Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

One thing which surprised me watching the World Cross-Country at Bathurst was the relatively modest number of nations represented, especially from Europe - the only European countries I saw were Great Britain and Spain. Do countries have to qualify, or did most European countries just not send anyone?

C • World Cross country champs 12

Hoped for something long today. Got off to a very poor start, which convinced me that it was a day not to commit myself to being a long way from home; at one point I felt like I was running a bit awkwardly (never a good sign) and wondered if I should stop. That didn't last long but it wasn't until after 20 minutes that I started to feel as if I was moving OK. That encouraged me to expand my thoughts beyond minimum viable session, and although I didn't consider the 90+ minutes I was originally hoping for, I was pleased in the circumstances to get past the hour, complete with a small extra loop to check out the huge dirt pile northwest of the Heidelberg-Chandler-Grange intersection (turns out VicTrack are taking advantage of the fact that they still own this bit of land to store things they're using on the Hurstbridge line duplication out past Greensborough).

A bit of hip soreness periodically but this time at the front rather than on the point.

Headed out for a bit to Pound Bend this afternoon, mainly to get a dose of the forest on a nice (if warmish) day. The river was a regular haunt of mine in mid-spring 2021 when there weren't many other options; despite the good weather it was a good deal less crowded today than it was then, probably because now there are many other options. The demolitions associated with the south end of the North East Link tunnel are also under way in earnest (and the derelict restaurant that's been sitting for years at the Foote/Thompson intersection is also gone, although as yet there is no sign of anything replacing it).

Longest week this year, despite not quite managing what I'd hoped for today.

The number which came up this morning was 7, which at first glance looked like one of the less promising maps for this campaign (if not as difficult as 4 or 95, neither of which have come up yet). The east side of the railway line hosts various defunct factories, some funct factories (sadly the Nestle one seems better at containing smells within its walls than the Lindt factory in Zurich), and the sort of warehouses which you hear about when the waste stored therein goes up in a cloud of toxic smoke (whereupon it often transpires that the place is owned by the sort of person who gets referred to as a "colourful identity", until something happens to them at which point they become "the victim was well known to police").

Instead I went for the west side, starting at the Upfield station which was familiar territory for Clare in her past life at Hume City Council (their depot's near there) but not very familiar for many other people. (It certainly isn't familiar for me, although I think we sometimes used Barry Road as a route choice from the Hume to Essendon in pre-Ring Road days). This took me into the suburb of Dallas, a name which comes not from a developer's attempt to give the place some American glamour but is instead from Sir Dallas Brooks, who seems to have a lot of things named after him for a mid-20th century Governor. (Victoria's postwar political instability meant that he did have to do a bit more than just cut ribbons, and sometimes had to make non-obvious decisions about who might be able to command the confidence of the House as Premier - something he didn't always get right because one of them lasted fewer days than Liz Truss did weeks). The area has the reputation as one of Melbourne's most disadvantaged and 30 years ago it probably was; like a few other Housing Commission suburbs of its vintage (West Heidelberg comes to mind), it's a mix of people for whom life has taken a turn for the better (most of whom seem to have put their money into cars rather than houses), those for whom it hasn't, and places I recognise immediately from my experience of political doorknocks up the north end of Cooper as home to (what's Turkish for a nonna?). It's predominantly Muslim (Turkish being the largest share), and according to the "Food and Nightlife" section of its Wikipedia entry it has lots of kebab shops. (They're not wrong there; the small shopping strip across the road from Upfield station has four).

I'd been to the MFR park come-and-try-it event at Princes Park earlier to provide what turned out to be largely unnecessary help; my back had felt tight while standing around and I thought this run might be a struggle, but it was OK - as with Thursday it was pretty consistent. Much cooler than yesterday but still felt a bit warm when the sun was out.

Adding Hume to my list now means I have (since starting to track these things in early 2020) completed at least one "street" in every local council area in greater Melbourne (in the case of Casey the "streets" in question were two bush tracks at the Police Paddocks event last March). One I didn't complete was Blair Street, the third of these I've encountered in as many days; the Coburg one is named for a 19th century MP and I suspect the Brunswick one is too, but probably not this one.

Also dropped into the Fawkner cemetery on the way up to pay a visit to where some family memorial plaques are (don't think I've been here since after my grandmother's funeral). My music shuffle obviously didn't get the memo about where I was because on the way in it started up with "Stayin' Alive" - I guess at least it wasn't "Another One Bites The Dust" (which the Canberra ABC famously played after the news of Freddie Mercury's death).

C • Dallas 2

Found it fairly hard going this morning, more because of stiffness than because of heat (28 degrees but a low sun angle felt reasonably manageable, 40.5 later in the day wouldn't have been) - quads quite tight, especially early. Improved a little towards the end. Cleared out the remaining nooks and crannies north of the Carlton Gardens that I hadn't already been to in sprint events (or sprint training), but took less distance to do it than I expected so ended up with a final loop around part of the Edinburgh Gardens that I'd have deployed elsewhere for line-drawing purposes had I known in advance.

Second leg. As expected on a warm morning, busier than usual (although not as busy as it would have been later in the day, notwithstanding a 6pm closure for a 24-hour charity swim). Not too bad as a session although a bit of hip soreness from time to time, enough to encourage me to tram rather than ride into work from here.

A bit of a change in scene here. The physio I've been seeing for the last few years has moved on, and the new one doesn't do late afternoons on Tuesdays (my usual slot) so I've switched to Thursdays, at least until Summer Series is done. This means a new area brought within reach of Thursday long(er) runs every second week for the next few - the strip of Brunswick and Coburg as far west as Sydney Road.

Today, once I was in mostly uncharted territory, my main focus was north-south routes. I didn't get quite as far north as I thought I might - will need a more direct start (and perhaps something a bit longer) if I'm going to get as far north as Bell Street, but it's a start. The run itself, after an unpromising first 10 minutes, was a steady and consistent effort - only the first kilometre split was in the 6s. Thankful for the early cloud cover which stopped the temperature from rising too quickly, on a day which eventually made 37. Hip OK on the run but a little sore in the evening.

Summer Series at Quambee Quandary. I expected this to be steep, and with the temperature also near 30 took it pretty conservatively. It turned out not to be as steep as I expected (a different story if you went to the northern controls, but I thought the northernmost five were obvious drops), but still didn't run many of the hills that there were. Back in normal evening condition but hip came up OK, just a few twinges on the steeper downhills.

It might be very hot next week for the Thursday championship race; then again it might not. (Successive model runs came up with 40 and 26, which I think is a pretty good indicator of a low-confidence forecast at this point).

Until I heard someone visit a control with a very different sound I didn't realise that the MapRun control visiting sound is configurable. This made me think of the days when downloading ringtones for your phone was all the rage (for some reason, a very popular one in Italy in the 2000s was the opera tune which is also used for the Geelong club song, which made me do a double take the first couple of times I heard it). Anyone think of any particularly appropriate songs to use for this purpose?

The local shops have, among other things, a decent ice cream shop. I spotted the Steers and Kents there either side of dinner (and partook myself on the latter occasion).

C • Configurable sounds 1

First go at intervals for a while. Didn't feel especially awake (with an earlier than usual start due to a 9am meeting), but performance was decent, getting down to 59 on the last rep. No soreness on the run itself, but hip had some discomfort (for the first time in a few days) later in the day - maybe it's riding that sets it off because it was the first time since the day of the original injury that I'd ridden the full distance from home to work and back.

Warm-up and down. Very nice morning to be out - probably the last cool-weather run for a few days (and initial indications point to the potential for a significant heatwave in the second half of next week, too).

Monday morning Pilates. Felt a bit sleepy at the start but got through a fair bit (with the step up in resistance on a couple of them was I was supposed to do last week but wasn't going to risk the hip on at that stage).

On to the pool. A reasonably steady session. A bit more traffic than I normally expect at this time of the morning (although a lot less than there will be on Friday afternoon if the forecast is right).

This morning was the first time for a couple of weeks that I've ridden in on my usual route (I'd been going easy on the riding because it was doing that where my hip soreness originally appeared). One construction site in the La Trobe street bike lane has gone but another two have popped up in its place, plus an added bonus in the form of a removalists' van illegally parked outside the Australian Federal Police building (I was sorely tempted to ring the National Security Hotline to get them to call in the bomb squad to blow it up).

C • Illegal parking 1