Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Got off the mark for 2017 by hitting two hours for the first time since September (rogaines excluded) - not going through to midnight last night had its benefits, although I didn't sleep that well in an unfamiliar bed. (The carpet's still drying out in my normal one, although it should be OK by tomorrow).

A solid morning's efforts without getting much sparkle, initially along the river and then up through the bottom end of Macleod and Rosanna (seeing in the process the evidence of the flooding on Salt Creek a couple of days ago - must have been at least a metre over Lower Plenty Road from the debris marks). Had a bad patch around 12-14k, coinciding with the warmest and sunniest period of the run, but came good and did a reasonable job of grinding up the biggest hill of the day coming out of Rosanna. As to whether I'll be up to finding another 45 minutes or so in two weeks' time - I guess we'll find out on the day.

No significant injury issues on the run itself, but the sore buttock sitting down was a bit sorer than usual post-run.

C • You have carpet in your bed? 2

Mostly down along the river. Longer than I'd originally planned on, on a day when I felt like this was something that I wanted to be doing (which is more than can be said of most of the last week). Pretty slow, although many of the tracks were muddy (several of the ones closer to the river had clearly been under water on Thursday night) which would have slowed things down.

Not for the first time in recent years, 2016 was a year with a certain amount of frustration on the competition side (not least at the Ultra-Long, which was going so well until a hamstring let me down), and various interruptions were reflected in a tally of 345 hours (scraping in 31 minutes above 2013 to avoid being my shortest full year on AP). Still had some good moments, and ticked off an orienteering bucket-list item in the London City Race.

Best race (personally) of the year was probably the Australian Long Championships. Most enjoyable run of the year was a no-contest - the Abel Tasman coastal track run in NZ in June (stunning scenery, a stunning day, and a pretty good run too).

Quite a lot to look forward to in 2017 (including a more extended excursion to NZ), although I'll need to get a couple of solid months under my belt before I can feel as if I'll be remotely competitive there.

Spent some of the morning (after a somewhat sleepless night) sorting out exactly what the water had done to my place and why (looks like the damage is ultimately minor, although some of the carpet is still drying out).

Eventually took to the pool in the afternoon on the way back from seeing Cassie and family off at the airport. Northcote pool in the middle of a 30-degree school holiday afternoon is a rather different proposition to a midwinter morning (and walking across the concrete to the pool edge was something my feet are still telling me about), but managed to find a reasonable amount of space, even if it was going round and round in circles.

Then it was home to see the end of one of the more bizarre cricket matches in recent memory.

Started out with Jim on an expedition to Point Nepean, but suspected before I started that I probably wouldn't be up to it, and so it proved. First time since returning that my back has been a significant enough issue to cut a session short.

Today went on to have some of the highest humidity levels ever recorded in Victoria (the dewpoint at Geelong reached 27 in the aftermath of a storm, with Melbourne peaking at 25). Unsurprisingly it also featured some spectacular downpours. We missed most of these but saw the aftermath coming back to Melbourne. Round 1 didn't cause too many issues at the house but round 2 late at night did, so I suspect I'll be spending at least some of tomorrow dealing with the consequences of water leakage in a few spots.

Decided to have a crack at doing something faster today but immediately discovered that I wasn't ready for it - the soreness in the right buttock which I've been noticing sitting but not in low-speed running made its presence felt once I started going faster. Thought it best not to push it at this stage. Might not have chosen the best of venues either - the Stringer Road reserve is a leash-free dog exercise area and several were arriving to use it for that purpose as I was beating my retreat.

Out to the back beach, heading southeast. Slow in the sand and even out of the sand, but felt somewhat better than I have the last few days. Continuing to be humid (although it's going to get worse before it gets better).

Pretty poor night's sleep with the heat, but the change went through at Blairgowrie around 7am which made for somewhat more favourable running conditions (19 degrees rather than 29). Did this one on the front beach towards Rye - outward on the beach (disappearing beneath an incoming tide), and back mostly on a small track between the bathing boxes and the highway whose existence I had been previously unaware of despite the fact that I've been running here for more than 30 years. Continuing to find it fairly hard going.

After a very unenergetic day in front of such cricket as there was, took to the pool (a bit cooler than I'm used to). Struggled a bit in the first few minutes but OK after that.

I'm not too upset not to be at the 5-days, and not just because I'm not running very well at the moment - a forecast update means that it will now only be 42 degrees on days 3 and 4 and not on day 5 as well.

C • That's a relief! 2