Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Not one of the finer hours of my athletic career, although 2 minutes on the course for 2% extra on the swing is a pretty good trade. I'm not really in racing shape at the moment anyway, and being up until the early hours of the morning and election-day nutrition (lots of protein and charcoal, very few carbohydrates) didn't make it any easier. (Even regarded the concession speech as being sufficient grounds to start on the champagne, not something which features in my usual habits).

Had a fair start - got jumped a bit at the very beginning but settled into a spot about 50m behind Bryan Ackerly and Max Howard (from the Midday Milers) through 3k. Bryan started to pull away a bit on the first hill and I didn't see much more of him again. Had a bad patch after coming off the Anderson Street hill (which is a downhill in this), then recovered a bit, but faded for good after the later part of the Shrine hill - a bit of back stiffness on the downhills too. A very weak field at the front end (probably because of the meet in Geelong next week) - judging from where people went past on the out-and-back section around 7-8k, my 1996 time of 34.01 would have been enough for a top-five result. Overall numbers were also well down, probably a reaction to the ridiculous course that was used last year, but in my time range there were still plenty of people around.

The Kevin07 T-shirt got a bit of audience reaction (most of it positive). There were a few others in evidence, as well as somebody who had got his hands on a 'Peter Costello - Getting Results For Higgins' T-shirt and amended it to 'Peter Costello For Opposition Leader'. To his deep distress (I'm sure), such hopes were to be dashed within a few hours.

C • Excellent result 1

C • 10k course 2

The big day has arrived. The nerves I had last night were on a par with those experienced the last time I went into a selection trial with a serious chance of making a team. (In orienteering I've long said that if you're not nervous before the start of a race, it's a sign that the race doesn't mean enough to you).

After a stint setting up from 5.30 this morning I found time for a run later in the morning (I'm on again from 2). Naturally in accordance with the theme of the day I planned a course to go past as many polling booths as I could - managed 10 in all (most with a more visible Liberal presence than they managed at Rosanna). It was a pretty ordinary run, especially uphill, but if the result tonight is the right one I won't care.

Very slow early but got into it a bit more as I went on. The sluggishness I had after everything yesterday seemed to disappear with a good night's sleep (not something I'm expecting to experience tonight).

A funny sort of run in the first half - felt reasonably good while I was running but rather light-headed whenever I stopped. Fortunately the latter didn't occur very often - I had an excellent run with the traffic. Settled into a more normal Thursday run in the second half, working reasonably hard on the (small) climbs later on. Woke up a few times during the night with cramps in my feet for no obvious reason (and again after the run).

Spotted on the way in to work - a truck parked (illegally) in the vicinity of the Commonwealth ministerial offices in the Melbourne CBD, with the number plate 'SHRED-2' and the name 'Iron Mountain Shredding Services'.

C • Classic 1

The annual tournament between the Bureau, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, and the meteorology sections of Melbourne and Monash unis - 30 minutes for each game, and with substitutions I think I spent about 2/3 of the time on the field. My usual role in these games is to run around a lot in the vicinity of the opposition players and hope that they don't notice that I can't do very much with the ball once I get it; this time round I started most games in defence and moved into midfield later on to try to open up the opposition as they got tired. Given the morning's efforts I was fresher than expected on the field, but fell in a heap afterwards.

We managed to find yet another way to lose this tournament (and we've had a few over the years). In the first two games we beat CSIRO 2-0 and then unexpectedly managed to hold Melbourne (the dominant team of the last few years) to a 0-0 draw, which meant all we had to do was better Melbourne's result in our last game against Monash. We dominated possession for most of the game but couldn't find the back of the net - and then in the last couple of minutes, throwing everybody (including our goalkeeper forward) Monash broke from defence. One of our players got back to the ball and cleared it - straight into the back of our own net. Melbourne had been 1-0 down against CSIRO but equalised in the last seconds to take the tournament win.

I wasn't the only orienteer in action today - Dave Mallen's doing work experience with us this week so we signed him up. He was probably our best player, including one spectacular shot late in the Monash game which drew an equally spectacular save. Also saw Ilka in the midst of the Big M Mile, but I'll let her say more about that if she wants to.

First wet-weather run for a while. Did it from work for complicated logistical reasons relating to tonight's venue. Not bad conditions for a run, pleasantly mild despite the rain; did some pretty hard work into the wind along the Albert Park foreshore for about 20 minutes during the heaviest of the rain, but then finished off well with a good last 20 minutes. A night's rest seemed to help the hip - warmed up pretty well after the first 10 minutes (and didn't flare up afterwards to anywhere near the extent it did yesterday).

Street-O at East Hawthorn. This is really too inner-city a venue for a Wednesday. It's just as well it rained because if there had been a normal Wednesday night roll-up the nearest legal parking places would have been in Surrey Hills. (The locals can't have many friends who come to visit because almost the whole area is residents' parking only after 5.30 p.m.).

It was a bit of a wild-card night, which is often when I get my best results (most memorably on the 1998 night at Upwey which started in 40 degrees, finished in a thunderstorm, and somehow left me seven minutes in front of a decent field). This was partly because of the weather, and also because of a mapping error (an alley which was mapped as going through and didn't) which killed off the planned route choice of the lead group and forced us to come up with a plan B on the spot. Probably more significant in my result was that both Bryan and Adam missed the start.

The first half of the run was moderate, but it picked up later on - felt quite fast in the later stages. With the misadventure at the missing alley there was always a chance that someone with a different plan had got the jump on the rest of us, so I wasn't hugely surprised to see Ian Davies 50 metres in front at the second-last control. (Ian was the one who pushed me all the way at Wattle Park, albeit on a night when I was in much worse shape than now). He took a poor route to the last control which cost him that break, and I was able to win the sprint home which was pleasing. It turned out he'd missed a control anyway.

It being three days before the big day, I had the Kevin07 T-shirt out, to fly the flag in the soon-to-be-marginal seat of Kooyong.

C • Kevard07 2

A session which was largely about heat tolerance - 31 degrees at 8 a.m. Found it pretty hard work despite the short duration, and pretty slow (9.29 fastest loop). A bit of a hip twinge again. At its best on the uphill sprints as was the case last week (the tail wind helped).

Some last Sunday might have heard me comment on Heidelberg's lack of appeal to amphetamine manufacturers - the 'Sunday Age' ran a map showing the location of all the labs which have been busted in Melbourne in the last year and this was the one part of town where none were to be found (the closest was in Montmorency). Lo and behold, I woke up this morning to hear news of one of Melbourne's largest-ever busts, in Ivanhoe just down the road.

C • Suburbs 4

C • predictions 18

Went to MSAC in Albert Park, the outdoor pool this time instead of the indoor one. It's a nice pool to swim in - only negative was the sunglare on every second lap (it runs N-S, not E-W as Fitzroy does). A fairly comfortable session.

It was going to be from Suse's place but we adjourned to Middle Park beach because of the hot weather (although as it turned out a sea breeze dropped it from 37 to 25 not long before we arrived). Slow at times but felt reasonably comfortable in the patches where it got faster. A hint of hip soreness at times for the first time in a few weeks.