Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First round of the knockout sprint at Helensvale. Knew I was not fast enough for any sort of head-to-head racing in this company and quickly settled into my own run, not terribly sharp physically but got the key decisions right - don't think there were any significant time losses. A little closer to the leaders than has been the case at previous sprints at this level so far, and achieved one objective, not being caught by the heat which started four minutes behind me (I finished a few metres ahead of their pack sprint).

A sign that we're definitely not in the inner north of Melbourne any more: the shopping centre I stopped at for coffee between races had a plaque dedicating it to the glory of God.

Went to the well once too often this week: the back wasn't very cooperative this afternoon, and although I got through the course it was in a pretty unconvincing manner. A poor route choice to #2 (didn't see that there was no option to enter from above) didn't help.

Still pleased to finish all ten races of the week, and only being significantly restricted in this one; definitely a step up from where I was this time last year even if it doesn't show especially visibly in the Easter results.

NOL sprint qualifier at Benowa. Probably about a par result in terms of distance behind the winner (wasn't so concerned about the placing, which I knew was going to be well down). Quite a tight course in amongst a lot of buildings, and fairly clean. Hamstring (more off to the side) was a bit troublesome again from about 1k onwards - didn't feel as if it made a lot of difference but the splits suggest I did slow down a bit. Appreciated the number of undercover route choice in the early stages - it was pouring for the first couple of minutes.

Another sign of getting older: warming up with Grant, our topic of conversation was financially optimal retirement ages in the public sector super scheme. (For me, it looks like the point where I'd be making more money not working than working is at around 62-63, although old scientists never really retire, they just stop getting paid). The area where the warming up was happening was being shared with the local dog obedience club, although that is some way from being the most incompatible pair of activities I've seen at the same venue - the gold medal of my experience was the 1988 ACT junior 10k championships, five laps of EPIC (the showgrounds) on a day when it was also being used for a street machines meeting. (Given the sort of people who turn up to street machines meetings, I suspect the female participants would have found the experience even less pleasant than we did).

There also seemed to be a lot of election posters around, some of which provided photographic evidence that Labor are running at least one candidate in a Gold Coast seat this year who would be able to legally drink alcohol in the US.

Might have been a bit damp out at Benowa, but still around 350 mm less than the last time I was running out this way. (When staying in Surfers it was a reasonable target for a longish run if you wanted a few hills somewhere within a 8k radius),

Sprint B final at Griffith University. It's the first time I've run a race here (although I test-ran some when controlling in 2016). The number of controls was unusually low for a sprint but this is an area well suited to long sprint legs, with complex building patterns and paths which don't always run straight between buildings. Don't think I got all the route choices right but the execution was mostly reasonable; misread #11 as being on top but I think I'd have taken the same route regardless so not much lost there. Hamstring fairly similar to this morning; otherwise felt as if I'd come up a bit better in the second run of the day than I did the last couple of times that I've tried it.

Didn't actually come last despite what the result list says (someone was incorrectly listed in the A final).

Thanks to the number of "streets" defined on university campuses my tally has advanced to 1883, which as it happens is the year in which the Griffith after which the university is named became Premier of Queensland. Also in 1883 (according to Wikipedia) was a conference of the Australian colonies, New Zealand and Fiji at which one of the agenda items was the "annexation of surrounding islands". A few people 139 years later might be wishing they'd gone through with that.

C • #11 2

It probably says everything that needs to be said for how much trouble I was having running in soft sand yesterday that my best split placing of the day was from the last control to the finish, surely a personal first.

NOL night sprint relay at Upper Coomera. I was 8th reserve for Victoria and we only lost one, so I was running in the public wave starts afterwards, which meant a head-to-head race with Ted. I fell into a number of traps and failed to see a couple of critical gaps (probably costing me 45 seconds or so on 8), and didn't really have a good sense of direction a lot of the time on a course which spun one around a lot, but I saved my most spectacular effort for last; having finally got a break on Ted over the last two controls, from the last control to the finish I somehow convinced myself that I'd run into a trap and needed to turn around when I had done nothing of the sort. Will take some beating for my most embarrassing error of the year.

We managed to fit between the heavier showers. A bit of hamstring soreness around 6-7 minutes in but it seemed to settle during the race (will see how it is tomorrow).

My route to the event took me past the (in)famous sign for the 'Approved Waterfront Development' that became extremely waterfront a few weeks back. I noted here that one of the real estate agents on the sign was one Ben Boyd, a name with some history of being associated with Australian property developments of questionable merit (although this one presumably doesn't own any slaves).

(The council don't seem to have been wildly enthusiastic about the approval, given that among the conditions attached to it was that every house in the development be supplied with two lifeboats and three days of emergency rations. This may explain why nothing has been built in the nine years since the approval was given).

Also paid a visit to Surfers this afternoon, getting the distinct sense that it's no longer the centre of the action (and being reminded of his advancing age by being ignored by the person who was handing out nightclub passes, or maybe they worked out how likely I was to turn up to a nightclub).

And word from the locals is that yesterday's effort is actually the second time a structure has collapsed on the building site, and that the developer has already been through one bankruptcy. I imagine the workplace safety authorities will be unimpressed (although I don't know whether Queensland law gives them the authority to do anything meaningful about their non-impressedness, issuing a unlikely-to-be-paid fine against a bankrupt not counting as "meaningful" in my book).

On arriving yesterday to discover that our apartment overlooked a construction site next door, my main concern was that we'd get wake-up calls earlier than wanted. It turned out things this morning were considerably more dramatic. (I didn't actually see it happen - was looking the other way at the time - but certainly felt the shaking). By the time we left for the event the full emergency services trifecta was on the scene and we wondered how bad it was, so the eventual outcome (one person with a broken leg but not life-threatening injuries) was one for the 'could have been worse' department.

(Presumably there won't be any more early-morning wake-ups while we're here - the combined forces of the workplace safety authorities and the CFMEU, to say nothing of the need to replace the damaged equipment, means the site won't be restarting in a hurry).

Once at the Spit, I fairly quickly discovered that, whatever other improvements have occurred in my running in the last 12 months, running in soft sand is still not really within my current capabilities, and this was a struggle from first step to last. The navigational side was fun, once I got into the area - got pushed off line a bit on #6 and #7 and lost some time at both. Late in the course there were two legs along the coast where you could either run on the dunes or on the beach - I did the former on the first, the latter on the second, and both were equally hard work.

There's an observation site on this map, so I know that the dewpoint was 17.3, which is getting up there.

It may come as a surprise to Easter attendees that last weekend the South Burnett council area was still officially drought-declared (although it isn't now).

C • Route choice 1

The Spit - Hard Long - Splits

We were at Kooralbyn last night. This is a golf resort in the middle of not terribly much (about 30km from Beaudesert) and is a rather odd place - for what we were doing it was perfectly acceptable (the room was decent), but hardly anyone was there, and I expect their target market - which probably isn't people spending a couple of days making their way from Toowoomba to the Gold Coast - would expect a bit more in the eating options department than one place with a fairly basic country pub menu (quite a bit of which wasn't available anyway, not the first or last time we've encountered this in Queensland). I suspect they may be in fairly significant financial trouble. (Dad, who played nine holes while I was doing this, says the golf's good, though).

The run was hard work, not surprising coming off Easter. Originally planned a circuit of what appeared to be a road around the outside of the course but this turned into a building site on the east side, so instead headed round the west side, with a fairly solid climb to get on top of a ridge (taking me past the 5th hole which must be the steepest hole I've seen on a course anywhere - a par 3 where the green is probably at least 40 metres below the tee). Found the climbs tough going but did manage all of them. Humid this morning.

Spent some time after this making our way across to the Gold Coast via Beaudesert, Mount Tamborine and Springbrook, with some nice views of waterfalls and other scenery to be had at the last of these (as well as some detours to get around roads which have fallen off the sides of mountains). Seemed to take a while to get through the back of the Gold Coast, leaving me to ponder whether the council had drawn this street name out of a hat, and to be disappointed that this one didn't have two overlapping circles at the end of it.

The street tally has started moving again. Today's number is 1877, known to all historically-inclined cricket fans as the year of the first Test match.

C • Steep golf courses 4

C • More nomenclature 8

Added another to my list of pools swum in with an early session in Toowoomba. Definitely felt as if I needed the recovery session, but the swim itself went OK. The pool itself is a bit funny, feeling as if they retrofitted a 25-metre lap pool into part of an irregularly shaped recreational one (the 50-metre outdoor one closed for the season yesterday).

A reasonably quiet day today as we spend a couple of days making our way down to the Gold Coast. Queen Mary Falls has more water after a wet summer than it does in September in a drought year, and somewhat to my surprise the road from there down to Boonah hasn't fallen off the side of a mountain in the last couple of months (although a couple of potential routes we might have used tomorrow have met that fate).

Toowoomba has a hotel named after Burke and Wills too (and they didn't get any closer to there than they did to Kingaroy), although someone pointed out that Tamworth has a motel named after Abraham Lincoln, who presumably stayed even further away from there than Burke and Wills. (The one US President who spent significant time in Australia was Herbert Hoover, who was a major player in the establishment of the WA mining industry in the early 20th century, amongst various other achievements which have all been forgotten because he happened to be President when the Depression started).

Stayed opposite Toowoomba Grammar last night. Does it have a sprint map?

C • Motel nomenclature 3

Final day of Easter. The word on the street before I started (I had a late start today) was that it was physically tough and thick. Didn't really feel sharp at the beginning and made a pretty slow start (as evidenced by Shane catching me 2 minutes on the long leg to 3, before promptly losing it again on 4). Doing a lot of walking in the rough stuff but started to get into a bit more of a flow on the 5-6-7 section, and reasonably happy with my second half. No major technical issues, a bit hesitant into 4 and maybe 15-second misses on 7 and 12.

As expected my place remained unchanged, with the gaps widening on both sides of me. Coming higher overall (6th) than on any individual day - three straight 7ths - is something which should be a Blair result from central casting, although I think I've only actually done it once before in a multi-day (at a Czech 5-Days in the 1990s).

Definitely knew I'd been for a run afterwards but not as totally drained as I sometimes am at the end of Easter (had I had any involvement in the presentation, one of the more efficient that I've seen, I presumably wouldn't have got a major cramp in the middle of it, which has been known to happen previously). In Toowoomba tonight via the Bunya Mountains.

Day 3 Course 6 - Splits