Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The Conference long run with a better turnout than usual - the peak pack size was 10 (most of whom had at least something to do with the conference, and were ranked in the top 20 in Australia). Started out with a 30-minute loop through Macquarie to meet Andy and others in Cook (and to have a look at the famous hoggster letterbox), then to the Aranda underpass to link up with another group, then some fun and games on Black Mountain, including a certain amount of bush-bashing when we failed to find a track which Rob Walter assured us was there (which partly explains the slow pace).

I've been a little out of sorts recently, perhaps because of accumulated lack of sleep (and today, with its 6.00 start and hard run last night, was more akin to a Wednesday/Thursday combination than a normal Sunday). Whatever the cause, I didn't have much strength on the hills at the best of times; coped with the biggest climb OK, but by the time we came off Black Mountain I'd run out of legs for anything except downhill. Peeled off to ANU with Eric and Bruce; my plan was to do an extra loop to take it out to 2.30, but for once I wasn't bloody-minded about this (definitely shouldn't let cbf mode get addictive, though).

C • Didn't think you had one! 1

OA conference weekend in Canberra. As is usually the case on this weekend (last year being an exception given my mid-conference departure to Vietnam), the running started with a terrain run on Aranda Hill and Black Mountain, pleasant enough without pushing it too hard. Seems more open underfoot than it sometimes is, especially on the Aranda Hill side.

The weather was a good deal less exciting than some recent years - 2005 and 2007 both featured spectacular thunderstorms on the Friday afternoon/evening. The 2005 one was particularly spectacular and took place as Workchoices was going through Parliament: the much-lamented Matt Price headed his column the next day 'IR Bill Passes: Sky Does Fall In'.

Another tradition - the Saturday afternoon event, this time on the ANU campus, sprint style but longer than a standard sprint. As is also traditional, I wasn't especially sharp after the conference sessions (and some over-indulging on food at the breaks) - settled in the second half but never brilliant. The map was showing its age (although it wasn't that old); three of my four time losses could be attributed to map errors, and the fourth was marginal. Still a fun event - it's a good sprint area. Julian blew us all away as expected.

I was a student at ANU in the early 1990s but I don't think it helped much - not sure what percentage of the buildings on campus now either didn't exist then or took a radically different form, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's getting towards 50%.

Thought I might have had a bit more energy for the swim than this, as I had enough for a few sprints to catch green lights on the way there (and on the way back, proving a point about the efficiency of modes of inner-city transport by racing against a Ferrari down Flinders Street and beating it). Ended up a reasonable mundane session, but did get a lot of stiffness and tightness from yesterday out of my system.

Spotted en route to work: a couple of ASADA people at one of the Bridge Road cafes, presumably either just before or just after a mission - quite possibly a distance-running related one as Craig Mottram and Benita Johnson both live close by.

A long slog off too little sleep (up until after 11 last night writing last-minute OA conference papers), but still much better than last week's equivalent, which owes a lot to the much kinder conditions (around 10 degrees). Only briefly felt comfortable but kept plugging away, solid in the last half-hour. Felt at the start as if I had a slight strain in my left quad - it loosened up fairly quickly but then went tight again after the run (and my left calf, which had felt fine running, responded very strongly to its fortnightly needlework session at lunchtime).

A bit longer than I'd planned on, not really a bad thing at this end of the season. Not a brilliant run but a reasonably solid effort in the second half.

Street-O at Croydon Hills. A terrific course - well up there with the best street-O courses I've ever run. The top six took six different routes (with four major variations), and since the event I've seen two other options which I think could have been better than any of those.

My running wasn't quite as good as the course-setting. Started quite smoothly (after seeing someone I don't recognise get a 50-metre jump on the field, reeled in by the first control). By the third leg the pack had split and and it was Bryan and myself. We took the same route through the first half, with Bryan getting 20 metres or so on me on a downhill leg. He then took off in a different direction to what I'd planned - it looked a good option that I hadn't previously seen, so I changed my mind but probably lost another 50 metres in doing so. (I should have stuck with the original plan - Ian Dodd went that way and it was 90 metres shorter).

To my surprise Bryan went a different way at the next control. I thought it was a poor option, and spent a lot of the second half thinking I might be in a strong position, perhaps as a result taking my foot off the pedal a bit. Also didn't feel brilliant on the hills (which were not as abundant as they can be here). As it happened we came together again at the third-last control, with Bryan about 50 metres in front; his route was better than I thought it was (only 90 metres longer, and some of that was a mistake). I didn't think I'd be able to pull that in with no remaining route choice, and as it turned out he ran away from me to win by 150 metres. I thought Rachel Johnson might have been a threat too when she was within 100 metres at the second-last, but she was a control behind us.

First foray this season into the world of street-O intervals - this is something I sometimes do at those Tuesday night events I go to, running alternate legs hard/easy after an initial warm-up.

This was at West Essendon. It's the first time I've run an event here but it's very familiar ground - my grandmother lives 300 metres from the start (which gave me a good excuse to combine the event with a visit) and Buckley Park, where the start was, has been the scene for many a game of cricket on Christmas holiday visits (and, with its views to the south, was also a good place to watch the tornado outbreak of 22 December 1990, not that I actually sighted any of the funnels). Lots of familiar sights were seen during the event, although inevitably some of what used to be there is there no longer (there's no longer a sign proclaiming that Roberts St was the tidiest street in Essendon in 1983).

I got the route choice right. Predictably dropped well behind Bryan Ackerly and Matt Schepisi during the warm-up stage, but on this sort of run I'm not really racing against anyone. Got going quite nicely on the surges, although it was apparent by the end of what was quite a long race that I'd been working pretty hard. Someone I don't know ran past me at the end, probably surprised that I didn't put up a fight.

A comfortable if rather slow session at Hawthorn, with even more leaves floating on the surface than usual (probably because of some strong winds when last night's change went through). Felt quite relaxed which was the objective.

The usual Monday night fell through for lack of interest so I ended up doing a run at the end of the day from where I'd parked in anticipation of the run that didn't happen (at Glenferrie).

The first 10 minutes were badly lacking in enthusiasm and felt very ordinary, but picked up considerably at around halfway and had a good last third. A runny nose again which makes me think I'm still fighting off a cold.

The first working day of the month is always pretty full-on, and December 1 is more full-on than most because I've got three summaries to write instead of one (monthly, seasonal and southern growing season). Got the first two done, although not until well after 6.