Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Once again, a decent run apart from one control, where I didn't read a gap in a line of cliffs properly at 16, pulled up short and wasted 90 seconds. In a middle 90 seconds will inevitably be quite a few places and so it proved today, not that I would really have been competitive without it - nothing that has happened so far this week has made me reconsider the idea that this will probably be my last national championships at elite level (in the longer races, anyway).

Over the rest of the course it was a steady progression of people past me, including eventual winner Ian Lawford at 16 (at least I took a split off him on the next leg). Felt sluggish warming up, OK on the course though not a lot of strength on the hills (something that was heavily tested on the second-last leg).

The terrain was well-used - when you looked at the map afterwards, only a small fraction of the map has interesting detail but it certainly didn't seem that way on the course.

Aust MDC, Course M21E - Splits

Event: Karrak Karnival - Oz Champs
 

WA Long Championships at Spice Brook, a gully-spur area of the western variety (i.e. eroded small escarpments and lots of blandness in between, where you had to keep your wits about you to avoid coming unstuck). Had I noticed before entering that this was (a) the day before the middle and (b) not a National League race, I'd probably have run M40 instead, but the run did me good and will be useful for my confidence for next week after a couple of recent long-distance failures.

This was a wet race with rain for most of the day (although it was much more pleasant in the forest than it was in the windswept assembly area, which was consequently devoid of much of a crowd) - still preferable running conditions to the 35 degrees that it would have been this time last week. For the most part it was a reasonably smooth run. Started OK, apart from a stop to remove a number that didn't last 10 minutes; Bruce (2 minutes) and Mark (4) both went through me, Mark looking particularly strong, but nothing unexpected there. Quite a lot of track options in the second half of the course - wouldn't have used all of them on a different day (keeping a bit in reserve was part of the objective today, as it was for most of the field), but it may not have been such a bad thing, as on 15 David Brownridge (who'd just gone through me 6 minutes) left the track before I did and was behind me to the control. The one error of any size was 11, a hard-to-see rock in regrowth - was close to it but not confident enough of my position to pinpoint it, and dropped a couple of minutes.

Still running OK at the end, which I was happy with, although no more competitive time-wise than I've been at any other time this season (Simon was just under 80).

There was a somewhat unnerving reminder of some of the forces which have been unleashed in this country of late on Saturday night in Northam, when we emerged from a pub (Jenny, Shannon, Cathy and Al being with me) to encounter two young men, presumably drunk, racially abusing a harmless kebab shop owner across the street - they seemed particularly disturbed by the fact that he was selling halal meat - and trying to drag us into it. We weren't interested in doing so; part of me thinks I should have done more to intervene, another part of me thinks that having done so would have meant a fairly good chance of being introduced to the expression "grievous bodily harm".

Trying to hose these sorts of emotions down is going to take better leadership than we have at the moment, at least on the national level (to give credit where credit is due, some good things are being done in Victoria at the state level, including from people like Matthew Guy whom I wouldn't have seen as likely peacemakers).

WA Long Champs, Course M21A - Splits

Got my packing done in time to get out for an early-morning run, up to Macleod and back down the valley. It won't go down as one of my greatest runs - pretty tight through the first couple of kilometres, though eventually got going a bit in the second half. Not super-sharp for tomorrow (where, given the ordering of the races, I'm starting to regret entering M21 for the WA long - probably won't do me any favours for the two following days).

Ended up crossing all the important things off my to-do list at work with half an hour still to go before I had to get on the bus for the airport - plenty of time. The bag's heavier than it usually is (even if I've gone mostly electronic for books this time) thanks to the very diverse range of temperatures I need to be prepared for - could be anything from near 40 to snow.

And the concentration of fluoro tops at Perth Airport is as high as ever. Two nice bonuses of the flight were having an empty seat next to me and having the first bag off, though the advantage of the latter was lessened by the fact that my fellow travellers are on a later flight. (The number of empty seats was well short of that the last time I did this trip on Grand Final Friday - that was in 2006, with the Eagles playing and 15 747s crossing the Nullarbor on the Friday - which meant 15 747s going back. Mine had about 30 people on it).

Seemed to be working OK today. Lots of rain overnight but only a bit of drizzle about in the morning; swapped this for a run tomorrow because the logistics of tomorrow would have been challenging.

I'm just about to embark on the task of packing properly. Will be an interesting challenge this time round as the range of conditions I could experience goes all the way from tropical wet-season build-up (humid mid-upper 30s) in interior southern Brazil through to sub-Antarctic on Tierra del Fuego and the higher elevations in southern Patagonia. Have decided to go mostly electronic on the book supply though. I'm also whittling away at the to-do list, although not at a fast enough rate to reduce it to zero before departure. (Incidentally, it has been decided that the first person to send me one of the e-mails that I mentioned in Tuesday's entry will be required to bring a cake to the first morning tea after I return - two cakes if it pertains to dealing with correspondence from a climate change sceptic).

Laugh of the day was reading an account of a court case where an injured taxi driver was seeking compensation for lost income. The judge noticed that the driver's annual income according to his last tax return was $5700, and asked him if he wished to maintain this position and thus have only nominal compensation, or adjourn the case until such time as he had filed an alternative return to the ATO. (The driver decided at this point that fessing up to the taxman was the best option).

And, thanks to not clearing a field I thought I'd cleared before checking out the logistics of getting from JFK to where I'm staying on my first night in New York, I can tell you that Google Maps is not (yet) up to the task of telling you the best way to travel from the WA Championships assembly area to a Tribeca apartment by public transport.

C • NY 4

I think this might be the first time this year I've done what was previously my regular fartlek circuit from home in the morning. However long it's been, the rustiness definitely showed - don't think I've been quite as slow as this before, although it would be fair to say that my heart wasn't really in pushing myself flat out.

Starting to get a few more things cleared before I go away. Haven't started packing yet, of course - although have done a few bits of pre-packing, like making sure all the fuel in my Trangia is burned out before attempting to put it on a plane. (On the subject of things which might be questionable things to take on a plane, it would be hard to go past the jars labelled "explosive mixture" which I spotted in the spices section of the supermarket this evening).

Last one of any significant length before departure. Feeling a bit sleepy at the start and never really felt that strong, but a decent run none the less, given that it took on some reasonably hilly country in the first half (as far as North Balwyn) before flattening out later on. The sleepiness followed an especially vivid dream which involved trying to find a way of tracking down the 2016 federal election results while in the middle of doing the Australian Championships presentations on the same day.

Still not totally convinced that I'm going to get everything I want to get done before I leave, but did manage to get a few decks cleared today (no thanks to the continued correspondence coming into our area from climate change denialists). I'm thinking I should perhaps run a book on the date of the first "sorry to e-mail you on your holiday, but..." e-mail. I will be very surprised if that date gets beyond the end of the first week, and won't be totally shocked if it happens on Monday.

Combining climate extremes (or the effect thereof) with dumb criminals was the subject of a case reported in today's press. It involved someone who successfully claimed $1000 in disaster relief funding after saying he had been affected by the Moree floods in early 2012. This was a bit of a stretch because he was a fair way from Moree at the time - to be precise, in Cessnock Jail. He got caught after trying to pull the same trick with the 2013 Warrumbungles fires when it was discovered that the farm he said had been burnt out didn't exist. For his trouble, he got three extra months added to the sentence he's currently serving (in Cooma this time).

And I now have a note with a six-digit number on it in my wallet, as a result of acquiring the surplus Paraguayan guarani of a colleague recently returned from a meeting there. (It's worth about $25).

Starting to count down the "last before leaving" - today was the last (planned) swim, on a very bright if cool morning at Fitzroy. Started slowly but got going pretty well in the second half.

Resurrection of the MFR Monday nights, with a pleasingly large crowd from the Jaffe residence (ostensibly as a welcome for our three new Danish visitors), including a few members of the next generation. Flattish first half but some reasonably solid hills coming back across Eaglemont, which I didn't handle as well as some.

On our return, we introduced our international guests to some genuine Australian culture, in the form of the Brownlow red carpet arrivals.