Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

After the struggle with the back that yesterday was I wasn't too surprised to wake up pretty stiff this morning; had a go at getting out anyway but quickly realised it wasn't a goer (a pity because the track out to the Campaspe-Murray junction would have been a nice one to run). Still, had the chance to have a good look around the old port.

However, as the sign on the wall outside the Tallygaroopna school said, if plan A doesn't work, there are still 25 letters remaining in the alphabet, and I only needed to use one of them, in the form of my first pool session for a while at Northcote after getting back to Melbourne. The timing was good, a few minutes after the back edge of the rainband went through (Northcote has an indoor pool, but a water temperature of 33 degrees is just a tad too warm for serious exercise unless you're trying to heat-acclimatise). Unsurprisingly I had the outdoor pool pretty much to myself as the skies slowly cleared. Took a while to get back into the swing of things, but working it pretty hard in the last 10-15 minutes.

Made my orienteering comeback today through the not especially glamorous channel of a course 2 at the Bendigo Saturday event at Mosquito Creek. This is the sort of open flattish gully-spur area that I'd have been chasing sub-5s on back in the day (the map has a fair bit of green on it but the green wasn't much slower than the white), so made for a gentle return - certainly a lot more gentle than Daylesford tomorrow. Nice time of year for the Eppalock forests as well - lots of green grass (and no spider webs).

I needed a gentle return because my back was struggling on the hills - even when walking on the one steep one into #2 - and my fitness was predictably non-existent too. Didn't run too many climbs bigger than one contour, but at least managed to get round, the first time I've managed this since the Queen's Birthday events in SA (and for a fair bit longer in Victoria). A few hesitations pinpointing controls in a vague area, but not really any actual mistakes. Will take this as something to build on. Haven't seen results, but Michael Loughnan was a couple of minutes ahead of me.

I then took the opportunity of a clearish weekend and already being a reasonable distance north to check out some bits of northern Victoria I haven't been to before, including going to one national park I haven't been to before (Terrick Terrick, with some granite domes - although no rock away from the ridgeline - and cypress pine forest, a rarity in Victoria) - though oddly enough for territory I've rarely been in, at one point I was on the road which was the first rural road I drove (coming back from Kooyoora to Canberra in the early stages of my Ls). Ended up in Echuca, and ventured across the river in the evening to one of the pokie palaces - in pre-Crown days these were the closest pokies to Melbourne and had the bus tours to prove it - thinking that I'd have a better chance of finding the Storm-Raiders game on a bar TV on that side of the border, but no luck (a pity given how stirring the game was).

C • Terrick Terrick 14

Possibly the most obscure crime that anyone's gone to jail for in Australia this year.

C • Aussie crimes 2

A somewhat unconvincing run, but that's not unusual in the week or two after coming back from an extended layoff. Back slowly loosened up somewhere around the All Nations hill but never really flowing freely. Still, it's a necessary part of a comeback.

Shortly before setting out, reading the paper gave an indication of a lot that is wrong with 21st century capitalism, in the form of an article which started ""Funeral operator InvoCare has told investors the flu season will be crucial to its financial performance for the year after missing profit guidance in the first half". And then there was the news that Donald Trump reportedly wants to buy Greenland...

Tight enough today that, after an initial attempt, I thought probably best to stick to alternate days at this point of my return. Spent some decent commuting time on the bike (easier going in with the wind than home against it). Didn't go the full distance at WOC, but was still up until close to midnight.

The hamstring sore spot disappeared overnight as abruptly as it had appeared the previous night, so it was back out there this morning, dealing with more conventional problems like not being properly awake for an early morning run. Took a while to get into it but better towards the end, and took on a few more (modest) hills this time. Slowness was partly because of dealing with the skating rink in parts of Darebin Parklands - the rain of recent days has made its presence felt.

Today's entry in the Where Are They Now department is Peter Markworth, who was in the Victorian schools team in the later 2000s. These days he's a forecaster for us up in Darwin, and his partner is a local TV news reporter, which in a place as small as Darwin means turning up in the gossip column of the Northern Territory News in articles which contain words like "hunk" (as you can imagine this generated a certain amount of workplace mirth). As far as I know no crocodiles were involved.

Woke up with a sore spot in the hamstring today - perhaps an indicator of the shock faced by underworked muscles. Started out on a run and it was OK to run on in the first couple of minutes, but was sore enough restarting after my first traffic stop to think that I might be risking doing it further damage by continuing. Hopefully won't persist too long. My usual plan B in such situations also wasn't available as my foot is not yet in a condition where I would want to put it into a public pool (although it isn't too far away).

For those who've heard the story about the flash flood and the bridge at the 1996 Swiss World Cup race, this is a pretty good indicator of what it looked like (the bridge wasn't quite as flimsy but the creek was just as menacing).

Woke up pretty stiff and with back tightness this morning - think I would have struggled to manage a run even if it had been part of my plans for today. Wasn't always easy to do some of the exercises in the session, either, but ended up getting through it, more or less. (It must have done me some good because I felt much better later in the day).

The days are getting a little longer, but it was still a novelty to ride home in daylight. (I was making an early trip home to be there in time for an IOF Foot O Commission meeting).