Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

So, of course, a sprint is a totally obvious thing to do the day after Six Foot. I knew long before this weekend that it would be a sprint in name only, but it sounded like an interesting area in the old military installations at Middle Head, and I thought it would be worth checking out even if I could only walk. (As it happened, as I've noticed before with shot quads, it's easier to run - or at least shuffle - than walk).

I was barely shuffling through the first few controls and had a bit of a wobble on 1, going in one passage too early. Otherwise technically OK through the first part, though had to take the "disabled access" (a sloping rock ledge) into 8 because I didn't fancy trying to jump down a half-metre wall. The fort section, with lots of underground passages, was fun although I couldn't make sense of the map (or description) at 15 and probably lost close to a minute there. Another wobble at 18 (where Georgia went past me at a speed which she didn't think was very fast but was a lot faster than mine), but fairly smooth from there and even starting to run a bit more respectably, although still way below full pace. Got in before the rain started in earnest.

The map had a few issues (most of them related to the fact that the grey didn't print well) which were being dissected by some afterwards, although the finisher who was loudly disgruntled about 25 had, if he did what I think he did, only himself to blame. (Those who read the letters column of the last Australian Orienteer may wish to note that, like all previous people I've witnessed behaving in this manner at the finish, he was well past the elite age range). You wouldn't run a National League here - the fort section is probably not mappable at 1:4000 with ISSOM (we had a 1:2000 inset today) - but it was a lot of fun for what it was, even considering my very diminished physical state. I suspect the hit-out will do my body good, too.

Made good use of the $2.50 all-day-Sunday deal on the Sydney public transport system - "Sydney" for these purposes extends to the Blue Mountains so this princely sum got me from Blackheath to Blacktown, then buses to Macquarie Park and then near Tracy and Sticky's, then from near there to Mosman. I would have got more value for it still had I not got a ride from the event to the airport (although the $2.50 doesn't include the airport station access fee). Thought the Blacktown bus interchange might have been an interesting cultural experience but at 11am on a Sunday it was pretty innocuous. Lots of colour on the train, but unlike two weeks ago it was the green of people heading for the St. Patrick's Day parade, not the red and black of the Western Sydney Wanderers.

C • #25 7

Sprint - Splits

Event: Sixfoot track marathon
 

Made it this year! This wasn't always the most comfortable of experiences and I paid somewhat for being underdone in the long runs department, but the principal mission was accomplished.

Started similar to last year (though in wave 2 rather than wave 3) - first kilometre split was slower but I think that was the GPS dropping out in the valley. Settled down fairly well with a few mid-4s kilometres on the downhill fire trail, although even this early I was a little concerned about quads not quite feeling right. Got past the improved-on-last-year point at Megalong Road, which then took me onto the parts of the course I hadn't seen before.

I'd heard good things about the descent to the Cox's River and they were right - about 5km of single track, rarely excessively steep. Going along fairly smoothly there and on a pace fairly close to expected. The river crossing wasn't too bad this year - somewhere between knee and waist deep.

That leads you into the big hills. I had been wondering beforehand how well I would run them, and for the most part the answer was that I didn't, once I'd seen early on the Mini-Mini that someone who was attempting to run continuously was only going very slightly faster than me on the steeper parts - one factor here was knowing that getting to the top of the Pluvio in reasonable shape is well-known to be a big bonus for later. Probably ran 1/3 of the Mini-Mini and very little of the Pluvio. In between there is a kilometre or so of steep descent, and I could feel my quads starting to go on that.

I'd hoped the Black Range was where I would open out but it wasn't to be. By this stage I was getting close to 3 hours and was struggling, whereupon my strategy became to walk hills and run the rest, knowing that there weren't that many remaining hills and if I could keep from falling apart altogether I should still be able to post a decent time. This succeeded, more or less, although the Black Range was still very hard work. The last 10km was largely about holding on. I knew I wouldn't be able to run the three major hills (but no-one else did either), but was concerned about cramp once we hit a few lots of stairs - almost but not quite. Held the final descent together reasonably well but was glad to see the finish.

I'd somewhat ambitiously hoped for 4.30, thinking that that was what about a normal long-run pace would give me. Reaching the top of the Pluvio in 2.52 I knew that wasn't on but that 4.40 was still a chance with a good Black Range. That didn't happen either and my focus was then on my 'pass mark' target of 5 hours, which was achieved - just. Glad to tick this off my list but probably won't target this one again, at least for a while.

Took my camelback but didn't need it (either the water or the gels) - the aid stations had more than enough (four gels and three half-bananas was my tally).

Quads were predictably trashed, although probably not quite as awful as they were after my last marathon (as Jase, who had an excellent run, can testify). For less obvious reasons my right shoulder is also sore. Got a text reminder after finishing that I have a massage appointment due on Monday, and was tempted to reply 'you're really going to earn your money this week'.

C • Good effort! 8

Just in case you were confused: from the Poll Bludger's guide to the seat of Mulgoa at the NSW state election:

"Labor’s candidate at the coming election will be Todd Carney, a local tradesman and former staffer to federal Lindsay MP David Bradbury. He is not to be confused with the NRL player of the same name, who is noted for his off-field indiscretions."

C • glad 2

Last hit-out before the big day, in the Prince Alfred Park pool which is conveniently close to our Sydney office (where I worked today after flying up in the morning). Felt like things were going reasonably well - certainly more energetic than I sometimes feel for such sessions (although still not all that fast).

Not as intensely keyed-up mentally for tomorrow as I was last year, which may or may not be a good thing. Still looking forward to it (although no doubt there will be some unpleasant moments).

This was a rather sleepy run despite taking place somewhat later than my Thursday runs usually do (both because it was shorter and because I had to stay around to pick something up locally at 9). Still, it had its moments, particularly on the Banyule Flats singletrack (another piece of familiar ground that will soon be becoming less familiar), and was grinding OK up a hill about 10% of the size of the Pluviometer.

Continued rather sleepy through much of the day, too, which is hopefully not indicative of anything. Head to Sydney in the morning.

When you find yourself on your own halfway to the first control of a street-O, there are three possibilities: you are significantly faster than the rest of the field (which last happened to me on a Wednesday night in about 1996), your route choice is very good, or your route choice is very bad.

I decided to get the inner loop first, which I thought looked reasonably efficient (and moderately climb-minimising - I've run the hills of Bulleen enough to know they are worth avoiding), but it clearly wasn't, with an end result anything from 400 to 700 metres longer than most. Reasonably happy with the running side of things, despite a stitch in the last 4k which stopped me from pushing the downhills as much as I would have liked - certainly stronger uphill than this time last week, which makes me feel at least vaguely confident about what's in store on Saturday.

Very much in taper mode now; this is the longest I'll do this week before the weekend. Had the usual grinding start but started to get into it reasonably well as I headed up the Merri Creek from Clifton Hill (especially getting into the nice bushy section on the west side north of Normanby), and going reasonably smoothly in the second half. If I feel as I did at the end of today when I'm 1.08 in on Saturday I'll definitely regard it as a decent start.

We're apparently now supposed to refer to the people who've been causing us grief for months (if not years) as "active stakeholders", a euphemism well up there in the class of "the victim was well-known to police". It also reminded me of a job ad I once saw in the Economist - you get some interesting job ads in the Economist - for an outfit called the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices (I presume their purpose was to stop African warlords from financing their activities by selling diamonds), which said that the successful candidate would have to work in a "complex multi-stakeholder environment". I assume that this is another way of saying "war zone".

This was another soon-to-be-forgotten landmark - the Eaglemont loop which was a regular Friday recovery run in the days when I was running every day, with quite a few hills, especially in the first half. Very scratchy in the first 10 minutes but got going pretty nicely after that, with some very good patches in the second half (I guess I wasn't coming off a big weekend from the distance point of view - this time next week I'll be very pleased if I'm capable of running at all on Monday).

Noticed in the course of looking at the Sydney street directory that its index includes an Aggro Street. One wonders if the police often get called there over issues of violence (probably not, given that it's in a Central Coast retirement village).

Second stage, in the name of being in the water to loosen up. The pool wasn't as crowded as I thought it might have been on a holiday Monday, so I didn't have too many crowds to manouevre between.

The renovations look somewhat closer to being done than they did last time. It obviously won't be February; my current guesstimate is May (in which case I may never see it in its completed state).

Oddball problem of the day - hands stinging quite sharply when in, or recently removed from, water. I'm assuming this is related to chopping up chillies while cooking last night (the product of the chopping was worth it, though).

Quite often in recent years I've worked on the Labour Day Monday (sometimes by virtue of being overseas). This year quite a bit of it was spent sorting, filing and packing piles of paper (much of it to do with OA meetings).