Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Finished off the trip with a run in the SA OY event at Narrinyeri - a map I've been on a couple of times but not concentrating so much on the area we were today (in 2009 I didn't get far anyway because of an injury). It was a tougher area than I expected, with lots of small rock in low-vis vegetation, often without a lot of contour detail - would be good training for certain parts of Europe.

I was a bit disappointed with the running side of things today, given that things have been going well the last couple of weeks; never really felt as if I got out of second gear and lacked a bit of confidence in the terrain, and strength up hills (OK, so hills weren't exactly a big feature of the last fortnight). Only two actual misses, neither of them bigger than 15 seconds or so, but a few other legs where I lacked confidence in green and/or wasn't happy with my path through it. There was no opposition today - Simon, who would have gone close to or under the hour, is already overseas and others who might have made an appearance either weren't there or ran shorter courses. Gave my knee a bit of a bang while collecting controls but hopefully nothing too serious.

Later in the day I had a Skype hookup on world rankings, so it was perhaps fitting that today was at the scene of possibly the ranking algorithm's most bizarre performance - the 1999 SA Championships where there was a field of six, five of us between 95 and 99 (hence a tiny standard deviation) and Greg Morcom on something like 160 (outside the 50% cutoff, anyway). If there hadn't been a lower bound of zero, this result would have scored Greg something in the order of -5300 points.

Flying back to Melbourne tonight. It's been a good break and I feel a lot more relaxed than two weeks ago; not being in a state of semi-permanent mild sleep deprivation (nothing compared to the new parents out there, I know) probably has a fair bit to do with that.

The pouring rain at dawn didn't sound exactly conducive to heading out into the surrounds of Jamestown and I was half-thinking that doing something in the evening after returning to Adelaide might not sound like such a bad option, but the rain stopped (apart from occasional showers) and we headed out a bit later in the morning, essentially for a lap of the town, with a slight ulterior motive of checking out sprint potential for the Easter 2015 prologue (answer: not very high). The rain might have become intermittent but the northerly wind was stiff and hard work whenever it was a headwind; I was also feeling a little off form this morning, perhaps because of eating too many salty things at the pub last night. Became better later on, more so in the last 15 minutes, where I also experienced the classic country scene of the chorus of horns at the football ground as the players ran onto the field. (Obviously they weren't finding the conditions easy either: when we went past again on the way out of town an hour or so later, the score was visitors 2 goals, Jamestown 0).

That was the prelude to the last leg back to Adelaide (via a very nice lunch at a Clare Valley winery). Now to sort through 300-odd photos (as well as run an event tomorrow before flying back in the evening).

As I'll be flying back in the dark I won't get to see the spectacularly crass Sportsbet ad which I presume is on the edge of Woodlands (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-21/cheeky-ad-27...). One can only hope they get the book thrown at them for doing something like that on Parks Victoria land without permission, but I'm not holding my breath.

The last day in the outback proper - you know you've been in remote country when you see a road sign saying that some homestead or other is 74km down a side track and you think that doesn't seem too far. This was a fairly short run from our campsite to the park headquarters at Balcanoona (where, surprisingly, there was a fairly rustic shower). A smooth run on a nice morning (after a cold night); a decent pace too, although probably slightly net downhill.

From there, it was Chambers Gorge (impressive Aboriginal carvings)-Blinman-Parachilna-Hawker-Jamestown. The rain started about five minutes after we got off the dirt for the last time.

I hadn't originally thought that Copley/Leigh Creek would be a promising venue for a long run (had been thinking more of something from Arkaroola later in the day - which would have been good too), but Jenny convinced me that Leigh Creek's dam was a worthwhile destination and I was glad she did. It was a fairly rough track at times across a couple of ranges of hills (the drainage patterns, in this country of parallel ranges with occasional gaps in them, are a bit counter-intuitive to those of us brought up on gully-spur country), but a nice run. A few steep pinches of the sort which would have troubled my back for much of this year; dare I think that that might be a thing of the past now? (It's often surfaced in terrain, so Sunday may tell us more).

Didn't cover an enormous amount of ground today despite not having tents to pack up, but did some worthwhile exploring around the Gammon Ranges - lots of rugged peaks and gorges - before camping near Balcanoona.

The night was spent at Coward Springs, an area where artesian bores (one turned into an open-air spa) have made for a well-vegetated campground in the middle of otherwise barren country. Unsurprisingly it's a popular campsite for those travelling in these parts (i.e. it's only the second time on this trip that we've had any company in a campground at all).

This morning's run was a one-way one from Coward Springs to another group of mound springs, bigger than the one at Strangways. Passed a convoy of 4WDs on the way who probably thought we were a bit crazy. A smooth run and better than yesterday's, although it was noticeable that a corrugated track slows things down a bit on foot as well as on wheels. (In general I've been surprised how few corrugations the main tracks have had, but some of the side tracks are a different story).

The rest of the day was about passing through Marree with a viewing of Lake Eyre en route, then finishing up at Copley, next to Leigh Creek (a relocated-in-1982 mining town which looks like Wanniassa transplanted to the Outback). Lake Eyre South did seem to have a fair bit of water thanks to recent rains, but probably very shallow and likely to disappear quickly. (The perils of investigating further were illustrated by the man who walked up to the lookout while we were there, his legs covered in thick black mud). Lake Eyre was clearly very good business in this part of the world when it was reasonably full, judging by the sea of demountable motel units next to the Marree pub.

It was perhaps fitting in this part of the world that one of the ABC talkback questions we heard (in a segment on traffic laws) was whether it is legal to carry an unrestrained camel in an open trailer being towed by another vehicle. (Answer: no, but any cop who tried to enforce this law would have an excellent chance of ending up on the front page of the NT News). Also heard, in a segment on not recognising modern music, was a text from "Bridget of Blackwood", who may or may not be someone known to us, who said she was 24 and didn't recognise the song in question either.

Heading out to Arkaroola tomorrow, and then southwards from there.

An out-and-back trot from our campsite along the Algebuckina waterhole, an impressive body of water 20 or so metres across and several kilometres long. (Reminded me a bit of the Diamantina at Birdsville, although this one doesn't have such a big catchment to feed it). The old Ghan railway line's bridge across it was described as the longest bridge in SA (although I would have thought the road bridge at Murray Bridge, at least, was longer), and looked very robust which is why it didn't get washed away in any half-decent flood like many of the Ghan's other bridges.

Felt a bit flat on the run, and I think Jenny was more so, so this was a fairly slow run even after considering a short terrain component later on.

This was the first camping morning we've had without dew but somehow the process of packing up still went until well after 11. As we didn't plan to cover much distance today - 200km or so to Coward Springs - this wasn't really a problem. One highlight of the trip down was a side trip to Strangways - an old Overland Telegraph settlement (with a surprisingly large scattering of ruins) alongside some mound springs (where artesian outlets have come to the surface and mineral deposition from them has formed mounds - with small knolls scattered all over the place it would have made an interesting small map). The police station was set up in 1886 in a largely futile attempt to control the sly grog trade; the number of broken bottles around suggests that alcohol abuse is still an issue at this site 127 years later.

Rest day today - switched from the more normal Friday because I suspect I'll be in more interesting places to run on Friday (most likely around the Flinders Ranges) than I will be today. Headed from Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta via the Painted Desert (striking desert landforms and colours of a sort I haven't seen before in Australia), then along the track to a campsite by a waterhole about 60km southeast. Track conditions were a bit boggy in places - glad to be in a decent 4WD, and more glad not to have been attempting this three or four days ago - rain leaves its mark for quite a while in this country.