Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The sure return-to-winter symbol of a swim under the night sky (although winter looks like it's going to feel a long way away around this time next week), the product of today's complicated logistics which started with an early flight out of Hobart. (Why is it that, whenever you set an alarm for an early morning flight, you invariably wake up at least an hour before the alarm goes off?). The first few laps seemed to take forever, but got into a reasonable rhythm eventually, and a bit less slow than my last few attempts at this.

Felt decent in the warm-up but not the start I was hoping for; back turned out to be troublesome once I was actually running (although it eventually settled), and I had small time losses in the circle at both 2 and 3 as I came to grips to which root mounds were and weren't mapped. (They were abundant features today, and made up 9 out of our 14 controls). Improved after that although running speed and strength not much (if at all) better than the last two days. Not quite as far off the pace today (although Greg came close to catching me again - 4 minutes this time), and ended up inheriting a not-particularly-deserved third placing after Anthony blew 4 minutes on 2 and 10 minutes on 3.

The terrain today didn't get rave reviews from everyone. I thought it had a lot in common with some continental terrain areas (point features, lots of vegetation changes, mostly bland contours) in countries like Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium and southern/central England - and hence potentially useful for training for same.

I was wondering at the presentation whether Scott, Greg and I had previously shared a podium, but some result-searching suggests the best we can manage is two out of three, with the nearest-miss coming in M14 at the 1984 Australian Championships (Scott second, me third, Greg eighth).

Notwithstanding managing to scramble a vaguely respectable placing, I was fairly disappointed with my performance this Easter; will certainly need to improve my running in the next three months to have a reasonable shot of making an A final in Denmark. Pleased with the way the event as a whole went, though (for those who were a bit critical of the terrains, it's really an indicator that the Hobart area doesn't have a lot of terrain to choose from, given that Pittwater is probably logistically impossible for a national carnival event).

C • Confessions of a number thief 15

C • Terrain 8

Didn't really feel at my best today - pretty sluggish most of the way (especially when any hills were involved). Again got through without major error, just small time losses through going in a bit early on 9 and 12, but felt slow even on the flat and downright weak elsewhere. The leg which actually shows up as an error, 4, just demonstrates that I'm not very good at rockclimbing - don't think too many other courses had this one (the longer ones went further up the valley, the shorter ones didn't get to that part of the map). A minute further back than yesterday on Scott, which is about what this run deserved, and the same top three as yesterday so it looks like fourth's where I'm headed unless something unexpected happens. (Jon blew us all away today, but didn't run yesterday).

Didn't quite manage to break the hour for my course, and didn't quite manage to break the hour for the OA AGM either (although both were within 60 seconds of that objective).

It's a potentially interesting chasing start for the elite and junior women tomorrow (less so for the men, with Simon and Aston in possession of large leads), which took minds back to the famous 1987 M21 sprint finish. For those who haven't been around for that long, this involved a sprint finish between Rob Vincent and Rob Plowright (including someone's pants falling down - have forgotten whose) - which turned out to be a sprint finish for last place because both punched the wrong last control. Recounting this story on the way back, I realised that no-one else in the car I was in was born at the time of this event (although Simon goes close).

C • Not born then 1

First day of Easter proper. Thought I'd had a reasonable run, and technically I had, but further off the pace than I would have expected, especially with Jon not starting - 4th place, 6 minutes down on Scott. This isn't an irretrievable position, but from the splits Scott (and probably Greg Morcom) are faster than me at the moment, and I'll probably need some help from them to catch that gap.

A few big climbs (two of them beyond my capacity to run at the moment, but I suspect I'm not alone). Pretty clean navigationally with only a 10-15 second wobble at 2 (still one of my better splits); my biggest time loss was going out to the track of 4, which cost me perhaps 30-60 seconds compared with Scott.

Anthony Stoner caught me 2 minutes at 7. I hadn't previously heard of him before this weekend but noticed he ran a good time yesterday. He was clearly much too fast for me, but also somewhat wayward in his navigation, which meant that he passed me five times during the remaining eight controls of the course. He's definitely one to watch with a bit more experience.

C • Stoner 2

Event: Easter Tas - Australian 3 Days
 

Easter prologue, this time running the public prologue. At the University of Tasmania, with the usual mix of university buildings and an element you don't often find in university sprints - reasonably serious hills. Never really got out of second gear on this one, although perhaps a bit better in the second half. Navigation clean, although I think I might have lost a little on some route choices (16, 20, perhaps 14). OK on the injury front.

Perhaps I should attribute my indifferent run to being offended by seeing a decrepit and appallingly-sited Stevenson screen in the vicinity of control 12 (not one of ours - must have been something to do with the university botany department as the area was full of greenhouses).

The recent expulsion of Russian diplomats from Canberra was a reminder of some of the incidents that happened in the Cold War days - something we saw a bit of because the ambassador of the (then) USSR's residence was across the road from our school. (I'm not aware that ASIO used our premises, but the worst-kept secret in Canberra was that they occupied the top floor of the funeral directors across the road from the Soviet/Russian embassy). Possibly the most notorious episode was when a carload of diplomats (presumably with vodka involved) found out in the most tragic way possible that diplomatic immunity doesn't apply to the laws of physics (specifically those which pertain to collisions between stationary objects and those moving at a speed well into three figures). There was also a near-miss in one of our school cricket games when someone almost hit a six into the passing motorcade of the Soviet foreign minister; I've occasionally thought that this might have been an interesting one for fans of alternate history...

Quite a promising run - slow to start with but once through the first couple of kilometres, the best I've felt running for a few weeks. Not the worst of days for it to happen with Easter getting under way tomorrow. I feel rather underdone for this, although probably no worse than last year.

Put the replacement buses on the Hurstbridge line to the test this morning. Worked pretty smoothly actually - probably only 5-10 minutes slower than the train - but the connections were as good as you could expect and the traffic seemed lighter than it has been for most of the last couple of weeks. One advantage of travelling with parents is that they took my bag to the airport, saving me from hauling it to work and onwards. (Hauling my bag to work en route to/from the airport is not an unusual experience for me - my colleagues are certainly quite used to seeing me turn up with a sprawling pack).

Headed down to Tasmania this afternoon. The Sandy Bay Coles (and more specifically its car park) gave one the impression that the locals thought it was going to be closed for the next 24 days and not the next 24 hours.

C • Sprawling pack 1

A bit of an infrastructure-themed run today - starting by going past the Grange Road construction site, then having my first experience of the new Darebin bridge path, then past the newly-installed beams at the Chandler Highway bridge. As those who've been around for a while will know, the Darebin path has faced a very long gestation (more than 20 years, I think), and trenchant opposition from local interests on both sides of the river who would rather keep their pockets of Melbourne to themselves, but it's here now. It was nice to explore new territory (and discover that there's a set of rapids on the Yarra that I didn't previously know about). Reasonable run, and no injury hassles on the longest run since returning.

Poll of the day: one which asked "do you believe that multinational companies should be required to pay their fair share of tax?". Remarkably enough, 5% of those surveyed answered "no" to this. (84% yes, 11% don't know), but you can get 5% or so of the population to answer anything on a poll, as evidenced by the Herald-Sun some years ago getting a 4% yes to "Do you believe convicted child rapist Mr. Baldy should be released early from prison?".