Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Definitely a day for building HTFU reserves. My quads felt worse when getting up than they did yesterday, and as a bonus I also got to spend the early hours of the morning experiencing the greatest hits of AC/DC (there was advance warning this was likely to happen; it's just Murphy's Law that it was happening on the one Saturday night out of six when I was here). At least the conditions were reasonably benign.

I almost turned around in the first two minutes of shuffling but things improved after then. It could never be called a comfortable run, but I was able to keep grinding away without things getting any worse. A couple of minor Achilles twinges but nothing of significance. The route was a flat one, out through Kingsbury, Thornbury and Bellfield, but the few downhills were a reminder that going into the terrain today wouldn't have been a good move.

Sightings of the debris of a Saturday night in the big city: (a) a shattered bus shelter in Reservoir and (b) a burnt-out car in a back street of an industrial area in Thornbury.

Woke up feeling decidedly stiff and sore, but quads weren't as bad as feared (i.e. I could actually go down stairs forwards) and decided to go through with plans to check out some terrain identified by other Yarra Valley people at Morang wetlands (north end of Plenty Gorge park, north of South Morang, west side of the river).

It's largely semi-open with some patches of heavier vegetation. The contours are somewhat unusual, with basalt ridges and numerous large depressions which I presume are old quarries (most of them have water in them, but I don't know if that's a regular feature). Some of the more vegetated sections around the old quarries might support a sprint; otherwise it will make a decent Metro area (and probably a good schools area as well, not least because of the high fence on three sides). Roos everywhere.

I couldn't describe this as a pleasant run, but the quads did loosen passably for the run (they tightened up again afterwards, as did various other body parts).

A Wilsons Prom epic with Jenny; she was keen to go down there and I didn't need too much of an excuse to do it either. We did the Waterloo Bay-Refuge Cover-Sealers Cove circuit (the opposite direction to the way most people do it, partly governed by the timing of high tide at Sealers Creek). Ridiculously scenic in places, especially around Waterloo Bay and Refuge Cove (which we saw a bit more of than planned after missing the track off the beach).

As a run, the first two-thirds were comfortable, a little within myself at times but not inordinately so, with a bit of walking on the more scrambly bits of the Waterloo Bay exit but not generally otherwise. A run of this length, though, was always going to be a bit of a test of my limits given lack of recent training (I haven't been beyond 2.25 for more than a year), and my limit expired at 3.10, halfway up the biggest climb of the day, the 300m climb to Windy Saddle. Quads died at this point and I was starting to cramp; ended up walking the second half of the Windy Saddle climb, before running (not especially comfortably) back to the Telegraph Saddle car park. Very stiff afterwards, despite (or perhaps because of) a bit of time in cold water in the hope of expediting my recovery.

This took me into territory uncharted by me for a long time so I wasn't totally surprised not to be quite up to the task. However, the most encouraging aspect was no trace of Achilles trouble, despite some rough stuff and soft sand that I had feared would set it off. I'm not sure if I'm quite yet prepared to call myself cured but progress is encouraging.

(And one negative I didn't mention - my camera batteries were flat. Hopefully Jenny's photos turn out well).

C • 4 hours 1

C • Wow 1

C • I'm happy with them! 1

Pool running at Ivanhoe. A fairly standard session, although a bit earlier than usual because I wanted to get into work early for an 8.45 interview - only to be thwarted because 20 minutes isn't enough leeway when you're dealing with Melbourne's trains. (To be fair, the cause today was a passenger in need of an ambulance; you can hardly blame Metro or the government for that, although some people will).

Street-O at Canterbury, always a fun map (and these days it is the same scale N-S as it is E-W). A bit crazy with crowds at the first couple of controls (the first of which was too close to the start) but settled down. Felt better than I did last week, but definitely still too slow, especially on hills. Found myself in a few decent head-to-heads at various stages, the best of which was with Peter Hobbs before he pulled away at the end. Again no hint of soreness; perhaps I'm through the worst of the injury at last?

Work today had its interesting moments, some of them coming as a result of Melbourne's ongoing record run of days over 20 (now standing at 92). For most of the day it looked like it wouldn't make it but it jumped briefly to 20.4 to much background audience reaction. With the forecast from here it's odds on to get beyond 100.

One of the other street-O regulars is someone a few layers above me in Bureau management. We sometimes have some post-race discussions which are interesting, and tonight's was particularly interesting; watch this space...

C • Could you... 6

Did a track session today at Clifton Hill - partly dictated by the logistics of an 8am massage appointment (doing a session from home would have meant starting in the dark, not a good thing for speedwork).

The pace was horrible - 84-89 for a set of 8 400s on a 2.5 minute cycle, a good 5-6 seconds down on an equivalent session last year. Still, you have to start somewhere and I wasn't feeling too bad (and was recovering well between reps, which may say something about how fast I wasn't going). Also no sign of Achilles soreness, which is encouraging because last time in terrain I pulled up a bit sore on the Tuesday afterwards.

Getting to the massage appointment, and then to work, was still a bit of an obstacle course with various bits of remnant flooding. A damage inspection tour at lunchtime was revealing too, especially seeing what's left of the roof of the Livewire end of Eithad stadium - can't see the south end being usable for weeks, at least.

(By the way, speaking of storms, if anyone leaving the Saturday event encountered hail, feel free to post reports of hail size, time and location - this will be useful for our report).

C • Hail 2

Warm up/down going to and from the track.

I had been thinking that I might get a public holiday lie-in today (a relative term which means 6.30 or 7 rather than before 6), but this was scuttled thanks to a 7.45 breakfast TV interview. (As it turned out it would have been scuttled anyway by a 5.45 thunderstorm). One positive of working on a public holiday is that the commute is very easy; I doubt it would be possible to drive from Heidelberg to Southbank in 20 minutes (or get a parking spot right outside the ABC) on a normal Monday morning.

Once the interview was done I headed out into Albert Park and St. Kilda, partly with an interest in surveying the consequences of the weekend's carnage. In that area it seems to have been mostly heavy rain; there is plenty of flood debris in weird and wonderful places (including in the upper parts of the wheel hubs of parked cars), but the trees haven't been stripped as they have been along the core of the storm path.

This (or something like it) was a fairly regular run for me 15 years ago. St. Kilda in the early mornings is a bit less seedy now than it was then - no obvious prostitution (although I gather it's still around in the back streets if you know where to look) and the 'Danish Blue Movies' sign is a lot more discreet these days.

The run wasn't very good, not surprising after a race weekend.

C • Mmmm? 1

Swim at Albert Park in the outdoor pool, not a bad spot for it under the sails (which must be pretty strong because they don't have any holes in them). My right arm is a bit sore for non-obvious reasons (possibly fell on it at some stage during the weekend), which I thought might trouble me, but it didn't.

The swim seemed to take forever, and to some extent it did.