Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A long, steady run with Bruce, starting off up Darebin Creek and coming back down Merri, cutting across between the two through Reservoir - I've flown over Edwardes Lake many times (it's on the normal flight path landing into Melbourne from the east or north-east) but this is the first time I've actually been there. (Memo to potential time-triallists - there appears to be a decent cinder track at Edwardes Lake that doesn't have any lanes blocked off).

This was definitely an easier pace than two weeks ago, although I think that measuring off a map short-changed us a little given how much the paths along the creeks weave around. Didn't really tire at any stage, and definitely felt better at the end than in the last 5 minutes last week (although the lack of hills might have had a bit to do with that).

63 minutes into the run it was time to welcome the rainfall New Year (the standard time for rainfall observations is 9 a.m., so anything that falls after that goes into next year's total). Right on cue it started raining at about 9.01. There wasn't a lot (just enough to get us off the mark for 2007) but it kept the conditions for the second half relatively pleasant. It's quite steamy now.

This was (in time) my longest run of the summer to date, and a decent way to end a solid year - the first since 1999 in which I haven't had a multi-week layoff due to injury (the only time loss was a couple of weeks after having the metal taken out of my elbow in October). Not surprisingly it was also my biggest training year since 1999.

Best race of the year: it's tempting to name the Australian Long Championships (which was definitely the best result), but I was actually happier with the first day of Easter - the fastest I've run for ages and didn't put a foot wrong technically.

Most enjoyable run of the year: quite a few contenders here, but I think my favourite was one in early April while I was down working at the Gippsland Field Days - from Neerim South to the Latrobe River headwaters and back, two hours on forest tracks through rolling hills on a gorgeous morning. Must be something about the area - I had a terrific long run in the same region (but in the opposite direction) at the same time last year.

A pretty solid effort, particularly given it was coming off a long run yesterday. Got to explore some new tracks around the back of Viewbank. A bit of lower back stiffness early on but that loosened up pretty quickly.

C • 2009 7

A steady run, a bit of a grind but never really got tired, and held a reasonable pace throughout. Not too many signs of life in suburban Melbourne at 8-9 in the morning during the Christmas-New Year week. Probably the last day of reasonably cool conditions before an extended hot spell.

C • drought 3

Re-acquainting myself with the track along the back of the Mornington Peninsula down from Sorrento - a nice mixture of gravel, bare earth and sand (some of it pretty soft), and plenty of short sharp hills over the dunes. Felt a bit flat in the middle but otherwise a pretty reasonable run.

Went the other way along the back beach this time, towards Rye. For something a bit different, threw in two lots of 10x20 second surges, 20 second recovery (experimenting with some ideas that Cassie passed on from a sports science person she's had some dealings with in Norway). Seemed OK, particularly the second set. A bit tired at the end.

10x1 minute reps along the top of the cliffs at the Blairgowrie back beach, 1 min jog recovery. Quite a good spot for it with a mix of gravel, rock and soft sand. Warm-up was dire but pretty good once I actually got into the reps, getting significantly faster as it went on.

Christmas Day is quite often a big training day for me - it's in the middle of a base period, and it's a less logistically challenging day most years than Boxing Day (with its combination of the cricket and my grandmother's birthday). I've had a few epics on December 25 over the years, not least last year in Norway, 2.10 on a picture-postcard day on snow-covered forest roads with Jim Oystein Nybraten (or, from another angle, surviving -45 windchill in Winnipeg in 1989).

This year Christmas falls on a Monday so the big one was done yesterday, and not surprisingly it didn't leave me with an awful lot for what was a pretty mediocre run today.

It was a bit early (and a bit cold) for a common feature of Australian Christmas runs, namely seeing new bikes, cricket bats et al. being put to their first use, but I did hear the sounds of excitable small children from inside various premises as I went past.

With a little imagination today could pass for a European or North American Christmas - it's 8 degrees outside and snowing down to about 800 metres. The only giveaway is that it will still be light at 8 p.m....

A very solid long run, probably the best of this training cycle so far - the ideal conditions helped (14 degrees, mostly cloudy, light wind). A little weak in the first few km but settled down well, just in time to take on Plenty River Drive in Greensborough (one of the more fearsome hills to be found in our neck of the woods). Really flowing well in the middle (hope all the dog-walkers along Diamond Creek were impressed), more of a grind in the last hour but didn't really tire until the last 10 minutes. Longest since February.

Went looking for hills today - there are a few around my place if you go looking them, with the combination of Eaglemont, the north end of North Balwyn and the west end of Bulleen.

Woke up with a sore knee for no obvious reason (maybe rolled awkwardly during the night?). Didn't bother me at all on the run but a bit uncomfortable walking afterwards. Hopefully nothing significant.

The run itself was fine, taking advantage of the much cooler conditions today.

Today's a rest day from running (not a bad one to have - it was 30 degrees at 6 a.m., and riding in a howling crosswind wasn't a lot of fun), so it's a good opportunity for my end-of-year awards (drum-roll):

The Who Says Orienteering Isn't A Contact Sport Award: Eric Bone and Mike Smith for their efforts in the WOC sprint qualifier. They came back bleeding in similar spots and at the finish we thought they might have run into the same obstacle. As it turned out they'd run into each other.

Although as far as I know there were no actual collisions, an honourable mention goes to whoever thought it was a good idea to run the Trail-O WOC in conjunction with the MTBO WOC and have racing bikes and wheelchairs sharing the same tracks at the same time.

Mistake of the Year: David Andersson for running the wrong way around the loop after the spectator control at the WOC middle distance final. Honourable mention to Minna Kauppi for almost managing to blow a five-minute lead in the last section of the WOC relay, and to Valentin Novikov for his mistake while leading towards the end of the middle distance final.

Serial DNF Award: There were a couple of good Australian bids for this one (Troy de Haas for getting disqualified twice in one day at the WOC sprint, and the MTBO relay team for getting all three of their members disqualified), but the winner is one Daniel Antonio Pereira of Hong Kong, who managed to get himself disqualified in all four events at JWOC. The only event he actually finished was the middle qualifier (where he came last).

Most Useless Prize: The winners at the pre-WMOC sprint race in Wiener Neustadt got to take home a copy of a 1998 Austrian sport yearbook (in German). I did notice that said yearbook did contain a disproportionate number of pictures of a certain Russian female tennis player who was a losing quarter-finalist in that year's Austrian Open.

The Basil Fawlty Don't Mention The War Award: To the Finnish and Russian MTBO teams for their protests and counter-protests over Ruslan Gritsan's route choice on the spectator leg at the WOC long distance.

The Know Your Target Audience Award: To the Austrian armed forces for sponsoring WMOC, an event where 95% of the participants weren't Austrian and 100% were at least 34 1/2 years old - not exactly a recruitment opportunity.

(An honourable mention to the caterers at the same event, for having as one of the items for sale - cigarettes).

Best Line of the Year on AP: Kieran Sullivan for saying after a hot run (and aren't all runs hot in Brisbane between, well, August and May?) that he was sweating "like a paedophile at a Wiggles concert".

Worst Major Event Song: A dead-heat between all known entries.

Most Unfortunate Off-Field Injury: Rob Walter's bike crash on Rottnest Island which put him out of the Australian Championships.

Most Political Use of an Event: To the Afghan would-be asylum seekers, housed next to the Norwegian O-festival venue, who decided the event would be a good opportunity to display to the world their non-enthusiasm about their impending deportation. They got a bit of media coverage but got sent back anyway.

Any other suggestions welcome...

C • suggestions 2

Quite a pleasant run although a bit slower than I thought it was. Felt pretty reasonable from the start unlike some recent Thursday runs (a somewhat easier Wednesday helped). A bit of shin soreness late on but nothing to be too worried about. Again feared the worst with the weather but didn't start to heat up significantly until after I finished.

Up in Canberra for Dad's retirement function, and went out in the Black Mountain/Aranda Hill terrain with Cassie. A bit slower than it would have been if I'd gone out on my own, and quite comfortable. Not as many spiders as there usually are on Aranda Hill - will blame this on the drought like everything else.

C • Chief Statistician retiring? 1

Went out again in the late afternoon, with Eric this time - track run in Black Mountain/Bruce Ridge/Gossan Hill. Pretty comfortable although sharper hills a bit iffy.

Would have liked to have had a camera this evening - there were at least 50 kangaroos grazing on the football ground at the Defence Force Academy.

Earlier in the morning than usual and slower at the start than usual (usually I regard 'par' as doing the first loop 5 seconds slower than the next - today it was 14), but nice later on. Fastest loop 9.11, about what I'd be happy with during a base phase.

You get to see some interesting driving (often interestingly inebriated) at this time of year, but yesterday I spotted someone with a number plate 'IAM007'. They were certainly driving like they had a licence to kill (or at least to ignore all traffic laws).

A reasonably tame recovery run, in anticipation of tonight's MFR Christmas party featuring some fun but little training. Definitely knew I'd done 2.5 hours yesterday but ended up reasonably well, which is the objective of a recovery run, after all.

Certainly more friendly conditions than this time last week. Did the Capital City trail loop with Bruce, a solid, steady run (and perhaps a touch quicker than I normally do long ones) without ever hitting real heights. Only started to feel that I was fading in the last couple of minutes, and that's not a bad time to feel like fading, but as long runs go this wasn't particularly high on the degree-of-difficulty scale.

Started to smell a hint of smoke towards the end - I suspect we'll get to know about smoke a lot better by the end o this week :-(

Now for an afternoon in front of the cricket - it would be hard-pressed to live up to yesterday evening's fireworks but you never know.

C • pace 3

Got into the hills today - and Bulleen has plenty of them if you know where to look. Didn't quite do the hills I intended to do because it seemed to be National Road Resurfacing Day today and after going around a couple of construction sites there was one in the way which wasn't crossable, but still found some pretty reasonable ones, and responded OK on them (at least by the standards of the last few weeks, when anything vertical has been a bit of a struggle).

First half-hour was awful, but gradually got going after that - the nice section along the Anniversary Trail cutting down through Camberwell is always good at getting the spirits going. Second half was pretty solid. Smoke not quite as bad as yesterday (could actually see a hint of blue in the sky) and only started to warm up towards the end.

C • Creaking bones and muscles 4

Event: Victorian Sprint Championships
 

A pleasantly smooth run, 10 minutes or so shorter than usual for a Wednesday morning as a token concession to the Sprint Champs tonight (you can tell how seriously I take the Sprint Champs). Weirdest aspect was the red disc on the eastern horizon - the smoke haze is well and truly back. At first I wasn't sure whether it was the moon or the sun and then remembered that if it was a full moon it wouldn't be in the east at 7 in the morning.

Navigated OK, with a couple of iffy route choices but otherwise OK, but no speed whatsoever. Sprinting may not be exactly my strongest point but I should still be a lot closer than 3 minutes to Bruce (and definitely shouldn't be losing to Ian Dodd).

C • I agree 6

5k time trial on the Tan. Started promisingly but then faded away a bit; I'm so used to doing the 'normal' Tan that it was a bit of a change trying to get my pacing right from a different starting point and not racing against anyone. Didn't expect a brilliant time during a heavy base-training phase but would have liked to have been closer to or under 18. Cool and dry, a bit windy at times but couldn't ask for much better conditions at this time of year.

Getting to/from the tan for the above.

Obviously someone from the Kazakhstan Ministry of Tourism has just been on a fact-finding mission to regional Australia, because I saw today that there is a proposal to build a Big Yurt in Astana. At least it's not a statue of Borat...

C • Your installation as a Kahn 1

A reasonably typical MFR Monday night blob from Rob and Anna's place around the Tan. Impressed at the number of post-Anaconda people (including the soloists) that showed - I felt lazy for only having done 2.5 hours yesterday. As is often the way when we run together, spent most of the run discussing with Anna how to run the state/country/planet and whether the ALP is going to get the opportunity to do the second of these any time soon. Declined the opportunity to watch the DVD of all the election ads from the last campaign.

This was a day to sort out the hard men (and women) from the rest. Got out at 6.45, a little later than I'd planned. Conditions weren't quite as bad as I'd feared - the smoke haze meant that the cool surface layer along the Yarra Flats took longer to break down than it usually would on a day like this, and I got an hour in the bank before it started to warm significantly - but it was still over 30 degrees by the end.

A pretty solid run on the whole, particularly given the conditions. Decided to stay reasonably close to the river (partly to take advantage of the cool conditions early), starting with a loop up through Westerfolds and then back past Hays Paddock to the Chandler. Tap locations were significant landmarks today. Didn't really tire until the last 15 minutes - the last section, without a lot of shade and with the long steady climb past the Repat Hospital, was pretty hard going. A few calf twinges on the steeper climbs from 90 minutes onwards but not as bad as Thursday. A day I'm pleased to have got through, which was as much about training that part of the body above the shoulders; I'll appreciate having done this if we get a 35-degree day at Easter.

Update on the race to 100,000 - my career running total went through 99,000 km today, and the car still hasn't got to 98. Will be touch and go.

Plenty of opportunities for fluid replacement for the rest of the day - two Christmas parties and my cousin's 21st.

Just as well I didn't sleep in - it rose from 30 to 38 degrees in 45 minutes after I finished the run (and ended up peaking at 42).

Not a brilliant start, even by normal standards, but picked up as it went on. Calf fine - Thursday must have been an aberration (although getting treatment on it quickly helped). Smoke haze in Melbourne is becoming increasingly heavy with visibility down to about 2km - last time I saw anything like it was in Beijing last year (although there it was artificial pollution rather than bushfires). Not really looking forward to a long run tomorrow with overnight temperatures probably not dropping below the mid 20s.

Another run where I didn't have a great deal of energy in the first half, but picked up nicely from halfway onwards. A bit of calf tightness in the last 20 minutes for the first time in a while. For a largely inner-city run (Clifton Hill to Elwood then back through Toorak) got a pretty good run with the traffic and the lights, which was good as one can do without interruptions once in a rhythm. Enjoying the cool conditions while they last (and also coming to the end of a pretty tough cluster of runs).

I think this is the first time I've cracked 10 hours on AP, although that's cheating a bit because it's a product of doing my midweek long run on Friday last week and back to the usual Thursday this week. Enjoying it while it lasts.

Took until 45 minutes into the run to wake up (it was early but not that early). Improved after that and even reasonably nice in the last 10 minutes.

The seven-day cycle is alive and well - there have only been two brief showers in Melbourne in the last 2 1/2 weeks, and they have started within 200 metres of each other on the ride in on successive Wednesday mornings. This particular shower failed to trouble the scorers (although one of my colleagues claims to have observed the princely sum of 0.1 millimetres).
Did a radio interview this morning on the drought which finished off with being asked whether there was anything we could be optimistic about. Best response I could come up with: "the cricket".

C • cracker quote Blair! 5

Another street-O, another head-to-head with Adam, and with the same result. This time, instead of taking the lead early, I got dropped a little at the start and was 30-50 metres down early on, but pulled it in through a couple of wobbles on his part. There was then a bit of foxing in mid-course because I'd spotted what I thought was a good and non-obvious route choice and wanted to stay behind until the critical decision point. It was a good route choice, but it wasn't as non-obvious as I thought because he saw it too. That then made it a running race for the last 3k; I had a bit more left than I have the last couple of weeks, but still not enough to avoid going down by 20 metres. Had hoped to get the benefit of a bit of an angle going the opposite way around a block on the last control but the road had a bit of an (unmapped) kink in it, which counts for a bit in the context of a sprint finish. Still a decent run.

We might have got the route choice (the course-setter can't have seen it either because the optimum route was advertised as 9.9), but plenty of others didn't - several who have been very competitive in recent weeks (such as Bryan Ackerly and David Kipp) were well down tonight.

Not as bad as yesterday but still a bit listless, particularly uphill, and noticeably slower than in most recent weeks (9.25).

Definitely struggled to get going after a hard few days. Better after the first 10 minutes but never a particularly comfortable run, although there were some fun bits on the Eaglemont Flats single-track section.

In the last few years quite a bit of OA Conference business has been done on the Sunday morning long run, but with others on the injured list I was on my own away for an early-morning jaunt, starting out around the south side of the lake as far as Kings Avenue, then up to Bruce Ridge and Gossan Hill. Didn't feel brilliant early on, but kept plugging away and kept going for a pretty solid effort (being 15 degrees cooler than Friday helped). Didn't feel as if I had a lot left at the end but then I rarely do on the long ones (and this was the longest I've done since February). The end of a big week.

In the terrain on Black Mountain - good to take the opportunity of being in Canberra to get out into the bush. Still a bit weak on the hills but nothing compared with yesterday. Pulled up with a bit of soreness after yesterday in the left hip/upper leg (a bit lower down than the area which was troubling me in August/September) - a few twinges today but nothing to worry about too much.

The annual OA Conference race. I thought it might be a formidable field this year with the array of talent on this year's Board, but they're all either injured or were otherwise engaged at Glenn's wedding. Ran this pretty solidly (including the first big climb), a wobble early on one leg but otherwise pretty good (mind you, I know Black Mountain pretty well). Took a couple of direct routes I probably wouldn't have done in a more serious race.

C • Ben rhymes with Glenn 3

My first warm-weather long run for the season and I didn't exactly come through with flying colours, struggling badly in the last 30 minutes as the temperature appeared to rise by a degree per kilometre (ended up being 29 by the end). Not bad for the first half, although Green Hills is not the pleasant running country it used to be (and there's absolutely no shade, a big difference from most Melbourne runs). Had originally been planning to come back around the eastern side of Black Mountain and over the saddle but that would have taken it out to 2.15 or so, which was longer than I wanted (and, as it turned out, perhaps longer than I could have handled).

Heaps of kangaroos on the western side of Black Mountain, even by normal standards.