Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Felt tight enough this morning that I didn't waste time attempting to run but instead headed for the water, where things went OK once I was in. This session was most notable for a heavy line of showers which went through halfway through the session, not that much of an issue in the water but did mean trying to find the non-soaked 20% of my towel to dry myself afterwards.

One of the things about looking at an Easter start list is to see the start list and spot a name which makes you think 'is he/she really in that age group these days'? (In this case it was Rob Walter, part of what looks a very strong M45 field - M50 is running the same course as M45, which suggests either their course will be too short or ours will be too long, or perhaps both).

C • Easter start lists 16

A somewhat unusual session today; was going into the office but also needed to run a software update that was going to take 90 minutes or thereabouts, so went in early, got the update running and then went out. This session was a step forward in two senses; it's the first time in a while that I've done an intervals session, or managed to come up for a session of any kind in the morning after an evening event. I can't say that I was especially convincing in either respect (back not brilliant in the warm-up, and tightening a bit in the later part of the last couple of reps), but it was something.

Warm-up and down, the latter slightly foreshortened. The GPS track shows me running through a building. I didn't. (In the context of current fair play discussions, I don't think anyone here will need convincing that GPS tracks are of limited value in detecting OOB violations at sprint events in high-density urban areas).

Street-O at Yarraville, a somewhat unusual destination for me (I'm otherwise engaged tomorrow evening and the Thursday events have stopped). Didn't go far enough north on my course to experience such local icons as the Franco Cozzo store or the Napier Street bridge (almost as notorious as Montague Street, and currently the subject of a petition to paint it with scary shark teeth).

The run itself was a fairly typical evening street-O this season, with the back a challenge, although improved in the second half. It was a 45-minute score event; my original plan was to pull up at around 35, similar to other evening events this season, but I was tempted by the cluster of controls in the southwest and pushed on to 40 to get myself close enough to the finish to walk the rest and still make it inside the time limit. (By then I was within 500 metres of the finish, but I want to maximise my chance of doing something tomorrow).

Flood updates in places which aren't in the headlines but may be of interest to readers of this log: (a) the Naas bridge, the main access to Namadgi, has washed away and (b) Storm King Dam near Stanthorpe (which was effectively dry in the 2019 drought, requiring town water to be trucked in) is expected to fill tonight.

C • Water trucks 1

It was pretty much pitch dark when I started this, which may have been why I felt even less awake at the start than is often the case for this. Worked out OK once I got started though (and not as stiff as last week).

One of yesterday's discoveries, thanks to opening my account for the City of Casey (by virtue of two of the tracks on Police Paddocks being classified as "streets"), is that the City of Casey has nearly 6000 streets (by way of comparison, 1000-1500 is typical for inner and middle suburban councils, and Yarra and Port Phillip are under 1000). This owes something to a much higher proportion of Casey being urban than was the case when the boundaries were drawn up, and rather more to changes in urban planning - my part of town has plenty of straight streets which are 1-2km long but you won't find too many of those in the outer suburbs apart from the main roads. (It's actually something of an anomaly that Police Paddocks is in Casey, as it is that Emerald and Gembrook - both visited on some post-event exploration - are in Cardinia and not Yarra Ranges).

Didn't feel very awake at the start in the pool either. Eventually got going about halfway through but drifted off the pace again in the last couple of laps; still not quite as slow as last week. (You'd probably be hard-pressed to fall asleep while swimming, but one of my colleagues appears to have managed it while riding a couple of months back - fortunately with no traffic around but still did himself quite a bit of damage).

Melbourne Bush-O at Police Paddocks. Not an awful lot of actual bush running in this - it's the sort of area where route choice is largely about finding the best place to dive off the track (although some parts out the back were more open than near the start) - but still a bit nicer than I expected. March is probably better for it than in winter when it can apparently be a mud-fest (we had steady light rain, although nothing on the scale of Sydney).

This didn't get off to a great start. The first leg featured a mapped track which, for all practical purposes, did not exist, a mapped gap between uncrossable fences which did not exist, and a couple of unmapped gaps in other uncrossable fences, which at least minimised the damage. (The last two were on the grounds of Dandenong City Soccer Club, whose logo suggests that football-loving Serbs in Dandenong would better look elsewhere). Settled down after that, and while we won't get too excited, I was definitely feeling better running than has been the case for most of the week (even managed to run up a few of the gentler hills). Deliberately cut a few corners to give myself terrain training; some of these worked (#10) and some not so well (#12).

Woke up pretty uncomfortable so was fairly confident that the back wouldn't be up to doing the run I'd hoped for in the morning, which was quickly demonstrated, but it loosened up during the morning so I thought I'd have a go at doing something, even if only at the minimum-viable-session level, during the morning - taking advantage of having caught up with a friend for coffee/vegetable purchasing at the Merri Creek "farm" to go into previously uncharted territory on the west side of Croxton on the way home. Still finding this hard going for reasons which aren't immediately obvious - wondering if I'm not 100% well although there are no apparent symptoms. Found what turned out to be the warmest part of the day, too.

The Australian reported today that "a new investigation into employment in the horticulture industry finds the worker shortage is driven by poor wages and conditions". I assume next week they'll report that the Pope is still Catholic. (It was the second accurate thing they reported today, because they also gave Pat's album a nice review).

C • Myths need dispelling 1

A late afternoon ride to make up for the planned running I hadn't done, on the Heidelberg hill circuit (of sorts). A stiff easterly is an unusual wind for Melbourne and my splits were similarly unusual (a minute slower than usual up the hill, a minute after later on). Hard work uphill with the aforementioned wind but decent after that.

Reintroduced myself to the pleasures of going to the football in the evening, which also meant reintroducing myself to the idea that it's a long (and quiet) way home when your team has lost by a point. It was going so well too...

A struggle most of the way, but did get a bit of a second wind in the last few minutes which meant finishing on a positive note. Coloured in a few more bits of the map, which completed all of Northcote east of High Street (just the section between High and St. Georges to go now). Quite a humid morning.