Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Lakeshore intervals. Ankle stiffness had gone but Achilles quite sore. Almost gave it away after the first rep but persisted, and ended up gradually improving as the set went on (although not at what I'd consider close to full pace until the last three). Got through the full set again, so that's another indicator of progress.

Warm-up and down. Found a new way of getting along the length of the Paquis quarter which didn't involve going out to the main roads (surprising that I haven't seen this before given that I've stayed in this quarter on multiple occasions over the last decade). This took me to past a new addition in the plethora of Swiss recycling bins - there's now one for "capsules de cafe".

C • Déchèterie 1

Ankle was stiff and sore when I got up this morning - not quite sure why. Awkward to run on so I decided to swap today's planned session with tomorrow and took to the water after work instead. It's a bit less crowded in the evening than it is at lunchtime but there were still moments when negotiating the turns was a bit like negotiating the roads of Laos or Thailand. A rather slow session but otherwise OK.

The news came through not long before I started that there had been a significant (6.0 or 6.4 depending on whose numbers you believe) earthquake in the vicinity of Luang Prabang. Reports so far suggest not too much damage (and no casualties), which surprises me a little given local building standards (or the absence thereof).

The plan was to head out to one of my favourite old Geneva haunts, the path along the Arve river (although this run wasn't long enough to get out to the power station). It was clear from early on that as long as my Achilles was prepared to play ball (which it eventually was), I was up for this, and it ended up being perhaps my most enjoyable run over the last few months - surprised it wasn't a bit faster. Flowing quite well over the later stages, after a decent climb up the hill out of Bout-du-Monde. Nice running morning, still, dry and about +4.

With the new railway (connecting Geneva with the French commuter towns to the south) only a few weeks away from opening, I thought the bit of the path which had been blocked off for building works for about the last three years would be open again, but no such luck :-(.

I haven't quite managed to adjust to the time zone yet this time, which is an advantage in the morning, but not so much so in the afternoon.

Achilles pretty bad today - definitely the worst it's been on this trip. Probably overdue for a bit of treatment, so will appreciate next week's version of Attack of the Killer Physio (tm), I suspect. Closest I got to exercise was walking to and from the office (about 20 minutes each way), and an excursion outside at lunchtime during which I noted that there was no giant inflatable object outside UN headquarters to mark World Toilet Day this year.

This picture looks familiar - not because of fire but because I think it was the scene of the most serious road accident I've been in, when a motorcyclist lost control on a bend and hit us head-on on the way back to Brisbane from the 1997 WOC trials. The motorcyclist went over the top of the car and was badly injured but survived (which he probably wouldn't have had he hit a tree instead), the car was a write-off but none of us were badly hurt; Ben Schulz, who would have only been about 19 at the time, was driving, and didn't panic and try to swerve wildly as I imagine a lot of inexperienced drivers would in that situation.

(Walking away from that did place not being picked in that WOC team in some level of perspective).

The (rather generalised) fire maps I've seen take in a number of 1990s vintage O maps (most of which I gather had become unusable because of lantana), as well as the Perseverance Dam camp - wonder if it's survived?

Woke up somewhat earlier than I had planned on, but at least that meant I was awake when I went out at sunrise. Ended up as a reasonable run once loosened up (I was going to say "warmed up" but that may not be entirely appropriate); an out-and-back along the lake shore. Back tightened a little in the last kilometre which is slightly unusual, and chafing I picked up walking around on Saturday in Singapore was a bit of a nuisance at times.

No snow in Geneva, but there was a bit on cars (mostly ones with French plates), so I suspect it wasn't too far away - maybe at 500-550m? (Geneva's at 375).

If Israel Folau is looking for an extreme climate event to blame on the legalisation of same-sex marriage, surely the heatwave in Sodom - which in July reached 49.9, the highest temperature in Israel since 1942 - is a more obvious candidate?

C • Don't... 1

Flew overnight from Singapore to Geneva via Istanbul. First time I've flown Turkish Airlines; the flights were fine, it was just the preparation which was a bit challenging. (They'd changed the time of the connecting flight by 5 minutes; most airlines would just switch you to the rescheduled flight, especially for such a trivial change, but Turkish wanted you to reconfirm it, and because my booking was through an agent I couldn't do it online - I had to call the call centre in Turkey and do it through them).

Istanbul Airport is very big and very new, and dedicated to a cause dear to the heart of any modern airport - separating people passing through it from as much of their money as possible (although it wasn't quite as overpriced as I thought, providing you got your Turkish currency somewhere under the airport, because the exchange rates being quoted at the airport were about 25% below the market rate). I wasn't playing ball there, which didn't help with lingering dehydration from yesterday.

Not much danger of dehydration in Geneva, but the body wasn't otherwise playing ball for an attempt at a run in the late afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow after a night's sleep.

Historical wanderings of the flight: Easter 1983. One thing I noticed was how well-populated B and C classes (the equivalents of today's AS and B) were - with no elite class, W21A only made up about 30% of the total W21 field (there were 21 or them, 39 21Bs and 33 21Cs), whilst M21B also had more people than M21A. Some of the W21Bs were there for particular reasons - Carolyn Jackson (1st) and Alison Radford (4th) were both at the time in the process of producing future national representatives - but the overall balance of the fields was very different to what we see now. (The absolute numbers were different, too - the demographic bulge was still in 21s/35s in 1983). 11B was a decent-sized class too, but that was partly because Easter 1983 was the first major event to offer 10s, and I think people were still used to 11B as a de facto 10s class.

C • demographic bulge 2

Unlike my last three countries, I have been to Singapore before, but not since I was a teenager (other than airport transits), so didn't have a lot of steps to retrace. (I do recall going for a run - I'd just started training regularly then - through the Botanic Gardens). This time I headed up to MacRitchie Reservoir, partly to see some of the local forest, partly because it hosts Singapore's longest rainfall record (although I didn't see the site) - it's interesting to note that the three driest July-September periods on record there (2019, 1902, 1965) are also probably the three most severe drought years on record in northern NSW. (The Indian Ocean is the likely common thread, although we don't have much in the way of Indian Ocean observations in 1902).

I wasn't exactly the only person who had the idea of going for a run here - it must be school cross-country season because I saw quite a few school groups training. Nice setting and OK in the injuries department once warmed up, but the humidity caught up with me from about 35 minutes onwards; I'd originally had thoughts of trying to do the full circuit (about 11km) but settled for three-quarters of it. (This being Singapore, I knew I wouldn't have to wait too long for a bus along the road outside the park, even oin a Saturday morning). Slow, but I suspect the GPS was missing a bit in the rainforest sections.

Spent the rest of the day looking around Singapore, periodically going inside when the heat caught up with me, but still must have done a fair bit of walking because my phone registered 26km for the day (including the run). Now on the next stage, flying out to Geneva.