Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I don't do a lot of winter street-Os (at least since my days as VOA president when I felt I needed to fly the flag occasionally at all the series of significance), but this one was local (Watsonia) and the timing suited. It's a nice area for street-O, although a lot of the short-cut options are through parks which makes things challenging in the dark if your light isn't good (or is non-existent). Bryan Ackerly found this out when he ran full-bore into a chain and took a nasty knock on the shins, thereby demonstrating that when the soccer players go down in apparent agony it's at least sometimes real (the cases where they go down clutching their face when contact has been to the arm are another story). No referee was present to give the offending chain a yellow card.

The run was pleasant and the hamstring continues to respond well. Not working terribly hard.

Big score of the day was that I found out in the nick of time that the Bureau was throwing out its topographic map collection. After an hour or so of scavenging I am now the proud owner of 1:250000 sheets covering, at a guess, a quarter of Australia, along with a fair number of NSW and Tasmanian 1:25000s and a few historical curios - some of the maps had printed on them 'Official Document - if found please return to the nearest military post or police station'. (Some of the maps I didn't take documented a history of post-WW2 military adventures, extending from Korea to Malaysia to Vietnam). Getting the pile home will be the next challenge.

C • maps 14

First attempt at anything fast since the hamstring started giving trouble. The good news is that the hamstring gave no trouble, even on the steep downhill exit from my place. The not-quite-so-good news is that, despite feeling lively at times, this was pretty slow (9.50). The poor light wouldn't have helped, especially on the first lap; this is as late as sunrise will get (and in any case in 10 days' time I'll be in places where it's light by 4 or earlier).

The icy wind was again a feature today (complete with a sleety drizzle). We spent quite a bit of the day talking of 10 July 1995, the last day that was like this, but today ended up warming up very late in the day (reaching 10.8 at 8pm after hovering around 8 most of the day).

And we've found out about a sound which can drown out vuvuzelas - a crowd of English supporters chanting "the referee's a wanker".

C • Bendigo Station 5

A day for the hard core today at Fitzroy - even ice on the cars on my street which doesn't happen all that often. Started the session quite well but drifted out of it a bit in the second half. Unsurprisingly there wasn't a lot of traffic in the lane today.

Clearly someone forgot to tell Mark Webber last night that he wasn't in the Red Bull air race.

Lunchtime session around the Tan on the sort of day that you see a lot of in Canberra winters but not many of in Melbourne - sunny but with the temperature barely touching double figures, with the first hints of the northerly wind that was to become bitterly cold (at least by Melbourne standards) later in the day.

A somewhat ho-hum run, but hamstring more comfortable than it's been on a run for some time. Looks like the Tan is going to have reconstruction work on it for the rest of the year so spring might not be a great period for fast times.

Someone's apparently called me "corrupt" on a blog somewhere. It's tempting to try to make an example of him but I've got better things to do with my money than use it to make lawyers rich.

Long run with Bruce from his place upriver to Eaglemont flats, then back looping through Studley Park, having to do some mud-dodging at times (although we didn't spend much time on the near-river singletrack which would have been very slippery today). Longest I've done since the hamstring injury - it was a bit awkward on steeper downhills but OK on the flat, although it fatigued a bit in the last half-hour. Otherwise did a reasonable job of handling the distance. Very pleasant morning - the skies cleared late enough to stop the night from getting very cold but early enough to produce a nice day.

The cyclists were out in force on the Yarra Boulevard in a race of some description, most likely a time trial as there weren't any packs and they were wearing numbers which were more or less sequential. From the pace differential shown by number 70 when passing number 71, the time trial probably hadn't been going for too long.

Some discussion of school report season on the run. Torren got a good one, unlike one of his classmates whose report was that he rolled around on the floor too much during "mat time". I presume that said rolling was not for the purpose of performing lower back and hamstring stretches.

At the World Cup this morning the cameras were celebrity-spotting and the commentator queried what Mick Jagger was doing at a US-Ghana game. I suspect there were actually quite a number of English supporters at the US-Ghana game, having booked tickets for it on the assumption that England would be playing in it (as they would have been had they done the expected and topped their group). At the last cricket World Cup there were a lot of unused tickets for Ireland-Bangladesh for the same reason (it was supposed to be Pakistan-India).

And the 'Age' has brought us another in the list of great euphemisms in a piece yesterday on the role of police informers - "colourful industrial relations expert". As the article was implying that the person concerned had an involvement in several murders I can understand why they didn't name names, although Mick Gatto has ways of showing his displeasure that don't involve defamation suits.

A fairly nondescript session and feeling the hamstring and back a bit more than in some recent days, although a bit of improvement towards the end.

Spent quite a bit of the remainder of the day checking out control sites for this year's Victorian Middle Distance Champs - almost ran out of light, and did run out of tape (but with only the last control to go). There's enough detail for a decent challenge, although the vegetation is not as stable as I would like and there are a few new random bulldozer scrapes which I'm inclined not to put on the map.

Pool running at Fitzroy for the first time in a couple of weeks. Thought I might have got wet during this session above the shoulders, too, but the rain really only came during the last 10 minutes (and even then it was nothing terribly significant). Quite a pleasant session and doesn't seem to stress my back or hamstring at all.

England's supporters are failing to live up to their reputation at the World Cup so far: the total number of arrests amongst their number for football-related offences to date is zero.

C • Because they are 3

Up at 4.30 for the soccer and then went for a run afterwards. Had the game gone differently (or, perhaps more realistically, had earlier games gone differently) I might have done this run inspired by Australia's glorious qualification (into a section of the draw which, as it turns out, offers as easy a passage to the semis as you'll get at a World Cup), but instead I spent most of it wondering if events on the political scene could really be happening. (Answer: yes). I didn't have a clue this was coming, but it was certainly swift in the execution once it happened.

The run? Shorter than usual for a Thursday, handled the length OK, a bit sore on the downhills (of which there were a few, it being the Balwyn/Bulleen loop) but not too bad otherwise. A warmer morning than most recent ones.

One of my colleagues was booked in to do an ABC radio interview at 9.30 this morning. You will not be surprised to learn that it didn't happen. I got gazumped by a bomb on Al-Jazeera a few years back so I can sympathise.

I also suspect that, if I lived a few kilometres further south-west, my phone would have been running hot in the last few hours with aspirants for Melbourne preselection.

Still down on the volume but going out every day and managing it more or less OK, just a bit of tightness at the end. On rougher ground at times than I have been in the last week, too. Generally a reasonably encouraging session, although lower back isn't great after sitting for long periods at work - I'll certainly want that to improve in the next fortnight otherwise the flight could be ugly.

Local news is that a notice has appeared outside the burnt-out church on the corner near my place giving notice of an application of a planning permit to rebuild. Not sure what took them so long (it's been three years). Maybe the insurance company said it was an act of God.

A prize for bravery, or possibly stupidity (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10333211.s...):

"A German student "mooned" a group of Hell's Angels and hurled a puppy at them before escaping on a stolen bulldozer, police have said".

Also interesting is that the BBC web story contains links to relevant sites, in this case the website of the German Hell's Angels (as well as the German equivalent of the RSPCA), although prudently they have a disclaimer that "the BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites".

Can't say I've ever seen anything like this outside the Melbourne premises of the Hell's Angels, a regular landmark on my ride home.

Slightly longer session before my next round with the physio (which is almost in danger of turning into Attack of the Killer Physio). A bit of generalised tightness at times without the site-specific soreness of last week. Picked up the pace a bit in the last 15 minutes (mainly because I was running late) and seemed to handle it OK. A crisp morning, enough to watch people attempting to defrost their cars (and doing a better job of it than Melbourne people usually do).

One unsung blessing of the World Cup is that at present I have a set of stretches to do with instructions to hold for 40 seconds, so it's nice to have a TV screen with a nice big clock in the corner to keep track of things. (Last night an equivalent method would have been to hold the stretch until the next Portuguese goal).

Thought I might have needed a plan B this morning - it was foggy and I'd heard on the grapevine that Fitzroy closes in fog (presumably because the lifeguards can't see what is happening), so I headed for Collingwood instead. Collingwood, as it turns out, is closed for renovations (and will be for another 18 months), so I thought I might have needed a plan C, but Fitzroy turned out to be open after all.

Once in, the swim was one of two halves, lacklustre in the first half, much better in the second (and no fire alarms this time, false or otherwise).

How not to deal with the media 101: many of you have probably heard about some less-than-politically-correct remarks made about Aboriginal footballers last week by one Mal Brown. It was reported today that, on his way out of the gathering where he'd made the offending remarks, he told the assembled media on the way out "now don't you go writing what I said about the Abos".

C • I've been wondering if it's... 4

Monday night runs in the middle of winter (especially when it comes to the longest night of the year) are often rather thinly populated, and Monday night runs in the distant outer suburbs (i.e. my place) are often also rather thinly populated, so it wasn't surprising that the intersection of these two circumstances meant a modest turnout - to be precise, Eva Tiselius and myself. (Eva comes from Falun and studies in Umea, so a long night doesn't faze her).

Quite a pleasant run, and the hamstring was behaving itself today, although there was a bit of non-specific back tightness (perhaps I'm just noticing this more now that I'm aware of it).

Another go at running, on a flattish course from my place out along Darebin Creek out to Latrobe Uni. Didn't have the specific discomfort in a specific place that was the case on Friday, but still tight all the way down the left side - further evidence that it probably is related to the back (or something else). I wouldn't be too alarmed by a run like this in isolation but I still feel like I've got some way to go in a recovery.

Someone in West Heidelberg obvious doesn't have much of an idea as to what a runner needs because he offered me a cigarette out the window of a taxi.

Feeling a bit unsettled this morning, partly because of a rather unsettling dream. When I'm feeling unsettled one of the ways it tends to manifest itself in thinking that the outside world doesn't really appreciate my presence. I doubt this was actually true at the pool, although I was certainly out of place there, as I expected of a Saturday morning: the median age of the clientele at Ivanhoe on a Saturday morning in months is about mine in years.

The swim itself was quite reasonable; the lap lanes weren't particularly crowded and the water was not as stifling as is usually the case here. There was more disturbance halfway through when I surfaced to hear a fire alarm. This lasted for just long enough to have visions of having to evacuate to the nearest park on a winter's day in wet swimmers and nothing else (if that had been the end result, though, far worse days could have been chosen for it), but no-one else seemed too perturbed and a few seconds later I heard the announcement I hadn't heard the first time, that it was a tone test.

Hamstring had improved enough at rest to encourage me to try it running today, but it still isn't right running - not enough to stop me but enough to indicate that there is still a problem, and it didn't really improve with warming up.

I had a scheduled physio appointment today anyway so it was looked at thoroughly. He thinks it may be back-related; doesn't think it's too drastic but wants me to take it fairly easy this weekend, which means no Sunday long run and no Mount Alexander tomorrow - a pity as it will be just about my last chance for a technical event before going to Europe.

Hamstring considerably improved today but still not 100%, so decided to give it another day. Should be back in action tomorrow if things go to plan.

In other news I've missed out on being a lead author for the next IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report. In one sense this is disappointing; on the other hand it does mean that I won't become public enemy number one on right-wing blogs and their mainstream media offshoots the length and breadth of the known universe.

The hamstring wasn't any better this morning (although it is a little better this afternoon), so I decided not to try to run on it and instead swam - at Richmond, a previously regular venue I haven't been to for a while. Didn't feel entirely comfortable in the water but didn't seem to do any further damage.

Given that I didn't feel any pain on Monday I find it hard to believe that this is a serious injury, but it is a nuisance-level one which is annoying, in what was going to be my first week back training at more or less full intensity.

Came back from the Flinders with a bloodied knee and a photogenic face scratch (which will be interesting should I be called on for any TV interviews this week), but it was a less visible injury which caused me some grief today; I tweaked a hamstring during yesterday's run and while it didn't caused me any trouble then, it tightened overnight and more so on the plane back from Adelaide.

I was hoping for it to loosen on the run, a lunchtime one from work. As a run it was not unpleasant, and felt quite fresh post-weekend, but the hamstring was noticeable throughout (without impeding me except on one staircase). The route was a variation on the common lunchtime theme of the Tan, carried out for semi-political purposes. I have long suspected that the Institute of Private Enterprise consists of Des Moore and a fax machine, and on seeing its address (it's playing host to the Melbourne gig of a touring climate change sceptic next week) I thought I'd check out what their premises looked like. As I suspected from the address, it looks like a normal apartment.

The injury seems similar to one I've had a couple of times before (including during the debacle that was my 2008 Norway World Cup campaign). On those occasions it was OK within a couple of days, but this one feels a little bit worse. Unless it improves overnight I may have a change of plans tomorrow.

Final day of the Flinders weekend, the SA so-called Middle Distance Championships at Rawnsley Park. This started a little erratically, not quite nailing controls at 1 and 4 but not losing a lot of time. Things kept taking a long time to come up, and I looked at my watch at the drinks control: 24 minutes and still short of halfway. Something was obviously wrong: either the map was 1:15000 or the course had been measured with the wrong scale. I suggested the former and more or less confirmed it a few controls later when I looked at the distance between the north lines.

The race rather fell apart after that, in the thicker terrain of the second half of the course. Struggled with the low visibility (not always reflected with the green on the map) and to adjust mentally to the new scale; lost 90 seconds apiece on 14 and 19 and generally lost confidence in my navigation. Probably about 4-5 minutes slower than I should have been. The 50% extra length didn't concern me too much, but a lot of people will have been out for a long time.

All in all, not performing quite as well as I would like to have done, but an enjoyable weekend all the same (which is why I came).

C • How often does this happen? 4

SA badge event at Wilpena Spurs. This is a steeper map than Wilpena Creek but I still thought it unlikely that the winning time would be as high as 75 (as John Nieuwenhoven, the setter, was saying the previous evening), thinking that that would be a reasonable target for me (which in turn meant that 65 would be a reasonable target for Simon).

The first half was steepish in places, but not exceptionally so. Got onto the wrong spur at 4 and lost about a minute, then lost contact in the middle of the long 5th leg - which turned out to gain me time rather than losing it, because I relocated reasonably quickly in a valley which was a shorter route but wasn't my intention because it was allegedly full of medium green that didn't exist. (Simon made the same mistake for the same result). It opened up a lot after that, and was a reasonably smooth run - certainly feeling better than yesterday - but I would have liked to have been a bit closer to Simon (who went through me at about 2/3 distance) than 63 to 77 - a 10-minute gap would have been an acceptable result.

Banged my knee on the way to 2, which produced an impressive amount of blood from the Flinders' unforgiving rocks (I suspect my current running pants are also good at drawing this to the outside rather than soaking it up) but no real pain or lasting damage.

Warm-up event at Wilpena. A few hours in the car probably wasn't ideal preparation for this (fortunately it wasn't a race of any great significance). Felt very ordinary through the first half but improved considerably through the second, probably helped by the fact that this is some of the most delightful terrain to orienteer through that you'll find anywhere - a large part of the reason I'm here. A couple of small wobbles but nothing of any size. Didn't quite get within 1 min/km of Simon.

In at Fitzroy, on another day for the hard core (although the rain stopped just before I arrived). Nothing particularly unusual about this session.

I'm off to the Flinders Ranges events in the morning (which means it will most likely be Tuesday before you hear from me again). It's a bit of an embarrassment of riches this weekend with Dubbo and Castlemaine also on offer.

C • Riches? 3

Someone who shouldn't be holding up a sign about a healthy anything (but is in serious need of a healthy diet):

http://images.businessday.com.au/2010/06/09/158100...

(From the mining tax demo in Perth yesterday)

C • Imagine the impact on the e... 12

My season best by some margin, but frustrating to fall just short of my main target, thanks mainly to a stitch with 500 metres to go - I hit the 3.5km marker in 12.54 and would normally expect to do 1.04 or 1.05 from there, but it didn't quite happen.

I didn't expect it to be anywhere near as fast - I felt very ordinary on the warm-up and equally ordinary at the start, so I was quite surprised to look at my watch at 500m and see that I was 3 seconds under last time instead of 3 seconds over. Continued to feel not so brilliant on the hill but kept the pace going more or less OK until the final stages. There are still roadworks across the top which means running on the (muddy in places) inside track - the splits suggest that might have been worth a couple of seconds (important in this context).

A few were obviously doing intervals rather than racing - in the second half, each time I thought I'd got in a nice bunch they stopped after a couple of hundred metres.

This is the last regular round of the season - there's a 'final' in two weeks (nominally the '12 under 12', but these days they struggle to find 12 people who've done under 13) but I won't qualify for that. (Bruce, who ran his third successive 12.58 or 12.59, will). I'll be back in August or September; by then sub-14 will hopefully be routine. Still, on a day when I felt bad I'm back within 20-25 seconds of a par time from last year, which gives me some optimism that I'll be back there in 6-8 weeks - just in time for WMOC.

Km splits: 3.36, 3.50, 3.40, 3.38.

Going to/from the Tan. Not exactly filled with confidence on the way there about my ability to do a decent time.

Started out not in the mood for anything much at all (except staying in bed - I actually hit the snooze button on my alarm this morning). Not the worst run I've ever had, though - becoming quite nice through the middle and stronger on the hills than I have been, and better for the day after a long run than I would normally expect (which may be an indicator I wasn't trying hard enough yesterday). Also none of the twinges of yesterday.

Cold with light rain almost throughout, but it didn't really unload until I started riding. Definitely took a while to thaw out once at work (and I think I'm on the point of losing the toenail that first blackened on the Wilsons Prom run).

An unusual day for a long run - as with a few weeks ago, this was determined by wanting to race on Thursday. Also a slightly unusual set-up for a long run, determined by the fact that my parents had to leave for the airport at 7.30 (they had a car so I didn't have to take them there, but did want to say goodbye) and I didn't really want to start at 5.30, so did this as a two-loop run coming back home after 80-odd minutes. Both loops were north, the first to Warralong, the second to Macleod.

Felt like I had a bit of a spring in my step early on, which makes it a bit strange that this ended up being the slowest long run I can remember doing - I'd like to blame the darkness but don't think this is the full story. Perhaps that was why I was feeling pretty good at the end. The end of the first loop was well-timed as a toilet stop was needed at that point. A few more Achilles twinges than I've been used to in the last couple of weeks. The plane flights to and from Perth seemed to set it off a bit, which definitely needs to be watched with much longer flights ahead in the coming weeks.

An earlier session than I'm used to on a Monday - my parents are in town so I wasn't going to the Monday night session, and back-to-back meetings ruled out lunchtime. Tried hard to convince myself it wasn't 4am WA time. Also tried hard to convince myself that the front page of today's Age wasn't real.

The run itself was a steady recovery run without being anything to get too excited about.

Second leg of the Monday morning duathlon, at Ivanhoe - which felt stiflingly hot after a run on a chilly morning. Being warmed up obviously counts for a bit as this was less slow than most recent swims. Even more time to think (or to be more precise fewer distractions from doing so) than on the run.

Event: Gunapin Ridge Badge Event
 

Didn't get a brilliant night's sleep before this - noise carried in the place where I was staying and someone saw fit to watch the 5am Christian TV shows. By 6.30 I had definitely heard the word 'Jesus' enough times to feel in a blasphemous mood.

The warm-up didn't really work that well and I felt sluggish on the first couple of legs, also missing 2 a little. Settled well after then into the pattern of the area, long bland transport legs in between areas of interesting detail. (The last time I was at Gunapin, the Middle Champs in 2003, we were mostly in the semi-open, but didn't see much of that until the end). Pretty smooth through the middle stages, only missing a little at 15. There was then an annoying time loss at the end - 1.5 minutes on the third-last control - but I thought something was strange on the map there and Tooms and Fletch confirmed afterwards that the control was misplaced. (It's extremely rare for me to screw up an otherwise good run at the end, and I'm not sure whether this should be added to the list). Physically a reasonable run but not stellar, but a nice hit-out in pleasant terrain.

Craig didn't finish and neither did Fletch (he punched an inorrectly-numbered 24 which was about as far from the centre of the circle in the opposite direction as the correctly numbered one - would have done 87 otherwise). Tooms and Oscar were in the mid-90s.

C • I'll take the blame 4

Course 1 - Splits

Stayed with the Posts in Gwelup, northwest of the city, and ran from there, with the main target being the Trigg bushland reserve - like Bold Park, lots of bush tracks with a hard base but sand-dune contours (probably shorter and steeper than Bold Park). A reasonable run although drifted away a bit in the last 15 minutes. A little bit of left foot soreness but nothing to worry too much about.

There was a sticker on a power pole "Keep WA Cane Toad Free". I assume they haven't got this far yet.

Spent the rest of the day looking around in places I haven't been to - up the coast to Lancelin then inland to York. A bit of extra excitement was provided on the Lancelin bit by the presence of a large number of big bearded blokes on motorbikes, accompanied by several carloads of WA's finest.

Wouldn't normally run on a Friday - this is normally a pool day - but there isn't a pool within easy reach so decided on a recovery run again, through Peppermint Grove and Mosman Park before returning along the Cottesloe foreshore. A fairly humdrum run physically. Would be interesting to count the value of the houses I passed in the course of this run - suspect the answer would be in the billions.

C • Billions 2

C • Pool 4

Left myself on Melbourne time, sort of, last night - something which makes getting up at 5 a bit easier to take.

Route for this one went broadly up the coast from Cottesloe, except for a detour inland to get around the Swanbourne military base (I imagine going along the beach is an option when it's light). The coast road seems, unsurprisingly, to get a fair bit of use from cyclists in the early morning (although not quite as much so as beach Road in Melbourne). Turned inland at Floreat, then a section on the bush tracks through Bold Park (a more extensive section than I'd planned on because the track on my map exiting at the SE corner didn't exist and I ended up doing almost a full circuit) before heading back.

Nice morning for a run and I usually enjoy exploring. The run had its moments, especially in the middle, but I was a bit down on strength on the hillier bits, and was hanging on a bit in the last half-hour.

Spotted a sign for a new development at Floreat "only seconds from beach". Well, yes, but it's a three-figure number of seconds (it's about 2km inland). Dodgy claims by real estate marketers have, however, been with us for at least 1000 years, since Erik the Red returned from a barren icy island in the North Atlantic and called it "Greenland".

The workshop is in the very posh surrounds of the Peppermint Grove yacht club, a place where you could start a riot by expressing support for the Resources Super Profits Tax. The views out the window were very nice and you could look at a lot of expensive real estate if the talks were getting boring (and reflect on how much of said expensive real estate would be rendered worthless by a metre of sea level rise).

C • Interesting run! 3

I imagine this is a classic West Perth lunchtime run - a circuit of Kings Park with a bit of a side trip to UWA thrown in. Thought I might struggle a bit with this one after four hours in the plane and a hurried exit from our WA office (having been tipped off that there was going to be a fire drill in 10 minutes); it was OK in the first half, although a bit more of a struggle in the second.

This run also doubled as a damage survey, looking at some of the worst-hit areas from the March hailstorms, notably an area of stripped trees in the southwest part of Kings Park (quite a similar look to The Gap in Brisbane). UWA also got hammered; they seem to have fixed most of their damage but there is still one shattered greenhouse remaining for posterity. I did wonder what happens in the building signposted "Large Animals Facility".

More families out than I'm used to on a weekday lunchtime - probably a visible sign of fly-in-fly-out mine workers on their off weeks. Surprisingly I haven't yet heard anyone (taxi drivers included) say anything about the mining tax.

And it looks like a speaker isn't required to go to Normanton after all.

C • Mining Tax Surprise 1

8x400 on a 2.5-minute cycle - sans dogs this time. A very mediocre start for the first three (85-87), but then snapped into a nice rhythm from the fourth rep onwards, significantly faster and feeling quite strong. Finished off with three 80s, better than anything I'd previously done this year although still short of what I was doing last year (when I was normally getting down to about 77 in this session). A solid session which showed some promise.

Going to/from the Clifton Hill track from where I was parked. Sluggish going there, not sluggish coming back.

I'm off to Perth in the morning and will be there until Sunday. After a relatively calm few weeks (apart from the National League in NSW), my travel schedule is about to get hectic again - WA this week, SA the following weekend, and potentially some far-flung parts of northwest Queensland a couple of weeks after that (although the last of these isn't definite).

C • Perth Visit 2