Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Spent the morning doing whatever was needed (mostly commentary) at Beechworth, which dragged on a bit longer than planned because the courses were a bit longer than planned (a bit of a map-scale misadventure) and a few competitors were consequently out for a lot longer than planned. We were just about to try to work out how to interrogate SI units with a view to determining likely search areas when the last person turned up. (One lesson of a couple of mishaps at the 5-days: it's become too big enough an event to be able to get away with not having controllers).

I'd decided to wait and see what everyone else was doing before deciding whether to head home tonight or stay around. Once it became clear most others were leaving town I decided to do likewise. A ride of a couple of hours was always on the agenda for today, and I ended up deciding to do it late afternoon on the way home (which became later still because of a side trip to visit a friend/work colleague - who I hadn't seen for ages because she's been on maternity leave - at her parents' place in Benalla).

A few hundred times up and down the Hume does leave one wondering what all the signs off the road are pointing to. In most cases it's probably hamlets with a few houses which have seen better days, a derelict pub, an overgrown tennis court and a Country Fire Authority shed (although if Locksley, my starting point, has one of these, I didn't see it). Headed west along the road to Nagambie, turning around when I hit the highway about 2k south of Nagambie. This is flat country - I only changed gears four times on the whole ride (twice in each direction across the overpass for the under-construction Nagambie bypass) - and is starting to look pretty dry; it won't take too many more dry months before the d-word starts to surface again. (The multiple 40+ days likely in the next fortnight won't help the cause). One farm close to the road was advertising 'Canaries for Sale', something I hope not to see too much of during the January transfer window.

Every one of the (not many) cars which passed gave me masses of space - city drivers take note.

Started out very well but tired a bit in the second half; a couple of minutes slower coming back despite having the better of the wind.

Just as well most of the Arrows are spending the next fortnight in New Zealand; Adelaide is likely to have at least three, and perhaps as many as seven, 40+ days between now and the end of next week. Melbourne and Canberra will get off a bit more lightly than that, but it still won't be pretty.

And so ends a year which was pretty frustrating from the competitive point of view - there weren't many significant races which I managed to avoid illness or injury for (in particular I seemed to be very good at getting sick at inopportune times this year, WMOC being the worst of them). It remains to be seen what difference losing a few weeks at the end of the year will make.

Best race of the year was probably the Victorian Relays (but then I managed to injure myself somewhere between the finish line and the bakery and missed another few days), with honourable mentions to the Bermuda Triangle race in October and - not something you'll often hear me saying - the sprint first day of the Swiss 5-Days (another campaign which was soon scuttled). Hopefully 2013 won't be as frustrating.

Best run of 2012 was the first one - well worth missing last year's fireworks for (it was forecast to be very hot so I was out the door not long after 6). Somewhat unusually for recent years my best run of the year was actually in Australia. I'll be surprised if my first run of 2013 is the best one (and it probably won't be good news for the rest of the year if it is).

C • too true 1

The main part of the day was, of course, the event I was setting at Rowdy Flat. I didn't end up having to do much in the field today - just checking a few controls earlier in the morning (had I been in a fit state to do so I would have tried to run around as many as I could between sunrise and first start). The event seemed to go pretty well - plenty of compliments despite the many mistakes people made. The only negative I'm aware of was that the contrast between the purple (courses) and brown on the map wasn't strong enough, which meant that the control numbers weren't visible enough (especially as large parts of this map have no white space to shift numbers into), and some people aimed for a crossover control which was about halfway along the long leg, not such a bad route choice in any case.

Also did a bit of commentary and a few post-race interviews, including one with a very talkative Jared McKenna (an early finisher on course 7). No idea where he might have got those genes from.

After all was packed up, I headed to the Yackandandah pool after lunch. The shallow end had its share of local kids (and a few parents) but I had the deep end more or less to myself, and there's something nice about a country pool on a hot day. Didn't feel that lively in the session though, perhaps through doing it too close to lunch.

A ride from Yackandandah on a loop through Osborne and Allans Flat down to Baranduda then back up the main road. Didn't give this one enough respect - certainly not the respect I would have given a two-hour run in the middle of a 30-degree day - and suffered a bit in the later stages for it, not least because there was a pretty solid climb from about 8 to 3km out of Yackandandah. Still, it will do me good to push my boundaries a bit.

The knee has improved significantly in the last couple of days - amazing what throwing some drugs at it will do. I'd backed out of doing as much on the 5-days control placement as originally planned because I was worried about being able to handle the erosion gullies, but it worked out fine (once we finally got some stands - the ones we were supposed to be using went back to Melbourne after day 2 by mistake, so we've improvised by using the day 5 stands and taping over the numbers).

From the city down Beach Road as far as Sandringham after a physio session and before heading up to the Northeast. Having to work reasonably hard into the wind through the first half but (as you'd expect) much easier after turning around. Not a lot of people around by usual Beach Road standards (and certainly not as much bling as you'd usually see on a weekend morning).

The physio news was better than I expected; he thinks it essentially comes down to imbalances caused by muscle weaknesses in the glutes (which would also explain the hamstring soreness which troubled me on long road trips in the later part of the year) and thinks the knee soreness should clear once that's sorted out. He's even cautiously optimistic that I might make the starting line in NZ. We'll see.

Event: 2012 Christmas 5 Days
 

The main anticipation today was getting the results from the MRI back. The good news, I think, is that there's nothing really structurally wrong (and definitely nothing that's going to need surgery); it looks to be inflammation in various places which are particularly slow to heal (perhaps a more severe version of my issues from late 2010, although the numbness which was an occasional feature of that has never appeared this time?). I think this is good news as surgery would have meant little chance of being back before March and probably the first half of the season pretty much gone from a competitive point of view, but it does mean my prospects are somewhat open-ended. Doesn't look great for my chances of fronting up at the start line in New Zealand next week, though.

The day's exercise (apart from various short bits of bicycle commuting) was at the end of the day, a swim at Fitzroy. Unexpectedly, I was full of energy once in the water, and also remembered better than I usually do that I have two arms and might move faster in the water if I at least attempted to put both of them seriously to use. The end result of this was my fastest swim for a long time. Felt tired (especially in the aforementioned underutilised left arm) in the second half, but didn't slow down.

The reason I had lots of energy may have been because I didn't consume much of it during the day, spent at the MCG. It's remarkable how much of a difference there is between the bits of the lower level which are under cover and the bits which aren't - I was under cover and it was very relaxed, but fifteen rows in front and a bay across it was a different story. One particular character, in a black singlet with a Southern Cross on the back and 'Australian and Proud of It Since 1854' on the front (I doubt Peter Lalor would have been impressed), looked a prime going-home-in-the-back-of-a-divvy-van candidate, and was, although he did last until the second ball of the final over. At least the amount raised during the day in fines might keep a Victorian public servant somewhere in a job.

Back down at Blairgowrie for 24 hours (there's a lot of shuttling back and forth at this time of year) and headed for the backyard lap pool again - was tempted to instead head for the rock pool at the back beach - definitely no worries about the water being deep enough there, but no way of keeping track of the time. Also tried running about 50 metres to the shops - certainly not right but indicated that I might be able to get through a course if needed. Will find out more tomorrow when I get the MRI results back.

If things had been going to plan I'd be heading for the 5-days tomorrow morning, but as things haven't gone to plan I'll be heading to the MCG instead. Will still come up (obviously) for the days I'm involved in organising.

A possibly unwanted consequence of social media is being able to hear about families in five different cities, in four countries on three continents, spending their Christmas collectively throwing up.

C • rock pool 1

No Christmas long run this year but there was a long(ish) ride, admittedly only about 20% of what Sebba would consider a reasonable day's work but still the longest thing I've done in two months. Headed out north from my place through Greensborough as far north as Doreen, then back along Plenty Road; unsurprisingly suburbia has spread another couple of kilometres north since I was last out this way, and there were a couple of roads which I wouldn't have fancied being on at a time much busier than 8 on Christmas morning. Quite hilly in the first half, and a bit of a headwind in the second. Reasonably smooth for the most part and didn't really tire; nice to do something long.

Didn't see any newly acquired bikes or cricket bats in use (probably because this was on more significant roads than I'd be on if I'd been running), but did see plenty of evidence of local commerce - every second bus shelter seemed to be hosting a flower stall. It must have been Christmas because I managed to get through two hours riding a bike in the outer northern suburbs without a single motorist telling me to "f**k off".

Riding into work the Yarra Boulevard way. Roads predictably quiet though the bike path had its share of people strolling who probably wouldn't have been there in a normal peak hour. It was a very warm morning (the warmest overnight temperature on record for December), and rather windy; the crosswind was a bit disconcerting on a few of the more exposed sections. (I didn't get a lot of sympathy regarding this from the work colleague who was coming in from Sandringham). Felt good at the start but didn't finish off quite as well as last time. Back soreness a bit of an issue.

Christmas anticipation for me has changed over the years. In 1982 I would have been eagerly awaiting what Santa had brought (actually, by 1982 I had long since ceased to believe in Santa but pretended otherwise for the benefit of younger members of the household); in 2002 I was eagerly anticipating my first run since compartment syndrome surgery seven weeks earlier (a five-minute jog around an Essendon park). In 2012 I won't even manage five minutes, and at least part of my anticipation will be directed at whether a new record will be set for the highest December temperature ever observed in France. (There are record possibilities in Switzerland and Germany, too). 27.2 is the magic number - coincidentally the same as the magic number for Melbourne this morning.

And the latest in the occasional series of epic fails amongst the criminal community: to the burglar who decided to break into a van parked on a Brisbane street a while back. It was unfortunate for him that the van was parked outside the house of Wayne Swan during a stint as acting Prime Minister, and doubly unfortunate that the van was full of federal policemen.

C • Christmas Presents 2

C • Santa 3

In the (new) lap pool at my aunt's place in Blairgowrie. There isn't a lot of space but it seemed to work out OK. Already a strong sun by mid-morning, although being somewhere with water to the north was a definite plus today; it didn't get above 30 degrees here, compared with 38 (so far) in the city. Would have appreciated it more if I was running, of course.

Ride around the Doncaster loop before heading down the Mornington Peninsula for the weekend. Didn't feel quite as aggressive uphill as last time. Seemed to hit a lot of red lights, although was through early enough to miss the anticipated chaos around Doncaster Shoppingtown. Didn't miss some gratuitous abuse from one of the local truck drivers.

It may not have been on the scale of the 25-kilometre jam at Kempsey, but there was a traffic jam on the way south thanks to a caravan which had gone off the road and disintegrated. A number of people decided they didn't want to stay in the traffic jam and variously either did illegal U-turns on the freeway or drove past the traffic along the grass verge instead (probably the closest your average Portsea 4WD gets to going off-road); to what I suspect was the general satisfaction of everyone else in the jam, those who took the latter option were booked by the police a few hundred metres up the road.

Early session at Ivanhoe. Working reasonably hard and more comfortable than I have been, though as usual feeling a bit cramped by the small area available.

We're used to seeing climate science denial in the Australian but yesterday I saw an even more impressive piece of denial printed there from another field - a letter from the Sri Lankan consul-general in Sydney who claimed that there had been no civil war in Sri Lanka. I suspect this will come as news to Sri Lankans.

C • civil war 1

Morning session at CISAC before a day's work in Canberra. Heading back to Melbourne tonight. Heard someone I didn't recognise in the changerooms talking about how they were going to Beechworth after Christmas to run.

While it wasn't what I was here for, we did organise a meeting with the Sports Commission, which turned out to be extremely well-timed since the call for submissions on high-performance programs came out yesterday (and is due by the start of February). I think we'll do well to keep what we have now.

Swimming at North Melbourne on the way into work (the logistics being a bit different to usual due to the afternoon travels). A reasonable session which seemed to pass quite quickly (even if the reason it passed quite quickly was because I was thinking about a challenging work issue). Some foot cramp issues at the end.

I'm now on a flying (work) visit to Canberra - had planned the flight time so I could run the summer series event but had to settle for the Bushflyers pizza night instead. I did get the chance to catch up with people I hadn't seen in a few weeks (numerous), a year or two (Scotty) and 30+ years (someone who was in my class in Year 4).

Riding into work via the Yarra Boulevard (with a bit of a detour through Kew, trading a kilometre or so of busy road for a difficult road crossing). A steady run which became a bit faster in the later stages, once in amongst the steady stream of cyclists on the Main Yarra Trail (didn't see anyone shooting for the commuter Olympics this time round).

Had an MRI on my knee after work (results still to come), and moved on from there to do a session at Fitzroy - supposedly ground-zero for the inner-city trendies. I missed the opportunity to help in plotting the global socialist revolution, perhaps through not fitting in sufficiently with the crowd - after all, I live in a suburb that doesn't have trams, eat meat, have been known to drink instant coffee and have never voted for the Greens.

(For those for whom this has gone as much over their head as the water at the end with the 'ACQUA PROFONDA' sign, enlightenment can be found here.)

The session itself was reasonable, although I definitely notice the lower intensity compared with riding. Got the message (running to try to catch the green pedestrian light) that running is not a realistic option for the moment, despite some improvement in other respects.

C • Pool 3

Around the Koonung/Doncaster loop. Quite pleased with this for a first 'proper' ride, pushing the hills reasonably well (and getting myself into the lactic zone in a way I find it difficult to manage in the water). Knee was fine once warmed up. Raining in the first few minutes but cleared quite quickly (wet roads for most of the way, though).

Traffic was occasionally adventurous - was expecting a zoo around Westfield but it wasn't too bad, the main action coming a bit further down the road outside a church (complete with someone who obviously believed that the Lord had given him/her permission to park across a pedestrian crossing, an excuse which I suspect won't go too far with the Manningham City Council). A bit further down the road, the emergency services trifecta were present as a result of someone's altercation with a median strip light pole.

Woke up wondering if the aforementioned Slater and Gordon were going to see some action as a result of something dodgy consumed yesterday afternoon. Whatever discomfort there was was reasonably short-lived, but enough for me to abandon ideas of a morning swim. Got the bike back today; only used it for transport purposes but plan to do a proper ride tomorrow.

Misadventure of the day was dropping my car keys on my trip to the Preston Market, which acquainted me for the first time with the Preston-Heidelberg bus on going home to retrieve the spare. I returned to find that some kind-hearted soul had put the original set on my windscreen (they must have been dropped very close to the car) - accompanied by some literature from the Jehovah's Witnesses.

And the radio programming fail of the day goes to the station on which I heard "I Don't Like Mondays" on switching on this morning. Presumably the person responsible doesn't know that that song is about a school shooting.

Almost as moist outside the pool as in this morning. Knee starting to feel a little bit better during these sessions (although still some way short of being runnable with any comfort).

It was the work Christmas party this afternoon (the taxpayers will be pleased to hear that they contributed absolutely nothing towards this). Had things gone pear-shaped help was close at hand; Slater and Gordon were having theirs next door.

At Northcote because it suited my transport logistics for the day better (perhaps I would have been better off with a slightly different set of transport logistics, as I ended up in the crush on the train immediately following a cancelled one). I haven't been here much lately and don't think I've ever been in the outdoor pool, which is a nice place to be on a warm morning like this.

They must have different types of commutes in Alabama because a law is currently being considered there (and in three other states) which would make it illegal for employers to stop employees from carrying guns onto their property, ostensibly because if they aren't allowed to carry guns into the carpark then they would have to (heaven forbid!) do their commutes unarmed. I don't know about the rest of you but I've never considered weapons a necessary commuting companion, although, that said, I don't travel on the Frankston line.

Doing some long number-crunching hours at the moment, which would have been made somewhat harder had I done a long run in hot weather this morning.

Last night saw one of my occasional midnight teleconferences (finishing up at 1.30 a.m.), and then plans for a sleep-in of sorts - which I'd defined as 7.30 - didn't really work because my room is not terribly well suited to sleeping much past sunrise in summer (I suggested to a work colleague that perhaps I could export this room configuration to his teenage daughters, who he quite often seems to be trying to get out of bed at 10.something or 11.something).

Had I been running I think this was a day when I would have settled for evening street-O (which would have been hard work in itself on a 34-degree day), but I'm not and made it a rest day instead. Didn't hit the wall at work to the extent that I expected.

I came across an article today which bemoaned Australia's poor performance in an international educational comparison test. You'd think you would make sure the proofreading was good in an article about allegedly poor education standards, and that it really wouldn't be a good look to have an ungrammatical sentence in the second line, and two spelling errors in the third. The people responsible for sacking all the subeditors have a lot to answer for.

C • The effect of this 2

Finally got the knee checked out today with unsurprisingly inconclusive results (pending an MRI scan next week) - the main progress, such as it was, was to eliminate tracking issues (which is a pity as they're easier to fix). Most likely scenario is cartilage damage of some description - in which case Oceania's not looking too good, and neither is the early part of the 2013 season (if it needs surgery I'm assuming late January is about the earliest it could be done, which might mean a return to running sometime around March). At least I'm fine to continue in the water and on the bike.

Armed with that cheery news I took to the Fitzroy pool, for a session which felt much as its predecessors did. The clientele at 6pm on a warm December day is somewhat different from that at 7am in July.

Morning swim at Ivanhoe. Felt as if I was working a bit harder than recent days which is borne out a bit in the time. Also feel as if I've got something of a cold - at least I'm getting it all out of the way at once. Booked in to get the knee looked at tomorrow afternoon.

Fact of the day: idiots were not legally allowed to vote in New Jersey until 2007.

C • Idiots. 2

At Fitzroy on my way to an engagement in the city. A good deal less crowded than it would have been this time yesterday (although it was mildly annoying that the additional coolness also applied to the showers).

One of the benefits of usually getting home late, and not often being around on weekends, is that I have never been visited by doorknockers working on behalf of electricity companies. At the meeting I was at this afternoon (discussing energy policy) one of the people present mentioned their experience of a doorknocker who was very insistent that the deal they were spruiking was available only if it was signed on the spot and that it wasn't possible to take the contract away and have a look at it. The doorknocker could have chosen their target better - the householder they were dealing with was the Victorian Shadow Minister for Energy (and for good measure she's also Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs).

C • Seems to be standard practice 3

Headed to the pool earlier than might otherwise have been the case - the options were first thing or afternoon, and I didn't fancy doing laps in 37-degree pool crowds. Felt reasonably good but the clock isn't really consistent with that.

The demographics of the 7.40am Saturday pool crowd are very different from those of the 8.20am Saturday pool crowd.

Back in Melbourne and took to the Fitzroy pool. Feel as if I'm in purely maintenance mode at the moment and not sure how good a job I'm doing of maintaining things (and it's probably not the best time of year to be trying to cut one's food intake to match lower volume of exercise, either).

Spent the evening at the cricket with Bruce and family and compared injury notes in the process; the similarities seem pretty strong. If the consequences are also the same then Oceania isn't looking good (and if, as I suspect, any surgery that's required won't be able to be done until after the summer holidays, the early months of the 2013 season aren't looking too good either). Will know more in the next week or so with a bit of luck.

After Tuesday I thought another stationary bike session would be in order, but I've moved hotels (mainly because the Academy of Science is no longer paying for it and the Menzies is a bit out of my league otherwise), and I discovered that just because the sign on the lift says there's a gym on the 7th floor doesn't mean said gym actually exists.

A few good discoveries today - the best of them being 45 years of snowfall data whose existence had hitherto gone unnoticed, from a site near Bombala. There's nothing like it from any non-Alpine site anywhere else in Australia and it will potentially be a very useful data set for climate change work (given our expectation that low-elevation snow will decline faster than high-elevation snow).

Another highlight was the site where the homestead burned down in 1915 and the only thing which was saved (by the "Chinese gardener") was the rainfall records. I'm tempted to put that site in the final long-term set just for that. One which I probably won't be including was the site which is at a retirement village and where there's a 2008 note stating that the nominal observer "will relocate the gauge closer to the dementia facility, where measuring the rain will be an activity for the care recipients".

And, to show that there's nothing new about Queanbeyan being a den of mischief, there is a report of vandalism at the site there dating from 1950 (they called them vandals in 1950; a previous report I'd seen, of similar activity in 1886 in the Adelaide Hills, called them "larrikins"). They still don't live up to Woodburn's effort of having five gauges nicked in as many years between 2001 and 2005.

Back to Melbourne tonight.

A post-seminar swim at the Uni of NSW pool, having decided that I wasn't up to going out to Epping for the Summer Series (instead I went out to Manly after work, a nice trip in all respects except for losing half my fish and chips to the birds). Quite a crowded pool but seemed to manage OK, and feeling a bit better than I have for the last few days.

Did something a bit different this morning and took to the stationary bike in the hotel gym. Good to get a sweat up but a stationary bike is just as boring now as it was the last time I tried it (with a broken arm) in 2005. Got a cramp midway through for no good reason but it disappeared quickly. The session did seem to loosen my knee up quite well, although it tightened again after sitting down for a while in the afternoon.

I've switched from conference mode to file-trawling mode - which in this part of the world means I'm reading a reasonable number of documents written by a certain T. Bluett. You won't be surprised to learn that station files he was responsible for usually have copies of topographic maps of the vicinity. (There was also the usual amusement caused by seeing things written in 1982 that you probably wouldn't see written in 2012, although nothing remotely on the scale of what was said about members of the indigenous population in 1960s documents in Western Australia).

There was a classic nerd conversation at the workshop dinner last night. A reasonable number of people are probably familiar with the concept of the Kevin Bacon number (the number of links which you need to get to Kevin Bacon through people who have co-appeared in a movie or TV show). Mathematicians will also be familiar with the Erdos number (obtained through co-authoring papers with people who can be linked to people who have been co-authors of papers with the prolific Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos), and the discussion turned to who had a low Bacon-Erdos number (the sum of your Bacon and Erdos numbers). I think mine's 9, 4 for Erdos and 5 for Bacon (obtained through one of my colleagues appearing on the ABC Catalyst programme, which Cate Blanchett has also been on).

And then someone introduced the idea of a Bacon-Erdos-Sabbath number (the last being derived from people who have played in bands with people who have been in Black Sabbath). I'm almost certain mine is undefined. One wonders who would have the lowest one - my guess would be Brian May (the one who was in Queen, not the one who's been in Canadian and American orienteering teams), also a scientist of some note.

In the hotel pool in Sydney, which was shorter than I'm used to although not so short as to get dizzy. Much as per normal for the last couple of weeks, although a bit faster through the pushing-off-the-wall factor. Continuing not to make a lot of progress - will start the process of getting it properly looked at if there's no progress by the time I get back from Sydney.

Obviously the notices at the hotel haven't been updated for a while because one of the items on it was that the playing of radios and cassette players was not allowed. Readers born after 1990 may need to ask their parents what a "cassette player" was.

Was hoping to do a pool running session but couldn't find Cassie's old flotation belt in the cellar, so swam instead. Felt reasonable so I was a bit surprised that it was so much slower than yesterday. One hazard of the timing (just after opening time at CISAC) was that for about 10 minutes the sunglare coming through onto one end of the pool was such that I couldn't see where the end was.

Ended the Conference right on time, which was as well because I had to leave immediately for a 4.15 flight to Sydney, for a (work) conference which starts at 6.30. I'll be in Sydney for most of the week, although I'm not particularly confident that I'll be doing much (if any) running whilst there. If I'm up to running by then I do plan to try to get to the Epping event on Wednesday evening.

C • Epping? http://www.chig.rou... 2

Swim at the AIS pool while everyone else was doing the post-OA Conference session orienteering event at Bruce Ridge. Headed for the 25-metre pool to feel less inadequate (bearing in mind that it takes me as long to swim one lap as it used to take Ian Thorpe to swim four). Knee is making very gradual progress but still feels like it's a bit of time away.

I remembered from past experience 20-odd years ago that this pool is very heavily dosed with chlorine, and that hasn't changed - definitely a place where you want good goggles.

Quite a lot of worthwhile discussion today although not so much in the way of concrete decisions. Most significantly, we will be doing a complete reworking of our high performance strategy - this was something we were looking at doing anyway but the ASC's announcement of a new strategic plan at their end for supporting high performance sport was an added impetus, as unless we have a good plan in place we'll struggle to hold onto much in the way of high performance funding.

And I've started to think about 'ambitious 2020 goals' for orienteering in Australia. Number 1: that by 2020, every junior age class at every state championships will have at least 10 participants.

C • 2020 goals? 3