Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Longer ride out onto a circuit I used to do a bit from a Heidelberg base, out along the Koonung Creek trail and back through Doncaster. Felt good to be out for something longer, even if I'd rather have been doing it on my legs. Handled the climbs (there are a few, though relatively short) OK.

It's a while since I've been out in these parts. Wasn't surprised to see signs in the Koonung parklands protesting against the plans to swallow a substantial part of said parklands for a freeway extension; was a little more surprised to see a drive-thru Krispy Kreme in Bulleen (just in case you want to make sure of the most unhealthy outcome possible). The driving in the eastern suburbs is a bit less aggressive than it is in the outer north, but someone (possibly someone coming off a big Saturday night) had obviously had some difficulty with it because I went past a scene with a vehicle on its roof in the middle of the road. Also the first time for a few months I've been past my old place, in a neighbourhood which is progressively getting more dense as remaining single houses get replaced by multi-unit developments (something I regard as a good thing in an area close to a major station and a big hospital, but I'm guessing that some don't agree with me).

Calf was fine on the ride and after it, but was a little sore later on in the day after a lengthy session of walking the streets in the name of democracy (to be specific, distributing a flyer about the planned removal of the Mont Albert level crossing to the area surrounding it - helping out a friend who's the Labor candidate for Box Hill). Will do me good to spend most of the day doing something physical, even if most of it was fairly low-intensity.

C • KK 1

Bike was functional again so decided to ride to and from the sprint event at RMIT Bundoora (where I was working on the finish). Got going reasonably well on the ride after the first few kilometres.

One thing which changes as you get away from the inner city is the attitude of drivers - it's no surprise that far fewer people ride in the outer suburbs. I was on the end of three lots of horn blasts/obscene gestures/abusive language in as many minutes (the worst of them coming from a car with a Liberal campaign sticker on the back).

Coming back, via a slightly different route (trying to avoid as much of Plenty Road as I could after the earlier experience, although there are parts which are difficult to avoid without a long detour as Bundoora has no other reasonably continuous north-south streets). Net downhill but also net headwind, which roughly seemed to cancel out.

The Garmin obviously didn't think I was trying because it thinks my recovery time is 0 hours. Calf gave no trouble either on the ride or afterwards.

First proper exercise for a few days, in the pool. Obviously freshness didn't help very much because this was a lacklustre session (although I think some of the slowness was because I wasn't pushing off on the turns). Calf felt fine while swimming but a bit tight after I got out - eased fairly quickly though.

The plan was then to start commuter rides again, but I had a flat tyre :-(.

Saw reports of a speech today by ardent climate sceptic MP Craig Kelly. Amongst the best of many comedy gems was "CO2 is what turns chardonnay into champagne". (Searching for information on the cold wave in Bangladesh in early January, I found many of the links were to climate sceptic sites; feel like I need a shower after reading some of those).

Physio verdict today: low-grade tear combined with some back-related neural issues. She thinks I'm still at least a week away from running, but has given me the all-clear to swim or ride, so I plan to do exactly that (from tomorrow).

Getting the train today did give me the opportunity to see a few of the sights this evening - Southern Cross station at 6pm on Oaks Day is a good place to see humanity at its most inebriated.

Another day of not much (in the training department at least). This did mean I missed out on being rained on at Summer Series (although it was as well that the event was at Doncaster - about as far north as the Wednesday nights get - as there was a big hailstorm a bit further south).

I spent the afternoon at Melbourne Uni, initially at a seminar and then working from one of the libraries to avoid wasting time travelling back to the office (and also to get some writing done without too many interruptions). I'm quite proud of my self-control - it turned out the spot I'd found for myself was in the same area as the university's map library but I managed to hold myself back from looking at that collection until I was ready to finish for the day.

Not being at the office this afternoon meant I wasn't distracted being asked for my interpretation of the latest American election results, as happens on the Wednesday after the Melbourne Cup every two years (a day otherwise known as Australian Electoral Commission Appreciation Day - although I think Australia is far from the only country which would be embarrassed if it turned out that the person responsible for running the election was also one of the candidates for it, as happened in the race for governor of Georgia).

Seems a pity to have a public holiday and not be able to do anything worthwhile with it (and my horse didn't win, either).

Spent a bit of time today working on the results archive, specifically trying to put full first names to initials from the 1989 Australian Relays results. This was, I suspect, complicated somewhat by some suspected ring-ins for Big Foot in the form of A.Smith (M21) and S.King (W21B) - neither Adam nor Susannah ran for their own clubs, and no-one else with those initials from Big Foot ran in the individual event. (If any Big Feet know differently, or can help with P.Marmara (M21B) or P.Jones (Mixed Senior), feel free to say so). I strongly suspect K.Mart (W21B, Illawarra) is a pseudonym.

Calf continues to feel at nuisance level - can walk on it with minor discomfort. Had a brief chat to the physio this morning (she also takes this pilates class) and she thinks I should go easy on it until seeing her properly on Thursday. Was able to do most of the session, though - just skipping a small proportion of the exercises which place load on that calf.

Whilst passing up a four-day weekend has its negatives, Cup Monday isn't a bad day to get work done - an easy commute and few interruptions (no-one organises a meeting for Cup Monday unless it's really urgent).