Run ((technical training)) 1:31:00 [3] *** 12.0 km (7:35 / km) +550m 6:10 / km
Some technical training at Nerrina set up by Roch. I was keen to get to this as I'll be away for the next two weekends. Rob and Kathryn came up with me. First (and longest) part was a pairs relocation course with Rob, then a bit of map-memory stuff before a short course.
Technically it was quite reasonable once I got the feel of reading the map again. Physically, I was OK while in cruise mode (and I wasn't trying to run too hard on the course generally), but struggling with anything harder, such as up hills (and Nerrina is hillier than it looks) - suggesting I'm still not 100% well. It was a good session for me to do on such a day - otherwise I'd probably have tried to go 2 hours plus and probably done myself some damage in the process.
One definite change to the terrain: the gorse is thinning out significantly (probably because of the drought), and some areas mapped as medium/dark green are now quite passable. Normally this would be an unreservedly good thing, although at Nerrina the green contributes to setting up good route-choice legs.
From the intensity point of view this week has been pretty much a write-off at a stage when I could have done without writing off weeks. This, in turn, now makes it important for me to get some quality training done when in Seoul next week, as I can't really afford to lose another week. Not sure how conducive the environment in Seoul will be to quality training (apart from the issue of finding good places to run, I'm expecting most of my runs, at least for the first few days, to be in temperatures between -5 and -10) but I guess we'll find out.
Spent most of the rest of the day at the cricket - an interesting game if not quite in the form we're used to. One lingering question: surely at least one of the other 49,000 present would be interested in eating something healthy at the MCG? Finding something at the ground which has some semblance of nutritional value is definitely a greater challenge than finding a pit in the middle of gorse at Nerrina. I would have thought there would be some sort of market for something different to pies, chips and burgers (if nothing else, with large numbers of Indians present one would expect a decent market for mass-produced curry), but obviously whoever has the catering contract is severely lacking in imagination. I headed outside in search of other options and found them in Bridge Road (after first discovering that none of the eight eating establishments on Wellington Parade near the ground considered it worthwhile to open on a match-day Sunday), but was only able to do that because Australia's dismal batting extended the break between innings by 25 minutes over its usual duration.