Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Set out with an original plan of an hour and see how my various injuries felt. It turned out to be a reasonably positive day, although there were just enough twinges in the Achilles (and it is localised to the Achilles today) on or after hills to make me think that going out much further wouldn't have been a great idea. Still a reasonably encouraging session and felt like I was moving OK in a running sense. Back fine. Appreciated the cloud not breaking up until after I was done.

Will hope to do a proper long run next weekend, although from past experience, election-night nutrition (or the absence thereof) may not be a hugely favourable prelude to this.

Spent a bit of time on this run thinking about yesterday's events at North Sydney in general, and in particular pondering the question of whether Ellyse Perry could hold down a place in a men's team at Shield level. In effect the question you're asking here is whether the world's number 1 ranked woman can perform at a level to be in a country's top 66 men, and the evidence from those sports where we can measure that objectively would suggest that the answer is probably yes (can't imagine there are too many countries which have 66 men who can go under 2.17 for the marathon, for instance).

Sprint into Spring, RMIT Bundoora. My ankle was no better this morning than it was yesterday and I wasn't at all sure whether I'd be able to run, but I loosened it up by a somewhat unorthodox method - spending a couple of hours walking the streets of Thornbury in the name of democracy. (Hard work for limited return - I suspect at best I might have converted two votes - but it all counts).

The ankle may have been OK on the run but the rest of me wasn't feeling too flash (possibly something to do with the aforementioned doorknock) - felt tight whenever I tried to speed up on the first half, so I wasn't all that surprised when Asha was through me by 8. The second half was somewhat better and the splits started to improve, even though there were quite a few straight running legs in that second half in what was generally a runner's course, and the result was a bit less awful than it was at Edgewater (i.e. Clara only beat me by two minutes this week). Quite a hot day.

Achilles soreness seems to have evolved into more general left ankle soreness/stiffness. Not good to run on this morning (in fact not even particularly comfortable to walk on), but did seem to loosen up a bit during the course of the day so we'll see how it is tomorrow. This week has ended up being a bit of a write-off.

Spotted a couple of familiar names in the news today from my school maths competition days. One (who went into law) was giving an opinion on whether the fact that any Jew has the right to immigrate to Israel and become a citizen makes them ineligible for Parliament (answer: probably not, which is just as well because it wouldn't be a good look for Australia if we booted all Jews out of Parliament). The other became a Silicon Valley start-up investor and made bucketloads out of (among other things) being an early backer of Snapchat. From some of the numbers quoted in the article, I wouldn't be surprised if his worth (on paper at least) starts with a B rather than an M.

Took me a long time to feel as if I was working, but eventually managed it. Sun was quite blinding on the return legs for the first 20 minutes or so (this is the transition day from cool spring to warm spring).

Went to a by-election candidates' forum tonight, which as you might expect, included numerous audience statements disguised as questions, some candidate answers which bore only a passing connection to the questions they were responding to, a certain amount of heckling, and some outlandish promises by independent candidates who know they'll never have to deliver on them (the most extravagant of these was the candidate who promised to spend the $6 billion Victoria receives in stamp duty on public housing, leaving unsaid how he proposed to fund the $6 billion worth of activities that stamp duty pays for now).

Thought I'd struggle to come up for tonight after my back felt tight on the bike this morning (the first time I can remember that happening), especially given that it was a pretty hilly area (Ruffey Lake). I was right...

One-sided cricket match of the season (so far): was browsing NZ domestic scores today and spotted the Auckland-Wellington match, where Auckland were bowled out for 62 (having been 7/12), then Wellington put on 0/432 in response. They eventually declared at 550-odd and won by an innings and plenty.

Dad was keen on going for a walk around the Brunswick West event tonight (his knees aren't currently up to running) so I was quite happy to join in. The original plan was to use it for a fartlek session (hard on alternate legs), but my back wasn't great and I settled for a jog. Started to feel a bit better in the second half. Overshot an early control - the map was right but the description was wrong and I ran to the description rather than the centre of the circle...

A pretty busy media day today, including ABC and SBS TV.

C • Damn, if I'd realised this ... 1

A very early wake-up call for a 6.35 flight out of Launceston's sparsely-populated airport - with today being a public holiday in northern Tasmania and a de facto one in Melbourne, there weren't a lot of business travellers around. (In case you're wondering, the public holiday was for "Recreation Day" - as far as I can tell, this is the day that northern Tasmanians get because they don't get Hobart Regatta Day, the principal function of which appears to be to find a vantage point over the Derwent and get drunk whilst pretending to watch yachts, on the evidence of the copious quantities of relevant rubbish I found at said vantage points when I rocked up in Hobart the day after Regatta Day a few years back).

Was hoping to get out at lunchtime but various parts weren't playing ball - in particular, Achilles was pretty sore today. A long day in other respects, with the report I worked on in Geneva coming out at 10pm (and that was after an 8pm remote presentation to a workshop in Tarragona - which I presume is still in Spain, although I haven't checked the news in the last couple of hours).

C • Spain 1