Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I've spent the last four Sundays either racing or in the air, so this is the first time in more than a month that I've done something that looks like a normal Sunday morning summer long run - the longest this season to date (at least on time). Spent the first 90 minutes with Bruce along the Yarra as far as opposite the Abbotsford brewery, then did a second lap up to Eaglemont Flats and back through Darebin Parklands. Almost entirely off-road until the last 30 minutes, which was enjoyable (but did account for the relatively slow pace - some of the tracks along the Yarra are pretty rough). A steady run, a bit tired on the section going across the hills of Ivanhoe and through Darebin Parklands, but felt good in the last 20 minutes and definitely had a lot more left in me. I'll have limited opportunities for really long runs this summer but next weekend is one of them, so will be aiming for something reasonably big. (I've noticed from my schedule that a Sunday morning a few weeks hence has a fair chance of finding me somewhere in the vicinity of Tallahassee, and given how much fun the Hoggster had of finding somewhere decent to run for 30 minutes, I don't like my chances of finding somewhere decent to run for 2 1/2 hours).

The conditions were ideal - cloudy and 16-17 degrees (on the equivalent weekend last year it was 41 on Saturday and 42 on Sunday), with the sun just breaking through in the last few minutes. Only sour note sounded by going past the debris of a Saturday night (the shattered remnants of a bus shelter - perhaps whoever thought of the circular concrete bunkers they use in Canberra was on to something).

C • car? 4

A steady run in steady rain. Got a decent night's sleep for the first time in a while and felt a lot better than I did in the middle of the week (especially Thursday). A little bit of adventure in the second half because the track coming back through the bush at Macleod no longer existed and there was a bit of unplanned terrain running.

The cricketers at Macleod were already packing up at 9.30, which saved them from a few hours sitting around waiting for nothing to happen (it's still raining four hours later).

Built quite nicely through this session and got quite a bit of stiffness from yesterday out of my system by the second half. Also didn't seem as bored as I usually am in the pool.

Hanny missed a golden opportunity yesterday - the field for the women's Zatopek 10K was extremely weak (most of the top Australian women are injured) and I think she would have had an excellent chance of winning had she come. While there is only a certain amount to be gained by beating a weak field, a national title is still a nice thing to have on the CV.

Felt half-asleep at the start of this run and struggled through most of it; my worst run for a while. Thought early on that it might be one of those that came good later but it only showed signs of doing so in the last 10 minutes. Quite pleased to get this over and done with.

A significant stretch in the middle was heading due east and sun-glare was an annoyance, but I did explore a couple of creeks in the Reservoir/Coburg area I hadn't previously been to. This area was a bit hillier than I'd imagined.

A somewhat patchy run, a bit later in the morning than I'd planned after one of those morning when nothing quite goes right in getting ready (especially when it comes to misplacing various small-but-important objects). Lovely conditions, cool and dry. At its best in the last 20 minutes through Studley Park, particularly up some of the hills.

This morning's news carried the shock revelation that a study commissioned by the AFL had found a relationship between excessive alcohol consumption and player misbehaviour. I sometimes think wistfully about what Orienteering Australia could do with a 0.1% cut of the money that comes into the AFL and stories like that do nothing to discourage me in that. I don't know how much they spent on the study but I hope it wasn't too much.

Slightly unconventional route to this event. I was supposed to be doing an interview with Al-Jazeera International at the Channel 9 studios at Richmond, and was all miked up and ready to go, but got bumped when news came through that someone had tried to blow up the President of Lebanon - something which probably happens about as often as drunk Australian footballers getting into nightclub incidents. (It turned out that the initial reports were wrong and the target was actually an army general). There's nothing a 24-hour satellite news channel likes more than a good bombing so I wasn't surprised to get punted.

(It is perhaps instructive that on the same day a few months back, a bomb blast in Algeria killed about 20 people and a flash flood, also in Algeria, killed about 50 people. Guess which one was on the front page and which one got a paragraph on page 17?).

Once I made it to the event at Mount Buller (well, actually Croydon Hills), it was an enjoyable course, but I didn't run as well as I would have liked, with a few irritating problems like a stitch on the steeper downhills, and a weak third quarter. Adam Scammell and David Kipp disappeared almost immediately, taking alternative route choices which proved to be suboptimal (very suboptimal in David's case), which left me with Bryan Ackerly. We were together or close to it almost all the way, but I had the feeling that Bryan was only doing as much as he had to. It therefore didn't surprise me when he made his move out of the second-last control, but knowing what he was going to do didn't mean I could do anything about it.

One interesting diversion was provided by the leg between 16 and 10. This took us across the oval of Croydon Hills Primary, who happened to be hosting their Christmas concert, providing a certain amount of musical accompaniment. Some people said they'd heard it from a long distance but I only noticed on that leg.

C • feeling old 3

I've felt myself coming back into decent form in the last week or so and today was more evidence of that. Felt a bit light-headed early on but still ended up with comfortably my best fartlek session of the current training cycle (fastest loop 9.09). Hopefully I can hold this form for a while (is 3 1/2 months too much to ask for?).

Saw the aftermath of a car-versus-bicycle on the way in this morning. Hope it wasn't too serious but it didn't look great.

First time back in the pool for more than a week. (There is actually a water park in Hanoi - I saw it at the far end of my run last Thursday - but I suspect lap swimming isn't at the top of their priorities, plus it was closed for winter - I also recall hearing about a Chinese city where foreigners weren't allowed into the public pool unless they could produce a medical certificate to prove they didn't have AIDS). A fairly mundane session.

Bigger crowd than has been usual of late for Monday night. I thought I might have been the one with the most travel stories to tell but Kirsten upstaged me, having just returned from several months in South America. Robbie and Kathryn were there as well. Spent most of it on the smaller Yarra Bend tracks starting from Bruce's place; felt good, and a faster pace than usual for a Monday night.