Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I guess there's only one way to find out where your current limits are. My parts of Melbourne have their share of short sharp hills but no long (>1km) ones. There aren't too many options to run from Cassie's place that don't involve some significant hills (this happens when you're 100m above the valley floor). Initially I seemed to be handling it OK but was definitely struggling from about 25 minutes onwards, and ended up pulling up short of the hour I'd planned. Still seem to be a bit tired - I normally adjust faster than this.

Caught up with Zsuzsa and Henning while I was warming up (they live in the next block around from Cassie and Jim). Zsuzsa and I go back a long way, back at least to post-race interviews when I was doing the English-language commentary for JWOC in Romania. (If you're wondering how I came to be doing that, the answer is that I was doing World Uni Champs in Hungary the following week - not one of the more glorious weeks of my orienteering career as it turned out - and when the word got out that JWOC needed someone I thought I'd give it a go).

The dining room table converts to a table tennis table of sorts, which got a bit of use later in the day (I'm definitely out of practice).

And oddity of the day: according to Citystrides, Baerum has exactly 1000 streets. I logged three of them today.

One of the incentives to come over a couple of days earlier than I might otherwise have done was that this weekend was the annual event run by Lunderseter IL, the club of the rural area near Kongsvinger that Jim grew up in (and where his parents and sister still live) - I've not orienteered there before. The event itself was about the size of the events I've been more used to doing on Saturdays of late, although more of the participants were related to each other at this one than is the case in Bendigo (of course, I was contributing to this).

I'd been led to believe that the terrain was physically tough and it was - lots of soft blueberries in even the more open forests. Struggled to run much of it, which probably wasn't a surprise for the first time back in Nordic terrain for four years. Also had trouble getting into the map (especially which contour features were and weren't mapped) and lost time on four of the first five, although none of them more than a minute or so. Settled a bit more after that with only a couple of pulling up shorts that didn't cost much time. Not a lot of energy, perhaps not surprising for a first day. Couldn't blame the conditions either as they were ideal (mild with low humidity, a marked contrast with what's happening further south in Europe at the moment).

Travel day; thought I might arrive in Oslo early enough to squeeze something in but would have felt too tired for it even without delays from a 75-minute immigration queue (and then having to search for my bag because our flight had long since disappeared from the signs saying which flight was on which carousel). Apart from that the flights went smoothly enough, although I didn't sleep as much on the Melbourne-Doha leg as I normally would (guess I'm out of practice).

Most interesting bit of the trip was anticipating potential route choices for the Doha-Oslo leg, given that the straight line goes over the top of a few places which have been in the news a lot in the last couple of months. It turned out we took a more western route (over Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Poland), after initially passing over Iraq and a few names which were in the news a lot a couple of decades ago (Abu Ghraib appeared on the flight map at one point). I don't think Qatar Airways is banned from Russia but obviously they decided that wasn't a good option. Of places flown over, Erbil has one of the more interesting layouts I've seen of a city (almost circular), although I'm not quite sure why the outer ring road (according to Google) is called 120 Meter Street (in distance from the centre it's more like 5 Kilometre Street).

Speaking of being banned from Russia, I'm assuming that I'm not on the list? (it seems like most of those who are are treating it as a badge of honour).

After a couple of false starts in recent weeks, headed out into the hills of Eaglemont. Seemed to be coping OK for the most part, but again significantly slower than usual - particularly early (though not quite as slow a start as yesterday), but even in the second half I wasn't getting much under 6s except on downhills. Still, got the session under my belt and another few lines on the map (although there's still quite a bit of Eaglemont to do, especially if the remainder is all done starting and finishing from home).

Spotted the plaque for the opening of the Bell-Banksia Link (not sure how this escaped me in 17 years in Heidelberg), bearing the rather cringeworthy slogan ‘Link The Two in ‘92’.

That will be my last run in Melbourne for a while, because my passport is being dusted off for action after 2 1/2 years. Heading to Norway initially, then WOC and WMOC with a few days in Geneva in between (that bit's work). Looking at seasonal outlooks I think I'll need to have my heat acclimatisation in place by Geneva at least (hopefully not Denmark).

C • See you in 28 years 6

Filling in a bit of a gap in Brunswick East north of Blyth (plenty of short streets to add to the tally here). A slightly odd sort of run - felt pretty reasonable for most of it, but slow, particularly early (there were a couple of GPS issues which explains a bit of this but not much). A bit of a chilly wind but not the rain that I thought we might have got.

Bit of a reshuffle of things this week given that I won't be around on Friday when this session would normally happen. Came to this off an early morning watching Australia qualify for the World Cup (got up for the second half and points beyond), didn't feel too fresh early on, but the session fulfilled its function of recovery, or at least it seems to have done.

Further reshuffling as a result of the holiday yesterday, going to the afternoon because that was what was available. Didn't feel too different to usual but the instructor thought I had a greater range than previously - not sure how much of this is a real change and how much is it being a different time of day.

It will be another five weeks before I again have to put up with pedestrians with their back turned (and face buried in a phone) wandering aimlessly in the La Trobe Street bike lane.

QB3 sprint at Charles Sturt University, this time entirely within the campus (with a map flip) and not going up onto the hill, which at least made the choice of footwear easier. The back wasn't great this morning and I was not very confident warming up that it would function on the run, but it did (more or less). The run, though, was definitely slower than I would have liked despite being relatively smooth (apart from a silly 15-seconder on the second-last) - about 3.30 down on Tony Woolford in M50, but Nea put another three minutes into that (she was running the same course) to place that in further perspective. I think I'd need to be at least a couple of minutes faster to stand a decent chance of making a WMOC final unless the qualification is super-technical (which, being Italy, it might be).

I was wondering when I finished whether I might have Bradburyed the overall result, but Scott ran late (Steve and Jock didn't run today at all) and took the win.

A minor landmark is that this is the first time for several years I've run seven days in a row. Only 2,382 to go for a PB. (Spoiler: he did not run on each of the following 2,382 days).

Slight route choice deviation on the way home with some assistance from Google, which told me that the traffic on the Hume coming into Melbourne was bad enough that it would be worth my while to get off at Wandong and take the Epping road - this was my standard route before the Craigieburn bypass was built (2005) but I'm not sure I've been this way since. The suburbs haven't expanded as far north along this road as they have along Plenty Road or the Hume itself. Another route choice deviation which proved profitable was to go into Wodonga for lunch, not because of the lunch itself but because petrol was 20 cents cheaper there than anywhere else I saw on the highway, and 40-45 cents cheaper than Melbourne.

C • Epping Rd 3

Day 3 Hard 2 - Splits