Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Local event at Stockyard Creek, on the southeast fringe of Brisbane (those with longish memories may recall its place in political history - a deeply unpopular proposal to build a freeway through this bit of bush contributed to the demise of the Goss government).

The locals I talked to all said this was the nicest area in Brisbane. I wasn't entirely sure whether this was damning with faint praise, Brisbane bush not being noted for its enjoyability, but in fact this was indeed a nice area for a run - generally open forest and decent gully-spur, not especially challenging but good for flowing through. Pretty fast; the big boys would have gone well under 5s here.

Started a minute behind Lance and pulled half of that in by the first control, but didn't make further headway for a few controls - we were going at a fairly similar speed and he got a slightly better line than me at 2. I got through him on a route choice at 6 (lovely leg, running free and mostly downhill), but didn't get away properly until the very end. Drifted a little on 6 and 8 but only 10 seconds or so a time, although that was enough to make the difference - Lachlan Howard (who I think was in the Queensland schools team back in the day) got me by 13 seconds for the win.

C • Lachlan Howard 3

Test-running a course for the Australian Sprint at Griffith Uni on the Gold Coast. Won't give too much away but it's a very good area and a very good course - because I've reviewed the course I knew where the traps were, but still managed to slip once in execution. One of the most challenging sprint courses I've seen in Australia.

Felt pretty good running, although not always confident of my footing on wet surfaces (I was later to do a fairly graceless backside-plant whilst looking at other control sites) - not quite sure what the ideal shoes are for this situation but I'm pretty sure the Inov8's aren't it. Comfortable with the course length and the winning time (I figured that as long as I got under 21 the winners should be able to go sub-15).

C • Inov8's aren't it 5

Pool session, done for the first time in a while in my traditional location for such things - Fitzroy - with the traditional crowd, which meant we got to compare notes on whatever atrocity we'd noticed from a One Nation senator-to-be (I suspect we'll be doing a bit of this over the next three years). Continuing to feel pretty reasonable.

Heading up to Queensland this weekend to fulfill my responsbilities as stand-in Event Adviser for the Australian Sprint (there are worse fates than a controlling trip to the Gold Coast in winter, although the forecast for this weekend isn't exactly beach weather). Looks very interesting on paper so I'm looking forward to testing it out in person.

Another pretty decent run, flowing fairly well from the second half. Started from Fishermans Bend (car being serviced) and headed initially to the Garden City bit of Port Melbourne, then along the coast for a bit. Still a somewhat biting wind so not too many bodies being shown off on the beach today (summer Saturdays are a different story).

Lunchtime around the Tan. Felt pretty reasonable, including on the Anderson Street hill. Seemed faster than it was although I didn't get an especially clean run with the traffic. Definitely an encouraging sign of a return towards decent fitness.

Got test results back this morning - negative for all the low-probability options (including shingles) so looks like the initial diagnosis is correct (is certainly behaving like it). Typically the rashes disappear in 3-6 weeks but mine has already lessened significantly in a bit less than a week so it might be a bit shorter than that range.

Slightly depressing: a Facebook group "Stop The Gladstone Mosque" apparently has over 5,000 members. In case you were wondering, there is no mosque in Gladstone, there are no plans to build a mosque in Gladstone, and according to the last Census there are fewer than 200 Muslims there.

Another attempt at returning to running. Definitely grinding in the first kilometre but significantly improved after that - certainly nothing like Sunday. Was even feeling reasonably good in the last part, although that may have had something to do with doing downhill with a tailwind. Haven't tried anything resembling a serious hill yet - will dip my toe into those waters tomorrow.

Should have chosen their target a bit more closely: some would-be carjackers tried to steal a BMW a few weeks ago. It was possibly unfortunate for them that their intended victim happened to be one of Melbourne's more prominent mafiosi. It was reported that the intending perpetrators departed the scene rapidly, with a few extra holes in their vehicle for good measure. (The media's getting very excited about a few incidents at the moment, but as I've noted previously in these pages, there is nothing remotely new about this crime - I came across a reference to what we'd now refer to as a carjacking in South Melbourne in a newspaper from 1929).

At Fitzroy for the first time in a few weeks. It's more expensive than it was the last time I was here, July 1 having been and gone (the State government has capped rate increases at 2.5% so councils are busily trying to make up shortfalls through non-rate income, although there are council elections in October which keeps things under some sort of control).

It had been a fairly wild night (meteorologically speaking) but the winds had settled somewhat by morning. The swim was reasonably standard. Will have another go at running tomorrow (although not very far or fast).

I've taken on the IOF Event Adviser job for the Australian Sprint to replace Eric. At the time I thought there were worse fates than a winter controlling trip to the Gold Coast. Now that it's approaching it appears I may not have chosen my time well, although there is considerable forecast divergence - depending on which model you believe, the forecast rain for this weekend is anywhere between 1mm and 200mm (the 1mm one has the better historical track record).