Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I woke up with a bit of a sniffle and having had very little sleep (the only reason I can think of for that was drinking a Coke with dinner), which didn't fill me with confidence about a long run on a tough course - almost chickened out and headed for the plains to the north of Trafalgar, but stuck with my original plan, which involved a flat first 20 minutes before a major climb of 350 metres in about 4km.

The run started OK and I adjusted quickly enough to running with a headlamp for the first time in a while (6.15 start, so in the dark for the first 40 minutes). Big hills are sometimes easiest when you can't see what's coming, but I already knew from the map that the first part of Earls Road was the steepest; it eased off after that, but still seemed to go more or less forever. Had reasonable strength for this, though, which will help build some confidence.

The next section was a little disappointing. I thought this run might catch alight once I got to the top of the hill and the road would have been ideal for that - gently rolling hills in the countryside, more down than up - but wasn't feeling great through that part (perhaps I was disappointed that low cloud only meant limited views). Will have to try this again on a better day. Got a bit of a surprise hitting Sunny Creek Road at the saddle rather than a couple of kilometres south of it (the VicRoads map was misleading), which meant not doing a climb I had been preparing myself for. Rob's version of this loop goes up again from this point, but I didn't really want another big climb and was running a little short of time (plus I wasn't confident of finding the top end of Old Thorpdale Road), so headed down the bitumen of Sunny Creek Road. Some nice stretches on the flat in the last 20 minutes, although with a feeling I might have struggled if tested much further.

All in all, not too bad a run in the circumstances.

There was a big storm here on Tuesday night (the rain gauge I gave Kathryn and Rob for a housewarming present got 112mm worth of use), but there's surprisingly little damage - I was expecting to see a lot of washouts and other such damage but there was no real evidence of it. Wilsons Prom is a rather different story...

C • Shame to didn't get a good ... 3

It's the Gippsland Field Days weekend but not as I usually know it, as instead of our usual base at Neerim South I was staying at Kathryn and Rob's place in Trafalgar. It's not hard to work out why Rob was so strong on the big climbs up Ainslie a couple of weeks ago - any decent long run from Trafalgar involves climbing the escarpment south of town, which depending on where you do it involves anywhere from 200 to 350 metres climb.

Headed out after a day's work into the Moe South plantation (used for what must have been a pretty tough MTBO three weeks ago). Essentially uphill for the first half and downhill for the second, apart from a brief reversal halfway on both. Not easy but reasonably happy with the way I handled it for the most part. Insides a bit shaken up towards the end. The eucalypt plantation area looked surprisingly runnable and could, with good course-setting, support local club events if one became established (although Kathryn tells me the trees get felled every 10 years on average).

The field days were much as usual (three climate sceptics today, but no aggro ones). Also managed to pick up a few Gippsland goodies, hoping that I wouldn't be noticed because the stand selling them was next to the Citizens Electoral Council. I'm not exactly Public Enemy Number One in CEC-land (that position is reserved for Prince Philip), but I do probably rank higher in that list than I do in the current IOF world rankings. One spinoff of the CEC's presence is that the Scientologists are now only the second nuttiest people with a stand at the Field Days.

(The DPI stand, which we were near, had a big section on a cause close to the heart of the orienteering community - getting rid of blackberries).

C • Blackberries 7

A new pool to experience today. I was on my way down to the Gippsland Field Days via an afternoon talk at CSIRO in Aspendale, and decided that Fountain Gate was the most conveniently located. (Yes, Fountain Gate actually exists, although Kath and Kim was mostly filmed in Patterson Lakes). I might not have reached such a conclusion had I known what evening peak hour traffic across the southern fringe of Melbourne was like, the lowlight being taking 40 minutes to go 2km in Hampton Park. (The puzzling thing about this was that the roadworks which caused it were readily avoidable by anyone who knew of their existence and knew the area, so why weren't all the locals avoiding them?).

A switch to plan B was required when I discovered that my pool running belt wasn't in the car (hopefully it's in the lost property bin at Fitzroy), which meant switching to a swim. (As it turned out the pool would have been no good for pool running anyway - too shallow). Felt like I was really struggling to get going but not the worst of results in the end.

Again from Clifton Hill - something which used to be a reasonably regular occurrence when I was getting needles stuck into my calves every second Thursday but not something which has been common of late. Headed initially along the Yarra and then Gardiners Creek as far as Burke Road, heading back through the suburbs, involving a few more major routes than I'd planned on once it became apparent that my originally intended route was going to be 2.15-plus.

Again not a great run, again struggling whenever I needed to lift the intensity. Will be interesting to see how it goes next week when I won't be coming off a Wednesday night race. A bit of a left calf twinge appeared at about 45 minutes and was intermittently troublesome, but went away in the last 30 minutes. Tiredness was also an issue later on the day; my intermittent 2pm Thursday flat spot was a 5pm flat spot today, which I tried to push through but shouldn't have; I realised afterwards that I'd made a mistake and everything I'd done in the following hour was going to need to be redone tomorrow morning anyway.

Saw Kirsten walking the dog towards the end, and also saw why we haven't seen much of her this season (evidently I missed a Significant Announcement while I was away).

A run based on the Yarra from Clifton Hill. Had its moments but nothing to get too excited about - remaining rather weak on the hills (is this sounding like a broken record?).

Sounds like the people's revolt was a bit of a fizzer (and whoever thought it was a good idea to have Tony Abbott in a position where he could be photographed underneath a 'Ditch the Bitch' sign should be seeking alternative employment immediately). I wonder if the bus which was coming up from Berwick via the Latrobe Valley got stuck in the floods?

C • Leader of Opposition attends a CEC rally 1

Final Summer Series at Maroondah Triangle. We were expecting a quirky format but it turned out to be quite straightforward - score event but with only 15 controls counting, so for those of us who expected to be able to get 15 in time, it was just a case of dropping the five lowest-scoring (only one of which would have been worth getting even in a 15-out-of-20 scatter event).

Everyone started together and there was an obvious first control which meant losing some time at the scrum around it (and to a lesser extent at the second, too). Was feeling OK through here. The only real route choice followed shortly afterwards (to get 5 early or late). I chose late, but not many others did so I was on my own through much of the middle third (I'd thought I might be in for another drag race with Martin Steer, but we split here). Let myself drift a bit through that section, but finished reasonably well with a result which indicated very gradual improvement (although Bruce had a flyer). One minor time loss at 4 when I started up one street too early.

The only real drawback to the route was an extra two crossings of Mount Dandenong Road, some of the driving on which reminded me a bit of the fatal hit-and-run a couple of weeks back (that one had the added twist that the alleged driver dumped the car down the road and set it on fire - unsurprisingly he was "known to police"). A less serious car-versus-bicycle altercation explains the absence in the last couple of weeks of regular opposition in the last two years, Ian Davies (apparently nothing too serious but enough to stop him running for a bit).

A bit more lively than last week and a bit less slow too, but still not under 10 which remains a long way below par. At least my second loop was back to its usual situation of being a few seconds faster than my first, rather than the reverse which has been the case recently. In general I feel reasonable for power - which explains why I wasn't losing much ground on the scrambling out of erosion gullies last weekend - but much worse for endurance at or near threshold.

A reasonably standard Monday morning swim at Fitzroy. Didn't feel too bad (although not really awake at the start - something which has been quite common in the last couple of weeks), but pretty slow. Did pick up the pace a bit at the end.

And today my attention was drawn to a new unit of measurement: measuring radiation exposure in terms of how many bananas you would need to eat to get a similar exposure (bananas are naturally slightly radioactive). Read all about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dos.... I think the peak levels at Fukushima have been something in the order of 1 million bananas per hour.

C • Banana Dosage 8

Monday night from the place formerly known as Liggo's (he still owns it but the residents these days are Reuben and Morten), down along the river and past the Batcave (which seems to be creeping slowly upriver). A nice night for a casual run. Some meatier discussion topics than usual, particularly in relation to Libya. Knee fine on the run but felt a bit odd afterwards.

Everything was wrapped up earlier than usual, allowing me to get home in time to see Media Watch do a job on the climate sceptics and their many friends in commercial radio.