Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Hip still painful this morning and didn't like a brief attempt to run in the morning. By then I'd left it too late to do anything else this morning, so headed for the pool (Northcote this time) after work instead. A fairly mundane session which seemed to drag on for a while, trying to avoid being swamped by the backwash from the squad training in the next lane (Northcote pool is a busy place in the evenings).

Felt considerably better as the day went on and am hoping to be right to run tomorrow.

And it looks like the World Orienteering Day fundraiser has brought in $900 or thereabouts. If we need to raise some more money, perhaps we could follow football's lead and start fining organisers who don't provide lobster for officials.

C • Fines 8

The morning's heaviest band of showers cleared out a few minutes before I started which can probably be taken as a good omen. Quads not as much of a mess as yesterday, but this was still fairly hard work for the most part, on a hillier course than most I've done for training runs lately. Started to improve a bit over the last 15 minutes or so.

This route took me past my grandparents' old place in Ivanhoe East. I used to go past it occasionally when living in Heidelberg, but this was the first time that I've done so that someone has been outside, so I took the opportunity to stop briefly and introduce myself. The people who bought it from my grandparents when they downsized (late 1980s) are still there, and nothing much on the outside seems to have changed (in a street where old houses are beginning to be replaced by new ones).

Whilst it didn't trouble me on the run, my hip was a bit sorer this afternoon than it's been in the last week. Yesterday's verdict was that it was one to watch without being particularly alarmed at this stage.

New watch gave me five PBs this time :-).

C • PBs 2

Finished reading a book on historical AFL/VFL grand finals over the weekend. Just in case anyone is under the impression that there is anything new about sporting scandals, illegal betting was so rife until the 1930s that almost any player who had a bad game on Grand Final day faced speculation that they'd been paid off (although only two players, in 1910, actually got found guilty of match-fixing). Another feature which won't be missed was that in the 1960s and early 1970s, it was pretty much standard operating procedure for a team to try to KO an opposition star in the opening minutes - Peter Hudson in 1971 being one notable victim. (It was equally standard operating procedure that the concussed player was left out there, coaches being unwilling to use a substitute - in those days they were substitutes, not interchanges - on someone who could be left to stand on the forward line and keep a defender occupied even if they didn't know which way the goals were).

Quads pretty ugly this morning, but did improve somewhat after the first few hundred metres. Still very much a post-long-run run, but it's good to be in a position where I'm having post-long-run runs.

The watch mentioned yesterday got its first workout this morning, and informed me after the finish that I'd just done a PB for 5k (the small matter of 12 minutes outside my actual 5k PB), 1k, 1 mile and longest run. I won't get too excited (and don't expect too many of these to last another 24 hours).

An evening swim - seem to be settling into that for a pattern for this session, which seems to work OK (fits in nicely before a 7.20 massage session). Thought this would loosen my quads up, which didn't really happen (with a couple of foot cramps to provide evidence that I'd been doing some work). Reasonable swim notwithstanding those issues. Put some new goggles into action tonight, and they seem to work (better than the last lot, anyway).

The masseur definitely earned her money tonight.

I'd been planning this weekend as one for a decent long run for a while (no Sunday event, and long distance races coming up the next two weekends), but was a little apprehensive after the last couple of weeks. Still took the plunge, and whilst various bits of the body were at niggle stage at some points, didn't have anything I would describe as an injury issue.

I've had some seriously good long runs in the past around this time of year (last weekend of May/first weekend of June). Today wasn't in that company, but it was decent, getting off to a good start in the first 30 minutes and mostly steady thereafter. Doing it a bit later in the morning than would usually be the case (which meant a bit more traffic on the roads, and more small kids on bikes in the vicinity of the Collingwood Children's Farm), though still quiet in the suburbs through such areas as the Sackville loop and the west side of North Balwyn. Quads intermittently sore in the second hour, especially coming off downhills, and was hanging on a bit in the last 10 minutes.

Slightly annoyed to look things up afterwards and discover I'd fallen just short of my longest run this year, but it's still my longest since New Year's Day. Definitely knew in the afternoon that I'd been for a run.

I'll find out soon enough whether my watch was short-changing me, because I've gone out and got a new one (apart from its possible distance issues, it was starting to struggle to hold a charge). Also on display in Rebel Sport was the NRL Monopoly game, which presumably has cards which involve your team's star player being caught snorting cocaine, urinating against the side of a police car or performing unnatural acts with small domestic animals.

C • Monopoly 7

Fronted up to my eighth course in a week at Bendigo's 40th anniversary event at Wildflower Drive, an area typical of the less intense terrain types on the fringe of Bendigo (fast open forest, and the odd pit and erosion gully but not much mining detail as such). Was wondering why the first few legs were largely track legs but realised that the courses were designed to contain the shape of a '40' (and I guess the first part was common to all courses, including the easier ones).

Took a bit of time to get going but eventually running reasonably well, and by recent standards happy with the way I managed the two major uphill grinds at 6 and 9. Only a couple of minor wobbles, one drifting a bit too far on the way to hitting the track at 8, the other being a little slow to pinpoint the vague and flat 16. Certainly the fastest kilometre rate I've done this year, but probably about a par result relative to the field (except for Jim - who did 37 - who I think is in his best form for at least a couple of years).

The pictures of the 40th birthday cake are definitely worth looking for on Facebook (I guess they'll also appear on the Bendigo website in due course).

Earlier, for the second successive Saturday morning, my Station Street shopping trip was to the backdrop of a lot of police - this time for the aftermath of a car crash (a car going down Station Street, apparently at reasonable speed, hit a parked car hard enough to push it up onto the footpath). From the enthusiasm with which the driver reportedly scarpered I think one can reasonably presume that either he knew himself to be under the influence of something or the car was stolen (or possibly both of the above). No-one hurt as far as anyone knows.

Woke up feeling somewhat sub-par and decided not to push things this morning. Quads loosened up fine in the first few minutes, but still a few niggles around (and hip quite sore this afternoon). Not entirely happy with where I am just at the moment; have a decent long one in mind for Sunday but will need to wait and see.

Spent a fair of time on my feet tonight running the annual Ivanhoe Labor quiz night (I still cross the creek to do this). One of the regular features is the half-time paper plane competition where people attempt to fly a particularly odious document into a rubbish bin, and the one we used tonight was definitely worth of such a destination - copies of Roger Franklin's Quadrant article (the one which mused about bombing the ABC studios). Naturally in the interests of fairness and balance I assume he's been furiously condemned on the front page of the Daily Telegraph over the last couple of days.

Certainly didn't feel like running this morning, with quads that weren't in post-marathon (or Six Foot) shape but still pretty ordinary. Headed for the water instead, running a little late to start with (and then later still because what looked like base camp for a film shoot had appropriated all the nearby parking at Fitzroy). Think the session did me good for loosening up, although what I feel like tomorrow will probably be more of a test.