Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Australian Relays M35A, with Dion and Jim. Dropped down yesterday (as did Jim) after dropouts elsewhere would have left us with an incomplete 21E team and no 35A team, and because after yesterday I didn't exactly feel in the mood for taking on 21E. As it happened, I didn't feel as bad today as yesterday, although still definitely fading in the last 15 minutes.

There were only two official teams in the race but they were pretty good, the other one being a NSW team of Jock, Fedor Iskhakov and Ecmo. (The ACT team was rendered unofficial after Andy Hogg got called up to 21E to replace Matt Crane, who was injured and cruised round ours - he's still a year away from being eligible). The main question was going to be whether Dion could get closer to Jock than Fedor could get to me.

The answer to this turned out to be no. I went out 12 minutes down on Fedor but just ahead of Matt, who caught me at 2; we were within sight of each other for much of the first two-thirds of the course, and although I knew that he was going a long way short of flat-out it was still nice to have him around. Fairly smooth technically through the first few, a slight wobble at 7 through trying to pinpoint which bit of rock was the mapped cliff, then got through the complex mining section OK. Came a bit unstuck on 13 though - first took what was probably an over-conservative track route round to the north, then missed the control anyway, dropping perhaps a minute. Steady if slow for the remainder, with the lightning-fast 18-19 reminding us of what this area used to be like (most of it was burnt in the early 2000s and the regrowth made it a rather slower, more challenging area). Wasn't able to pull in all the gap on Fedor, and catching four minutes on Ecmo was always going to be too much to ask of Jim.

So ends the week, and for all practical purposes my season (apart from a sprint race in a couple of weeks and maybe something while I'm in Switzerland). I certainly wasn't happy with the way this week went competitively - am planning to take it pretty easy for a couple of weeks and then try to build back into things. Very happy with how the carnival went, though - today was a bit rough around the edges at times but in general almost everything went smoothly, and everyone seemed to enjoy it (the sunshine probably didn't hurt).

Australian Long Distance Championships. 4th in M40A (the ninth time I've come fourth or fifth in this event), which was all that this run deserved - in fact I would have been behind Dion, too, but for his losing time at 10. Running continues to be out of sorts and this was a battle from first step to last - probably not a lot better downhill than uphill. Andy caught me 2 minutes by 2 (the splits suggest that this might have been a bit too much too soon for him, but he soon burnt away). Held up reasonably well technically for the most part, but by the final loop I was tiring, and made my one mistake, a 30-seconder on 14, at the start of the final loop.

I was never going to get anywhere near Bruce, but in better running shape - say, where I was in May/June - I would have expected to be somewhere around where Jock and Andy were. Not quite sure what's gone so wrong since then, although I continue to suspect that I may not be 100% well (post-event tiredness - and, very unusually for me, not really feeling like eating that much tonight - are also indicative of that).

Final jog around all the controls at the Australian Sprint Championships, to turn them on and check that everything was in order (finding one missing flag, and a couple of gates that were open when they were supposed to be closed, but as going through them would offer no advantage I wasn't too concerned about those). Was a bit concerned early on to see a cherry-picker parked in a crucial gap but it was gone well before the event. The other pre-event issue (odd things happen on sprint areas) came from the automatic sprinklers, which came on near the finish tent, fortunately before there were any electronics there. (This reminded me of our being saved by the sprinklers in a junior cricket game once; seven wickets down with 90 minutes still to play, we weren't exactly going out of our way to work out how to turn them off).

The event itself seemed to be reasonably well-received. The area was a bit too small (we had originally planned to use the school next door as well, but couldn't get access) and I knew the M21E course would be a bit too short - although I'd expected the winning time to be around 11.30 (it was for the best Australian!) rather than just under 11 - but thought it better to be a bit short than have meaningless legs around the oval just to add to the distance. Only significant negative, apart from the usual punching issues, was that the configuration of the finish streamers obviously confused some people and they came up on the wrong side (the map clearly showed the finish as being well away from the oval fence, but a lot of people aren't reading the map at that stage).

C • Finish 1

Back in Melbourne for a day's work (the first day of the month is always pretty busy for us, plus there was the first phase, in WA, of what is going to become a very significant early-season heatwave to keep track of). Headed for the pool before the day's work started; not the most sparkling of sessions, but reasonable enough.

Latest on the ongoing saga of the Bendigo mosque is that some of the campaigners against it were in court again yesterday trying to stop it, but the judge described their application as being "innocent of any specificity whatsoever" and suggested they submit a fresh application which set out what the grounds for appeal actually were. Sounds like they've been getting their legal advice from Darryl Kerrigan's lawyer.

C • Heatwave 4

C • Daryl Kerrigans Lawyer 1

Pre-running the senior girls course for the relay (plus a few extra controls to ensure all splits were covered). Something of an improvement on yesterday - still slow up hills (especially the first one), but not feeling as if I was going to be sick every time I went up one. A good night's sleep seems to have helped (it won't be repeated tonight, given that I'm writing this at 11pm having just got back from Ballarat after the presentation dinner....).

Noticed when checking some water at the start of the day that the main track through the map was the Tom Jones Track. Naturally this meant some pertinent music was running through my head for much of the run (although, unsurprisingly, no-one was owning up to having any Tom Jones on their device to play over the PA system).

Even by the usual standards of the Schools relays this was a great day to follow. I was particularly pleased that it all came down to a sprint finish for fifth in the senior girls, between two who were more accustomed to being in the bottom half of the field - demonstrating that in this competition the whole team matters. As it turned out, Bo Davie (a first-year WA orienteer from a rogaining background of whom more will be heard), probably wondering why she was being wildly cheered by every member of the large Tasmanian contingent, just held off Emily Alder, which meant Tasmania got the ACT by a single point. (Joseph Dickinson managing - just - to defend a two-minute lead on Patrick Jaffe to take second in the senior boys was just as crucial).

Also impressed with Steve Moneghetti's talk at the presentation dinner, particularly the bit where he talked about going for late night runs after landing at airports to make sure he didn't miss a day. Those who remember what I was up to 20 years ago will know that this isn't entirely unfamiliar territory.

Let's start by focusing on the positives here. The Schools individual was an excellent morning out and well worth watching (although, perhaps unsurprisingly, our communication with the outside world was not what we'd hoped for), and I found all of the controls without any significant time loss.

That, though, was as far as the positives got for me, because something is clearly not right - felt like throwing up every time I went up a hill. I continue to feel somewhat indifferent tonight and can only assume that I'm in the process of getting sick; hopefully something a decent night's sleep will settle. Not as bad on the flat, but even that was slow. It's a long time since I was a serious chance to beat all the Schools runners (the last time I did it was so long ago that the senior boys' winner I beat was Jules), but today I wouldn't have made the top 20, and quite a few people in the public race claimed my scalp for the first time in a forest event too (such as Ted and Ruhi).

A bit of history: Sandon features highly on the list of Australia's most deadly tornadoes, a 1976 storm which threw a car off the Newstead road. (If I recall correctly, this was the same day that a thunderstorm swamped the Melbourne Cup to the great benefit of Van Der Hum and the great discomfort of the crowd). Whether it ranks at the top depends on whether you attribute a 1961 plane crash in Botany Bay to the storm or to the stupidity of the pilot who flew into it.

C • Milawa 1

Jog around the controls for the Schools Sprint to turn on the control units, make sure everything was in the right place and check for any other last-minute dramas (none, really). Felt very ordinary.

This set the scene for a highly successful event - although having four classes going at once was perhaps a bit too frantic. Also good to get such a great turnout for Run for Hannah - don't know yet how much we raised but I imagine it will have been well into four figures.