Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Summer twilight at Red Hill, rather more epic than I was expecting. I knew when the assembly area was at the place I think of as the Carousel (although it probably hasn't had that name for 20+ years) that there were going to be some steep bits, and that there would be a reasonable number of thistles and grass seeds. This one had a lot in the steep stuff - more often across than up and down, but still slow - and several scary downhill legs to small point features in nothing much.

A lot of people struck a lot of trouble (some of the controls were hung very low). I didn't fare too badly by those standards, probably 45 seconds at 11 and smaller misses at 7, 10 and drifting wide on 18. Unsurprisingly, I didn't have my terrain legs (it was my first time running in the terrain for a couple of months) and lacked confidence in the rougher ground underfoot, and also didn't have much for the hills, although the final climb was a bit better. 28 years is definitely more than enough to lose a home-ground advantage (not that home-ground advantage would ever have helped much with the hills).

Today's bit of celebrity-spotting was when I arrived at the conference today and just about the first person I saw was Dave Warner, someone whose only discernible connection with the Australian Statistical Conference is that he generates lots of statistics. (The team were staying in the hotel where the conference was). I congratulated him on the result last night but didn't get round to asking him whether he had any good deals on OLED TVs.

C • Warner 8

Another step up, earlier in the day than I've been used to venturing out of late because that suited my companions for the day (Grant and Jim). Headed down to Gossan Hill - seemed to pass pretty quickly. We weren't moving all that fast although there were enough hills to make a bit of a difference. Again responding pretty well on the injury front (and when you're in good company it's easy to forget about imagining bits of soreness which aren't quite there in reality).

That set the scene for a long but enjoyable day - the statistics conference all day, followed by the cricket 10 minutes' walk away at Manuka (first time I've been to a game there since about 1992). The traditional rain on an international cricket day in Canberra was present again this time, but it cleared out soon enough that the start was only delayed by 15 minutes.

At CISAC, heading out during the changeover between Cassie getting back from her run (don't think you'd have anticipated 25 years ago that there would be a time that she was heading out for runs before I'd even got up, but I've become a less extreme morning person and she's become more of one) and Jim heading out.

The pool was in 25-metre mode this morning (first time I've seen it like that). Felt like I was floundering for a lot of it and kept misjudging the turns, but sort of got into it a bit later on. I was being outpaced by a 60-something woman in the next lane, carrying a fair bit of weight and doing breaststroke, but I'm long since past being embarrassed by comparing myself with other people swimming. (Cassie tells me that swimming in Norway is good for one's ego in this respect).

CISAC has replaced its digital clock, so you no longer have to guess which parts of the numbers aren't working this week.

Went out with Jenny - a smaller contingent than the old-style Conference long run, and also a good deal less long (although she'd run to my place from the AIS so it was longer for her). Pretty happy with this one - it actually felt like a reasonably normal run, the first time since I started running again. None of the back issues on the hills from yesterday and handled the Painter climb more or less OK - think it's the first time I've actually been to the summit in many years. (There's a semi-paved path up now - it used to be a footpad across the paddock).

I was also reasonably happy with the Conference. In the lead-up I was concerned that most states were going to come in with entrenched positions on some of the key issues (especially around governance), but in fact we had two days of worthwhile engagement and I think we're moving forward. Fundamentally, all of us are in the business of trying to get more people orienteering and, whilst the connection of this to whether OA's legal structure is an incorporated association or a company limited by guarantee may seem tenuous, having sound governance structures is an important part of convincing the Sports Commission that we're worth investing in, and it's in our own interests too.

One challenge we do have is bridging a significant funding gap from the loss of ASC high-performance funding - we made some progress with this but still need to plug a shortfall of around $40K from 2018 onwards. Whilst we're looking at numerous options to contribute towards this, we're also on the lookout for creative fundraisers (and I've been keeping an eye on some of what's done in the US, which is much more dependent on fundraising than we are), so if you have any ideas, go for it.

My own crazy fundraising idea, providing that (a) I don't get injured (b) I don't have any immovable work commitments on the day and (c) can convince the relevant states to organise suitably timed and located events (ACT and Victoria will already have something suitable scheduled), is to attempt to do events in four different states on the same day on World Orienteering Day next year, and get people to sponsor me to do it. The flight schedules are such that it should be possible to do something in Brisbane first thing in the morning, go on to Canberra with a window of 6-7 hours there to do things on either side of the ACT/NSW border, and finish up at the Wednesday night event in Melbourne.

Easy to underestimate how much chairing a meeting for two days takes out of you - got back to home base and promptly almost fell asleep in front of the cricket.

Post-Conference park/street O, with just a bit of long grass, and the inevitable locked gate which wasn't supposed to be locked on the AIS campus. Felt awful initially and back troublesome in the first few minutes; loosened up a bit after the first downhill (after the control between the curved car parks which seems to be a compulsory feature of any event around Bruce CIT), and while I always felt like I was struggling, once again it was OK on the injury front once warmed up, and I didn't fall apart in the heat (29, hottest I've run in since last summer) like I thought I might have.

In the outdoor pool at Northcote, where I think I've now established that the clock shows an over-reading of the (air) temperature by a couple of degrees. Always seemed to be floundering a bit today but felt better for having done a session.

Up in Canberra now, for the OA Conference this weekend, followed by a work conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll be up again the week after, too. The flight up might have been more productive had it happened a year ago, as I was in the same row as now-no-longer ASC head Simon Hollingsworth (and the CEO of Netball Australia for good measure), although it was still a worthwhile conversation regardless.

Another small step of progress - heading out on two successive days. Felt pretty ordinary as a straight run (the first couple of kilometres particularly so), but the calf was fine which is the main thing I'm worried about it at the moment.

This one took me to the southeast corner of Alphington, the section that's got the alpine-inspired street names, although some of the spelling is a bit dubious (I assume "Chamouni" is supposed to be Chamonix). There's a bit of progress on the bike path but only a bit.