Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

SA Long Championships at Iron Baron. Unexpectedly inherited the win when Simon ran from 18 to 20, my first state title (outside the NT) since 2005. The name of Steven Bradbury was invoked from time to time.

The result was a lucky one but this was a decent run, sometimes having a little trouble pinpointing control sites (especially small bits of rocky ground) but with no time losses worse than 15 seconds (the last control was the worst of them). Also felt a bit stronger than I have of late, grinding well up the hills (although not fast up them, as Simon demonstrated at 8) and lasting the distance OK. It's 88 minutes rather than 110, but then I don't expect to have to race over 110 minutes again until September/October; will restore a bit of confidence over the longer distances, which I've been lacking this year.

Caught Nieuwy at 4, earlier than I was expecting to (he missed 4 a bit). He then edged away from me on speed and I thought I might have to work to stay in sight, but he went too low at 6 and I didn't see him again. Simon went through me at 7 and moved away thereafter (he probably would have been about 12 minutes ahead of me over the full course).

It wasn't a bad area, contours/rock vaguely similar to Burra but more variety in the vegetation, from casuarina to scrub to more open areas. Quite rocky underfoot in places.

Warm-up event for the SA Championships at Whyalla. I wasn't particularly awake for this, having had a late-evening orienteering meeting on Friday night followed by a 5.30 start to get the plane on Saturday morning.

The event was on the fringes of Whyalla, with several of the usual features of near-urban public land like illicit rubbish dumping and dirt bikes (Whyalla is too arid for marijuana crops) - rocky underfoot and a bit scrubby but generally fairly open. Got off to a horrible start, weak up the first hill and then getting to where the first control should have been (I think) and not finding it. Three minutes later I did find it, probably 50-100 metres away from where it should have been. Got into it more after that and felt pretty reasonable in the second half, which felt like a reasonable warm-up - the purpose of the event, after all.

Pool running at Fitzroy. I usually find this a relaxing session and this was no exception.

Off to SA for their championships weekend, then two more weeks before heading off to WMOC. It's becoming apparent that they will be two fairly intense weeks.

Hadn't planned for something as long as this but not too upset that it happened (by the usual method of finding myself further away from my starting point than the distance that could be run in the planned time). Struggling again with weakness in the quads, and slow in the dark first half, but settled into tired-but-happy mode in the last third, a stretch where I was pretty happy with my focus.

I have a not-entirely-undeserved reputation for falling asleep in 2pm Thursday meetings. This time it was one of my colleagues who managed it first (in her case I'm guessing a small child was involved in causing sleep deprivation). I noticed this but shouldn't have thrown stones from a glass house because I managed it myself 20 minutes later.

Another meeting at the end of the day took me to the premises of the LHMU (the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union). I can't think of the LHMU without thinking of Red Symons some years ago when the zookeepers at the Melbourne Zoo (whose union is the LHMU) were on strike; he remarked 'presumably they're in the miscellaneous bit'.

And Crikey's cartoonist has proclaimed tomorrow National Hug a Climate Scientist Day. Virtual hugs will be accepted.

Yesterday must have taken a bit more out of me than I expected because my quads were missing in action today - not painful, just not there, which didn't exactly make for a lot of strength on the hills. A pretty slow run.

Missed the worst of the conditions but did get a couple of sleety showers. It was considerably more exciting in Tasmania (126mm of rain in 18 hours at Tunnack (461m) with temperatures mostly between 1 and 5, which probably means some fairly spectacular snow accumulations on the higher parts of the eastern ranges, Diddleum probably included). Not sure if too many intending beachgoers would have been affected by the statement in our severe weather warning for dangerous surf 'Surf Live Saving Tasmania advises no swimming between Tasman Island and South East Cape today'.

C • Waves 2

A Wednesday night on home ground - the start was only 300 metres from the front door. I couldn't pass that up, and went for it which is something I don't always do on winter Wednesdays - hard to get a pace up in the dark though, especially when the ground is a bit slippery. Did most of the big climbs early, not easy but not as much of a struggle as it would have been this morning. Felt sharp at times on the downhill and flatter legs. Route choice fairly straightforward on the whole - it's not an easy map to set on because it's fairly small (many people would have got them all tonight) and has a railway running through its length, so most route choices are of the up-one-side-down-the-other variety.

Strike one for the good guys in the War on Terror: it was reported on the weekend that British intelligence had hacked an al-Qaeda website and replaced the bomb-making recipe with a recipe for cupcakes. It was not reported whether anyone has yet been found in a public place with numerous cupcakes strapped to their body. (By all accounts the title of World's Dumbest Would-Be Terrorist is a hotly-contested one so it wouldn't totally surprise me if someone was).

Had something on at Kew this evening so decided to drag out a session I haven't done for a while, 10x1 minute hills at the lower end of Walmer Street. Hills haven't been a strong point of mine this year (on Sunday, as Bruce blew me away on a modest climb at the end of the run, I looked back wistfully to the days when I could do the same to him - the 1998 Australian Championships, when admittedly he was on the comeback trail from a serious injury). The first couple of reps were very ordinary but built into it reasonably well after that - would never describe it as powerful but at least respectable. The ground's a bit more uneven than I remember it, too.

This is quite a popular hill so I wasn't surprised to see someone else doing the same thing, although on the road rather than on the grass where I was.

Warming up/down for the hills session. Needed a bit of warming up this morning (although the rain didn't come for another couple of hours).

An invigorating morning at Fitzroy. Pleased to get in but couldn't really get myself going this morning; mainly useful for working some stiffness out of my system.

Probably wouldn't have been a good day for zootrio's pre-school swimming classes, which were called off last week because the Northcote pool temperature had dropped to 29 degrees. I guess it's a bit more challenging to tell four-year-olds to harden up.

Monday night at North Fitzroy and Princes Park. A larger group than recently and more like the traditional (slow) Monday night pace. Predictably found it hard to get myself going but loosened up reasonably well after the first 10 minutes or so.