Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

ACT Long at Glenbrook. This was the sort of run that I thought I might have had more of this week, really struggling for pace in the faster terrain, and ultimately struggling for endurance too. It's a pity because it's a nice area and on a different day I'd really have enjoyed running here. It still had its share of interesting moments, but at times it felt like a bit of a long slog (especially up the hills).

I was caught early by Ev and Jules, which wasn't really a surprise - I thought Ev might really go for it early to get onto me. Jules went straight through me but I still had Ev in sight until an annoying 30-seconder at 6, where I saw the flag but thought it wasn't mine because it was in vegetation and my map said it shouldn't be. (He then blew 9 in some style and finished behind me). Settled into a bit of a rhythm after that - interrupted a little coming out of the map change when the wind took the map out of my hands and I had to go chasing it (at least it blew in more or less the direction I was going). Reasonable for most of the most technical part of the course, from 13 to 16, but then didn't see 17's gully from above and lost 90 seconds there. Started to tire after that, and was thankful that 19 was downhill, and 21's climb had a tailwind; at moments there the thought did even cross my mind that maybe M40 next year isn't such a terrible idea....15th was my equal best placing of the week, but that was mainly due to the extensive DNS list; being ten minutes behind people who I should be close to matching was more indicative.

In the end, I finished this week more or less the way I was expecting before it started - not a disaster but certainly well short of full fitness, as indicated by the way I faded away today. WMOC and the Aus Champs are the real targets this year, and another four months of solid training should make a big difference. At least I hope it will. With no real Achilles issues for a few weeks now there is no reason not to launch back into full training after an easy week this week.

C • M40 next year? 5

After the day's orienteering activities, a carload of us (Jenny, Susanne, Tracy, and Johan from Denmark) went up to Thredbo. This involved some good scenery and some interesting conversation, some of which was quite deep and meaningful. During the course of this I made a significant confession - I was responsible for buying the mince at the 1992 national junior training camp. Those of a certain age will remember exactly what that means.

C • i do. 4

ACT Middle at Buckenderra. This was going to be a very big day; on the basis of the count that Bruce did a couple of years ago, I had thought that this was going to be the day when I became the first person to run 200 National League races. In the Australian Rules football culture which I've grown up amongst such milestones are a big deal - perhaps particularly so in our family folklore because my great-uncle famously retired after 99 games with Essendon because he didn't want the fuss. The occasion was rather spoiled when I did a check last weekend, to make sure I'd got it right, and discovered that I was already there (it had come up at the prologue last Friday); I'm assuming that Bruce's list missed a couple of no-races, the 2000 World Cup (where Australian World Cup runners still counted for National League points) and a 2001 two-race event where I didn't get through qualifying.

I was still treating this as a pseudo-milestone run (if only to try to erase the fact that the real milestone race saw my worst-ever NOL placing). It wasn't quite as forgettable as the 300th games of Dustin Fletcher (who broke his leg) or Sam Newman (who spent virtually all of it on the bench), but it was still pretty forgettable, thanks to a major error at the third control; I climbed too much in contouring, crossed a gully above its junction rather than below, and thus spent five minutes convincing myself that I was on the right slope and not the next one around (it was unhelpful that there was a control on a cliff which could, with a certain amount of imagination, be made to fit the one I was looking for).

Once you make an error that big in a middle distance it becomes a salvage operation. I had small time losses on 5 (where I also struggled with the climb) and 9, and was with Devil (who started two minutes behind) there. I thought he'd be hard to shake but he took a different route on the short 10th and I didn't see him again. The second half was significantly better, both physically and technically, but the damage was long done by then.

For the record, of the (now) 205 NOL races, I've had two individual wins (the second day of QB3 1995 and the 2000 World Cup long trial at Kangaroo Crossing), four seconds, nine thirds and a total of 42 top five-results, plus four relay wins. At the other end of the scale I've had eight DNFs; one relay mispunch of my own, one by a teammate, one lost SI stick, three through injury, and two that I started without intending to finish (also because of injury). I've missed 22 events in total - 13 injured (all but two in 2002 or early 2003), 3 through controlling (you'll be shocked that these were all sprints), 5 through being overseas (4 for competition, 1 for work), and 1 because I was resting for the World Cup next day.

Event: Snow Treble
 

ACT Sprint at Buckenderra. It was apparent in the first 50 metres, an uphill drag-race with Lilian (which I broke even in at best), that it wasn't really happening for me physically today, feeling like a brick whenever the course went uphill. Bryan caught me quite early but didn't get away once we hit the terrain; his ankle was obviously still an issue there. This fooled me into thinking that I wasn't doing too badly. I thought I'd at least got the navigation right, but going around the lake below the high-water mark was a poor option on 14 and cost us 40 seconds or so. About the only achievement of the day was successfully defending two minutes on PatS (just).

The local roads feature various bits of wildlife in various states of decomposition (although not at the density to be seen north of Kalgoorlie, or around Springsure). They also feature the odd sign giving phone numbers for wildlife rescue which no-one would have any chance of remembering. We had a bit of a discussion on a more suitably memorable number, and ultimately settled on 1300 ROADKILL.

I drove down to Jindabyne after work. Travelling the Monaro Highway south in the dark is something we used to do a bit in times gone by, in the form of school-organised ski trips on a Sunday, leaving at 5am or thereabouts. A certain amount of recall of this was induced by the fact that the radio station I was listening to was playing two hours of 1987 music, enough to remind me of the three of us (not including driver) on the bus who were actually awake singing "Ship of Fools" (not very well).

(The reason why I was awake was that I had, of course, been for a run. 3.45 remains a PB for my earliest run, although it was almost broken some years back when I thought I'd heard my alarm, got up, had something to eat, got ready to run, and didn't realise until I looked at my watch on the way out the door that it was 1.40).

Another fairly mediocre run in a nice setting, mostly on Aranda Hill and Black Mountain. Once again lacking strength uphill (much as I was before Easter, but less so during it). Heel better than yesterday but still not 100%. All in all not a real confidence-building exercise, although I've been around for long enough not to be too perturbed by indifferent recovery runs in the middle of a competition week.

Run from home, out as far as the Pinnacle and Hawker before coming back past Jamison and a final loop through Aranda. Felt very sluggish early on, not unexpected for a post-Easter run; picked up a little later on. A bit of heel soreness, perhaps not surprising given what it's been put through over Easter (and not too serious at this stage). Some light rain at times which was nice.

The sign at Aranda Primary said that their school cross-country was on yesterday; I wonder where it went? (it certainly didn't exist in my day). It occurred to me that there may well be a lot of orienteering people at Aranda Primary in the next few years (there's already one, although Annabel Scott didn't seem terribly excited when it was pointed out to her at Monday's event that she was standing next to two former students - Sophie Barker and myself). Saw the BAJasemobile disappearing into the distance.

For those who are waiting on the JWOC team - I'm trying to contact as many of the people involved as possible individually before making a public announcement. If you think you might be a contender and you haven't heard from me it's probably because I'm still trying to track down your number - if you want to short-circuit this process feel free to give me a call (0413 849 309).

C • did i get in? 3

C • Aranda PS XC 1

C • XC 1

I'd like to think that the 50-metre pool at CISAC was measured by the same people who were responsible for measuring the track at the Stawell Gift, but somehow I doubt it. Felt like even more of a blob in the pool than usual (which is saying something), but I guess it will have been useful for recovery.

Seem to have a bit of a runny nose again too.

C • CISAC 1

Final day of Easter at Collector Hill, an area with a lot of fallen timber and lowish-visibility casuarina (somewhat like Sunset Mountain) and some interesting rock lines which the course made good use of.

We had a chasing start, with eight going out within three minutes in the battle for positions 11-18. I started fourth of this bunch, 16 seconds ahead of Matt Parton and 27 ahead of Ian Anderson. It was no great surprise that Matt caught me not long after the first control, and Ian came with him. For the rest of the first half of the course, which was quite technical, I was sort of hanging in there as the others made mistakes, but never had a lot of confidence about my prospects of making much headway in the end. After 15 the course opened out and became less technical and I was blown away; ended up running out of legs in the last 2km and was also overrun by Steve Todkill, to finish up in 17th. By the end the extent of my ambitions was to finish in front of Cath Chalmers (a battle which did both of us good - she got a fastest split out of it and I picked up an extra point for the Nuggets by 7 seconds). No errors of any significance.

I'd probably have taken this result at the start of the weekend; certainly not quite where I'd like to be and didn't quite have the fitness to finish things off today, but reasonably competitive on all days except the sprint. Two minutes faster on each of the last three days would have been enough for ninth, and I'm reasonably confident of being able to find another two minutes per course in the next six months, perhaps even the next six weeks.