Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First of a few days of non-running although we haven't actually started on the Overland Track yet - now up at Cradle after doing the requisite walk around the lake. Might not be the easiest of conditions - there's still about a 50% snow cover at the base, and we heard today of a party who had taken six hours to get from Waterfall Valley to Kitchen Hut (normally a two-hour trip) because of snow - but that was yesterday and there will have been two more days of melting by the time we get there.

Australian Relays at Littlechild, third leg for the second Victorian team. Thought I might have had a bit of an advantage through not having raced 14.5k yesterday, and felt pretty lively warming up, but not so lively once I got going. Started further back than I would have hoped, in eighth place and three minutes behind anyone else, but was expecting to run down SA, Queensland and the third Victorian team.

The start was a bit slow and I took a bit of time finding the marked creek crossing (a crucial part of orienteering here) at 2, then wobbled a bit on the long third, losing track of things a bit across the open marshes. Started to get into the running side of things there, almost made a parallel error at 6 but caught myself, then dropped 30 seconds in the circle at 8. After two-thirds of the course on my own, caught sight of Mat McGuire on the way to 14, passed him but promptly missed 30 seconds on the control, then caught him again. We then had a tough rocky section and I thought Mat's strategy would probably be to stay on me and hope to outsprint me. He was perhaps 30 metres behind me at the final creek crossing with 500 metres to go; I thought I would probably get it from there, but Mat had a long split to make sure of it. Didn't quite catch Aaron, who had a better run than he (or us) expected, and ended up 6th.

This was a good carnival even if I was pretty disappointed with my own performance, in what was a pretty disappointing season for me (partly through getting sick or injured at inopportune moments). After a year like that you always hope for a better year next year, but time might be running out there.

It may have been as well I wasn't actually competing today because I wasn't exactly covering myself with navigational glory on my early-morning control-checking run (in my capacity as Event Adviser) - started out by overshooting the first control and was struggling for concentration throughout, particularly in the mining at the end. All of this will sound familiar to many participants. Struggling a bit with the running, too, in the more physical sections.

The event, though, seemed to go down pretty well - I've only heard positive comments so far about the M/W21E courses. (I can't really claim much of the credit for this - there wasn't much I wanted to change from Paul Pacque's original concept, and in the end the only really substantive thing which changed was that we put an extra 600 metres on W21E after my test run in May). The winning time in M21E (and M17-20E, although that wasn't part of responsibility) was a few minutes longer than I expected, although in both cases the favourites didn't have great runs.

Almost managed to get the presentation done before the rain unloaded...

Had a feeling-old moment this afternoon when one of the juniors (Georgia Jones, the W14 champion, of whom more will be heard) called me 'Mr Trewin'. This sort of thing must stop immediately.

In the second Victorian team for the relays tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how much difference it makes not coming off a long-distance race (unlike nearly all the opposition). Hard to see us beating the first teams of ACT, NSW and Victoria unless something unexpected happens, but in relays sometimes something unexpected does happen...

C • something unexpected? 4

Australian Sprint Championships at Bicheno. The forecast models suggested that the rain today would peak between 10am and 1pm and it was right - wind-driven (although not particularly heavy) rain fell throughout the race. With some running on coastal rock shelves in prospect I felt the appropriate tyre choice, in F1 parlance, was extreme wets, and wore metal studs - this worked pretty well as I had good grip on the rock and it didn't bother me too much on the road sections.

This was a decent run and landed me with a midfield result, 17th. Didn't really miss anything, although a little hesitant at times, and avoiding doing anything silly (both in terms of fine navigation and in ensuring good passages through the coastal scrub to/from the coast) gave me a jump on a few others. It was certainly encouraging to see my 1- and 2-minute men (Steve Todkill and Jim) at 2. I was around Jim for much of the course, although we went different ways (for the same result) on the long leg, and a couple of others. Not feeling all that fast, but better running than earlier on this week. Whether I'm in good shape for a long distance race is a question which will go unanswered.

Sprint 1 - Splits

The Hoggster ranks even higher on another ranking list than he did at the Australian Middle Distance Championships; one of the tidbits of information at today's workshop was that he is the second largest user of the National Computational Infrastructure's supercomputer.

C • Damn 3

Morning session in Hobart with Andy (who's one of the organisers of the climate workshop - and very kindly put all the climate extremes stuff on today when I could be there) and a work colleague from Melbourne; an out-and-back initially up the Hobart Rivulet (a watercourse I previously only knew from flood warnings) and then up onto a ridge and around the back of the tip. Reminded in no uncertain terms that I still haven't got my hill strength back; was struggling to keep up on the steeper climbs.

A day when the run was a bit of an afterthought, given that the morning was spent doing commentary at the Schools Relays and the late afternoon at a climate workshop in Hobart, with a 2-hour drive in between them. Squeezed the run in between the end of said workshop and the start of the workshop dinner; a brief jaunt around Battery Point and Sandy Bay with Jenny (who's come down to Hobart with me). Various joints felt pretty stiff and sore at the start but that settled quickly.

Departure from the relays was a bit later than planned because the senior girls winning times were longer than planned (and because the sprint finish between Queensland and Victoria for 5th and 6th was going to decide equal second place in the overall pointscore). The latter battle certainly stretched my voice, being elongated because both protagonists disappeared into the vague general vicinity of the second-last control and didn't re-emerge for what seemed like ages (but was probably only three or four minutes).

Post-Schools run at Royal George. I've gone past the stage of being realistically able to challenge the best Schools people in this race (especially in a year when there is a WOC finalist in the Schools field, not something you see every year), and had set my target at the mid-46s time posted by Shamus Morrison for fifth place.

Certainly feeling better than the weekend, although still not 100%; not a lot of strength up hills, and not a lot of terrain fluency down them, especially when fallen timber was involved. A decent run technically though, with only a couple of minor 10-second hesitations. Ended up a couple of minutes short of the time I was hoping for, although did manage a narrow win in today's round of the IOF Foot O Commission Championship.

NZ were again dominant, and Tasmania dominant of the states, but Victoria and South Australia both had their best days for awhile. We await the spectator spectacle of the relays.

Still not feeling great this morning (although somewhat better in the afternoon) so didn't go out for a run today, contenting myself with a climb to the Wineglass Bay lookout (we ran out of time to go all the way to Wineglass as I had to get back in time to be presidential at the Schools opening ceremony). I'm entered for tomorrow and plan to run at this stage, although not necessarily very fast.

Meanwhile, in something of a shock I actually won a split on Saturday (number 17, a short leg where I was chasing Bryan and Ecmo). I think the last time I won a split at this level was at Easter 2009.

About the only positive from today is that at least I now know why I ran badly yesterday; I was feeling unwell and lethargic this morning, but thought I'd warm up and at least give it a go. It was soon apparent that this wasn't going to work as I struggled even with two-contour hills; if it had been a national championship, or if the Nuggets had needed the points, I probably would have tried to push on but as neither of those applied I didn't think a 13km slog would do myself any favours, and came in from 6. (Being blown away by Ecmo between 4 and 5 assisted me a bit in this decision).

This is getting a bit frustrating - it's the fourth time in 18 months that a big race weekend has been illness-affected, and I can't even blame it on bugs recirculated from childcare like most of my contemporaries. (It's not as if I'm a particularly sickly person, either - it's nearly 30 years since I've had a day off work/uni/school due to illness).

An early finish did at least give me the chance to get on the mike (doing it mostly the old-fashioned way with a start list and mental arithmetic). I'm guessing most of the Schools teams didn't know what I was talking about when I described what was left of Mel Fuller's shoe as being the most shredded piece of tread I'd seen since Nigel Mansell at the 1986 Grand Prix in Adelaide (I'm sure footage of the latter can be found on YouTube if you look hard enough).

C • Murray Walker 1

Event: Australian Championships 2012
 

My sequence of middle championships top-10s ended after a disappointing day in some of the more challenging terrain the St. Helens mining has to offer. Too many mistakes but the biggest problem was the running - couldn't get into any sort of a rhythm in the rough stuff, and then had no speed or strength once it opened up at the end.

Missed about 2 minutes on 10, just not seeing it in the circle; also 30 seconds or so at 16, and horrible routes on 18 and (especially) 19, trying too hard to stay out of heavy erosion.

Had a day of frustration in dicing with Ecmo, someone I've been dicing with for over 20 years. He started two minutes ahead of me and I was almost onto him at 9, but Craney went through us and pulled him clear; then at 16, I'd almost caught him again and this time it was Bryan who did the honours. He eventually beat me by one second.

The kilometre rates today make me a little worried about the winning times for next Saturday, although it's not as continuously intense as today was, and I have test-run the women's course so it shouldn't be horribly wrong.

Middle Course 1 - Splits

A pool session at the new(ish) Launceston aquatic centre (sufficiently new that it was a building site the last time I tried to swim here, in late 2008). Thought it might have been an interrupted session when what could best be described as an inflatable obstacle course was lowered into the pool (for the benefit of the Launceston school holiday crowd) but there was still enough space left for me to do my thing.

This was part of a reasonably relaxed trip across from Devonport to St. Helens in generally miserable weather (even some sea fog on the coast around Scamander), employing a slightly unusual route choice through the middle (via Mathinna) and taking a side trip up Ben Lomond, which was above the first layer of cloud but was wet enough and windy enough to give a taste of what might be in store on a bad day on the Overland Track. My car has plenty of mud to show for this excursion.