Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Turned the clock back a decade in the last 2k to turn a poor race into a decent one.

I had a preferred start so wasn't held up at the start to any meaningful degree, but found it hard to settle down. I'd forgotten how hilly the first 5k were, and while I felt OK on the hills I didn't really get set into an even speed or effort. Improved a bit after that and ran Heartbreak Hill (from 6 to 7) solidly, passing a lot of people in the process (I suspect this hill is where a lot of over-ambitious starters get a reality check), but still wasn't exactly flowing, and thought I was heading for a pretty ordinary time - the plan was that sub-54 would be decent and sub-53 excellent, but through the middle it was looking like even a sub-55 was no formality.

I got into a nice group at around 11k. 11 to 13 is mostly downhill; downhill running is rarely my forte but having some people to pace with was a real help and my confidence built through that section, as a sub-54 turned from unlikely to a possibility to a probability. Even more pleasingly, I was able to carry that pace into the flat last kilometre and finished off fairly strongly (even passed a couple of people in the last 200!). Splits for the last 2k were 3.25 (downhill) and 3.32 - I don't think I've even finished a 4k Corporate Cup that fast in years, let alone a longer race. In the end the final time was about a par result, perhaps a bit better. I didn't think I'd get down to my 52.02 from my last outing in 1990 but was reasonably happy to get within striking distance.

The sense of occasion for this race in Sydney is unlike anything in Melbourne and there is plenty of accompanying street theatre (it helps that much of the race goes through residential areas, unlike the Olympic Dream). There wasn't quite the drama of my first outing here in 1984 when a media helicopter crashed in a park next to the course (fortunately without serious injury to anyone).

The only negative is that you'd think that a race of this size could put their km marks in the right place. According to my GPS (supported by the split times) these were anything from 140 metres short (3k) to 120 metres long (7k). For those who've always thought that the longest kilometres in the race are Heartbreak Hill and the last kilometre, you're right - both of them are around 1120 metres long. (My splits were off the Garmin).

After a reasonably busy social schedule I've ended up finishing the day in Moss Vale.

C • KM length 1

C • Media helicopter 2

An easy session with Tracy, exploring various bits of bushland from her place. Like most Sydney bush there are a fair number of small tracks, most of them a bit rougher than we're used to in Melbourne (especially the bit that involved edging along a cliff face above the Lane Cove River holding onto some metal pegs). A nice morning without having to work too hard - which then fed into a pretty relaxing day in suburban Sydney, in anticipation of events tomorrow.

The 'Oops' award for the week goes to the NSW court officials who were supposed to be sending a Hells Angel facing charges a list of the names and addresses of all the known Hells Angels in NSW (whom he was prohibited from associating with). Unfortunately, due to a mix-up, they actually sent him the names and addresses of all the known Comancheros in NSW instead.

C • Metal pegs 2

Experienced the delights of the Kurri Kurri Aquatic Centre. This was a perfectly standard 25-metre indoor pool. Unsurprisingly for 9 on a weekday morning, the median age of the clientele in months was roughly equal to mine in years. A fairly reasonable session, on a morning when the front of my right ankle was feeling a bit uncomfortable (driving overuse syndrome again).

Entered Sydney the back way (via Wollombi, St. Albans and Wisemans Ferry) and then had a series of encounters with Sydney public transport. For the most part this went very smoothly and I even saw fit to say so on my Facebook status while on my last train of the day - with the predictable consequence that two stations later a squall blew some plastic into the overhead wires and we were held up for 15 minutes. (You can hardly blame the NSW government for that, although some people will). From what I've seen of the Sydney and Melbourne systems, the level of service and performance of the systems is similar (in fact Sydney's on-time percentage in the last year is a bit better than Melbourne's, having risen from abysmal levels a few years ago), but the lack of an integrated ticketing system in Sydney is a big minus.

A long run from Laurieton. This is the one point on this coast where I've spent any meaningful time in the last 19 years; after the 2004 5-days at Armidale Cassie, Jim and I came down here for New Year's Eve at the holiday house of our old next-door neighbours from Canberra. It was one of the best such gatherings I've been to (not least because most people present stayed sober enough for long enough to be able to engage in interesting and intelligent conversation), although our hosts evidently found the evening (or one close by) especially enjoyable as their first child was born in the last week of the following September.

I didn't run from here in 2004/05 (instead saving my training for discovery of the fact that Stockton is no longer runnable), so was exploring new ground - largely an out-and-back south along the coast into Crowdy Bay National Park, mostly on gravel roads except for some walking tracks in the Diamond Head area at the far end. Got as far as Kylie's Hut, named for the mid-20th century author Kylie Tennant who used it in pre-national park days as an ideal lifestyle property for the recluse. Whether she was the inspiration for all the late 60s/early 70s Kylies (whose ranks I would have been part of had I come out with different appendages) is unknown.

The warm-up was again slow but settled into a very nice rhythm by 20 minutes in, on an ideal morning (sunny, still, around 6 degrees). Flowed very well for most of the next hour. A bit of a grind after that and slightly concerned that my Achilles soreness re-emerged a bit after 90 minutes (normally it disappears within 10 minutes and stays disappeared), but my pace stayed up. A pretty pleasing session.

Unsurprisingly Laurieton was a lot more lively at 10am than it had been at 7pm (especially as I think it was pension day).

I farewelled the Pacific Highway today; I won't miss it. The last couple of days have reinforced a view I've had for a while that this is the Australian corridor with the most potential for a greatly upgraded rail service, because there are a lot of substantial intermediate destinations as well as the Sydney-Brisbane traffic. Not holding my breath waiting for action on this, though.

Now in the vicinity of Maitland (which can therefore be deleted from the list of large Australian towns I've never been to) at the Blatchford residence. En route I saw quite a lot of signs announcing road projects funded under the federal roads of national importance program. This normally translates approximately as "You are now entering a marginal seat: please vote carefully", and the coincidence of the location of the signs with the boundaries to be found at http://www.aec.gov.au/pdf/profiles/p/paterson.pdf have done absolutely nothing to disabuse me of this notion.

In the news was a British study which apparently found (on what basis I'm not sure) that Australians were among the world's worst husbands and Norwegians the best. Must pass this onto Cassie.

C • Bad Husbands 4

C • Kylie 5

C • Thanks! 2

C • Roadworks 3

The original plan for this morning was a repeat of last Tuesday - intervals on the beach (this time at Coffs Harbour rather than Mission Beach). I quickly changed my mind on this on discovering that it was high tide - running fast in soft sand was the last thing my suspect Achilles needed. Took a long time to warm up but eventually decided on a hill session on the headland dividing Park Beach (the main Coffs Harbour beach) from the next one to the north. 10x1 min hills with jog recovery; not an especially steep hill (about 5% at the bottom, 10% at the top). Felt reasonable despite the poor warm-up.

This was probably the most relaxed day of the trip since Darwin with only a couple of hundred kilometres of travelling to be done, and quite a bit of time spent on beaches (as long as you don't want to spend too much time in the water, August is actually an excellent month for this in this part of the world - lots of sunshine and around 20 most of the time). The driving, though, made it a bit less relaxing - first someone paying more attention to their phone than their driving almost ran up my backside at 100 km/h, then someone else (I presume) fell asleep at the wheel in front of me. I'd been behind them for 20k or so, and after a while they started drifting onto the wrong side of the road from time to time - after doing it several times in about 2k, they did it again with another car coming. At this point some serious use of the horn was called for and the oncoming car got out of the way. The wandering vehicle eventually hit a traffic island and then stopped without any obvious damage to person or property; the driver should steer well clear of Lotto because he's used up his luck for the week.

I renewed acquaintances today with NSW talk radio which was as obnoxious as I remembered it. This came particularly to mind on approaching Kempsey, which was the only town of any size to record a majority No vote in the 1967 Aboriginal referendum. If a similar referendum occurred in 2009 I suspect a lot of other places would join it and the influence of the shock-jocks and the Andrew Bolts of this world would have a lot to do with it. I did, however, enjoy the discussion of the alleged theft of 34 buckets of cucumbers from premises near Adelaide; first someone asked if they were Lebanese cucumbers, then someone else suggested that they be referred to as cucumbers of Middle Eastern appearance (for those not under the influence of the NSW media, this is the standard NSW police euphemism for Lebanese).

Finished up in Laurieton, a beach town south of Port Macquarie at the foot of a 500-metre mountain (much loved by hang-gliders). Like a lot of such places its main winter population is retirees, which means it's stone dead after dark. I'm not exactly a night owl myself but it would have been nice if more than 20% of the eating places had been open (it was particularly bizarre that the fish and chips shop by the wharf closed at 5).

Warm up/down for the hill session.

Gibraltar Range National Park, from the highway to Dandahra Crags and return. I got the idea for this one from a R4YL race report - I don't think I found the same tracks that they used as I didn't see anything which matched the photos but still a nice place to be. It's rolling granite country on top of the range, at about 1000m elevation; quite marshy in the valleys and got wet feet on a few creek crossings. Some of the run was on a dirt access road, some on a track which could be generously called a fire trail. Didn't do the final scramble up to the summit of the crags. Some great rock photo opportunities, although I think it would be a bit thick for orienteering. A pleasant run without being brilliant, in nice conditions (cooler than I've been used to recently, about 12 degrees, but by no means cold).

Returned to a message which was the call I'd been waiting for for three weeks (just as well I didn't stay in Darwin) - the insurance assessor (who had been sick for a week, hence the latest hold-up) is recommending a write-off. Definitely the simplest solution from my point of view.

Part two of the day was at the other end of its high-country section, in Dorrigo. For the first time in a week this wasn't on walking tracks (if only because the main one that I might have considered was closed because of storm damage), instead taking a minor road out and back from the Rainforest Skywalk car park. Very pleasant rural country with occasional terrific views off the escarpment. For the first 20 minutes my run definitely didn't match the surroundings - felt semi-asleep at times - but then suddenly got going and was feeling terrific in the last 10 minutes.

The only vehicle I saw on this session was the school bus, but it is evidently less than comprehensive in its coverage because I saw a young girl walking along the road on my way out and saw her again 1.5km further up it on my way back. Must breed them tough in these parts (I wonder what happens on the occasional days with 200 or 300 or 400 - or, on one occasion, 800 - millimetres of rain?).

It's a bit of a shock to the system to see water so abundant, even on the tablelands where the grass is brown (presumably from frost). There is still quite a bit of standing water on low ground on the Clarence floodplain (it's easy to see why Yamba was cut off for more than a week), and any stream of any size is flowing strongly. This is one area where you can have a long shower with a clear conscience. However, anyone who knows anything about water policy in Australia knows that just because a region has plenty of water doesn't mean it has any to spare, and I was therefore totally unsurprised to see 'Hands Off Our Water' headlines in the local papers. (As it happens, I'm unconvinced that the idea, which has resurfaced again, of diverting some of the upper Clarence west has any great merit, but that's more because the Darling is a very inefficient way of getting water to SA than because of any plausible lack of water in the Clarence).

I was keeping my eyes open for potential orienteering country en route from Gibraltar Range to Dorrigo (via Glen Innes and Guyra), but didn't see as much rock as I thought I might have; the most promising country was in the Cathedral Rock area around Ebor, which is a long way from anywhere. Just to confirm I really am a tragic when it comes to looking for potential terrain, the first thing I looked at in the window of the local real estate agent at Glen Innes was any rocks in property pictures, although looking did allow me to discover a new real estate euphemism: "ideal lifestyle block for the recluse" (= bloody long way from anywhere). The location (50km west of Tenterfield) did look like it had potential as a bolt-hole for the sort of person who might be inclined to stockpile tinned food, bottled water and armaments and await the apocalypse.

Finished the day by passing through Bellingen, which has more cafes than I would have thought a town of its size outside big-city-weekend-trip range could possibly support (unfortunately most had closed for the day), before staying in Coffs Harbour.

C • Dorrigo 6

The most eastern run it is possible to do in Australia - the Cape Byron loop walking track. This is nominally supposed to be a recovery session but there wasn't much recovery done today, with some ferociously steep (although mostly short) climbs out of the beaches, and a longer climb to the lighthouse. Coped with this reasonably well once warmed up. Finished up with an extension along the beach.

Sightseeing highlight of the session was undoubtedly seeing a whale just offshore from the lighthouse. I hope the photo turns out OK although I suspect it will be hard to see as I didn't have time to zoom.

The timing of this was a bit awkward in the middle of the day, but Byron Bay is a place where you won't go hungry if you want to have lunch at 2.15.

Today was a real mixed bag, featuring rainforest, mountains, waterfalls, hippies and beaches. I arrived in Nimbin to be greeted by flashing police lights in what turned out to be a speed bust. Before you start getting too excited, this is the sort of speed that involved the car in front of me driving at 90 or thereabouts in an 80 zone (evidently those laws are more rigorously enforced in these parts than those pertaining to the possession, use or sale of prohibited substances). The surrounding mountains and rocks are lovely, and the macadamia slice from the Rainbow Cafe gets my thumbs-up too. I can't, however, look too old or respectable yet because someone asked me on the street if I wanted a "smoke" (no translation needed).

It's also really nice being able to spend time in the sun on a beach without having to worry too much about being burnt.

The day finished in Yamba. (Weather station count: 81). I haven't been anywhere between Murwillumbah and Kempsey since 1990 and had therefore forgotten how abysmal the Pacific Highway is. It must be far worse in summer.

C • Lord Howe Island? 4

Oddity of the day 1: a WW2 memorial which contained reference to ships being lost as a result of enemy mines 'off the NE coast of Victoria'. I'm impressed that the Germans and/or Japanese managed to get a mine-laying vessel into the Hume Weir without anybody noticing (maybe the remnants will turn up if it drops below 5%?).

Oddity of the day 2: a sign which said that various environmental works were being funded by revenues earned from dredging the Tweed River. Makes you wonder what they found.