Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Post-Schools individual run. I've struggled in recent years to come up on this day after a commentary stint (as evidenced by the fact that by reaching the first control today I'd already registered my best performance on this day since 2016). Ran the senior girls course, but back (and related hamstring) were again not great today and I decided to take it easy, including walking most of the hills (this shows up as my two "mistakes"). About as nice as it can get on Mount Alexander, and a large net downhill which made for a lot of fast times in the Schools itself.

The weather in the lead-up made for some epic organisational challenges (the equipment track on the driveway at a highly unnatural angle provided ample evidence as to why cars weren't brought into the paddock), but the conditions on the day itself were kind. A rainband stalled 20km south of us for hours but we only had occasional light showers at the event itself.

Goldfields 2-B - Splits

Sprint event after the schools sprint (doing Goldfields B which was the senior girls course). Started off OK but my back decided on the climb to #4 that it was going to have one of its days (better for it to happen here than in one of the events which actually mattered). Settled it down just enough with some walking uphill to #10 that I was able to get through the rest of the course, and results-wise things started improving once we hit the school and navigation became important. Overshot #22, dropping 10 seconds or so, but managed to get just under 20 (won't talk too much about what Nea did on the same course).

Goldfields 1-B - Splits

Australian Middle Championships at Blackwood, 6th M50. A technically intense area as I expected with few opportunities to switch off. Somewhat scrappy run which is probably inevitable here, but was hoping to avoid major errors. Didn't quite succeed though, coming too low on #9 and dropping 2.5-3 minutes - never completely got on top of what was mapped as what. Finished off reasonably well, and the river crossing ended up as one of my best splits of the day (perhaps I was trying to impress Dad - for whom 6th was a career-best result of his own, I think - as I'd just passed him). Craig, Carsten and Steve Craig were all in the 33s; I was 5 minutes down on 5th and would have needed a near-perfect run to bridge that.

Top of right quad felt a bit strange late yesterday and before the start (possibly through an awkward landing at one point yesterday) but a non-issue on the run.

Spent a bit of time today (in response to a question) looking up who's here who ran in the 1972 Australian Championships. (Looks like there are eight though I think the last two may be only organising and not running; Alex and Janet Tarr, David Hogg, Andrew Lumsden, Rod Gray, Noel McVey, Don Fell and Greg Tamblyn). Today was the 40th anniversary of my own Australian Championships debut (and just like 25 September 1982, it was Scott Simson one place in front of me). I checked the date by looking up the date of the 1982 Grand Final, the Wikipedia page for which indicates that the national anthem was sung by someone whose reputation has taken a bit of a dive since. (In Australia, if a news story contains the words "disgraced entertainer", there's an excellent chance the next two words will be "Rolf Harris").

(The top five Australian M50s today - headed by Craig, for whom I think this is a first national title? - all made their debuts in the 1980s; Scott (1981), me (1982), Steve (1983), Greg Morcom (1984) and Craig (1988)).

C • Previous championships 1

Aus Middle 5 - Splits

Victorian Middle Championships, 5th in M50. A decent result from a pretty clean run (which was part of the reason for the decent result, because quite a few of the opposition didn't have one). Didn't feel as if I was moving fast in the terrain, but pretty accurate with the only mistake being a hesitation (maybe 20 seconds on the third-last (the last technical control). Caught Shane Doyle 2 minutes at #2 and Peter Miller 4 minutes at #4, was around them for a while but then got away (both then made big mistakes immediately afterwards). Jon did 28 but no-one else was under 32.

Had decided to skip the Grand Prix even before I realised it was clashing with the Grand Final - I've tried several times in the last 18 months to compete twice in a day with results ranging from poor to awful the second time around, and tomorrow's probably my best chance this week of a result so that was my priority.

C • Good idea 3

Vic Middle 5B - Splits

Morning session as early as the pool's opening time would allow me, thinking that I would need more time than I ended up needing for my following engagement (checking that all the correct maps had been assigned to the Australian Relays teams). A reasonable number of people inside the pool even though it was very quiet outside (as you'd expect for a public holiday). Not a session to be super-excited about but reasonable enough.

Headed up to our week's base at Chewton tonight, following some time in the afternoon walking the streets in the name of democracy (as usual, almost everyone was polite but most had better things to do on a holiday afternoon than talk about policy issues).

Used the public holiday to do some exploring east of Melbourne (with the ultimate objective of seeing Toorongo Falls at a wetter time of year than my previous visit - which was nice even if lots of other people had the same idea).

One of the en-route activities was to go for a run at Emerald, partly in Emerald Lake Park which I'd previously seen only as the last bit of the Puffing Billy race the year I ran in it. There were some nice stretches in there and initially I was handling the climb out OK, but it became more of a struggle later on (of course in the Puffing Billy race this is downhill). Perhaps appropriately given what this holiday was for, street names which featured today included Royal, Elizabeth, Princess and King (and getting Cardinia on the board means that Hume is now the only Melbourne council area where I haven't registered a street yet since I started counting.

Fizzer of the day was Split Rock - I was expecting something big given it got marked on the Melway, but in fact it's a 1.5m boulder of the sort you'll find dozens of on any half-decent granite map - boulders aren't exactly abundant in this part of the world so it still does stand out a bit. (I wondered if it had Aboriginal significance but googling didn't turn up anything). This did, however, take me into some back roads north of Pakenham I haven't travelled before (and may not again) and took me past Beaconhills College which looks like it has sprint potential.

C • Beaconhills 4

C • Rocks 3

Something a bit different today - down south and west to the Gipps Street bridge and past Victoria Park. Took a bit to get me started but settled OK after the first 10 minutes, and more so after encountering Pat after climbing out of the Studley boathouse (seeing Pat seems to be good for my runs in general, based on a sample of two). Hit a nice patch in the last 10 minutes.

It being Grand Final week, it was appropriate that one of the landmarks I passed was the Magpie Deli (it would have been more appropriate had last Saturday's result been reversed). Around the corner from this is a place called Panenka which advertises "Coffee, Food, Football", but given who it's named after I'm assuming that in this case the football in question is round. (Probably an appropriate part of town for this - it's a hipster area and Antonin Panenka strikes me as a hipster's sort of footballer).