Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Early session in the hotel pool before starting the trip northeast. The pool was of the sort that could be described as refreshing or even invigorating, and it took me a while to get used to it (I'd guess the water temperature was probably around 20), but settled down OK eventually. Longer than most hotel pools (20 metres) and even had a lane stripe, so not as disorienting as it sometimes can be. A bit slow but reasonable for a recovery session.

That was the prelude to the start of the next phase. My aunt's joined me for this (she flew in last night). Today was mostly covering ground I've been on before (in 2005), up as far as Cue, a destination chosen mainly because it has a good place to stay - an old gold-rush pub restored as a guesthouse - and other places in the vicinity don't. (Meekatharra, in particular, has got less than rave reviews). A fairly smooth drive with the main break being wandering around New Norcia, and only encountered one convoy of monstrous mining equipment, which isn't too bad by Great Northern Highway standards.

Australian Middle Championships. 5th, probably about a par performance for me at my current level of fitness - a bit disappointing to have Graham run over the top of me in the finish, but 4th would have been my upper limit today. A scrappy start with perhaps 30-45 seconds lost on 1 and 15 on 2, but settled well into the map after that (there wasn't actually that much rock on the map, a smallish patch of bush on the edge of Narrogin, but what there was was used well). Through mid-course my major function seemed to be to distract elites (Jarrah and Tash were both somewhat erratic in my presence), then I became erratic myself with a 1-minute miss on 14 - clearly a control which troubled others because it was one of my best split placings of the day. So-so physically but probably a bit better than yesterday. Bruce did 27.

I went into this week badly underdone and it showed in the results. The positive is that I've now been able to string together three weeks or so without much injury trouble; turn that into three months and I might be getting somewhere when it comes to getting results in September.

Back in Perth tonight, getting a last glimpse of the Indian Ocean before heading back inland tomorrow. Destination: the Alice.

C5 - Splits

Australian Sprint Championships at Narrogin, 7th. Didn't really have it together on the running side today (even by recent standards) and started to feel some left quad tightness later on which slowed me a bit, although nothing's come of it post-run. Reasonably clean technically; 5 (the first bush one) wasn't quite where I expected it to be but I think that's because the goalpost which was my attack point wasn't quite in the place the map said it was. Didn't lose any meaningful time there. Target for the day was to defend 4 minutes on Bruce but I didn't really expect to; he ended up blasting through on the way to 17. Teemu wasn't much slower but missed a control. Splits suggest I slowed a bit through the run, which is consistent with how I felt.

The event went well, but one disappointment was seeing quite a few people who are old enough to know better going through olive green and over forbidden walls. Perhaps there could have been more taping on the ground, but really it's up to the participants to do the right thing. Decided not to name names officially this time, but I may do in future.

C4 - Splits

Headed down to Bunbury after work last night with a view to spending most of the day in that general part of the world. One of the targets was Cape Naturaliste, which I think I last visited on the 1998 Victorian schools team trip. This was a tourist run, taking in most of the walking tracks in the area (the lighthouse itself is shrouded in scaffolding and tarpaulins and not very photogenic at present) - sometimes sandy or rocky but still nice to be out. Plenty of photo stops, as well as one to chat to Steve Craig and family who were walking in the opposite direction (not surprised I saw other orienteers there).

Other destinations on the day included Eagle Bay and Yallingup, before settling in for an afternoon at the Dunsborough pub in an ultimately frustrating football-watching session. Ended the day in Collie, a fast-declining coal-mining town: I felt as out of place having dinner in a pub here as I did as guest of honour at a Chinese pineapple harvest festival this time last year. (I avoided the pub which was advertising "skimpies", but the one I went to had them too).

Regional papers are normally pretty conservative, so I was a bit surprised to see the local Bunbury paper saying, in an article about the Busselton MP criticising the new(ish) WA government for failing to duplicate the road there yet, that she'd done sweet Fanny Adams about it during the eight years her lot were in charge (or words to that effect). Still, today was the day when, due to an unfortunate production error, some news was published in the Daily Telegraph.

C • Skimpies 1

Given I was staying just across the road from Kings Park (noted for future reference: decent place, within 10 minutes' walk of our Perth office and only about $100 a night), I could hardly do anything other than do a circuit of Kings Park (or an approximation thereof). Slow start but got into some sort of groove, and handled the long steady climb back from the bottom of the park without too many dramas - I haven't been doing many hills in training so this is a positive sign. Wouldn't have been wanting to do this tomorrow; the Anzac preparations are in full swing.

This was quite an interesting run for micrometeorology; there were still some quite pronounced cool air pockets in the gullies. I'd say it was probably below 10 in places, particularly around the bottom of May Drive, but in the mid- to high teens on the higher ground.

Working out of Perth for a couple of days and staying near Kings Park. I was always thinking that Claremont might be the most accessible pool for a session today; had initially been thinking after work before going to Freo for dinner, but changed my plans after discovering that it was going to cost me $40 to park near where I was staying for the day (instead I left the car near the pool and got the train in). Not a bad session, and a bit of additional interest provided at times by the aqua aerobics instructor who seemed as keen on running through her life story as her playlist.

Lunchtime reading was a couple-of-weeks-old copy of the local paper, the Subiaco Post. I wasn't surprised to find a fair bit of content devoted to NIMBY complaints (and the large number of local councils in the western suburbs means plenty of local council news to print), but was still impressed by the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Nedlands man who objected to the noise coming from the local Mr. Whippy van. (There is a website - British, but with Australian content from time to time - devoted to Angry People In Local Newspapers).

Day 3 of Easter at Umuna. A generally better run than yesterday but spoiled by a particularly brainless mistake on one of the course's easiest controls, the drinks control #10 on top of a hill. I even managed to run across a track without noticing it. 2 1/2 minutes were lost there; without that I would have been in the mix for third today (though it made no difference to my overall result, 6th). Somewhat to my surprise, the delay in the SI unit's response at #11 revealed that I'd gone through Matt Stocks and hadn't yet been caught by Jon, but both got onto me over the closing controls and eventually finished ahead of me on the ground (though not by much). The other wobble was 30 seconds or so in the circle at 2, but definitely felt stronger than yesterday (which isn't saying much). Bruce blew us all away again, with 28.

Overall I think I'm about where I expected to be after a poor six months of training, but it's still a bit disconcerting to have that proven to the world. At least I've managed to put together four days of running for the first time in a while, and am hoping that a reasonably trouble-free (injury-wise) couple of weeks might be a springboard to a winter that's better than the summer has been.

M45A - Splits