Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

This day essentially disappeared, even in a theoretical sense - in terms of time zones being overflown, I think the passing of midnight wasn't too far away from the crossing of the date line. The Vancouver-Sydney flight wasn't too bad as long-haul flights go; had one of the few vacant seats on the flight next to me, and got 6-7 hours of at least intermittent sleep.

Wasn't flying out until the evening so took the opportunity to link up with Louise Oram and Thomas Nipen (over here visiting family) and their running group, mostly other Vancouver orienteers. Thomas's group is too fast for me these days so I joined the Louise group instead, for a session mostly on forest tracks through the Pacific Spirit Park out towards UBC.

This was a very nice run - good setting, good company, and the relevant parts of my body worked (with the Achilles only starting to play up a bit in the last 15 minutes). A nice day too, dry and maybe 6-7 degrees. Definitely felt good for having done this. Good lunch afterwards too (with the added bonus of 1st birthday celebrations for Tessa). A nice note to leave Vancouver on.

(The bus going back to the city was standing room only, at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon. I wonder if it's occurred to anyone in a relevant position of authority in Australia that if you provide frequent services - every 15 minutes for this route - people will use them? In general I was surprised how relatively little peak-hour traffic there was in downtown Vancouver, and can only assume that public transport gets heavily used).

Not really looking forward to plunging straight back into a heatwave, although Melbourne will miss the worst of this.

C • Thanks 4

Stationary bike in the hotel. Was originally thinking of the morning but felt very sleepy (possibly the product of a late night last night at the hockey) and knew I'd have a potential timeslot in the late afternoon, so went for that instead. A decent session although no more interesting than a stationary bike usually is, despite the collection of three news channels to watch (the news being displayed thereon wasn't very cheery, although I did find slightly quirky a headline relating to a car factory closure in Ontario "Union calls on Ford to meet GM CEO").

The meeting is finished now; as with last time, not quite sure what I've let myself in for but hoping the outcome will be worthwhile.

Canadian cultural assimilation note: consumed poutine today.

Had really hoped for something better here, but Achilles was suspect from the start and didn't get any better as it went on. Had planned to get deep into Stanley Park, but only got as far as Third Beach, and from then on it was really only workable in sections which were flat. The calf is the fundamental problem here, so will do some work with the foam roller and hope for something better - want to be able to do something worthwhile on Saturday.

Following the meeting sessions today, I took in a genuine Canadian cultural experience - the ice hockey. Vancouver lost 4-3 in overtime. As far as I know there have not yet been any riots.

Hotel pools are never really ideal for this sort of session, but I was a bit slack to walk to the main public pool on a wet morning (that pool - built for the 1954 Empire Games - was about a 10-minute walk away), so this was it. Never felt as if I properly got going, but a bit more awake than I was at this time yesterday (and not feeling quite as flat during the day, either - perhaps energised, if that's the right word, by the news that I've had two significant new issues dropped on my plate by discussions here in the last 24 hours).

Late afternoon was devoted to each chapter finding a Vancouver landmark to have ourselves photographed at. We contemplated doing ours at the Trump hotel (Vancouver has one, which I assume is a popular gathering place these days for demonstrations of all kinds), but thought that might be a bit too cheeky.

C • Wait for summer 3

Not really injury problems but otherwise a terrible run. Didn't sleep very well last night, for no obvious reason, and still felt half-asleep when I set out. Sometimes beginning a run shakes me out of this mode but it didn't really happen today. Had started out with thoughts of going to an hour or beyond - taking advantage of the last dry weather for a while - but was quickly reassessing in terms of "minimum respectable session".

Did at least manage to explore a new bit of the city, the Kitsilano Beach area after going across the Burrard Bridge (not as cold as it would have been in yesterday's wind).

I think this is talking about the Fitzroy pool, although I'm usually too early in the day to see any of the described subcultures on display.

C • PRR 2

Thought my quads (or perhaps other muscles) might have sent me a message about doing things yesterday that they were unaccustomed to. That didn't happen, but this was still a fairly mediocre run, and definitely a slow one. Headed up towards Stanley Park, just getting into its near corner at the far end. A windy morning, windy enough that waves were splashing over the coastal path, which led me to give it a miss (there's a section of the full Stanley Park circuit that gets closed under such conditions). Back OK for the most part but a little tight later, which is unusual.

Plunged into work in earnest today, although there was enough time at lunchtime to go to the waterfront and get pictures of the mountain view, this being the only clear day we're likely to see here.