Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Once again this was retracing a memorable run from the past. This time it was from 1990, when we came up to Wilpena after Easter at Burra. (I was only there that time because, thanks to my absence overseas the previous year and an overly rigid set of selection criteria, I hadn't been invited to that year's national junior camp - in fact the only one of those I ever got to was in my first year as a senior, the 1992 camp which was much better remembered for its food-poisoning outbreak than for its orienteering). On that 1990 trip I went for a longish run along a beautiful valley north from Wilpena, and headed the same way today.

The surroundings were still beautiful but this time the quality of my run didn't really match them - I felt a bit light-headed and lacking energy for a lot of it. It was at its best in the third quarter (which was also the section with the most climbing), but fell away at the end.

I'm now in Adelaide after travelling south during the afternoon. Noticed that someone who thinks they know better than Goyder is attempting to grow a crop of some kind just north of Hawker.

C • Goyder smoyder 4

I've competed three times in the Flinders Ranges, all of them results or events of some personal significance. In 2003 a third in the SA Champs was the first tangible sign of real progress after 18 months of injury, whilst in 1997 a weekend here rekindled my briefly flagging enthusiasm after having been somewhat contentiously left out of the WOC team a couple of weeks earlier. The first time I was here, in 1986, was one I'd always looked on as a major breakthrough result in my junior career. Up until then I'd been the best in my own (very weak) year and had won a couple of national championships when in the older half of the age group, but Wilpena 1986 was the first time I'd won in a field as a first-year without getting considerable assistance from others stuffing up. Four days later I repeated the result at that year's nationals (with assistance from a bizarre start draw that had me two hours after any other serious contender, meaning that I started knowing exactly what time I was chasing), and only lost four more times in the rest of my Australian junior career - before hitting the wider world and discovering that I'd been a big fish in a very small pond.

I decided to re-run the 1986 course, partly because the 1997 and 2003 maps were on private land. 1986 was a long time ago. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussain were fighting on our side, Canberra had one commercial TV station (which closed down overnight) and no FM radio stations, two of the people who beat me in this year's nationals hadn't been born yet, and I still had a brother as well as a sister. The map had stayed remarkably stable over that time - one open area which had regrown but that was about it - and once again was a joy to run on, endless subtle gullies in delightful open cypress pine forest.

I was running at cruising speed (the ankle was fine today for running, although still a little uncomfortable driving), so was very surprised to look at my watch at the end of the 1986 course and see 37.30 (suggesting that at race speed I'd have been able to go down under 35, probably to 33-34). In 1986 I did 38.30 racing. My base running speed now (as measured by 10km road times) is pretty much what it was in late 1986, so what's changed? It's an fascinating question and one which is essentially unanswerable (I noticed that in 1986 I ran in watercourses quite a bit rather than alongside them as I would now) - was it navigation speed? was it the ability to convert running speed into the terrain? It might be an interesting exercise to send the best people of that age now (Josh, Lachlan and Oscar - if you're reading, this means you) out on an area likely to stay stable for a long time with one of the GPS watches, and then get them to come back and re-run the course sometime in the late 2020s.

Once the course was done I switched onto a few controls drawn on the map in pencil, which I suspect was leftover from a training practice of mine from 1986-87 - I'd draw up a course (often a ridiculously long one) on a map and then visualise running it in my head whilst on road/track runs. (Later I switched to taking things like quotes from novels I was studying for English to memorise; both methods seemed quite effective in developing an ability to maintain concentration on the run).

Once the run was done I spent the afternoon walking in Wilpena, as spectacular as always. I've done St. Mary's Peak before (and in any case half a day isn't enough for it) so climbed Ohlssen Bagge instead.

The people of Boulia will be pleased: their shire remains intact (as do pretty well all the others in western Queensland). I was a bit disppointed that the commissioners passed up the opportunity to merge the Cloncurry council into outer space.

C • cracker read 5

Now at Marree at the other end of the Birdsville Track. It's not a trip that would appeal to everybody, but if you like remoteness and endless subtle variations of country then it's worth doing. The road itself was fine - only a few rough patches (and almost no corrugations). I did manage to get a puncture, but picked a good spot to do it - coming into Mungerannie Roadhouse, where I was going to spend the night anyway. (Oddly, the offending object wasn't one of the sharp rocks, but a bit of stray metal, something that could have happened just as easily on a Melbourne street).

The ankle is still a concern. Bizarrely, I think it's a driving overuse injury as it's most uncomfortable at foot-on-accelerator angle (and you can't use cruise control on the Birdsville Track), and loosens up within a couple of minutes after getting out of the car. I'd planned a rest day today but probably wouldn't have tried to run on it anyway the way it feels now; will give it a try tomorrow. (Going for a run on the Wilpena map was high on my to-do list for this trip so I'll be disappointed if I'm not up to the task).

An out-and-back along the old Birdsville track (the Inside Track) for a dose of desert solitude. A pleasant run getting to see the country up much closer than you do in a car - the most striking thing is the stillness (enough that you can easily hear a vehicle 3 or 4km away). There's a fair bit of grass growth around, thanks to good rains earlier in the year - it would have looked very different, say, last December. The run was steady without being stellar. A hint of soreness at times at the front of the right ankle which will bear watching. Also managed to get swooped by a magpie on the way out of town, a couple of months earlier than it usually happens down south.

I set off down the Birdsville Track this morning. I'm not expecting it to be especially difficult, just long (and at this time of year it gets enough traffic that it would be hard to get into really serious trouble).

An out-and-back from Boulia along the Mount Isa road. A steady run without being anything too special.

Even by the standards of everywhere else in rural Queensland, there were plenty of visible signs of local non-enthuasiasm about the prospects of local council amalgamations. As noted a couple of months ago on these pages this issue has generated more than its share of hyperbolic rhetoric and misinformation, but I wasn't about to venture such an opinion in the local pub (although I suspect it was a case of 'spot the local' there in any case).

Finally made it to Birdsville, with no dramas so far - the roads have been better than I was expecting. Having got this far I could hardly not run up Big Red (the sand dune 35km west of town which marks the true start of the Simpson Desert). I had been thinking of using it for a set of hill intervals but it was soft enough that getting up it at jogging pace was a stretch, so instead I ran along the base for 25 minutes and then climbed the dune at the end. Felt surprisingly comfortable in the heat, which is starting to get noticeable (27 today).

Those back in Melbourne may think my trip is reasonably ambitious, but I felt rather inadequate in conversation at the campground - everyone else seemed to be either just in from a Simpson Desert crossing or just about to do one (and the really hard-core ones were doing it the hard way, the one which involves 1135 dune crossings, rather than the conventional way). It also seems to be very much a middle-aged person's game. There must be someone younger than me in Birdsville but I haven't seen one yet (either tourist or local).

C • Can't add to the young people ... 1

Another run to a weather station, this time in Richmond - having started the camping part of the trip a bit earlier than anticipated because the town was booked out by railway workers. Did some higher-intensity work for the first time since the nationals, throwing in two sets of 10 20-second sprints with 20 seconds jog in between. Didn't feel too sharp doing them but it's a start.

The rest of the day was spent getting to Boulia, a surprisingly interesting trip. I'd expected it to be dead flat but there were some interesting low, rocky ranges for long stretches. One section would have made fabulous orienteering (or rogaining) country, but 160km west of the nearest settlement (Winton) and 1400km from Brisbane, I don't expect it's going to get mapped any time soon.

Once again in Townsville. Didn't feel too sparkling for most of it but a nice setting. Once again did all the climb in one go (this time on a secondary summit of Castle Hill). In what has been a very cool July in this part of the world, this was the first morning on which I noticed anything remotely resembling humidity (and probably the last given where I'm headed).

I now head inland - if things go to plan, to Birdsville by Wednesday night and the Flinders Ranges by the weekend. Updates are likely to be pretty sporadic.