Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

State Series at Bunjil. This is an area I've always liked - fast, sometimes vague, gully-spur on the top with steeper drops off the plateau. Haven't been here since 2007 or thereabouts.

This was another step in the gradual return to normal - still felt flat (no speed, and not a lot of strength either, although the exit from 2 was the only hill I had to walk), but muscular issues seem to be working their way out of the system. Only technical mishap of consequence was a 30-45 seconder at 5, drifting a bit too far down the hill. Saw the right route on the long leg, which not many people seem to have done - the splits suggest this was probably a good option (once you got to the first saddle it was pretty flat). Saw quite a bit of Simon Rouse, who started a couple of minutes ahead of me; he was running faster than me but making mistakes.

I was about as far off the pace as I thought I would be. Being 4 minutes down on Tash was worse than I'd thought, but on the other side of the coin I was around a few people I wouldn't have expected to be around today.

Dropped in on the Ballan autumn festival on the way home - eating a baked potato in front of the woodchopping. Wouldn't see this in the big city.

Taking another step in the slow return to normality, on a morning which felt like the first proper one of autumn; downright chilly on the Yarra flats (it helped that I was out earlier than I usually am, needing to get things ready in time for house inspections at 10). Didn't feel quite as enjoyable as last night but probably fairly similar in terms of how I was going. A bit of residual tightness in the left quad.

It's been a long week (and next week will be too), and I spent much of the rest of the day at work crunching out the first draft a report on the northern/central Australian heatwave. This has got next to no attention because it's had only limited effect on any major population centres, but has still generated some impressive numbers - the highlights being Birdsville (46.5 on Thursday, 3.2 higher than anything ever previously observed in Queensland in the second half of March) and Borroloola (17 consecutive days, and counting, hotter than the 38.8 which was the current site's March record before this year). Very tired (in the sleepy sense) this evening and didn't have energy to do much more than flake out on the couch in front of the soccer.

This was another very long day, featuring a trip to Bendigo to do a talk to the local water authority, and still having a fair bit to do when I got back. (The train trip was a bit less eventful than last time I was on V-Line).

Had to leave home at 6.30 to get into town in time to get the train up, which was too early for a run; took gear up with a view to possibly doing something in Bendigo had I been able to find somewhere to leave my bag, but the lockers at the station have been removed because they think ISIS might leave bombs in them (or words to that effect). This left the evening as the available timeslot (from work as I still had a fair bit to do, although I did finish before midnight this time).

Once I wvs actually out, despite not feeling too crash-hot during the day (it didn't take me long to flake out once on the train out of Bendigo), it was a reasonably nice run on a good evening for it. Quads are getting close to being right and other parts of me felt better than they have, too.

I'd like to say it's the end of a long week, but it isn't - the atmosphere doesn't respect weekends and the swag of records broken in Queensland today (on top of those already set in recent days) will need some documenting tomorrow.

And I've noted in some quarters that social media often comes up with some inappropriately targeted targeted advertising (a particularly memorable example earlier this week was when Facebook was trying to get me to buy the house I'm currently trying to sell), but old-school targeted advertising is still alive and well - since the house went on the market, this is the fourth successive day on which I've had something in the letterbox from removalists.

At the stage now where my quads don't feel especially painful but are still very stiff and not especially functional. This made for another less than comfortable run (and I'm still not totally well, something which won't be helped by working until midnight tonight, and probably through significant chunks of the weekend), but I keep telling myself I'll feel worse if I don't do it. This one was in Royal Park, as part of later-in-the-day logistics.

Last night of the summer season, as usual at Maroondah Triangle (not making as much use of the hill as usual). Feeling a little less sore than yesterday but a little out of sorts in other respects. Getting around at a jog was the extent of my ambitions, and this was achieved, more or less.

I was on my own early on this week, too, but this had more to do with my very slow starting pace than any particularly bizarre route choices (although others did do better). Also came closer to being squashed than I have for a while after mistakenly thinking two parallel roads were a dual carriageway and thus one-way.

Didn't feature in the presentation (and wouldn't have even if I'd done the two additional events needed for a full score), though I might be in danger of dropping to Division 2 if I'm not careful.

Quads definitely felt less bad today, but I still expected that getting out for a run would be a significant challenge. It was, although I managed to plod around Southbank with at least a limited amount of functionality. I keep telling myself that this will do me good (and it will, based on past experience), but it didn't feel especially comfortable at the time.

The extent to which our workplace is a hotbed of militancy was well illustrated today; I was having a conversation with our local union rep about the possibilities of industrial action over the lack of progress on our workplace agreement (as stalled as it is everywhere else in the federal public service - we haven't even got as far as an offer to put to the vote nine months after the previous agreement expired). The conversation was taking place at 7.15pm....

The agents have made a pretty good job of making it look good (with some assistance from Mum, and rather less from me):

http://www.2-53darebinstreetheidelberg.com/

C • I wonder 6

A fairly exhausting day without much training being involved. I didn't get home until after 1am, thanks to our plane being delayed by electrical problems (we must have only just got out before curfew). In the end they got it going through a "full external power reset", which I suspect is aviation-speak for turning the plane off and then turning it on again. Then had to be at work early so not much time for sleep.

I headed to the pool after a rather rugged massage (the quads weren't touchable, but even the calves were in the sort of territory that I was reminded about Susie Power's quote about childbirth being nothing in the pain department compared with some of the massages she'd had). Good to get into the water for a bit although it's only loosened me up slightly. Walking is still challenging, especially where downhill slopes or stairs are involved; running will probably be a bit less so I may try and get out for something short tomorrow.