Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NOL relay at Broulee Dunes. There being a surplus of Victorians, I did something I normally only do at State of Origin time and turned into a Queenslander for the day, making up their second team with Thomas and Sam Garbellini. It was apparent from fairly early on in the day (with times blowing out a bit) that the timing of the mass start was likely to be relevant and so it proved (we missed out on making the cut by about four minutes). Went out with a few others, including Bruce, Warren (who changed over right on a mass start time) and Toby Cazzolato. As expected they dropped me immediately, and I didn't feel quite as strong as I did yesterday (I think it was a slightly rougher course too, with fewer track options and less running on the open coastal strip), but technically it was a similar run - one mistake on #11 of a minute or so, a few other controls where I wasn't quite sure what I was doing without actually losing much time, and otherwise reasonably steady. Was a bit surprised to see Warren behind me at the second river crossing; we were in and out of each other's path for the rest of the day, and somewhat to my surprise, I was ahead of him at the last control by enough to stay in front of him in a finish which probably can't be described as a "sprint" without breaching trade practices laws.

Think the lead times were in the mid-30s, but there were plenty in the 50s (or slower) so I suspect my ranking was a bit better than yesterday. Feel as if this weekend was another incremental sign of progress.

The Victorian men took out the NOL title (no real thanks to me), as did the junior men.

One observation is that Broulee plays host to some particularly dedicated illegal dumpers - I was especially impressed by the trampoline frame between #27 and #28 (a useful navigation feature as it was marked as a man-made object), at least 100 metres from the nearest driveable track.

C • Tracks 3

My arrangements to get here were somewhat convoluted - partly because Dad was doing it as a road trip (Mum was coming too but had something else on), and partly because a group of us from school had organised a weekend in Jamberoo (something we also did three years ago), so I spent the night there to at least catch up with the others for a bit. This meant my arrangements were fly to Canberra, meet Dad there, go to Jamberoo where he dropped me off (and stayed in Kiama himself), then head down the coast this morning. It's a while since I've been in these parts - I think the only time I've been in the section between Jervis Bay and Batemans Bay was in 1991. The forest is (mostly) growing back strongly, but the billboards for construction companies advertising "rebuild specials" are a reminder of what happened in this part of the world the summer before last.

NOL middle at Broulee Dunes. I expected it to be green, flat and technical; it was certainly technical, and green in places, but focused on the coastal strip where there was plenty of detail - a very interesting area to run in and well worth the effort of those who've come to it. (I suspect this may be the biggest event that the ACT has staged outside of national carnivals, with over 400 starters; certainly the biggest since the 1980s).

Outside the chasing start, people were in random order at 30 second intervals. I got a bit of a surprise at the first control to swallow the three in front of me (Ben, Gareth and Jim), but was never going to last long against them - indeed Gareth and Jim both went on to have good runs of their own - and Grant (1 minute) was through me by #3. Settled down and actually felt like I was running to compete and not just to finish, as has been the case for most of my events for the last couple of years. Dropped about 1.5 minutes on #9 after going almost to the circle and not seeing it, and a couple of times came out into the open a bit further away from the control than I'd planned on (and a couple more times later on, was grateful to see the flag when I wasn't quite sure where I was), but in general I was pretty happy with this - quite close to the 50% behind benchmark which I'd consider respectability (Aston was in the 33s) and actually beat people this time. Certainly my best event physically this year, so another sign of progress.

NOL3-M21E - Splits

This week has been poor compared to the last couple (though not bad relative to two or three months ago), and today was another indifferent session - in the end decided it wasn't worth trying to push much further before a race weekend.

Headed north this time, originally thinking of Bellfield but when it became apparent I wouldn't be doing 45-50 minutes, instead picked up a couple of streets in the industrial area and headed back down Jones Street, which is a quiet residential street now but was once much busier - I was somewhat surprised to discover on seeing the 1966 Melway that in those days Station Street didn't go through to Bell but ended at a T-intersection where the Rossmoyne shops are now, and if you wanted to get to where Albert Street ended at Dundas, you had to zig-zag through Jones, the most readily available back street. They must have had to flatten quite a few buildings to connect the two (but then in those days the Board of Works did pretty much what it liked).

On the way to Canberra now, for the NOL events (with a slight detour).

C • Detour 3

Seem to have trouble at the moment coming up the morning after a physio session (possibly something to do with the amount of needlework it involves these days - short-term pain for long-term gain), so did an evening swim instead. The price of this was that the evening weather was a fair bit worse than the morning, although at least the rain had stopped. (As expected at this time of night, the indoor pool was fully occupied with swimming lessons - I'm assuming that, like quite a few of the places in the outback where I was thinking of staying next month, two years of demand is being squashed into one). Swim was OK after all of that, and definitely improved on last time.

I'm dealing with a few travel logistical issues at the moment, and have finally bitten the bullet and organised to get a rack fitted which will allow me to carry fuel containers on the roof, having ascertained that carrying them in the car is dangerous and not just unpleasant (somebody should probably tell the panic-buyers in the US - I even saw reports of someone pumping fuel into a plastic bag).

C • Roof racks 8

This week hasn't been quite as good as the last two and today was consistent with that; an early short rise set the back off a little and from there I was battling against the current. A little bit of left hamstring discomfort on downhills which was a bit concerning (although the physio didn't seem too alarmed in our session tonight). Decided to cut it a bit shorter than I might have given that. I did, however, get through today's primary mission - running the last handful of streets necessary to complete Northcote.

Very nice morning to be out which turned into a nice day to be out - pleasant at lunchtime (at this time of year you're conscious that sunny lunchtimes are getting rarer).

C • Pleasant 3

South Wharf intervals, having decided on lunchtime rather than morning (a) because I was feeling rather sleepy this morning and (b) because it was rather dismal this morning. Once running, this session was best characterised as better than last week but not as good as the week before; started to fade away on the last couple so didn't extend the set any further than last time.

Warm-up and down. Not super-convincing but OK. Back was fine today.

Regular readers will be aware of Northcote Plaza and its two Coles supermarkets, one at each end (one used to be a Bi-Lo but when Coles took them over they kept it going rather than risk the site falling into the hands of a competitor). These are fairly universally referred to locally as "good Coles" and "sh*t Coles", but I certainly didn't expect the previous Mayor to refer to the latter in those terms in the middle of an ABC interview this morning...

Slowly learning the ropes of the new routine - it's longer than previous ones so I suspect I'm going to struggle to get it done in a 40-minute slot (and probably shouldn't be trying to - doing things fast isn't the point of this). Body seemed to be functioning OK despite feeling as if I'd strained something in my side last night.

Moved on to Fitzroy, reacquainting myself with one of the regulars who I hadn't seen for a while (best known as a vocal Melbourne supporter, which means he's having a good year) - turns out he'd retired and moved to South Australia and was back on a visit. Once we'd caught up, settled into the rest of the session, and felt pretty good through it - seemed to be working well. Rain started just after I got out.