Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: Vic Bush State Series 4 - Eureka Challenge - Malmsbury - Glenluce South
 

Eureka Challenge at Glenluce. Another solid long-distance race to add to Kangaroo Crossing, and gradually build my confidence in my current capacity to handle these. Bruce's late run of 91 put the time in a bit of perspective; a gap of under 8 minutes to the leaders would have been the closest I've been in this company for a couple of years. Didn't miss much - just 30 seconds or so at 6 and a very small wobble on 9 - and seemed to get the major route choices right. Still not fast, and lacking fluency in the terrain (more in the first half than the second), probably through a lack of practice, but reasonably strong.

After the epic first leg in Spain last night it was an epic first leg today - 3.3km all the way across the map. I was a little rattled at the start after taking longer than I would have liked to get the map into a bag (something done in running time) and took an instant decision, which turned out to be a decent one. Brodie caught me 2 minutes about three-quarters of the way there and I thought he'd go straight through me and I'd never see him again, but in fact we were dicing for the remainder of the course - he was struggling a bit with his calves and also made some mistakes, and would intermittently blow me away but then I'd see him again a couple of controls later.

After a section in mining detail, such as there is at Glenluce, 9-10 was a nice open leg, most of it on big gently sloping spurs, then there was another control-picking section, including the day's most annoying leg, 13-14 with more than its share of unmapped green (the map's 12 years old). That set things up for the final section of the course, with a few nasty climbs (20-21 and the last climb into the last control especially). I was gaining confidence on the hills by then and could see that Brodie was finding them tough, and while I didn't think I had any chance of getting the two minutes back, I was hopeful that I could beat him across the line, which I did.

Until Bruce's very late run I thought a Eureka Challenge tradition might have been restored: I came 6th in the first five Eureka Challenges between 1994 and 1998 (albeit in deeper fields than this - it was a National League in all but the first of those years) and thought I'd got there again this year. The times were a bit slower than I thought but then I think the area's a bit greener than it was; back in the second half of the 90s I used to regard 6.2-6.4 minutes/km as being par on moderately steep central Victorian gully-spur, but no-one broke 7s here.

Spotted on the way up (unsurprisingly, in Coburg): a billboard advertising halal superannuation. I assume they don't invest in breweries or piggeries.

The start of this run was terrible - back, Achilles and general stiffness were all at their worst and my early splits looked a bit like those of InvisibleLog (albeit with some assistance from an uphill first kilometre). Got going after the 1k mark and even had some good patches at times on level or downhill sections, but hills were hard work throughout.

Saw something advertised at an East Ivanhoe bakery which I suspect will be of interest to various orienteering people: Nutella hot cross buns.

A reasonably relaxed session at Fitzroy; not too stiff from the day before. Started by thinking about the quirky - the Age listing in its birthdays column for today "Grumpy Cat, US internet celebrity" - and moved on to the bizarreness of the various conspiracy theories going around about the Malaysian plane, some of which are definitely at the Harold Holt-and-Chinese-submarine level of credibility (unless you believe that the US, with or without the assistance of Mossad depending on which particular flavour of looniness your source is coming from, secretly diverted the plane by remote control and landed it on Diego Garcia).

One of the things which came to my attention today was a report about the number of drug tests, by sport, in the US last year. Athletics led the way with around 2000 with cycling following at around 1500, but it was the bottom end of the list which got my attention - it requires a certain amount of imagination to contemplate what might be considered performance-enhancing substances for cheerleading (13) or fishing (7), although a lot of practitioners of the latter clearly believe that beer is a performance-enhancing substance. (America's orienteers were of no interest to their anti-doping authorities last year).

C • Cheerleading 1

In essence, this was the run I was originally planning to do last Sunday. It didn't happen then, and I wanted to get at least one decent long run before Easter, so this was the timeslot for it.

Set out early on a dark and drizzly morning, in the vague general direction of St. Helena - a steady gentle uphill grind for the first few kilometres, then steeper ups and downs for much of the rest of it, a good test. Definitely not going all that fast, and never felt like I was really flowing, but managed to get up all of the hills OK and held it together to the end (I haven't gone beyond 90 minutes in a month, except orienteering). The Garmin lost GPS reception a few kilometres in for no obvious reason, which meant I wasn't getting a reminder every kilometre of how fast I wasn't going - probably not such a bad thing today. (It also means the distance was determined the old-school way, with the street directory and a ruler).

After a hiatus of a couple of months, mainly because this is the first proper long run I've done from home since January, the alphabetical sequence is back on - Algona Court, St. Helena and Alinga Place, Yallambie. (I'll be back near the latter soon - it's next to Allima which is next-but-one on the list).

Knew there was a reason why I didn't venture too far into the water in January (although in practice, at the time I doubt that any visiting sharks would have been able to tell the difference between my backside and a bluebottle).

First time I've tried to do something "fast" for a few weeks - the 10x1 minute session on South Wharf (which actually turned out to be more like 1.04-1.06, an indicator that this wasn't really a very fast session). Occasionally threatened to get going but never quite did. Glad I was doing this at lunchtime and not in the morning - (a) because the morning was very warm and (b) because it again took me a long time to feel awake (a bit of an issue at the moment which the demise of daylight saving this weekend will hopefully fix). With an early start planned tomorrow this could prove interesting.

Achilles and calves felt tight in the early stages - an indicator that I'm long overdue for a massage. (The person I used to go to is off the scene - officially on leave for 6 months, but I don't expect him to return (he's in his 70s and hasn't been in great health) - and I haven't got anyone else lined up yet).

Organised my next trip last night - a bit of a flying visit mid-year, taking in O-festival in Norway and WOC (with a meeting in Germany in between). The one slightly quirky thing I'm doing is stopping over for 24 hours on the way home (in Helsinki) in the name of not being in the air when the World Cup final's on.

Warm up and down.

Passed up the mean streets of Heidelberg for the paths around the Yarra - more hills than yesterday and found them rather hard work. Not terribly awake either, especially in the first half.

Not a very autumnal morning, which set the scene for an afternoon of watching for records (many near-misses, but among the places which got over the line were Hobart, Mount Gambier, Hamilton, Warrnambool and Cape Otway).

C • Correction 11

April Fool highlights for 2014:

ANU ducks trained to walk across pedestrian crossings: http://news.anu.edu.au/2014/04/01/anu-ducks-no-lon...

Kardinia Park lights to be turned around into suburbs as crime prevention measure: http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong/e...

Lamingtons actually an NZ invention: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/01/lamin...

Hollywood backing John Howard biopic: http://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/2014/04/01...

Unfortunately for supporters of English cricket, this one is actually true.

(Update: but I fell for this one - http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/04/01/political-appo...).

The usual Monday morning creakiness in the body, but at least the engine seemed to be functioning today, particularly once warmed up. On the way up.

Swim following the run. Felt reasonable during the run, but got an indication that there are still a few things not quite balanced as they should be in my body with intermittent foot cramps in the later stages of the swim (which isn't completely unusual), and a more significant cramp in the quad when I was getting out of the pool (which is).

WA are off to the polls this weekend to have another go at electing their share of the Senate. The most likely potential beneficiary of micro-party preference deals this time round appears to be the Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party, although the WA credentials of its lead candidate appear to be somewhat dubious - he lives in Lismore (at least it isn't Nimbin) and named the WA Premier incorrectly when asked by a journalist. (In practice, I'm expecting that the Liberals, Labor and Greens will get close to or above three, two and one quotas respectively on primary votes, taking the micros out of the picture).

(I last encountered HEMP amongst the colourful cast of characters at the 2001 Aston by-election - their person disappeared periodically behind the bushes, presumably to smoke a joint. Other highlights that day included the Wilderness Society koala turning up to scrutineer for the Greens, and the Citizens Electoral Council crowd spruiking a high-speed train around the entire circumference of Australia).

C • Worrying exponential trend 1