Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

SA Long Championships at Crooked Straight, acting my age today (or at least to the extent allowed by 10-year age groups). Feeling somewhat better today, although still not running much uphill (especially in the softer sand). Kept it reasonably clean though, with only a minor wobble at 9 and a bit of hesitation at 16. Thought I was being burnt off for speed as I expected on seeing Matt Stocks well ahead of me at a crossover, and Greg Morcom almost catching me on the way to 10, but it turned out both of them lost significant time on 10 (as it turned out, five of us were within two minutes of the lead there). I sighted Matt (who started two minutes ahead of me) on his way out of 11, but knew that I didn't have the pace to gain on him so I'd need to rely on his making mistakes (he didn't).

A significantly improved run today, although a bit disappointing to be near the back of a close bunch (Matt 64, Kym Barnett 66, Greg 67, Ben Cazzolato 68). Taking this as another incremental step, and it's a nice area to be out on - some good small features and not as much in and out of erosion gullies as yesterday (you could often go around the top of them, though I did see a couple of juniors unwisely attempting the no-guts-no-glory option on the northern side).

Course 7 - Splits

NOL Middle at Bunyip Reach. Went into this with a bit more confidence than most recent events, and that confidence lasted for the first few minutes, but after that it was apparent that my body was going to be having a bad day rather than a good one; the best that can be said for this run was that I was able to get round on such a day (although predictably I came last). More rugged than I expected (mostly due to going in and out of erosion gullies); generally walked up hills and ran the rest, but by the end even running longer flat stretches was starting to become a bit of a struggle. Failing to make much (if any) ground on Clive Arthur in the finish chute probably summed things up. Went up one spur too early on 9 and dropped maybe 30-45 seconds, reasonably clean on the rest (for all the good that it did).

Often after a bad day one day it's a good day the next. Hopefully that works this time.

Did manage something this morning I don't think I'm likely to be able to do on an orienteering course: sitting on the back of the Crane train for 45 minutes. (We were sitting behind the Cranemobile for 80km out of Mildura).

Course 1 - Splits

I think today might have set a new PB for the weakest correlation between my actual working hours and standard working hours, starting with meetings 11pm-1.30am and a panel discussion from 8-15-9.45am. (The latter was on sport and climate change, which among other things gave me the chance to relive the 1991 JWOC relay in Berlin again). On the other hand, a chunk of the afternoon was spent flying to Mildura (meeting up with my parents who have been travelling in outback NSW this week), and being disinclined to cut any further into the time available for sleep in the window between 1.30 and 8.15, I instead went running after the panel discussion.

Before I started I had that feeling of half-sleepiness I often have the morning after overnight meetings, so I was pleasantly surprised that this was a decent run. One particular sign of incremental progress was taking on the steepest approach on the east side of Ruckers without undue difficulty, which will hopefully serve me well this weekend where I expect there will be a few four-contour hills. (Don't think I'll be attempting to run the Sandhill of Death, though). Cleared all the remaining areas of Northcote west of the Mernda line, so now just a couple of pockets left between High Street and the railway (and also reached the landmark of 20% of the City of Darebin's streets). Certainly could have kept going the last bit to home but thought it best to pull up at 40 minutes given I'm racing tomorrow.

Two steps forward, one step back; back wasn't up to it this morning, a pity because I had something reasonably substantial in mind (perhaps I was trying to force it into action too early in the day). Switched to plan B instead, which wasn't especially inspiring either, but at least I was able to function in the water (plus I got my sock back).

The Montague Street bridge got hit yet again today. I get the impression the VicTraffic social media person is getting a bit sick of this.

All Nations intervals. Continuing an encouraging week with my best intervals session for a long time; consistently 2-4 seconds faster for each rep than on recent occasions when I've done this, breaking 60 on the downhill ones. Was definitely tempted to do more (though was starting to tighten a little on the last one), but had to get back home to do an ABC interview.

I then walked in the door to have a shower before said interview, checked my phone, and saw a message 'can you do it at 8.35 instead of 8.50?'. It was 8.34. Hopefully my just-in-from-a-run status wasn't too obvious to the radio listeners of northern NSW.

It's been so long since I've been able to string a couple of months of consistent training together that I'd forgotten that eventually, things do start to come good (sort of).

Warm-up and down. A bit of back tightness at the start but nothing that a traffic stop wouldn't settle.

It's the first time since restarting in the office that I've done the full ride from home to/from work, taking in some of the new infrastructure - the Heidelberg Road lanes are the most visible, but the most useful is probably removing the couple of parking spots on Peel Street approaching Queensberry that used to cause the bike lane to abruptly terminate. I am, however, mystified as to how the La Trobe Street bridge came to have the sort of vegetation debris you'd expect in a forested area after heavy rain (or a storm) when it's at least 100 metres from the nearest tree.

C • Termination of bike lanes 3

Morning session into the west side of Ivanhoe. Continuing a pattern of incremental improvement; wasn't unduly troubled by back issues and feeling as if my fitness is improving a little week by week. Pushing the distance out another small increment from the equivalent run last week, too (and cleared the remaining gaps on the map in the area west of Oriel Road).

Sometimes in the modern era it's hard to tell the difference between satire and reality (the Chaser last week managed to get some of the usual culture-war suspects to take seriously a fake petition to change the name of fairy bread), but despite what the Shovel reported today, I am assuming that the Federal Government is not going to be enlisting the assistance of Essendon FC to learn how to run a successful injection program.

Back to the early Monday sessions. Seemed to be working reasonably well. I've organised to get a new program next week so it will be interesting to see what the instructor has in mind.

Acronym watch: Ipswich Residents Against Toxic Environments (IRATE) (although someone in Twitter comments suggested People Opposing Ocean Outfalls was a better one).

Moved on to Fitzroy pool. Felt a bit more fluent in the water than is usually the case (a relative term), and it was the least slow I've been for a few weeks despite dropping away a little in the last couple of laps.

Slight annoyance of the day was that on getting out of the pool I saw a sock which looked like one of mine, but assumed it wasn't when I went back to the changerooms and saw I still had two socks, so returned the extra sock to where I found it. Later in the day I was sorting my washing and found an odd sock matching that sock (I'm assuming its companion must have got caught in my towel). Hopefully the one I left at the pool will be in lost property on my next visit (probably Friday), assuming that pools still have lost property bins these days.