Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

As expected it was colder but more pleasant this morning: -11 but with much lighter winds than yesterday. (What wasn't expected was a bit of snow at times, probably lake-effect given that it wasn't moving much, and falling most heavily on the first low hill downwind of the lake).

I'll probably be spending a bit more time near main roads than I'd ordinarily like over the next week or so, those being the areas which are most clear of snow, but on a Sunday morning the first half-hour north-west, past the end of the airport and a certain well-known Swedish business, was pretty quiet. The next stage was on smaller roads out as far as CERN, wondering a bit about the wizardry that was going on underneath, before dropping back down to the Rhone (the backwaters of which are starting to freeze in a fairly significant way), mostly on bike paths. The climb out of there was more challenging as it featured some stretches of deeper snow, and across the top new snow was starting to fall quite heavily, although without much accumulation as yet (I was impressed that the ploughs were already out).

For the first two hours it had been a perfectly routine run, but, not for the first time this season, I found the last half-hour of a long run pretty tough going - certainly happy that it featured no substantial climbs. Also a bit of foot soreness towards the end (which turned out to be nothing more significant than cracked skin), but managed to get 2.30 under my belt, which I guess isn't too bad for my first full day in Europe.

#firstworldproblems department - someone's started a discussion thread on Nopesport about the difficulties of their Porsche bottoming out in event parking fields. I'm expecting some entertaining replies.

And the Swiss transport system doesn't always cope with one-in-20-years weather events any better than ours does - frozen points caused extensive delays on the Geneva-Lausanne line over the weekend.

Most of the trip went very smoothly (with the help of some of Dad's mountain of frequent-flyer points which meant I had my first experience of life up in the top of a 747), but it came unstuck at Frankfurt. A 45-minute immigration queue meant that I missed my connection there, which shouldn't have been too much of a drama - except that it was almost impossible to find someone who might be interested in transferring me to a later flight (mostly because Lufthansa, with whom I was flying on the Frankfurt-Geneva leg, have automated their systems to the point where you generally can't get to a counter without having a boarding pass, but the machines wouldn't give me a boarding pass because I was too late). Once I finally found someone to talk to they told me I had to go to Qantas to rebook (since it was booked as a Qantas ticket). I hauled myself back to the other terminal to find, to my complete lack of surprise, that there was no Qantas counter open (since their flights out of Frankfurt are in the evenings). It was seriously tempting to try to find some way of getting my luggage out of the system and get the train to Geneva instead, but in the end I did manage to find someone at Lufthansa who was actually interested in being helpful, and ended up on the next flight 2 1/2 hours later. (Somewhat ironically, if there hadn't been so much mucking around associated with it, missing the connection wasn't such a bad thing - I was going to have to kill a few hours somewhere because I wasn't going to be able to check in until 1, and Frankfurt Airport is warmer than places I might have ended up in Geneva).

The conditions at Geneva weren't as scary as the numbers suggested. The most recent forecast I'd seen was -12 with 80 km/h winds and I was half-expecting to see full-on blizzard conditions with blowing and drifting snow. It turned out to be a bit warmer than that (-7 by mid-afternoon, although this still makes it their coldest day since 1987), and the city is less exposed than the airport - definitely not a day for running along the lake, though...

Once out, it took me a long time to get going, as expected - although the Achilles, which had been horrible getting off planes, was OK on the run. Quite pleasant out of the wind, sometimes hard work into it but this rarely happened for more than a few minutes at a time. Most streets and paths in the inner suburbs are cleared but there's a fair bit of snow and ice elsewhere, and it's the sort of crusty, drfiting snow where it's difficult to judge what's good for running on and what isn't. (It certainly won't be any easier in the dark during the week). Biggest issue of the run was that of one's internal functions still being on the wrong time zone, but that only emerged in the last 10 minutes saving me from the challenging task of trying to find a public toilet (these are few and far between).

At one point I thought I saw a car in trouble sliding around on an ice-covered car park, but it turned out to be one of the local hoons and the sliding was intentional.

I'm still planning to go long tomorrow; it looks like being slightly colder but less windy. Might have some trouble finding somewhere to do speedwork, though - two lanes of the track have been cleared, but are still icy and useless for running fast.

C • Hope you have a nice warm hat? 2

Originally had thoughts of going to the Coogee oceanside (tidal) baths but a wet day at high tide with heavy surf wasn't exactly ideal conditions for that (I'm not sure whether it would even have been open), so bailed out to the UNSW indoor pool instead. This took some finding after getting caught on the wrong side of a construction site: OK once I made it there, although nothing special.

After a couple of reasonable weeks, the Achilles was a bit sore today. As I know from hobbling through numerous airports in the last couple of years, it doesn't like sitting down for long periods, something I'll be doing for a while as of late this afternoon.

Tomorrow's mountain forecast for western Switzerland: northeast winds of 95 km/h and -22 degrees - anyone for skiing? Geneva (now going for -11 with fresh NE winds, the one direction Geneva isn't sheltered from) will be challenging enough.

Things I never thought I'd see: a taxi driver (in Sydney, of all places) who was rabidly in favour of stronger action on climate change and thinks we should be doing more to speak out against the Alan Joneses of this world.

Not easy to drag myself out of bed at 5.20 after getting into it at midnight but having someone else to meet was an incentive not to let the timetable slip. As with yesterday, joined Andy at the bottom of the Coogee hill, but this time turned south rather than north. This is flatter initially but later got adventurous, including one section where the coastal 'walk' drops onto the coastal rock shelves. On a reasonably rugged day, we eventually decided that it wouldn't be a particularly good look for a climate scientist and an oceangrapher to be washed off the rocks and bailed out back to the road before going on as far as Maroubra. (There was a bit of history repeating itself here - the last time this conference was in Sydney, in 1997, I also had to turn back on a planned running route, although on that occasion the reason was flooding and my companions were Ecmo and Jock).

This is as far as you can go along the coast - a military rifle range gets in the way. (Some might be unkind enough to suggest that on certain occasions the back streets of Maroubra might also constitute a rifle range, but no sign of that today). We turned back at this point. Andy finished up back at Coogee but I kept going, as far as Tamarama before climbing out through the suburbs and getting beyond the two-hour part.

Not an unpleasant run but once again lacking some energy on the hills, which felt very slow (although the stairs and the section of rock scrambling also account for some of the slowness). Did wake up eventually.

Down to Coogee to meet the Hoggster and a companion and then north along the coastline as far as Tamarama; a run which had a fair bit in common with last Thursday in Adelaide, although the stairs were a bit more spread out - not too much flat running to be had in these parts. Felt OK but lacking a bit of strength on the climbs, especially the stair climbing. Nicest running conditions for a while, though, with cool southeast winds and occasional light rain.

It was a bit earlier than I'd planned on (I'd worked backwards from conference starting time without realising that Andy, staying at Coogee, had 20 minutes' more walking to get there than I did), but that's no bad thing as the room I'm in would be impossible to sleep in much past 5.30 anyway (traffic noise).

Squeezed a short session in before the conference dinner. Andy reckons there are only two runs in this area (north along the coast or south along the coast), and from Coogee he's probably right, but from the top of the hill in Randwick Centennial Park is also an option, and that's where I went. A not-overly-inspiring run early but started to come good in the last 10 minutes.

I was last in Centennial Park (along with a fair number of other orienteers) for the 2000 Olympics (mostly the road cycling but also some of the marathon). On that occasion, many of us travelled to and from the event on bikes (in my case I was doing all my training on the bike at the time because of a stress fracture), and with several hundred bikes heading down Oxford Street posy-event, someone asked us 'is there a Critical Mass rally going on'?

This didn't quite go to plan yesterday and today: I got to Sydney OK but my bag didn't, scuttling my plans for a Monday night swim (will have to wait until Friday to check out the Coogee baths) or a Tuesday morning run with the Hoggster. My gear eventually turned up and there was a bit of a gap in the conference program in mid-afternoon so I headed out then, for what turned out to be the most intense session I've done in a while - 10x1 minute hill reps on the northern headland of Coogee beach, downhill jog recovery. Was starting to get pretty lactic by the last few and was half-thinking of turning the last couple into flat reps on the waterfront, but was glad I didn't. Good to get this one under my belt.

This is a part of town I've spent very little time in: the only previous time I've been to Coogee was in search of a beachfront shower between the 2005 NOL sprint and the airport. I did, however, know enough about the reputation of a certain local drinking establishment to advise those of my colleagues at the conference from non-rugby states that it was a place known for footballers disgracing themselves by getting into altercations, suffering from minor continence difficulties etc.

I'm not used to being out and about at this time of day, so I think it's the first time for a long time (in a big city anyway) that I've had the chance to witness the standard of driving at school pick-up time. And I thought the drop-off was bad...

Going to/from Coogee from the place I'm staying, which is on top of the Randwick ridge - close to UNSW and a pretty solid climb home.

Perhaps I should add to the 'you know you're an orienteer when' list the thought that when you step onto a university campus for the first time in a long time - I'm pretty sure I haven't been to UNSW since Year 12 - one of the things which immediately comes to mind is how good the place would be for a sprint. (I assume it's been tried but they can't get permission).

Most of the conference presentations I'm interested in are on days other than today, but today's highlight for me was the east coast lows section, in which all four talks featured pictures of the Pasha Bulker (from four different angles).

C • Pasha Bulker 2

Didn't sleep that well last night due to a combination of steamy conditions, tennis (although I only lasted until halfway through the fourth set) and having too much to do before going away. The steaminess was still there this morning as I set out for a bit of a plod around the streets of Eaglemont - as with yesterday, feeling OK at a low intensity but not in a way that filled me with confidence about my ability to handle a higher intensity.