Training Log Archive: Bruce

Australian Relay Championships
1st Australian team in M21E
Matt Doyle, Bruce Arthur, David Brownridge



The Danish team got the win, but what really mattered was the first Australian team home. The field was depleted. We even had to make a late change with Bryan Keely not able to make the starting line today with injury.

Matt got off to a great start, coming back with the leading pack of Simon, Oscar and the Danes, with a bit of a gap back to Ian.
I started just behind Craig. I took the lead up the hill and felt that I had an edge in speed on him today after recovering better from a shorter race yesterday.
Craig had the shorter split at 1 and re-took the lead, but I ran away up the hill to 4 and 5.
I must have passed the Danish team at 5. I didn't notice this until I heard the commentators when I went through the spectator control in the lead.
Just before this the rain really started coming down hard.

The rocks were getting really slippery and I had to slow down to avoid any nasty falls. I had already slipped early in the course on the way down to 1, but luckily I landed on my feet.

My only time loss was a small mistake at 17. I though I left the fence at the bend, but on my GPS it shows that I left about 30m early.
My time wasn't brilliant, but I had a longish split of 7.7km and slippery conditions. Still, I did what I needed to do, which was put David out in a good position for the final leg.

Victoria was resident champion in Men's Elite at the Australian Orienteering Relay Championships for the first time since 2003 at Beechworth. This was my only other elite national title.

Thanks to my team mates Matt Doyle and David Brownridge. Not bad for a Year 12 student, an M40 and David stepping up at the last minute.

I thought that my days of elite national championships were now out of reach. We were a bit fortunate that the field was weaker than normal, but at this stage of my career I will happily take it.

I was also fortunate to have a proud Dad moment with Mason Arthur, Jensen Key and Torren Arthur taking out the Australian Orienteering Relay Champions in Men's 12.
Torren has had a great week with M10 wins in all competitions. He is now more than ready for the next challenge in M12 in Tasmania. He returns to Melbourne tonight (with Anne and Sophie) for Division Athletics on Tuesday and school camp on Wednesday.
Mason had a couple of very close seconds last weekend, so it was great for his confidence to be part of a winning team. He is looking forward to Sprint the South West on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Well done also to the Victorian Elite Women for winning the National League title, and to all Victorian age group runners that contributed to the best overall state award at today's relays.

Australian Championships
1st M40A



I decided that plodding along mid-field in a long distance elite class was no longer very satisfying for me. Instead I decided to challenge myself to see how fast I could race an M40A course. There was good competition from Jock Davis and Greg Barbour, so it was a worthwhile challenge.

I had a lot of fun, and managed to complete a good performance. I pushed myself quite hard and only lost a few seconds in navigation.

My goal was to go out hard and try to catch 4 minutes on Jock. I thought I may have seen him in the distance in the open paddocks. However I ended up sighting him leaving 10 as I was approaching, about 40 seconds ahead. This allowed me to drag him in on the long leg, and then swap the lead a few times in the more technical granite controls.

I pulled up quite well after the race and felt much better than most of the elite men looked. The kids and I headed to Cottesloe Beach in the afternoon for a recovery session in the ocean (staying well away from any sharks).

It was a good day for MFR and Orienteering Victoria.
Congratulations to Australian Champions Aislinn Prendergast (Elite Women resident champ), Matt Doyle (Junior Elite Men), Lanita Steer (Junior Elite Women), Patrick Jaffe M16, Asha Steer W16 resident, Torren Arthur M10, Bruce Arthur M40, Natasha Rowe Key W40, Jim Russell M50, Warren Key M55, Ted van Geldermalsen M65.
Victoria got close to the OA Shield award, but NSW had too many placings in the M/W65 and above age classes.

King's Park, Perth
A nice run to get my legs moving after a day walking at Rottnest yesterday.
This was very scenic, and included a couple of lookouts.

I included one 1000m surge down the Broadwalk to keep my leg speed up.
It was downhill, but may have been my fastest 1km time ever - 2:52.

The rest of the day was spent at the Perth Show. Walking around in huge crowds is not my favourite thing to do, but the kids had a great time on several rides.
We escaped with only a couple of show bags containing food. The boys wisely decided that most of them were full of plastic junk and they saved their money for other things.

C • 2.52 5

C • Showbags 1

A rest day on Rottnest Island. Most of the day was at The Basin at the beach. I did go for a long walk with the boys later in the day to explore some other bays.

Today's tourist activity was a drive north to the Pinnacles.

I visited here once before in 1988. It is still as spectacular now as it was back then. We drove around in our car around the 4km circuit. We stopped at a few places to hang a control flag on the rocks and take photos. I was trying to recreate some photos that my brother-in-law, Karl, took in 1993 to make a t-shirt.

After the circuit, I went for a run with my GoPro and got some good footage of running in and around the rocks.

This area would be a great orienteering challenge, but the map would have to be very large scale to be able to map so many single boulders so close to each other.

Early morning jog around Shenton Park Lake to help get my legs moving.

A good warm up on the oval near quarantine, including some fast run throughs.

After the event we headed to Freemantle and I did a recover session with the kids in the ocean.

Australian Championships, Sprint Distance
5th Australian in M21E



The university campus was a superb area for the championship. There was enough detail, route choice and complexity, but nothing too confusing to make the course unfair.
I had quite a smooth run. I never really felt like I was going flat out, but I was always in close contact with the map and was felt that I picked most of the better route choices.
I picked up the pace towards the end of the course, but as a result I probably didn't optimise my route choices on 3 or 4 of the final legs.

Overall I was very happy with my placing. I seemed to have fresh legs and a clear mind for today's race. Saving a bit of energy for the Sprint Distance race was worthwhile.

M21E - Splits

Australian Championships Middle Distance



I probably should have entered M40 yesterday (but I didn't realise it was not a NOL race). I felt ok on the warm up, but I did not have a lot of spring in my step. It is getting harder to back up again the next day after long distance races. I can get around, but not with the pace that I can sometimes manage on the first day of a
I started ok, but then lost 30 seconds in the wrong creek at #3. From there I wanted to run faster, but I struggled to stretch out with many small rocks on the ground.
My primary goal has been the Sprint Distance on Monday, and I found myself starting to save a bit in the tank for this race.

I placed about 17th. I could have climbed a little higher with a bit more effort, but it may have cost me more places on Monday.

Later in the afternoon we went down to City Beach for a recovery session. This was really useful and I felt great on Monday morning.

Aust MDC, Course M21E - Splits

Event: Karrak Karnival - Oz Champs
 

Event: Karrak Karnival
 

WA Long Distance Champs


I entered M21 expecting this to be a NOL event, but as it turned out it wasn't.

The drive in was rough and I had to be very careful with the brand new rental car that was not supposed to go "off-road".

Then the rain came, and it was heavy.
Mason and Torren were fantastic to even make it to the start. The Blue start was in the middle of an exposed paddock and the rain was coming down sideways.
I was soaked and cold and had about 90 minutes to wait until my start. My fingers started going numb, so I had to hop in the car and turn the heater on.

Once I got racing in the forest the weather was not bad at all. I started well and passed Blair just before #3. I ran reasonably well, but didn't have a lot of pace in the second half of the course. I had a small mistake at #11 which was a small boulder on the side of a hill. This seemed to be quite high on the hill side.
Perhaps I should have gone left to 15. I went right and lost around 30 seconds.

An incredibly wet and cold warm up in the pouring rain.

WA Long Champs, Course M21A - Splits