Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Realised after a few minutes this morning that it was going to be no good - had felt a bit on the edge yesterday so this didn't surprise me greatly. Still struggling to feel awake at 7am or thereabouts.

Today was the day of the workshop which didn't involve me quite so much, so I got things done like writing up (not especially flattering) reviews of a couple of papers. Slipped out of the dinner before the kava ceremony - apart from anything else, I don't know if kava contains anything on the WADA prohibited list (although I suspect not, otherwise Fijian rugby teams would fail drug tests en masse). Was sitting at dinner with a very large Fijian (even by local standards) and I remarked that he'd be hard to stop on the rugby field; he said he used to play "a bit". It wasn't until somewhat later in the conversation that I found out that "a bit" translated as being good enough to play for the ACT Under-21s (alongside Ricky Stuart) while he was studying at ANU in the 1980s.

And one of the workshop participants from Nauru goes by the name of Thorndon Captain Scotty. I would speculate that at least one of his parents had an interest in Star Trek. (Nauruans seem to find slightly unusual things to name their children after; I gather that numerous Nauruans of a certain age are named after Gary Ablett).

C • Names 1

Readjusting to the tropics, which was a bit of a shock to the system, and in the end just managed to hold it together for long enough for something which could respectably be called a "session". Enjoyed the exploration, though, taking in a small town/outer suburb of Nadi (largely dominated by people commuting to Nadi if the heavily laden buses - most of them several decades past their prime - and traffic jams on the road into Nadi were anything to go by), and a bit of the countryside beyond. Had thoughts of doing a loop but the relevant road on Google Maps turned out to be a farm track.

Lots of hellos/bulas from the locals, both adults and kids (not something you get much of at home these days). Lots of dogs too, but none were aggressive or even particularly inquisitive. Saw one local wearing the colours of the Greater Western Sydney Giants, which is one more than I've seen on the streets of Greater Western Sydney (not that I've spent an awful lot of time on the streets of Greater Western Sydney).

Spotted a real estate sign bearing the name of Swastika Investments. I'm guessing they aren't chasing the German market.

A reminder of the reason I'm here came in today's Fiji Times, which gave almost as much space to the effects of sea level rise (in two stories about a coastal village being flooded by high seas on the weekend, and the planned relocation of a coastal school) as it did to rugby.

Don't think I've previously done a flight like that - 5-ish hours, eastward, overnight. Not a combination that's conducive to sleep, and I only got a couple of hours of it.

With that I didn't think it would be the best of days for a run (and in any case it was pouring rain in the morning). Instead, I took to the hotel pool after workshop proceedings were over for the day. Hotel pools can be a bit dizzying but this one didn't work out too badly, although 80 laps gets a little hard to keep track of. It was getting dark and at times I had trouble holding a straight line.

Most of the workshop participants are from the Pacific but there are some UN people who are from all over the place. One I was talking with at afternoon coffee break (coffees were certainly welcome today) was from Pakistan. You'll probably be surprised to learn that it took as long as two or three minutes for the subject of conversation to turn to cricket, especially after their big win at Lord's.

The surrounding area looks at first glance as if it will be OK for running (apart from humidity); not too urban but not too rural (the problem with 'too rural' is that turning up in villages unannounced is frowned on in these parts, although not as much as it was 150 years ago when an unfortunate missionary ended up in the cooking pot). I'll find out more tomorrow.

A bit of a theme of conversation from time to time this weekend was things which happened 30 years ago which wouldn't happen now, so it was perhaps fitting that we weren't that far away from Pheasants Brush, the day 1 Easter 1988 area which leaves one wondering (a) how we ever got permission to use it and (b) why anyone thought it was a good place for orienteering in the first place. (Perhaps my views were coloured by the fact that I had an early start, in an area which was largely heathland which tracked massively).

Like yesterday this was largely a "tourist run" - doing lots of volume wasn't really part of the plan for this weekend. I didn't go to Pheasants Brush, but I did head up to the top of the escarpment to the Barren Grounds, broadly similar terrain on the next plateau to the south. Solid climb up there (first 1.5km up the road which was a little hairy, next 800m up the park access road), and further in than I thought, which meant I gave away ideas of doing a loop track and just went out to a bit past the Illawarra lookout and back. On a clear day the views from this lookout would extend a long way, but this was not a clear day, despite the sunshine (lots of burnoff smoke). Still a decent view in the foreground even if you could only just see the shoreline in the distance. Most happy about the fact that I was able to handle a 2km/200m climb directly from the start without my back, my Achilles or any other body parts completely freaking out, even if it was very hard work aerobically (and also happy that at the time of writing my quads seem to have survived the descent).

It was definitely a good weekend; 30 years is a long time but we quickly slipped back into a mode as if it had been only 30 days. Now for the second leg.

Up for the weekend at a place near the top of Jamberoo Mountain, with a group from school - some of whom I've been in regular touch with, others I haven't seen for 30 years. This run was mainly devoted to exploring the surrounds - I'll do something a bit more ambitious tomorrow. The first half was a footpad through rainforest, almost terrain running in places, then an out-and-back on a side road. Some nice forest and some excellent views.

The rest of the day involved lots of hanging out, various card games, some go-karting, and trying to recognise people in old photos (one of the Girls Grammar people I might have suspected of being Tara Melhuish had it not been that the photo in question was taken at least a decade before Tara was born).

The earliest I've started a run in many years - had an 8am flight to Sydney (and not a lot of obvious opportunities to do anything once there), so the best available option was to head out before the flight; in the name of getting 20 minutes' extra sleep, I decided to do it on the way to the airport rather than from home and got under way about 5.45. (Being able to get a shower at the airport helps).

This took me to Airport West, not a place I've done much running (occasionally ventured in here from my grandmother's old place nearby in Essendon). It's flat and not terribly inspiring, but the former is good for a recovery run and it doesn't matter much how inspiring the scenery is when it's dark. Started from the vast car park of the Westfield (bigger than it needs, which may be why a circus has set up in part of it) and essentially did a lap of the suburb. Quads tight early, but once I'd shaken that out, not a bad run (although fairly slow).

The locals may not have appreciated my presence, as I managed to set off not one, but two, burglar alarms at businesses I was running past (can't remember ever doing that before). The second of these was outside the Airport West Sexyland, something which has been generating a certain amount of mirth on social media.

As noted a couple of days back, I'm doing three trips back to back. With a very wide range of gear requirements and climates (there's not that much overlap between a work meeting in Fiji and an orienteering trip to NZ) my bag is even more packed than usual. Fortunately, I managed to find a spot at the terminal end of the long term car park so I should be able to do a gear swap in between the Fiji leg and the NZ one.

Longest run for a while. A slow start in the dark - took me until 6k to start getting under 6 min/km with any consistency - but felt like it was going to be OK in the injury department, and so it proved. A steady grind of a run, and certainly knew that I'd been going for a reasonably long run in the last 20 minutes, but happy to get this one on the board.

Quads were quite stiff through the day. It's a bit of an indicator that I haven't done a lot of long stuff lately that a not-particularly-hilly 100 minutes had more impact there then a lot of runs which were a lot hillier and a lot longer did.