Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Sydney Metro event at Parramatta Lake. I wasn't expecting a lot, coming off a night without a lot of sleep post-party (but then most of the opposition combined the same disadvantage with a hangover). Felt reasonably good running but my concentration was often poor on what should have been a pretty easy course - blew 2 minutes on 7 after misreading a small track as a line of cliffs. Nice to get into some new terrain - maybe not too exciting for us as experienced people, but we'd love to have an area like this in suburban Melbourne to blood newcomers in.

The lake meant some routes were much longer than the straight line. 11 to 12 was particularly so. The lake was below its usual level and I was thinking of cutting across the mudflats at the end, but decided not to. This was as well because Jose went up to his waist in it and had quite some work to get out.

I'm entering this from Sydney Airport. A few years ago I arrived early for a flight out of Sydney and took up an offer to get on an earlier flight, only to find that it was delayed and ended up getting to Melbourne after the one I'd originally been booked on. The same is in danger of happening here.

C • Mud photos 3

Event: 70's Disco
 

Somewhat more adventurous than my long runs usually are. In Sydney in the lead-up to Ben's 30th, and went out from Jose's place at French's Forest in a group which started out quite large but ended up being whittled down to three (Rob, Julian and myself - although Prong only fell off late in the piece). Spent several minutes early on acquainting ourselves with the pleasures of Sydney bush, scrub-bashing uphill to get to a track, before dropping down to Narrabeen track, then up a long single-track (a really nice section) which came out at Oxford Falls. Also had plenty of opportunities to reacquaint myself with a substance foreign to Melburnians, mud.

It was a good solid run, one of those days when you get to the top of a hill, look back down it and think 'was it really that steep?'. Slower pace than usual for my long runs but the terrain was responsible for that.

Up in Canberra for the first stage of the long weekend (Dad's Order of Australia ceremony at Government House this afternoon) so tested out the new Belconnen pool, which is pretty impressive (no wonder the Jamison one's reported to be on the verge of going bust). A decent enough session although a little bit of right elbow soreness at one point. The timing pads were in operation so my slow laps were flashed up on the scoreboard if anyone was paying attention (hope they weren't).

C • band aid central 1

A rather flat and uninspiring run, never felt brilliant, but no worse at the end than at the beginning. Also felt rather weak on anything that resembled a hill, so it was as well that there weren't too many of them.

C • Peak has passed? 1

A run which will be remembered mainly for turning a corner around halfway and stepping into a scene straight out of a TAC commercial - suburban back street, police and ambulance with flashing lights, and motionless body mostly under blanket on the ground. Fairly obviously a pedestrian who had come off second-best from an altercation with a car. I didn't look too closely at the centre of the action, but there was a bag off to the side which suggested its owner was probably of late primary-school age. Didn't look good, although there's nothing on the news (yet) so I'm assuming they survived (for now at least).

As a result of this my mind was everywhere except running for the second half, after a reasonably mundane first half (very sluggish in the first 5 minutes but settled after that). The biggest challenge early on was sidestepping the obstacles supplied by the City of Boorondara's hard rubbish collection day. I'm not sure whether this happens in other cities (it certainly doesn't in Canberra) but it's something of a Melbourne institution. Sometimes it can be somewhat unfortunately times, as happened during the Commonwealth Games when the Shire of Yarra Ranges scheduled their collection day for the same day as the shooting at Lilydale. Perhaps the Sierra Leone team could have used the discarded couches and electrical goods lining the road to the event to furnish their post-defection premises.

I'm street-Oing in Hawthorn tonight, so started near Scotch and headed south, taking in such sights as Melbourne's oldest known political graffiti, now almost invisible (it's on the Glenferrie Road railway bridge at Malvern and says 'MENZIES OUT' and 'VOTE NO', dating from the 1952 referendum to ban the Communist Party), and the wonderfully-named Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Pool.

(For the benefit of non-Australian readers, and possibly younger Australian ones, Harold Holt was a Prime Minister who disappeared without trace, presumed drowned - although there were some more colourful theories involving Chinese submarines - off a Victorian beach in 1967).

C • Council Collection 1

Street-O at Smiths Dell. A nice area, although a pretty mundane course with only a couple of significant route choice decisions. Terrific spot for the start/finish, in a park on a hill with a great view to the Melbourne central city skyline. An added element was supplied by the Holden airship, which from certain angles looked remarkably like a flying saucer as it hovered in the dusk over the inner suburbs. Expect a lot of UFO reports tomorrow.

I forgot to turn my torch on until we got the 'go' signal so wasted a bit of time doing that and was 100 metres off the back by the time I started thinking. Settled well and was running strongly by about the third leg, from which point it was a nice run. Felt like I was going a bit faster than I actually was, and didn't get close to Adam. Had a good scrap with Bruce Paterson for a couple of legs - he's very fast downhill, but not so elsewhere.

No horizontal pedestrians this time.

C • doing the rounds 1

Another sign that I'm starting to build into some pretty reasonable form, getting close to the 9-minute mark for the fartlek circuit (9.02) despite not feeling ultra-sharp, and a bit of slippery ground (it actually rained this morning). My best in recent times is 8.55. Not a bad place to be with a string of significant races coming up.

The ride in to work on wet roads had its moments, and I acquired quite an impressive amount of facial mud in transit considering that I didn't go off bitumen en route.

Also starting to look like we might be denied the satisfaction of seeing John Howard defeated at the ballot box.

Actually remembered all relevant items of equipment today and therefore did swim as scheduled, at Northcote. Felt like I was going at it harder than I usually do but speed not significantly different.

A little longer and faster than most recent Monday nights. Hadn't felt great during the afternoon but the run went OK.

For those who are wondering, the corrections to Sunday's splits (course 3) are as follows:

1 - add 0.42
2 - subtract 0.32
3/4 (combined) - add 0.49
5 - add 0.07
6 - subtract 0.20
7 - subtract 0.37
8 - subtract 0.04
9 - add 1.09
10 - subtract 0.26
11 - subtract 0.33
12 - add 0.56
13 - subtract 0.13
14 - subtract 0.41
F (last leg) - subtract 0.17