Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I'm doing a talk in Canberra tomorrow morning so today's plan was to work from Canberra (it isn't a public holiday in Victoria, my home base). The slight issue with this plan was because it was a public holiday in the ACT, the office wasn't open, so I needed to find somewhere to work from in the morning until I could check into where I was staying (having come from Goulburn in the morning) - the answer being a cafe in Lyneham.

In between all of this, I decided lunchtime would be a good time to go for a swim at the Civic pool. There was a bit of an issue with this plan too - whilst the CBD itself may have been quiet on a holiday, the pool carpark was overwhelmed with Floriade visitors. I did eventually find a spot and headed in. It was quite a decent swim after all that - felt pretty strong in the second half, particularly.

Australian Relays, last leg for an M35 team with Richard Goonan and Jim. In the original selections, the two gun teams both failed to contain a single actual M35, but we brought in Richard for Ted, and NSW Rob Preston for Greg Barbour. First leg was close between Jock, Richard and Jon McComb, but Steve Craig broke away on the second leg (and Tasmania had a weak last leg), so I started knowing that second was a certainty unless something dramatic happened.

This was as well, because my body was not functioning well today - back was tight making any sort of climb hard work (notwithstanding that 3-4 contours was about the upper limit of climbs today). Did manage to keep plugging away and only made one small mistake, perhaps 20 seconds at 10. Quads decided to throw a wobbly on the spectator leg (perhaps through having extra load put on them); at this point I was feeling a bit like the 35km mark of the Six Foot Track and wasn't looking forward to the final loop. Did come good, more or less, after that and the climb out of the second-last was probably the best I felt in the entire race, but I'm still glad I wasn't in any sprint finishes. Ended up 2nd, as expected. The three NSW runners all did around 37-38.

So ends a very well-run championships week, and so ends my season, more or less (apart from a few Sprint Into Spring races and an event in France while I'm in Geneva). Hopefully I can get a solid summer under my belt (and not break down two weeks after the nationals, like happened last year), but for now I'll be taking it reasonably easy in the next couple of weeks.

Australian Long Championships, 3rd in M45. Matched my result from last year, a result I would definitely have taken at the start of the day after a year when I've never really been able to get any sort of momentum in training.

Felt a bit lethargic on the warm-up, but got into it once running. Hit #1 pretty well and then went right on the long and hilly #2; couldn't run much up the two steepest climbs on this leg (although I don't think anyone else will have run up the second one either). Caught sight of someone coming out of #2, although it was a couple more legs before I knew it was Scott Simson (2 minutes ahead of me); whist I only caught him very briefly, at #11, I would have him in sight for much of the rest of the course.

#5 was another long leg back across the map into the mining and we diverged a bit on the last part; there were then some short legs through the detail which he was clean through (and I went in a bit early on #7 and lost maybe 15-20 seconds, my only mistake). A couple of longer legs after that before the last bit in the detail; starting to feel a bit stronger in the second half.

Couldn't have come close to matching the first two (Jon 55, Jock 58), but a solid day's work. Scott was 4th, a reversal of my very first Australian Championships 35 years ago in M12 when he just pipped me for 3rd (by coincidence, that was on the day Richmond last played in a Grand Final).

Early session on a competition rest day, at the Bathurst pool, in what they describe as the "leisurely" lane. Right quad felt a bit tight early on and the session seemed to drag on for a long time, but not too bad as far as it goes.

Went out to Kanangra Walls later in the day - spectacular once you get there (and nice country on the way), although I felt a little out of sorts during the middle of the day. Hopefully that's not a precursor of something more significant on the weekend, although things are feeling somewhat better now.

One of my items of interest was to see what The Boyd (1979 Australian Championships, and one of the first Australian granite maps) looks like. It looks lovely from the road (plenty of rock without being too extreme, and runnable forest). I assume access issues are the reason it hasn't been used for many years; everything east of the road is now declared wilderness, although I think a rogaine was held there last year? (Would probably be hard to find an arena capable of handling a national-level event, too).

C • The Boyd 7

This was definitely a day when my mouth was working better than the rest of my body. Felt OK warming up after a morning on the mike; knew I'd be dropped straight away on the mass start but still hoped for a nice run. Those hopes were dashed pretty quickly; back was suspect on the first hill and I was almost tempted to turn around straight away, but decided to give it a few controls to settle down and it did, more or less. Still a struggle on the hills, of which there were many (although at least I wasn't reduced to walking up the hill into the spectator control). Was 30 seconds or so behind Ian Davies for much of the course but he blew the third-last. Will certainly want to be stronger than that on the weekend, but then I'll have a better preparation on the weekend.

As always, Schools relay day was a great spectator day. For the first half of the day it looked like Queensland had a shot at making up the deficit to ACT, but in the end ACT ran away with it (thanks in no small measure to big last legs by both Melhuish sisters). The Schools does seem to run in phases where one state is dominant for five years or so (initially ACT in the early years, then NSW in the later 1990s, Queensland in the late 2000s and Tasmania in the early 2010s), and now it seems to be ACT's turn again. They'll lose a couple next year but should still be pretty strong.

Public race before the Schools sprint, but not quite on the Schools course (one thing which took me, and plenty of others, by surprise is that at these events, the longest public course is not the equivalent senior schools course, but something a bit longer). Main question was to see if the ankle stood up, which it did, more or less - probably helped doing this before rather than after a commentary stint, too. Didn't have a lot of speed about me today (and can't have been a pretty sight in the leg across the over), but not too many issues on a fairly straightforward course technically - just one minor glitch exiting 22. At least I punched all the controls, which seemed to be a bit of a problem for some people later in the day.

The afternoon activity was a trip out to Evans Crown. I only ever ran here once (I missed the Australian Championships there, but ran a sodden QB3 opening day in 1995) - tough area to orienteer on, but great for climbing on top of boulders and rock slabs and having good views.

Ankle still somewhat sore today - would have gone out had it mattered more, but after a brief test on the warm-up decided not to risk it today. Probably wasn't really in the mood for racing after a couple of hours on the microphone (occasionally having to resort to old-school methods with a start list and a stopwatch after some early technology glitches). A good day of competition with three states and NZ separated by only a point.

My attention was drawn to the fact that the Hill End Gold company still exists - and had we had the foresight to invest OA's money in it, we might have done well as their share price has doubled this year (from 3 cents to 6). I get the impression it's one of those companies where you wouldn't want to spoil the share price by actually drilling the mine. (It seems that these days their main potential operation is about 40km north of town, with a few side activities in Laos).

C • Curernt schools champs team scores? 13

Recovery swim session at the Bathurst aquatic centre, in the company of Zara, who kindly declined to show me up too much and swam on the other side of the pool (I think her pace is close to double mine). Felt quite good in the water once I got going, though, and that showed up in a faster session than usual. Ankle a little sore this morning, though not enough to be of any great concern.

First of three outings on the Hill End map. Technical mining through significant parts of the map, quite reminiscent of Castlemaine terrain - certainly needed concentration throughout. In the end, though, my most significant error came on one of the easier legs, making a parallel error on the gully-spur 8 - picked it up before it got too catastrophic, but still dropped 1.5 minutes or so. Also 45 seconds or so at each of 4 and 22, losing my line a bit on both. Felt a bit stronger than I have for most of the last month, but still not competitive on speed - can't imagine I'll run too many national championships at elite level.

Rob Walter caught me 8 minutes at 13 (not so surprising after my indifferent start), but took a while to get away properly - he kept making small mistakes and I kept getting within sight of him. Also dicing at various times with Brian Poon, Richard Goonan and Rob Bennett (who threatened to emulate Bryan Keely's Rowdy Flat effort a few years back of passing me eight times in a course).

Think it will be bigger hills and less continuous detail next weekend, but we'll find out in due course.

Hill End is an 1870s gold mining town with a lot of historical plaques, and I noticed one which showed a chemist's ad for "Holtermann's Life Giving Drops". Unfortunately, there was no information provided on whether any of the ingredients in said drops were on the WADA prohibited list. I am also somewhat sceptical of some parts of Hill End's Wikipedia entry, which states "at its peak in the early 1870s it had a population estimated at 8,000 served by two newspapers, five banks, eight churches, nine adult book shops, thirty seven hot chip shops, a dagwood dog stand, four roller coasters and twenty-eight pubs". (Wikipedia does say (citation needed)).

C • Valerian 2

Event: Australian Orienteering Carnival 2017
 

Australian Sprint Championships at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst. Not competitive for speed (three from the bottom), but a reasonably smooth run - only time loss was perhaps 5-10 seconds at the second last where I started up a set of stairs I didn't need to. Also felt like I was pushing it reasonably hard compared to recent weeks (having Ciaran to chase through the middle part of the course helped). A course which kept you concentrating without being super-technical. No injury problems which was a plus after the preceding week.

As those who were there will know, this was also a very significant day in NSW's climatic history, and Bathurst was one of the most significant of all: the 31.5 degrees there was 2.1 above the previous September record, so far the largest margin of the day at a long-term site (although I'm still waiting for final numbers from Kerang). In all it looks like 22 of the long-term sites (16 in NSW, 5 in Victoria and 1 in Queensland) have set September records, with records set over around 80% of NSW.

C • Brodie 1

A little bit of ankle soreness still today - certainly would have given it a go had it not been the day before a race, but it is so I didn't. Hit the road this afternoon (a bit later than some) to Bathurst, with Gundagai the Friday night target, and lots of temperature variation after dark to keep myself amused (ranging from 20 on top of Kyeamba Gap to 9 in the dips before Tarcutta only 20km or so later).

Hasn't been an ideal couple of weeks leading in with two nuisance-level injuries in rapid succession. This weekend I'm hoping only for respectability, but next Saturday is the one where I'll really be aiming for a result; will do pretty well to match my third from last year.