Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The long day, at Mannawarra. I'd been tossing up whether to do course 2 or 3 and went for the longer option - no other M35s (whose class it was), but the W21s and Dante (the lone M20) to keep me company. In light of yesterday's result some noise was being made about the 4 minutes I started behind Dante, but more realistically I was looking at Jenny (12 minutes) as a chase goal, should my hamstring (and other body parts) last the distance.

My body did last the distance. Mannawarra is not Australia's most physical area but it's still by some margin the longest course I've done for a while (since my attempt at the ultra-long here in 2016, I think). Not quite as clean as yesterday, the most significant error being at 4, where I lost contact at one point and got it back again (not always easy here) a couple of hundred metres later, but then made a one-minuter in the circle. Still a pleasing run on a number of fronts; whilst comparing kilometre rates is always a little fraught, I do seem to be in better shape than at Easter (being slightly ahead of Greg and Ruhi, whom I couldn't match at Easter).

Bridget did 86, Dante 87; almost made it two in two days (I was ahead with 2km to go - he saw me but I didn't see him - but he was too fast over the last bit).

Today came with some very un-Flinders weather; very low cloud (so low that we almost went into it on the higher parts of the map) and occasional drizzle.

First day of the Flinders weekend, at Rawnsley Park. Haven't always done well of late with early afternoon races but this one felt reasonably good; settled down well once a couple of controls into the course and felt quite steady throughout. Only navigational issue of sorts was being a little hesitant coming into 8. Hamstring was OK for most of the run, but a little sore during and after the long downhill into 10.

This run was at the good end of my 2018 form but I still didn't expect to be quite so high in the results, only a minute behind Angus and 30 seconds in front of Dante (Simon was setting). The latter result was the basis for a fair bit of sledging from Dante's fellow South Australians - not sure whether I should take this as a sign that I've fallen far enough for such a result to be embarrassing?

Headed to Adelaide for their QB events. As I did two weeks ago, I did a session on the way out to the airport, but this time took to the pool because I didn't want to set off the Sexyland alarm again because, although my hamstring has improved significantly, I didn't want to push it before a race weekend. The pool in question was Coburg; didn't feel like the most energetic of sessions, but got through it OK. (As with a lot of pools, there was a crowd waiting to get in at 6.00, but it had cleared by the time I got to the door at 6.02).

No-one was left in much doubt as to which Victorian team is playing in Adelaide tonight, from the amount of yellow and black on the plane and the bus from the airport (and the ringtone of someone's phone on said bus). I had a bit of a bus misadventure in the evening when I discovered that the lack of an 'express until stop 24/39/48' sign on the front of a bus doesn't mean it isn't an express, but at least I only had to walk back a kilometre or so.

Hamstring did indeed feel sore this morning - at a probably-could-run-on-this-if-I-had-to level, but with a race weekend coming up in South Australia I thought it better not to take the risk. (Pity to waste a 5-something wake-up, although I did at least manage to catch up with a backlog of OA correspondence during the time that I wasn't running).

All Nations intervals. Didn't see this coming - suddenly clicked on the 7th rep and then turned out the fastest set I've done in my three years here (culminating in a 60 up/56 down combination), after a modest start. It might have proved to be a short-lived high, though - felt a bit tight in the hamstring and groin area on the run, and more so later in the day, although it does feel like something which will warm up. Will await developments.

Warm up and down. Got a better run with the road crossings than usual, because of heavier than usual traffic - Station Street was at a standstill (thanks to a crash on Grange Road) and I could therefore get across the queue easily.

Had my first trip to Origin tonight. In common with most of the crowd, I didn't come home especially happy with the result.

At Northcote. Started earlier than usual (although also woke up earlier than usual; still a bit of jet lag, so to speak), which meant I was beginning in the dark, and an impressive cloud of steam. It's also a busy time for squads, which meant there were a few lap swimmers in a lane they weren't supposed to be in, but that caused no trouble. Decent session, but tight enough to suggest that running might have been a challenge.

Onwards to pilates. Different timeslot to usual and therefore a different instructor; not such a bad thing to be exposed to a slightly different set of ideas. Probably working a bit harder than previous weeks.

I've sometimes commented on stories I encounter in historical newspapers. Then as now, a certain part of the newspaper market was obsessed with crime, then as now they were not lacking in source material (although the identity of the ethnic group which is the scapegoat du jour changes from year to year), and a lot of the crimes in question are still to be found today, although some are taken more seriously now (it's hard to imagine that you'd get away with a 50-pound fine - probably a few thousand in today's money - these days for importing opium into Australia). Some offences of the early 20th century, though, I thought had become more or less extinct, at least until today's news of a Queensland woman being charged for being drunk in charge of a horse....

The wheels came off in a big way today. Started off all right (in fact I was in front at #2), but then unwisely tried to crash a section of native bush on the way to 3 and couldn't work out what was what in the green. Ended up bailing out to the track and dropped 4 minutes or so. Worse was to come on 6, which should have been one of the easier controls (first leg back into the open forest), but I drifted a bit, crossed a track (presumably covered by pine needles) without noticing it, and found myself on the way to a massive parallel error looking in the wrong block of forest. Eventually bailed out to the track to the northeast to confirm what I'd started to suspect (i.e. that I was about 600 metres from where I thought I was), and to add insult to injury blew a minute in the circle coming back in. Probably 13 minutes dropped there, my worst mistake in close to a decade.

Having started out with a 10-minute break on third there was still potentially an overall result to salvage. Unsurprisingly I struggled for confidence and dropped another 1.30 on the low-visibility 10, bumbled around through the 14-16 section but managed to hit the actual controls OK, and was slow enough running to the last control that Winsplits thinks it was a mistake. Think I managed to hang onto second, but haven't seen a set of overall results to confirm. Carsten did 52; over this weekend I've generally been about 10% behind him (apart from today), which I'll be pleased to replicate in Denmark (although he's coming off an injury). My wayward compass work today is something I'll want to get sorted out before Europe, though.

Although we missed the worst of the rain (drove through some downpours coming home), it was still wet most of the way, with occasional thunder, and very dark - hard to read the map in some of the denser forest.

As I sometimes do on planes, I was working on some old results on the way back, specifically the 1996 Australian Relays. This featured an interesting showdown on leg 2 of M/W12 - Julian Dent versus Hanny Allston.