Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A much earlier start than usual for a Sunday (necessitated by the start time of Jenny's workshop). We headed down Darebin Creek initially then along the river to the pipe bridge. My back wasn't great (and I don't think hers was either) and it was fairly slow going, but kept plugging away and had enough for a final 15-minute loop on my own at the end. A bit shorter than what I might have originally had in mind, but it's the first time in a long time (not exactly sure how long but I suspect it's close to or beyond a decade) that I've run beyond an hour three days in a row, so that's something to be pleased with.

A bit of soreness at the front of my right ankle beforehand (and more so last night), but this was a non-issue on the run and doesn't seem to have come up much afterwards.

Finishing a Sunday session at 8am does leave you with a lot of the rest of the day, but I didn't feel as if I did that much with it (apart from acquiring a replacement for the mobile USB modem that's going to bite the dust with the 3G network in a couple of months).

Bendigo Saturday event. I remembered that One Tree Hill was one of th steeper and scrubbier Bendigo venues but it was more scrubby than I anticipated (only a couple of properly open patches), and I wasn't really up for it today. Struggling to run up hills but also not really flowing down them, indicating I'm still underdone at the moment in this type of terrain. Drifted a couple of times (#3 and #14) but didn't really drop any significant time in doing so. Not as far off the pace as I thought I might have been with this mediocre performance (Bruce did 49).

I found out during the week that in the US the Republicans in Congress were pushing something called the Liberty In Laundry Act. The optimist might think that this was about doing something about those American neighbourhoods (they exist) that don't allow you to hang clothes outside on clotheslines but the 'liberty' in question here is about trying to stop energy efficiency standards for clothes driers (would you have expected anything else?).

C • One Tree Hill veg 1

Course 1 - Splits

Headed out with Jenny along the coast in the direction of Number Sixteen, then proceeded a bit beyond Number Sixteen - I've done this once in about 2016 (from there to Rye Back Beach) and remembered it as hard work, and I remembered correctly (lots of soft sand), although we only kept going for another kilometre or so. Climbed out via some big dunes and then back through the suburbs (introducing Jenny to such local features as the freeway reservation which will surely never become a freeway, and the street/path intersection which launched a decade (and counting) of conspiracy theories). Slow going in the softer sand, but mostly felt OK.

Among the exploration in the rest of the day was some bits of Point Nepean I haven't been to before. Back to Melbourne tonight.

The bit along the coast from out the back of my parents' place southeast to Pearces Beach is now a Strava segment 'Blairs back beach'. I don't know if this has come from Blairgowrie or whether someone has named a Strava segment after me (if the latter I guess this is one form of immortality).

C • I did wonder if you were na... 2

I'd planned the swap of today's and tomorrow's sessions ahead of time but it was probably as well because I again woke up with a stiff neck this morning (although on evidence later in the day it would have been OK to run with). Felt a bit awkward in the water and right knee a little sore at times, but not too bad. Fairly quiet in the pool this morning.

Heading down the Mornington Peninsula tonight (Jenny's over for an extended weekend so taking in the sights of down there). This meant I reacquainted myself with getting most of the way there by public transport (train to Frankston, bus to Rosebud). The Frankston line has a certain reputation but I didn't see any crimes committed while I was in transit (although I did hear one end of what sounded like a breakup phone conversation).

C • Frankston bus depot 1

A not especially convincing lunchtime run focused on South Melbourne. Cleared out a bit of flotsam and jetsam in the blocks around the market, then headed west into an area of narrow streets and old smallish houses (once no doubt housing for dockworkers, these days somewhat more upmarket).

Headed to the southeast quarter of Kew, the sort of place where you spot Lamborghinis and Porsches doing the school run (on a day when I'd seen plenty of footage of very expensive vehicles demonstrating their amphibious capabilities, or lack thereof, in the Dubai floods). A struggle to start with but got going after the first 10-15 minutes, and a reasonable (if slowish) session thereafter. Filled in most of the remaining gaps at that end of Kew, although there are still a few left for the next excursion here.

South Wharf intervals. Always feels like a bit of a plan B when I do this, not the most sparkling of sessions but got through it OK. A bit of back tightness at the end of the 5th rep just when I was thinking of extending the session out a bit; made it through the last rep, rather unconvincingly (but it was fine on the warm-down so must have been just a twinge). Nice lunchtime to be out and not as windy as I thought it might have been.

It's the first intervals session I've done here since the latest construction started, which meant shifting things up a few metres (since I didn't want to run headlong into a fence at the end of every even rep).

Warm-up and down. A bit light-headed at the start but OK once running. GPS was erratic even by usual CBD standards, unless you think that I ran a 32-second 400 at some point during this.

Definitely felt better for having done this, and had one of my more productive days for a while (including working out a coding problem while I was running).

Monday morning Pilates. No great issues and felt a bit more awake than I sometimes do for this session (despite having had not a particularly good night's sleep).

Onwards to the pool on a clear mid-autumn morning, although it isn't quite 'it's nice once you're in' territory yet. Quite a smooth session, more so than I really expected (perhaps having done a bit less than normal on a Sunday was relevant to this).