Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Oceania Middle Distance at Rowdy Flat. This was the most hyped event of the year; having been on the area last year in the initial planning stages I was confident the hype was well-deserved (in fact my main concern was scepticism as to whether the area could be legibly mapped at 1:10000, something that was managed, more or less).

In an area like this staying in contact throughout was critical; unlike most goldmining areas, there were very few bland areas between the detailed bits so you rarely got a chance to relax. I also decided on a strategy of minimising the number of major gully crossings, perhaps more so than I needed to as those who went straighter didn't seem to lose time doing so (then again, gully-scrambling isn't one of my stronger points). Did the first five well, went in a bit early to 6 and probably lost 30 seconds or so (not least through giving myself an extra gully crossing), but otherwise a decent technical race until 14 - which I blew to the tune of about 3 minutes, turning a decent race into a mediocre one. Finished off mostly in a bunch containing various combinations of Kerrin, Lachlan Dow and Rob Walter, doing OK without feeling special. (If I'd not made the mistake at 14, I'd most likely have ended up in the Carsten/Ecmo train and done 45, which I would have been happy with).

This area was a lot of fun and it will be good to get back here sometime, hopefully next year. Can't say I'm happy with a 24th place (a little above halfway in the big field). Great arena production as well - we won't get a lot of opportunities to do this in Australia, both because of the cost and because it depends on having good mobile coverage across the map which many areas don't have, but it's good to showcase it when we can.

Event: Oceania Long & Middle Distance Champs
 

Oceania Long at Warby North. I was an old man today in the name of trying to beat New Zealand, which also meant it was the first time for a long time that I've gone into a big race with a realistic chance of winning it (probably at least 10 years).

I was running a bit like an old man too, on an area that's greened up with the rains over the last couple of years - I almost never felt like I was running with any strength or speed. However, it was a fairly clean run, one 15-seconder in the circle at 5, and a couple of low visibility legs where I lost a bit of confidence* but hit the control OK. Probably couldn't have done a great deal more given my less than ideal lead-up week (although I was feeling a lot less sick today). A bit disappointing to be in third in a race where the top three were covered by less than a minute, but the mission of beating NZ was accomplished (and I'll be fresher for tomorrow's race than most of the opposition will).

(* - two successive ads on TV this morning claimed to "give you confidence". They were for very different products - sanitary pads and agricultural chemicals).

Course 5 - Splits

In sounding-worse-but-not-feeling-as-bad mode; won't be at 100% for tomorrow but shouldn't be catastrophically bad (it's perhaps fortunate that I'm acting my age tomorrow and won't be doing a proper long race until next week). A fairly relaxed session at Ivanhoe.

The No Carbon Tax demo at the Bureau ended up being a spectacular flop - depending on who you spoke to, the attendance was either three or four (plus four police). I think this officially surpasses the 1991 anti-Gulf War protest at ANU (nine speakers, eight in the audience) as the biggest protest fizzer in my recollection, and in the 1991 case the wind was rather taken out of the sails of the protest by the fact that the war which they were protesting against had ended several hours before the protest started.

Not great timing for a cold, although hopefully I'll be through the worst of it by Saturday. I seem to be cursed when it comes to Australia-NZ Challenges - I've had to pull out of both of my last two teams because of injury in the last couple of days before the event (ankle in 2000, broken arm in 2005). At least this year there is no sprint race to injure myself in between now and then.

In regular training mode I'd probably have tried to get out for at least a token effort, but at this point there was nothing to be gained by doing so.

Some slightly careless wording in a news story today claimed that people who spend more than 10 hours a day sitting at a desk have a 48% higher chance of dying. Last time I looked 100% was not 48% greater than 100%. (Reminds me a bit of the story some year ago which stated that one-third of people who take up smoking will die, which sounds like a pretty good incentive to take it up - a two-thirds chance of immortality...). Matters morbid were on our minds a bit today with the news that our cancer-stricken colleague (who's only a couple of years older than me) probably isn't going to last more than another few weeks.

And screaming headlines elsewhere claimed that Andrew Bolt has been silenced. He's been silenced so effectively that he devoted pages 1, 7, 36 and 37 of today's Herald-Sun to telling us about it.

C • Benefit of the doubt 1

A lunchtime run, having decided that it wasn't worth getting up early in the morning after an IOF Foot-O Commission hookup last night which went until midnight. Managed to slot in between the first light band of rain and the second much heavier one (which featured a light show which lasted for several hours) and had a mostly dry run, although Melbourne's runners need a collective dose of Harden Up because the Tan was pretty much deserted (and I don't think we can blame school holidays for that).

This was a fair run although Achilles still a bit sore. Started out with a colleague who's a fair bit better than me these days (he has a realistic chance of breaking my Bureau of Meteorology marathon record in a couple of weeks' time), which pulled me along a bit. I started to feel a bit unwell during the afternoon which is a bit of a worry at this point; will see how I feel in the morning before making any decision about what to do.

One of the sights of the day was a group of mounted police with riot shields, possibly getting some training in before the planned festivities at our premises on Friday morning - or they might be training to deal with what happens on Saturday night if Collingwood lose. (Also sighted on the run were five Collingwood supporters at various points, only one of whom had a visibly incomplete set of teeth).

The longest run I'll do in a short lead-up week. Like just about every other run of the last fortnight, this one started indifferently but soon settled down as I headed out along the Yarra; some good patches at times and a bit faster than some recent runs. Still not brilliant but a step in the right direction.

I then had my fastest ride into work for a while; having a properly-pumped up tyre helps (as does the lack of school-related traffic, it being school holidays).

Oddity of the day was looking up a place by the name of Cryna in Queensland on Google (to see whether it was a placename or an acronym) and seeing as two of the leading links, a real estate site purporting to offer good deals on commercial real estate leases in Cryna and a dating site purporting to have details of lots of single men and women in Cryna. The satellite image on Google Maps suggests that Cryna is a road junction and not much else, so I'm sceptical that either site would deliver what it promised. This prompted me to look up Betoota, which famously had a population of 1 (an elderly man) for many years (I believe it's now zero). Google didn't claim any links to commercial real estate there, but there were links claiming to offer properties for rent, and profiles of local women.

C • Runs starting badly 1

C • fifo workers 2

Took a long time to get going but in the end turned into a reasonably standard recovery run, albeit in the morning rather than the evening (less to recover from than there usually is, too). No sign of the back/hamstring problems of yesterday.

The area around Fitzroy Pool is popular with bill posters, and in amongst the upcoming concerts (Dolly Parton, anyone?) was an ad for the appearance of Eddie Everywhere and sundry others I haven't heard of at something called a 21st Century Financial Summit. Seeing mention of such things reminds me of our old next-door neighbour in Albert Park, a 'colourful entrepeneur' who eventually disappeared to Hong Kong leaving $50 million in debts behind him, before resurfacing a few years later running financial advice seminars in which one of the items was 'how to separate your assets from your creditors'. Disappointingly, I was out of town the day the AFP paid him an early-morning visit (also disappointingly, I wasn't out of town the day I had to convince a couple of fairly hefty blokes at the front door that the person they wanted didn't live here).

Didn't really get going in this session; intermittent goggles trouble didn't help. A bit later than usual which also meant it was a bit less crowded (not that Fitzroy ever gets that crowded). Always nice to be out in the spring sunshine.