Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Easter long day at Kowen Forest. A reasonably encouraging race, even if my placing was a little lower than yesterday (probably because the terrain, fast and not especially difficult pine forest, didn't provide as many opportunities for mistakes). Certainly felt better physically than I have on any other run since the comeback started, and handled the two major climbs reasonably well. Also didn't really miss anything, with only three minor wobbles, none of them worth more than 10 seconds (and none of them big enough to show up on Winsplits).

I started two minutes behind Matt Parton but went through him without seeing him when he made a mistake at 4. Was on my own through most of the first third, then saw a bit of Leon Keely (on a different course) through the next section, before catching David Brownridge at 16. This was the start of a train as Matt recaught us just before the spectator control, along with Eric. Matt ran away on the long leg out of the spectator control and I thought I might have trouble holding a two-minute gap, but he then messed up 24 and fell behind us again. Held up respectably well to the end, although a hillier finish might have found me out.

The chasing start tomorrow should be fun, with eight of us within three minutes fighting for 11th-18th. I'm not sure the chasing start format will work to my advantage at my current level of fitness, but hopefully there will be enough low-visibility and butterfly loops to mix things up a bit.

Definitely an improvement on yesterday, and a better result than I was expecting (15th), but still below the level of performance I would like to be at; in particular hills are still a bit of a struggle.

The first section of the course was through some fairly rough low-visibility country. Missed 15 seconds in the circle at 2, and another 45 seconds at 5, drifting on a short leg downhill to a rockface. NSW Stinger went through me fairly soon after that, and while he wasn't getting away that quickly he was doing so relentlessly. Thought he might drag Boris along with him but it didn't happen. Got through the rugged 11-13 reasonably well and caught David Brownridge and Nick Andrewartha there; we were together more or less to the end, although David turned the afterburners on up a couple of hills. Didn't really miss anything on this final section, but did lose a little bit of time through taking a highish route to 17 and getting caught in some rough stuff. The most unexpected part of this run was at the end when I ran Nick down in the chute (something I don't think I've done to anyone in elites since Tom Quayle at a mid-90s QB3, which was captured for posterity on an Australian Orienteer front cover). I don't think Nick has an AP log, so feel free to leave your sledges here :-).

With some help from a couple of significant names falling by the wayside today through injury, I've crept higher up the overall list than expected. Tomorrow will be interesting. An overall top ten still seems unlikely, but even low-mid teens would be in advance of pre-weekend expectations.

Event: Orienteering Easter twenty10 Carnival
 

Easter sprint prologue at (censored). Felt OK in the warm-up (certainly better than I have running over the last few days), but it was apparent on the first couple of legs across the (censored) that my speed hadn't come back. After a couple of quirky controls around the (censored) and (censored) we then got into more 'traditional' urban sprint terrain in amongst the buildings of (censored). This set the scene for my one significant error, at 13, where I misread the marked route and ended up stuck on the top level of (censored), losing about 40 seconds. Got back into it after that; saw NSW Stinger (who started 3 minutes behind me) at the 15-18 crossover and thought he might catch me, but he didn't. Flowed nicely through the final loop and the last couple of legs past the (censored).

From other times on the day (both Julian's and in the impressively hard-fought junior race) I was thinking sub-19 would be a target; might have got close to 19 without the mistake but not under it. Certainly still lacking pace. The other days will suit me better than this did, but from here I think making the top 20 will be a reasonable target; in general I think I'm probably in similar shape to 2005 after a similar summer of training (or absence thereof).

There were a few blasts from the past today, and one was Ian McKenzie, making his first national event appearance to my knowledge for at least a decade. In a past life we made a decent rogaining combination, winning several, and would have been a reasonable top-six chance at the 1992 Worlds until injury restricted him mid-event; the pairing worked very well at the time but never had a long life expectancy because if you're evenly matched at 19 and 39 you're probably not going to be evenly matched at 25 and 45.

C • censored? 2

First time running in the deep water at Fitzroy for a while. A reasonably steady session, and feeling a bit better this morning (despite continuing to burn the candle at both ends; a good sleep on Friday will do me good).

I suspect this will become a more problematical session as we get closer to winter; in July you want to have as little of your body outside the water as possible.

I'll feel better running soon but not this morning; this was a very ordinary run, especially up the (not very many) hills of Viewbank. A bit unusual of late to do a morning run to and from home; one would expect that they will get better than this. It was even a bit later in the morning than usual because I had a meeting with the OA auditors (everything is in good order, you'll be pleased to hear).

This is my last run before Easter; hopefully I'll be in better form then, although two days isn't long. I'll definitely be hoping that there is a fair bit of complexity in the sprint venue that I believe we are now supposed to refer to as "an eastern Canberra educational facility".

Is there anywhere on AP to log an overuse injury to a telephone?

Managed to do the Tan even slower than I did last time. In fairness, 14.50 solo probably isn't as bad a run as 14.45 paced (especially when recovering from an illness of sorts), but I'd still want to be a lot closer to 14 than 15 next time. As with last time, the area which felt most obviously below par was the Anderson Street climb; did at least come home at a decent pace, making up 5 seconds of ground on last time in the last 2k.

Km splits: 3.51, 4.03 (uphill), 3.54, 3.48.

Today was a genuine media frenzy day, thanks mainly to an over-enthusiastic Age headline-writer who made people think that the drought was on the point of being over (in a piece in which I was quoted extensively, and reasonably accurately). At one point the sequence was - take one phone call, listen to voicemail to get messages from the two calls I missed while taking that call, then listen to voicemail again to get messages from the two calls which came in while I was listening to voicemail the first time. By early afternoon I was starting to hope that a footballer would disgrace themselves so the media would have something else to talk about.

C • alfie did 4

Getting to/from the Tan.

I was able to escape the media while running, but not for long - took a call straight out of the shower.

It was one of the very rare occasions when I hit the snooze button on my alarm. This then put me into worse traffic but at least meant I missed the morning rainband, which seemed to have emptied the Fitzroy pool fairly comprehensively. A fairly sedate swim though.

The morning papers reported that since Victoria has brought in laws outlawing underquoting of prices by real estate agents, there have been the grand total of two prosecutions leading to a grand total of $2000 in fines. The reason why was revealed inside - Consumer Affairs employs only two auction inspectors, and they don't work weekends.

Monday night from the PFKAL (property formerly known as Liggo's). Started uphill through Willsmere and felt awful on multiple counts, but gradually built into it and reasonable by the end. A little Achilles soreness for the first time in a couple of weeks. Took advantage of the last semi-daylight Monday night for six months to start out around Yarra Bend, but the lack of light was starting to become an issue even tonight.

A pile of 80s records (and yes, they were records) was discovered afterwards, so Wham got a bit of an airing (we didn't get around to Wa Wa Nee).