Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

SA Middle Championships. At some point a few months ago I must have thought that entering 21E in this was a good idea. I wasn't thinking it was such a good idea driving to the event and struggling to stand up whenever I got out of the car, but managed to knock some sort of sense into myself in the warm-up and ventured out with some hope. Not surprisingly, this failed to last past the first hill (along with my back); on a lot of other days I'd have packed it in there and then, but it looked a fun area and there was, in the metaphorical sense, no tomorrow, so I decided to walk the steeper hills and jog the rest and hope that it loosened up. It didn't, but I did manage to get myself around, more or less, and the presence of Jon Sutcliffe stopped me from coming last.

This was the National League showdown, and there was a certain amount of talk beforehand about what team tactics we might deploy to distract Martin Dent (having recognised that a blowout from him was Victoria's only realistic pathway to victory). My only contribution to this was to drop behind him when he caught me up at 14 and hope that he'd miss the control without noticing me getting it behind him (didn't work). As it turned out, I did manage to distract someone in a big way - Eric, who didn't realise I wasn't running 45s today and assumed I must have got his control when I got my #21.

This was a good carnival although I was pretty disappointed with my own performances, with the relay the only run I'd consider decent. My form this year hasn't been great, but I've still had much better weeks than this (NAOC, for a start).

It's a long road back from Eden Valley to Melbourne, too (especially when you only start it after 2). Went fairly smoothly for the most part apart from a difficult stretch around Stawell with a couple of aggressively-driven trucks around. Didn't do as well as I'd hoped in finding food/drink stops along the way - I'd much rather patronise local small businesses on the highway than large multinationals, but while although the signs on the way into town proclaim "Keith Means Business", none of the businesses in question were actually open for business. (Ran into the Hatleys at the one place I found open - even the pub was closed - in downtown Horsham).

One plus of the time change is that I got home at 11.45 but it felt like 10.15.

C • NAOC 2

Australian Long Championships, 8th M45A. Not fit enough or strong enough to be competitive on a course which tested running in hilly country and route choice more than fine navigation (and after all, that's what the long distance concept is supposed to be about).

Didn't get off to a great start when I came in too high on the first control and dropped 30 seconds or so, but that was essentially the end of the navigation issues. Never felt particularly strong on the hills but managed to run most of them (except in the green). Our course had some decent route choice legs; I think I got the worse option on 6 (right; I'd been worried about the young pines on the left route but they turned out to be fine), best on 7 and fairly even on 12. It was an indicator of the route choices available that Fredrik caught me at 6, and we promptly exited the control in opposite directions (and then met again at the next control). Hamstring started to give a bit of trouble on the steeper downhills at the end.

I wasn't hugely surprised that our course went in reasonably close proximity to the Mount Crawford weather station (although I went around rather than over so only saw the mast, not the screen). Mixing business with pleasure was a bit of a theme of the day after doing Channel 7 on the way to the event (a reasonably routine interview but with disconcerting interference on the earpiece; I hope I managed to keep looking at the camera). There was also a bit of a climate theme on my trip home as I went through a few places in the hills which I previously knew as regular appearances on the lists of wettest places in South Australia (Uraidla is a regular).

Pretty tired afterwards, but if you're not tired after a championship long-distance race you haven't been trying hard enough.

Neglected to mention that Anthony Stoner caught me 2 minutes at 2; I assumed he'd blow me away but he ended up making a massive parallel on 3. Thought I'd heard either him or Fredrik coming in behind me at 4 (before Fredrik eventually caught me at 6), but it turned out to be what the Herald-Sun would describe as a 'gang of youths' (actually, the Herald-Sun probably wouldn't describe it as anything because none of them were 'of African appearance').

Finally got to do some form of exercise (other than of my mouth) with a morning session at Jenny's local before heading into work for the day. Unley pool would be a good place for public transport enthusiasts - it gives you a view both of the main rain line in from Melbourne (with one train going past which must have been the best part of a kilometre long) and of the tram line (better described as a light rail) from Glenelg. Nice morning, but the session was a bit iffy - maybe ate a bit too close to going out?

Mixing business and pleasure tomorrow - my trip out to the event will feature an intermediate stop at the Channel 7 studios, where I will be appearing on Sunrise. (The interview's at 7.40 SA time, but I presume the breakfast TV shows run on 30 minutes' delay in SA so it will probably screen at 8.10?).

Another day on the sidelines. Not sure where I would have found the time to do something anyway (I'm attempting to do the Schools commentary in the mornings and work afternoons).

The Schools presentation was this evening at the Adelaide Sailing Club. I remembered this as a venue for a conference I went to in early 2007, and in particular, going into the water to cool off after a run sandwiched between conference session and conference dinner, and noticing while I was there that there was a memorial to someone who had been taken by a shark there in the not-too-distant past. This generated a bit of audience amusement when I mentioned it, but not as much as Clive Arthur got when he said, in the process of introducing the Paralympian discus-thrower who was the guest speaker, that "he takes a keen interest in my granddaughter". (The granddaughter in question - not Sophie - is, I believe, the Australian age-group record holder for the hammer throw).

That conference also saw a running milestone - you probably won't be hugely surprised that I keep track of the number of kilometres run since I started training seriously, and that week was where I reached the 100,000 mark. (It's taken me another 11 years to add a bit over 40,000 to that).

Giving things a rest for a bit in the hope that I'll be in decent shape to run on the weekend. The day filled up - would have had to have got out very early to do a swim or something similar.

Good day of competition at the Schools again (a bit cooler than yesterday). ACT in the box seat to do it again but SA, NSW and perhaps Victoria are within range if they stumble.

Post-Schools sprint. Thought after yesterday that I'd only go out if I felt better, and did in the warm-up, but quickly reverted to yesterday's form once actually on the course. Since this event counted for absolutely nothing, there was no point in pushing it any further - the weekend is definitely the priority here. Still a bit annoyed as the first 10 controls were an interesting technical course, and the rest looked pretty good too.

An interesting day at the Schools, too, with the top four states separated by 3 points (and the top five by 5), and some unexpected individual results, more so in the sense of favourites blowing out than of totally unexpected winners.

Whilst Keithcot Farm has had a bit of use in SA, my only experience of it was at a 2009 National League race. I don't remember much about the area, but did remember that we hung out at the Golden Grove shops in between races, not realising until a bit late that perhaps hanging around an outer suburban Adelaide shopping centre in Victorian gear wasn't the best of ideas. (Fortunately, it was Clipsal 500 weekend so most of the local bogans were otherwise engaged in the city).

C • Top 5 2

Australian Sprint Championships at Renmark. Ended up as a pretty disappointing day - my hamstring flared up on the first run across an oval between 9 and 10, and although it settled a bit later on in the course, I was never comfortable going hard on it. That shows in the splits, where I was 8th at 9 but dropped back steadily through the rest of the course. Ended up 14th; even 30-45 seconds faster (probably where I would have been with a better run) wouldn't have got me past 8th, but that still would have been a bit more respectable (top half of the field at least). Navigation was pretty clean with only one small hesitation at the second-last; Winsplits has me with a mistake at 14 but I think that was just slow running on a fast bit of the course. A bit under 4 minutes down on Carsten.

Will see how it feels in the morning before deciding what to do tomorrow.

It was the first day of the month and we announced that it was Australia's driest September on record, so I suspected I'd be doing a bit of media, and set myself up in the back seat for the trip to Adelaide in anticipation (I'm currently travelling with my parents). Only did one interview as it turns out, although I expect there will be some action tomorrow as word of the record gets out and Sydney-based journalists get back from their long weekend.

C • Perth 2