Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Again a morning session, this time on the tracks around Aranda Hill and the lower part of Black Mountain with Bruce. Steady if not sparkling. Got somewhat waylaid coming past the Bluett-Jones residence on the way back.

Sprint at Radford. Slightly iffy start in the bush overshooting 2 a little, then into the buildings. The first few legs in the buildings were fairly straightforward (managed to stay on my feet in this section this year), but that was lulling us into a false sense of security with some terrific legs in mid-course. Hesitated a bit going into 13; Jules (3 minutes) caught me there, which wasn't a surprise, as did Paul Cuthbert (1 minute), which was perhaps slightly less expected. Was chasing Paul the rest of the way which pushed me along a bit (him being a little faster); felt like I was running OK on the second session but perhaps dropping away a bit on pace judging by the splits. Lots of fun; a fairly similar result to yesterday. Managed to achieve one objective of not being last finisher (something which required defending 5 minutes on Patrick, something managed without a great deal to spare), and knocked off Martin Dent again, although it would probably be more accurate to say that Martin beat himself.

Whilst on the Cuthbert theme, I spotted Ella using someone's head as a stretching prop. I presume it was someone she knows.

Morning terrain run from the back of the Aranda residence - going a different way to usual once on the Black Mountain side. Doing this off an early IOF teleconference but not too sleepy. Stiff and tight early, got going fairly well after the first few minutes although limited uphill strength. Didn't notice how humid it was until I realised how soaked I was afterwards.

First time for ages I've run twice in a day - wanted more volume than the sprints alone will give me, plus the convenient terrain was too good to pass up.

First stage of Sprint Canberra at Bruce. In the bush for the first few controls and felt OK, although a bit wide at 4 (as a lot of people were). A bit scrappy once in the buildings and felt as if my pace was dropping a bit at the end. Lost a bit of time at the last, which meant that Warren got me by a second (although it would have been far more had he not made a major mistake). Finished about 10 off the bottom.

A bit of right knee soreness in the warm-up but didn't notice it once racing.

This was my first go at using SI-Air - don't think I'm quite taking proper advantage of the touch-free nature of the punching, but still nice to give it a try. A few people had trouble being registered at the finish - enough to make me glad that we decided not to use for the Australian Sprint Championships and instead gave it its first test here, where if things go per-shaped it doesn't really matter that much.

Felt very ordinary for much of this run. Back still a bit tight without being as awkward as yesterday, but that wasn't the main issue - just very sleepy and sluggish (although did manage to cope with the hill across Kew better than I thought I would). Had originally had thoughts of longer but an hour was plenty today (although I improved a bit in the last 10 minutes); the shorter duration did mean not getting drenched.

Hit the road up to Canberra this afternoon - a trip where it often threatened rain but didn't often produce it. Lots of low cloud by the standards of a summer afternoon inland. Not exactly feeling in sprint shape, but sometimes a day's a long time.

Back didn't feel great this morning so I decided to do a session swap (making it rather early for a pool session because I'd got up at long-run time). Wasn't brilliant in the pool either, so may have been as well that I didn't try to run for two hours on it.

Street-O at Camelot Rise. I've often run well here (one night in the summer of 1998, the gauntlet thrown down by a young Simon Goddard in the first couple of kilometres, was just about as fast as I've ever run anywhere), and was hoping to give it a crack tonight, but it was apparent in the first couple of controls that I wasn't quite ready to do so. Cruised round from there, not always comfortable but settled reasonably well by the last quarter. Think I made the most of the route choice, not that it really mattered.

The demographics here have changed in the last 20 years; the real estate board across the street from the start was in Chinese as well as English. (Coincidentally, the Age ran an article today about how would-be purchasers can identify houses with lousy feng shui so as to minimise the competition from Chinese buyers).

It was a bit disturbing to learn today that bushranging still happens in Victorian bush. These 21st century wannabes, however, were about as epically unsuccessful as Captain Melville, because the vehicle whose occupants they invited to stand and deliver in Canadian Forest turned out to be an unmarked police car. (Sharp-eyed observers will also have noted that the photos in the article were definitely not taken today).

Quads still sore and tight when I got up and very much in shuffle mode when I started the run, but loosened up surprisingly quickly and I was running more or less normally within 500 metres - although this wasn't exactly the most demanding of courses (up Darebin Creek, back through Bellfield). Better than I expected, all things considered. Still sore, though, when I got up from sitting down during the day, so will probably take a little bit of sorting out yet.

Not sure I'll be up to trying to run hard tomorrow, but we'll see how we go.

Definitely knew I'd been for a long run - quads not quite as wrecked as they were after the Six Foot Track, but still sore enough to send a very clear message that any attempt to run would be a shuffle at best. By tomorrow I should be at the stage where that will do me more good than harm but for now I was quite content to spend my time in the water - proceeding rather slowly as you might expect. Lots of people in the water, although nowhere near as many as there would have been later in the afternoon.