Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: Bendigo Orientshow
 

Headed out earlier than usual for a winter Sunday, with the plan being to get back in time to watch the women's marathon (which started at 9.30).

I hadn't planned to go into the 2.40-plus range, but, with the assistance of a non-existent bridge across the new freeway in a place where I thought there was one, it became apparent at the far end that this one was going to be longer than intended. For the first half it was a steady but rather slow run, plugging away without a lot of inspiration through the hills of Templestowe and Donvale, but once it was clear that this was going to be a particularly long one I was happy with the way I settled into concentrating on the job at hand. A brief flat spot around 2.20 but finished off strongly; would certainly have had some more distance left in me (and might have thought about doing so had I not had other plans involving watching other people running for a similar length of time at somewhat higher speed). Picked up my pace significantly in the second half and was at 4.30 pace for the last 15k, although the terrain helps there - it is almost all either flat or gently downhill.

Watching the Beijing marathon was an interesting experience, not only because I knew somebody in the race (we got to see Lisa exactly once, at the 15k mark, but to come in the top half and get within two minutes of your PB in Beijing's conditions is a pretty respectable effort), but also because I've run significant parts of the course before when I was there in 2005, especially the bit from 38 to 40k which was the standard route back to the hotel (although I was dodging the vendors on the footpath rather than chasing the blue line on the road). At least the conditions were a good deal more pleasant than some of what we had to deal with in 2005.

Terrain intervals at Studley Park on the usual terrain loop, broken into 6 sections with 2-3 min recovery in between. Went out with Dion and Bruce (who typically started about 1.10 ahead and 0.15 behind respectively).

I was a bit apprehensive before the start after feeling a bit sniffly over the last 24 hours, but ended up handling the run OK. Bruce was a fair bit faster than me on flat open bits but we were evenly matched elsewhere. Went a little bit lactic on the last hill. The total running time was only just faster than my best for the loop as a whole, but the conditions today weren't easy (drizzly morning, slippery ground and longish grass in places); Bruce thinks that counts for a minute or two and that seems reasonable.

Warm-up and warm-down for the terrain session.

Pretty slow and always felt a bit tight, particularly in the back. Showers were even less warm than they usually are at Richmond. Still, not surprising to have a not-brilliant recovery session in the middle of a pretty hard week.

Looking forward to the start of the real Olympics today.

C • Real Olympics? 16

Was a bit apprehensive going into this one after not feeling 100% well overnight, but whatever the problem was had obviously resolved itself because this was a solid run - I'd set the route up so I could cut it short easily if I needed to, but it was apparent in the first half-hour that I wouldn't need to, and it ended up being one of my longer midweek efforts. Reasonably strong on the hilly bits (particularly the North Balwyn traverse about 90 minutes in).

There are benefits to having the Olympics on in a reasonably similar time zone, but on mornings like this one misses (a little) being able to tune in at a ridiculously early hour of the morning. One morning in 1992 (when for the two weeks I shifted my time zone to sleep from 7 to 2 or thereabout) I was out running (with radio) at 4-something in the morning, listening to the soccer, and when Australia scored a goal a passing car (yes, there was a passing car in Canberra at 4-something in the morning) tooted its horn in mutual celebration. I haven't had much opportunity for Olympic-inspired runs the last couple of times, being injured at the time of both the 2000 and 2004 Games (and 1996 coincided with the catalogue of frustrations otherwise known as the World University Championships in Hungary).

C • Set the route up? 3

First hit-out on the usual course since I got back. Very sluggish early - felt a bit sleepy, possibly due to the first signs of Olympic Sleep Deprivation Syndrome - but picked up a bit later on. Still pretty slow (9.30 fastest loop) but felt quite reasonable. The slowness may or may not be attributable to doing this coming off a tougher day than is usually the case.

C • Doctors orders 2

An early-morning excursion, starting out on the north side of the river as far as the Finns Reserve bridge, then returning through some of the hillier bits of Bulleen. The Banyule Flats were as muddy as I've seen them for a long time - managed to stay upright most of the way except for one tumble. The run, though, itself felt pretty flat most of the way and I was glad to see the end of it.

Rode in to work afterwards and was impressed by the impact that the price of petrol appears to be having on traffic volumes, which seem to be almost at school holiday levels. The airhead pedestrians in the Swanston Street bike lane and the Mafia truck illegally parked outside the Queen Victoria Market are still there - the former would be impacted more severely by $1.50 text messages than $1.50 petrol, and the latter probably add a fuel surcharge to their protection fees.

(I noted with interest that a couple of the people arrested in last week's "world record ecstasy haul" - gold! gold to Australia! gold! - were described as 'Melbourne fruit and vegetable identities', but no Muratores were amongst them as far as I know).

Another 3x1k session on the Tan, same as last week except it was at lunchtime this time. Left the building fired up by Australia's latest gold medal*. Ran a pretty solid session too, significantly faster than last week (3.45, 3.40, 3.38). The lunchtime crowd was thinner than the evening one (especially going out relatively late in lunchtime) but gave me good targets to chase on all three reps. Hit some heavy weather in the second half, including a solid headwind near the Shrine, although I don't think that makes that much difference to times.

(* - don't know about the rest of you but I'm finding it hard to get fired up about winning swimming races - a change from days past when we only won 9 gold medals in four Olympics, of which at least 5 were thanks to boycotts (albeit by people who were probably on drugs anyway), and finished behind NZ for four Games in a row. It will be a different story if we manage to win any athletics medals, of course).

At Fitzroy. Felt like jumping into a warm bath, which is an indication that it was cold outside (the water temperature was presumably around its usual 27). A steady but unspectacular session.

Monday night from the Key household, marked by the first appearance (at least while I've been around) of two of the new residents chez Liggo, Vanessa and Kerrin. As usual for a Monday night, started pretty slowly (even without slowing down for some of those who fell off the bunch early), then picked up later on, especially on the last hill. Spent quite a bit of the run attempting to explain why pumping water from northern Australia isn't a cost-effective option and why irrigators are so adamantly opposed to the Victorian north-south pipeline when in the agricultural context the amounts of water involved are trivial.

I'm (sort of) watching the beach volleyball and noticing that the Chinese are playing "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" when Australia score a point. Certain parts of the media are eagerly anticipating another beach volleyball match-up tomorrow when Russia play Georgia (I think the media were searching for something - anything - where Russia were playing Georgia). I don't think beach volleyball offers quite the same potential for politically-inspired biffo as water polo (with reference to Hungary-USSR, 1956) but I could be mistaken.

C • pumping water from northern Australia 5

C • Georgian beach volleyballers 4