Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

About the best that can be said for this is that I got round, pretty unconvincingly (in a physical sense). Quite an interesting sprint area navigationally, making good use of a small campus, and the course had a reasonable amount of route choice - as evidenced by the fact that I was sort of in proximity to Jenny from #4 through to #14 and we took different routes on almost every leg (usually without a lot of difference between them). I think we ended up propping up the results list on A, unless there were some late finishers who were even slower.

The Australian did run something this morning (lead story on the front page, no less), but it could have been a lot worse - created a vibe of something dodgy but very little specific (and the specific is easily demonstrated to be wrong, which means we won't have to spend a week crunching numbers demonstrating why it's wrong). It's slightly surreal that being attacked - albeit not by name - on the front page of a national newspaper almost feels routine.

C • Pathetic rag 7

Woke up very stiff this morning (just to remind me that there are reasons not to keep pushing through on days when things are playing up). Still not great in the afternoon but took to the water after the end of the workshop sessions, which did seem to loosen me up, eventually. Northcote pool not as crowded as I thought it might be on a Friday evening (albeit a relatively cool one). Might be in for some unwelcome press attention over the next few days, and spent a greater proportion of this session than was healthy thinking about it.

Was hoping to do something longer today and had the 5.15 wake-up accordingly, but it didn't work out, with back iffy and also feeling a bit sniffly - worked out within 10 minutes or so that this was not a day to push boundaries and it was time to think 'minimum viable session'. Might give it another go tomorrow (when the workshop start time is also later).

Still a bit iffy in the first 15 minutes today but pushed through it. Felt rather slow and sluggish, particularly early - think I might be fighting off a cold.

This was a fairly early start, but not early enough - I've got a workshop at Monash in the remainder of this week and thought that a 7.45 departure should give me a reasonable amount of time to get there for a 9.00 start (Google said 55 minutes). It took 25 minutes just to get onto the Chandler Highway bridge, then going south on Middleborough Road took forever too. By 9.05 - with my own talk due to start at 9.15 - I was still 3km away, at which point I decided to ditch the car and use the bike that I still had in the back of the car. Walked in the door at 9.14.55...

C • Workshop 2

Thought this morning might not work out when I felt pretty tight last night, and so it proved. Plan B was to head for the water - the plan being a pool running session, but I'd forgotten the flotation belt so it was swimming again. This was a listless and sleepy session and won't be one I remember with any great fondness, but at least it got done.

I was preparing for some OMG-it's-snowing-in-summer media (something which happens on the peaks a couple of times every summer, although more often in December and January than February), but that didn't happen. Not much of the snow seems to have happened either (by the time it got cold enough the system had more or less run out of moisture). We missed out on the dust that southern NSW, and Canberra, got to enjoy.

Early Monday pilates - back to what I think of as the routine even though it hasn't been followed too much lately. A few variations on the usual program which seemed to work me a bit harder (which was presumably the idea). Felt OK once doing it, having felt not quite right when I got up (probably better it was this session than a run).

Evening session at Fitzroy, having decided that I didn't have quite enough time after pilates to squeeze it in before work and still get in at a respectable time. For the first couple of laps, felt as non-functional in the water as I did last time, but got going quite well after that - having to pull out a burst of extra pace to pass people is sometimes worthwhile to get oneself going in such circumstances.

Earworm of the day was "We're going up and the Town are going down" (to the tune of 'Yellow Submarine').

C • Someone tried to pass me by... 5

Another step forward, actually going beyond the hour mark for the first time in a while. Didn't feel quite as energetic as yesterday; not too bad on the injury front after a few early wobbles, although Achilles was intermittently awkward in the last 20 minutes. Better at the end without a sense that a second hour would have been particularly easy; had thoughts of going out past 70 had it been a good day, but reasonably happy to settle for what I did.

Dropped in on the Darebin velodrome on the way back (discovering in the process that a new Bunnings is sprouting on Darebin Road) to see how Liz Randall was going in her bid for a W75 one-hour world record. She was well ahead of pace at that stage and still was at the finish line; over 36km (which I think is several kilometres beyond the previous mark - drug test results pending). I think I'd do well to get close to that now, and will certainly be pleased with how life has treated me if I'm up to anything remotely like that come 2046.