Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

NOL relays at Wattle Gully. 3rd leg in what was originally a Victorian 3rd team but became a composite team. I suspected we'd go out in the mass start and this indeed proved to be the case (but not by much).

This one was definitely a struggle - back definitely wasn't good, particularly in the first 20 minutes, and had it not been a relay I may not have gone further. Kept plugging away and did loosen up a bit, but never really ran much in the way of hills (a definite handicap here). A few small wobbles but nothing bigger than 20 seconds or so. Found myself halfway to the last control with 50 metres or so to run down on Jenny; thought I'd fall slightly short and did. (The women's course was similar to ours except for a late truncation; I saw a lot of Abigail George, another mass-starter, out there). Definitely worse than yesterday; I would have been happy with a sub-60 here.

Nice competition weekend, if a little bare-bones by NOL standards, and the season's winners were deserving.

It was cold at Castlemaine but dry apart from one stray shower. It was rather colder further south; wet snow was falling at ~700m between Daylesford and Trentham, and there were a few snow patches on the ground on Mount Macedon (less than I expected TBH, but still enough to interest my South Australian fellow traveller).

C • Barebones is the future 27

State Series at Wattle Gully, in between the two NOL races (given that my attempt to do two sprint races in a day over the last two years have ranged from mediocre to awful, mostly at the awful end of the spectrum, I didn't think that trying to do a double middle would end well). Wasn't quite sure about this after issues during the week but worked out OK, plodding somewhat but steady. Didn't really miss anything apart from a few points where it took moments to pinpoint things in vaguer areas.

Vic Series Day 1 C1 - Splits

Not the most brilliant of runs but good to get going again - back eventually loosened up and no other issues. Probably better in the last 10 minutes. Took to the south bank of the Yarra for the first time in a while, discovering in the process that a graffiti cleanup on the bridge pillars has put paid to the bits of graffiti that mark the 1952, 1963 and 1971 flood heights.

Side was still pretty sore this morning and didn't feel runnable. Instead I headed out on the bike from where I was dropping the car off to be serviced, out around Fishermans Bend and along the shoreline as far as Albert Park - this route has the advantage of not many interruptions (by inner-city standards). Felt OK on the bike, and it did seem to ease the soreness a bit (it improved further during the day and I'm reasonably optimistic of running tomorrow).

I did my usual post-service routine of spending some time working in the Port Melbourne library (and then going somewhere for dinner) to avoid dealing with peak-hour traffic (likely even worse at the moment with roadworks on Wurundjeri Way). Didn't notice until on the way out the sign that said not to enter if you'd been overseas in the last month; oh well. (I wonder how many Victorians-not-welcome signs I'll see on my forthcoming trip into northern Australia?).

Woke up this morning with a sore left side (and a tight back as well which I suspect was the underlying cause). Wasn't comfortable with an attempt to run so instead headed for the water late in the afternoon. That wasn't 100% comfortable either but at least I got through it without too many dramas. It has shown no real sign of settling during the day and I'm not especially confident of being back in action tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes.

The changerooms at Fitzroy are out of action for building works this week, so it was a bit of a throwback to parts of 2020 and 2021, going there with your swimming gear under your clothes and stripping off on the poolside. (At least the rain had stopped shortly before I got there).

At just-about-functioning level today (in terms of body stiffness; sleep was OK except for one sharp flat spot in mid-afternoon). My back quickly advised me that attempting intervals today wasn't going to work, but the rest of the run started to settle down a bit more. Had a physio session this evening which will hopefully help.

You learn something new every day: Polish and Czech have a month with a similar name (which I gather translates roughly as "blooming"), but in Polish it's April and in Czech it's May. (If anything I would have expected it to be the other way round, Poland being further north).

And scheduling a National League event seems to be a good way to trigger a cold outbreak this year - looks like only low teens on the weekend, although we should be too far north for more than the odd shower (most likely on Saturday). At least we're not in Nimmitabel, where Sunday will struggle to get much above 0 and anything that falls will be as snow (although the actual amount of snow could be anywhere from 1cm to 30cm depending on the exact position and orientation of the low off the coast).

Back to Monday morning Pilates with the early start (which I thought might be easier than usual today, but as it turned out I slept until a reasonable time). Not too bad although a little bit of right hamstring soreness at times (which I'd also noticed sitting on the plane, but not running yesterday). More conversational than usual because it turns out the American in the class has lived in Asheville, which is where our (climate) counterparts in the US are based (and is my favourite American city as a place, too), so there was quite a bit of comparing notes.

Had hoped to go out for a lunchtime run but that turned out to coincide with the trough of a post-jetlag wave, so instead hit the water at the end of the working day, by which stage I was feeling somewhat better. A somewhat ponderous session but better than I was expecting, and even avoided being too annoyed by a breaststroker ahead of me who kept speeding up and slowing down (but eventually got the message and sped up properly). Always feels a bit strange when a session in an outdoor pool spills into the hours of darkness.

Left this a little later than I should have, which meant that the time available in between the end of this and the start of the OA board meeting for purchasing, cooking and consuming food shrank accordingly (but I still made it with a minute to spare).