Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Didn't think my hip would be ready but I'd entered and didn't feel like I should give it away without at least giving it a go, so I thought I'd give it 15-20 minutes to warm up. Once it was apparent it wasn't going to, I decided it would be better left for another day - the soreness was at a level that I could run on (if a little awkward on the rougher bits), but also at a level which suggested that things weren't right. There are a lot of bigger races ahead in the next couple of months. At least I hit all the controls I went for...

Lockwood Ranges is a new area for competitive orienteering (mostly fast gully-spur, flattish over most of it but steeper towards the south). I'd done a training run on the photogrammetry back in around 1997 (my recollection is that it was in something like 5 min/km - I was a lot faster then) and am surprised that it's taken this long to use it for an event.

Not sure where things go from here, but want to give the hip a chance to settle down properly, which may need a bit more time than I've given it so far.

Thumbs up to Cafe Maldon for the best chocolate milkshake I can remember. Would have tasted even better if I'd earned it.

Hip still not quite right so took to the water instead - hopefully will be OK for orienteering tomorrow (although I've decided to act my age and drop to course 2). Working pretty well through the water today, particularly in the second half.

The Saturday morning crowd at Northcote is rather different to the early weekday morning crowd, as evidenced by the regular announcements about parents supervising their children in the water (I was outdoors, where most of them weren't). I'm not sure if they usually do these announcements every 15 minutes or if it was their way of saying that they'd spotted a child in the water whom they considered to be inadequately supervised.

And (at least according to his badge) the person who served me on the front desk's first name was Warne. He was the right age (late teens/early 20s) to have been named after Warney, too (but I still find it hard to believe that anyone actually does this).

Hip still a bit suspect this morning so thought it best to give it another day to settle down. Will have a go at running on it tomorrow. Today's only exercise was the bike commute - not that there was ever a long stretch of continuous riding because I seemed to find just about every red light in existence between the city and Fairfield.

After being fairly settled for a while the hip decided to flare up this morning - the last couple of days it's felt like a bit of a niggle early on but warmed up, but this morning it didn't warm up, and on hitting the first hill (of sorts) 15 minutes or so in, it was obviously interfering with my running - not something you want for a long run (my plan was 1.45). Hence to plan B....

After the false start on the road I took to the water instead - it was a cold morning (and a cold day) and getting into the pool felt like a warm bath, at least at first. Hip was also a little sore early on but was OK after a few minutes in the water. Not many people around today.

One of the features of the new changeroom is a machine which looks and sounds like a garbage compactor but is actually for extracting moisture from swimsuits. I haven't used it yet. Unfortunately, these features seem to come at the expense of probably more important features, like reliable hot water in the showers (apparently this is going to be fixed, eventually).

Don't think I can blame any injury issues today on banging heads against brick walls. Today we scored one full page and parts of two others (including the front).

All Nations intervals. Still not a lot of pace or power, but definitely felt better than I have the last couple of times I've done this. The fog must have kept everyone in bed - it was definitely quieter than usual, both in the park itself and on the roads to get there.

Warm-up and down. Some early hip niggles but felt better in the first couple of kilometres than I usually do these days, a prelude to a decent session.

Things didn't blow up quite as badly during the day as I thought they might (although one of my colleagues might well be consulting his lawyers over what was said about him in one interview). Perhaps the highlight was the fair and balanced session on 2GB featuring Steve Price, Andrew Bolt and Malcolm Roberts.

A rather sluggish run, but no issues on the injury front. A chilly, clear morning (we've had a lot of sunshine this winter), and stayed out of the frost pockets in the Merri Creek valley for the most part. Got better as it went on.

I got back to discover a number of missed calls. This may not have been a bad thing as one of them was from 3AW, and had I picked it up I wouldn't have known that the Australian had done a front-page number on us (again) and might well have been ambushed on the subject. (It was a busy enough media day for us as it was, being the end of a month that broke a lot of records, more so in northern than southern Australia). It doesn't directly involve my own work in the way that it did last time but the fallout may still well engulf us. Could be a challenging couple of weeks.

The legs were stiff this morning - hustling across the road was a bit of a challenge - but the upper body was strong, and it showed in the water in one of my better sessions for a while. Definitely felt like I was moving pretty well.

Another sunny morning - not something you usually see a lot of in Melbourne at this time of year. I wasn't surprised to look up the numbers at work later and see that it's been the sunniest July on record at Melbourne Airport (although the long-term consistency of the sunshine data is untested to my knowledge).

Thought a lunchtime run today might be pushing it and so it proved - back was tight after getting up from the chair at work. I thought I'd at least give it a try, but when it showed no sign of loosening up in the first kilometre I decided there wasn't much to be gained by pressing on. At least it was a nice lunchtime for walking back.

It was reported today that "the lobby group representing small business will ask Labor to exempt “fair dinkum” people from their new policy to tax distributions from discretionary trusts at a meeting with the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen this week.". I look forward to a legally watertight definition of "fair dinkum" being inserted into the Income Tax Assessment Act.