Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Leg 6 at Jukola (to find out why I was doing leg 6 and not 7 as advertised, have a look at the CSU thread). Never really felt totally in control but didn't miss anything big, all 15-30 seconders - biggest time loss was in extricating myself from a waist-deep marsh. Slow at the start but increasingly strong towards the end. Didn't really have the sense of making up places, but I suspect that's because I'm a worse runner and better navigator than most of those around me, so the ones I was passing were wandering around out of sight. Surprisingly never in a pack of any kind, although it was hard to tell who was on my leg and who was on 4, 5 or 7 (the leg 7 people were easy to pick as they zoomed away into the distance, but 4s and 5s were harder to tell apart).

C • toph 3

Event: Jukola
 

Short hit-out on the Jukola model map. Lacked concentration and missed too much, although again relocation functioning reasonably well.

A longer session today on one of the Jukola training maps. Flowing a lot better, although finding the climbs on soft ground draining - 14k on Sunday will be a severe test physically. One significant miss in the vaguer country, but still got out of it with only 90 secs loss when on previous trips it might have been 5 or 10 minutes, so making progress (slowly).

Event: Forssa Games
 

First run in Finnish terrain. Not easy to get into a running rhythm, especially in the rocky areas underfoot - Australia has them too but there the holes between the rocks aren´t covered with moss! One small mistake but otherwise navigating OK, compared to how I sometimes do here.

A decent first race in Finland, although still finding it hard to get any sort of physical fluency. About halfway down the field in the B race. Errors all small but annoying.

Event: Victorian Winter Classic
 

Not the greatest of starts through some very tough physical country - the SE corner of Barambogie, which is even tougher than it was at the 2003 Aus Champs - lots of fallen timber over the top of the rock from a storm in 2004. Took a few poor routes although I'm not sure that there was any such thing as a good route on some of the early legs. Bruce caught me 3 mins at 7, and we then ran together to 13. 14 was a long leg across a slope without many defining features. I decided crossing the slope was too risky and dropped down to run along its base - the price was 8 contours climb at the end, but I hit the control well and saw Bruce circling below. He ended up losing 5 minutes there - brought back memories of the 2003 Aus Champs (although that time it was Reuben Smith who I was trying to get away from). Tried to attack as best I could from that point, although at the end of a long race I didn't have a lot left, and started cramping on the last climb, always a sign of a hard day's work. Still not flowing as well as I'd like, but fighting a duel like that and winning it is terrific preparation for the last leg at Jukola (where I'll probably be scrapping for 247th place or thereabouts).

I leave tomorrow for Europe, initially for Finland. Updates will probably be fairly sporadic for the next few weeks.