Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Another step forward, reaching the hour for the first time since the injury. Didn't always feel especially convincing but a steady accumulation of distance, and no real calf or back issues (I was a bit worried when a bit of calf soreness appeared last night after getting off the train from the football, of all places). A brilliantly clear morning - the clarity of the Australian summer sky is much more striking when you encounter it after returning from somewhere like China - but relatively cool, a reminder that this is probably going to be the last cool-weather run I get until heading to Canada (where there might be a bit too much of a good thing in that respect).

Most of my Christmas shopping involved books this year. One of the occupational hazards of this is coming across a large number of things that you want to buy yourself. (I resisted temptation other than to take notes for a post-Christmas return visit). Managed to avoid setting foot in any shopping mall (or, even more perilously, wheel in any of their car parks), which I was quite pleased about.

A bit later than usual this morning, partly because I slept in a bit, partly because I spent some time ascertaining that after a week of drying out my old computer would start (not especially convincingly) - it was coming to the end of its useful life anyway so I'd already got a new one, but it's a relief to be able to recover the material since the last backup without having to find someone else in the Christmas-New Year week able to get stuff off hard drives.

This was a slow run but otherwise felt OK, with no real trouble from either calf or back. Took the chance to check out some of the Merri Creek flood debris (having seen it in full flow a week and a bit ago). Quite cool - enjoying this while it lasts because it's not going to, although Melbourne will probably only catch the fringes of next week's heatwave.

One of the consequences of all my travelling is that I'd done almost no Christmas shopping, a deficiency partially remedied today (without setting foot in any malls, I'm glad to say).

Not the easiest of flights - took the best part of an hour to get through security and immigration in Guangzhou so didn't have much to spare to make the flight, and ended up in the last row, which wasn't particularly conducive to sleep. (Airline toilets make a lot of noise when you're within a couple of metres of them). At least it was early.

The pilates session was a good one for such circumstances. Generally felt OK, although quads freaked out a bit with the one exercise in the set which sometimes makes them freak out. A bit damp going there, but certainly not as damp as this time last week.

And another day, another scandal. Best comment I saw was from someone who suggested that if there is indeed a George Christensen sex tape in existence, it is very much in the public interest for the government and the AFP to do everything in their power to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day.

C • GC ST 2

Bit more of a mixture today - first three in a village, then a bit of forest, then parklands of assorted formality. Back wasn’t really playing ball and I even had to stop briefly on the climb into 6 - always a bit of an embarrassment in a sprint race. Didn’t really miss anything. Crowds a minor nuisance at times - both a big group on the course and then a tour group in the gardens, which I encountered twice- but I can’t blame that for my slow time. Expected the big guns to break 12 and they did.

Heading back to Australia tonight. I think preparations are going reasonably well - still a few things they need to work on (and the courses still need to be set) but it should be an event well worth coming to.

Stringing four days together turned out to be the limit for now; back, which was showing signs of trouble yesterday, was more troublesome today. A very hard bed probably didn’t help.

Did spend quite a bit of time walking around the middle and sprint areas. The main issue with the latter, as with yesterday, is that some of the alleys are so narrow that you can’t run down them (only walk sideways). I think my edict is going to be that it needs to be at least 60cm wide to be mapped as passable.

As some will know, I’m gradually working on the Australian Orienteering results archive. At the moment it’s getting first names for the 1985 Australian Relays, which only showed initials; I’ve come out of this convinced that there should be a rule that if you have two children of the same gender sufficiently close in age that they’ll be running in the same age group, they’re not allowed to have first names which start with the same letter. This process also revealed that the 1985 Relays (which took place two days after WOC) had a lot of ring-ins, the best being the second-placed M35 team from the old Scrubrunners club, which as far as I could tell contained no actual Scrubrunners and only one who was even from NSW. I’m not proposing to make them unofficial 33 years after the event.

Since I first saw the original proposed World Cup sprint area in April, I’d been telling anyone who would listen that it would be the most technical World Cup sprint ever. The World Cup itself has been moved to another area for largely logistical reasons (the new area also looks very good from the old map, though I’ll get a closer look tomorrow), but we were on the original area this morning. I was looking forward to this.

I was not to be disappointed (except by my performance). This was the most difficult sprint I have ever done, and I’ve been to Venice - an absolute maze of lanes and passages with some random thickets thrown in. Perhaps it would have been a bit too extreme for a fair World Cup race (though I think that could have been largely dealt with with careful setting) - some of the passages were so narrow you couldn’t really run through them - but everyone was raving about this, and with good reason. (Nothing quite like actually running a course to focus your mind on the key issues as a controller, either).

I didnt feel as good as Sunday, and navigation was a bit patchy, losing 30-45 seconds apiece to a poor route on 3 and a dead end at 8, plus a few other bits and pieces. Would have been satisfied with 26; Tim won with something in the high 16s.

They operate in a different financial world in some other sports; a piece I’ve just read on the sacking of Manchester United’s coach said ‘it is understood the compensation due to Mourinho will be no more than £15 million’. (That said, there’s some good money around this week by our standards; found myself handing over an oversized cheque to Tim for something close to $2000).

C • Financial mindset 1

I’ve spent enough time in urban China to know that any opportunity where you find yourself in a good place to run is to be grasped. We were staying across the road from a large lake so I headed out along its shore. An early start and it was only just getting light when I began, but it gets light quickly in the tropics, so there were good views of the small jagged peaks rising out of the other side of the lake - what I think of as a classic Chinese scene (not that I’ve seen too much outside the urban agglomeration).

Slow to get going - it was the fourth kilometre before I broke 6s - but again positive on the injury front. Better than my two early runs last week, too.

Spent the rest of the day checking things out for World Cup - arenas for the middle and sprint, a more extensive look at the sprint relay area which I hadn’t been to before. I came out happy.

Seem to be making a habit of being here for fruit harvest festivals. The mandarins are divine.

And since when has New Idea been in the business of breaking political stories which actually appear, from the speed of the resultant resignation, to be true? (As someone put it, did they find out before or after Harry and Meghan conceived triplets?). Best hashtag spotted so far: #malleeroot.