Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Mass start multi-loop race at Smiths Reef. Turned what would have been a reasonable race into a poor one with a silly mistake with a kilometre to go - I failed to notice that I was heading for an extra control before a common one and was therefore looking on the wrong side of a spur (where the common control was). This cost a minute or a bit over, and dropped me from one bunch to the next.

I was OK at cruising speed but struggling to find a higher gear, which was a problem on the hills, and in the predictably-frenetic mass start. After a first loop battling with people I should have been ahead of, things settled down early on the second loop. On the first long leg a bunch of six formed, but this split into three parts - Liggo/Kathryn, myself and Matt Schepisi, and Max and Adam. Our pair took the lead in this section (there were another 5 ahead of us), and the next 3k was a good stretch, starting to get Robbie in sight. I thought Matt might crack because a couple of times he dropped back and surged again to catch me, but he held it together, and we were set for a three-way battle with Liggo (who had recaught us after losing time on the long leg) when I had my misadventure on a brief split where they had the other option. Kathryn and David Brownridge went through me there too; I got back onto both of them by the second-last through small errors on their part, but lost the sprint. I think this is the first time Kathryn's claimed my scalp, although there have been a few near-misses in the last couple of years.

The result was not a disaster, but I wasn't happy with the way I was running at high intensity, and will want to be in better shape in four weeks' time.

C • Bushrangers v Demons 3

C • you'd better get used to 2

Event: BendiGoToDay
 

An early morning hit-out at Yea. Went out without having eaten much due to a sequence of events which started with the milk turning into an iceblock in the fridge overnight, but it didn't seem to make much difference. I headed north towards the Goulburn River, which I expected to be flat but wasn't - no bad thing, getting to cruise along an undulating country dirt road - a nice place to run.

The hostility I'd anticipated in Yea didn't materialise. In part it's probably because people in a small town are more inclined to be nice to outsiders when most of said outsiders at the moment are bushfire survivors or firefighters and not from the big, bad city (one also has to be cautious about viewing the letters pages of the 'Weekly Times' as a representative sample of local public opinion), but tensions also appear to have eased since the fires, due in no small measure to the role of pipeline equipment and crews in saving several dozen houses. One wonders if the campaign will return to its previous militancy, which has seen a couple of actual acts of violence and many more threats of it (at the very least one would hope all concerned now realise that throwing Molotov cocktails at rural construction sites in mid-summer is a really stupid idea).

I've also learned a new real estate euphemism. "Park-like appearance" = "no feed for stock".

Sprint of the Bendigo 2-Day. Navigated OK, felt terrible - not sure of the reason (if any), although being on my feet for most of the day at the Seymour field days - which were a good deal quieter than anticipated - didn't help. Almost got onto the back of Robbie early on after he made a mistake, but couldn't match pace with him, and ended up with a pretty disappointing result.

The map was the wrong scale by 50% (advertised 1:5000, actually 1:3333 or thereabouts), but I didn't notice until afterwards and I don't think too many others did either.

Early session at Ivanhoe before heading up to Seymour. Felt reasonable but kept misjudging the lane ends. A bit of hip soreness at one point but that disappeared early.

Another long set of intervals on the Tan (as with last week, 1k on, 250 off). Didn't feel great in the warm-up, started the session a bit faster than last time but quickly dropped away - obviously having the Hoggster around last week made a difference (and I think I ran harder in the last part of last night, too, than the preceding Wednesday). Whatever the cause, I seized up after 6 reps rather than 8 like last week. Still feeling my way in a rather experimental session. Average km time 3.50, 4 seconds slower than last week (losing more time on the downhills than the uphills).

Again no sign of tightness in the calf, so it looks like that was a one-day wonder.

Now off for a couple of days working at the Bureau's stand at the Seymour Field Days. This will be more challenging than usual as I suspect that there will be some pretty raw emotions in that part of the world, given the impact of fires on the surrounding area - I suspect we'll get some wild praise and equally wild criticism. We're staying in Yea on the Friday night which could have its own challenges; for some time it has been a place where being from Melbourne and from the government is an open invitation to have one's facial features forcibly rearranged (it's in our interests to make sure people know we're federal and not state). At least with the number of outsiders in town (thanks to the fires) we won't stand out as much.

C • What happened to public sector solidarity? 3

Going to/from the Tan - a longer distance than usual because I was getting my car serviced and started/finished near there. Didn't feel great on the warm-up, and as tired as last week coming home.

At the end of the day, it took an hour to drive 16km home from Docklands. How do people do this every day?

Street-O at Gardiners Bend. One of the better contests I've been in for a while but disappointed that the result didn't go the right way in the end.

Didn't get much of a warmup (no) thanks to Connex, but settled down quickly. Got a bit of a jump on Adam en route to the second control by seeing a gap in a fence, but expected him to come back at me quite quickly. He didn't, instead letting the gap grow to about 50 metres as I settled into a nice rhythm. I had a go at surging on a hill in the middle but got no further ahead, after which it wasn't surprising that he pulled me in. The gap was down to about 20 metres at the 13th control when he somewhat surprisingly pulled off - the safe option for him was to stay with me and run over the top at the end. As it was, his option was slightly longer - enough to see him come into the last control 30-40 metres behind with 3400 to go. I was running pretty well by that stage (having had to do some fancy footwork to stay out of the way of a learner driver who hasn't yet learned the bit about left-turning vehicles giving way to pedestrians), but still thought I'd struggle to defend that and so it proved. Adam almost went too early; after getting in front he slowed a bit towards the line and I nearly pulled him in, but fell a metre short.

This is the sharpest I've felt for several weeks, although the loss may be important in the context of the pointscore (Bryan is probably out of the picture because of injury).

There was a silence at the start. The losses of the last fortnight hit home last night as I was collating the results for the next newsletter and dealing with the three names who won't be back next season (two fire, one cancer).

No sign of any of the tightness from yesterday.

Like Bruce, I seem to be afflicted with wandering tightness at the moment (although not as badly as him) - today's hot spots were the groin and calf. Loosened up once I got going, though. Found some unexplored (for me) terrain at the south end of Richmond, plus a long stretch on the Gardiners Creek path - it's great to see so many people riding, but sometimes it doesn't make for the most comfortable of running environments. Managed to miss most of the traffic.

250 on/250 off at the Tan. Felt excellent in the warm-up but not so good when it came to converting that into actual speed, although a bit better later on. A reminder as to how much the Hoggster pushed me on last week (a reminder I'll probably get again when I attempt to repeat last week's session this Thursday).

Timetable a bit rearranged today and tomorrow due to some dental work.

Going to/from the Tan. Pity I didn't feel this good when it counted.

It's not exactly 46, but 30 degrees with light winds in the middle of the day is still reasonably warm.

At Hawthorn. A pleasant enough session without being especially sparkling or pushing too hard.

In a piece in yesterday's paper about the cost of food and drinks at the football (something which pops up annually at about this time of year), a spokesperson for the caterers blamed the increase on increases in fresh food prices due to the drought. If anybody has ever actually made a confirmed sighting of any fresh food at the football I'd be interested to know about it.

C • Excuses 8

Monday night from the new Allston abode in Surrey Hills in mostly new company (good to see an influx of new blood into MFR). Thought I'd feel better early on than I did - given that my long run was two days ago, not one like it normally is - but settled into a reasonable flow in the second half. Ended up running away from the bunch, which declined to take the opportunities I gave them to catch up, but still reasonably slow.

There's a semi-apocalyptic air about Melbourne at the moment. There isn't as much smoke as there was over the weekend, but the grass is scorched, a lot of the plants are scorched, the skies are again cloudless and the place has the feel of sliding into a desert. We must be acclimatising because tonight's 28 degrees felt reasonably cool.

C • Apocalypse 4