Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The Mona fartlek session in Port Fairy along the beachfront. A fairly nondescript run at first but got pretty good by the end, with some real zip on the last few intervals. Did some fairly hard work into the wind at times. Port Fairy in mid-winter has the feel of a British seaside town (although the food's better).

This was the last leg of the trip; I got home tonight (after a few final deviations along the Great Ocean Road, into the Otways, and through Colac so it no longer had the status of being the only Victorian town larger than 5,000 that I've never been to). It's definitely been an interesting four weeks (and 8,573 kilometres). Naturally it makes me want to think about next time - I have tentative thoughts about 2009, when (a) WMOC's in Australia so there's less reason to go Europe and (b) I come up for long-service leave.

Headed south-east from Adelaide today, which naturally meant a visit to Cantara - not too long as this was supposed to be a recovery session, but still nice to go there. I'd heard on the grapevine that the area had thickened up to the point of being potentially unusable. It has thickened up in places; the area is not unusable, but parts of the present map may be (at least without very careful course-setting, given how critical the gaps in the green are to route choice there). Went out to the beach at one stage - definitely a wild and woolly place in winter (even on a clear and reasonably calm day). The run was OK, although I wasn't particularly aggressive in the terrain, in an area where you need to be if you're going to run well.

Millicent seems quite proud of its (very large) wind farm. My boss (who grew up there) will be pleased. I wonder what magical property the 141st parallel has which makes wind farms non-controversial west of it but hugely controversial east of it?

The end of Kevin Sheedy's coaching career led me to reflect on one of my most interesting sporting experiences. In the early 1990s I got the opportunity (thanks to a great-uncle who was a premiership player in the 1940s) to spend the pre-match in the Essendon rooms. With my main exposure to football being through media stereotypes, I was expecting a lot of fire and brimstone, but it wasn't like that at all - rather he was spending a lot of time one-on-one with individuals, using a particular angle with each of them (I recall him saying to someone - Darren Bewick, I think - that he was a chance of being picked for the state team if he had a good game). Certainly gave me some broader insight into sports coaching at the highest level.

C • Cantara 5

Once again this was retracing a memorable run from the past. This time it was from 1990, when we came up to Wilpena after Easter at Burra. (I was only there that time because, thanks to my absence overseas the previous year and an overly rigid set of selection criteria, I hadn't been invited to that year's national junior camp - in fact the only one of those I ever got to was in my first year as a senior, the 1992 camp which was much better remembered for its food-poisoning outbreak than for its orienteering). On that 1990 trip I went for a longish run along a beautiful valley north from Wilpena, and headed the same way today.

The surroundings were still beautiful but this time the quality of my run didn't really match them - I felt a bit light-headed and lacking energy for a lot of it. It was at its best in the third quarter (which was also the section with the most climbing), but fell away at the end.

I'm now in Adelaide after travelling south during the afternoon. Noticed that someone who thinks they know better than Goyder is attempting to grow a crop of some kind just north of Hawker.

C • Goyder smoyder 4

I've competed three times in the Flinders Ranges, all of them results or events of some personal significance. In 2003 a third in the SA Champs was the first tangible sign of real progress after 18 months of injury, whilst in 1997 a weekend here rekindled my briefly flagging enthusiasm after having been somewhat contentiously left out of the WOC team a couple of weeks earlier. The first time I was here, in 1986, was one I'd always looked on as a major breakthrough result in my junior career. Up until then I'd been the best in my own (very weak) year and had won a couple of national championships when in the older half of the age group, but Wilpena 1986 was the first time I'd won in a field as a first-year without getting considerable assistance from others stuffing up. Four days later I repeated the result at that year's nationals (with assistance from a bizarre start draw that had me two hours after any other serious contender, meaning that I started knowing exactly what time I was chasing), and only lost four more times in the rest of my Australian junior career - before hitting the wider world and discovering that I'd been a big fish in a very small pond.

I decided to re-run the 1986 course, partly because the 1997 and 2003 maps were on private land. 1986 was a long time ago. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussain were fighting on our side, Canberra had one commercial TV station (which closed down overnight) and no FM radio stations, two of the people who beat me in this year's nationals hadn't been born yet, and I still had a brother as well as a sister. The map had stayed remarkably stable over that time - one open area which had regrown but that was about it - and once again was a joy to run on, endless subtle gullies in delightful open cypress pine forest.

I was running at cruising speed (the ankle was fine today for running, although still a little uncomfortable driving), so was very surprised to look at my watch at the end of the 1986 course and see 37.30 (suggesting that at race speed I'd have been able to go down under 35, probably to 33-34). In 1986 I did 38.30 racing. My base running speed now (as measured by 10km road times) is pretty much what it was in late 1986, so what's changed? It's an fascinating question and one which is essentially unanswerable (I noticed that in 1986 I ran in watercourses quite a bit rather than alongside them as I would now) - was it navigation speed? was it the ability to convert running speed into the terrain? It might be an interesting exercise to send the best people of that age now (Josh, Lachlan and Oscar - if you're reading, this means you) out on an area likely to stay stable for a long time with one of the GPS watches, and then get them to come back and re-run the course sometime in the late 2020s.

Once the course was done I switched onto a few controls drawn on the map in pencil, which I suspect was leftover from a training practice of mine from 1986-87 - I'd draw up a course (often a ridiculously long one) on a map and then visualise running it in my head whilst on road/track runs. (Later I switched to taking things like quotes from novels I was studying for English to memorise; both methods seemed quite effective in developing an ability to maintain concentration on the run).

Once the run was done I spent the afternoon walking in Wilpena, as spectacular as always. I've done St. Mary's Peak before (and in any case half a day isn't enough for it) so climbed Ohlssen Bagge instead.

The people of Boulia will be pleased: their shire remains intact (as do pretty well all the others in western Queensland). I was a bit disppointed that the commissioners passed up the opportunity to merge the Cloncurry council into outer space.

C • cracker read 5

Now at Marree at the other end of the Birdsville Track. It's not a trip that would appeal to everybody, but if you like remoteness and endless subtle variations of country then it's worth doing. The road itself was fine - only a few rough patches (and almost no corrugations). I did manage to get a puncture, but picked a good spot to do it - coming into Mungerannie Roadhouse, where I was going to spend the night anyway. (Oddly, the offending object wasn't one of the sharp rocks, but a bit of stray metal, something that could have happened just as easily on a Melbourne street).

The ankle is still a concern. Bizarrely, I think it's a driving overuse injury as it's most uncomfortable at foot-on-accelerator angle (and you can't use cruise control on the Birdsville Track), and loosens up within a couple of minutes after getting out of the car. I'd planned a rest day today but probably wouldn't have tried to run on it anyway the way it feels now; will give it a try tomorrow. (Going for a run on the Wilpena map was high on my to-do list for this trip so I'll be disappointed if I'm not up to the task).

An out-and-back along the old Birdsville track (the Inside Track) for a dose of desert solitude. A pleasant run getting to see the country up much closer than you do in a car - the most striking thing is the stillness (enough that you can easily hear a vehicle 3 or 4km away). There's a fair bit of grass growth around, thanks to good rains earlier in the year - it would have looked very different, say, last December. The run was steady without being stellar. A hint of soreness at times at the front of the right ankle which will bear watching. Also managed to get swooped by a magpie on the way out of town, a couple of months earlier than it usually happens down south.

I set off down the Birdsville Track this morning. I'm not expecting it to be especially difficult, just long (and at this time of year it gets enough traffic that it would be hard to get into really serious trouble).

An out-and-back from Boulia along the Mount Isa road. A steady run without being anything too special.

Even by the standards of everywhere else in rural Queensland, there were plenty of visible signs of local non-enthuasiasm about the prospects of local council amalgamations. As noted a couple of months ago on these pages this issue has generated more than its share of hyperbolic rhetoric and misinformation, but I wasn't about to venture such an opinion in the local pub (although I suspect it was a case of 'spot the local' there in any case).

Finally made it to Birdsville, with no dramas so far - the roads have been better than I was expecting. Having got this far I could hardly not run up Big Red (the sand dune 35km west of town which marks the true start of the Simpson Desert). I had been thinking of using it for a set of hill intervals but it was soft enough that getting up it at jogging pace was a stretch, so instead I ran along the base for 25 minutes and then climbed the dune at the end. Felt surprisingly comfortable in the heat, which is starting to get noticeable (27 today).

Those back in Melbourne may think my trip is reasonably ambitious, but I felt rather inadequate in conversation at the campground - everyone else seemed to be either just in from a Simpson Desert crossing or just about to do one (and the really hard-core ones were doing it the hard way, the one which involves 1135 dune crossings, rather than the conventional way). It also seems to be very much a middle-aged person's game. There must be someone younger than me in Birdsville but I haven't seen one yet (either tourist or local).

C • Can't add to the young people ... 1

Another run to a weather station, this time in Richmond - having started the camping part of the trip a bit earlier than anticipated because the town was booked out by railway workers. Did some higher-intensity work for the first time since the nationals, throwing in two sets of 10 20-second sprints with 20 seconds jog in between. Didn't feel too sharp doing them but it's a start.

The rest of the day was spent getting to Boulia, a surprisingly interesting trip. I'd expected it to be dead flat but there were some interesting low, rocky ranges for long stretches. One section would have made fabulous orienteering (or rogaining) country, but 160km west of the nearest settlement (Winton) and 1400km from Brisbane, I don't expect it's going to get mapped any time soon.

Once again in Townsville. Didn't feel too sparkling for most of it but a nice setting. Once again did all the climb in one go (this time on a secondary summit of Castle Hill). In what has been a very cool July in this part of the world, this was the first morning on which I noticed anything remotely resembling humidity (and probably the last given where I'm headed).

I now head inland - if things go to plan, to Birdsville by Wednesday night and the Flinders Ranges by the weekend. Updates are likely to be pretty sporadic.

In Townsville. Did all the climbing in the first 20 minutes as I started off up Castle Hill - about a 300 metres climb but not too difficult as the road's a pretty constant 10% grade. Once that was done, did a section along the Strand, then out into suburbia for most of the rest of it - some of it was attractive and some of it wasn't. A decent run, with a bit of quad soreness after coming off Castle Hill, but that was gone quickly. Full of running in the last 20 minutes.

Spent most of the day on Magnetic Island (including quite a bit of walking, so the legs had plenty of work today). It's a very attractive island with a lot of beaches set in amongst rocky bays - a little bit like Wilsons Promontory in the tropics. (There's a lot of granite generally in the Townsville region, but whether any of it's in runnable and non-vertical forest is another question).

Similar basic pattern for this one but with a few add-ons, including one steep one up to the bottom of the stairs at the end of the Whitsunday walking track. Had hoped to go around the hill at Cannonvale but the track marked on the map didn't exist, so went around town again to make up the distance. Another run which was reasonable without being stellar.

I was finishing along the main street of Airlie Beach at 9.09 when I spotted the first person walking down the street reading the new Harry Potter.

Cassie and Jim flew back to Brisbane today. I've now moved on to Townsville where I'll be for the next couple of nights.

Had to get out pretty early for this one before spending the rest of the day on a trip out to the reef. A fairly nondescript short run along the waterfront between Airlie Beach and Cannonvale. Airlie Beach itself is a bit of a tourist trap, but it's a great jumping-off point for a lot of trips (including being one of the better access points to the outer reef, where we headed).

The reef itself was definitely a sight to remember - and one of my major motivations for this trip was to see it while it's still there - although the sea was a little too rough for snorkelling to be comfortable. It was also rough enough for a lot of people to encounter difficulties on the trip home. I seem to have a reasonably cast-iron stomach and survived without undue difficulty.

A out-and-back run from Springsure along the Tambo road (which obviously doesn't go anywhere for a long way because the only placename on the sign was 'Tambo 250'). A pleasant run on a nice morning in rolling countryside which was chiefly memorable for my longest uninterrupted dog chase for many years - one started following me 100 metres from the start and was still following me when the owner found us next to the Springsure 10km peg. It didn't cause me much hassle but I was worried about its potential interaction with the traffic (such as it was). I felt very good indeed for the first hour of the run, tailed off a bit later on but still pretty good.

A sign of the perils of night driving in these parts - I counted 13 roadkilled roos, several of them very recent. On to Airlie Beach today.

An unscheduled rest day today, at least from running - although 25km of walking at Carnarvon Gorge probably makes up for it. I was meeting Cassie and Jim (and a couple of their friends, Roger and Karen) at the gorge in the morning. I'd originally thought I would run beforehand but they wanted to meet at 8 which made things a bit tight. I then planned to go out at the end of the day but we got in too late for that, thanks to a visit on the way to Springsure to the coal mine Roger works at - definitely an opportunity too good to pass up (especially as we got to go right into the open cut and see some very, very big machines).

The gorge walk was every bit as impressive as I expected it to be.

A morning run around Lightning Ridge, giving me a chance to have a good look around the opal fields. The town itself has more of an air of permanence than I'd expected in a speculative mining town - if it wasn't for every second business in the main street being engaged in buying or selling opals and the 'Claims for Sale' notes on the board at the local supermarket, one could be forgiven for mistaking it for a normal NSW country town (complete with impressively large pokie palace). The opal fields were more as I'd expected - lots of mounds (and probably lots of holes but I didn't look too closely). Finished off with a stretch out to the local airport and back. The airport, strangely, has an electric fence. I can't imagine terrorism is a huge problem in these parts (although hold-ups of opal shipments might be).

The run started well but faded away a bit later on, probably through not having eaten breakfast yet.

Spent the rest of the day on the road up to Carnarvon Gorge.

Starting the big road trip. I was in Coonabarabran and went for an easy recovery run in the morning, chiefly memorable because it was the coldest run I've done since Norway at Christmas 2005: -6 degrees. This shouldn't have come as a big surprise to me as one of my better-known papers is called 'A notable frost hollow at Coonabarabran, New South Wales'. (The findings in said paper also encouraged me to head for the hills where it was a bit warmer - since I'd forgotten to bring any gloves).

The run was pretty lacklustre but I expected that after a hard week of racing. Spent most of the rest of the day walking in the Warrumbungles before driving to Lightning Ridge.

Australian Relays. Victoria did its best to throw away the National League today but didn't quite succeed. We were in a very strong position going in - third place (of the states) was enough no matter what other results, and unless SA won fifth would be enough.

I ran second leg. Toph didn't have a great first leg and we were a few minutes behind ACT (who we expected to run down easily) and behind NSW and SA. I went out with Ian Anderson (Queensland) and Bruce Arthur (our second tea). I've often struggled badly to come up physically on Australian Relays day in recent years (the one exception, oddly enough, was 2005 when I hit the wall badly in the individual). Today wasn't too bad, and there were only a couple of minor wobbles technically. It was a bit frustrating not being able to get away from Ian but that probably said more about his run than mine. I lost a bit of ground on a wide route choice at 10, but then pulled away a bit over the last section, helped by Bruce having a longer split. That left us in fourth, but SA were behind NSW and we expected Troy to run Jase down easily, so we seemed fairly safe. That was until Troy completely missed the first spectator control. At that stage we knew our team was disqualified and we were going to need our second team to do the business. Jim was still behind ACT at the final spectator point, but hauled Jase in at the end - and in any case NSW pulled away on the last leg so fourth would have been enough.

So ends another Australian Championships carnival week, with a set of essentially par results. At 36 I'm probably not going to get a lot better, perhaps pinching the odd top-five result when I run well and others make enough mistakes, but as long as I can be a serious contributor to the Nuggets there is still plenty of incentive to keep training seriously.

Australian Long Distance Championships, 9th. A very solid run except for one control. Unfortunately that control was just about my worst time loss of the year - came in underneath 9 at the end of a long leg and lost about 2.5 minutes. Ryan caught me there, and we were essentially together for the rest of the course - hardly put a foot wrong. My best chance to get away was after the spectator control at 20. 21 was a longish leg with a big climb at the end. I didn't stop for a drink at 20, with the plan of forcing Ryan to surge to catch me (which he did) and giving me a better chance to crack him on the big climb into 21 (he didn't). After that it was essentially game over unless we split on route choice or he made a mistake, neither of which happened.

Very happy with the way I lasted the distance - I still had a fair bit left at the end, or at least I felt like I did. Frustrated, though, that the mistake was the difference between a par result and a very good one (which 4th or 5th would have been) - although then if I hadn't made the mistake Ryan wouldn't have caught me and I probably would have been slower.

Very impressive run by Shep.

A somewhat limited warm-up - I was still writing JWOC race reports 20 minutes before my start time. Sluggish on the uphill first leg but quickly hit my stride and then settled into a pretty good run, both physically and technically - only negative was still lacking a bit of strength on the last climb into 15. Only misses were 10 seconds or so on each of 4 and 11 (which gave Cassie the opportunity to take a couple of splits off me). Had a good scrap with Julian Taylor from the Queensland juniors over the last part of the course - impressed by both his speed and navigation (especially for someone who couldn't make the Queensland schools team).

Middle distance qualifying today and no public race so was back in town by early afternoon and went out for a run. This enabled me to carry out step 1 of my other mission for this trip. One of my long-term ambitions is to visit all 103 of the locations in the data set I use for Australian temperature monitoring. I've bagged 59 so far and expect to get another 10 or so on this trip.

This meant my plan was to run out to Dubbo Airport (or at least close enough to it to sight the thermometer screen). I didn't expect this to be a brilliant running environment as most of the way there was along a highway, but there was a decent track parallel to the road for most of it, taking me past such sights as one of Australia's many abandoned drive-in movie theatres (showing an impressive amount of weed colonisation) and the Orana Juvenile Justice Centre. Got some enthusiastic support (at least I think it was support) at a point on the way back from some members of the local indigenous community (not the ones in the Juvenile Justice Centre). Finished off with a loop through the south end of West Dubbo, and pulled up a bit early on meeting the Johnsons and Mounts by the river, and discussing media in general and the Great Hydrogen Scandal in particular.

The run itself was reasonable, certainly not as sluggish as the last two days, but still not brilliant.

First chance to get out on the JWOC terrain. Felt sluggish after a morning doing the commentary for the Schools, and wasn't running that aggressively in a terrain that demands it (no point in doing so in a midweek race which I ran mainly to give myself some terrain familiarisation before running the nationals next door on Saturday). Navigated reasonably well, although a bit hesitant at times and a couple of 30-seconders. Felt better towards the end.

Very enjoyable terrain to be in. It's rocky underfoot, sometimes very rocky, and quite steep, but you can pick your way through it - it never felt like a slog in the way that one might expect a course with 5.5% climb and 8 min/km to be a slog. Some of the forest, with cypress pine, green grass and scattered boulers, was gorgeous to be in. Really looking forward to the rest of the week.

C • Frenchmen... 1

A loosening run after coming back from a long day at JWOC. Started out along the river where we ran the sprint and then looped through the east side of town. Unsurprisingly saw a few JWOC team officials also out running (possibly also a competitor or two if they were really keen), and a few other familiar faces in the centre of town. Also unsurprisingly felt sluggish most of way.

If you were trying to find a form of orienteering totally unsuited to me it would be hard to go past a mass-start sprint race. There were a few people on the start line who were talking about using me as the chief navigator (whereupon I told them about the World Cup race in Switzerland in 1996 - otherwise infamous for the flash flood - where I was leading a pack of 12 which I didn't expect to be able to outsprint, so I deliberately punched a wrong control that I spotted and got most of the rest of the pack either disqualified or very confused).

As it turned out I drifted a bit wide on the longish first leg and was almost at the back of the field, and then spent the rest of the course picking people off one by one, rising to about halfway 1.20 down, which isn't actually too bad for me in a sprint. Would have been quite an interesting sprint as an interval start race, with some nice detail near the river, but the number of people out meant there was essentially no navigation. Didn't feel that sharp but that was no surprise. The steeper river banks were very slippery after morning rain - anyone who didn't end up on their backside at least once wasn't trying very hard.

C • Cute tactic. I hadn't heard th... 1

Event: JWOC 2007
 

A steady run which was a bit slower than I would have liked, on an area with gully-spur and rock lines - reminded me a bit of Julimar (the WA National League area from 2005).

Didn't miss much, just a couple of 15-seconders - pleasing in particular to nail some difficult ones coming down onto rock lines from above. Lasted the distance OK but not as sharp as I'd like to be. The final result was 5th (and not too far away from 2nd), but Shep was a long way away, 12 minutes ahead - a fair reflection of my speed (I even got done in the finish chute by my sister - who had a pretty reasonable run herself).

Caught Rune 4 minutes at 13. He ran away and then I caught him again out of 18. He ran away again and I didn't see him again, but finished a couple of minutes ahead of him on the ground so he must have hit further trouble.

Road sign watch: on the way between Parkes and Peak Hill: 'You are now entering the Bogan Catchment'. Hopefully there's a similar sign in the reverse direction on the way out to the JWOC areas - it will give the Australians the chance to introduce everyone to some Australianisms.

Last hit-out before the championships week. Was staying on a farm about 20km out of Birchip and did an out-and-back up the local road. The bitumen ended at their gate so I was on dirt all the way (I didn't ask our hosts whether either of them has ever been mayor).

A nice run on a windy morning - felt pretty good, even quite strong at times.

C • Ridings 2

Reasonable session in the city. Included a loop around the Tan where I pushed the pace up to around 4 mins/km pace, felt OK. Stomach a bit iffy. Got caught in a sharp shower in the last few minutes.

I leave Melbourne today, initially for Birchip (where I'm working tomorrow), then for Dubbo, then for a couple of weeks in Queensland (coast first, then outback) returning through SA. Updates may be somewhat sporadic, especially after the JWOC week.

Around the hills of Eaglemont, most of it on the branch newsletter delivery run. A patchy run, strong on some hills but lacklustre on others.

More or less by accident we've (hopefully) got some additional media publicity for JWOC. I was doing an interview on matters climatological with the statewide drive program of ABC Radio NSW (which covers the whole state except Sydney) and dropped in a reference to JWOC. As a result they're keen to do a reports slot with me next week. Hopefully it comes off.

(The listeners of ABC Newcastle must be getting sick of the sound of my voice as it's the second time they would have heard from me today - I spoke with them earlier about something else - but I've probably still got about 50 to go to catch up to the Minister for Ports).

C • Media talent 5

Reasonably routine session at Fitzroy. Took a while to get going. As we move into July the Fitzroy pool (which is outdoors) is increasingly a place for the hard core - certainly not as many around as there were in, say, March.

C • Weather 3

A not particularly fast MFR Monday night run, with a larger crowd than usual for winter (partly because Rune drew a crowd, I'm sure). Felt OK without being stellar.

I spent most of the day checking old cyclone tracks so it was natural that my mind at one point turned to trying to work out how many members of tonight's contingent (running and otherwise) have cyclones named after them. The answer appears to be four - Warren (category 3, Gulf of Carpentaria, 1995), Fergus (category 2, New Zealand, 1996), Zoe (category 5, Solomon Islands, 2002) and Max (category 1, Darwin, 1981). Perhaps surprisingly there's never been a Bruce or a Nicola; less surprisingly, there's also never been a Rune or a Torgeir.

C • Cyclone Torgeir 2

Did the 2-hour score event in the Yarra Parklands. Plan was to treat it as a Sunday long(ish) run with a target of around 105 minutes. I thought they'd struggle to keep us out for 105 minutes on a map of that size, but you can put some pretty convoluted legs in when you've got a winding river through the middle of the map, and while I was always reasonably confident I'd get them all inside the distance it wasn't until the last quarter that it was an absolutely sure thing. The course took us a bit more off-track than I was expecting (runners weren't really the ideal shoes for grip, although there was enough bitumen for O-shoes to have been awkward too), and some fun bits on the narrow track which runs right next to the river east of the boathouse.

The run was OK without ever reaching great heights. Quads were a little sore after the big hills of yesterday, although not to an extent that really caused any problems with the run. Found the hills, where they existed, harder going than yesterday.

Quite a few of the other Nuggets had similar ideas to me when it came to this event, leading to a rather better field than you'd normally expect for a weekend park event. There were also a couple of familiar faces who we haven't seen for a short (Rune Olsen) and long (George El-Hage) time respectively.

C • George 2