Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Quite a promising run - slow to start with but once through the first couple of kilometres, the best I've felt running for a few weeks. Not the worst of days for it to happen with Easter getting under way tomorrow. I feel rather underdone for this, although probably no worse than last year.

Put the replacement buses on the Hurstbridge line to the test this morning. Worked pretty smoothly actually - probably only 5-10 minutes slower than the train - but the connections were as good as you could expect and the traffic seemed lighter than it has been for most of the last couple of weeks. One advantage of travelling with parents is that they took my bag to the airport, saving me from hauling it to work and onwards. (Hauling my bag to work en route to/from the airport is not an unusual experience for me - my colleagues are certainly quite used to seeing me turn up with a sprawling pack).

Headed down to Tasmania this afternoon. The Sandy Bay Coles (and more specifically its car park) gave one the impression that the locals thought it was going to be closed for the next 24 days and not the next 24 hours.

C • Sprawling pack 1

A bit of an infrastructure-themed run today - starting by going past the Grange Road construction site, then having my first experience of the new Darebin bridge path, then past the newly-installed beams at the Chandler Highway bridge. As those who've been around for a while will know, the Darebin path has faced a very long gestation (more than 20 years, I think), and trenchant opposition from local interests on both sides of the river who would rather keep their pockets of Melbourne to themselves, but it's here now. It was nice to explore new territory (and discover that there's a set of rapids on the Yarra that I didn't previously know about). Reasonable run, and no injury hassles on the longest run since returning.

Poll of the day: one which asked "do you believe that multinational companies should be required to pay their fair share of tax?". Remarkably enough, 5% of those surveyed answered "no" to this. (84% yes, 11% don't know), but you can get 5% or so of the population to answer anything on a poll, as evidenced by the Herald-Sun some years ago getting a 4% yes to "Do you believe convicted child rapist Mr. Baldy should be released early from prison?".

Quads still pretty ugly today but decided to head out, taking advantage of (a) the first sub-10 morning of the autumn and (b) the rare opportunity to cross Grange Road at 7.30 on a weekday morning without any traffic. Wasn't actually too bad while I was running - certainly easier than walking (and much easier than going down stairs), except on downhills which this run didn't have too many of. Slow, but that's fine for this sort of run. Quads did improve a bit during the day so hopefully back in action tomorrow.

It was reported today that the Government is considering an Australian boycott of the World Cup in Russia to save us the embarrassment of losing so badly as a gesture of solidarity with the UK over the chemical attack there. (I'm surprised none of my Norwegian relatives or friends have yet seen fit to sledge me over Friday night's result).

C • Norwegian relatives or friends 2

In two minds before today as to whether I'd run or take to the water (not yet up to trying to do both), but woke up this morning to discover that yesterday's steep downhills did to my quads what downhills sometimes do (something which came as about as much of a surprise as Australia's batting collapse), so it was the water. Felt like the time in the water had loosened me up, but given the way I felt during the day every time I got up from my desk, perhaps not. Should blow over quickly enough.

Today definitely had a first-day-of-autumn sense to it. Some seemed to be perturbed that the pool temperature was outside the range of 26.8 to 27.2 (it was 26.0), but it didn't bother me in the least.

Event: Victorian Autumn Series 1 - Eureka Challenge
 

A rather extreme course at Mount Beckworth with over 8% climb - the most, I think, that I've ever had on a course in Australia (although not too different to Spain a few weeks ago).

The good news here is that I got through without any injury problems (although I suspect my quads will tell me that I've done something hard when I get up tomorrow). I couldn't run up many of the hills but I suspect I wasn't alone there, and was a bit further up the results than I sometimes am these days (although still 20 minutes behind Kerrin/Pat/Aston). No real mistakes, just 10 seconds or so wide on a couple, and two wider route choices (the walking track around the end of the spur on 7, and through the saddle on 14) both seemed to pay off. 16 and 17 were pretty hairy (16 would have been dangerous in the wet), and the course probably would have been better without them, too.

My biggest mistake of the day was on the way there - dropped about 10 minutes because we came in one road parallel to the one we wanted, and then compounded it when we turned around when the cross road turned into a small track, which Google said went through and Apple said didn't (Google was right).

First run back, and a reasonably positive return - as always after a significant layoff, the actual running side was hard work until things started to click again at about 20-25 minutes, but any mild discomfort in the injury site disappeared in the first couple of minutes. Will be interesting to see how it handles something steep and longer tomorrow. Got this done just before the first serious rain for a couple of months unloaded.

This was my first bit of suburban exploration for a couple of weeks so it was my first chance to see the Grange Road Big Dig in progress (as with other level crossing removal sites, this appears to be a significant toddler tourist attraction). The streets of Fairfield are also still liberally dotted with Labor signs, Greens signs and Stop Adani signs. I did see a picture during the week of a place with three signs: a Labor sign, a Stop Adani sign and a handwritten sign "Against The Mine, Still Voting For Ged" (which probably sums up the views of most of the local Labor contingent, too - noting that, as a means to the end of the Adani mine not happening, when compared with the other ways in which it might be stopped, allowing it to expire of its own accord for lack of anyone willing to lend it money has the advantage that it doesn't carry the risk of exposing taxpayers to mega-compensation payouts).

Also spotted was a van with the name of a business "Parthenon Marble", which I suspect might have drawn a certain amount of inspiration from a 200-year-old diplomatic dispute (the "Parthenon Marbles" are what the Greeks call the objects that they want to get back from the British Museum - although why they're called "marbles" is a bit of a mystery to me).

C • marbles 1

Everything old is new again; this was the first time I've swum at Collingwood for several years (I think the last time was when the outdoor pool at Fitzroy was closed because of fog), thanks to logistical plans for later in the day - with no trains running beyond Clifton Hill and an 11pm return from the football I wanted to position a car within striking distance of Clifton Hill station.

I suspected in mid-swim that I might have temporarily lost count of laps whilst distracted thinking about something else, and so it proved when I looked at the time (either that or this morning was really slow, which I don't think it was).

Somewhat to my surprise, the traffic this morning was no worse than usual, at least in the places where I was going. This doesn't actually surprise me that much - experience from other places shows that often when a significant link is taken out of action, within a few days people's behaviour adapts to the new reality (there's a particularly well-known example of this from the aftermath of a freeway bridge collapse in Minneapolis a few years ago). Still glad I'm not trying to commute in from significantly further out on the railway line, as some of my colleagues are - I'm close enough to Clifton Hill that the bus ride won't be too painful (although managing it with a pack on Thursday will be a challenge), and at a pinch it's even close enough to be walkable.

(Speaking of Easter, your summer heat-tolerance training isn't going to get much use - whilst things can shift around a bit at that sort of range, today's model run was indicating a significant cold outbreak with temperatures on Easter Sunday at the event area struggling to reach double figures).