Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: Frazzle Rock Easter 2011
 

Easter prologue, on a bush map rather than an urban one. A little slow to start and missed 15 seconds on 3 (misread which side of the boulder it would be on), but then settled down OK. Robbie caught me before 6, but missed it (of which more below) - through me again a couple of controls later. Not great uphill but moving OK otherwise. Fallen timber not as bad as feared. Good Friday for me is about damage-limitation, so I was reasonably happy to be under three minutes down, and to score a National League point, a rarity for me in sprints these days. Glad it wasn't a longer race, on a 33-degree day.

Highlight of the day was the drop manouevre executed on Robbie at 6 - he was running alongside me and I noticed that he wasn't looking up where I thought we should be looking up, so I dropped back a stride or two and then turned once he couldn't see me. Only held him off for a couple of controls but it's fun to do. (Since it's pretty rare that I can burn people off with speed, I've had a lot of practice at finding other means to break packs up).

Day 1 (Prologue) Long - Splits

Did what I imagine is the Classic Central Perth Run - up from the central city to Kings Park, along the track on the upper part of the escarpment, back along the Swan River. Thought I might struggle through not eating anything beforehand but seemed to be OK. Knee not too bad.

I'm used to having random encounters with orienteers in the streets of small country towns at this time of year, but thought Perth might have been a bit big for that before coming across Tracy and Sticky (and kids) on the way to work (I'm working out of the Perth office today).

C • Weather Forecast 2

Rest day. Just about to head to Perth.

Morning run from home out around Yallambie, reasonably hilly for the first two-thirds before the nice finish through Rosanna Parklands. Not brilliant early on but built into it later on. Knee also slightly annoying early on but gradually improved, but I think I'll rest tomorrow and do something light on Thursday instead of the other way round - in any case fitting a run tomorrow was going to be challenging unless I wanted a pre-5.30 start (which is not really what you want on a day which is going to be stretched out by going to Perth).

Still tossing up ideas for the post-Easter week; have had a couple of offers, or do I do the climate-station equivalent of getting the 20-pointers-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-that-are-only-worth-getting-if-you-think-you-can-get-them-all, and bag Morawa and Meekatharra? (Marble Bar is too far away).

C • Take it from a local 3

Flailing around a bit for the first few laps but gradually built up into something vaguely reasonable. Starting to get to the stage of the year when it's cool enough in the air to feel warm in the water. (Speaking of which, it looks like it won't be super-hot for Easter - probably near 30 on Friday and mid-high 20s for the other three days, which is an improvement on last Saturday, 36.3 - a late-season record - at Perth Airport and 34 at York).

A couple of dubious dealings relating to real estate were in the news over the last day or so. One was down here where some unfortunate/gullible people had laid down deposits on an apartment block which hasn't been built yet - a problem that Kez is not unfamiliar with - except that in this case it turned out that the developer didn't actually own the land the alleged apartment block was going to be built on and the alleged 33-storey block was going to be in an area of Frankston which has a 20-metre height limit. (Perhaps the fact that the real estate agent was in Castlemaine should have rung some alarm bells). The other one was from Canberra, where the latest manoeuvre of a business trying to stave off eviction by their landlords, the ACT Government, for unpaid rent has been to lodge a native title claim over the premises. One presumes they might have had a slightly better chance of getting away with that if they had actually been Aboriginal.

MFR Monday night from Dion's. A slightly faster pace than usual for this session, not unpleasant on the whole but worryingly weak on the one decent hill. Knee a bit uncertain at times. Had some new company in the form of Fredrik (didn't get his last name), who divides his time between his job in Kazakhstan and his girlfriend in Brunswick; the former gave us a subject for conversation (although his job is at the end of Kazakhstan that has the oil, not the end of Kazakhstan that has the nice forests and the high mountains).

C • Johansson 2

State Series 2 at Chewton. A rather disappointing run in the end, with two careless errors on what should have been pretty straightforward controls, overrunning both 6 and 24. Probably lost about 45 seconds on each, which today was quite a few places - also lost a bit of time at 23 through finding myself at the top of a cliff I couldn't get down. Also slow again, lacking uphill strength again, and generally not really up for it. It's tempting to attach some blame to a late night (IOF Foot Commission hookup until 1am), but I slept well after that so I don't think that has much to do with it.

Lovely day to be out, though, and I had one of the less demanding jobs around - sitting in the sun at the finish telling people where they needed to go to download, and pointing them in the direction of the water and the Easter eggs.

Saturday morning on weekends when I've been at home has often been the most enjoyable session of the week - normally coming off an easy day and a decent sleep, and not starting super-early. It hasn't always been the case in recent times but today was a bit more like it, quite lively (on the flat, if not always uphill) on a very pleasant morning - possibly pumped up by watching Norwich City's win before I started out.

In essence this was along the Yarra up to Lower Templestowe and back through Bulleen, but slightly different to the usual because my usual singletrack route was still under the remnants of the midweek floodwaters - I don't think I've been through the middle of Banyule Flats before, even though I've been living here for 12 years. Plenty of runners (and walkers) out, and finished off alongside the cyclists starting an assault on what's known in the trade as the Col de Burgundy.

My knee has been a little uncertain at times in the last couple of days and was again this morning, nothing to cause any difficulty if it stays as it is, as long as it stays as it is.