Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Swim at Fitzroy. Started fairly sluggishly but moving as well in the second half as I have for a while.

Shock news in the Herald-Sun today: apparently the Melbourne City Council director of tourism, major events and marketing has been on four overseas and five interstate trips this year. I'd be more concerned if someone in that position wasn't travelling. (Coincidentally, this is exactly my tally for work for the last 12 months; being on the end of the Herald-Sun blowtorch is something which is always at the back of one's mind in our game).

Lunchtime around the Tan. A smooth and generally pleasant session on a cool day (don't expect to see 14 at lunchtime again for a while).

Event: Victorian Sprint Champs
 

Vic Sprint Champs at Ballarat Uni. A pretty disappointing effort, lacking much in the way of sharpness. Didn't get off to a great start when I made a mistake on the first one (although it didn't cost me much time); reasonably good technically after that but never really firing on all cylinders. Probably reflecting the stage of the season that I'm at. Ended up 7th in a decent field, about 2 minutes down on Bruce.

Down on the Mornington Peninsula - my parents are down for the weekend making final wedding arrangements for Cassie and I went down to join them.

As other Victorians will know it was a reasonably wild weekend, meteorologically speaking. The wind wasn't as extreme as I thought it might have been (although still pretty fierce on the more exposed parts of the Bass Strait side), and I managed to miss all the hail showers, partly by going out immediately after one (it's rare in this type of set-up to get two separated by less than an hour). Started at Blairgowrie, initially along the front beach (such as it was - pretty well all the sand had been submerged by a storm surge) to Sorrento, then along the track which runs along the coast on the Bass Strait side. This is sandy in places (although firmer than usual because of the overnight rain) and also has its share of sharp climbs over the dunes.

The scenery was nice - some of you will get a chance to look at some of it at the end of the year (I plan to lead a run over the highlights of this route on New Year's morning) - but my run wasn't so brilliant, lacking strength on most of the climbs.

Saw something in an article about road safety in developing countries that Kazakhstan has apparently made seat belts compulsory. In 2004 I didn't see a seat belt (let alone see one being used) in four weeks in the country, so they must have done a lot of work in a short time.

At Richmond. Not particularly energetic this evening, although better in the second half.

Heading down to the Mornington Peninsula for the next couple of nights before Ballarat for the sprint on Sunday morning. Will get to see some pretty wild seas tomorrow with a bit of luck.

C • weather balloons 2

Vic Sprint this weekend (and therefore no proper long run), so I decided to go longer than usual today, in what ended up being my longest midweek session for a decade. Started from near work (as a result of complicated logistical issues), initially east along the Yarra to Como, then generally south as far as Brighton before coming back along the bay.

A solid run that never reached great heights, but was never bad either. Had to do some hard work on the second half; most of the stretch along the bay (from about 17 to 27k) was into a headwind of sorts which was quite tough at times. This was familiar ground in my Albert Park days, although the bike path runs all the way along the Brighton foreshore now (something which was opposed tooth-and-nail, not for the first or last time in Melbourne's more affluent bits, who hate the idea of the hoi polloi venturing into their neighbourhood and disapprove of anyone moving around the area unless it's in a BMW or a Range Rover).

Discovered one of the positives of the Global Financial Crisis when I met Mum at lunchtime to go shopping for a suit for Cassie's wedding; expensive suits are a lot less expensive now than they used to be.

Thought yesterday might have been a one-off and it was. This morning was a perfectly routine session, if a little on the slow side, exploring the streets of Toorak (among other places). Didn't have too many close encounters with very expensive cars. Also didn't see too many "for sale" signs outside mansions, so the Global Financial Crisis can't be biting too deeply in this part of the world (yet).

Arrived at work to find a fire drill in progress. Seems a bit strange to hold it when half the building hasn't turned up for work yet (maybe they wanted to increase their chances of breaking the record for fastest building evacuation).

Question of the day: there is a remarkably close correspondence in the American South between counties where significant quantities of cotton was produced in 1860 and counties where there was a majority vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Anyone care to guess the connection?

C • I'll have a go. 6

A event which turned into an interesting race, but then ended in frustration.

It was a decent field for street-O (all the usual suspects were there, plus Liggo put in his annual appearance at Smiths Dell). Liggo and Bryan Ackerly got a break fairly early on. I tried to hang in there, knowing that I probably wasn't going to gain much on them while they were together but hoping that they might split and/or tire. They did split when Liggo made a mistake about a third of the way in and ended up 200 metres behind me (I thought he would pull me in again, but he didn't). That left me chasing 200 metres on Bryan. I was gradually making headway on this and had pulled it in to about 100 metres with three controls to go, probably not enough to mount a serious challenge - until Bryan made a mistake. For about 30 seconds I thought I was going to win - and then hit a traffic jam. Only lost 20-30 seconds (before going for a gap I'd never dare to go through under normal circumstances), but it was enough as I ended up going down by about 50 metres; without the hold-up it would have been a sprint finish at least. To add insult to injury Adam, coming from the other direction, just got me too. Still pleasing to run a fastish race, especially in the second half; being 15 degrees cooler than last week helps.

Occasionally a shocker arrives out of the blue and this was it. A 3x1km session on the Tan in the morning, based from work. Felt weak and light-headed at the start and didn't get a lot better. Largely going through the motions on the 1km fast sections, which barely qualify as "intervals" (3.50-3.52); might have been better off converting this run to something else and trying my luck with a fast session another day.