Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NSW Middle Distance Championships at Appin. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this but it ended up serving up some old-school Sydney sandstone (plus some small tracks) - often pretty thick and controls tricky to see. For those of us who grew up on places like Jerusalem Rocks and Toota Maroota it was a return to those days, but probably more of a surprise for the youngsters. (Also spotted the standard mix of urban-fringe bush features: the burnt-out car, the illegal rubbish dump, the trailbike track and the marijuana plant).

Took a while to get into this, both physically and technically. I flew up this morning and had the standard early-morning flight problem of waking up long before my alarm and not being able to get to sleep (a coffee at the not-exactly-my-usual-territory Campbelltown Mall solved the sleepiness problem), and felt rather strange running through the first half. Also a bit wobbly early, dropping perhaps 45 seconds at 2 where Steve caught me, and a bit wide on 4 (but Steve lost more there because I saw him again at 6). A more significant time loss on 10 - went in too far and dropped perhaps 1.30-2 minutes. Got much better after that both physically and technically. Jock and Rob Bennett caught me at the rugged 13, but I got away from Jock again when he overshot 15, and finished off fairly well from there.

Not sure what the determiner of the course lengths was thinking - not even Thierry Gueorgiou would have done 35 on that (probably high 30s). Itay Manor (from Israel) won with 51 and Rob and Steve were the only others to break the hour.

Hard 1 - Splits

Friday morning at Fitzroy, with a clear sky and the mist rising over the (relatively) warm water. Didn't feel especially smooth but was clearly moving through the water faster than usual. Quads a bit sore before I started but fine once the session was done, which was one of the objectives of this session.

A rare sub-20 on the bike from the pool to work (it's usually around 22-24) - got a particularly good run with the lights, which made up for running a little later than I would have liked at the beginning.

Off to the NSW Championships this weekend - flying up to Sydney first thing in the morning.

A solid morning's work and my longest one since the New Year. Slow in the first half-hour through a combination of darkness and climbing, but steady after that once dropping down onto the Yarra flats (experiencing the first proper fog of the season in the process). Still felt as if I had plenty left at the end (although was rather tired afterwards). A bit of hamstring discomfort at times in the second half but improved by the end.

Checked out en route how the railway construction next to my old place is going. Looks like most of the work is being done on the other side of the line so my original thoughts that the building would be a casualty may not come to pass, but I'm still glad not to be living next to a (mostly nocturnal) building site for the next couple of years.

20x30 seconds at All Nations. A bit of an effort early but got going reasonably well in the second half. Only minor hamstring discomfort - probably at about the point where I can start pushing longer with these.

On-leash compliance rate: 3 from 7. Thought we were going to make it to 50% today but a new offender appeared at the last moment.

Warm-up and down. As usual, slow on the way there, not so much on the way back. Nice morning for running, and for riding in afterwards - not sure what, if anything, I should read into the fact that I got most of the green lights on the way into work and almost none of them on the way home.

Didn't sleep that well after yesterday hearing something somewhat unsettling about something that happened in 2014 (albeit less unsettling than it would have been had I heard it in 2014). Didn't have huge expectations for this run but it turned into a pretty nice one after a slow first kilometre - felt like I was flowing along nicely, and dealing with the bumps comfortably, although never all that quick. A little bit of hamstring soreness in the last 10 minutes.

Nothing like some cold showers from the sky to deter people from going to an outdoor pool. It's not really a problem once you're in, and this ended up being a reasonable swim once some initial stiffness had worked its way out, although a bit slower than some recent sessions.

I had thoughts of trying to add the Monday lunchtime run back into my schedule, but my back has been living on the edge a bit for the last few days so it wasn't too surprising that it wasn't feeling up to the job after a morning at the desk.

Melbourne Bush O at Plenty Gorge, including getting into a northwest corner of the map which I don't think we've been to before. Thought both before the event and in the first couple of legs that this might be one of those days when my back froze at the first sign of a climb, but it didn't really happen (and there were quite a few climbs), and I eventually settled into something of a reasonable run. Technically straightforward, especially compared with yesterday - just came a bit wide into 4. Lost some time on 10 but that was largely through route choice, attempting to contour across a very steep slope on a small track that ended up dwindling to non-existence.

I knew I wasn't fast but was still further off the pace than I would have expected (in fact I was coming last when I left, although that is sometimes the fate of the early starter).

As has become usual for this event, the turnout was great - 186 entries and probably over 200 people, with heaps of young kids. Presumably the event was not what was responsible for the traffic jam leaving on Yan Yean Road - the rapid suburban growth at its far end probably explains it more. (I believe there are plans afoot to do something about it, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that the local MP's office sits on its most congested section).

Advertised course info for next weekend's NSW Long Championships: 9.3km, 6 controls.

C • Find the termie event? 6