Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Australian Relays. There was a certain amount of turbulence in the Victorian M21E teams before the start - first Bryan was out, which meant David was promoted to the first team and I filled his gap in the second team, then Ben Goonan was also out which meant that we would end up with an incomplete team (which I thought was the one that started with Simon Rouse, with Jim moving up into the second team).

I ran second leg. Toph was a long way down on the pace and the extent of my ambitions was to get in inside the mass start (needing 55 minutes when the best first legs were 43). It turned out to be a decent run physically - certainly much better than I was expecting given my condition in the last 20 minutes yesterday - but too scrappy to be called a good one, losing 2 minutes at 6 and probably a minute more across three others. Never saw anyone else on my course (not surprising given the big gaps on either side of me). Turned out Jim had gone out on his original number (both the second and third team were in the mass start) so it was our team that was left stranded, though even with Jim I think we would have been 9th. Good to see the first team win, though (and for Victoria to pick up a completely unexpected win in the Xanthorrhoea Trophy, and a more expected win in the women's National League).

There will be a lot of long trips home tonight but mine is longer than most - I'm embarking on the next leg of my trip, to New York via Qatar (27 1/2 hours worth). Perth to New York, as I may have mentioned before, introduces some interesting route choice challenges - it's a fairly similar distance to do it via the Middle East, Southeast Asia or the east coast of Australia (though I think the first is the only one-stop option).

C • Time 5

Australian Long Championships, 16th in M21E. This was the 20th time I've fronted up in 21E (a sufficiently long span of time that none of today's placegetters were born when I ran my first, in 1992), and I doubt very much that there will be a 21st - two-thirds of the way through, part of me was thinking I was really enjoying this (it was an enjoyable area), and part of me was thinking I wouldn't mind if it stopped right now. I was happy to keep running 21E as long as I could get midfield results and contribute to the Nuggets, but now that I generally can't do either of these it's probably about time to make the move. (As it turned out, I was a scoring runner today for the first time in a couple of years, thanks to Bryan's DNF, Toph's blowout and Bruce and Matt running other classes).

Generally nice start although took a couple of controls to get into the 1:15000 scale; took Tash's advice to avoid green where possible, which worked well on 3 (and 4 was ridiculously photogenic). Fairly smooth through the first 11 and functioning OK physically, a bit indecisive in my route on 12 and missed 13 slightly high. The greenest section followed and included my one significant miss of the day. about 90 seconds at 18 - lacked a bit of confidence in where I was and pulled up one gully early. From there it was a bit of a slog physically as I tired significantly, especially from 22 onwards, and the last 20 minutes were a major struggle - a tired 15-second mistake on the second-last (27) probably summed up where I was at at that time.

It won't quite be my last 21E long race - I'm entered for that at the North Americans next week (and I may still run the odd one in the NOL; also expect I'll keep running elite middle distances, at least for a while).

Up Mount Brown, the hill to the east side of York, with Jenny. This was really a shake-out-the-cobwebs run with a nice view as the target. Not overly stretched and pleased that there were no back issues on the climb. Slightly awkward with two of us attempting to run across the suspension bridge (next to the if-you-swim-here-you-might-die sign along the river).

Mount Brown has a lot of long grass on it (even more than Peterdine) and I suspect it could be a factor tomorrow, too. It wasn't a factor in 2006 on Hill Park Dale but that's probably because 2006 was a severe drought year whereas 2014 is merely a marginal drought year.

Hoping for something respectable tomorrow, in what will probably be my last elite national long distance championships. The previous three I've done in WA have all been successful (biggest junior win in 1988, best elite placing in 1998 and a turn-back-the-clock 4th in 2006 - among other things, my last win over Jules). I won't get close to that tomorrow but it would be great to get somewhere near the middle of the field, at least.

Schools Relay day, always one of the best spectator days of the year in Australian orienteering - and better still this year because we were able to do things like have people running with cameras near the leaders. It helps that there are a lot of people available to do things who would have their own races to run most of the time. It was also a pretty close competition, with only 7 points covering the top 5 places (close enough that one wonders what might have been had the ACT managed to find a senior girls team, or Victoria not had three senior girls out through injury or school commitments). Warm enough that I wasn't too upset not to be running myself.

C • Results 6

Inventive use of signage department: there is a big sand dune on Rottnest which people were using for sandboarding. The Parks people wanted to stop it but thought people would ignore a "no sandboarding" sign (in fact if it was big enough they'd probably steal it and use it as a board), so instead they put one up "Caution: Snake Breeding Area".

Post-Schools run at Peterdine, but not as we know it - the grass was long and there was lots of rock buried in the grass, and the sub-5 kilometre rates of previous visits to the area were a thing of the imagination today. It was also the hottest day many of us have experienced so far this spring (about 30) which added a few points to the degree of difficulty, though on the plus side there was quite a bit of tracking which wouldn't have been there for the earlier Schools runners (some of whom chose early start blocks to avoid the heat).

I found the rock on this map a little bit hard to interpret - the major features didn't seem to stand out (although that could be a function of the terrain, too), and I found myself hesitating a bit in the circle. Two 30-seconders, at 3 and 17 (the second was especially annoying as I'd already seen it earlier in the course), a couple of minor wobbles, and one attempt to impale myself on a control at 9 which has left me with a bruised elbow.

Didn't feel at my best physically for this - often a problem on this day when the morning is spent concentrating on other things - and was definitely struggling on the hills, particularly later on. Saturday could be a challenge if it is similar (though it will be cooler). Knew I had no chance of beating Matt's time - the last time I beat all the kids was 2001 - and had set myself a target of getting in ahead of the 5th placegetter (or alternatively the 6th, and 3rd Australian), but fell just short.

Fairly easy run on Rottnest around the south coast from the main settlement, with a bit of sand-dune climbing but mostly not too hard. Not too much rust to get out of the system after yesterday.

Highlight of the day was a boat trip around the coast of the island, which would have been worthwhile in its own right but became much more so when several whales surfaced nearby.

Now back based in York for the rest of the week.

Australian Sprint Championships at Curtin University, a decent venue for the occasion (spending pretty well all of the course in recently complex buildings). Enjoyed myself with only one minor hesitation where I wasn't totally sure how to get down a level. Not fast enough to be competitive but I knew that before I started; my stated objective was to defend 4 minutes on Tim Robertson, which realistically I thought was a chance if it was a 12-minute course but not if it was a 15-minute one (as it turned out he went through me at #14).

It was a good course and a nice arena (complete with beanbag couches supplied by the student union for the occasion, although the juniors snaffled those before I got one; guess I could have invoked presidential privileges but decided not to).

Our gathering place was outside the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library (whose existence I already knew of - we'd been in touch with them last year to get permission to use a picture of John Curtin throwing a snowball in 1929 in a presentation on notable Canberra weather events). Such institutions are standard for former U.S. Presidents, George W. Bush included (cue gratuituous jokes about how he hasn't finished colouring in all the books in it yet), but as far as I know this is the only one of its type in Australia.

Finished the day on Rottnest, with a tour of the island in the fire truck (one of my cousins lives there and her husband is the fire chief).

C • thor on the last leg? 6

M21E - Splits