Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A very solid long run, probably the best of this training cycle so far - the ideal conditions helped (14 degrees, mostly cloudy, light wind). A little weak in the first few km but settled down well, just in time to take on Plenty River Drive in Greensborough (one of the more fearsome hills to be found in our neck of the woods). Really flowing well in the middle (hope all the dog-walkers along Diamond Creek were impressed), more of a grind in the last hour but didn't really tire until the last 10 minutes. Longest since February.

Went looking for hills today - there are a few around my place if you go looking them, with the combination of Eaglemont, the north end of North Balwyn and the west end of Bulleen.

Woke up with a sore knee for no obvious reason (maybe rolled awkwardly during the night?). Didn't bother me at all on the run but a bit uncomfortable walking afterwards. Hopefully nothing significant.

The run itself was fine, taking advantage of the much cooler conditions today.

Today's a rest day from running (not a bad one to have - it was 30 degrees at 6 a.m., and riding in a howling crosswind wasn't a lot of fun), so it's a good opportunity for my end-of-year awards (drum-roll):

The Who Says Orienteering Isn't A Contact Sport Award: Eric Bone and Mike Smith for their efforts in the WOC sprint qualifier. They came back bleeding in similar spots and at the finish we thought they might have run into the same obstacle. As it turned out they'd run into each other.

Although as far as I know there were no actual collisions, an honourable mention goes to whoever thought it was a good idea to run the Trail-O WOC in conjunction with the MTBO WOC and have racing bikes and wheelchairs sharing the same tracks at the same time.

Mistake of the Year: David Andersson for running the wrong way around the loop after the spectator control at the WOC middle distance final. Honourable mention to Minna Kauppi for almost managing to blow a five-minute lead in the last section of the WOC relay, and to Valentin Novikov for his mistake while leading towards the end of the middle distance final.

Serial DNF Award: There were a couple of good Australian bids for this one (Troy de Haas for getting disqualified twice in one day at the WOC sprint, and the MTBO relay team for getting all three of their members disqualified), but the winner is one Daniel Antonio Pereira of Hong Kong, who managed to get himself disqualified in all four events at JWOC. The only event he actually finished was the middle qualifier (where he came last).

Most Useless Prize: The winners at the pre-WMOC sprint race in Wiener Neustadt got to take home a copy of a 1998 Austrian sport yearbook (in German). I did notice that said yearbook did contain a disproportionate number of pictures of a certain Russian female tennis player who was a losing quarter-finalist in that year's Austrian Open.

The Basil Fawlty Don't Mention The War Award: To the Finnish and Russian MTBO teams for their protests and counter-protests over Ruslan Gritsan's route choice on the spectator leg at the WOC long distance.

The Know Your Target Audience Award: To the Austrian armed forces for sponsoring WMOC, an event where 95% of the participants weren't Austrian and 100% were at least 34 1/2 years old - not exactly a recruitment opportunity.

(An honourable mention to the caterers at the same event, for having as one of the items for sale - cigarettes).

Best Line of the Year on AP: Kieran Sullivan for saying after a hot run (and aren't all runs hot in Brisbane between, well, August and May?) that he was sweating "like a paedophile at a Wiggles concert".

Worst Major Event Song: A dead-heat between all known entries.

Most Unfortunate Off-Field Injury: Rob Walter's bike crash on Rottnest Island which put him out of the Australian Championships.

Most Political Use of an Event: To the Afghan would-be asylum seekers, housed next to the Norwegian O-festival venue, who decided the event would be a good opportunity to display to the world their non-enthusiasm about their impending deportation. They got a bit of media coverage but got sent back anyway.

Any other suggestions welcome...

C • suggestions 2

Quite a pleasant run although a bit slower than I thought it was. Felt pretty reasonable from the start unlike some recent Thursday runs (a somewhat easier Wednesday helped). A bit of shin soreness late on but nothing to be too worried about. Again feared the worst with the weather but didn't start to heat up significantly until after I finished.

Up in Canberra for Dad's retirement function, and went out in the Black Mountain/Aranda Hill terrain with Cassie. A bit slower than it would have been if I'd gone out on my own, and quite comfortable. Not as many spiders as there usually are on Aranda Hill - will blame this on the drought like everything else.

C • Chief Statistician retiring? 1

Went out again in the late afternoon, with Eric this time - track run in Black Mountain/Bruce Ridge/Gossan Hill. Pretty comfortable although sharper hills a bit iffy.

Would have liked to have had a camera this evening - there were at least 50 kangaroos grazing on the football ground at the Defence Force Academy.

Earlier in the morning than usual and slower at the start than usual (usually I regard 'par' as doing the first loop 5 seconds slower than the next - today it was 14), but nice later on. Fastest loop 9.11, about what I'd be happy with during a base phase.

You get to see some interesting driving (often interestingly inebriated) at this time of year, but yesterday I spotted someone with a number plate 'IAM007'. They were certainly driving like they had a licence to kill (or at least to ignore all traffic laws).

A reasonably tame recovery run, in anticipation of tonight's MFR Christmas party featuring some fun but little training. Definitely knew I'd done 2.5 hours yesterday but ended up reasonably well, which is the objective of a recovery run, after all.