Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Normally the official hotels for IOF meetings are a bit too upmarket for my tastes, but this time round, because I made such a late decision to come, it was the only thing still available (except for places well out of town which would have required hiring a car), and I figured that it was $230 a night, but it was only two nights, and the surplus between the allowance I'm being paid by WMO in Geneva and what I'm spending in Geneva will more than cover it. There are, however, advantages in not having to go anywhere for the meetings (can think of at least one reader who will appreciate this point), and in occasionally being able to do useful business through random encounters.

(In case you're wondering, I don't claim any funds from OA for this when it's in conjunction with WOC, but I suspect we'll need to subsidise it if we want someone to go to the 2018 meeting, which won't be at WOC. The current bids for the 2018 Congress, none of which exactly filled people with enthusiasm in the current environment, are from Russia, Turkey and Egypt).

C • Claiming expenses 1

Today was our opportunity to find out how tough the WOC long distance terrain was, and my run was pretty gruesome. Perhaps referring to it as a "run" would be in breach of trade practices law; running for the first time in Nordic terrain is never easy but today I could barely run in the deeper springy undergrowth at all. It gets easier the longer you do it, but I won't get the chance to find that out on this trip.

Drifted somewhat on some of the longer legs, particularly 3 and 6, but was able to pick myself up, and fine navigation was OK (just a 30-seconder at 2). However, I made one of the more bizarre mistakes of my career on 7, a long leg; I'd previously decided to take the track route out of 6, had my map folded not far from 6, and ran for the track. I then unfolded my map and discovered that there was another parallel track 300 metres north of the one I wanted and that that was the one I'd seen on the folded map :-(. The upside of this was that the block of forest to get back to the desired track was considerably nicer than any forest sections on the actual course...

C • Industrial action 3

Today was IOF General Assembly day. One of the traditions of the OA Conference used to be that most of the real Conference business was done on the Sunday morning long run, and that was revisited a bit today when I encountered Mikko Salonen (who was elected as Vice-President today) a few minutes into the run. We spent the next 20 minutes talking matters IOF before he broke off to do his own thing, whereupon I did a couple more small loops through different parts of Stromstad. Not feeling that energetic but no injury issues.

As for the General Assembly, the main items which people here will probably be interested in are that the proposal for equal men's and women's long distance winning times was defeated (somewhat to my surprise), and the Competition Review project report was approved in principle - apart from the split WOC which was already more or less decided, the main change which people here will notice will be the introduction of a middle distance into WMOC. You'll also be pleased to hear that we're against doping and in favour of being ethical (it would have been a brave country which voted 'no' on either of those resolutions).

(Cristina, who was one of the counters, may be able to advise whether anyone in the election for Council members emulated my experience in scrutineering at the election a few weeks ago, and either drew a phallic symbol on their ballot paper or voted for Donald Trump).

C • Ballots 18

Things started unravelling at the back end of the trip. I arrived in Gothenburg close to midnight, to discover that the airline had lost my bag and the hotel had lost my booking (and was full). Neither of these were exactly what I needed at the end of such a long haul. At least in the latter case I landed on my feet - ending up in a suite at one of the best hotels in town at the original hotel's expense (pity I only had 5 1/2 hours to appreciate it) - but it took away an hour of what was already a fairly narrow sleep window.

Part of the annoyance of this was that I'd planned things reasonably carefully - booking a place right next to the station (and airport bus terminal) to make best use of said time window, plus the reason I went from Geneva to Gothenburg via Brussels, rather than an earlier option via Copenhagen, was that I was worried that the short connection in Copenhagen would mean a good chance of the bag not making it. (I've since learned via Fel that Brussels Airlines connections in Brussels, even 2 1/2 hour ones, are notorious for bags not making them).

(There was a certain element of history repeating itself here. The last time I flew into Gothenburg, 20 years and a bit ago, I also found myself without a place to stay - although that time it was because I hadn't booked anything (booking overseas accommodation was difficult in those, effectively pre-internet, days) and everything within 100km was full because of a Three Tenors concert. On that occasion, I had a tent and just walked into the forest and camped).

Made it up to Stromstad this morning on a route which clearly isn't a showcase of the Swedish railways - I think some of the trains in today's long distance event (a) had more people on them and (b) were moving faster than the one I took to Stromstad.

An absence of running gear was an excuse not to try to squeeze a run in in the evening. Was feeling a bit sore after standing all afternoon (mostly in the rain) at the WOC long. The bag eventually arrived this evening.

(I may have been heard to suggest that the IOF was wasting money by providing IOF polo shirts and jackets to Commission members - it turns out this was a freebie from a sponsor so no IOF money was actually spent - but I was grateful for it today, since said IOF gear was a chance for me to get out of what I've been wearing for the last two days).

C • Brussels 5

I think I'll lump this one in the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" category - I had four hours between flights in Geneva and thought that a run might be useful in getting myself moving (and keeping myself awake). Not sure what could possibly go wrong about trying to go for a run after 24 hours on a plane, whilst just getting over back issues, and on a high 20s day after coming through almost all of winter. The back was predictably uncooperative (and the rest of the body wasn't feeling that brilliant either), and had it been at home I probably would have pulled the pin on this one inside 5 minutes and headed for the water instead, but having gone to the trouble of forking out 10 francs for a luggage locker I didn't want to give up quite that easily.

I've done runs from airports between flights a few times before, the last one I can remember being from Adelaide about 10 years ago, but Darwin to Adelaide is a bit shorter than Melbourne to Geneva and I'm not as young as I was 10 years ago, either. (Lauren Shelley used to specialise in doing runs from airports, her proudest effort in degree-of-difficulty terms being from Heathrow, which you can't actually, in theory, legally enter or leave on foot).

The first three legs of the epic have functioned as they were supposed to and I'm sitting in Brussels airport - where they seem very proud of their hockey team - still more or less awake, but definitely looking forward to seeing a bed in Gothenburg in a few hours' time (albeit not for long - I'm getting a 6.40 train up to Stromstad in the morning).

Wasn't hurting this morning when I got up so decided it was time to give running a go again. As a run it was a bit of a struggle through the first half - seemed rather sleepy (a sense which continued into the day; is there such a thing as anticipatory jet lag?) - but got progressively better after that. However, the pleasant surprise was no real injury issues.

Ivanhoe and Alphington took a direct hit from yesterday's thunderstorms (27mm compared with 7 in the city), and there was plenty of water around.

And now I'm on the (virtual) road again; my next stint at WMO in Geneva, preceded by going to the tail end of WOC (and the associated meetings). It will be a bit of an epic trip to get there because work (understandably) will fly me to Geneva and leave me to find my own way from there, so the plan is Melbourne-Dubai-Geneva-Brussels-Gothenburg.

Back a bit better than it was yesterday but still didn't feel especially runnable. Hopefully will be back in business by tomorrow. Didn't have time to fit in a morning swim after a late wake-up (thanks to the Olympic marathon), but did do a fair bit of walking.

Got an awful lot of stuff done today; the imminent deadline of overseas departure concentrates the mind significantly.

Woke up this morning with a sore back (not usually the way my back issues behave). Knowing from experience that sometimes when it feels bad walking it's OK running, I still headed out (early enough to get me back before the 1500 had I lasted long enough for a long run), but it was reasonably apparent early on that it wasn't much good running, either (and felt particularly iffy afterwards).

Plan B was to see if it was any better in the water. It was, more or less, so at least I could do something useful today. Rained most of the time.