Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Settled down enough overnight for us to go out for a loop into the area west of the assembly - in contrast to the east, a lot of this is pine forest. A lot of the pine forest is not very nice to go through (blackberries being a common feature), so the track network was well used (and more reliably mapped than in the eucalypt).

Didn't quite get our strategy right for this one. There was a strip of high-scoring controls in the eucalypt west of the pines, but we spent too much time picking up other stuff on the way and didn't leave ourselves enough time to have a crack at those, instead having to settle for some 40s in the pines on the way south. Most memorable control of the day was our second-last, 67 - when there's a 60-pointer just over 1km from the hash house one suspects that there's something a bit feral about it, and in this case it was a 300-metre bash down the creek through the pines where you had the option of either wading or battling blackberries. We waded. (Water was not in short supply on this rogaine, given what the last few months have been like).

The pleasant surprise today was that the calf pulled up OK, and even managed a few jogging sections without flaring up afterwards. Hopefully this means I just tried to come back on it a day or two too early (but I'll be interested to see what the physio thinks when I see her tomorrow). Usually even a low-grade muscle strain (assuming that's what it is) would see footballers miss a week so I was probably trying to be a bit ambitious.

It was a bit disappointing the way this ended up (and it always feels worse when it's a team you've let down and not just yourself), but at least I've learned some useful things for the next time I try a proper 24 (and now that this is unfinished business, I do plan for there to be a next time at some point, although I'm not sure when). Two things I've definitely learned: (a) my light would not have been good enough for night navigation (something which as it turned out wasn't really put to the test) and (b) Jenny swears by English muffins with cheese but I have a lot of difficulty digesting these while moving, so I'll need to find something else as fuel for the long haul.

C • eating on the run? 2

Victorian Rogaining Championships with Jenny at Korweinguboora. The plan was for this to be my first "proper" 24 - I've twice entered 24s during my early 1990s partnership with Ian McKenzie but we didn't go all night either time (once planned, once unplanned).

Given the way my calf had felt post-run yesterday I wasn't especially confident, but it was OK starting out walking, and during such running as we were doing (basically only downhill on tracks). Terrain on east side of the road was much as expected - gullies generally thick, other areas a bit of a mixed bag with some open areas but a lot of what we'd call light green. (The southeast end of the 1981 Korweinguboora O map, which took in a few controls of this section, was 100% light green or thicker, but there were some more open bits, usually where there had been burning).

66 to (near) 79 was a downhill road run. This may (or may not) have set my calf off, because it worsened significantly on the way out of 79, to the extent that I was limping noticeably when walking and couldn't push off running at all. Whilst I could tolerate it at this level, and was OK to continue for the time being, I wasn't willing to take the risk that it might break down altogether on the far side of the map in the middle of the night, so we decided to plan to come in overnight (making it more of a social rogaine in a sense). Got in just on dusk.

No navigational issues of any consequence (I was just about to have one coming out of 74 when Jenny pulled me up).

A run but not a terribly convincing one. Moving OK and calf was at nuisance-level soreness early on, but tightened significantly after traffic stops (not an issue I'll have to deal with tomorrow) and remained pretty tight for the rest of the day. Definitely glad tomorrow is a rogaine and not anything faster.

This was too good a morning to pass up - clear and crisp (with even a hint of frost in more sheltered areas). Probably won't see anything like it again in Melbourne this side of Anzac Day.

Thought I'd try to test things out this morning but the first steps indicated I wasn't quite ready to do so. This is a little frustrating; it should hold up walking this weekend but I'll be more confident if I can get through a run of some description between now and Saturday - maybe tomorrow.

As someone put it today, there is one positive for Donald Trump about the last few days - no-one is talking about his taxes any more.

Calf was better than it was yesterday - able to walk freely with minimal discomfort - but still not quite right, so I took to the water instead, for what was a fairly routine session.

It was Ride to Work day, which meant a proliferation of free breakfasts on various popular bike routes into town. One of these was outside the Fitzroy pool - it felt a bit like cheating to take this one in only 200 metres into a ride, but I didn't feel too guilty about this. Carl Dalheim was also on the scene.

For most of the way a fairly typical run of its type (starting with something increasingly rare, a swing past the nearest mailbox to post a couple of letters), starting a bit sleepy and stiff but gradually improving as it went on and I got into the hills of Eaglemont, featuring a rarish sighting of a Rolls-Royce on a back street.

Did a final small loop to get the time up past an hour. This may have been a bad move as I appear to have strained a right calf a couple of minutes from home. Don't think it's terribly serious, but it was a little uncomfortable to walk on during the day and might sideline me for a day or two.

A rather up and down session - felt promising at times, but quite a few interruptions in the first half through goggles trouble (it's a new pair and often it takes a few swims before they're fitted properly). Felt strong in the last couple of laps but wasn't actually going any faster.

This was a prelude to a pretty good day - got a couple of major bits of writing done (and also got just about the clearest ride in to work I can remember). At least it was a day when things went right up until going home when, 100 metres from the end of the ride, I found myself stuck on the wrong side of a red light as a hail shower unloaded....