Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First day of Sprint Adelaide, a night event at the (defunct) Belair golf course - first time I've done a night event (other than on streets) for years. Main concern for me was how my body would function late in the day and coming off a plane. The answer for the first 15 minutes was ugly and had to walk up a couple of the hills, but then loosened up reasonably well and not too bad for the second half. Never really much beyond a shuffle though. Navigation reasonably good, although with the 30-second start intervals there were enough people around to show one into a lot of the controls (most of which were in the strips of forest between the fairways). Took a while to work out how the tees and greens were mapped.

Leith claimed my scalp, and Jenny almost did (from memory I think she's done it once, when I came horrendously unstuck at a post-OA Conference street-O a few years back).

Definitely glad I wasn't trying to run in Melbourne this morning. It hit 35 degrees in Melbourne (a temperature of some significance to tradies who get to knock off for the day when this happens) at 7.36am, beating the previous record of 8.26am set on 29 January 2009. I tried to do a long run on 29 January 2009. It didn't end well.

C • Jenny 4

Woke up with a stiff back this morning so thought the water was a better option (had I been in Adelaide, on its way to 47 degrees or thereabouts, I would have considered the water a better option for other reasons; our turn comes tomorrow). Ended up a fairly routine session, even though I didn't feel much looser at the end than I did at the start (I eventually felt somewhat better after getting the train to work).

Lots of records-tracking once in the office, as you might expect.

C • Records... 6

The objective tonight was to see if I could get through an evening run; it being the first one back, I decided to go for C rather than A. Calf and Achilles were OK, and back was only troublesome on the steep climb through 11, but this was still a real struggle - don't think my quads enjoyed their first steep downhill in months. Will get better from here (I hope!). At least I think I got something close to the optimal route - it was 800m shorter than the setter's projection so it can't have been too bad.

My version of Attack of the Killer Physio seems to have worked, at least for today - it was a rather sleepy and unenergetic run (probably thanks to a late night at the tennis last night) but all relevant body parts were functioning more or less as they supposed to, and ventured onto some rougher tracks on Darebin Parklands without any problems other than being very slow (a marked contrast to Sunday where a half-contour bump was enough to set the Achilles off). Hopefully something to build from.

There was some mirth around today at news that the government was announcing funding for a replica vessel to circumnavigate Australia for the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's voyage (those with a knowledge of Australian history will recognise the problem here). Other parts of the voyage which I presume will not be accurately re-enacted include sailing straight past the entrance of Sydney Harbour, running aground on the Great Barrier Reef and firing muskets at uppity members of the local indigenous population.

There was also some discussion today as to what we should call this summer now that it looks highly likely that it will comprehensively beat most of the heat records set in the so-called "Angry Summer" of 2012-13. My entry so far is that the Angry Summer is about to be downgraded to 'slightly miffed'.

C • Things Cook didn't do: 20

Early-morning pilates session. Seemed to be working some of the muscles harder this morning, which I take to mean that I was doing more of the exercises properly.

Unusually, this was directly before a massage/needles session, which as noted in recent days was badly needed. The fact that it was badly needed was reinforced by how strongly my calves responded to the needles - I was shuffling round for most of the rest of the day.

Once again, 30-40 minutes seems to be an upper limit for my calves/Achilles at the moment. Getting out for this is better than nothing but still well short of what I'd want to be doing. Did feel at least half-reasonably for as long as that part of the body held up.

Not the most convincing of efforts, but at least I managed to get out for something which bore a vague passing resemblance to a run without completely falling apart. Achilles still not brilliant - next physio session on Monday can't come soon enough. More pleasant conditions than has been the case through the week.

Having a weekend day at home did provide the opportunity to get some things done (albeit not as many as I had intended), as well as spend some Christmas book vouchers...