Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The initial plan was to find the most obscure dirt road I could from town in Nyngan and do an out-and-back. That came unstuck when I discovered, not for the last time on this run, that the optimism of Nyngan's planners about the town's growth prospects were not matched by reality and that some of the streets and roads on the map did not actually exist, but by then I'd spotted that there was a track on top of the town levee and decided that was a good alternative (not least because of Nyngan's significance as perhaps the largest town completely flooded out in modern Australian history, in 1990). That got me going for the first 4.5k until the levee ran into private land, and from there it was doing loops of the outer edges of the town, on a run which started uncertainly but built nicely in the last half-hour - I might have considered going longer had I not been staying somewhere which made it very clear that you'd be charged the full rate for an extra night the moment the clock ticked 10.00.01, but it was still my longest this year.

Today's route was Nyngan-Carinda-Walgett-Wee Waa-Narrabri - a lonely road for the first 170km, a bit less so after that. The Carinda pub is famous for featuring in a David Bowie video (although the bit I find somewhat disconcerting is the scene where a mushroom cloud rises behind the Warrumbungles - I mean, why would anyone want to nuke Coonamble?). It's also a cotton-growing district, although I'm wondering how much of the cotton on the road train I was following for the last 30km into Walgett is actually going to reach its destination - between that and all the flying grass (the council had slashed the verges but had left all the cut grass on the road) I was collecting plenty of debris on that bit. (Probably best not to ask too many questions in these parts about whether the water used to grow the crop was legally acquired). Walgett itself, which I'd remembered as being a bit desperate on my previous visit in 2007, had more life to it than anywhere else I'd been since Griffith (and has acquired a very flash new supermarket to replace the one which burned down last year).

Hit a bird on the way into Narrabri (some may recall I have some history in this respect in this part of the world), but no damage appears to have been done this time.

C • No damage 6

In what's becoming almost an annual event, yesterday's temperature in Berlin surpassed the then-record high of 35.7 set on JWOC relay day in 1991.

C • Records 1

First "tourist run" of this trip, at Cocoparra NP, a sandstone range northeast of Griffith. The tourist part of it was the Jacks Creek walking track, a loop track up and then above a gorge - some good views as you might expect. An out-and-back on the access road made up the distance. Run felt a bit iffy at times (and I didn't try to run the steepest bit of the climb out of the gorge), but still a good experience.

The route north took me through a slice of central NSW I mostly haven't been to before (Rankins Springs-Lake Cargelligo-Condobolin-Bogan Gate-Tottenham-Nyngan). Not as heavily cleared as I thought with plenty of areas of bushland (and not much cropping any further west than Condobolin), though it opened up a bit in the last 50km, which was good because it was Skippy time by then (not that I saw any) as I was in a bit of a rush to make an IOF meeting at 5. Most of the towns looked like their best days were several decades behind them, and even Condobolin - the largest - was very quiet indeed on a Saturday afternoon.

C • Condobolin 1

Back to the pool before hitting the road. First time swimming for a while; shoulder has settled down and was only a minor nuisance, but this still wasn't a great swim, drifting out of it a bit later on. Raining quite a bit at the start (definitely a deterrent for crowds at an outdoor pool), but that stopped soon enough.

Spent a chunk of the rest of the day on the road, with Griffith as the day's objective (prompted partly by wanting to partake of that town's Italian dining scene). Crossing the border was a non-event - in fact there wasn't even a sign marking the entrance to NSW, although the pokie palaces left one in no doubt as to one's arrival in a new state (somehow I don't think the premises of the Mulwala Water Ski Club were paid for by running water-skiing competitions).

While it was nothing like the Dandenongs (or Trentham, or parts of Gippsland), there were still numerous uprooted trees along the Hume - most heavily concentrated in the 10km on the north side of the divide, but some as far north as Violet Town.

C • La Scala… 3

Another step forward - while this didn't feel as good as the last two days, it was still a solid accumulation of distance and the first time in this phase I've managed to do this on the end of a three-day midweek sequence. Probably picked up a bit in the later stages although that might be because the hills were out of the way by then.

My target today was the block of Thornbury north of Clarendon and between Victoria and High. I've now completed the north-south streets and the boundaries of this, but it's quite a big block and will need at least a couple more sessions to complete (though there are a few bits I've picked up on Penders Park/Boulder Dash Maprun courses). It will be a while before I do this, because I'm finally heading out of town tomorrow morning. (For those who are counting, I think this is currently plan G).

The body seems to have been particularly responsive to the physio's needlework this evening (which is another way of saying that various bits are hurting at the moment).

All Nations intervals at lunchtime. Continued progress - a bit faster than last week (down to 57/60), and feeling significantly better (particularly in terms of the speed of recovery between reps). Feeling very positive about this session - overall probably the best of its type I've done for a few years. Could certainly have stretched it out to 10 had I wanted to; that's the next step (perhaps next week).

Warm-up and down. Felt reasonably comfortable in both directions. Roadworks were in sight on this run too.

Wasn't quite sure what to expect after yesterday, but it turned out I was fine apart from a sore shoulder at the injection site, and once I was warmed up it turned into quite a good run, certainly at the better end of my current range. Headed up through Ivanhoe to go into an area north of the shops; handled the climbs well, although they were long rather than steep.

Lots of roadworks being done today (both Banksia Street and Waterdale Road had one side blocked off for separate works). I'm not sure how much of this was already planned, how much was taking advantage of the lighter traffic and how much was a good old-fashioned end of financial year burnoff (any public servant knows what those look like, although they've been somewhat lacking in our particular agency in recent years).

New shoes got their first workout today.

Followed up with a Pilates session in the afternoon. I wasn't sure if my shoulder would be a major hindrance to this, but as it turned out I was able to get through all of my normal exercises (a bit of soreness for some, although I don't think it's any bad thing to mobilise the area a bit). Otherwise went reasonably well.

Back to the pool this morning. Reasonably busy for early on a public holiday, probably because only outdoor pools are open at the moment so people were coming from a fair way around. Felt like I was working fairly solidly (even got a bit of a cramp at one point).

The foot has improved greatly in the last 24 hours and is now only at minor-nuisance level. I would hope to have a reasonably normal week of running this week providing that vaccine side-effects (got my first one today) don't flare up too much.