Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

ACT event at Ratall Creek. One of the things which prompted me to stay on for the weekend was a potentially interesting event at Rendezvous Creek; it got switched to Ratall at the last minute (land access issues, apparently) and by then I'd already booked my flights. Still a fun event, returning to classic ACT gully-spur of the sort I grew up on.

Didn't always feel sparkling but a steady run and strong enough on the hills when they came later on, particularly into 15. Was hoping to get closer to 6 min/km but there's enough stuff on the ground (and tea-tree in places) to slow things down a bit (plus hanging punches probably add up to a minute or so over a full course). Was reminded that the ground and timber in this part of the world are pretty unforgiving if you fall over on it, but what's the point in worrying about a bit of spilt blood? Very clean run technically until losing it a little not being able to quite make sense of which gullies were going where in the flat stuff at 13, but only lost about 20 seconds. Very long last control-to-finish run (970m).

Not much of a field, as you'd expect given that the guns are otherwise engaged in the Ukraine. Muzza's expected winning time was 65 and I managed to crack that (just), but a Julian or a Shep would have been well into the 50s.

C • winning times 1

ACT Cross-Country Club race at Dunrossil Drive, going up and down the side of the Governor-General's driveway. The course is actually a good deal better than that sounds - mostly on grass and often a little soft underfoot. It also has a gently downhill first kilometre - a definite trap for young players - and a gently climbing finish to take the spring out of other people's sprints, which probably explains why I had a reasonable record here on a course that shouldn't, at face value, have suited me very much. Most memorable was a scrap with David Osmond on the last day of the 1990 season - we'd been within a few seconds of each other in every race that year and were competing for a pointscore place (fourth, I think). That season (my last as a junior in x-c) was a lot of fun - my own year was very weak but there was a good group 2-3 years younger who were of a similar standard. Dave, and Paul Crake, both went on to be exceptional mountain runners, and I spotted Andy Kringas at a Corporate Cup race in Melbourne a couple of years ago. No idea what happened to the rest.

Knowing the terrain, and that my starting speed, which wasn't that brilliant in 1990, was a lot worse now, I wasn't surprised to (a) get dropped by a lot of people in the first 500 and (b) go through some of them between 500 and 1500. On the whole it was a pretty reasonable run, given the load of training I've been doing (not least yesterday); particularly satisfied with the uphill last kilometre.

It was a good field - Martin Dent won in a course record (although there was some discussion about the exact position of the start and finish).

Warm-up and warm-down for race.

When I'm in Canberra I usually take advantage of the opportunity to get into the terrain - something I didn't fully appreciate when I actually lived here. This morning was no exception - my semi-usual route on Black Mountain and Aranda Hill. Started with Jase (who happened to be coming past as I was ready to go) on the track for the first 10 minutes, then headed for the bush. Generally pretty smooth, even in the thicker stuff on the northeast ridge of Black Mountain. Also seemed to have dried out a bit after the morning rain, although said rain had the useful side-effect that I didn't have to remember Mum's highly complicated instructions about how to work the watering system (they're overseas at present but I'm staying in the house).

Spent much of the day visiting Scotty and his colleagues at the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, so naturally this meant a lunchtime run with Scott (I thought it might have been a bigger bunch because Trevor Jacobs is Scotty's boss, but Trevor obviously had other plans). Started from the MDBC building in Civic and went around Mount Ainslie. A solid run at a comfortable pace on a pleasant day for it.

Sighting the Civic Pool dome reminded me indirectly of some of the antics of the inaugural ACT Legislative Assembly (mainly because the roof over the pool was, and may still be, known as the 'Dubydome' after the Minister responsible for commissioning it). One wonders what became of some of its more colourful figures, like the aforementioned Craig Duby (who acquainted himself well with his portfolio responsibilities of Minister for Transport and Police by getting done for drink-driving twice during his two years in office), Dennis Stevenson (serial extreme-right nutter who got elected on an anti-self government protest vote), David Prowse (the Speaker, who, 15 years before Troy, had a well-publicised run-in with a monkey on an Asian trip), whoever was responsible for the Sun-Ripened Warm Tomato Party, and the Assembly Committee on HIV, Illegal Drugs and Prostitution (who took themselves off on a fact-finding tour around a wide selection of Europe and Asia's finest red-light districts).

First time at Ivanhoe for a couple of years - it's the closest pool to my place but isn't on the way to work. It was also closed for a while because the council panicked after a couple of swimming pool roofs collapsed in Europe (it didn't seem to occur to the Banyule Council that the reason for said collapses, accumulated heavy snow, is not an especially likely scenario in Ivanhoe).

Reasonably routine session once I loosened up. I'd forgotten how much chlorine they use here, although the water's cooler than it usually is at indoor pools (a plus from my point of view).

My schedule is slightly reshuffled this week because of my travels later on in the week, which meant the midweek long run was today instead of the more usual Thursday. I planned it to be a particularly long one (as the weekend will be shorter than usual), and it was - the longest I've done midweek this century.

Perfect conditions for it, clear, no wind and around 2-6 degrees depending on where you were. Started from Clifton Hill, then zig-zagged south-east as far as the top end of Glen Iris, coming back through Toorak, along the Yarra and past the MCG. A solid effort which threatened to become better than that at times but never quite did; a little weak on some of the hills (although coped well with the biggest hill of the lot, over the top of Malvern) but smooth otherwise. Had enough energy at the end to do an extra lap of the block rather than wait two minutes for the lights to change at the Alexandra Parade crossing (and admire the 'Romans Go Home' graffiti in the meantime).

Automotive highlight on the way to work: someone driving with a mobile phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other. (He was stopped at traffic lights so I didn't get the chance to see what appendage he was using to steer). Also spotted someone illegally occupying a bike lane who looked like Paris Hilton and was driving as badly as Paris Hilton.

I'm in Canberra from tomorrow afternoon through to Sunday night. If anyone's interested in joining me for an hour or so in the terrain on Friday morning let me know. Would also be interested to know if there are any gatherings planned to "watch" the WOC races.

C • So you miss the Ironman again. 4

Usual fartlek loop on a frosty morning (cold enough that there was frost on car roofs at lower elevations). My limbs must have frozen up too because this was a pretty poor effort - never felt like I had any real speed. Fastest loop 9.26.

There is a banner next to Yarra Bend Park advertising a sale at the golf shop 'This Week Only'. Only trouble is that the same banner was there last week. It could be worse - a Westpac branch I went to yesterday still had a poster up saying that now was a good time to see a financial planner to decide what to do with your super before 30 June 2007.

Swim at Northcote, where fast people swim in fast lanes and slow people in slow ones. I was wondering if there might be a last-minute change of venue after hearing on the radio that a car had altercated with a nearby power pole overnight and that large parts of the suburb were consequently powerless, but either the pool wasn't in that part of the suburb or the problem had been fixed.

Quite a stiff back early on after a big weekend of training, but loosened up well and a nice second half. One of those days where the recovery benefits from swimming were definitely evident.

Monday night from Nicola's place with a bigger turnout than last week. Started off by admiring the handiwork of the driver that had an argument with a power pole (and a brick wall) this morning, then continued through some industrial bits to the high side of Darebin Parklands. This is a reasonably regular haunt for me but I don't think I've been there at night before (especially a clear night). The view of the CBD was stunning. Had a slow patch for a while from there picking our way through Darebin (no moon, so pretty dark despite clear skies), but good after that. A decent run on the whole.

Some things have changed a lot in a bit over half a century. I was looking at some old papers today to get background material for a piece I'm writing on some floods in NSW in June 1950. Among the items to feature were the shop assistants' union pushing for Australia to follow the example of other progressive nations like New Zealand and ban Saturday trading, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' describing flood evacuees in a Maitland hall as living like Chinese coolies (no quotation marks), and the police being called in to break up a brawl involving 800 spectators at a Port Melbourne football game. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find 800 spectators at a Port Melbourne football game these days.