Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NOL Long at Livelys Bog. In the past I've done well in this fixture, perhaps because my motivation deficit at the end of the Easter week is less than everyone else's motivation deficit at the end of the Easter week. (There are often a lot of DNFs on this day, although not this year - only two across the two elite classes, and one of those was Bruce who for all intents and purposes was a DNS).

My last outing on Livelys Bog was the 1988 APOC relay, an epic last-leg slugfest with Ant Burnett on a hot day which is among the more memorable (if perhaps not the best) of my 1600+ races; he did me in the finish chute and then collapsed immediately after crossing the line. (A few of those I was running against today hadn't been born the last time I was here). In 1988 there had been a recent fire, most of the forest was very open and most of the marshes were yellow. I'd hoped it might be similar this year as there were programme notes about fire but as it turned out it was quite similar to the 2005-model Littlechild Creek, although a bit less steep - lots of bracken and fallen timber and generally pretty physical.

Crashed some dark green on the way to 1 and immediately regretted it (although it probably cost me 30 seconds at worst). Settled after that and didn't miss anything on fine navigation through the first eight. Caught Ryan at 5, which surprised me a little; he seemed to be struggling a bit to hold on but it was still unexpected for him to disappear from sight at 7 (as it turned out he pulled out after hitting his leg). My one significant error followed shortly after, failing to see 9 from a short distance and wasting 90 seconds in the circle as Simon came through, then it settled back into the grind. Tired a bit in the last quarter by which stage I would probably rather have been in a cafe somewhere (Hanny claimed to have reached the same state by halfway but you don't have to believe it). A bit disappointed with 12th, especially as 4th was less than three minutes away (although the gap from 1st to 4th was 19 minutes!).

Had the chance to look at the split times from Easter. An interesting quirk is that on the last three days (the three that are on Splitsbrowser) I had the 8th fastest overall time, but only placed higher than 8th on six out of 56 controls - although this did include a rare split win (especially when Julian is involved!), leg 3 on Saturday (I dropped down and then came back up, which seems to have been a better option than going straight, plus I was working pretty hard to try to get clear of Eoin).

C • Fires 1

Event: SILVA National Orienteering League
 

Urban sprints suit me - as long as the urban area in question is at least 500 years old. This rather limits my options in Australia. The most positive spin I was able to put on today's result was that it is great that we have National League fields of sufficient size to give me the opportunity to come 36th in a domestic race.

This was a race with paired starts and a butterfly loop, starting with a dash across the oval at UTas Launceston to the first control. The draw was kind to me in this respect - I was paired with Jim so it didn't look too embarrassing. Felt in reasonable shape for a sprint but never competitive on speed. Lost 15 seconds by running to 15 when I thought I'd seen 14. Narrowly lost the race with Jim at the end.

Over to St. Helens in the afternoon, giving us the opportunity to inspect their foray into big-city crime - the practice of blowing up ATMs in the hope of extracting their contents has spread to the east coast of Tasmania and there isn't a lot left of the front of the local ANZ. (I would have thought that it was easier and safer doing it the old-fashioned way with a stocking and a sawn-off shotgun). There seemed to be potential for other forms of big-city crime too when we saw that there was a Harley-Davidson show in town, but the Tasmanian gangs (if there are any) declined to use this as a pretext for a bikie shootout.

Fairly easy run from central Hobart, out along the western side of the Derwent as far as Cornelian Bay, back across the top of the Domain including a pretty steep climb up the side. Felt fairly lacklustre on the whole, although better in the second half. A few twinges from time to time, particularly on early downhills.

Swim following the run. Took a couple of laps for my arms to get going but fairly reasonable after that.

Spent today on Bruny Island (including a visit to the lighthouse - number 70). Wouldn't normally run as long as this during a race week but had heard good things about the Labillardiere Peninsula track, both from the Hawthornes and from Jenny, so decided to give it a go. It was nice - the first half along the exposed ocean side with quite a few ups and downs (you can hide a bit in 20-metre contours) and great views, a section round the end which was partly beach and partly traversing small rocks, and then a small track along the bay side for the last 6k, flatter but rougher than the first section - this had some scratchy vegetation and I might have been better wearing long pants. A few photo stops en route, and unsurprisingly encountered some other orienteers (the Brownlies and a couple of other WA people).

The run was fairly smooth on the whole; handled the climbs well and felt better in the final quarter than I did yesterday. Again got the best of the weather with the showers just starting in the last few minutes (whereupon I went to Cape Bruny and got a practical demonstration of the potential impact of site exposure on wind and rainfall measurements).

C • weather stations 4

Waking up to the sound of heavy rain on the roof, I thought this might be a test against the west coast elements. As it turned out I managed to fit a 61-minute run into a 63-minute dry window - it started pouring again 30 seconds after I finished.

Headed out to the Ocean Beach, as I did when I was last here three years ago (that time as support crew for AJ and Alex on the Wildside). This was a shorter run so I only spent a few minutes on the beach itself - the surf was a good deal less wild than I was expecting (the serious storm action was in the northwest).

The run was very enjoyable in the middle but faded away a bit in the last quarter. A little tight.

Spent the rest of the rather wet day crossing Tasmania (even encountered a bit of snow on the way into Butlers Gorge, which becomes number 69 in my list of significant weather stations visited). A better day for waterfalls than for expansive mountain views.

Neglected to mention yesterday a rather unfortunate juxtaposition in the 'Age'. Half of one page was devoted to an ad from the Thai government investment agency about what a wonderful place Thailand was to inves in. Most of the facing page was devoted to a news story suggesting that Thailand might not be such a wonderful place to invest in (or visit) just at the moment.

Spending a couple of days going around the west side of Tasmania. Started the day in Burnie but the pool there wasn't open until 10 (and not much else was open at all - Easter Tuesday is still a holiday in Tasmania, and off the tourist track a lot of businesses are taking the whole week off). I thought this meant I wouldn't get the recovery swim I was hoping for (not being sufficiently brave to take to a west coast beach), but Smithton had a pool which was open. You know it's a country town because when I presented a $20 note for the fee of $5, got asked if I had anything smaller and could only offer two $2 coins, they let me in for $4.

I thought it was a 25-metre pool but was suspicious once I was in that it was a bit longer - thought it was 30 but it turned out to be 33, hence the longer-than-usual distance. Quite a pleasant session (and eased up the calves which were burning walking up the very steep Nut at Stanley).

Groin seems to be fine after four days of racing.

Spent the rest of the day going round the once-controversial Tarkine road, ending up in Strahan. It was interesting but very different to what I was expecting - I thought it would be mountains and wet forests but a lot of it was undulating coastal heath.

C • Tarkine 2

Final day of Easter, unusually with a 'conventional' start draw, which probably suited me, going into the day in 10th but with two within nine seconds, and four within two minutes. Had the acceleration of the Spirit of Tasmania as I started my warm-up but fine once going. Got off to a good start, nailing the first three in vague country where it would have been easy to lose time pinpointing the control (the good visibility helped). Was having to work a bit up the top in the bracken, but then got a second wind on the long downhill stretch through the middle, mostly open forest with a bit of rock - lovely! Julian went through me just before the spectator (8 minutes this time) but I'd gone through Ecmo and Jim at 7 without seeing them. Had a wobble at the vague 16 on the second loop, but otherwise pretty clean, and as strong as I've been on the last day of an Easter for years.

Ended Easter in 9th, which I'd certainly have taken before the start (it's higher than I've been in either Victorian State League race this year, for a start), beating Craig by a single second over four days (two years ago he did me by two). I actually spent the final loop thinking I wasn't going to get Craig because I'd heard on the grapevine he was in the clubhouse with 47 (he started early). A pleasing weekend, even if I could have got a place or two higher with absolutely clean run.