Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First run which bore a vague passing resemblance to a long run for three months, down towards the Studley boathouse and then back through Kew. This was a run of four quarters on a nice morning; a nondescript first quarter, an excellent second quarter flowing fairly nicely, a hard-working third quarter with some sharp hills, and then struggling a bit to bring it home, with fatigued quads and not a lot of uphill strength. One hopes that the last of these is merely temporary and reflects a lack of recent long runs, and will improve as I get more of them under my belt.

It was Banyule Council election day and I did the tour of the four local polling booths, with brief pauses en route to get updates on the latest shenanigans (mainly another candidate who'd promised us preferences, and registered a how-to-vote card to that effect, turning up with a different card sending preferences to our chief rival). This was a run which felt very good in patches but was slower than it felt.

There was obviously some wayward bowling (or a bad wicketkeeper) on display at Ivanhoe Grammar: the score was 1/47 after 12 overs, with one batsman on 13, the other on 7 and extras 19.

My actual involvement in the election was later in the day (after first attending the auction of my grandmother's house in Essendon, for a couple of hundred thousand more than we were expecting) - first handing out and then scrutineering. The latter task made good use of my skills of having to keep track of multiple preference flows, as it wasn't obvious beforehand who would be the final two or three candidates so I needed to keep on top of multiple scenarios at once. At the end of the day I suspect we haven't done quite enough - trailing by 12% on primary votes which I estimate will narrow to about 4% on preferences, with postals and pre-polls to come.

Nice morning at Fitzroy (it wasn't until lunchtime that the showers started), working well through the water, and didn't have any issues with cramps this week.

It seems the Australian Sports Commission are keen for us (and presumably all the other sports they fund) to have a policy on match-fixing. I'm not sure if this is exactly a major issue for us (and even if an Australian did do something dodgy in a race somewhere overseas where betting exists, I think OA's existing disciplinary powers would be sufficient to take action), but we might have to put something together regardless.

(I've never had the pleasure of seeing how many zeroes were listed after my name in a list of European betting odds; at the last individual race I ran in where there was betting which I knew of, a 2006 WRE in Norway, I was lumped in the category "Any other result 41.00").

Back to the 6am Thursday starts, not really because of the length of the run but more because I was running with Grant (mainly in the name of discussing OA high performance issues) and he had to get back around 7.30 to do his shift of parenting. Spent the first half around the west side of Black Mountain, then back through Aranda and Cook before a final loop on Aranda Hill (with a little bit of terrain thrown into the mix). Felt fairly reasonable for the most part; I'm wondering if the watch lost satellites for a bit because it supposedly took 26 minutes for the first 4k and that seems implausibly slow. Hamstring issues seem to be more or less gone (at least for now).

Taking advantage of being in Canberra to explore some old haunts, mainly on the lower parts of Black Mountain - home to as many tame kangaroos as always. Didn't feel that great although hamstring/back are slowly becoming less of an issue.

Naturally, it wouldn't be a run in Canberra without seeing at least one person I recognised - today's sighting was Martin Dent (he was going in the opposite direction so I didn't get the chance to ask him about London - not that going in the same direction would have helped much because he probably would have been going 30% faster than I was).

I'm currently going through Australian Championships splits as preparation for writing my race reports for the Australian Orienteer. There were plenty of last-few-controls blowouts by potential winners at the Long Championships, but the prize goes to the person (who shall remain nameless, even though I'm pretty sure they're not on AP) who was in front at the third-last control and then proceeded to do 33.54 on a second-last leg for which the fastest split was 1.44.

C • Do they qualify for the Bendigo noodle award? 2

Canberra also provided the opportunity to get out into semi-bush on a Wednesday night. This was at the Pinnacle, an area which was infamous for long grass back in the day (I once set an event there where some of the grass was over head height), but the grass hasn't really shot up yet - just enough for occasional elephant tracks but not enough to get in the way.

The field would have done justice to the Australian Championships - four of the top nine were there, and I think Grant, Rob Walter, Shep and Olle (but probably not me) would have been decent substitutes for the ones who weren't. Lizzie and Grace weren't bad additions to the field either (especially as both of them beat me).

As for the run itself - pretty slow, and didn't feel as I had any strength whatsoever up hills (of which there were a few). Didn't miss anything apart from not getting my exit direction quite right leaving 9 (it helped that the controls, several of which were on small rock, were very visible). It's a bit of a culture shock to go back to punching control cards, and having to remember where the splits button is on my watch.

First attempt at doing anything fast (other than last Saturday's race) since Tasmania. Hamstring still sore early (but soreness eased quickly) and didn't feel as if I was that fast or that strong, but still a little faster than anything I managed on this workout in August or September (although narrowly failed to break 10 for a loop).

The judges for the Walkley Awards clearly recognise brilliance when they see it: Paul Dyer of the Northern Territory News has been nominated for an award for best headline for "Why I Stuck A Cracker Up My Clacker".

On my way to Canberra now; will be up there the next couple of days.

C • And that is a cracker! 1

A not-particularly-inspired swim, although at least without swallowing the amount of extraneous material that I did last week. Seemed to get whacked at regular intervals by a breaststroker in the next lane who had a very wide armspan.

Lunchtime session around the Tan. Hamstring pretty sore when I started after a morning of sitting down - loosened up pretty well in the first couple of minutes, although not completely painless at any stage. Felt as if I had a reasonable level of strength out there, though (and managed to avoid running into any trees this time).