Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NOL ultra-long. I've been setting myself for this for a while - I really want to finish one of these before I retire from elite long-distances properly. It will have to wait for another year; carrying an injury into a race like this was always taking a bit of a risk, and in the end it got the better of me. The hamstring was becoming increasingly sore through the second loop, but as long as it was only soreness that was something I could live with. A few hundred metres from the end of that loop it took a significant turn for the worse and I felt significantly weakened pushing off on that side; had it been 3 or 4k to go I might have tried to push on through it (and probably lived to regret it), but 10k on one-and-a-half legs (at best) was too much to contemplate.

The pity of it was that this was the day; from the endurance point of view I was feeling fine, and I'm as confident as one could be that without injury I would have been able to make a decent fist of the final loop. (At that stage I wasn't too far behind tRicky, who ended up sixth). One error of consequence, a minute or so on #9 on the first loop where I couldn't quite make sense of the yellow and the knolls (I couldn't quite make sense of it the second time round either - it was a common control on the splits - but didn't lose much time at that attempt). In a few decent head-to-heads at times with the likes of tRicky, Simon Rouse (who made it all the way round only to be outed for going round the final butterfly the wrong way), and Jim before he dropped away.

Event: NOL Round 3 - With Wildfire Sports Ultra Long
 

NOL middle. I'd heard before the start that there was an issue with one control (I was the second-last starter) - given everything that had been done in the last five days to have an event at all, I couldn't get too upset about this. Got through that control without too much time lost, and in general had a decent run technically once I'd sorted out getting my lines in the terrain right (was a bit iffy on my direction on the first couple, in terrain where going as straight as you can is normally the best option). Enjoyed myself as much as usual in the Flinders, although my running felt a little below par, and the hamstring was a bit iffy at times later on. Did manage to get my first NOL point of the season (just).

Headed across to Adelaide first thing this morning (before working out of the Adelaide office for the day). Might have struggled to fit a run in amongst everything else, but hamstring still a little tight so gave it a rest.

Hamstring still a bit tight this morning; would certainly have gone out on it had it been a race but there was no point in risking it so close to the weekend (it had improved significantly even by the afternoon). Took to the water instead at Brunswick (site of an evening engagement); can only assume that the relationship Jenny postulated between the viscosity of the water and the viscosity of the surrounding traffic holds in Victoria too.

C • Viscosity 5

All Nations intervals. Not sparkling but decent enough. A bit of left hamstring tightness at the end - if this persists tomorrow will back off as a precaution given what's coming up this weekend.

The City of Darebin (which, as an aside, has just lost its deputy mayor (and aspiring federal Liberal candidate for the not-exactly-winnable Batman) after he referred to the Minister for Local Government as "Fat Natalie" in a Facebook post) is a proudly multicultural community. Clearly many of its residents still have some work to do in obtaining a comprehensive understanding of English given the number of them (most of whom looked very Anglo-Saxon) who appear not to understand the last two words of the signs "Dogs allowed on leash".

Warm-up and down. The traffic probably wasn't too pleased at the people trying to manouevre a truck into a building site on Victoria Road in the middle of peak hour, but it did give me the opportunity to get across without delay.

Speaking of building, the Pakistan High Commission in Canberra have introduced an interesting legal concept by claiming diplomatic immunity upon being taken to court for failing to pay for their renovations.

Felt a bit sleepy at the start but ended up settling into a decent run, although the few sharp climbs were a reminder that it wasn't completely smooth sailing. A bit less slow than most of my recent morning runs of this type. Temperature contrasts between the Merri Creek valley and everywhere else were very much on display this morning.

I spent a big chunk of the afternoon wandering the Himalayas (virtually speaking) in search of some dodgy rainfall data - I had a paper to review whose results seemed rather strange, but eventually tracked down through data from the individual sites (which had been combined into an average in the paper) that one of the seven was dodgy and if you took it out the results from the other six made sense. I seem to be a bit of a go-to person for reviews of papers from out-of-the-way corners of the world (my next one to do is on urban heat islands in Haparanda, Sweden).

C • Go-to person 1

Probably not quite the same need to loosen myself up as there would have been had I done something long yesterday, and the run was consistent with that - seemed to be working harder than I usually do on these. Pleasantly cool morning without any hint of seriously cool weather (in both Sydney and Canberra, the coldest day so far in 2016 happened in the first week of January, and neither is likely to be challenged in the next 8-10 days).

We're making an attempt to revive the MFR Monday night runs after a few years when they haven't happened. As it happens, we'd decided that the first one would be at the Dalheims and then discovered that this week's Monday night event started within 1km of there, so thought we might as well do that instead. Treated it as a pleasant jog, knowing that it was never in much doubt that there would be enough time to get all 25 at that pace (it was a bit closer than I thought it would be). A bit tight early but got progressively better as it went on, with a nice second half.