Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Oceania Relays. Running 2nd leg in the Australian M40 team with Bruce and Craig. Bruce led off pretty well - put us well clear of the others in our class, which was expected, but it turned out that we were also on the same course as the junior men and open women. This meant I set out in some pretty good company - my partner in crime for the first few controls was a certain Ms. Alexandersson. Somewhat to my surprise, she didn't blow me away immediately, rather edging away (mostly in the rougher bits of ground) over the first 10 minutes or so. As I wasn't running that well, and struggled even at my peak to match it with the best women in the world (at the 2000 World Cup at Badja, where the women ran two of the three loops of the men's course, I was a bit behind Hanne Staff and Simone Niggli on the common sections), I take this as an indication that she wasn't going flat out. I was, however, gratified that Tove doesn't appear to be any better than me at getting over rickety barbed-wire fences.

Once off the back of that contest, and out of the open country, I made a couple of mistakes on my first two controls in the green, with one-minuters at 6 and 7 - not getting to grips quickly enough with which rocks were/weren't mapped at 6, and going in too early and getting caught in some green from 7. Fairly clean from there (in the navigation sense, definitely not the mud sense), but struggled for strength and terrain fluency in the uneven and soft ground. 6 down on Bruce which was about where I deserved to be, but at least we did the necessary (which in the absence of NZ opposition, was to get around three legs without a mispunch).

We couldn't have chosen a much more NZ-like piece of terrain for the relays and still been on this side of the Tasman, so it was perhaps not surprising that NZ managed to draw 10-10 - their best result ever in an away Challenge (and matching the 2013 result in NZ).

Oceania Sprint Championships. This was a disappointing performance - didn't have the top couple of gears today and drifted out of it more as the run went on. I never expected to be especially close to Bruce (who probably should have been running a different course a couple of hours earlier), but behind some I shouldn't really be, and clearly third of the three M40 team runners (ended up 7th). One small but visible hesitation at the start triangle when I changed my mind from left to right to left again, but otherwise reasonably clean. Warm (31-32), though nowhere near as bad as it would have been on the mainland.

World Cup again went pretty well - very impressive runs by Tove and Matthias Kyburz to get the margins they did in such a strong field. We also had some solid results from our runners without cracking the top 10; I think Rachel will be happiest with her day's work.

Event: Oceania 2015 and World Cup Round 1
 

Morning swim in Launceston, after coming off the boat but before picking the rest of my load up from the airport. Didn't sleep too well on the boat (not the boat's fault I suspect, rather from having messed up my body clock the previous night), but got off it efficiently - it helps that the quarantine checks are at the Melbourne end these days.

Got to the aquatic centre (which the locals seem quite proud of - both the Mayor and the local MLC mentioned it in their speeches at the World Cup opening) a bit too early - it was still on holiday hours and didn't open until 8. Clevrly I wasn't the only one who didn't know this as there was quite a crowd milling outside. Once in, headed for the outdoor pool. Not the most relaxing of swims as the lanes didn't have speed markings and the other two in my lane were much faster than me - always feel like I'm intruding on the turf of others in such a situation (I chose that lane because they were doing slow breaststroke when I got in, but that was their warm-up). Decent on the performance front though.

First day of the World Cup seemed to go off pretty well - the Basin was an excellent arena and provided a better orienteering challenge than I thought it might. We were flying by the seat of our pants a bit in commentary because we weren't getting a good feed of results from the finish so had to result to old-school start list-and-stopwatch methods. The opening ceremony also went well, and I think I achieved my objective of giving the shortest of the five speeches :-). (I was a bit worried I'd be underdressed for this, but these worries ceased when the (very friendly) Mayor turned up in shorts and sandals).

Had thought of going out for a token trot on the map afterwards, but decided not to. I'm staying with Bruce and Louise Fairfax (with whom I go back a very long way; Bruce was my school coach as a junior). Louise is making her return to competition after a long time away and I had to give her a crash course in ISSOM mapping - she's never run a sprint race on an ISSOM map.

First session of 2015, not a particularly good one. As is the case for many people on this day, I was coming off less sleep than would have been optimal, which may have contributed to a general sense of sluggishness. Also a few hamstring twinges although still better than the weekend.

First weather station visit of the year: probably my most frequently visited one, the automatic one at the back of Viewbank (which is the closest one to where I am). Not sure what inroads (if any) I'll make into my list of 17 unvisited Australian sites this year - as noted earlier, all the easy ones are done now. Thinking 2017 (with WMOC in NZ rather than in Europe, and no IOF Congress) might be the year for another major outback Australian trip, though a lot of things could happen between now and 2017.

Heading to Tasmania on the boat tonight. Had expected to encounter a few familiar faces on this but most of those I've talked to so far are going earlier or later.

One 2014 'award' I left off the list I posted last night: most (least?) photogenic injury suffered. I had a few good ones last year in that department. An honourable mention goes to the cut knee (and consequent ample quantities of blood) in the NAOC long, but the winner is my backside-plant at Radford during the Canberra sprint series in January, which produced a very purple bruise the size of a dinner plate on said buttock. There are photos of the former online, but not the latter.

We're never shy about bagging the banks (and I've sometimes been heard to say that anyone who thinks that the public sector has a monopoly on large and inflexible bureaucracies has never dealt with a bank), but I have to give the thumbs up to NAB - I filed the paperwork on Christmas Eve relating to the skimming of my card while I was away, and got the money back today. (This reinforces that, given the choice, a virtual mugging is definitely preferable to a real mugging).

The last run of 2014 won't go down as one of the year's better runs - one of those nights when the back wasn't really playing ball and I couldn't generate much power uphill, which was bad news on a reasonably hilly area (Belmore). Managed to salvage a vaguely respectable run out of it even though I never felt great, even on the downhills. Think route was somewhat suboptimal on a night which was at the long end of the usual Summer Series range.

Not a huge turnout, not surprising given the date. Not sure what is normal because I was otherwise engaged at a certain wedding the last time 31 December fell on a Wednesday. Another turnout which isn't looking great is that of internationals to the World Cup, which is rather disappointing (although the number of non-World Cup overseas entrants is good). Apart from us and NZ, only Sweden and Switzerland are sending close to full teams.

And so ends 2014, probably a similar year to 2013 in competitive terms. One positive was a lack of major injuries, with no layoffs longer than a few days (although in-race injuries cut short two of the big races for the year, the Six Foot Track and the North American Championships); the back was again troublesome from time to time but probably less frequently than in 2013. The brain-fade at WMOC was frustrating though illness would have hurt my final chances anyway. Some good signs towards the end of the year; we'll see how things go at Oceania.

Best race of the year: probably the Eureka Challenge with its course-long scrap with (a subpar) Brodie - presumably the last time this will happen.

Most enjoyable race of the year: the long day of QB3 at Sappa Bulga.

Training run of the year: almost inevitably this year, it was an overseas one - my nomination going to the long run at El Calafate (especially its second half). Honourable mentions to the intervals session a few days earlier in the national park visitors centre car park at El Chalten, the Thursday session two days after I got home, and going back a bit further, the year's longest run, the 36k at Port Fairy in February.

I competed this year in 7 countries (which isn't a PB), and trained in 15, which is. (This is more countries than I officially entered - it includes a bike session in the gym while in transit in Dubai airport - and takes in every continent except Antarctica).

I think it's been a pretty reasonable year for orienteering in Australia, with indications of further growth in participation (though we don't have final numbers yet), some encouraging results at both WOC and JWOC level, and well-run major events. Personally, it's often been a turbulent year, especially on the work front - one of the nice things about going away was not having to open the paper and wonder what half-truths and untruths were being told about me or my work today. (I sometimes have to remind myself that it's only 10%, and not 98%, of the population that believe such nonsense). Still more positives than negatives, and certainly the last couple of months will stay with me for a long time.

Fitness test run at the Tuesday night street-O at Kensington, one of the more interesting areas out there. (Having committed to this meant missing the last few overs of the Test, though as it turned out I didn't miss much). Lots of route choice options and I didn't get the best of them, but reasonably happy with the way the run went - a few minor twinges in various places but definitely better than the weekend. Will see how going harder tomorrow works out.

Last time the nationals were in Queensland, which is more than six years ago, there was a story in the news about one Ron Owen, a (then) Gympie councillor and nationally notorious firearms enthusiast, being ordered to apologise to the (probably minuscule) homosexual community of Gympie following an anti-vilification case. He's spent the last six years going as far as the High Court trying to avoid having to deliver said apology (one wonders who's been paying the legal bills, although the fact that one of his legal representatives is a former staffer for the current Queensland Attorney-General may offer a hint), and was in the news again yesterday for launching a (verbal) attack of the "what's she doing out of the kitchen" variety on the head of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal which was responsible for the apology order in the first place. We await developments.

(The tribunal did dismiss another complaint, finding that he could not be held responsible for a bumper sticker that read “The only right gays have is the right to die”, because the car was registered in someone else's name, presumably his wife's).

C • Out of the kitchen? 1

Session at Fitzroy on the way to the MCG, taking a precautionary day off running - will try it out tomorrow. Fairly standard as these things go.

I've noticed that I'm first starter, at 9.00, in the (elite) Oceania Middle (which at least means I don't need to worry too much about quarantine). The next Oceania-eligible runner isn't until 9.10 and the first ones whom I'd consider highly likely to beat me (like Prong and Bruce) are around 9.30, so with a decent run I might get to enjoy a half-hour or so in a notional WOC spot...