Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

This was a day to sort out the hard men (and women) from the rest. Got out at 6.45, a little later than I'd planned. Conditions weren't quite as bad as I'd feared - the smoke haze meant that the cool surface layer along the Yarra Flats took longer to break down than it usually would on a day like this, and I got an hour in the bank before it started to warm significantly - but it was still over 30 degrees by the end.

A pretty solid run on the whole, particularly given the conditions. Decided to stay reasonably close to the river (partly to take advantage of the cool conditions early), starting with a loop up through Westerfolds and then back past Hays Paddock to the Chandler. Tap locations were significant landmarks today. Didn't really tire until the last 15 minutes - the last section, without a lot of shade and with the long steady climb past the Repat Hospital, was pretty hard going. A few calf twinges on the steeper climbs from 90 minutes onwards but not as bad as Thursday. A day I'm pleased to have got through, which was as much about training that part of the body above the shoulders; I'll appreciate having done this if we get a 35-degree day at Easter.

Update on the race to 100,000 - my career running total went through 99,000 km today, and the car still hasn't got to 98. Will be touch and go.

Plenty of opportunities for fluid replacement for the rest of the day - two Christmas parties and my cousin's 21st.

Just as well I didn't sleep in - it rose from 30 to 38 degrees in 45 minutes after I finished the run (and ended up peaking at 42).

Not a brilliant start, even by normal standards, but picked up as it went on. Calf fine - Thursday must have been an aberration (although getting treatment on it quickly helped). Smoke haze in Melbourne is becoming increasingly heavy with visibility down to about 2km - last time I saw anything like it was in Beijing last year (although there it was artificial pollution rather than bushfires). Not really looking forward to a long run tomorrow with overnight temperatures probably not dropping below the mid 20s.

Another run where I didn't have a great deal of energy in the first half, but picked up nicely from halfway onwards. A bit of calf tightness in the last 20 minutes for the first time in a while. For a largely inner-city run (Clifton Hill to Elwood then back through Toorak) got a pretty good run with the traffic and the lights, which was good as one can do without interruptions once in a rhythm. Enjoying the cool conditions while they last (and also coming to the end of a pretty tough cluster of runs).

I think this is the first time I've cracked 10 hours on AP, although that's cheating a bit because it's a product of doing my midweek long run on Friday last week and back to the usual Thursday this week. Enjoying it while it lasts.

Took until 45 minutes into the run to wake up (it was early but not that early). Improved after that and even reasonably nice in the last 10 minutes.

The seven-day cycle is alive and well - there have only been two brief showers in Melbourne in the last 2 1/2 weeks, and they have started within 200 metres of each other on the ride in on successive Wednesday mornings. This particular shower failed to trouble the scorers (although one of my colleagues claims to have observed the princely sum of 0.1 millimetres).
Did a radio interview this morning on the drought which finished off with being asked whether there was anything we could be optimistic about. Best response I could come up with: "the cricket".

C • cracker quote Blair! 5

Another street-O, another head-to-head with Adam, and with the same result. This time, instead of taking the lead early, I got dropped a little at the start and was 30-50 metres down early on, but pulled it in through a couple of wobbles on his part. There was then a bit of foxing in mid-course because I'd spotted what I thought was a good and non-obvious route choice and wanted to stay behind until the critical decision point. It was a good route choice, but it wasn't as non-obvious as I thought because he saw it too. That then made it a running race for the last 3k; I had a bit more left than I have the last couple of weeks, but still not enough to avoid going down by 20 metres. Had hoped to get the benefit of a bit of an angle going the opposite way around a block on the last control but the road had a bit of an (unmapped) kink in it, which counts for a bit in the context of a sprint finish. Still a decent run.

We might have got the route choice (the course-setter can't have seen it either because the optimum route was advertised as 9.9), but plenty of others didn't - several who have been very competitive in recent weeks (such as Bryan Ackerly and David Kipp) were well down tonight.

Not as bad as yesterday but still a bit listless, particularly uphill, and noticeably slower than in most recent weeks (9.25).

Definitely struggled to get going after a hard few days. Better after the first 10 minutes but never a particularly comfortable run, although there were some fun bits on the Eaglemont Flats single-track section.