Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

State Series 2 at Spring Gully. An interesting course which made the best of an area with only limited bits of technical terrain (we were using the SW corner of the map), with lots of short stuff in the one detailed gully.

Felt reasonable running, if not quite totally awake at the start (my start was early but not that early - especially with the daylight saving finish). A small mistake at 7 and a more significant one at 15, not seeing the control when I was 10 metres away from it and concluding I'd overshot; cost me about 1.15.

I'm clearly still well below pace. Even with a clean run I would have been, at best, just under 39, five behind Troy and 2-3 behind a big cluster. Some of the others got to run in bunches but it's still a reminder that my form is short of where it was this time last year, even though I'm not feeling as bad running as I did for much of February and March. There isn't a lot of time left to do anything about this. It's good, though, to see sufficient depth of competition to make it a battle to make the top 10 at State Series events.

Groin was OK, although lacking a bit of power on the steeper climbs. Will have to see how it comes up tomorrow; there was a bit of a delayed reaction after the first day in SA.

Second race of the day, a sprint. This used controls from the main event (some of which we'd already been to, some of which we hadn't) and was pretty straightforward technically, with several controls either on tracks or visible from a long way. It turned into a running race. I didn't have a lot of expectation for a running race and wasn't disappointed. Only one 10-second miss on 7, and felt better running than in the morning, but not much of a result.

A pleasant run which became very nice indeed in the last 15 minutes, in cruise mode most of the way. It's a while since I've had a chance for a not-overly-stressed, not-especially-early Saturday morning float around the suburb (and it was nice running weather too). Was worried about the groin before I started but it was OK on the run, especially in the second half.

My research occasionally takes me to historic newspapers, which produces an interesting moment or two. I doubt that a 2009 newspaper would contain a sentence which began "Seven people, including two cripples, were rescued from rising floodwaters in western Sydney last night....". (The flood in question was in 1952). Not quite on the level of 'the cyclone killed five people, 400 sheep and 20 natives' that you occasionally see in late 19th/early 20th century cyclone reports, but still somewhat politically incorrect.

Never got going at all this morning, for no obvious reason apart from being half-asleep, and was flaining around even more than normal. Spent much of the time wondering if the change was going to come through before 9 and therefore keep the minimum temperature out of the record books (it turned out that a dip to 21 around 3 a.m. had spoilt it anyway).

It's as well that I didn't encounter any muggers at lunchtime - had $51K of OA's money to deposit in the bank. At least, being in the form of cheques, it wasn't quite as perilous as it was in my early days as VOA Treasurer, when moving money between the cheque account and term deposits involved carrying several thousand in cash from bank A to bank B - it was only half a block but that half a block was Russell Street, which was then, and I presume still is, Druggie Central. I didn't fancy either encountering one of the ill-intentioned locals, or the police who might have mistaken the money for the proceeds of a deal.

(Russell Street has a long history of such activity; along with another venerable location of illicit substances, Smith Street in Collingwood, it was the scene of Melbourne's first ever bust in 1919. It's also remembered by us at work for the auction of one of its dodgy amusement arcades, attended by numerous prominent local identities - most of whom are now either deceased or incarcerated. As one of my colleagues put it, the bids weren't in millions, they were in kilos).

A bit longer than I'd planned on. Like yesterday, felt quite comfortable in the aerobic sense but muscle still at the annoying-niggle stage; would like it to be in better shape than this. Hopefully a day's rest will help - I've run on it for 8 straight days now.

A nice route, starting out along the Yarra and Gardiner Creek and coming back past the Fairfield Boathouse. Quite a warm morning for this time of year (and became a very warm day for this time of year).

Noticed on the way out to Olympic Park at lunchtime that it was being used for a school (as opposed to inter-school, which is quite common) athletics carnival, complete with scores on the electronic scoreboard. Whichever school it is must have a bit of money, and the scoring system is probably more sophisticated than the one we used for similar gatherings 20-odd years ago. (The carnival scoring team was something of a gathering place for the school nerds - feet may be able to comment on whether this remained the case after my departure. None of us were any good at swimming so there were no distractions on that day, but a few of us were decent distance runners. Fortunately 1500m races take a long time so there wasn't much happening while we were away).

C • Of course 1

Felt reasonably smooth aerobically, but rather slower than usual (early darkness probably contributed to that), and a bit tighter than I have been in most other post-comeback runs. Will await developments.

Spent my ride home last night thinking of a good April Fool's stunt.

First attempt at something faster since the comeback. Got through it reasonably well, with only slight twinges at the bottom of the major downhills; will still want to get through a race in the terrain before pronouncing it totally under control.

A little disappointed with the speed (9.37); a bit faster than some recent equivalent sessions, but that's not saying much.

Swim at Fitzroy. Flailing around a bit and slow, if not quite as horribly slow as last time. Must have made a mess of my technique (such as it is) swimming last week without using the legs much.

Monday night from the Kew collective, this time with Kerrin as host (which meant we expected - and got - good food). In a bit of a hurry on the way due to a visit en route to a colleague's newly-expanded family. A pretty reasonable run, on the Yarra tracks as long as the light held out and then up into Kew. Hanny claimed not to be feeling good but still set a reasonably solid pace for a Monday session.

Felt a bit of a twinge on a step while walking home from the station, but no sign of trouble on the run itself.