Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Sprint but not as we know it in Australia. Started with a few controls in the old castle of Leiria (this was the downfall of Chris Brown who missed the control at the castle exit), then classic European old town sprint orienteering. For me, with qualification in M35 a more relaxed affair than it is in some of the older classes, the main objective was to avoid disaster which I did, although twice I overshot passages at a cost of 15 seconds or so a time, not something I will want to do in the final tomorrow. Running reasonably well although not super fast.

I expected to qualify comfortably with my run but did not expect to qualify that comfortably, third in my heat and sixth fastest time overall (the two heats ran the same course one after the other). Only three people were more than a few seconds faster so if I can avoid the small errors tomorrow I might be in with an outside chance of a medal (albeit in a much weaker field than that of 2006). Given my famous lack of sprint talent this is not something I had anticipated, although European sprint events are only a distant relative of their Australian counterparts.

Jimbo won his heat, and Tash was second.

C • Qualification 2

Event: WMOC 2008
 

WMOC model event. Somewhat to my surprise no controls were out, just tapes, obviously attention is being focused on the main event. Lower visibility pine than most of yesterday (although still mostly runnable) and navigating with a lot more confidence than yesterday despite the more subtle detail. An encouraging run.

This was followed by the WMOC opening ceremony march, which was delayed because of a rival march, with the local unions deciding that it would be a good day to hold a demonstration (apparently a general demo against the government rather than related to any specific cause). Red flags were much in evidence. (The Communists certainly have plenty of posters around, although whether anyone actually votes for them is another question).

WMOC warm-up race in the dunes at Marinha Grande. Under normal circumstances I wouldn´t have been remotely happy with this with two significant time losses (although one wasn´t my fault - see later) and other smaller ones, but for a warm-up event it was no bad thing to screw up a few times and sort out what features you can and can´t relocate off. Also a bit experimental in my route choices (memo: crashing dark green isn´t a brilliant idea). Nice terrain on the whole - the white is extremely fast and even most of the green stripe is manageable (although erratic).

Ran well within myself, seemed to be handling heat OK (although it was mid-upper 20s on the coast, not the mid-high 30s of inland), but tired a bit climbing up some of the later dunes.

I have enough experience to know that model and warm-up events don´t get the sort of technical attention that the main races will, but it was still a bit disconcerting to have a misplaced control. I also wasn´t especially happy with some of the mapping - in NZ dunes (and Pittwater) the mappers usually try to make the big dunes really stand out using multiple contours but that isn´t so much the case here, which caused me some gried trying to relocate when I lost confidence at 20.

Portuguese towns, especially those near the Spanish border, tend to be on hilltops, and Portalegre was no exception. This presented something of a dilemma. Climbing doesn´t worry me but at first glance I couldn´t see a way off the hill without a continuous 3-4km descent, which is not the way to have quads in good shape going into a race period.

I´d more or less resigned myself to doing convoluted loops through the town until I found a back road which went out more or less on the contour - perfect. It was a solid climb to get up there, which I handled pretty well, and then really settled well once on the flatter section, which ended up filling most of the second half. Back to a more normal training pace once on the flat as well, just when I thought I might have lost all my speed.

Today was no cooler than yesterday (except on a brief excursion to Portugal´s highest point at 1993m - it doesn´t seem quite right when you can drive to it). There´s plenty of granite around and more than a few eucalypts - there are definitely times when you could imagine yourself in Australia, at least until you get to the next village and the road becomes a cobbled lane barely wide enough for a single car. Other features here which are not exactly unheard of at home include small towns with signs pointing to "industrial" areas which contain no discernable industry (Sea Lake and Wycheproof come to mind here), road conditions changing drastically at council boundaries, and roundabouts on the outskirts of towns with only two of the four branches having roads attached to them (this will be familiar to those who traversed the south end of Tuggeranong before it was finished while en route to Namadgi).

And is there a more quintessential southern European experience than sitting outside at a cafe on a warm evening watching a big football match? (although it would have been ten times as good had Portugal been playing). The locals were all supporting the Turks.

Again in Lisbon, this time heading west to the forest west of town. I quickly discovered that this wasn´t as good a place to run as it looked - as far as I could tell most of the ways in involved narrow and busy roads with no verges. Still managed to get in there after a couple of false starts. Plenty of hills again; handled the climbing OK but lost all the altitude in one fell swoop, which my quads didn´t especially like.

I've now headed inland for a couple of days. Definitely hotter here - mid 30s in Evora as I type.

In Lisbon. Feeling a bit more confident and took on a reasonably hilly course (although as in Oslo you don't have a lot of flat options) through the inner northern suburbs, making good use of the tourist map - I haven't been to Portugal since 1981. Hamstring now feels back to normal and felt reasonably strong on the hills, although the hills (and later some traffic interruptions) made for a slow session.

Didn't see any outrageous driving (Portugal has Europe's worst road accident rate and there are posters up for what I think is a 'stop the carnage' demonstration this weekend), but did see plenty of outrageous parking. I'm glad to be heading straight out of town once I pick up a car tomorrow.

Not as hot as I thought it might have been with a brisk northerly wind; about 18 in the morning and 26 during the day (which I spent doing some fairly intensive sightseeing). I'm hoping to get at least a couple of hot ones this week to acclimatise more rapidly in case we get a hot one at WMOC. (Coastal Portugal's summer temperatures are fairly similar to Sydney's - most days are reasonably humid and mid-high 20s, but every now and again the wind blows off the land and it can hit the high 30s or even low 40s).

Back to some sort of training - the hamstring felt good enough to at least start a session today. Still a bit tight on the steeper climbs - would have preferred a flat run but no such thing exists near Cassie's place in Oslo - but certainly at the manageable level, which suggests the injury is following the same track as last time. Not a bad run apart from any injury concerns. Got to farewell Norway in the rain - something which has been a familiar experience this week although the World Cup races didn't suffer too badly.