Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First taste of European orienteering on this trip, at Sluie, between Aberdeen and Braemar - a fair hike from Edinburgh but it sounded like (and was) interesting terrain, which the event closer to Edinburgh wasn't, and it gave me a good excuse to see some nice countryside on the way there and back too.

It's the first time I've orienteered in Scotland since the 2003 6-Days, and after a slightly odd track run to the first control (apparently to keep us out of the way of the people going to the start, it was straight into the most technical part of the map. It took me a while to get a feel for what was mapped as a cliff and what wasn't; lost confidence going into 4 (but got out of it with a minute lost, better than others fared from post-race discussion) and also small misses on 5 and 6. Not bad technically after that with only minor glitches. Found the soft ground hard work at times, and the bracken was making its presence felt at times too (although numerous unmapped motocross tracks were a help there at times). Started to tire a bit in the last 15 minutes.

Alasdair McLeod did 65 so 75 was at least vaguely respectable (although he lost a fair bit of time on 4).

The trip went pretty smoothly on the whole for the Melbourne-Dubai-Glasgow section (and the apocalyptic stories about three-hour waits at British immigration must only apply to Heathrow - I was through in five minutes). Didn't sleep as well as I sometimes do on planes but still not too bad. Only stumbled a bit at the last hurdle when the bus to Edinburgh got caught in a traffic jam caused by the Royal Highland Show (or to be more precise the attempts of cars to get into its muddy car park - possibly an indicator of what I have to look forward to at tomorrow's event).

It was mildly unsettling in Dubai to see that the lead story on the news was a Turkish plane being shot down over Syrian airspace; Emirates obviously felt likewise, as we diverted east of the straight line to pass over safe places like Iraq.

Once unpacked in Edinburgh I headed out for a turn-the-legs-over session, initially around Holyrood Park, without climbing to the top of Arthurs Seat but still with a bit of climbing. No rain but squelchy underfoot in places, and very windy on the more exposed parts. (Last time I was here it was four days before I saw the top of Arthurs Seat, so today's weather can't be that bad). After coming off the hill, the next leg was southward on something which the signs called the Innocent Cycle Path, wondering what it was alleged to have done. (A sign at the far end provided the answer - it gets its name by being the former route of the Innocent Railway, which in turn got its early-19th century name because the trains were horse-drawn and didn't use those dangerously newfangled steam engines). Came back through the suburbs. Felt OK at times, tired at times, but not the worst first-day run I've ever had. ITB seems to have suffered a bit from the trip (although Achilles coped better than usual).

3x1k on the Tan. Felt very sleepy during the morning after a poor (and short) night's sleep and thought this might be a horrible run. It didn't feel as bad as I thought it might, but still pretty slow, barely breaking 4s for the fast kilometres.

It was a bit disconcerting to feel at jetlag levels of sleepiness when I haven't got on the plane yet (that happens tonight). Edinburgh via Dubai and Glasgow is the plan.

Going to/from the Tan.

It was always going to be a bit of a rearranged day, thanks to the demo outside Parliament House (only cyclists would organise a demo for 7.30am) against the elimination of funding for bike infrastructure (this got a decent turnout, several hundred, despite the dismal weather).

Given the weather I was probably going to go Ivanhoe rather than Fitzroy anyway, but that decision was made for me when I left my gear behind in the morning. That meant sharing the aqua play area with the kids (mostly the older siblings of those having swimming lessons). We managed to stay out of each other's way for most of the time (i.e. I only got kicked about half a dozen times); the slightly frustrating bit is that we could easily have sorted everything out by my occupying the last metre of the lane and them having everything else, but an unknown man talking to kids in front of their parents (who were probably not too pleased that I was there at all) is asking for trouble. Still, it worked out OK. (Perhaps I'm just influenced by my deep-rooted tendency to expect that anyone who doesn't know me will think the worst of me, in a week when if you go to certain websites you can find plenty of people who are doing just that).

And now it's 11.30, and I've only just finished the last bit of OA-related paperwork before going away. Naturally I haven't even thought about starting to pack yet - that's tomorrow morning's job.

C • Hope you didn't have too many weird dreams 2

Pseudo-long run up through Watsonia and Greensborough - felt OK but rather slow in the hillier stretches. Picked up the pace a bit at the end, mainly in (successful) pursuit of the 8.23 train. (The 8.23 is a nice discovery of the new timetable - it starts at Heidelberg so you're guaranteed to get a seat). A bit frosty in the more sheltered patches. Last time for a while I'll start a run in the dark.

A 10x1min set on the south side of Docklands after dropping my car off for a service, on a morning which didn't feel that windy but was definitely easier on the even sets than the odd ones. As is often the case with this type of session, struggled to get into gear on the first couple but fairly respectable after that. Knee seems to be just about right now.

Docklands has a lot of building activity and hence plenty of cranes. These are often to be seen flying flags (usually Eureka or other union flags, except in September when football teams take over), but I was a bit surprised this morning to see the New Zealand silver fern flying proudly over Victoria Harbour. I wouldn't have thought a last-gasp home win over Ireland was worth getting that excited about.

Warm up and down going to/from the intervals site.

I've attracted some attention in the last 24 hours from a couple of the more prominent sceptic blogs (no abusive/threatening e-mails to me yet, although I believe there have been a couple to the Bureau's general enquiries address). Most amusing was being accused of being incompetent by someone who couldn't spell "incompetent".

Morning run with an evening meeting, after waiting for the paper to turn up - something I probably won't be doing this time next year because there won't be a paper worth reading (either because the Age has become Gina Rinehart's personal plaything or because it will have ceased to exist altogether). Pretty slow and sluggish in the first 10 minutes, got going a bit more after that but never brilliant.

C • Sad set of options 7

A somewhat uninspiring morning swim at Fitzroy, drifting out of it a bit in the second half. Calves felt like they wanted to cramp but didn't do so.