Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

An exploration of Melbourne's outer northern suburbs on a warm Sunday morning. It's a long time since I've been out this way (probably not since the last time I was doing long rides thanks to a significant injury), and not surprisingly there are more suburbs out there then there were the last time I was here (or when my edition of the Melway was made). Spent a fair bit of time on the main roads, partly because of the potential for coming to navigational grief in unknown territory, partly because (Sunday morning + streets too narrow to pass a bike properly on + suburbs with lots of bogans) = potential for disaster.

Pretty hard work for the first 40 minutes; it's gradually uphill (gradual enough that you don't notice it in a car) and into a reasonable wind - also didn't have my seat adjusted properly and took longer than I should have to do something about this. Settled nicely after this and was really enjoying myself for much of the last hour.

I'm definitely not used to seeing a number with a '4' in front of it on the Garmin. If things go to plan I expect to see a '5' or a '6' next weekend.

C • Garmin models 3

It's a bit of a shock to the system to take more-or-less seriously to the bike - I commute by bike all the time but in a commuting situation you're not often going for more than 5 minutes at a time and there's a lot of coasting into lights and the like. This was exacerbated today because I'm not supposed to stand on the pedals, but I'm not used to going up hills without doing so, so my thighs were getting a bit of hard work uphill that they're not accustomed to. This will improve, but I'm still some way away from being ready to take on Buffalo or Baw Baw.

This morning's loop was one I've used a bit before when injured - up the Eastern Freeway path to Springvale Road and then back through Doncaster. It's quite a nice route to use because the path is gently uphill most of the way and has more than 10km without any road crossings. Struggling a bit through the first half but starting to get into it a bit more in the second half. Starting to get pretty warm towards the end, something we'll see plenty of this week.

The 'Heidelberg Leader' was very much up with the times this week; the issue which came out on Wednesday said that police were 'closing in' on the alleged killer of a local woman, and had a note at the bottom saying that anyone with information on his whereabouts should call Crimestoppers. I certainly had a pretty good idea of his whereabouts - he was in jail and had been there since being arrested a couple of days earlier.

C • Bike Path 1

The summer crowds are starting to build at Fitzroy, but most of those in my lane were at much the same level of slowness as I was so this caused no problems. Not quite as lively as I was on Monday.

I was a good deal less lively still after getting the verdict on my heel, which isn't particularly good. Looks like a significant case of what used to be called Achilles tendinitis (it has another name now which I've forgotten and probably wouldn't be able to spell anyway); the outlook will become clearer once I get an ultrasound on it but at the moment the working assumption is a month on the sidelines. It's the first time for seven years that I've missed more than a couple of days through an overuse injury, which I guess isn't too bad for someone who is now a lot closer to 40 than he is to 30. It definitely means the preparation for the early 2010 races will be rather different to what it usually is. I can still ride and swim, so expect those to feature much more prominently in the coming weeks than they do now.

I was also down to play soccer for the Bureau today, but doubt if I will be greatly missed.

I certainly wasn't missed by the Bureau soccer team - they won the tournament (which features us, CSIRO and Melbourne and Monash Unis) for the first time in its history, winning two games and drawing one.

I'd planned this as a newsletter delivery run (and was thinking it would be nice to do a long-run without a super-early start - I'm doing a workshop in Pakenham today which doesn't start until 10.30). Of course that's not quite the way things worked out, but the newsletters still had to be delivered - I wasn't about to pike and put stamps on them instead - so turned this into a bike session. I quickly discovered that it's not as easy to do this on a bike in a building peak hour than it is on foot - you don't have anywhere near as much flexibility (at least without breaking too many road rules). Probably spent close to 15 minutes stopped during this session. Plenty of short sharp hills compared to my usual commute, and my quads were telling me about it by the end, although this would be nothing for those more familiar with hard-core cycling.

On another subject, I'm finally getting around to uploading my trip photos and have done SA, WA and the NT so far. This means the NT 'Lost City' photos are now up - go here and look for the Caranbirini sequence. I don't think you need a Facebook login for this.

C • Is there a way of making them chronological 5

After the best part of three weeks of not being quite right, it turned out that hitting the sand yesterday was too much for my heel to cope with. I'm almost relieved about this - it means I can no longer pretend that it will sort itself out whilst attempting to keep going something resembling training. I was struggling to walk this morning; still thought I'd at least see if doing something would loosen it (as has happened on other days), but decided this was a waste of time inside 100 metres.

I'll have it looked at properly on Friday, but suspect I may be headed for a lay-off of some significance; how much remains to be seen. In as much as I can remember, it feels a little bit like an injury I had in 1989; that one sorted itself out within a week or so, but I was 17 then and I'm not now.

Spent Cup Day down on the Mornington Peninsula and did my running down there too, first half along the front to Sorrento, second half along the back beach path and then back through the streets. Felt OK for most of the way, including on the sandy parts of the back beach track which I was a bit worried about, but didn't handle the sharp hills at the end well and struggled in the last 10 minutes; a bit of a concern.

A good day otherwise: got a lot of things done and had $10 each way on Shocking. I'm normally a once-a-year punter but seem to have a reasonable record on the Cup; five winners in 18 years and four in 11.

C • with a record like that 1

Cup Monday is normally the easiest commute of the year so I was a bit surprised to see a traffic jam on the way to the pool this morning, although it wasn't a problem because (a) it was in the opposite direction and (b) I was on a bike. It turned out we were picking up all the Eastern Freeway traffic because someone had tried to innovate by driving along Alexandra Parade on their roof.

Once actually at the Fitzroy pool it was a pretty reasonable session, certainly not as sluggish as some of my recent swims. Quite a decent crowd this morning, perhaps in anticipation of a hot day that didn't quite materialise.

Monday night from Kerrin's in Northcote, a new starting location for me although reasonably familiar territory. Had pretty tight quads for the first few minutes - possibly not quite running with my usual form on the long run yesterday? - but those loosened quickly. A steady pace in the first half but eased off a fair bit in the second. At the risk of prompting a relapse, this was the best the heel has felt since the original injury.

It was a warm and humid night but I didn't feel it too much; others seemed to be suffering more. Surely I'm not still benefiting from acclimatisation to the tropics?

We were expecting some interesting food at Kerrin's and were not disappointed. I doubt if anyone else on the circuit goes to the trouble of marinating things from Saturday onwards.