where I wasn't confident but was very pleased to hit a flag more or less right on. Also running reasonably well by recent standards, with no injury issues.

Quite a nice area to be in; good running on the higher ground but harder work in the softer lowlands. Reasonably happy with the outcome too, although getting edged out by Nick Duca by 30 seconds was a bit disappointing (we've been crossing paths for more than 20 years - having first met as co-commentators at JWOC 1996 in Romania).

NAOC Long & WRE - C-9b - Splits

Event: NAOC 2018
 

NAOC model event. As usual, a fairly casually-paced attempt to come to grips with the terrain - not so different in its landforms from some of what I've been in in Europe. Main take-home from this was that I'm more used to 2.5m contours in areas with this level of contour detail, so will need to get used to the idea that quite big features are represented with a single contour. Didn't feel great running, but that often happens in model events.

It's quite cool and dry here (although it's forecast to warm up), and it was quite a novelty to finish without being drenched with sweat. Summers are short here; it dropped to -4 in Haines Junction this morning (+3 in Whitehorse).

Walking through the streets of Skagway with my gear at 1am (the place I was staying was a bit over 1km from the dock), I did muse that travel puts you in some slightly oddball situations. It was a fairly quick turnaround, because I thought I was on the 7.30 train out of town. I wasn't - I got to the ticket office to pick up my tickets and saw that they had 12.30 printed on them. This actually worked out OK, as it meant I spent a few hours in Skagway instead of a few hours in Carcross (where I basically wouldn't have been able to leave the bus stop because of the NAOC sprint embargo), and they let me leave my pack at the ticket office. Just would have been nice to know ahead of time so I could have had a bit more sleep...(I probably wouldn't have tried to fit in a run anyway, with orienteering on 7 of the next 8 days).

Skagway, a town which got its start as the port for the late 1890s Klondike gold rush, has its character although it's hard to know how authentic the buildings actually are. Wasn't quite as overwhelmed as I thought it might be with three cruise ships in town. The train trip was scenic, and so was the connecting bus; I was by no means the only Australian here, sighting Liz and Bruce, the Meekings, Jones and Brownlie couples.

Wasn't quite the last of my transport-related misadventures, though - I'd booked to pick a car up from Whitehorse Airport, but have found out that whatever it says on the Budget website, the desk is only open to meet incoming flights. I'm currently sitting around the airport for a couple of hours waiting for the next one.

Perhaps it was as well for my mental health that I was off the ship when a subsequently-rescinded announcement was made that we wouldn't be leaving Ketchikan until Wednesday morning. This morning I found out a bit more of the story - they thought they were going to have to fly a part in from Anchorage, but someone managed to track the relevant part down at the Ketichikan Wal-Mart, and we ended up leaving Ketchikan around 9pm, now 11 hours behind schedule.

Some of the port stops are reasonably long for reasons which were not immediately obvious to me. Petersburg's was only 45 minutes, but that was long enough to find a place with decent coffee close to the terminal (none of the terminals except Skagway's are close to the centre of town, though Petersburg's, like Ketchikan's, is still in the urban area). The one in "Juneau" (the terminal is actually 25km out of town, to avoid the ships having to do a big out-and-back - the passage north of Juneau is too shallow for shipping) was about 2 hours. I didn't think that was long enough to hire a taxi to go to the Mendenhall Glacier, but it was enough for a run.

A look at a map in the ferry terminal suggested that, after about 1km on the highway (which at least had a decent shoulder) there was a coastal trail, and so it proved - a nice spot to be in, partly coastal rainforest and partly beach. (Beaches are actually a pretty rare sight in this part of the world - typically the forest comes right down to the waterline). Felt better on the run than yesterday, although that's not an especially high bar to clear.

As expected, the trip was highly scenic, getting progressively more so as we went further north (one upside of the delay is that we probably got more of the good bits in daylight and in decent weather than we would have on the original schedule). Eventually made Skagway about 1am - brownie points for the B+B host who got/stayed up for me (I'd rung from Juneau to let them know what was happening).

The ferry was definitely a travel experience. You get to see most of what the cruise ship passengers see at a vastly lower price and without being in the company of several thousand of your new best friends anywhere you go ashore (and, although it was still mostly an older crowd, there were a few people, other than the crew, who were younger than I was). On the downside, the system is clearly starved of funds - although apparently a couple of the older ships (mine was 55 years old) are being replaced in the next couple of years - facilities on board are reasonably basic - definitely not a Baltic Sea vessel - and the food ranges from passable to almost inedible.

Well, this isn't turning out quite as planned. The first bit which didn't go quite to plan was that I headed out to the ferry terminal about 10pm to sit out the last 3 1/2 hours before departure, to find the place deserted and a notice on the gate saying that the departure had been rescheduled for 8.45. Fortunately the taxi driver hadn't (quite) left yet, so I was able to flag him down for a ride back to town in search of a motel (found at the first attempt, and at a fairly reasonable price and quality in the circumstances - local knowledge is useful).

The first leg then wasn't quite as scenic as hoped for because of low cloud and mist, although it had started to lift enough to give some decent views for the last section in Ketchikan. This was our first port of call, and we had long enough there for me to plan for a short run there (even if it was in the afternoon rather than morning as originally expected). This was partly in pursuit of some logistical goals - finding an ATM to get US currency, and finding somewhere to get some fruit (there's none for sale on the boat and you can't bring it across the border - got to protect those Alaskan banana crops). The former objective was a bit trickier than I expected because the only outdoor ATMs I found were at drive-through banks. Got just about to the centre of town, where I did my good deed for the day (drawing a woman's attention to the fact that she'd just dropped her purse), before heading back. The run itself was pretty poor, with back not 100%, especially in the first half.

I got back, quite proud of what I'd managed to get done, and had just got out of the shower when an announcement came over that the ship had a mechanical issue and would now not leave until at least 8pm. That puts us 10 hours behind schedule (although we'll be able to make some of it up with shorter port calls, assuming we actually get away at 8). I'm starting to get a little nervous about my Skagway arrangements, although it would need to be 15 hours late for me to miss my connection there.

And, for the record, since I (and no doubt most of you) have heard a few horror stories about US border officials in the Trump era, the official I dealt with today was just about the friendliest and most helpful such official I can remember encountering anywhere. (Border agencies do seem to attract the occasional person who enjoys a power trip - the worst such official I've crossed paths with was in Amsterdam - but it's good to remember that even in Trump's America, most of them aren't like that - or maybe it's just that Alaska is different).

C • Notice 3

In Vancouver as a staging post on the way north, staying towards the eastern end of downtown in just about the only place I could find for under $500 a night (fairly basic but OK; apparently prices skyrocket around cruise ship departures/arrivals). Decided to save Satnley Park for the trip back when I'll be staying closer, and instead headed down around the top end of False Creek - nice once on the south shore. Went a little bit further than I intended, partly because getting on the Granville bridge was a more convoluted process than I anticipated, but that's no bad thing - might as well take advantage of days when things are functioning reasonably well.

This afternoon's leg was to fly to Prince Rupert. We got as far as the end of the taxiway before returning to the gate - the weather observations system at Prince Rupert had gone down and, with fog looking like it was just clearing at the time, the pilot wasn't prepared to risk it without better information.(Meanwhile, a lot of flights to the interior of BC were being delayed or cancelled because of heavy smoke, which was making its presence felt in Vancouver too - you could only just see the mountains' outline from downtown). The second attempt, 1.45 late, was fine, and once clear of the smoke it was as spectacular as I expected.

Being late wasn't actually a bad thing as it means I only have eight hours to kill in Prince Rupert instead of ten, ahead of tonight's late-night ferry departure. Arriving at Prince Rupert is a bit different to the usual; the airport is on an island (not enough flat land on the mainland) so you have to get a ferry to town - I have seen this before, for Horn Island/Thursday Island in the Torres Strait.

One of the longer days I've ever experienced, but didn't manage to find time to do a session in its 34 hours (at high latitudes you can cross a lot of time zones in not that many hours of flying). Travel day Helsinki-London-Vancouver. Might have thought about doing something with my 5 hours in London had I had anywhere to leave my bag, but I didn't (instead, thinking I probably didn't have time to get right into the city and back without pushing it, I decided to pick a random Underground station and look for somewhere to have lunch; slightly to my disappointment, I found what must be the only Underground station in suburban London which doesn't have an Indian place within easy walking distance). First part of the morning was devoted to catching up with an atmospheric scientist who used to be at Monash but is now in Helsinki; since Helsinki doesn't do early Sunday morning cafes the way Melbourne does, this was a picnic breakfast in the somewhat unglamorous setting of a bus shelter (it was raining), but the company was good.

The travel itself didn't go too badly, although we were about 40 minutes late on the Vancouver leg. Lots of cloud but caught just enough glimpses of Greenland, Iceland and Baffin Island to keep me satisfied. England is definitely the green brown and pleasant land at the moment; perhaps the most striking from the air are the cricket grounds where the pitch is lush green (even the most minor of grounds will have a turf pitch - often not a very good one from my experience) and everything off the pitch is bone-dry.

Was wondering if I might have some issues with British immigration not believing I was only going to enter the country for a couple of hours, but when I told the person I just wanted to get out of the airport for a couple of hours he said "I don't blame you". I had been looking forward to seeing the weekend British papers in the lounge, but someone must have done an exclusive deal because the only ones to be found were News Limited publications. (News seem to like doing this sort of deal, which may explain why Sky News have spent the week throwing their toys out of the cot over being kicked off the screens at Melbourne Central).

A fairly casual morning session before the WOC long distance, going to the middle arena and back. (There was surprisingly little evidence that the event had taken place four days ago; just a couple of leftover forbidden area signs). A bit concerned about the Achilles early on but it settled more or less OK, and felt reasonable while running for the most part. Hadn't noticed on Tuesday that there's a bit of a climb back to town from the middle arena.

It was then onwards to watch the long (free of any complaints to deal with as a jury) - as always, a hard day's work for the competitors. Tash keeps putting sloid long distance results together, and both Bryan and Matt kept going on a day when they could easily have given it away, giving us the points we needed to keep our second man for next year (albeit only through a German mispunch). As always, there were some ups and downs for us at WOC, but quite a bit to be pleased about, including Vanessa's PB, Doyley's good debut and a solid men's relay.

Historical segue of the day goes to the commentator who noted that Sandra Grosberga was wearing number 39, the year Latvia were second in the European basketball championships. This isn't quite as obscure as it sounds; it seems that their controversial one-point loss to Lithuania is still well-remembered in both countries, not least because it would have been just about the last time for over 50 years that either competed in anything as an independent country. (Some further reading on this revealed that (a) there used to be a rule in basketball, scrapped on the eve of these championships, restricting the use of players over 1.9 metres tall and (b) only two of the competing teams had any players over this threshold; times have changed...).

So ends (in effect) the European phase of this trip. The next target is Whitehorse, but there's going to be a lot happening between here and there. First step is Riga to Helsinki tonight.

C • I love this miscellaneous i... 2

Latvian O-Week, day 5. This one was on an area not used for WOC but advertised as relevant to WMOC 2019 (which I probably won't be coming to, but worthwhile anyway). The old map was 70% marsh so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What we got was very open forest, a fair bit of marsh (not boggy or wet, but definitely harder to run than the non-marsh), and sand-dune type contours in between the marshes.

Took the first leg to get the feel for holding direction, what was up and what was done, but navigating reasonably well after that (on a course made easier because several of the controls were very visible). Really struggled with the running early on, and although that improved, I was never particularly strong on an area where the soft ground demanded it. Given how open it was I expected someone to get close to 6 mins/km, and someone did (think I ended up 11th).

This was another hot day, this time with a strong, dry, gusty southerly wind (an unusual situation for northern Europe, where heatwaves normally come with little or no wind). It was the sort of day where we probably wouldn't have gone ahead in Australia because of fire danger, and in the evening at the medal ceremony, I did smell a hint of smoke on the wind from the south (although I don't know where it's coming from). A change is due tonight.

Driving in Latvia has had its occasional moments; most of the driving is conventional, but every now and again you get a reminder that some of the behaviours you've probably seen on Russian dashcam videos were learned before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Of course, it would not be in any way stereotyping to note that those drivers with a I-don't-give-a-f**k-if-you-have-right-of-way-get-out-of-my-f***ing-way attitude (one of whom required some evasive action on my part on the way back from the event) are almost exclusively to be found in expensive German or Italian cars. (In a similar vein, apparently some scurrilous soul has been putting up official-looking posters in London: "Drive a Jeep or Range Rover in the city? You could be entitled to free penis enlargement surgery on the NHS").

Bit of groin tightness this morning and Sigulda has a decent pool, so I thought I might as well use it. Thought it might have been crowded given the hot weather (low 30s), but hardly anyone was there, probably because the waterpark component doesn't open until 12, with only the indoor pools open in the mornings. Water not as warm as I'm used to in indoor pools, which suits me fine.

One of the more interesting relay days I can remember, especially amongst the men - it's not often that you see eight teams within a minute. Some excellent course-setting, both in the technical forks and in having a major route-choice leg late in the course. I said before the long leg that if someone was brave enough to go right if the pack was going left, they would win, and so it proved.

Relays have changed a fair bit over time; I was looking at the JWOC 1991 relay results today (in the course of a discussion about that day's heat in Berlin, in the context of near-record heat there yesterday). The fastest leg time in the men's relay was 64. (Also interesting to see a few names there who never made it at international elite level but are now regulars at WMOC). It's certainly different from the days of four 70-minute legs at WOC relays 30 years ago.

C • Route choice 7

Latvia O-week day 4 - partly the southern half of the WOC middle distance area, and partly an area to the west (we didn't cross the river, which was a pity). Major issue here was the few very steep slopes - I'm not particularly good at getting up slopes which are steep enough to require use of the hands, and even worse at getting down them. (It certainly showed why those who attempted to run directly up the hill yesterday lost time by doing so). Some of the controls were quite easy; reasonably clean for the others early on, but didn't quite hit 15 (the WOC TV control) straight on, and also lost a little time on the next one. Not fast, but perhaps had a bit more than I thought I did, as the last hill was quite strong. One of my better results of the trip - clearly in the top half this time.

Did a bit of exploring in the afternoon along the back roads as far as Cesis, with its small but interesting old town. One discovery is that - like much of rural Australia, but unlike most of western and central Europe - any rural road not significant enough to have a number has a fair chance of being gravel (fortunately rental companies here aren't as anal about gravel roads as their Australian counterparts and only specify no off-road use; in any case, my car came with enough documented scrapes that it would be difficult to demonstrate that I'd created any new ones unless it actually crashed).

The medal ceremony from yesterday was in the town centre this evening. This, which has been done a few times before, is a well-intentioned idea to try to engage with the town, but almost all of those actually there were orienteers (most of them connected with countries represented on the podium). Nobody booed the Russian anthem, which may indicate that (a) we're more civilised than football fans or (b) the crowd didn't have too many locals in it.

And a bit of insight into what goes into WOC scheduling; this week is the week of both the European swimming and athletics championships, and the WOC races are scheduled so that they can fit into TV schedules in the gap between the swimming/athletics heats (morning) and finals (evening).

C • Gravel 2

A bit more exploration through the north side of Sigulda, including going out to one castle and trying unsuccessfully to find the mound for another off map-memory. Felt much the same as yesterday, with Achilles a bit iffy without giving any serious trouble; rather slow but seemed to be functioning OK. Enjoyed the cooler conditions, with even a few showers early on.

This was the prelude to an afternoon at the WOC middle - a good day's competition. It was pleasing to see some new faces at the top of the podium, and also to see a career-best result from Vanessa, and Matt getting to spend 40-odd minutes on the couch after an encouraging first appearance. (Incidentally, having just done the points, we're almost certain to regain our second spot in the women's long in 2019, and should keep our two men's places unless something goes badly wrong in the relay).

C • Garmin 1

An attempt to see if things still functioned and was pleasantly surprised to see that they did. Did essentially a lap of the north side of Sigulda, a rather spread-out town (like a lot of eastern European towns these days, much of the retail is in malls on the highway) but pleasant enough. Went out as far as the road past the TV tower; the Vilnius one is a Lithuanian national sacred site (a number of people died there in 1991 trying to stop Soviet troops from shutting it down), but I don't think Sigulda's has any such historical significance.

Spent the rest of the day in IOF meetings, mostly productive but with a few curveballs (of which more may or may not be heard). Haven't heard what Council has done with the various major event bids but I understand that there will be an announcement this week.

C • Monday musings 1

There's nothing particularly new about self-incrimination on social media, as demonstrated by the experience of the armed robber who did a stretch in the Hume Hilton after Detective Frogga spotted him bragging about his exploits on Facebook (clearly some ACT crims didn't learn from that experience), but today I found out that the way the organisers became aware of the Russian athletes breaching the JWOC sprint embargo (for which the Russian team was disqualified from that event) was that said athletes posted a picture of themselves in the embargoed area on Instagram.

Tried to get out before the Foot O Commission meeting started, but Achilles no good today. I think it's going to be a case of managing it through the rest of the trip now, and hoping that it holds together for at least the competitions.

Took an excursion to the other side of the river today for the sprint relay - certainly a reminder that we're still in eastern Europe (as was the main road-turns-randonly-to-cobblestones bit coming out of Riga later). Australia was a bit off the pace but at least we improved a place on last year (nice work by Bun on the last leg to pull in a few places). Interesting that there were almost no changes in the teams ahead of us - apart from Spain mispunching instead of Ukraine, the only things which were different were that New Zealand beat us instead of Bulgaria, and that we were one place ahead of Germany instead of one place behind. (Incidentally, my job today, as it will be for the women's relay on Thursday, is finish line judge - only one tight one today, Belarus v Ukraine for 15th).

C • Course 6

Event: WOC 2018 - Latvia
 

Handling a tricky protest was hardly the ideal preparation for this run; only got to the start a few minutes before my start time. Managed the navigation smoothly on a reasonably straightforward area, but couldn't get my running going at all. Achilles rather touchy today. Ended up about two-third of the way down, which was about what this run deserved (fastest was just over 14).

The spectator race was only a minor part of the day, of course; the WOC sprint was as lively as ever, and it as great to be there to see Tim's silver medal - and so close to going one better...The courses looked excellent technical courses for the most part, but most of the talk was about the start/finish configuration, which involved starters running up the same fairly narrow street in the opposite direction to both finishers and those doing the run-through, and the start point and last control being within a few metres of each other (which caused some confusion), all of this on the edge of an intersection which was open to traffic (I still can't believe this part). We managed to get through without serious incident - the worst I saw was Susan Loesch, finishing, colliding with a starter without major consequence - but that was more good luck than good management. (There was a near-miss, caught on video, of Daniel Hubmann leaving the start triangle almost colliding at high speed with someone coming into the last control). Pedestrian traffic was an issue, too, and I'm struggling to see how a WMOC sprint final in the old town can work (unless they run it at 7am).

C • Risk management 2

Got into Riga on the ferry about lunchtime - very scenic trip for the first three hours out of Stockholm, and then slept very well too (had a cabin to myself, somewhat to my surprise - I guess most people travel in groups so if the ferry isn't full they don't put the extras in with each other).

The hot humid afternoon was an incentive to take it easy this afternoon, as was my slightly awkward location - I'm staying across the street from the embargoed area, and although I'm not formally covered by the embargo because I don't have an official position with any team, I didn't want to freak out any organiser who spotted me (going in the opposite direction looked like it went into an unattractive industrial area). I don't think any teams are staying here, but there was some O gear hanging off a balcony anyway - belonging, I think, to the secretary-general of the Chinese federation. Went to an Indian restaurant around the corner for dinner and it turned out the waiter was in Latvian M14/16 squads back in the day...

C • China O 4

One thing I neglected to note from my Lofoten travels is that I just missed out on the Arctic Derby - Bodo against Tromso, being played for some reason in the Lofoten town of Leknes. (This fixture hasn't been played a lot in recent years as Bodo have spent most of the last decade in the second division). I presume it must have been a warm-up friendly before the resumption after the summer break, as the result doesn't appear in the official league scores.

Got as far as Soderhamn last night, where I'd previously been for the 2011 O-ringen. Going into the centre last night was an indication that the last seven years haven't been terribly kind to the place, but it was a convenient place to break the journey.

O-ringen 2011 didn't fill me with a desire to get back into its terrain - lots of small ankle-breaking rocks (the locals had evidently worked this out beforehand - apart from a couple way up north, 2011 had the lowest attendance in the last 40 years). The satellite pictures, though, did suggest there were nice tracks in the forest on the west side of the highway as long as I could find a way to get across it. There was indeed such a way, and after a very unpromising first 100 metres, I loosened up nicely and had one of my better runs of the trip, notwithstanding the extreme (for Sweden) humidity. Towards the end there were distant rumbles which steadily because less distant; I wouldn't have wanted to be out much longer.

The remainder of the day featured a few minor mishaps. What turned out to be a storm which was very productive of lightning (not so much of rain, with only a few minutes of downpour) knocked out Soderhamn's power while I was having breakfast, which led me to leave town as soon as possible rather than linger and work on a few things (plus, with the - unrealised - possibility of flash flooding on the roads, I thought it best to get an early start). Once in Stockholm, I found some of the drawbacks of Sweden's much-vaunted cashless society - the first parking meter I tried didn't accept foreign cards (and had no cash option), and neither did the station ticket machine. (On the other hand, the laundry I was going to - one of only two self-service laundries in Sweden, apparently - only accepted cash (unless you had Swish, the Swedish bank payments app) and I didn't have enough Swedish cash left, but fortunately they also accepted euros). Also had a failed attempt to get my tips in for this AFL round because the wifi I was using at the time blocked footytips.com.au as a gambling site (second attempt later succeeded).

Notwithstanding all of this, I managed to get to the port whilst only partially dissolving into a ball of sweat (Stockholm's temperature/humidity/cloudiness stats for today would all have been entirely in keeping with a day at the warm end of normal late-summer conditions in Brisbane), and am now on the boat to Riga. Had been on the boat for all of five minutes before meeting Bubo...

C • Laundromat 1

Spent the night in Tarnaby, a ski resort town perhaps most famed as the home base of Ingemar Stenmark, an Olympic skiing gold medallist from the days when Sweden used to produce skiing medallists (one of the things I've absorbed from my Norwegian extended family is the capacity to sledge Sweden about winter sports performances). Had my best night's sleep for a while, which probably had something to do with the room temperature starting with a 2 rather than a 3, and set out for a run along the lake, with a baseline ambition of 40 minutes and the potential to extend if I was feeling OK. As it turned out I had more energy than I have for a while, but Achilles was still iffy so I left it at the short end.

Otherwise it was a long day on the road to get me most of the way back to Stockholm. My original plan was to stay inland for a long way, mainly using the E45, but advice yesterday, although the road was still open, was to avoid it if possible (which I took to mean that it could be closed at any time if fire conditions changed), so instead I headed basically south to reach the coast at Sundsvall. About 250km of this was on back roads cutting south towards Sundsvall, which was fine for most of the time apart from a 20km stretch which reminded me that the old Alaskan joke about the year having four seasons - Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Roadworks - also appears to apply in northern Scandinavia. This road was dotted with settlements with a few dozen or hundred inhabitants apiece, most of which appeared to be as far past their peak as many comparably sized places in agricultural areas of inland Australia.

Pleasant scenery for the most part (lots of lakes) without huge amounts of spectacle - there was low cloud early on for the more mountainous sections (the first time this has happened to me on this trip).

On a day like this you spot the quirks, and a couple which were particularly spottable: (a) seeing a sign for the Swedish Caravan Museum a couple of hundred metres after overtaking a contraption which definitely belonged in it and (b) tailing a taxi for about 50km through the middle of nowhere, before we reached a town of sorts and the passenger disembarked at the local Systembolaget.