Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

State Series at Belltopper Hill. I think the last time we were here was about 15 years ago; its previous incarnation featured a run which was probably the high-water mark of the few weeks in 1994 when I could lay some sort of claim to being the best in the country. Since then there's been a fire down the south end and the old paddock in the centre of the map has become a bit more overgrown (most of us suspect we spent more time in said paddock than the mapper did), but most of it is still classic steepish Victorian gully-spur.

This was not one of my better days; dropping 4 minutes or so on a gully-spur course is not good enough. The two worst errors (2 minutes at 2, 1 minute at 4) were both on bingoish controls - bushfire regrowth was a factor in the former - but I should still be able to get these OK. Second half better both physically and technically, but never as strong uphill as was the case last week. Jim took 5 minutes out of me, and I suspect Bruce will take more (I haven't seen his time yet).

Course 3 - Splits

Knee was a bit sore on the bike yesterday and early on today, but OK once I got going. Not the most brilliant of runs, but definitely better than Wednesday or Thursday, especially in the second half.

Most of the rest of the day was spent either preparing to have a somewhat belated celebration of a significant milestone or actually doing so. (If you're wondering why it was so belated, this was the first weekend since 8 July that my parents and I were in the country simultaneously).

A fairly routine if relaxing Friday morning session in the pool, spending a certain amount of time thinking of good one-liners relating to the overnight events in Mitchell.

The metrosexual is not exactly an unknown species in Fitzroy, so I was less surprised than I might have been in other places to note that the occupant of the next shower had three separate bottles of product.

As many Melbourne people will know (not least the numerous Melbourne orienteers who have been employed by them at some point), the Melbourne Bicycle Centre has a permanent 'sale' sign outside. There's a bit of a change now - it's a 'renovation sale' instead.

C • I thought 1

About the most positive thing that could be said about this run is that it's light for the start of my Thursday long runs now (not that I'll be doing another proper Thursday long run until late October or early November). Otherwise it was pretty similar to yesterday morning, just lasted for longer; perhaps I'm not used to going back to the hard Wednesday night/long(ish) Thursday morning combination?

A run from Canterbury station, in preparation for tonight, out to Box Hill and Wattle Park. This proved to be a pretty dismal run, again one where I didn't seem to be properly awake - a bit of a problem on morning runs at the moment. Improved a bit in the last 20 minutes.

I'd hoped that this morning was an aberration and it looks like it might have been.

Putting in a Wednesday night appearance was almost as much about doing business (in the form of offloading assorted items of Oceania carnival gear brought back from NSW) as it was about running. Once the run got under way, it looked reasonably routine and uninspiring for the first 15 minutes, although it was already obvious that we were a long way ahead of the clock.

At that stage I was about 80 metres behind Ian Davies, who might have found Kooyoora a bit beyond his current capabilities (I suspect 70 minutes will be the year's longest split) but is pretty quick on the streets. A route choice on the next leg sliced 50 metres off the gap, and when we were close together at the next control I decided to have a crack - the first time I've managed to successfully throw a surge at someone for ages. This fed into a pretty good second half, flowing well down the hills and attacking the climbs with some degree of confidence. It's still not remotely in the league of Bryan (who was four minutes ahead today) or Bruce, but it's progress - my kilometre rate tonight was on a par with the best I managed in daylight last summer.

I'm pleased by the signs of continued progress, and at present feel like I'm probably running as well as has been the case at any time since my initial Achilles-induced layoff in November 2009. There's still some way to go to get back to where I was in October 2009, but it's a start.

Again felt a bit sleepy as I did last week but quite good once I started running, an easier process than it was a couple of weeks ago; my Achilles has settled significantly in the last week or so and no longer requires a few minutes of shuffling to start.

The pace continues to improve a bit - more convincingly under 10 this time, although wasn't quite as fast as it sometimes felt. Still feel as if I'm running into reasonable form at about the right time.

I also had a look at my 1995 NOL map. The fallen timber (from a recent storm) that made its presence felt at times on Sunday must have slowed the area down more than I thought, because in 1995 I did 5.8 minutes/km (compared with 7.6 on Sunday) on a course with similar length and climb - albeit with more consistent rolling hills and fewer really steep bits - and I haven't slowed down that much. (The forest must have been much more open because I took straight non-track route choices on some legs in 1995 which I wouldn't have considered in 2011).

And a rather unfortunate juxtaposition from an ABC promo yesterday "On 7.30 tonight: could 9/11 happen again, and how Sam Stosur did it". And to think we wasted all this time looking for Osama bin Laden.

This is not a PB for the longest solo drive home after a major event - that remains as the 930km after the 2007 SA Championships in Burra - but 890km is still a fair way. The last couple of hours did take a certain amount of the same mental application as was called on for eight-contour climbs out of the second-last control earlier in the day; my legs felt as if they were on the point of cramping several times. I made it home a few seconds after midnight.

I did take the opportunity to do a site visit at Wyalong (and didn't even notice until I downloaded the photos this morning that there was a very photogenic storm cloud and rainbow in the background - not sure if it's quite calendar material, but I'm still happy with it).

The trip did teach a lesson about how much fuel you save when sitting behind a truck as I was for 70km out of Narrandera. It also told me just how many local councils in all directions proudly proclaim themselves as the "gateway" to the Riverina ('nothing to see here but least we're on the way to somewhere!'). I guess Coolamon was hardly going to put up a sign which said "Welcome to Coolamon Shire: Highest Sexual Assault Rate in NSW".

A bit later than usual, having taken the decision from the benefit of recent experience that arriving better-rested half an hour later at work was worth a couple of hours of extra productivity once I got there (it's good to be in a workplace which offers that flexibility). Not as stiff as I was expecting to be, and a decent swim even if I did drift out of it a little bit towards the end.

Perhaps sitting for 11 hours in a car isn't such a bad way to recover from a long race. This was a remarkably smooth run in the circumstances, heading out at lunchtime on the Tan in nice running conditions. Never felt remotely uncomfortable; a very encouraging performance. We'll learn more in the remainder of the week.