Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Victorian Blodslitet at Sailors Creek. This isn't a true Blodslitet in the sense that the Norwegians would understand it (this year it was won in 1.50), but it's still a mass-start long-O. I've run some memorable races in these (especially just holding on against Jimbo in 1994 and just failing to hold on against Grant in 1996), but I haven't had many chances recently to run these - only once since 2000 (usually because it's been run while I've been overseas).

It will be another year before I get a chance to run one properly, because it was quickly apparent that my right heel, while OK on level ground, was still no good in terrain, especially the steeper climbs (not in short supply at Sailors Creek). In a more important race I might have tried to battle through but this wasn't one, and I pulled out at the end of the first loop.

Lost time to Bruce picking routes across an erosion gully at 2, but had him in sight most of the time until the heel became increasingly painful at 6. Jogged home from there.

It's a frustrating injury, but the problem area does seem to be shrinking slowly and it copes OK on the roads, so hopefully it won't get in the way of my plans for a big training block in the next four weeks. It may mean I give next weekend's events a miss, though.

C • What are next week's events ? 7

First weekend at home (more or less) for a long time and started reacquainting myself with the neighbourhood. Took a very long time to loosen up on a run which was never all that comfortable, although at its best on the long descent through the Rosanna Parklands, always a nice way to finish a run in these parts.

Possibly I was disoriented by the prospect of going to watch my team play another Victorian team at the MCG on a Saturday afternoon. Normally Essendon has to make the Grand Final to get a chance to do that.

The day's prize for stupidity goes to the person seen at Northland, parked squarely on top of the line between two parking spaces, one of which was marked 'No Standing: Police Vehicles Excepted'.

C • AFL 8

Using a lot of muscles which have been unemployed for some time, and consequently even slower than usual. This was a particularly early start because my usual 8.30 massage start was at 7.30 (thanks to the 7.30 spot's usual occupant, Lisa Jane Weightman, being otherwise engaged in more northern parts - currently Townsville but soon to be Hong Kong and then Beijing). Going back to mid-5s alarms is a bit of a shock to the system.

Saw a car on the way into work, 'DERM23'. Mr Brereton was not inside; it was being driven by someone young enough to be his daughter (or one of Sam Newman's girlfriends).

Also noticed in a paper I read (as part of my mountain of catch-up reading) that Olomouc has one of the longest sets of meteorological observations in existence in the world, going back to the 1690s. I wish I'd known earlier - would have checked the site out had I been aware of its existence.

First long run since I got back, and the longest I've done anywhere for a couple of months (at least in distance) - a little longer than the 105-110 minutes I'd planned on but can live with that. Definitely noticed that it's the first time for a while that I've done anything long on hard ground; my lower legs were definitely on the sore side in the second half (and my calves were very tight, as revealed when I had the first session on them with the needles for a few weeks afterwards).

Started promisingly again, but had to work pretty hard through most of the second half before picking up again in the last 15 minutes. Blisters continuing to recover gradually, and not really interfering with my running now except that I have to be careful with the way I plant my foot on sharp right-hand turns. Hopefully the 48 hours of relative rest that they'll now get will fix them up properly (and I won't recreate them at Sunday's event).

Never really got properly going for this one, despite a promising start. Heels continuing to improve but only very slowly. Noticed that a building site has taken over one of my occasional exit routes from the city for work-based runs (I came in early this morning so I could drop by and pick up my pack, which has finally arrived, before the traffic got too bad), so will need to find other ways to get to the Port Melbourne foreshore.

Is being swooped by a magpie in July a sign of climate change? Discuss.

I knew I was back home on having my first encounter since arriving back with a four-wheel-driver, who I'd had the temerity to delay by a second or two, who blasted their horn and raised the finger. And here was I thinking yesterday that we'd taken another significant step towards becoming a civilised country again...

C • Magpies in July 3

Second session of the day, this time having my first look at the Tan for a couple of months. The building works on the lower part seem to have finished but builders elsewhere are still using it as a car park. Nice weather but again I struggled to really get going, as was the case this morning.

The council must have declared 30 July as Melbourne Be Nasty Day as I encountered another bit of unpleasantness on this run - in this case a woman who went ballistic when I bumped into her (and promptly apologised to) when she stepped sideways as I was about to pass her.

Another frosty morning (although it was drier than yesterday so there wasn't the amount of ice around that there was then) and another pleasant if unspectacular run. Again held up well for most of the way but heel starting to feel a bit sore again in the last 10 minutes.

It looks like I was in pretty good company in failing to last the four days last week because of blister trouble (http://www.oringen.se/1332.php). At least for Thierry it was a good deal less dramatic than his previous DNF.

Back in Melbourne last night, although my bag isn't - it unsurprisingly failed to make what became a 35-minute connection in Helsinki. (I did have my hopes up when we saw Bridget's bag come off the plane in Helsinki as we were waiting to get off it, but mine failed to follow it). Both of us, especially Bridget, also ended up having tight connections in Hong Kong but both of us made it. I guess with the number of trips I've done in the last eight months it was inevitable that my bags would go astray somewhere, and on the way home is the least worst place for it to happen - the biggest drawback is that the 'shoe inspection' queue at Quarantine is normally the quickest one so it took me 30 minutes longer to get out of the airport than it usually does.

The run itself was a reasonable one. The blisters (or to be more accurate the healing bits of raw flesh where the blisters were) were OK for most of the way, but one of them opened up a bit towards the end - will need watching. Slept OK if not brilliantly last night so should hopefully have most time-zone issues sorted out.

It was a lot colder than Sweden, to the point that there was quite a bit of ice around if you looked in the right places (the Yarra footbridges were particularly fine examples) - it rained a fair bit yesterday so there was plenty of moisture around. Those of us of Canberra origin always have a bit of fun in such situations watching Melburnians grapple with the problem of how to get ice off car windscreens.

Providing the blisters don't cause too many problems, the plan is to have a slightly-easier-than-normal week this week, then go into a fairly heavy cycle for 3-4 weeks ahead of the main local competition season.

C • Welcome back Blair. It's b... 1