Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

As long-time readers will know I've never been a particular fan of the Piscine de Varembe - too many people and too high a proportion of those people who have a substantial sense of entitlement (rather like Kew in that respect). It reached new heights (or possibly depths) this morning in the form of someone, probably one of Geneva's Masters of the Universe during the day, whose way of sending a get-out-of-the-f***ing-way message to those who were slower than he was was to go straight over the top of them. At home I'd probably have had words with those supervising, but I'm not on home turf here.

Assuming the weather's good (and it looks like it will be), the lake looks a much better option for this time next week. I went down this evening and wasn't exactly the only one there (the over-water climbing wall was a particular hit), but it should be good in the mornings.

C • Time for tood old fashioned Australian squirrel grip? 1

Never much pace in this but a reasonably solid morning's work. Headed out initially to the Le Lignon footbridge (after a couple of false starts finding my way down to it), then on tracks along the river for a while before climbing back out - nice to see the forest in its summer mode (although it wouldn't be so nice to run through). Got a bit confused coming back because I'd come out of the valley a bit earlier than I originally planned and didn't see a main road I was expecting to see (turns out it goes through a tunnel which I'd gone over the top of), but eventually relocated. By then I was running later than I'd planned and headed straight back into the city along a main road before finishing up along the lake.

Felt better starting than I have on other days this week; started to lack energy in the last 20 minutes which may have been through not drinking en route (not as easy to get water mid-run here as it is at home). Longest I've done since June.

Early start because of an early media interview, for what's become a standard set of intervals along the lake. Was never very awake and never got very fast, but at least nothing went bang so that's progress of a sort.

Warm-up and down. Definitely needed the former.

One of the local papers had a headline the other day "Les escapades genevoises de John Kerry". I'm not sure if this is a historical overview of his soon-to-be-completed term (the best-known local bit of which was his breaking a leg in a bike crash) or if he's been up to something new. I also suspect that the Geneva papers have reporters regularly on the lookout for Significant International People getting involved in nightclub incidents or turning up in houses of ill repute (although those more familiar with such scenes than I am say that most of Geneva's clubbing actually happens in Lausanne).

(Another headline today made reference to "La Guerre Fiscale", which I presume is a reference to Apple - a rather bizarre situation where the EU has said that Apple owes Ireland 13 billion euros in back taxes and the Irish government has said they don't want it).

Steady but unspectacular effort along the Lake Geneva shoreline, partly in the name of a fact-finding mission - to be specific, the facilities/hours at the various shoreline aquatic facilities (it hasn't exactly been outdoor swimming weather on my previous visits here but I'll probably go in at some stage this time). Certainly felt better than my previous run of comparable length, and continuing to feel as if I'm settling in. A bit less humid than yesterday.

Did a certain amount of sprinkler-dodging on this run; there's only been 5mm of rain in the last 3 1/2 weeks (and none in the last 10 days) and there's a definite yellowing tinge to unwatered areas of grass. There's somewhat less concern about wasting water here than we're used to at home, which manifests itself as a lot of water being sprayed over concrete paths rather than the grass.

C • Lake Geneva shoreline.. 8

C • water waste 2

An early start this morning, although as it turned out, staying at an airport hotel under the flight path meant that I would have got a 5.45 wake-up call anyway. Headed out to the north-west and found some nice tracks through farmland and forest. Settled reasonably well after some initial soreness, and probably as smooth in the last 10 minutes as at any time since I've arrived.

It wasn't until I looked at the map afterwards that I discovered that I'd gone into France (which means that my last three runs have taken in four countries). Illustrating how relaxed the locals are about this border, the track in question is actually a signposted route de parcours.

Now started up at WMO, and have moved into the apartment where I'll be for the rest of my time here (at least during the week). It's a good apartment, with the only negative being that the washing machine is a communal one which each apartment has only one weekly slot for (a fairly common arrangement in Switzerland, as 007 can attest). At least I got a news report and a couple of OA Board meeting papers written while I was at the laundromat.

Went out with Jim from their place in Oslo across to the cross-country ski hill on the other side of the valley. As one might expect from such a description, this was reasonably hilly (although you can get a lot hillier around here). Coped with this initially but back was somewhat troublesome later on (a short soft uphill section to a lookout seemed to set it off). Seemed to improve again after walking up some stairs on the way back (as I've previously noted, runs to here often involve big climbs back out of the valley).

Headed down to Geneva this afternoon/evening; somehow 3 hours in the air turned into 10 hours door-to-door, but nothing went badly wrong.

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