Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NSW Middle Championships. Hopefully I've got all this season's disasters out of the way in one day (although the ongoing consequences will cause trouble tomorrow, at least).

It was hardly an auspicious start when I missed a turn on the way out of Newcastle and thus undertook a detailed exploration of the back streets of Wallsend. The absent-mindedness continued at the start - I didn't notice it was a punching start and was heading off until the starter called me back. (As it turned out this was a run I would have preferred to have had wiped from the record books). Was feeling a bit weak and vague at the start, drifted in mid-leg on 3 and then missed a couple of minutes on the bingoish control (a ditch in the green about as big as a wheel rut).

Settled down after that, both technically and physically, and ran the next sector of the course decently well. Screwed up again on 12, though, misreading a track/long knoll combination and thus missing a gap in the green I was aiming for - probably about 1-1.5 minutes there. Ben went through me there, but I got back onto him when he missed 14 - only to trip on a vine and crash at high speed (high speed for me, anyway) on the way down into 15. I was lucky to land on reasonably forgiving ground but it still winded me badly - had to walk for a minute or so and was in a bit of a daze for the rest of the course. The final technical indignity was at 21, the second-last - I went across one too many gullies, ended up at the last control, and then missed it again coming back. (It turned out I wasn't starting the leg from where I thought I had - 20 was about 50 metres too low). And just to cap the day off, I had another fall (a hole this time) in the finish chute....

For a while it looked like I was going to come last but three late finishers saved me that indignity, at least. Think 43-44 was doable with a reasonable run and 41 with a good one, which I would have settled for (Shep won in 35).

The end result looks to have been bruised ribs - and I'm lucky that I got out of it that lightly - at the speed I was moving, I'm pretty sure any rocks or logs in the way would have meant something broken. Still doesn't feel good, and I suspect I'm a doubtful starter tomorrow, at best.

H1/2 - Splits

A fairly straightforward session in the pool at Ivanhoe. Back a bit tight during the day but hopefully no dramas this weekend.

Heading up to Newcastle tonight for the NSW Championships - feeling a bit better about things now than I was a couple of weeks ago (and I won't have been standing up all day handing out how-to-vote cards) but will still be pleased if I'm only halfway down the list.

I'm definitely struggling with the earlier morning runs at the moment and today was no exception - although trying to take on the Col de Burgundy (as it's known in Melbourne cycling circles) first up was perhaps not the wisest of moves. Not too many hills after that (down to the Fairfield pipe bridge, back along the river), but still a struggle which only eased gradually over the course of the morning. A little better over the last few kilometres.

Wednesday street-O at North Balwyn. Decided to have a crack and reasonably happy with the result on a hilly area, though still a long way to go to consider myself in good form (and there aren't going to be any miracles worked in the space of 11 days). Felt a bit awkward on a couple of the steeper climbs in the middle but otherwise OK. Not a good result from the route choice point of view because I made a fatal mistake at the start by getting 3 first (rather than as part of an internal loop later). Was cutting it pretty fine to get all the controls and get in in time and pushed pretty hard downhill at the end, which I might pay for tomorrow. Drizzly at times, turning into more substantial rain later.

I've had some fun looking at what is a very dry document, the Administrative Arrangements Order - 18 September 2013. This lists which minister is responsible for which laws (I went there initially to see which minister CSIRO was going to fall under, now we don't have a science minister), and some of them are obscure indeed (although, sadly, the Morgan-Whyalla Waterworks Act appears to be no more). My favourite is that the Minister for the Environment is responsible for the Removal of Prisoners (Territories) Act 1923 in as much as it applies to Heard and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory; I wonder if anyone's told Greg Hunt yet that if an alleged malefactor washes ashore at Casey, it's his responsibility to do something about it? Another curiosity is that said minister is responsible for abating pollution at Captains Flat (under the Captains Flat (Abatement of Pollution) Agreement Act 1975) but doesn't appear to be responsible for abating it anywhere else. Also discovered (under Industry) was something called the Coal Industry Repeal Act 2001. Repealing the coal industry sounds like quite a good idea to me, but in reality I suspect it was probably repealing a levy of some kind on the industry.

I'm currently listening to a countdown of the "25 worst number 1s of the 1990s". I'd forgotten just how awful "Jump" by Kris Kross was.

C • it's 1

Headed out for a South Wharf intervals session (instead of morning fartlek as I'm assuming my usual circuit for that would have been flooded) at a belated lunchtime after a frustrating couple of hours banging my head against a document-formatting brick wall. No real sparkle, and didn't speed up through the session as I sometimes do on these, but felt reasonably strong and somewhat improved on other recent attempts at going fast.

Today's historical newspaper-trawling took me to January 1971. There were at least two signs it was a different era. One was that there was a round-up of the day's strikes (on this particular day, it was the Qantas maintenance workers, posties, hospital laundry workers, and three different disputes involving wharfies - one of them also involving Patrick Stevedores, of whom more would be heard). It was also reported as a quiet weekend on Victorian roads, with only six deaths recorded.

(Despite the increase in population over that time, the Victorian road toll these days is about a quarter of what it was in the early 1970s).

Warm-up and down.

Water felt a bit treacly this morning. Must have slept well, though, because the early-morning thunderstorm didn't wake me up; it had more or less stopped raining by the time I hit the water.

Lunchtime around the Tan, before the second round of the rain started in earnest. Felt a little proppy at times, particularly early on, but on the whole not bad coming off a reasonably hard three days, and some pretty good patches.

Spent quite a bit of this run pondering the front page of today's Australian. For those who missed it, this featured a story about an alleged leak from the next IPCC report (due out in two weeks) which claimed that said report reported warming of 0.12C/decade since 1951 which was "half" the rate of 0.2C/decade in the 2007 report. Leaving aside the fact that 0.12 isn't half of 0.2 (at least where I went to school), the 2007 report said nothing of the sort - its reported warming rates were 0.13C/decade for 1956-2005 (the period most directly comparable to 1951-present), and 0.16 or 0.17 for 1979-2005 depending on which data set you use. Don't think you could make much of a story out of the difference between 0.12 and 0.13, although I'm sure they'd try. It looks like my Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (virtual) presidential pen is going to be deployed, in the form of a complaint to the Press Council.

A somewhat unusual Sunday long run, starting from Holmesglen because of something I had on there later that morning (and earlier than usual too). Oddly enough, I ran in this part of the world more when I was living in Albert Park - partly because I'd sometimes go east in search of hills, sometimes because my usual Wednesday Summer Series day strategy was to drive first thing to a station suitably positioned for that evening's event and do a morning run from there before going into work. (There were also more Wednesday events in that general area in the 1990s; these days most areas south of High Street are now in the Monday series).

The first part of the run was poor at best, really grinding on the climbs (much of this section was gently uphill) and not much good anywhere else either. A toilet stop at 40 minutes was the circuit-breaker it needed; improved a fair bit from that point onwards. Got as far east as the Jells Park entrance and handled the climb out of there reasonably, and finished off well - the last 20 minutes were probably the best of the run, although the net downhill on that sector helped. A fair bit of hard work over the last three days and handled it at least passably; hopefully this will do me good (and getting through this after an unpromising start will give me some confidence for long races on the next two Sundays).