Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Probably the most spectacular mistake I've made in Australia for many years was the lowlight of this run - a major parallel error from 6 to 7 which took me some distance off the map (further than I thought, which meant my first attempt at recovery simply meant another parallel error). Lost 9-10 minutes in time, but quite a bit more in frustration (especially as most of the unmapped area I traversed was pretty green).

Up until that time, it had been a steadyish but fairly unenergetic run, on an area which was tougher physically than I'd anticipated (it's greened up a fair bit since the map was last updated). Came in a bit high on 1 (thanks to the aforementioned additional green), but otherwise didn't miss much. Slotted into a bunch with John, Troy and Belinda (whose first 8 controls were common) at 5; I was to lead Belinda astray as she came unstuck on 7 even more spectacularly than I did. Was struggling badly for motivation after that, and facing the prospect of 2 hours plus, the leg past the finish a bit after halfway was too tempting, especially coming out of an injury. Felt at the time that my sluggishness might indicate oncoming illness, but no further signs of that in the evening. Simon did 89.

1 - Splits

Over in Adelaide for the SA-Victoria Challenge (not too many Victorians, though). Having heard that Bridget, Belinda and Olivia were going for a run 10-ish, I was keen to join them if the flight schedule allowed (which it did - in fact things went so smoothly that I got a bus into town earlier than the one I expected).

This wasn't quite the sort of run I expected - the map, at Horsfall Gully, looked well-contoured, and indeed it was. The first stage was definitely in OMG territory (not sure whether I was prompted to think of that description by the demographic profile of my companions) - 300 metres climb in the first 2km, much of it in the space of 500 metres which involved scrambling up a number of dry waterfalls and was effectively unrunnable. It settled down after that as we climbed to the ridgeline and then were level or downhill for a lengthy stretch, but then there was another big climb, though much more even than the first one (it's part of the Yurebilla and Heysen trails). A big downhill to finish.

I hadn't had great expectations going in - hadn't slept much with the combination of a late arrival home, an early departure and overnight railway works - but the run went OK, and most importantly the foot coped with a course which I thought would test it, just some mild discomfort on the last downhill. Longer than I would normally do on a pre-race Saturday, so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow (that said, Simon - whom I need to beat to get a somewhat improbable point for Victoria tomorrow - did further today than I did; he met us at the end having come from home). One of those days - cloudy but warm and dry - when you lose a lot more fluid than you think you do; didn't feel thirsty on the run but needed a couple of litres over the next few hours before feeling restored.

Standard session at Fitzroy. Felt fairly cool in the water, which is possibly indicative of how warm it was elsewhere.

Under normal circumstances I'd have considered this a pretty poor run - feeling sleepy in the first half and a bit lethargic throughout, although the performance level picked up a bit as it went on, and I ground my way through the hills of North Balwyn OK. The good news, though, is getting through 80 minutes without anything hurting; not sure if I quite yet dare to think that things are getting close to being back to normal....

It was a warm morning, and there will be more of them in the coming week (perhaps more). It looks like the warm spell is going to last for at least a week more, by which time its length will have set numerous records for this late in the autumn.

Support you'd rather not have department: one of the few public submissions in support of the Government's proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act has come from notorious Holocaust-denier Frederick Toben, who says he supports the changes because it will mean he can say what he really thinks of Jews. (In a rather different context, another example of not-really-wanted support was perhaps Warwick Capper describing Tom Hafey as his main role model).

250 on/250 off at the Tan - the first time I've attempted to do anything fast since Easter (but probably not the last; if I have trouble doing long distances for now, it will be time to shift to more quality). As usual for a first time trying to do something fast for a while, it wasn't very fast, but nothing hurt which I'll take as a positive.

A warm(ish) and sunny late autumn day, part of at least a week of such.

Did this coming off a Budget briefing at work - nothing too drastic in our area (although I'm wondering if someone has something against the letter C because three of the four field offices to close will be Carnarvon, Ceduna and Coffs Harbour - in case you're wondering, this doesn't affect my temperature data set because all will continue as automated sites). The thing I'd been most worried about from the overall science point of view was the rumoured shutdown of the Australian Climate Change Science Program, under which a fair number of climate scientists at CSIRO and the Bureau (not including me) are funded. As it turns out, it's been merged with another program with the sum of the two parts having about $3M less than the combined total of its predecessors (26 to 23), so we'll have to see how that plays out. While being personally relieved at the outcome, I share the disquiet of many that the group targeted most strongly by the Budget are those least able to cope with it. (As noted last night, the Budget has been good for one thing - Labor Party recruitment).

Going to and from the Tan, not terribly quickly. Didn't feel especially inspired in either direction.

There was an early departure this afternoon to set up for the evening event. As previously flagged the Templestowe Heights map is amply contoured (although I didn't use the steepest part, the northeast corner) and the start/finish was at more or less its highest point, which meant a lot of people underestimated how long it would take them to get back. A decent turnout, though, and once they'd regained their breath people seemed to appreciate it.

(Melbourne street events not being governed by ISOM, I shrank the map to 1:10500 to get it onto an A4 sheet, describing the 5% extra distance per centimetre of map covered as a Budget efficiency measure).

C • ACCSP 1

Felt considerably sleepier at the start today than I did yesterday despite having had about 7 hours' sleep instead of 2. Sluggish at the start but gradually built up as it went on, and the good news is that the 40-minute sore spot was (largely) absent today.

At the far end (in Thornbury next to Merri Creek) there were lots of signs advising of local non-enthuasiasm about high-rise construction. I'm not sure what their definition of high-rise is, but it seems an odd place to build any (by the standards of inner Melbourne it's a pocket reasonably remote from public transport).

As far as I know I still have a job, though we'll find out more in the morning. (Possibly indicative in other ways is that Ivanhoe Labor had the highest turnout I can remember tonight, including enough new members that it almost triggered the anti-stacking rules).

Massage didn't feel as brutal tonight, which may be a good sign.

This had the potential to be a bit of an epic day - the combination of Clare's Eurovision party last night and a 4am IOF teleconference this morning (and to make matters worse, I didn't actually manage to sleep for terribly much of the roughly 4 1/2 hour window between them). I turned out to feel nowhere near as bad (in the tiredness sense) as anticipated and even managed to get a respectable amount of work done, but the first training session of the day didn't work out. It's the first time I've attempted to swim since the immediate aftermath of the injury, and while there's nowhere near as much pain as there was that time, it's still apparent that I don't have a lot of vertical movement in the ankle area - which makes my kicking even more of a disaster area than usual. I decided fairly quickly that I was wasting my time.

You won't be surprised to learn that various aspects of event quality, and what can be done to support it, occupied a fair bit of the discussion time at the aforementioned teleconference. The rest of the Foot O Commission were somewhat amused to learn that (a) there are Eurovision parties in Australia and (b) I was at one.

The MFR Monday nights are back - a healthily large group from Rob and Clare's in North Fitzroy down into Clifton Hill and back through the top end of Yarra Bend. Felt reasonably smooth, and foot pleasingly good (although that might be because I stopped three seconds after the blow-up time mentioned in yesterday's entry).

Had to take off immediately afterwards for my second orienteering teleconference of the day - OA Board this time. Don't know about you, but I reckon a full day's work, five hours of orienteering meetings and two training sessions (or attempts at same) is a fairly reasonable effort for one day (which is why I anticipate being asleep within 10 minutes of finishing this log entry).

One thing which won't be distracting me this week is exciting weather (at least close to home - the Americans will have plenty of it). Canberra's forecast for the next seven days: fine throughout, 2/18, 2/18, 2/18, 1/19 (just for something different), 2/18, 2/19, 3/18. Melbourne and Adelaide are only slightly more variable.