Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

After the first part of the morning was devoted to watching Marc Leishman spending more time exploring the Augusta region's forests than I did on my course at the 2008 Georgia Navigator Cup, I started this one with a stiff back (although higher up than usual) and didn't have a lot of confidence that this run was going to last for long. (I also discovered that, although Grange Road is now open again, it has a friendly man in a high-vis vest who will stop the traffic for you). 10 minutes in, I was on the verge of giving it away for the day; spotted a Melbourne Uni colleague (who I knew lived in the area but not on that street) and stopped to talk briefly. This stop turned out to remove the back stiffness almost immediately. There were still enough niggles in other places to make me not want to commit to the 90 minutes I'd originally hoped for, but this ended up as a reasonable salvage operation, at its best coming back along the track to the stepping stones on the east side of Darebin Creek (I thought the bridge would be closed but they haven't started work yet). A warmish day, and lost more fluid than I thought I would (as shown later in the day).

Made my first visit to Essendon Airport for many years this afternoon (picking up my parents who came home via Flinders Island). Noted for future reference for central NSW events: there is an airline that flies Melbourne-Dubbo (and vice versa) on Friday and Sunday evenings.

Event: Bendigo Bush Classic 1 - Wildflower Drive
 

First Bendigo outing of the season at Wildflower Drive, in classic Bendigo early-season conditions: a bone-dry and rather scratchy forest on a warm day (perhaps the last warm-weather race of the Australian autumn season, although I'll see a few in other places).

A decent run was turned into a disappointing one when I blew around 3.5 minutes on the second-last, a vague gully in some green; came in a bit too low and didn't see it - didn't help that the vegetation mapping is a couple of decades old so green boundaries couldn't be considered reliable. (Vague controls in the second half troubled quite a few of us, and I suspect #7 was in the wrong place - which for me just meant hitting it before I was expecting to, but others lost time there). Would have broken 50 without that, which I would have been happy with. Certainly felt stronger than I did in Tasmania, and OK on the injury front once warmed up. Bruce did 41, with some time losses.

C • Map age 5

No go today either - this time I seemed to twinge something when getting up. A pity not to take the last chance of a traffic-free Grange Road crossing (it reopens tomorrow), although I did get close enough to see the new bridge.

Unlike yesterday, I did leave myself with enough time for a plan B and a plan C. As I'd misplaced my pool running belt, it was plan C. Went smoothly enough and picked up in the second half.

I'd been holding up OK since returning from the hamstring but today was the first day that I got up with a suspect back; gave it a try but it wasn't going to work. Will try again tomorrow.

Heard today that the Federal Government was committed to the eradication of ice. This seemed to be an unusual expression of honesty, and then I realised they were talking about drugs.

Plan for the morning was do a 7.10am ABC Gippsland interview, then run, then ride to the far end of St. Kilda Road to lodge a Chinese visa application when they opened up at 9, then go to work. This plan went slightly awry when the ABC called me at 7.08 to reschedule (and then rescheduled again), so I headed out to run immediately. Wasn't a bad one as it happened, and the longest I've done since Melbourne Sprint Weekend, but a little bit of Achilles discomfort in the second half so will need to watch this.

I ended up doing the interview at 9.35, from the side of the street while I was riding back to work. Perhaps it was fitting that it took place during some physical exercise because I spent quite a bit of time talking about our 1986 school cross-country. (If you're wondering why I would talk about such a thing to the ABC, the context was April heatwaves, 4 April 1986 being the hottest day on record in plenty of places in Gippsland, as it was in Canberra).

I've previously noted the occasional tendency of my music player to come up with appropriate songs for what I'm doing (or where I'm going) at the time. A variation on this theme came today when I was responding to an FOI application (a pointless one, since all the relevant "documents" are already in the public domain) from one of our serial pests regular correspondents and started to hear "Shut up, just shut up, shut up, shut up, just shut up, shut up....".

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