Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

10 days ago, I didn't expect to be starting today, and even yesterday I wasn't confident that I'd be able to do anything more than jog. I certainly didn't expect to emerge from the day as Oceania champion (and second in the race behind Mikko - although results from other classes on the course put my time in a bit more perspective). It was an area for brains rather than brawn, which was as well because I still didn't have a lot of brawn on offer - not much strength up the (many) dunes, but none of the muscular issues from my previous two runs (and no knee problems either).

Avoiding technical disaster was the order of the day today. Missed probably 2-3 minutes all up in small increments, the worst being about a minute at 11 - through others suffered much more badly there (judging by the number of places I gained there), most notably Ecmo whom I saw two-thirds of the way to 12 looking for 11. Didn't feel that fluent finishing through the forest patches but kept it together OK. We did enough to beat New Zealand in our class; not overall, although it was close enough (13-7, with three of NZ's wins being by less than a minute) to give us some hope for the remaining three races - would be a good one to win as no Challenge has been won by a visiting team since we won the relay in 1994.

(A Challenge quirk: Phil Wood and I have lined up against each other as juniors (M16, 1987), elites and now as masters. Not sure if any other pair has done this?).

A highly technical area where low speed was a plus was something which suited me very well today. The remaining days will be tougher, although I should pick up a bit of extra fitness with every run.

C • Congratulations! 1

Middle Champs C 3 - Splits

First foray into the terrain, going out early (before a commentary stint) with the plan of staying out for 30-40 minutes and doing a reasonable selection of controls in both the high-visibility and low-visibility parts of the terrain. The good news is that the knee gave no trouble whatsoever. The not-so-good news is that muscle tightness elsewhere was quite restrictive (today more lower back than groin) - this is something I'll just have to work through. Not exactly ready to race tomorrow but I think it will be a good day not to be trying to go too hard. Not always entirely confident with my navigation, but no errors larger than 15 seconds or so. Not aggressive in the least in the macrocarpa but still ended up with a red patch on my forehead (which I didn't notice but others noticed it for me).

Event 2 C 1 - Splits

Event: 2013 Oceania Carnival & WC Races
 

Made it into New Zealand but my orienteering shoes didn't (too much Rowdy Flat grass seed - get them back on the way out). After a quick shoe-purchasing expedition I headed to the waterfront pool at Oriental Bay. On a day as nice as this it's a pity that a pool in such a location is indoors, but as most Wellington days aren't as nice as this I'm not surprised it is.

I'd planned to swim but they had pool running belts available, so I decided to do that instead. Felt as if I had quite a bit of energy, perhaps surprisingly after sleeping badly last night. Quads are pretty sore though - hopefully these will warm up OK over the weekend.

C • Good thing you're flying out from the same airport! 1

No-one said comebacks were easy. Like the last time I came back from a layoff of this sort of magnitude, I had quite severe groin tightness, which eased a little bit through the run but was never great. (Hopefully history will repeat itself - last time the tightness disappeared within a few days). The good news was that the knee caused no trouble at all, just a couple of slight twinges up and down hills. Muscle soreness/stiffness during the day was much as I'd expect if I'd done my usual Thursday 2 hours, not 30 slow minutes on the Yarra Flats. Still, you have to start somewhere.

41 in Melbourne tomorrow (and 44 in Bendigo). Did I mention I was happy to be going to NZ?

C • Hobart 3

To work via the Yarra Boulevard. Again a bit lethargic this morning, and carrying more than I sometimes do which my back didn't like very much. The good news, though, is that the physio is pleased with the knee and doesn't seem to have any qualms about my running in NZ.

Today was as full-on as the first working day of the year always is - I thought I'd do well to get out of the office by 8pm (achieved, but with only one minute to spare). The annual climate statement comes out first thing tomorrow, and the impending heatwave (or existing heatwave if you're in WA) will get a fair bit of media attention too.

The first tentative return to running, in the form of 2 minutes on/2 minutes off in the Yarra Bend parklands, and quite an encouraging one it was - just a bit of mild discomfort in the knee, but nothing that would have caused me any alarm if it felt that way in the middle of normal training rather than at the end of a long layoff. Unsurprisingly, didn't feel particularly fit - I'm reasonably confident that I'll make the starting line in NZ now, not so confident that I'll be able to produce much in the way of performances once I get there. Still, more positives than negatives out of this - it's good to be back.

My destination last night ended up being the trig point near Royal Talbot on the Yarra Boulevard. I thought there was an outside chance I might find current or former orienteers there since it was a regular Monday night destination in the days when more Monday night runs started in Kew than is currently the case, and indeed this happened - up there were Carolyn Jackson along with Tim and Bill. The way the fireworks were set up (with displays off the top of all the city buildings) it was probably a better spot to watch from than the CBD was. The first part of the day, after a slightly later than usual wake-up, was then spent marking New Year's Day in the traditional Norwegian style - watching the ski-jumping on Eurosport.

And an item of interest (at least to me) from the British New Year's Honours; the other party in my 1989 "swap deal" between Southampton OC and Northside Navigators/Bushflyers is now Sir Ian Diamond.

The plan was to move on directly from the "run" to a swim and then move on to work, but this was scuttled because the Fitzroy pool didn't open until noon instead of its usual public-holiday 8am. Instead I went on the way home. Didn't feel as aggressive in the water as last time, but clearly the previously mentioned discovery that I have two arms is continuing to serve me well and I wasn't much slower than last time, despite feeling a little lethargic in a few muscles (mainly those which have been gainlessly unemployed for the last five weeks).

If you're wondering why work was part of the equation today, we start crunching the 2012 annual numbers as soon as the 9am observations come in from WA about lunchtime. Most of this is automated but I'm keeping an eye out for data quality issues - at the end of 2010 a lot of flood-affected Queensland stations didn't report in the last week of the month and showed up in the analysis as spurious zeroes, which if not spotted would have made the difference between Queensland having or not having its hottest year on record. Nothing as dramatic as that this year, and only a few minor issues which had a minimal effect on the analysis. The year's numbers are pretty unexciting too - temperatures slightly above normal and rainfall within 10% of normal in every state except SA, with a warm dry finish to the year cancelling out the cool wet start.

Spent the morning doing whatever was needed (mostly commentary) at Beechworth, which dragged on a bit longer than planned because the courses were a bit longer than planned (a bit of a map-scale misadventure) and a few competitors were consequently out for a lot longer than planned. We were just about to try to work out how to interrogate SI units with a view to determining likely search areas when the last person turned up. (One lesson of a couple of mishaps at the 5-days: it's become too big enough an event to be able to get away with not having controllers).

I'd decided to wait and see what everyone else was doing before deciding whether to head home tonight or stay around. Once it became clear most others were leaving town I decided to do likewise. A ride of a couple of hours was always on the agenda for today, and I ended up deciding to do it late afternoon on the way home (which became later still because of a side trip to visit a friend/work colleague - who I hadn't seen for ages because she's been on maternity leave - at her parents' place in Benalla).

A few hundred times up and down the Hume does leave one wondering what all the signs off the road are pointing to. In most cases it's probably hamlets with a few houses which have seen better days, a derelict pub, an overgrown tennis court and a Country Fire Authority shed (although if Locksley, my starting point, has one of these, I didn't see it). Headed west along the road to Nagambie, turning around when I hit the highway about 2k south of Nagambie. This is flat country - I only changed gears four times on the whole ride (twice in each direction across the overpass for the under-construction Nagambie bypass) - and is starting to look pretty dry; it won't take too many more dry months before the d-word starts to surface again. (The multiple 40+ days likely in the next fortnight won't help the cause). One farm close to the road was advertising 'Canaries for Sale', something I hope not to see too much of during the January transfer window.

Every one of the (not many) cars which passed gave me masses of space - city drivers take note.

Started out very well but tired a bit in the second half; a couple of minutes slower coming back despite having the better of the wind.

Just as well most of the Arrows are spending the next fortnight in New Zealand; Adelaide is likely to have at least three, and perhaps as many as seven, 40+ days between now and the end of next week. Melbourne and Canberra will get off a bit more lightly than that, but it still won't be pretty.

And so ends a year which was pretty frustrating from the competitive point of view - there weren't many significant races which I managed to avoid illness or injury for (in particular I seemed to be very good at getting sick at inopportune times this year, WMOC being the worst of them). It remains to be seen what difference losing a few weeks at the end of the year will make.

Best race of the year was probably the Victorian Relays (but then I managed to injure myself somewhere between the finish line and the bakery and missed another few days), with honourable mentions to the Bermuda Triangle race in October and - not something you'll often hear me saying - the sprint first day of the Swiss 5-Days (another campaign which was soon scuttled). Hopefully 2013 won't be as frustrating.

Best run of 2012 was the first one - well worth missing last year's fireworks for (it was forecast to be very hot so I was out the door not long after 6). Somewhat unusually for recent years my best run of the year was actually in Australia. I'll be surprised if my first run of 2013 is the best one (and it probably won't be good news for the rest of the year if it is).

C • too true 1