Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

An excellent long run in ideal conditions - cool and dry with moderate southwest winds. (I'll want to be tested more in the heat between now and Dubbo, but don't mind cool days for the really long runs). Started out through Viewbank and Montmorency, crossed the Yarra at Eltham, then a long stretch up the Yarra and Mullum Mullum Creek, before striking out across suburbia to pick up the Eastern Freeway trail at Blackburn Road. (The negative of this trail is that it's near a freeway, the positives are that you don't notice it that much because of sound barriers and there are no road crossings for 10km).

The suburban bit took me up plenty of hills and past Milgate Primary, which brought back memories of state election day 2002 and the 16.2% swing we got there. (This helped to get a friend of mine, who'd put her hand up six weeks before polling day to avoid the embarrassment of leaving the seat uncontested, within 200 votes of getting elected in a supposedly impossible seat). I was feeling a bit less favourably disposed towards the locals in 2007 than I had in 2002 on discovering that 'Residents Only' signs had sprouted on the entrances to the local parkland areas. (Naturally I ignored these whilst thinking under my breath 'you miserable (expletive deleted)'). Maybe that's why what would otherwise be an ideal (if slightly steep) street-O area has never, to my knowledge, been used.

The start of the run was a bit iffy with some Achilles soreness that took longer to disappear than it usually does, but I handled the long climb up Old Eltham Road with ease which was an indicator that it was going to be good. The next hour was excellent, flowing beautifully and handling the hills with ease. In the last hour muscle stiffness started to come into play but my running strength was as good as ever, with the last 5k being the fastest section of the whole run. A very encouraging performance.

As for the tooth, the good news is that it's been sorted out (and getting an unbroken night's sleep was nice), the bad news is that it's just as well I recently paid off my house because the visit cost about as much as I used to be paying each fortnight on my mortgage.

Two not-quite-accurate predictions in yesterday's entry. I did make it home before the deluge really started (20mm between 7 and 7.30), and the toothache came back with a vengeance. Almost as fun as the pain itself was trying to find a dentist who isn't at Portsea or (insert name of northern hemisphere ski resort here) for the next three weeks - finally succeeded at about the 10th attempt. Will know more this afternoon.

I wasn't expecting a great run against that background but felt OK most of the way, especially in the last 15 minutes (although the gentle downhill through Rosanna Parklands is always a kind way to finish a run). Still a bit slower than I'd expect for this type of run. It was remarkably dark for 9 on a mid-summer morning, but there wasn't much rain during the run (plenty of debris left over from the last two nights, though, and more than one person on their roof checking and/or cleaning gutters).

A pretty slow swim at Richmond after an ordinary night's sleep thanks to a toothache (much better now). I suspect my bike may be staying in the shed at work over the weekend - our short-range model is predicting 50-100 millimetres of rain for Melbourne in the 3 hours from 5 to 8 this evening. I suspect half that amount is more realistic but that's still plenty.

C • Models 4

Pretty good for the first two-thirds, certainly a lot better than the equivalent run last week, and taking on some quite hilly country, particularly a section through Apollo Parkways where I go when I'm looking for a serious challenge (it's steep enough to have (steep) alongside the street name in the Melway, and is probably the sharpest hill within running range of my place). Faded considerably beyond 90 minutes, particularly up hills (all of them a lot shorter and less steep than the aforementioned Apollo Parkways), probably because of inadequate fluid levels.

I was surprised how much fluid I lost on this run; it was 22 degrees with occasional light rain, and quite humid, but didn't have a real sense of being hot, but I came in at 69kg afterwards which is about 3 below par for me. With back-to-back Christmas parties this afternoon/evening I will have ample opportunities for fluid replacement. The second of them, for the local ALP, is likely to be particularly celebratory, although I'm not sure how we're going to get everyone into the office of the state member for Eltham. (George Seitz allegedly once managed to get 497 people into his Keilor office for a meeting, but given his reputation as the Victorian ALP's most notorious branch stacker - and the competition is tough - most of us suspect the meeting in question never actually took place).

A pretty nondescript run from East Camberwell (positioning myself for street-O tonight), as far out as Wattle Park. Came back through some of tonight's area which I normally prefer not to do, but would have had a few more major road crossings otherwise. At least seemed to side-step the chaos on the railways created by the latest bunch of copper thieves, probably because my train originated from somewhere closer in than where most of the action was happening.

Street-O at Camberwell Central. This is a map I have a fair bit of experience of (it seems to get used every year), and I've had some memorable races there. One which stands out was in winter 2004 when I had probably my best physical race anywhere in the last few years - it was one of those days when my body just kept wanting to go faster and faster - but I spent most of the way trying to get ground on a young runner I'd never seen before. In the end I only got him because he made a mistake on the last control. Adventure racers (and mountain runners) will recognise the name - Jarad Kohlar.

The course forced us into a big route choice decision early. I thought I'd got a big jump on the field but it turned out to be only a small jump, and I came out when we rejoined at halfway 20 metres behind Bryan and 20 ahead of Adam. Both were a little faster than me and pulled away gradually over the second half, although Adam died at the end and I got within striking distance of him (and might have got closer without an untimely railway crossing, although I expect he'd have won a sprint if it came to that). Only felt moderate, although better than last week, and did cope with the heat (30) with no real difficulties.

Navigation highlight (or lowlight) of the night: heading across an oval to number 10 (described as 'gap in fence'), I saw a gap in the fence and something orange sticking up from about 50 metres away. It was a little left of where I was expecting but street-O control placement isn't always as precise as it should be, so I ran straight for it, expecting to see a punch, and got there to be greeted by - an apple core. Didn't lose any significant time but a good story.

Felt pretty good on this run but surprisingly slow (9.22) for no obvious reason, especially given how good yesterday was. Only thing I can think of is that I went out a bit earlier in the morning than I usually do.

It's been quieter for me in the media lately than it was early in the year (expect this to change in January), but there was a front-page piece in today's 'Australian'. Unfortunately when I spoke with Asa Wahlquist I didn't know that the Cooma-area property their photographers were going to was Gaerloch (which covers the open areas of the Badja maps) - had I known that I might have been able to slip in some references to the major events held there (to say nothing of the quirks of the local microclimate - it's very exposed to easterlies, being the last range before the coastal escarpment, and can therefore pick up quite a bit of moisture in low cloud and drizzle in the type of easterly set-up that we've had for much of the last few weeks).

Morning session at Northcote before dropping the goodies for tonight off at the Arthur residence (rather than have them stew in my car for the day). Felt OK most of the way once loosened up. The Northcote pool has a somewhat eccentric sense of timekeeping - in the few minutes around 7.20 I saw clocks on the premises which read 6.20, 8.20, 1.15 and 7.18.

We often get asked around this time of year about Christmas Day forecasts. (Personally, I care less about Christmas Day forecasts than I do about Boxing Day ones, but I am prepared to say that Christmas will be warmer in Melbourne than it was last year). The perils of such forecasts are perhaps illustrated by the two headlines that I saw from some years ago in our newspaper clippings files (both from the 'Age'):

24/12/1988 - 'Weather will be just fine for Christmas'
26/12/1988 - 'Christmas Day deluge a record'

Went out at lunchtime, unusually for a Monday, because of our Christmas frolics tonight which won't count as a training session. It was a lovely day for running (20 degrees, sunny, cool breeze, not particularly humid) and I made full use of it around the Tan - even having to sidestep all the strollers on Southbank didn't seem like much of an inconvenience. Sometimes threatened to become a truly stellar run - didn't quite make it but still very enjoyable, especially compared to usual Mondays which are often a bit of a struggle.

The new Melbourne Central YHA (to be located in a rebuilt former flophouse on Flinders Street which had been derelict for years) still has a banner on it 'Opening late 2007'. It still looks pretty derelict so I don't like their chances. Nor do I like the chances of a similar deadline being met for the redevelopment of the old railway sheds next to our office (or, for that matter, the weed-filled vacant lot near the Fairfield pipe bridge where the sign says 'Construction Commences Q1 2007'). At least there seems to be some headway being made in ridding Melbourne of the Lonsdale Street power station tower and the shell of Coburg High School, both of which have been the subject of games of pass-the-parcel between would-be developers for almost as long as I've been in Melbourne.