Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Classing this one as a pretty good run despite the slow pace. Hillier than most runs I've done this year (although in a rolling-hills sense through Ivanhoe, North Balwyn and Kew - nothing seriously steep), and no significant issues in the injury department. Didn't really pick up pace until it got light, which didn't come until well after halfway. Slipped into a very nice mode in the last 10 minutes and, for the first time in a long time, really wanted to just keep going, but work was calling.

I was on a bit of a high when I finished this - and then logged on, and saw news of a crash on the Monaro, and a motionless GPS dot at Williamsdale...

Woke up with a stiff back, possibly in anticipation of receiving a public flogging in certain parts of the media over the next couple of days (although as it turns out, the Malcolm Roberts "data deconstruction" event at Parliament House last night seems to have sunk without trace) - or more realistically a result of sitting in a seat in a Melbourne Uni lecture theatre last night that my body seems to have violently disagreed with.

Given that I didn't attempt to take on a long run, and instead headed for the pool (it's a sign that daylight saving is approaching its end that I started this in the dark - which always feels a bit strange in an outdoor pool - although in fairness I started this a bit earlier than usual because I'd had a 5.30 alarm in anticipation of a long run). Not the most inspiring of sessions, but did gradually loosen up during the day.

#straya moment of the day - discovering that the suspiciously low Brisbane rainfall figure this morning was because flying ants had got into the gauge and jammed up the mechanism.

Initial thoughts for today were to do something hillier than has been typical of late, but it was apparent in the first kilometre or two that merely getting through an hour was probably the limit of my capabilities today - feeling weak and with some tightness as well (although further up the back than usual). Headed down around Yarra Bend and back up Merri Creek - I wasn't confident as to how things would go on even the small climbs on that route but they worked out more or less OK. Starting to pick up a bit in the final quarter.

With yesterday morning's tiredness as well, I wonder if illness is around the corner, although no other symptoms as yet. Will try rolling the dice again tomorrow.

Felt very sleepy this morning and ended up running a bit late, so decided to switch plans and embark on my latest attempt to find out whether I can run after working (although only half a day this time instead of a full day). The answer today was "sort of", which is a bit of an advance on last week's "no". Reasonable at jogging speed once warmed up; tried to do a few faster things on South Wharf (30-second lots again) but felt a bit tight to be confident doing that.

As you can imagine, it was a rather distracted day in the office, although we don't have a lot to do with the direct operational response to cyclones (other than, in my case, one brief interview to confirm that Hamilton Island's 263 km/h is indeed the strongest instrumentally measured gust on record in Queensland).

Got home about 10.15 last night and promptly hit the wall - must have been a bit dehydrated as well as I felt it necessary to drink on waking up in the middle of the night, not a common occurrence. Slept a little later than usual and didn't have great expectations for this, but it went OK. Didn't pull up too sore post-weekend either (although running tomorrow will be a greater test of this).

In the news on the way home was a report of a study done on drug use in Australia by testing wastewater. I doubt that anyone will be surprised to hear that cocaine use is highest in Sydney, ice (=crystal meth) use is highest in regional Victoria and alcohol use is highest in regional Queensland and the Northern Territory. More surprising was that the highest ecstasy values were found at an unnamed site in regional Tasmania; possibly things happen in the nightlife of St. Helens that I hadn't previously suspected.

NOL middle on Isaacs Ridge. Not strong enough to cope with a physical course - I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that if I've barely run a hill in training in 6 months then I'm not going to be much good on them in a race.

Steady through the first six - surprised that Grace caught me so quickly when I was catching Rachel, but this turned out to be because she'd taken an unwitting short cut - then made a bit of a mess of trying to pick the green on 7 and ended up about 4 contours below it, losing a minute or so. Also dropped about 30 seconds overshooting 11, a control site created by Australia's most determined car dumper. (Winsplits shows me losing time on 8 and 9 too, but I think I was just really slow across the rocky slopes). By this time the big guns were going through me - Craney, Brodie and Ian (not for the first time, I was a bad influence on Brodie who made a mistake as soon as he caught sight of me) - and I'd seen Simon on the crossover and knew that I wasn't going to achieve one of my pre-race targets, defending 20 minutes on him. Dropped down to the track for the long leg, figuring that since I was going to be walking any significant climb I might as well do it as steeply as possible. Held it together technically for the rest of the course, but didn't enjoy climbing almost all the way back up the slope on the final loop (evidently I wasn't alone in this because 23, a leg I barely ran on, was almost my best split of the day).

The good news is that my hamstring, which was sore this morning when I got up, came through the race fine. I won't be able to work miracles in three weeks, but I do feel enough confidence now to add at least a bit of hills and a bit of "speed" to the mix in training.

Course 1 - Splits

I'm not sure how many times I would have gone out on the eastern side of Red Hill, either training or coaching, between 1983 and 1993, but it was a different experience - the wiggles in the contours on the map of that era were essentially random and bore only a passing resemblance to what was on the ground, so the contours on that slope weren't terribly useful for navigation (except for which way was up and which was down).

This was a sprint on a decent map, and went reasonably smoothly. Struggled uphill as I expected (although not as much as might have been possible, and of course starting on the top helped). Not a lot of speed but perhaps better in that respect than two weeks ago. Only one minor time loss, coming into 10 a little high and dropping maybe 15 seconds or so.

Sprint B final at Canberra Girls Grammar. I've been around the edge of here many, many times (on the school bus, and later on dropping-off-little-sister duties), but I think I'd only previously set foot on the campus twice.

Before the start of the weekend I was thinking my aspiration today was not to come last but it was clear from the entry list that this wasn't going to be a risk, so I readjusted my aim to scoring a point (which would require 15th). A little disconcerted at the start by seeing Simon Rouse confused after starting a minute in front of me, but settled reasonably well. Only one mistake but it was a visible one - ran to the wrong tree at the map change/spectator control and lost 20 seconds or so. Started to fade away a bit in the second half (especially uphill), although that would have made no difference to my eventual placing (18th).

Hamstring pulled up a little sore post-run, although it didn't cause trouble out there. Will need to see how it goes tomorrow.

Something you wouldn't see happen in too many other sports: we were holding the OA annual general meeting today (constitutionally it has to be in March or April and the usual Easter timeslot isn't available this year, so we held a short meeting to deal with the legalities and deferred everything else to a special meeting at QB3). With the presentations taking place during the B final, the start time of the AGM was "whenever the President finishes" (I did take a couple of minutes to change my running top before taking the chair).

There were about 350 people at this event, which we think is the largest non-national carnival event in the ACT for at least 30 years. Being a joint ACT/NSW state league event helps but that's been done before without quite the same crowd. Good to see.

C • 15th 3

Final Course 2 - Splits

Heats Course 1B - Splits

A fairly standard session at Fitzroy - almost but not quite starting in the dark now. Will be glad when the changeroom renovations are over (probably around the time I go to NZ).

I'm unconvinced that too many people care about section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, but one who probably does is the person who drove past with a car covered in anti-Islam slogans. It's probably as well for them that they were driving straight through because I don't think Fitzroy is a place where people would take kindly to a parked vehicle like that.

Headed up to Canberra this afternoon/evening - first time for a year I've done the road trip in this form (and among the last that I'll do it with the exact same final destination). Fairly smooth for the most part although I think I've done a bit to reduce the insect population in the vicinity of Lake Hume. One stop near Violet Town to do a media interview from the side of the road, and another regular stop not quite the same because the Albury La Porchetta is no longer a La Porchetta (although it still does much the same food).

Closest approximation for a while to a Proper Thursday Long Run (right down to starting it in complete darkness, which meant the first half in the suburbs). Felt more awake than I was expecting early on, but a slow first half-hour or so until it got light. Settled well after that, never quite as good as the best parts of Sunday, but a steady run and felt like I had plenty left at the end. A few hints of minor hamstring discomfort later but not at a level to be too concerned about (I hope).

Spotted three council workers out early at one point. Not sure what they were doing, but I assume it wasn't anything to do with gas because two of them were smoking.

C • Council workers 2

A step further on the comeback trail; my first attempt to do anything faster than a jog since January, and the first successful one since last year's nationals. Certainly wouldn't call it a full-on intervals session - probably wouldn't have been going faster than 4.30 pace for 20 30-second reps, the objective was simply to see whether the body could cope with that. The answer was generally positive - some slight discomfort in the hamstring, but nowhere near as bad as it was when I last attempted to do intervals at Christmas (nor did it pull up sore afterwards). A generally positive session - notwithstanding rep number 16 being spoilt by a large, overly friendly and illegally off-leash dog.

Warm-up and down. Even slower than I'm used to for this session, but it's a start.

Expected this to be a wet-weather run (and wore my back-up shoes accordingly), but the rain had more or less stopped by the time I went out, although it was still very humid. (Most of the day's rain ended up falling in the space of 10 minutes in a mid-afternoon storm). No injury concerns and didn't feel like I was struggling that much compared to some runs this year, but very slow for no obvious reason.

I'm sure you're as shocked as I was by the Herald-Sun's front-page exclusive this morning that there were drugs at the West Coast Eagles in the 2000s.

Felt pretty good this morning and it showed in the pool, a couple of minutes faster than I usually do (involving my occasional remembering that I have two arms). Lots of colour was loitering with intent on the radar to the north but most of it didn't make it to the central city until I was already at work. (Today didn't end up producing much, but tomorrow should).

Pass the popcorn time: the Australian Olympic Committee presidential battle is on like Donkey Kong. It appears we don't get a vote in this (all national sports organisations can become members of the AOC, but only current Olympic sports get votes), which at least means the inevitable ferocious lobbying will be going elsewhere. (I'd spent the swim thinking about things we could usefully ask of the candidates before looking up the constitution later to find out about our lack of a vote).

Had a go at trying out how I was post-work today, but the answer still wasn't great (despite feeling better whilst actually sitting, after a bit of reorganisation of my desk).

C • Ding Ding battle 2

Good to get something under my belt which at least bears a vague passing resemblance to a proper Sunday morning long run, done with an early start to avoid what will probably be the last proper hot day of summer. Somewhat mundane through the first few kilometres climbing up into Heidelberg (getting a reminder as I went past the old place that being here during railway construction, which started in earnest this weekend, wouldn't have been a lot of fun), but felt pretty good on the next stretch along the Yarra Flats to Wilsons Reserve - probably as good as I've felt on a run this year (not a very high bar to clear). Tailed off a little in the last 15 minutes but still reasonably satisfied with this.

I was at a gathering later in the day where Bill Shorten was introduced as "the next Prime Minister of Australia". This indicates a level of confidence in the chances of the present incumbent surviving to election day which I'm not sure is warranted.

Had a couple of feeling-inadequate moments later - first on hearing that Seb Dunne had ridden 600km in less than 24 hours to open the Indian-Pacific race (as the name implies, a ride from Perth to Sydney), then with the news that Michael Milton - who will be well-known to Canberra people - is training to do the Ultra Trail 50 in the Blue Mountains. This may not sound particularly extreme in its own right except that Michael only has one leg.

C • Feeling inadequate 2

A bit earlier than I'd usually head out on a Saturday (just early enough not to be caught up by the parkrun people), on a somewhat autumnal morning, down into Yarra Bend. Not feeling especially awake at times, but OK on the injury front.

The rest of the day was then spent at a series of Labor policy workshops. Often going to these means you learn something new - and today's bit of insight is that under the current contracts, the State Government doesn't actually have any control over where bus routes are, how often they run or what their timetables are (beyond a fairly minimal guaranteed level of service) - this is all up to the bus companies. (The Government intends to do something about this when the contracts are up for renewal next year, which will no doubt result in said companies squealing like stuck pigs and their squealing being amplified 100x by the Herald-Sun). This goes a long way to explaining why there is no co-ordination between buses and trains, and why the Mornington Peninsula route only runs every 50 minutes despite the fact that it's so routinely overcrowded that at peak hours your chances of getting on anywhere north of Dromana are somewhere between minimal and non-existent.

C • Trains 4

Back still struggling this morning, and by the time I worked this out I hadn't left myself with enough time to do anything else before going to work, so instead headed for a rare evening swim at Fitzroy. Started promisingly, drifted out of it a bit but found a bit of a burst for the last lap (i.e. I swam one lap in roughly the same time that it takes a friend's 7-year-old to swim two).

Thought it might have been crowded but this evening, although clear, is one of the cooler ones we've had in recent weeks and the crowds were fairly thin.

Riding has had its moments over the last couple of days. One memorable one came this evening, when a driver decided to follow me rather than do his own navigation (a not totally unfamiliar experience for me on the orienteering course). He was last seen attempting to reverse back off the Harbour Esplanade bike path.

A strange morning, with a change approaching after a very warm night and a weird orange light with the sunrise (which is getting increasingly late). By the time I was in the pool it had started raining (with a suitably photogenic rainbow for the first half of the session). Didn't feel as if a run would have gone that well, but this session was OK.

I've been doing a bit of historical work this week, but it was from somewhere else that I found out that 50 years or so ago, somebody chained themselves to the front of the Bureau building (shared at the time with numerous other Commonwealth agencies) in support of the cause of equal pay for women and men. That sort of protest is one bit of excitement we haven't had on our premises in my time. There was a protest by the No Carbon Tax people in 2012 against our alleged cooking of the books, but (a) they went to the wrong building, (b) the presumed primary target of the protest was otherwise engaged on their way to an NOL race in Canberra and (c) only four people turned up (eight if you count the police).

(The concept of equal pay for men and women still isn't totally accepted by some people - a Polish MEP, demonstrating that the Anglosphere doesn't have a monopoly on political dinosaurs, was in hot water this week for saying that women should be paid less than men because they were "smaller, weaker and less intelligent").

Street-O final at Maroondah Triangle. I saw Tony Bird before the start and we reflected on our sprint finish across the oval for the title 13 years ago. (I lost, and thought I'd missed out on a countback, but in fact there was no countback and we were equal winners - the only time I've won the Summer Series).

Both Tony and I are a fair bit slower now than we were 13 years ago, and tonight ended up being close to a repeat of the last two Wednesdays. It wasn't quite as bad as those two, but the back still wasn't good and I still didn't feel up to running up any hills of significance. Managed to run the rest of it, for a certain definition of "run", which is at least an improvement on the last two weeks. Still rather disappointing.

The cryptic question-and-answer format was probably not to the advantage of anyone under 40.

C • Blast 8

Hobart has lots of interesting places to run but all of them involved more vertical than I felt up to this morning, so instead I found a not very interesting (if mostly traffic-free) place to run, along the bikeway as far north as Derwent Park. Felt sluggish (but uninjured) most of the way, but picked up a bit in the last 15 minutes and handled the climb back to where I was staying reasonably well.

(Scored nicely in respect of places to stay - I'd planned to move out from the three-bedroom apartment where the nine of us into a one-bedroom one, but the owners were quite happy for me to stay in the original one at a $50 discount to what I would have paid for the one-bedroom - I guess getting the cleaners in on a Tuesday rather than a public holiday Monday saved them a fair bit of money).

Spent the day in the Hobart office before coming back to Melbourne in the evening (writing this as I wait for a delayed flight in Hobart).

Coming up on three days in a row was a bit beyond me at this stage - struggling badly with the running today, and might not have spent much time out had I not thought that the technical training would be valuable even at relatively low speed.

David Poland caught me at 5 (or, to be more precise, recaught me after losing a fair bit of time at 4). After the initial shock of realising he was outrunning me today wore off, this was actually very useful training - trying to stay ahead of someone who's faster than you, but not as precise, in technical terrain places a premium on eliminating the 5-10 second wobbles that are easy to accept but add up to a fair bit over a course with a lot of controls. That side of things, at least, I was happy with, with the only time loss (apart from some hesitation on 1) being a 15-seconder at the second-last.

This wasn't a day where anyone was going flat out. Fastest time when I left was 27 (Stefano), but I expect Matt Crane will have gone into the low 20s.

The occasional backdrop of aircraft noise might have been an annoyance to some but it's what's saved Pittwater for orienteering. Some of you will know that we (mostly OT, but OA provided support where it could) were doing some fairly vigorous lobbying three or four years back over a proposal to build a golf course which would have wiped out most of the good orienteering parts of the peninsula. As it turned out, the golf course was approved, but the associated residential development was not (largely because the airport successfully argued that it would jeopardise its curfew-free status), and without the residential development the golf course almost certainly isn't financially viable.

Despite the results, I do take a fair bit of encouragement from this weekend - getting through it was the first step, and I also feel as if I've got some confidence back about navigating in dunes that had been shredded in NZ last year, which will do no harm in a few weeks' time.

NOL long race at Pittwater. I had one basic objective for this - to get through it - and this mission was accomplished (in fact I lasted the distance a good deal better than I thought I was going to). Not competitive for pace but I knew that before I started. Happy with the race technically, too; a bit unsure of myself on 4 on the third loop (once again being reminded that packs of juniors should be treated with extreme caution in this sort of terrain) without much time loss, but nothing bigger than 15 seconds on any other control.

This was a mass-start race but that was always likely to be of fairly academic importance for me as I fell off the pack immediately, but there were a few reasonable head-to-heads at various stages. Actually ended up winning a sprint finish, the victim being Matthew Cohen, which was enough to get me on the NOL scoreboard for season 2017 (just).

Hopefully a few solid weeks of training will get me back into some sort of shape, but this weekend is a good starting point, with the added bonus of getting some sand-dune confidence back.

Event: NOL 2017 Round 1, race 1 - Middle Distance Pittwater / NOL 2017
 

NOL Middle at Pittwater. The good news was that I handled most of the yellow at the end of the peninsula OK - a terrain type I lost confidence in totally in NZ last year - and that I got through the course, including uphills on soft sand which I thought might be a test for the hamstring, with no injury issues. Slow, but I expected that. The frustration was, having been reasonably clean through the rest of the course, I had two significant errors - 2.5-3 minutes at 14 where I must have gone within a few metres of the control, and a minute pulling up short at 7. In the former case I was in amongst a group of juniors and I think we led each other astray (I got the control before they did, but they recaught me a few controls later). Should have been around 47, although that would have only gained me a couple of extra places. Pittwater a pretty special area, as always.

I may or may not have mentioned here before that Patrick and Tristan Miller's uncle (who lives in Hobart) was in my year at school. His orienteering debut was definitely jumping in at the deep end - an M45A course at Pittwater. I'll be very impressed if he found all the controls (we left before he was back).

No back issues today but not exactly sparkling - struggled round an early morning run up the Darebin Creek. Not exactly the ideal preparation for the opening of the National League season, although at least having technically difficult terrain to deal with might slow the others down (a bit). Heading down to Hobart tonight.

Still feeling a bit tight this morning so decided to swap today's session with tomorrow's and headed for the pool. Didn't feel as if I was really loosening up in the pool either, but got through a session so can't be too upset about that.

There was a film shoot of some kind happening on the other side of the pool, featuring a couple of people with swimming costumes of very limited extent. The Fitzroy pool has a distinguished cinematic history (although that one wasn't actually shot there), but this looked to be a considerably lower-budget exercise.

One of my newer colleagues got a call on a wrong number today, which provided an opportunity to pull out our wrong-number stories. Another colleague once had a number which differed by one digit from that of a well-known Melbourne house of ill repute, and got quite a number of "interesting" calls. Once someone asked him "what services do your girls perform" and got the response straight off the bat "well, one of them prepares the Climate Monitoring Bulletin, and another one manages our agricultural services....".

C • Close numbers 1

Clearly there's something about the way I'm sitting at work which my body is not coping with - I haven't had a trace of back trouble on morning runs for ages, but this is the second successive week when it's simply refused to function in the evening after a day at work. Doesn't seem to happen after sitting in other places (even running after a couple of hours of driving in Portugal, it was fine, although there were a few other body parts which weren't at their best on that occasion). Will have to try the standing desk next week (and perhaps a new chair at my regular spot as well, if I can convince the powers that be to replace the somewhat ancient incumbent).

As always, the Scotch/Heyington event is an opportunity to see how the other 0.1% live - a new science building and underground car park are the additions since we were last here.

C • Chair 4

Planned to head out early but was awake earlier still than I'd planned on. Had the first sign of approaching autumn, stepping out into the dark at 6.30 - round the suburbs for a bit, then once there was light, to Darebin Parklands to have another look at a couple of control sites which aroused a bit of comment on Sunday (verdict: controls in right place but mapping in some parts of vicinity left something to be desired). Felt OK - no obvious issues coming up after yesterday - but pretty slow.

Doing the triathlon (finishing up with the ride to work) for the first time in a while. Swim felt fairly relaxed, perhaps a bit too relaxed until the later stages, in an outdoor pool under a blue sky, the way it's supposed to be.

It was a long and productive day, but it caught up with me in the end; felt like I was struggling to stay awake on the bike as I made my way home sometime around 9.30. Maybe it was just the letdown from the cricket.

A rare Monday long(er) run - didn't feel quite ready for this on Saturday but today was much better (helped by slightly kinder conditions). Fairly slow, especially on the Kew hills, but felt like I still had a reasonable amount left in me at the end, which gives me at least some level of encouragement about being able to get through 10km in the dunes on Sunday (if not necessarily very quickly). Only occasional and slight twinges.

Checking controls before the start of the Victorian Relays at Darebin Parklands. As I thought might have been the case with inexperienced setters, there were a few things which needed fixing (although they did a good job overall). Running OK in between those times. The drizzle made things pretty slippery - did the splits at one point on some bluestone steps.

The event went pretty well; we had a visit beforehand from a rather flustered ranger who was rather alarmed about the potential clash with Clean Up Australia (which in practice caused rather fewer issues than the clash with the Sporting Shooters up in Bendigo last year; they were mostly down by the creek where the rubbish was, courtesy of the flood after Christmas). Most significant technical issue was that the purple X overprint on parts of the creek which was intended to mark a prohibited crossing actually looked like a crossing point. A few of the steeper controls were also hard for the oldest competitors to get to; we probably need to apply to relays course 3 the same guidelines as we do to the shortest hard course at a normal State Series event.

Headed out on a humid morning, a little later than might have been optimal in order to reacclimatise myself to warm weather ahead of forthcoming races because I couldn't be bothered getting out of bed early. Started out doing yet another mail drop-off because the local postie can't tell the difference between Rushall and Hall, then east into Ivanhoe.

The good news was that nothing hurt in any meaningful sense, the bad news was that this was a classic post-injury lack-of-energy run. Stopped a couple of times for water and was definitely hanging on at the end. Can only go up from here, and should do so - the first 2-3 weeks of a return are always hard.

C • Rushall 3

First time back at Fitzroy for a month - the changeroom renovations are now happening, and while the temporary facilities are a step up on what was on offer at Ivanhoe while their works were going on, they're still not great (was glad I arrived after the crowd). A fairly standard session with a bit of drizzle from time to time. Sitting felt a bit better than it did yesterday.

A see-if-things-still-work run after the disappointment of yesterday. They did still work, more or less. Only mild twinges on the run but quite sore after sitting down during the day - it wasn't like this in Geneva so think I might need to organise myself a new chair.

Had a crack at street-O on my first day back but wasn't ready for it - had thought the heat would be the problem but it was more a body that refused to move. Probably should have gone home to bed ASAP afterwards but found myself in a conversation with Asha (who just lost a sprint finish to her sister) about Aboriginal communities and didn't realise how much time had passed until it was getting dark...

Looked like a good course. My planned route differed significantly from others I've seen but I think it would have been decent - don't have GPS numbers to put that to the test though.

All in all it wasn't the brightest of first days back (arriving to the news of a hammering by Malcolm Roberts in Senate Estimates wasn't really the news I wanted to come back to).