Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Not training as such but longer-than-usual commute rides (once again on Chinese visa business); a bit tired at the end in much the same way as last week. Weather wasn't as nice for riding as yesterday (and I was reminded that the shores of Albert Park Lake are a windy place), but on the other hand the rides didn't feature any incidents like yesterday, so I'll take that as a net gain.

Foot continuing to heal, very slowly. Depending on what it feels like in the morning I may have a go at running on it tomorrow.

Fun fact: Australia's first WOC competitor, Rod Dominish, spent longer on his course in that one event than Henry McNulty has in total in his nine WOC races so far.

C • Rod 8

Regular Monday morning pilates session. Seemed to handle it OK, although still pretty tender on the affected areas (basically the left side of my ankle). The commute ride was also OK, although I probably could have done without seeing something which looked awfully like what gets euphemised as a "police incident" on one of the back streets on the way home. (Nothing in the news, and I'm assuming the numerous police in attendance wouldn't have let me go past if it was a crime or accident scene, so not sure what happened).

C • PI 3

Continued to feel improved today and felt as if I could just about have tried an easy run, but didn't think rough terrain was a good first test for it so headed out on the bike instead for a lap of the Yarra Boulevard (a bit easier to access now with the Chandler Bridge redevelopment). Seemed to go more or less OK. Not as much bike bling on display as I'd expected here on a Sunday morning - they must all be at Beach Road instead.

Some signs, which I imagine are honoured in the breach more than the observance, have appeared saying that riding is only allowed on paved paths at Yarra Bend.

Headed out after this to the Melbourne Bush O event at Tikalara - I said I'd help out and was down for a finish shift at 12pm, but the juniors running the show beforehand seemed in no hurry to relinquish their duties so I didn't have a lot to do other than stand around and be social and/or presidential. Took the opportunity afterwards to explore a few riverside nooks in the Warrandyte areas which I haven't been to before. (Even if I didn't get to add to the numbers, the turnout today was in the 170s, which was very pleasing).

And my latest project is to collate a full set of Australian WOC results. Made it as far today as getting them all on paper, now just need to enter them into an electronic file.

Some improvement today - definitely walking more comfortably than the last couple of days - but the affected area still seems a bit delicate to subject it to any undue stress. Feels like it's not too far away, but I have said that before now.

Much as yesterday, but the process of shedding skin is now almost complete, so hopefully the process of healing what's underneath can get properly under way.

My historical wanderings lately took me to the 2013 Australian Sprint Championships. The M14 field contained five of this year's JWOC team but the results weren't exactly predictive of what was to come; Aston was 18th (a bit below halfway) and the others were 6th, 7th, 12th and 19th.

Bit of a setback today, although a perhaps unsurprising one - most of the outer skin has now come off where the swelling was and what's underneath doesn't particularly like being pressed on by a shoe at the moment, meaning that walking has become a bit awkward again. Hopefully this will settle down again within the next couple of days as things heal, but for the moment I don't want to put it under unnecessary stress.

Thought it was about time to see if I could still run without doing so much as to risk damaging myself unduly if the answer was "not really", so testing things out from a low base - going around the block. Seemed to work OK (initial soreness easing) so there doesn't seem to be anything too badly wrong structurally, although it was a bit painful on the limited uneven ground, probably because of where the tenderness is (left side of the foot/ankle, basically), which may not be encouraging for my chances of getting out orienteering on Sunday. Will be cautious returning to more substantial running, but this was a moderately encouraging start.

I'm progressively losing a bit more of the skin left over from the swelling. From a week where I'd been through the equivalent of doing an ankle without doing an ankle, I'm now at the point of the equivalent of having major blisters without having major blisters. Fortunately none of it is happening in weight-bearing areas but it's still annoying.