Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: NavDash 5 - Mandurah (Australian Sprint Championships)
 

Australian Sprint Championships, 14th in M21E, 27th combined. A fairly standard sprint run for me. Lacking sharpness early on and lost a few seconds on 1 when I ran to the women's control instead, but gradually built as it went on. I thought I might get caught by one or more of those behind me; Eric was more or less on me by 12 and was just ahead of me at the spectator control. I would have done better had the race started there; the last part was much more technical with an intensity not too far short of southern Europe. I got back ahead of Eric at 20, and then got a jump on Bruce out of 25 - I thought it was a route choice but it turned out that he hadn't been to 24 and had to go back for it (which may explain why he caught me so quickly in the first place).

The juniors showed all of us up today.

Later in the day, I was to witness a violation of the clause in the WA Constitution which requires Dennis Lillee to appear at least once in every commercial break screened within the state. It probably wouldn't have come as too much of a surprise in 1981 to learn that he would still be a marketable commodity 30 years later; it would have come as a surprise that he is now president of the WACA.

Course 1 - Splits

Bridgetown was my starting point this morning, suddenly cool, damp and foggy after an arid week. A fairly ordinary run despite the nice setting, with the showgrounds as my main target (you will be shocked to guess what I went there to look at...). Handled the climb around the middle OK - on a run much less hilly than some here would be - but a bit of front-of-ankle soreness coming back, a driving-overuse injury I'm used to when going long distances without cruise control which normally disappears quite quickly. (The other injury I'm not concerned about is the spectacular-looking but painless shoulder scar, which looks like I attempted to slice my arm off, courtesy of a branch on Saturday).

Local events I've missed out on during my travels: "Jimbo - Australia's Crudest Comedian" (Jurien Bay, next Wednesday), the lizard races near Lake Grace (last Tuesday) and the WA Burnout Championships near Hyden (Queens Birthday weekend). Presumably the qualifying rounds for the last of these take place every Friday and Saturday night in sundry outer suburbs of Perth.

C • We're a classy mob in WA 1

Spent yesterday making my way through the backblocks of the northern wheatbelt, passing through endless dry paddocks (albeit not quite as desperate-looking as around York) and sleepy very small towns, before landing up in Merredin. I had thought that, as the regional centre, it would have a feel of a place larger than its size; instead, it had the feel of a place smaller, much smaller after dark on a Wednesday evening. At the place I ate on Wednesday night (having bypassed the motel restaurant, which evidently thought it was in Karratha and priced accordingly), I was the last customer of the night at 6.45 as the staff were packing up around me. The other options were the pub, and a Chinese place which looked like it hadn't changed since the days when Merredin was the halfway point for the diggers on their way to Kalgoorlie.

This was a decent run, out past Merredin Rock which is one of the region's numerous low bare rock domes, no Achilles issues this morning and got going nicely after the first 10 minutes. Tailed off a little bit at the end but still pretty reasonable.

I didn't remember anything of the place as I was last here in 1977 (I do remember fragments of that trip, in which my parents decided that the completion of the bitumen road across the Nullarbor meant it was a good idea to drive across it with three young kids - and we didn't have in-car DVD players or even tape decks then). It follows that this meant that it was my first training run here, although I did set a potential target for Tooms Two to chase by doing my first long run at the age of 20 months or thereabouts (turning up on the other side of the suburb without any clothes on).

The rest of the day swapped the southern wheatbelt with the northern wheatbelt, swinging past Wave Rock en route (perhaps I should make an entry in the 'you know you're an orienteer when' thread because I was starting to think about the sprint course you could set there). Also might have got an idea for a paper (second time in three Easters) after looking at the Katanning sites, for reasons too complicated to explain here.

C • Wave Rock 2

A circuit of Jurien Bay, where I stayed last night (from the vast numbers of vehicles heading south as I was going north, the population of this area on Monday night was rather greater than it was on Tuesday night) - half of it on the foreshore path, which happened to go past the local weather station (not one of the ones on my list of 112). A windy morning and still quite humid.

My Achilles wasn't any better today than it was yesterday which made the first few minutes hard going, although it warmed up reasonably. (On another injury front, the knee discomfort I had leading into Easter was largely absent during Easter, and has been since). Once settled down it was a standard recovery run which never sparkled.

Now turning inland; I've just whittled my list of remaining sites down to 23 (this log entry is coming to you from the Morawa Telecentre). Not going to Meekatharra though, at least not this time.

A recovery session at the Tooms pool on the way out of town northwards, a little bit later than I'd planned on because the hire car company took 45 minutes to get round to finding a car for me after I turned up.

There's something very pleasant about swimming in an outdoor pool on a warm sunny day (even if sunglare was a minor nuisance - I tried switching sides for breathing but very quickly learned something about the weakness of my left arm and its unsuitability for a leadoff stroke). Not many people there which surprised me a bit for a holiday Tuesday - perhaps late April is too late for people to be in swimming mode. The swim itself was fairly relaxed which was the idea. Achilles quite tight today.

In my early years of elites I used to have a reputation for coming through the field on the last day of Easter (most notably in 1991, when I gained ten places as the field crumbled around me). In recent years I've gained an appreciation of why it was that the opposition found it hard to come up on the last day (although some of the 1991 opposition were fairly enthusiastic day 2.5 participants too).

Warming up was hard initially but in the end this wasn't a bad run physically. Technically, though, was a different story. The first part of the course was in a green area made greener by lots of fallen timber from a January thunderstorm. I was very hesitant on 1 and then missed 2 badly, overestimating how far it was from the gully and wasting a couple of minutes in heavy rock to the south. Didn't quite nail 3 either, and by then I was three or four minutes down and behind the eight-ball. It got better from there with only a couple of very minor technical wobbles; probably at its best through the second green section from 7 to 10, around the time that Simon was going through me. Had to battle a bit through the final uphill sector but I've had worse.

13th was a bit disappointing in the end; I'd hoped for top-10, and might have got close to it without Sunday's no-race, but the first couple of days have given me something to build on. Perhaps I'm turning into a middle-distance specialist in my old age? We'll find out more about that on Sunday.

C • Middle Distance training regime as well? 1

C1 Day 4 - Splits

Yesterday was encouraging but today was back to the grind that I might have expected after the last few weeks - similar heat and humidity to the Canberra NOL and a fairly similar sort of run, except that it was for no result. The third control was misplaced; I didn't lose a lot of time there (mainly because John Toomey was sitting there), just checking out a couple of likely potential misplacing locations, but from that point a no-race was more or less inevitable.

I was struggling for concentration for a while after that (most notably at 7, where I lost a minute through coming in high and not being able to get down through the rocks to the control), and subconsciously for motivation too, knowing that the result would almost certainly not count. It ended up being a bit of a slog but never really fell apart. Lachlan went through me on a route choice at 16, and we were in sight from there until we both missed 20 a little; he gradually eased away after that.

I'm a little surprised that no-one saved themselves explicitly for the last day, either by bailing or by jogging the remainder (except for Ecmo, who had a good excuse for his DNS - having to take a sick child to hospital in Perth - and was as surprised as anyone to find out he was still in the race). Thumbs up for the field.

Tracy's recovery from the run was to hold the attention of an impressively large group of youngsters through storytime in the tent. I didn't think they'd be terribly excited by the reading matter I had on hand, the Orienteering Australia 2011-14 budget and forward estimates or the February issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (although Anne suggested the increasingly-numerically-inclined Mason might be interested in the former). The latter did have one of the quirkier titles I've seen, 'What Comes Down Might Go Up' (about the potential impact of climate change on landslide risk in coastal California).

C1 Day 3 - Splits

First full day of Easter, the middle distance. Got into a nice flow early on hitting the first few pretty well, a bit of a wobble on 5 but nothing of any significance, and picking up the yellow/bare rock lines (important for speed in this terrain) well. Speed was still a bit down, but I was a little surprised to see Jimbo coming into 6 as I was going out, having caught 1.30 of a two-minute gap. I got a good route choice on 7 which broke that gap open again, then made an annoying 20-seconder on 10 (seeing the feature but not the flag) and thought he might be on me again, but he wasn't. Reasonably solid finish, and reasonably happy with the run - I don't get a lot of single-digit placings these days so this was a pretty good start.

C1 Day 2 - Splits

Event: Frazzle Rock Easter 2011
 

Easter prologue, on a bush map rather than an urban one. A little slow to start and missed 15 seconds on 3 (misread which side of the boulder it would be on), but then settled down OK. Robbie caught me before 6, but missed it (of which more below) - through me again a couple of controls later. Not great uphill but moving OK otherwise. Fallen timber not as bad as feared. Good Friday for me is about damage-limitation, so I was reasonably happy to be under three minutes down, and to score a National League point, a rarity for me in sprints these days. Glad it wasn't a longer race, on a 33-degree day.

Highlight of the day was the drop manouevre executed on Robbie at 6 - he was running alongside me and I noticed that he wasn't looking up where I thought we should be looking up, so I dropped back a stride or two and then turned once he couldn't see me. Only held him off for a couple of controls but it's fun to do. (Since it's pretty rare that I can burn people off with speed, I've had a lot of practice at finding other means to break packs up).

Day 1 (Prologue) Long - Splits

Did what I imagine is the Classic Central Perth Run - up from the central city to Kings Park, along the track on the upper part of the escarpment, back along the Swan River. Thought I might struggle through not eating anything beforehand but seemed to be OK. Knee not too bad.

I'm used to having random encounters with orienteers in the streets of small country towns at this time of year, but thought Perth might have been a bit big for that before coming across Tracy and Sticky (and kids) on the way to work (I'm working out of the Perth office today).

C • Weather Forecast 2

Rest day. Just about to head to Perth.

Morning run from home out around Yallambie, reasonably hilly for the first two-thirds before the nice finish through Rosanna Parklands. Not brilliant early on but built into it later on. Knee also slightly annoying early on but gradually improved, but I think I'll rest tomorrow and do something light on Thursday instead of the other way round - in any case fitting a run tomorrow was going to be challenging unless I wanted a pre-5.30 start (which is not really what you want on a day which is going to be stretched out by going to Perth).

Still tossing up ideas for the post-Easter week; have had a couple of offers, or do I do the climate-station equivalent of getting the 20-pointers-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-that-are-only-worth-getting-if-you-think-you-can-get-them-all, and bag Morawa and Meekatharra? (Marble Bar is too far away).

C • Take it from a local 3

Flailing around a bit for the first few laps but gradually built up into something vaguely reasonable. Starting to get to the stage of the year when it's cool enough in the air to feel warm in the water. (Speaking of which, it looks like it won't be super-hot for Easter - probably near 30 on Friday and mid-high 20s for the other three days, which is an improvement on last Saturday, 36.3 - a late-season record - at Perth Airport and 34 at York).

A couple of dubious dealings relating to real estate were in the news over the last day or so. One was down here where some unfortunate/gullible people had laid down deposits on an apartment block which hasn't been built yet - a problem that Kez is not unfamiliar with - except that in this case it turned out that the developer didn't actually own the land the alleged apartment block was going to be built on and the alleged 33-storey block was going to be in an area of Frankston which has a 20-metre height limit. (Perhaps the fact that the real estate agent was in Castlemaine should have rung some alarm bells). The other one was from Canberra, where the latest manoeuvre of a business trying to stave off eviction by their landlords, the ACT Government, for unpaid rent has been to lodge a native title claim over the premises. One presumes they might have had a slightly better chance of getting away with that if they had actually been Aboriginal.

MFR Monday night from Dion's. A slightly faster pace than usual for this session, not unpleasant on the whole but worryingly weak on the one decent hill. Knee a bit uncertain at times. Had some new company in the form of Fredrik (didn't get his last name), who divides his time between his job in Kazakhstan and his girlfriend in Brunswick; the former gave us a subject for conversation (although his job is at the end of Kazakhstan that has the oil, not the end of Kazakhstan that has the nice forests and the high mountains).

C • Johansson 2

State Series 2 at Chewton. A rather disappointing run in the end, with two careless errors on what should have been pretty straightforward controls, overrunning both 6 and 24. Probably lost about 45 seconds on each, which today was quite a few places - also lost a bit of time at 23 through finding myself at the top of a cliff I couldn't get down. Also slow again, lacking uphill strength again, and generally not really up for it. It's tempting to attach some blame to a late night (IOF Foot Commission hookup until 1am), but I slept well after that so I don't think that has much to do with it.

Lovely day to be out, though, and I had one of the less demanding jobs around - sitting in the sun at the finish telling people where they needed to go to download, and pointing them in the direction of the water and the Easter eggs.

Saturday morning on weekends when I've been at home has often been the most enjoyable session of the week - normally coming off an easy day and a decent sleep, and not starting super-early. It hasn't always been the case in recent times but today was a bit more like it, quite lively (on the flat, if not always uphill) on a very pleasant morning - possibly pumped up by watching Norwich City's win before I started out.

In essence this was along the Yarra up to Lower Templestowe and back through Bulleen, but slightly different to the usual because my usual singletrack route was still under the remnants of the midweek floodwaters - I don't think I've been through the middle of Banyule Flats before, even though I've been living here for 12 years. Plenty of runners (and walkers) out, and finished off alongside the cyclists starting an assault on what's known in the trade as the Col de Burgundy.

My knee has been a little uncertain at times in the last couple of days and was again this morning, nothing to cause any difficulty if it stays as it is, as long as it stays as it is.

A not-unpleasant recovery session (at least when not caught up in the backwash of the rather large person who was jumping in periodically). Managed to miss the showers that were passing through before I arrived. Nice to be back at Fitzroy doing this again - it's good to have the large area of deep water to work with (unlike Ivanhoe where you're continually going around in circles).

Saw someone with a rather understated T-shirt "celebrating mild success" - didn't see the other side so I didn't find out what it was about. This reminded me for no particular reason of the slogan on the gear of the Reserve Bank running group, "keeping interest at record lows".

This was a reality check. I had thought that perhaps I was travelling a little better than I was at the same stage last year, but in fact it's a little worse - 12 seconds slower than one done under similar conditions, of which only 3 or 4 (albeit a significant 3 or 4, for me and for Bruce for different reasons) can be accounted for by building work across the top.

It ended up being essentially a solo run - I had a meeting run late and missed the bunch. Felt like it took me a bit of time to find a pace because at the moment my body finds running fast to be an unnatural act (although as it turned out the first 500, when I felt like a blob, was the fastest I went all day). Didn't feel too bad on the rest of it, just slow, and back tightened up a bit briefly as I was in the process of launching myself for the last 500. I doubt that would have made anywhere near 12 seconds' difference either.

I'm pretty sure this is a PW for any day when I've been trying. Km splits 3.53, 4.07 (uphill/detour), 3.56, 3.53.

To/from the Tan, a bit longer than usual because I ran some of the way back with Bruce, in the process applying some persuasion to try to convince him to think again about nominating for WOC. He's in terrific form at the moment and I don't think it's by any means out of the question that he could make a sprint final (and I know that if it was me I wouldn't want to be looking back in 10 years' time wondering 'what if...').

C • Did it work? 4

An unusual sequence this week as noted earlier (and as it turned out I would have been flooded out of the regular fartlek loop yesterday anyway). Later in the morning than usual too, thanks to a 9am date with the OA auditor (all clear).

It's tempting to claim coming off a long(ish) run as an excuse, until realising that 15 years ago, doing 20km on Wednesday morning was my routine precursor to racing street-O on Wednesday night. Generally pretty similar to my last few outings on this loop, and still not getting down into single figures.

The forecast was for heavy rain but it was a small system so the forecast had the potential to go wrong (there was certainly going to be heavy rain somewhere, but the 'somewhere' could have been anywhere between us and central Gippsland). When the rain woke me up, more or less for good, around 3.30 it was obvious that the system hadn't missed us, and there were various times in the early hours when I thought I might be doing some baking (it is a Climate Analysis tradition that anyone who gets 100mm in a day at their place has to bring in a cake). In the end the score was 67, 62 of it in six hours between 1.30 and 7.30.

I headed out at 6.15, with rain still falling but the radar indicating a clearance not far away (although it took 45 minutes to properly reach us). Moisture above doesn't normally bother me and this was particularly unbothersome (felt like being under a shower - I suspect the droplet size was unusually small). Moisture below was a bit more of a concern, particularly in the first 15 minutes when it was still dark and I couldn't always see water until I was in it. I thought I might have had trouble getting across the Darebin Creek footbridges, but it hadn't risen as much as I was expecting it to.

After all that, the run felt reasonable (in a reshuffled week because I plan to run hard on Thursday; this will be my last one of any real length before Easter) - drifted out of it a bit in the third quarter but was OK in the last 15 minutes across some pretty steep hills in Eaglemont. Knee a bit stiff in last few minutes. Rather slow but I think the conditions probably had a fair bit to do with that.

As wet runs go, it's the wettest one I've done for a while, although still well short of my PB daily total of 359mm (Surfers Paradise, 10 May 1987 - one of numerous washed-out 1980s Gold Coast May holidays).

C • unbothersome 8

C • Somewhere 3

Now that I know that I don't have to work in the post-Easter week, I have four days in WA and no firm plans. If anyone else is in a similar position and is interested in sharing a vehicle/travel plans, let me know (I'm already organised for Easter itself).

C • Rain Dance 4

Latest sign of autumn: fog rising off the surface of Fitzroy Pool, on a rather cool morning. As always it's nice once you're in. Seemed to go quite quickly but wasn't all that quick.

Monday night from Ilka and Vanessa's. Very casual early but pace picked up once it came down to Kez, Reuben and myself for the second loop round Princes Park, and felt pretty good once this happened (another sign that yesterday didn't take so much out of me - and hence that perhaps I was a bit too conservative in my pacing there). Got in before the rain started.

ACT Long Championships at Awoonga, 5th. Enjoyed this, which I didn't yesterday, and I suppose it's an improvement to be 37% behind Jules instead of 45%, but still nowhere near good enough on speed - failing to break 7s on a not-especially-steep ACT gully-spur course is not good enough.

This race was run in steady rain (which attracted some adverse comment from those who were listening when I said I expected the heaviest rain to stop around 10, but not when I said lighter rain would continue intermittently into the early afternoon - although there was a bit more than I was expecting). Started well technically but dropped a minute on 5, going to a termite mound low when I should have gone high. That was my last mistake of significance, but by 6 Josh had got through me from 4 minutes back and Shep was about to do likewise from 8. Being blown away by Shep (and OIle Poland, running 20s) up the hill into the saddle on 7-8 (one of four times we went through that saddle on a rather convoluted course) was rather eye-opening; only just hanging onto Jase on the same hill later on was more eye-opening, even if it was earlier in the course.

Did feel as if my endurance was OK and lasted the distance OK. Caught Devil at 15 and we were together for the rest of the course in a bit of a slowdown. I'm used by now to being a long way back on Jules and Shep, but conceding 14 minutes to Josh was a bit of a shock. Hopefully it says as much about his form as it does about mine. Don't think I'm going to get much of this form back in two weeks, though.

Event: ACT Championships
 

ACT Middle Championships at Collector. Probably not quite as ghastly a run as I thought it was when I finished, but still pretty ordinary. It was rougher than I'd remembered it - lots of fallen timber and rock, and very few fast bits - and needed someone who was strong and aggressive. I was pretty weak today, feeling in just-about-to-get-sick mode (hopefully it doesn't develop any further). A bit scrappy, but only substantial time loss was at 12, where a route choice around the base of the cliffs fell squarely into the 'seemed like a good idea at the time' category - probably a minute or so dropped there. Wasn't that far out of third, but it would have been a travesty if I'd placed with this run.

Pool running, usually a relaxing session when it's on a Friday, once again at Ivanhoe because of flow-on from logistics involved in an afternoon trip to the airport. Amazing what a decent night's sleep will do, too, even if I was up a little earlier than usual for a Friday - something necessitated by needing to be at work in time for a 9.00 meeting, the first 90 minutes of which turned out to be irrelevant. (I'd sort of anticipated this, and got a paper revision done in said 90 minutes).

North Balwyn/Elgar Park loop. Didn't quite live up to its initial promise but still better than recent midweek long runs, although a bit weak on the hills later on. Another pleasant morning for it - the dry season seems to be under way in Melbourne.

I noted yesterday that one of the notable local derelict buildings is having something done about it. Today I found out that so is the other one - a house in North Balwyn that's been left to rot for a decade by a bloody-minded owner after the council turned down their development application.

And someone obviously has a higher opinion of my importance than I do myself - I was on the receiving end of an e-mail screed of shock-jock talking points on asylum-seekers, and the other three addresses in the 'To' field were Robert Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Nick Xenophon. I hate to disappoint Mr goldco9@tpg.com.au, but I have no intention of switching my support to Tony Abbott, and even if I did it won't result in another election or a change of government.

Didn't feel sparkling but a reasonable performance on a nice morning, given the hilly course around Eaglemont and a number of mail drops.

Something's finally happening to the derelict shell of a house that's been occupying prime real estate on Burke Road North for as long as I can remember (which probably means as long as I've been living in the area) - a board has gone up advertising a mortgagee sale.

3x1km at about 4-minute pace on the Tan, with jog in between. Not the easiest of sessions but good to do something hard in conditions very similar to normal late April conditions in York (mid-20s). Pace not as abysmal as I thought it might have been - at least I did my first sub-4 minute kilometre anywhere for several months (and tried not to think too much about it not being that long ago that I put 32 of them together back to back) - but didn't feel as if I had a huge amount in reserve, which doesn't fill me with confidence about getting anywhere near 14 when I try to race it next week. Still missing the top couple of gears, but at least there are some signs I'm getting third gear back....

Going to/from the Tan. Lots of traffic interruptions.

Felt pretty tired by the end of the day - this is the first time for a long time (quite possibly since the first half of 2009) that I've combined two running sessions with riding the full distance in both directions. Not eating until 8.45 probably didn't help matters much either. Body temperature seemed to stay quite elevated for most of the afternoon (but is back to normal now).

8x400 at Clifton Hill (82-88 on 2.30 cycle). A bit slower at its peak than last time but more consistent after the first couple (although it's a bit scary to think that my pace on the first couple was my 1996 marathon pace). Started to relax a bit more in the second half of the set and was better for it. Achilles better than in recent days. Good conditions for it with no wind.

New technology they didn't have 25 years ago: a Facebook poll (spotted via Eon) on who was going to win the Canberra Grammar cross-country (I can definitely imagine myself organising such a poll had Facebook existed 25 years ago). 25 years ago this was a race which I treated as a seriously big deal, although the only year I won was when I caught everyone by surprise in under-14s by actually doing some training (our year was a pretty good one, filling four of the top five places in the ACT one year). The 1986 race was run on Canberra's hottest-ever April day and our field was treated before the start to the confidence-building sight of the leader of the previous race staggering from side to side across the oval and seeing his lead shrink from 200 metres to 2 in the space of a couple of minutes.

Warm up/down from the intervals, ahead of a much-needed massage.

It was also ahead of meeting up with Ruth Goddard in pursuit of the goal of closing down the Victorian Junior Squad bank account and transferring its remaining $6.79 to the main VOA account. It turned out that the bank had never processed the change of signatories form (or maybe the paperwork is just taking a long time to make its way from Melbourne to Ballarat) and that I'd therefore been writing cheques on an account I wasn't a registered signatory of for the last 15 years without anyone noticing. This doesn't fill me with a great deal of confidence about the security of the banking system (although I guess they'd check if there was a complaint).

A routine Monday morning at Fitzroy. It's getting cooler but not yet cool enough to feel seriously cold when you get out of the water (or seriously warm when you get in).

MFR Monday night from Kerrin's in Carlton, up through Royal Park. Mostly pretty slow but faster when it needed to be (such as when trying to catch up from one of many traffic interruptions). Achilles again a bit sore but otherwise quite pleasant for a recovery run.

Can't quite remember how it came about, but dead bodies and places where they turn up was a major topic of conversation over dinner.

Down on the Mornington Peninsula for a cousin's 40th last night (recovery from which was assisted by the bonus hour). The route for this run took a familiar theme - initially out along from front of the peninsula, back along the back beaches - although in a different form to usual, as high tides and big surf ruled out the section along Portsea beach and I thus only went as far as Sorrento (with a longer section at the other end to compensate).

The first half-hour wasn't great but after that it built well, reasonably strong on the numerous dune climbs along the back beach track (although Achilles continues to be touchy) and settling into a nice groove in the final hour for my best run since returning home. Still had plenty in me in the closing stages. An encouraging session (and shows that I can have a decent long run without doing it on snow).

Saturday morning run from my place (it's reasonably unusual for me to have a Saturday morning at my place - although I couldn't possibly spend the whole day in town :-). Ventured onto the Banyule flats for the first time since getting back (i.e. the first time since the floods) - still muddy in patches (particularly on the bits that get a bit of mountain bike traffic) but otherwise OK.

Rather tight and sore in the first half - Achilles definitely feels as if a calf massage is overdue - but loosened up a bit later on. Also retired my shoes after this run, something which was rather overdue.

Pool running session at the non-ideal location of Ivanhoe, although there weren't crowds in the small area that's deep enough so it wasn't too much of a drama. A fairly casual session, deep in thought for much of it as I wrestled with a scientific problem (and felt enough on top of it by the end to make some very good progress in the rest of the day - although I would have preferred to finish a bit earlier than 9.45...).