Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Sprint relay at Yarra Valley Grammar, although I was running third in an unofficial (and incomplete) team. Pushed off at the start and instantly felt a sharp pain on the inside of my left knee; thought initially that my race was over inside 10 metres but decided to at least give it the first leg to see how it felt. The pain eased to nuisance level within a minute or two and didn't really affect my running except to make me a bit tentative on stairs and uphills, and this turned out to be probably my best run of the three (certainly aerobically). A bit less technical than the other two and went through it fairly smoothly.

As I thought I might, I pulled up pretty sore once cooled down and had difficulty walking in the rest of the day; no question of running in the afternoon, and I think I might be on the sidelines for a few days (not such a bad week for it to happen as the later part of this week was going to be a write-off anyway). The fact that I was still able to run the course suggests to me that there isn't a major structural problem and it's probably a strain of some description (albeit in a place which I've never experienced before).

Event: Melbourne Sprint Weekend
 

First race of Melbourne Sprint Weekend, at Monash. Felt as if I was in oxygen debt from the beginning, perhaps not too surprising given that I've been unwell the last couple of days. Not sure that I got all the right routes (but did get the biggest trap, 3, right), but only had one meaningful timeloss, perhaps 10 seconds at 11 where I didn't see that you had to come in from the back.

One of my objectives for the day was to defend 6 minutes on Martin. This was achieved, but that had more to do with his performance than mine; ended up about 7.5 minutes down.

Second race, at Caulfield Grammar Wheelers Hill (if anything ever happens to Melbourne Park, they could play the Australian Open there - they have 16 tennis courts). A small but fairly intense campus, so we expected it to be technical. That should have suited me, but in my current condition a second race in 35 degrees was stretching my capabilities too far, and I could barely run. In turn that had an effect on my concentration, although I sort of held it together for the first half, and only really started coming unstuck at 20, where I mistook a circular(ish) wall for the control circle; thinking that it was in the wrong place, this rattled me and I wobbled on 21 and 22 as well.

The worst was yet to come, though - I'd been to the wrong 14 (guilty as charged). I think this is the first time I've been to a wrong control in anything since 2000 (if you don't count my picking up the wrong map at WMOC 2014), and the first time in a sprint ever. This was a particularly spectacular outing of the karma bus because I'd been musing after the morning race as to why boys are so much worse at checking control codes than girls are (the morning ratio was 14 to 2).

I do feel a bit better today (in a non-running sense) than I did yesterday, and tomorrow's conditions should be kinder, so hopefully tomorrow will be better.

OK in the injury department, but otherwise today was a real struggle. A possible reason why was indicated afterwards when the headache (which had been OK overnight) returned during the day with a vengeance, this time without any altitudinal assistance - eased in the late afternoon (just in time for me to do something useful with the workday) but suggests that there's an illness of some kind underlying. Not the best of situations to be heading into the weekend in.

Back still a bit tight to run (although nowhere near as bad as last night) so took to the water instead - certainly a bit more relaxed than the equivalent session last time I did it in Geneva. Fairly slow but otherwise OK.

This was a prelude to a day trip to Canberra (the first of two I'll be doing in the next couple of weeks). The work part of it went well but the annoyance of the day was getting a bit of a headache before leaving, which then became more than a bit of a headache while in the air. Was certainly glad I wasn't flying much more than an hour in each direction.

My back disliked work as much as I can remember today, and I wouldn't have bothered to go out to street-O except that I'd driven to the station next to the start in the morning and got the train in, so had to go back out there anyway. Made a token attempt to warm up but the result was inevitable.

Getting across there in the morning was unpleasant, too, but at least that is something that has a finish date; the two major bottlenecks (the Grange Road level crossing and the narrowing to one lane on the Chandler bridge) will both be gone by the time the next summer season starts.

All Nations intervals. As seems to be becoming the norm with this session, felt like a bit of a struggle on the way there but more or less OK once I was actually doing the intervals. Even working hard enough to get a bit of a stitch on one of the reps.

On-leash compliance rate today: 1 from 10 (low even by usual standards).

Warm-up and down. As usual, getting across Station Street is easier at 8.00 (when it's at a standstill) than at 7.20 (when it's moving slowly). I suspect it will be easy to get across on that basis at all hours of the day in two weeks' time, when Grange Road closes for three weeks for level crossing works.

The left hip twinge in the pool yesterday didn't feature on the run, but did a bit on the ridge home. One to watch.

And they say no-one wins a trade war, but the headline-writers are doing OK so far, particularly the British one who reported on EU threats to impose retaliatory tariffs on American cars and bourbon: "Hit The Chevy With A Levy, Tax Your Whiskey and Rye".

C • That headline 4

Back to Fitzroy for the first time in a while. The main thing that's changed is that it is harder to get a parking spot nearby, which may be something to do with (a) the presence of a number of vans and 4WDs which look like they're being slept in and (b) the appearance of a number of notices advising that camping in vehicles on public land is illegal in the City of Yarra.

Session was reasonable. A bit of left hip soreness at times but that disappeared quickly enough.

Another (non-) landmark that's changed - the block of buildings on the La Trobe/Swanston corner (of which the Hungry Jacks was the best-known) is no more. It will be a new station a few years from now.

One of my intermittent attempts to see whether I can function after time at work. Took 10 minutes to get much beyond a shuffle but ended up doing OK, although this was never a particularly smooth run even in its better parts. I must have acclimatised pretty well to the European cold; 19 degrees felt warm.