Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Bendigo event at Browns Reef. Had high hopes for this after a good week but it was apparent from early on that it was going to be a struggle, and a couple of breaks up hills on the way to #3 did nothing to settle my back down. Pressed on for a while but decided it wasn't worth running myself into the ground, and #7 was a bit too tempting as a cutoff point (then, going back via the last control, I made a bit of a hash of it after an otherwise clean course). At least it was a nice day.

C • Nice day 2

1 - Splits

Took the day off today after an extended family dinner at Sorrento last night, and did this in the late afternoon before heading home (via the football). This is a new pool for me and for everyone else - it was opening day for the new Rosebud aquatic centre (which meant a slow queue to get in because a lot of other people were sorting out memberships and the like). It's an impressive complex with multiple pools - thumbs up to the fact that they don't overheat the lap pools (often a problem indoors), thumbs down to the pebblecrete surface on the pool deck - I assume chosen for anti-slip properties but painful to walk on (note to self: bring thongs the next time I'm here).

The swim was a bit ordinary: seemed to drag on for a long time. A little bit of soreness in the left hamstring towards the end, which will bear watching.

This is the first of my round-number birthdays for which I've actually been in Australia. There was no WMOC final (40) or JWOC (20) to compete in today, and neither the weather (even if expressed in freedom degrees) nor my fitness allowed something analogous to spending my 30th running 30km in 30 degrees (as done in 2001 in Vilnius), but I did want to do something which was a bit of a feature run, and went for the Yarra Boulevard - territory I haven't been to (on foot) for a long time.

It was a frosty morning but a nice clear one, which made for an attractive setting, particularly as the sunrise caught the east side of the city buildings. (The hot air balloons were also taking advantage of the conditions). Was reasonably happy with the run, too, which was hillier than most I've done of late - just started to fade a bit at the top of the last one, and was slowing down a little towards the end (probably not quite on yesterday's level in that sense).

There was plenty of indulgence in the rest of the day (starting with a breakfast in Fairfield and finishing with a family dinner in Sorrento). Not feeling too much older since, and indeed, the last three runs have all involved doing something I would have struggled to do at any other point in the last 2 1/2 years. (Today happens to be the first time since 2018 that I've reached 50km in the last week, although that's partly an artifact of doing my midweek longish run on Thursday this week and Friday last week).

This particular birthday no longer determines which Covid vaccine one gets, but apparently it means you can no longer get bulk-billed MRIs on knee injuries (I was messaged to this effect on Wednesday by a slightly older colleague with a suspected torn ACL from a soccer misadventure, and responded that I appreciated the info but wasn't going to do my knee on Wednesday to take advantage of this). It also makes me eligible to buy real estate in various developments where I have absolutely no intention of buying real estate.

C • Ads for the Over 50s 1

My last run as a 40-something. One might fantasise about turning the clock back a decade or two but I at least managed to turn it back three years - after an uncertain start this was definitely back into 2017-18 territory with consistent sub-5.30s in the second half. The route was a straightforward one clearing up a few loose ends in back lanes and on road crossings. Nice morning for it, if a bit chilly.

First attempt in the morning was dead in the water inside a minute, and even the warm-up on this one didn't feel too convincing, so I certainly didn't expect to be doing a set with another season-best set of times (60/56). Starting to feel lactic in the last couple which deterred me from extending the session further, but times weren't dropping away even then.

Saw Ilka running, but was in the middle of a fast downhill rep so we only exchanged a couple of words.

Warm-up and down. Pretty slow even by usual standards for this.

Monday morning Pilates. Pretty tight early on - don't think my body would have appreciated trying to run this morning - but loosened up once under way. Sunrise is now just about at its latest so it will be getting closer to being light at the start of this from now on.

Seems like it's as well that I did yesterday's run when I did and not a few hours later. (Surprised this story didn't get more media coverage than it has; perhaps the media has its full scaring-people quota filled by Covid and doesn't need to bring terrorism into the mix as well, and I'd guess that the police have a fair idea that the culprits are bored (white) kids and have briefed the media to that effect).

C • Yes, it was pretty crazy to... 8

Late afternoon session this time (the logistics didn't work to do it in the morning as usual), at Fitzroy under the night sky. Back still felt a bit uncertain doing this, which isn't a barrier to this session but is an indication that I pushed myself a fair bit yesterday.

Started with the hope of getting out to about 75 minutes, but knew it would be hard work coming up for a third day in a row. The first 20 minutes were promising as I headed out into Wilson Reserve (first time I've been there for a while), but rather like three weeks ago, a couple of short sharp climbs going into Ivanhoe were enough to set my back off, and from there it was a struggle. At various stages I thought I might have to pull up but did at least manage to get an hour on the board, which I'll take on a day when things weren't going smoothly. Also drew quite a lot of new lines on the map in the Ivanhoe/East Ivanhoe area.

Despite not quite getting to what I wanted to today, it still lifted the benchmark for longest post-2018 week a bit further.

Back pretty tight post-run (not always the case when it's tight on the run), though a walk later in the afternoon loosened up a bit. Will welcome a non-running day tomorrow.

One the ideas I'm contemplating (perhaps as an occasional Saturday activity during the summer) is going for a run on a randomly selected map from the first 100 maps of the Melway street directory. This prompted me to check how many of these 100 I've already run on; the answer appears to be 84. Perhaps the most unpromising of the remaining 16 is #4, which is mostly Melbourne Airport and only has about three public roads on it, followed by #95 which is the big industrial area south of Dandenong. (There are quite a few coastal maps where my only running visit was the 2008 Melbourne Marathon, while the sprint at Cornish College a couple of years back enables me to tick off both #93 and #97).