Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Not the easiest of runs, feeling a bit bloated after yesterday, but ended up not being too bad for a post-long run effort - more energetic than a typical Monday night would be. Had to work pretty hard on the softer parts of the Back Beach track. At its best in the last quarter-hour.

Then spent most of the rest of the day at the cricket, about which the less said the better.

Santa brought my first decent long run since September. It wasn't really looking that way in the first third, though I think some of that was the result of being half-asleep after an earlier start than I would have liked (in the name of logistics later in the day). That sluggish first third got me from Blairgowrie as far as London Bridge, but the run really got going on the next stretch, along the Portsea back beach, and became a reasonably solid session from there (although the climb on soft sand out of Portsea back beach hasn't got any easier) - it's definitely the first time in a while that 1.40 has been a staging post and not inducing thoughts of whether I can get through the next 5/10/20/30 minutes without collapsing in a heap. Had plans of doing the full back beach track, but my Achilles was starting to play up a bit after 40 minutes on the sand, so I bailed out to the streets (whereupon it settled down). Tired at the end, but not in the way I have been at the end of recent long runs.

Did see quite a few other runners out (and very few cars); didn't see any new bikes or cricket bats in use, but then not much of this run was in residential streets. Plenty of room created for feasting through the remainder of the day.

Felt pretty exhausted last night but much better after a decent night's sleep. Headed to Ivanhoe, which was a slightly strange colour (at least to me) because of the angle of the incoming sun. Quite a pleasant session and seemed to pass quickly (not always a given in the pool).

The amount of traffic is down significantly so I could actually get a seat on the 8.05 (a train I normally avoid).

Reasonable if rather sluggish for the first half, out as far as the Studley boathouse bridge (where I saw Nicola on her own run), with no sign of quad trouble. Started to flag on the hills of Kew and hit a really low patch about 90 minutes; picked up a little bit after that and negotiated the final hills better than I thought I might have, but was still in no mood to do an out-and-back up the street to get to 2 hours. Probably not quite ready for the full Wednesday/Thursday combination yet, but perhaps I will be in another two weeks? Pleased at least to see the quads recover (and this is still my longest midweek run of this cycle).

I didn't notice it on the run, but a nasty blister blew up on my little toe afterwards. Hopefully this will settle quickly. It did make walking at lunchtime (in the process of finalising Christmas shopping) somewhat unpleasant.

Wikileaks took a new dimension today, with mention of one Anna Nicole Smith (remember her?). The US ambassador to the Bahamas reported back that "Not since the category four hurricane Betsy hit the island in 1965 has one woman done as much damage in Nassau.'' (If there's one thing the saga has underlined, it's that a lot of American diplomats have quite a way with words; one of these days I must do a search on the database on the name of an acquaintance (father of a school friend) who was American ambassador to various bits of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s/2000s and see if he said anything interesting).

And a couple of would-be muggers (operating not too far away from Shep and JLA if I'm reading it right) should have chosen their victim a bit better:

http://www.police.act.gov.au/media-centre/media-re...

Street-O at Camberwell. Quads were a lot better today (i.e. I could actually walk properly, which was as well with a CBD Christmas shopping expedition at lunchtime), but it was apparent by halfway to the first control that they still weren't fit to be raced on. Turned it into a tempo run rather than a full-on race but it was a bit of a struggle. Also knew from early on that it was going to be a long one, and it was (although it was longer for many others after sub-optimal route choices, which is why I placed somewhat higher than last week). Can't remember a Summer Series as long as that (other than score events).

Will see how I feel in the morning before deciding what to do. It might have been tempting to defer tomorrow's session to Friday but that would cause it to collide with Sunday's session being brought forward to Saturday (partly to give a day's space before the 5-days, partly because Christmas morning is logistically easier for me for a long run than Boxing Day).

Got in the door at midnight after a delayed flight (not as badly delayed as the Jetstar one from Launceston scheduled for 7.30 p.m. which was listed as arriving at 2.35 a.m.), quads still stuffed and a blister in an awkward spot too. Nothing for it but to take some Harden Up - which experience tells me is good for quad tightness - and go for a token attempt at a Tuesday fartlek session. Quads loosened a bit on the run (it's certainly more comfortable to run than to walk), but still couldn't stretch out downhill. Times don't bear mentioning.

Saw a blog post today from someone who'd done a search of Hansard to find out when various terms were first used in Parliament. "greenhouse effect" was first used in 1981, by a Queensland National Senator of all people - and he was even in favour of doing something about it. (OK, so the "something" was building lots of nuclear power stations in Queensland). "endangered species" was first used in 1968, but it was unclear whether this was in reference to flora and fauna, or to the speaker's political opponents.

And the latest data have shifted the odds a bit further in favour of 2010 being the world's hottest year on record. There's a lot more to the globe than northern Europe (or, for that matter, southeast Australia).

I know yesterday had its share of long downhills, but it's still a bit of a worry that something that shouldn't have been too far removed from a normal summer long run has taken as much out of me as, say, an Australian Long Championships. Quads, in particular, were rather the worse for wear (although by no means at post-marathon levels).

This was basically a circuit of Lake Ginninderra. Once upon a time I ran around Lake Ginninderra in 23 minutes - wouldn't happen now...Loosened up sort of okay on a morning with a sharp westerly wind which belonged in September rather than December. Plenty of evidence of the floods of recent weeks (the beaches, never especially attractive, are even less attractive than usual at present).

Historical monument of the run: a vacant building which once housed the Pizza Hut, which was the scene of the 1992 occasion on which the combined resources of the ACT and NSW junior squads successfully ate it out of pizza.

C • Pizza Hut 17

A rather tedious session done mainly in the name of muscle-loosening. Was originally planning to do a water-running session instead, but the cellar has been rearranged and I couldn't find the flotation belt (and wasn't about to wake my parents up at 6.40 to ask what they'd done with it).