Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I wasn't expecting to return to Florida on this trip, but ended up here as a result of finding an answer to a question I once saw in a book of 'Useful Latin Phrases for Modern-Day Situations' - "Is there a way to get there without going through Atlanta?". Finding an Atlanta-free route was necessitated by the snow there, and I shifted plans further and further south three times before finally settling on cutting down to Interstate 10 as quickly as I could and going across from there (about the same distance as my original plan, but longer in time because the first 400km were on back roads). The objective of the exercise - missing the snow - was achieved although I didn't pick the best of places to stay in (at least I saved the Australian taxpayers some money in the process).

I picked Pensacola, a couple of hours along the road this morning, as my venue for no obvious reason, but it wasn't a bad one. The tourist literature makes much of its historic district, which was pleasant, but I didn't see a lot of evidence of great history. Had some nice stretches in the vicinity of a lake north-east of town, apart from a minor altercation with a protruding brach (which has left me with a bit of a black eye but no lasting damage). Pleasant conditions out of the wind but biting in it (especially crossing bridges) - sunny and +1C with a solid north wind. The run was pretty uninspired and workmanlike for the most part - not surprising after some pretty hard work yesterday - but was pretty good in the last 20 minutes.

Notes from the highway: my tally of places sighted claiming to be the world's largest fireworks warehouse now stands at four (two in Florida, one in South Carolina, one in Alabama). I asuume that they're illegal in Georgia given the enthusiasm with which they're advertised just on the other side of the Georgia border in all directions.

Now in New Orleans until I come home on Friday.

Event: Georgia Navigator Cup
 

It was a happy coincidence that running this fitted into my schedule - I'm always keen to get new orienteering experiences and this was one (for that matter, it was the first time I've got into the forest anywhere for nearly three months).

The conditions took a bit of getting used to - 4 degrees and steady rain throughout (it was forecast to turn to snow but didn't, at least while I was there). The terrain was pleasant, essentially gully-spur in mixed deciduous and pine forest with quite a bit of intricate erosion which the course-setter didn't use as well as he might have done. I didn't really miss anything - one minor wobble and one dubious route choice - but sometimes had trouble getting good lines in the terrain, and working out what vegetation was and wasn't easy to get through (got caught in vines a few times) - an occupational hazard of new terrain. Even allowing a minute or two for that, though, I felt I was running OK, and would have expected to have been a fair bit closer than 8.5 minutes to William - which says something about his form at the moment. On the evidence I've seen here he's at least competitive, and possibly more than competitive, with other potential candidates for the last spot or two in the WOC team like Kerrin and Reuben. Will await developments.

One oddity of the area - the lake the forest is next to is bordered by both South Carolina and Georgia, but has different names depending on which side of the lake you're on. South Carolina named their bit after a local politician (Strom Thurmond, who finally retired from the Senate in 2002, aged 100), but Georgia declined to follow suit.

Often during races I have a song or songs running through my head - usually completely irrelevant to anything I'm doing, but today it was 'The Devil Came Down To Georgia'.

C • Was that 3

A fairly mediocre run, not really surprising as it was coming off a tough day yesterday, not a sequence I normally do. Not as hilly as it was yesterday, although still enough to keep me honest. Dry but windy; the bonus of the wind was that it kept temperatures above freezing, which in turn meant no ice on the ground (I thought there would be, with yesterday's leftover moisture refreezing).

The Asheville leg was productive, especially as I found the document I was looking for (on the background behind parts of a tropical cyclone data set I'm using) in the middle of the 27th box I looked through - the joys of archival work :-).

Looking forward to the orienteering tomorrow, although it looks like a pretty unpleasant day for it - rain turning to snow with temperatures around 4. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the day will be the route-choice problem afterwards, trying to decide how far south to swing to stay clear of the worst of the snow on the way across to New Orleans.

As mentioned a couple of days ago, I thought the weather this morning had the potential to be interesting, and seeing someone from the Weather Channel in the hotel lift last night, sent there to cover the 'story of the day', did nothing to disabuse me of this notion. Naturally, I wasn't about to let minor trivialities like snow deter me from going out this morning. There was about 5 centimetres overnight, which had more or less turned to freezing drizzle by the time I was out there. I went out in full winter gear (thermals, hat, gloves) which I'd normally reserve for -10 or lower, because I didn't want to have much exposed skin with accumulating ice, but as it turned out it wasn't too bad - the only surfaces that ice accumulated on were those not receiving body heat, like the top of my hat and the front of my headtorch. (From the visibility viewpoint I didn't really need the headtorch because snow does such a good job of reflecting the town lights that I could see a couple of kilometres even before sunrise - it was more about other people being able to see me).

The run was hard work at times with several major hills, in particular a half-hour of almost unbroken climbing in the middle (climbing on snow is pretty hard work, too), but it was all worth it for a magical 20 minutes snaking down Patton Mountain Road, a narrow road winding down the side of the hills, with snow only disturbed by a couple of foot tracks (I was by no means the only person out running this morning). Thought the quads might suffer from the long descents but they seem fine. It only became unpleasant in the last 15 minutes, as the heavier traffic closer to the town centre had created a lot of slush.

Definitely a morning to remember (at least for people like me for whom it's a novelty). Not so good from the work point of view though - I may have got here from Melbourne but it looks like a lot of the people I came here to see aren't going to make it in from the suburbs (either because of problems with the roads or because they have kids to look after with the schools closed). Hopefully better luck tomorrow.

C • slush 1

A morning session where I stayed overnight at St.Augustine, on the north Florida coast. This is the original Spanish settlement in Florida and the oldest continuous European settlement in North America, so the town has rather more character than most in this part of the world. Much of my run was rather mediocre - at its best in the later part through the historic district. (As far as I could tell there were no 16th century buildings, but there were plenty of 18th century ones). The radar on TV looked ominous but only a few spots fell while I was out there.

I would have preferred to take a more interesting option north than just straight up the Interstate, but with snow forecast for tonight I wanted to get to Asheville before the snow - or worse, freezing rain - arrived. (For those Australians who've never seen freezing rain, it's where rain falls from warm air aloft into a cold surface layer, becomes supercooled and turns to ice as soon as it hits anything. Nasty stuff, especially on the roads).

Went out for a second session of the days just after arriving in Asheville. The route was more about getting my bearings than taking in the best of the scenery (not least because it was getting dark) - will save the latter for tomorrow. Not a bad run after sitting in the car all day - definitely colder than on other days so far (4) but no moisture yet. A few solid hills for the first time this trip; handled them reasonably well.

This is my third time in Asheville, which is by far my favourite North American town or city. It's a terrific setting (700m up in the Appalachian foothills, with the suburbs snaking up into the hills - a bit like the Dandenongs), and, unusually for an American town of its size (about 80K) its downtown has some real character (and numerous excellent eating places). This is a product of the area's long-time poverty - because the region was so poor in the 50s and 60s the downtown never got bulldozed and concreted the way it happened elsewhere, and by the time some money came into the area in the 80s people appreciated what was there.

As mentioned yesterday, the area where I'm staying in Miami isn't the most optimal for running, but there was a park about 10 minutes run away - it would have been pretty boring going round and round it but it was ideal for an interval session. 10x1 min, 1 min recovery. A pretty good session gaining in speed as it went on - a little lactic towards the end of the last couple of reps but that's what's supposed to happen.

I was reminded that I was in hurricane country because the local council building across the road was the Herbert S.Saffir Permitting and Inspection Center. (Herb Saffir, recently deceased, was a noted hurricane-impacts researcher and was responsible for the 5-category scale: appropriately, the office deals with enforcing building codes).

I didn't expect Miami to be my sort of place - most of the things I knew it for previously were negatives (heat and humidity, fanatical anti-Castro Cubans, sleaze and crime). I'm still not sure I'd want to live here but it was interesting for a visit. One thing I didn't expect to find was a rabidly left-wing talk radio station.

Spotted on the way north - a sign 'Exit: Kennedy Space Center. No Re-Entry'. (Presumably this was a reference to the lack of an on-ramp there).

Swapped my regular weekly routine a bit, partly because Asheville (where I'll be on Friday) is far too nice a place for running to waste a rest day on, partly because it's easier to find a pool in Miami than I suspect it will be in Asheville, and partly because my hotel is in the middle of a shopping mall-and-industrial area which doesn't look the nicest of venues for a run. The swim itself was reasonable, although a bit dizzy by the end as was the case the last time I swam in a hotel pool. Even by the standards of what I expected in Miami the water was warm - surely they don't heat the pools here?

On a work trip you're often insulated from a lot of what goes on in the country around you (although I try to get as much a feel for it as I can), but one place where you do come into contact with the local population is in doing the washing. In this case, a visit to the local laundromat illustrated the extent to which Miami is a Spanish-speaking city - I arrived and someone immediately spoke to me in Spanish without starting in English. My Spanish is pretty well non-existent but I did get the message (that the change machine was broken).

Out at the National Hurricane Center in the western suburbs today (sensibly they've located themselves as far away from potential storm surges as possible). I haven't seen the beach yet but that will come tomorrow when I visit another centre on the coast.

C • Does it come with ice? 2

Running in Asheville might be a bit more interesting than I'd counted on: the current forecast for Thursday morning is "snow, heavy at times".