Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

To say I went into this lacking confidence would be an understatement. Coming up on the last day of Easter hasn't got any easier, and I could hardly make myself move on my first attempt to warm up. I'd eventually got myself more or less mobile by the time I started, but it was quickly apparent that my back was in a jog on level-or-downhills-only mode. The gradual climbs and open paddocks of the first couple of kilometres of the course are the absolute last sort of terrain you want in that sort of situation, knowing that others are taking time out of you in large quantities; at least I was hitting all the controls OK.

At about 35-40 minutes, as it had at Kooyoora last weekend, my back decided to function, and from there it turned into a reasonable run. By then we were heading into the highly technical terrain, and I dropped a little time on #14 and #15 (a small mistake on #14 providing to be a way of inducing others into making a larger one), but from there it was pretty reasonable - didn't hurt that by then I knew I was actually going to finish. 6th on the day, just ahead of Matt Stocks and just behind Paul Marsh, but held my overall 4th position. (I haven't seen the splits yet but suspect that Matt may well have closed the gap to me before losing lots of time late).

I'd said before the start of this Easter that my main objective was to get through all the days, which I managed, more or less. Also gives me a bit of confidence that I might be able to stand a bit of a step up in the training load, which might or might not get me a bit more fitness for events ahead.

C • Seismic realignment 1

Day 3 Course 8 - Splits

Others had a more epic day than me but this was still pretty epic, and took me beyond my current capabilities. Didn't get off to a great start with a faceplant jogging to the start, then once on the course itself got off to a worse start, blowing 4-5 minutes on the short #2 - couldn't make the contours fit and thus couldn't make the rock fit (looking at the splits I was not alone in this). Settled after that to some extent; did the next two downhill legs well, got the route choices right on the key long legs (although I lost a bit of time in the circle at #7) while not being able to execute very fast, but by #11 I had used all that I had, and the last few controls were a real struggle (losing another couple of minutes on #12 didn't help). Did at least manage to jog the uphill finish chute, which was not something I'd been especially confident of.

Somehow I moved up a place with this, although that owed more to what was happening elsewhere (Matt Stocks blew 30 minutes on the first control and ended up 10 behind me). Jock did 67; comparing his times with 2015 (and making some allowances for the passing years) suggests that the area's probably 1 min/km or so slower than it was in 2015. Not sure that entirely accounts for results like those in W21E though (won in 110, with only three under 140).

I felt as if I'd used up all my reserves today, and that was demonstrated in some style during the Orienteering Australia AGM, when I got a fairly major cramp in my quad while delivering the President's report (which will be my last; I stepped down at this meeting). The quads still don't feel good this evening and I'll want a night's rest to do them a lot of good if I'm going to get round tomorrow, although tomorrow should be a bit less rugged than today.

Day 2 Course 8 - Splits

Day 1 of Easter proper. I've been waiting to run here for 35 years (after admiring its rocks from the road on 1980s trips from Canberra to Queensland). It turned out to be essentially a single ridge of rocks (not granite, but with formations which at least resembled granite) - fairly intense and rough in it, although once you worked out that it ran in lines it was a bit easier.

This run turned out to be at the better end of expectations; I'm still not fit, but at least my back was mostly functioning so if I was going slowly it was because I wasn't fit (and I was even running up a few hills later on). Somewhat annoyed to drop 1-1.5 minutes on 10, one of the three non-rock controls (also lost 30 seconds apiece by going into the rough stuff a bit early on 13 and 19), but others blew out far more than that. Jock did 41, and I've ended up fifth - possibly within reach of the places but that probably depends at least as much on what happens ahead of me as what I do myself.

Next step is to come up for another two days, but I'll definitely take this as a starting point.

Molong apparently means 'place of many rocks'. It fits. (Searching for its weather model output on yr.no (a Norwegian site very good for such things) revealed that there are also at least three Molongs in China).

Day 1 Course 8 - Splits

The word thing I was pondering on the road today was: how rare is it to see the word "noxious" unless it is immediately followed by "weed" or "weeds"?

C • Noxious gases or noxious fu... 4

Pre-Easter sprint. This week might have been encouraging but today wasn't - it's going to be a long four days if it's like this (but it probably won't be). Once I realised that things weren't happening today I walked the uphills and jogged the rest, not wanting to burn myself out too much for tomorrow. Still managed to make some mistakes at that slow pace, most notably at 20 where I misread the white around the number 20 as a gap in the building it was printed on.

Still good to see a big national event happening (and the Queenslanders even made it) - early in the year there were questions being raised as to whether we should press on with it, but I'm definitely glad we did. (It helps that Easter is an event a relatively late call can be made on, whereas for an Australian Championships the Schools accommodation is a major constraint).

On the way up, passed a sign in Young proclaiming that the Riot Act was read there on 14 July 1861 (presumably this was something to do with Lambing Flat). I'm guessing there isn't a similar sign in Frankston to mark the last time this was done in Australia (by a hastily-summoned JP standing on the bonnet of a police car with a megaphone), in 1979.

There is an Orange in California. Sadly, I found this out via a news report which dealt with the usual reason why American places you haven't heard of make the Australian news (although as US shootings go it was a relatively small one so it only made the website equivalent of a paragraph on page 17).

C • Late call 2

Public Prologue Course 1 - Splits

An easy session before launching into Easter. Felt a bit sleepy at the start this morning but less so once I hit the water (which I take to be a good thing).

The start-of-weekend road trip up the Hume is a very familiar experience for me, but a less familiar one in the last 18 months or so. Reacquainted myself with a common dinner stop (the former La Porchetta in Albury), although it might be the last time because the place seems to be on its last legs - it was half-empty and the average age of the (not very numerous) staff seemed to be about 14. (Quite a few closed restaurants up that end of town). Made it as far as Cootamundra tonight, longer than I would have chosen but Gundagai (except for the pub, which I didn't fancy on the night before a long weekend) and Holbrook were booked out when I looked a week or so back. At least it means a relaxed trip in the morning.

And the most absurd election result for a while has come with one Wilson Tucker (not to be confused with Wilson Tuckey, although some of the voters may have done) of the Daylight Savings Party riding the preference snowball from 98 votes to a seat in the WA upper house (representing the Mining and Pastoral region, whose residents would presumably be very keen to see the summer sun disappear as quickly as possible). It may be a while before Mr. Tucker can make a parliamentary appearance, because he is currently stuck in Seattle.

The weather conditions have been favourable for fuel-reduction burning this year, and there's been plenty of it - big ones on the way up in Barambogie, and south of Benalla.

C • fuel-reduction burning 1

Short run starting from the office before work, exploring some of the streets of Docklands that I didn't get into during the 2019 City Race, and getting further out onto the point than I have previously (haven't been past the Woolworths before). Wasn't sure about this after sleeping poorly last night but it started to feel almost normal (back was again fine, and fitness is starting to get a bit better), so somewhat encouraging as we head into Easter - although finishing all days is still my main objective.

I definitely wasn't going as fast as my GPS suggested at times (at one point it had me doing 2.40/km, which is about my 400m PB pace from many years ago), nor was I going through the middle of buildings - the vagaries of satellites in the middle of the big city.

One highly unseasonable thing to happen in March was getting attacked by a magpie while I was warming up. Could have been nasty too - went for the eye but just missed it (hurt a bit but no obvious damage).

And a sort-of-target for the year is 300 hours: at 77 after the first quarter (which, in days, is the shortest quarter), it's just about on track.

I'm a bit disappointed to learn that it appears that Charlie Pickering did not invent the word "nontroversy" - used tonight with respect to the petition to rename Golden Gaytime ice-creams (something which appears to have been an attempt to troll News Corp and friends for which the targets fell hook, line and sinker).

C • Surely... 8

Another reasonably encouraging day by the standards of the last 12 months. Whilst I would hardly regard this run as stunning by past standards, being able to get through a run of this length without undue difficulty (and feeling as if I had at least a bit left at the end) is definitely a positive. Only minor back issues, even on the hills (modest ones; we're talking two- or three-contour affairs here). Without being too convoluted about it, drew a few new lines in Croxton and on the north side of Darebin Road. Nice morning to be out too.

Had a physio session this evening. She partly worked on my quads which were a bit touchy even after a modest session. Didn't like to think how it would have felt like doing that after, say, the Six Foot Track.

I also discovered that the Six Foot Track is not the only place in that part of the world with a geographic feature named for a piece of meteorological equipment (the (in)famous Pluviometer Hill). I was looking for the location of Cedar Ford on the Kowmung River (upstream of Warragamba Dam), one of the sites which had a record flood level last week. The coordinates I had were only to 0.01 degree precision (1km or so) so I wasn't surprised to feed them into Google Maps and find a spot which wasn't a river. What this did show, though, was that the nearby track was called Gauging Station Track. I would speculate that the actual location of the instrument is somewhere in close proximity to where said track intersects the river.