Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Headed for the inland tracks this time, starting from near Mogo and heading out and back along the Runnyford road. This was part of my sometimes-traditional first-Sunday-in-February epic eleven years ago. I wasn't looking at anything like 39k this time, though.

This didn't get off to a good start when I discovered that my water bottle had lost all of its contents between Denhams Beach and Mogo, meaning a less-well-hydrated start than I would have liked in the most humid conditions I've run in since Darwin (23/21). Nevertheless, the first two-thirds of the run weren't too bad. Once again soreness took a while to ease but was OK after the first 20 minutes or so, and, although it was more up and down than I was expecting (you can hide a bit in 10-metre contours), I seemed to cope with this OK - including the 600 metres at 10% near the turnaround point, the biggest hill I've run in three months.

From 5k to go I started to struggle significantly, especially uphill - though through fatigue rather than injury, which I guess is progress. Managed to summon one last big effort for a solid climb in the second last kilometre (which seemed a lot less steep when I was going down it early on), but I wouldn't have wanted this to go much longer.

I still have some way to go before I can regard a run of this length as routine business, but at least the way the lower part of my body is responding is encouraging.

Down at Denhams Beach, near Batemans Bay, for the weekend. It's quieter than I expected; the annual migration of Yogis (*) appears to be more or less over and it's making the transition from being the place where Canberra goes for its summer holidays to being the place where Canberra goes to die. (Bringing back memories of Hervey Bay, I spent 20 minutes of this run 100 metres behind someone who appeared to be riding a mobility scooter all the way to central Batemans Bay).

There are some good runs to be had here along the forest fire trails but getting to them involves steeper hills than I want to be taking on at present, so I took the somewhat unoriginal option of an out-and-back along the coast road towaards Batemans Bay, as far as the Hanging Rock Reserve (although the rock itself was nowhere to be seen). Once again rather tight, gradually loosening up during the run, but it's (probably) a good sign that the tightness is in the core of the Achilles, which I've dealt with for several years on and off and feel I can manage, rather than the hot spot which continues to be quiet. Rather humid, as expected for the east coast.

There was not as much traffic on the road last night as I thought there might have been but the drivers made up for their lack of numbers with their stupidity. The highlight was near the Sandhills turnoff east of Bungendore when someone overtook us and the 4WD behind us at high speed over double lines. Unfortunately for them, the 4WD behind us was actually an unmarked police car which quickly swung into action. Our sympathy was lacking.

(* - ACT people are sometimes known as such in these parts, because their number plates start with Y).

C • Yogis 1

Pool running at CISAC. Quite a crowd for early in the day - wasn't that easy to get a parking spot. This also meant there were quite a few people swimming laps in the lane that wasn't designated for lap swimming; even though I was (I think) within my rights to be there I still felt as if I was getting in the way. Working reasonably well though.

Felt fairly tight again on getting up this morning.

The conference dinner wasn't as memorable as that for the last climate conference I went to in Canberra (check my log from early September 2006 for details of the Red Balloon Scandal), although quite a few did kick on afterwards and were consequently nowhere to be seen in the morning sessions today. Unlike last time, I doubt that anything that happened last night will elicit a comment from the Prime Minister.

A few weeks from now I'll hopefully be fit enough that a not-fast 40 minutes on a humid morning doesn't feel like much of an effort at all. I'm not there yet. A bit tight this morning too, although more in the core of the Achilles rather than the trouble spot.

Today we're sharing our conference premises with the National Youth Science Forum, who had some displays from various universities and other organisations wanting to promote themselves to impressionable youngsters. One was ExxonMobil and another was Gunns. I wasn't sure which stand I felt more like picketing.

C • Pity Forestry Tasmania didn't have a stand: 1

C • Caught 1

I had planned my orienteering comeback for the University of Canberra evening event. As it turned out the conference program got in the way, so instead I ran the course this morning - the first hard run I've done since October, and the first navigation harder than a street-O that I've done for the same length of time.

There was a bit of rust early with a small miss on 3 (going down one passage too early). Navigation was pretty good after that. Felt a bit awkward on the rougher bits of terrain (of which there were a handful) but pulled up OK. Lack of fitness was showing, though; I didn't have a lot left by the last quarter. I'll be interested to see what everyone else does on this but can certainly see a sub-25 from Jules.

Going to/from UC. Felt very ordinary in both directions, on the way because I was still asleep and going home because I was tired.

I've been regularly doing, but not logging, various sets of exercises done for the purpose of Achilles-strengthening. A few points were added to the degree of difficulty this afternoon by doing said exercises while on the phone to a journalist.

There was at least one familiar name in the Australia Day honours this year - Bob Mouatt, who got a (well-deserved) gong for services to orienteering. Another member of our fraternity, Michael D'Ascenzo, also got one, in his case for servioces to separating us from our money (he's the Tax Commissioner).

C • WA honours 2

Riding in Canberra on Dad's bike, pretty well as soon as I arrived (in the hope, largely fulfilled, that it would be less hot than it was later in the day). Started out heading into town to pick something up from Miss Jones, then out through Kaleen into the north end of Belconnen before finishing up at an Australia Day BBQ in Latham. Not the easiest of bikes to ride up hills but pretty good otherwise, and some nice stretches in the second half.

I was left wondering whether there was a competition on in Canberra to see who could fit the greatest number of Australian flags on a ute - the most I saw was five. I gave them a wide berth - utes covered with flags have a reasonable chance of being manifestations of the rather ugly breed of nationalism that has reared its head on this day in recent years in certain quarters of the community, and such people usually aren't favourably disposed towards cyclists. There did, though, seem to be more household Australia Day parties in the suburbs than I can remember seeing. (I might have even eaten a lamb chop if I hadn't been so annoyed by the Sam Kekovich ads).

Fans of The Castle (and I know there are plenty of you out there) may be interested to know that the boundary of Charnwood, the suburb which has the reputation as Canberra's most bogan, is Kerrigan Street. Some reinforcement of the reputation took place when I saw two boys roaring up the footpath on trailbikes (more took place a couple of years ago when the local school fete, held on the same day as the nearby wedding of Ecmo and Elise, featured a Best Mullet competition).

I finished off by pondering one of life's little mysteries: why is the 1930s fringe Test player Alan Kippax, who would probably struggle to make an all-time Australian top-50, the only cricketer to have a Canberra suburb named after him? (A lot of prominent figures would have been ruled out by virtue of being still alive when the area was developed in the early 1970s, but the likes of Trumper, Giffen and Spofforth would have been options).

Pool running at Ivanhoe. Reasonably ho-hum. The usual crowd was there, one of whom was somewhat disgruntled because his car had been towed away from a clearway on Friday. I hope my lack of sympathy wasn't too obvious.

Another milestone; first time in three months that I've been round the Tan the "right" way - which means the first time in three months that I've run up Anderson Street (or anything as steep as Anderson Street). I was somewhat lacking in strength for this but no real dramas with the injury, which is encouraging.

Hills aside, it was a decent session in the midst of a pleasant lunchtime.

Something was being set up for Australia Day at the Myer Music Bowl. As the outside broadcast van was from Magic 1278 I'm guessing that I'm not part of the target demographic and won't be until 2040 or thereabouts.

Off to Canberra in the morning for the rest of the week (then a weekend on the South Coast).