Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

However long you do this sport for, you can still find new ways to stuff things up. A first for me today after nearly 45 years in orienteering - missing a control altogether (as opposed to getting a wrong one). The offending one was #6, at the end of a sequence of short legs before heading around the oval. I guess if it was going to happen, a qualification race that I was never going to qualify from is not the worst place for it to happen, but it's still annoying. (Simon Uppill - who's been jogging this weekend because of injury - may not have been pleased that my misfortune left him with what I suspect is his first last place in a very long time). Wasn't a great run anyway, although maybe it was just that everyone else made me feel slow (and I still think the left route on #12 was a decent option even though few others took it).

There was certainly some spectacular carnage in the quarter-finals, including one of the women's where three of the six missed a phi loop and all got disqualified (leaving Alice Martin to inherit a semi-final place she definitely wasn't expecting). Arpad on commentary suggested later that mispunches were a risk of the young and inexperienced but I note that both of the over-50 competitors in the men's race did so (Grant did it in the quarters).

St. Gregory's Campbelltown has quite a rugby league reputation, and there were a few names on the boards which were familiar to me (most recently James Tedesco), although not so to the Victorians and South Australians.

C • 12 1

C • Alice Martin 5

As with last year, four races in two days was a bridge too far - my back was being particularly troublesome and I was really struggling to run (and often didn't). This made it hard to focus on the course, too (in any case a bit of an afterthought between the elite semis and final), which was a pity because it would have had some challenges at a decent speed. Definitely a good spectator afternoon though, but a disappointing day for me personally.

Ended up at Tracy and Paul's in the evening with some of the Tasmanians; I was able to enlighten the youngsters as to where the Bottom of the Harbour establishment they'd got fish and chips from got its name from. (I've long been somewhat amused that a Royal Commission set up into alleged dodgy activities of the Painters and Dockers Union got sufficiently sidetracked that they ended up exposing massive tax scams by other people).

First race of Sydney Sprint weekend at Sydney Uni. Was a bit concerned before the start as my quads were a bit stiff this morning (after cramping at one stage during the IOF meeting last night), but ended up as relatively smooth, if slow. The course was marked more by route choice than by fine navigation and I don't think I made any major blunders, just a brief wobble out of #5 before realising there was no way out in that direction. Didn't come last which was objective #1 achieved for a WRE (because I actually had some WRE points, I started further into the start list than my form warranted), and about the distance down that I expected.

Some university traditions seem to be disappearing: at neither Sydney Uni nor UNSW were the words "Arts Degrees: Please Take One" written above any toilet roll holders that I saw (and the police horses weren't heading to a demo at the university itself, but to one in Victoria Park nearby).

At UNSW. Unsurprisingly the Victorian sprint relay teams were not in need of my limited services, so instead I went out afterwards in a mass start. I was even less confident about this than I was about the morning, given my poor recent history backing up for a second time in the day, but managed to get myself into some sort of state of mobility in the warm-up, and settled OK into a position at the front end of the grupetto. The back started to play up a bit from about one-third distance on and I did end up walking a few stairs (although did manage to get far enough up the big stairs to get out of sight before doing so), but I've had far worse afternoon races in recent years. Reasonably smooth technically.

One control was definitely on familiar territory: #14 was at the front door of the Climate Change Research Centre, a reasonably regular haunt of mine over the years (but not since 2019). I have been known to use my orienteering skills in these parts to plot an optimally efficient and rapid route from conference session to source of coffee.

C • Source of coffee 1

Headed up to Sydney in the morning with the plan of working during the day and then getting a run in before an IOF Council meeting at 6. Things didn't quite go to plan in some ways - I made it to Sydney on schedule but my bag didn't. There was still no indication that it had been found at 4pm so I left the office a bit early, dropped a couple of hundred dollars on two new sets of running gear at Rebel (at least this means I'll be able to retire a couple of my older sets of gear) and headed to where we're staying in Camperdown to link up with Jenny for a run.

We headed down to the water - Glebe is reasonably familiar territory for her, but not for me. Some nice spots going down there, and along the waterfront with occasional spectacular harbour views and equally spectacular vessels (I assume none of these have been seized from Russian oligarchs). My back was in a reasonably standard evening state, though, which means some of the hills coming back were hard going - will certainly want it to be better tomorrow but I think it will be.

Back tight this morning so took to the water instead, not wanting to push things too far with races ahead this weekend. Once in the water ended up as a reasonably steady session in the water, picking up a bit in the second half. A little bit of left shoulder soreness early on.

Decided to have a crack at doing something at lunchtime, which mainly served to provide evidence that my decision not to attempt doing something longer this morning was sound. Headed down into various nooks and crannies of South Melbourne around the market and the town hall (with its Boer War memorial), in the process making it the second time my street count has matched the postcode (3205). (This will be the last time it happens for a while as I'm now through metro Melbourne's range of postcodes - the next likely possibility is in the 3900s on the Mornington Peninsula).

Also in street count news, Port Phillip is up to 97, but I suspect it won't be my next to 100 as Whitehorse is on 95 after last night, and I doubt I'll run in Port Phillip again before the Ashwood street-O in two Wednesdays' time. (Also not too far away from reaching three figures is Geneva, which should happen while I'm there in late April).

And outdated Covid signs (an occasional series): a sign on the door of a shopping centre at South Melbourne said not to enter if you'd been in Italy in the last 14 days or in contact with someone who had.

Street-O at Blackburn Lake. I've long had a soft spot for this area, partly because it's a nice pocket of bush in the suburbs plus bushy suburbs to surround, and partly because it's where I made my first Eastern Summer Series appearance 30 years plus a few days ago (coming somewhat unstuck as a visiting Canberran because I found it hard to grasp the concept that adjacent blocks of streets didn't necessarily have any pedestrian routes between them).

It was a good running night - cool with low humidity, a combination more typical of September/October than March - and it was as well that it was, because this was definitely at the long end of B courses - I knew it was going to be by the time the 2k beep went as I was exiting the third control. Hard work as always in the evening (although I'd feared worse after sitting all afternoon in a course), although better than the last few weeks. I think my route was reasonable, although there were a number of other options which were fairly similar; a bit disappointing to spend only a couple of hundred metres in the lake reserve itself. #11 did give me the opportunity to identify potential post-run eating places.

Garmin Connect says I earned the International Women's Day badge. Are they trying to tell me something? (whatever the something is, it's probably illegal in Florida).

C • International Women's Day badge 2

One of the more significant transformations I've had in a run for a while. Started out with a very stiff back, struggled through a warm-up and made a token attempt at intervals before deciding I'd do well to get through a minimum viable session. Improved a little over the next 10 minutes down to the Westgarth level crossing. I'd already had a hint with the traffic queues crossing Victoria Road that all might not be well with some aspect of the road system, and indeed the level crossing was stuck down - after a couple of minutes I gave up and went across the pedestrian bridge instead (probably to the envy of the queuing drivers). At this point the run suddenly came good, and the last 15 minutes were as smooth as anything I've had in the last few weeks. Go figure.

Monday morning Pilates. Not too bad on the whole, although may not have been entirely switched on because on one of the sets I was wondering why it was feeling so hard and realised that I'd put one too many springs on. Quads feeling a bit stiff before warming up.

Followed with a session in the water, swapped around from Friday for logistical reasons. A decent recovery session which did its job of loosening up various stiff body parts. Fairly quiet this morning, both in the water and on the road afterwards.