Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A shorter but more ambitious route than last week: Wattle Glen-Kangaroo Ground-Warrandyte-Donvale-Eastern Freeway path. Almost continuously hilly until hitting the path at 38k; most of it manageable, but the climb out of Warrandyte on Harris Gully Road was brutal (will be interested to look at a contour map but wouldn't expect much change out of 15%).

Reasonably strong through the first two-thirds but again hit a bit of a flat spot around 45k (I took a banana with me this time so there goes that theory). I think it might just be a case of muscular endurance in muscles that aren't used to this level of work on the hillier rides. I hope it's a function of hilliness rather than distance, as the (by my riding standards) epic I have tentative plans for (watch this space) will only be starting to hit its most significant hills at 45k.

A sign soliciting funds to build an indoor sports stadium at Diamond Creek said 'we're almost there!'. Evidently 'almost' has a different definition in Diamond Creek as they're $250K, en route to $1M. The local school also had a sign wishing everyone a merry Christmas, which reminds me that I haven't seen a seasonal staple this year: a news story about some inner city school/child care centre which has allegedly "banned Christmas" out of political correctness. Usually any connection between such stories and reality is tenuous at best.

C • When Christmas was banned 1

C • Amy's Ride 2

Usual Saturday loop. Felt stronger on the hills than I have previously, which showed up in the time; was particularly pleased with how I worked the final hill back to my place. They must make a better class of dog owner in the eastern suburbs because the on-leash compliance rate was 100%.

Going past Doncaster Shoppingtown there was already a kilometre-long queue of cars waiting to get into the car park at 8.45 in the morning. That certainly made me glad that my plans for Christmas shopping (most of it to be done today) didn't involve any big suburban malls.

I had more tastes of the season last night. At the moment I'm working something bordering on Liggo hours (even in the most intense, five-hours-sleep-a-night-if-lucky, phases of Year 12 I didn't work Friday nights), and was making my way home at 9.30 last night. Just about every establishment en route had a party of some kind going, and some of it was inevitably reflected on the street; my scoreboard for the night was two pedestrians wandering aimlessly down the middle of the road, and one driver who was too tired or drunk to notice that the light was green and had been for the last 30 seconds.

Was in two minds over whether to do this given my foot soreness of recent days, but it was OK while running (still not especially confident I'd handle anything rougher, though). In Preston (en route to the markets), sharing the oval with the well-performing members of the local dog obedience club. 3 mins on/1 min off, as with Thursday.

The wonders of Facebook: a (non-orienteering) acquaintance is getting married today at Jervis Bay and one of the guests posted photos of the proud couple. I immediately recognised the spot as being one end of the intervals set described at http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_1491/p.... Very nice spot for a wedding photo (and the weather looks like it was better today than it was on 11 August too).

Pool running at Fitzroy. The same regular was there to pass the time of day with as we went past each other. In this game there's a fairly good chance other people doing it will also have injury stories to tell (although I'm considering keeping a session of this as a recovery session once this injury is behind me), and so it proved - in her case a broken collarbone falling off a motorbike. Sun glare something of an issue this morning.

Foot feels a bit better today than it did yesterday, but still a bit of a concern.

Sets of 1 min walk/3 min run, based around my parking spot outside the Arden Street oval; it's hard to believe that top-level football was ever played out of here. At least North Melbourne are no longer operating out of portable tin sheds - their new building is finished (which also happens to house the State Fencing Centre). Heavy clouds gathering but the rain didn't arrive until some hours later.

The Achilles is responding OK to this, but some soreness is appearing further down the foot; not really noticeable on the run but definitely was afterwards. I'm not sure what to make of this; it may well be a temporary response to resuming (some sort) of running, but it also feels a little like the early stages of my 2000 stress fracture. Hard to imagine that I could get a stress fracture in four days of jogging, though.

Followed the "run" up by riding to work via the usual circuitous route (i.e. through Essendon). Felt pretty smooth although noticed foot soreness a bit later on. Windy at times but only occasionally a nuisance.

To work via the northern loop again, although made my way south via the Merri Creek path to Brunswick, mainly because I had something to drop off at Clara's place. A hot day was promised (and materialised) but it wasn't too bad riding, although it had risen to 30 by the time I made it to work. Felt fairly reasonable although a little tired at the end.

The last time I came down the Merri Creek path it was blocked near Bell Street because of works associated with rebuilding Melbourne's sewer system, but it's clear now. Some of the path isn't in great condition and the dog-walkers don't take any more notice of on-leash zone signs than they did when I was running in these parts.

Saw a real estate sign, "Stunning Factory", not usually a set of words you'll see together.

One interesting feature of this morning was that the traffic was unusually heavy in the suburbs near train lines, but not elsewhere. My theory is that a lot of regular train passengers lacked confidence in the railway system's ability to handle a 39-degree day (with some reason based on historic experience, although there don't seem to have been any major meltdowns) and drove instead. A bicycle is more reliable on a hot day than either, but that doesn't make going home in 38 degrees into a headwind any easier. (I don't log "regular" commutes, but I was tempted today).

C • Thanks! 1

2 min jog/1 min walk, from home, same up-and-down route as Sunday. Good news is the tightness is gone, bad news is that I noticed the hotspot a little bit - nothing major, but then there were days before I stopped where I noticed nothing major either. Suggests a slow rehab process is no bad thing.

Out and back along the Koonung Creek path - not a commute for once as I had the ASC summit at the MCG rather than work (at least in the morning). The path is fun, the roads getting there and back were not fun - I'm normally doing them on a weekend when they're fine, but at 7.30 or 8.30 on a weekday they're the major truck route between the Hume and the Eastern. Working fairly hard on the outward trip, and cruising enjoyably on the long downhills coming back.

The ASC summit on the Crawford review was interesting, although I was hoping for more concrete indications from the ASC as to what they thought was likely to happen (to be fair, they've probably got about as much idea as the rest of us). The day was more about identifying from sports what the controversial issues were (no real surprises here) and where the gaps in the report were. It's also apparent that everyone wants more money, but I'm not convinced that more money is going to be forthcoming. Surprisingly little vigorous argument, but that may be because the real heavyweights were missing - John Coates wasn't there, and the likes of the AFL, NRL, rugby union, cricket and soccer either weren't there or were represented by low-level people.

The award for being in the right place at the right time goes to the Victorian Environment Minister, Gavin Jennings. You may have noticed press reports that he was missing from Copenhagen because his doctor had said he couldn't fly. I found out the reason why today - he had a heart attack in his office on Friday. Fortuitously, at the time there was a meeting going on in the next office between the Health Minister and the AMA, whose members were able to do the necessary.

Also noticed that for once the courts threw the book at someone who ran down a cyclist (13 years, the heaviest sentence I can remember for culpable driving), although the combination of speeding while drunk and on drugs and in the process of going to buy more drugs was never going to attract much judicial sympathy.

C • sentence 3

Pool running session at Fitzroy, reasonably smooth. Had the same company as last time, exchanging pleasantaries each time we passed each other. Didn't seem to tighten up afterwards like I did last time, but then I haven't run yet.

Seven parking spots in front of the pool are being converted to bike parking. As it is not a shopping strip I presume it will not attract the response we had in Heidelberg where, in a display of the myopia for which Australian small business is famous, local traders went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to try to stop four parking spots being turned into a bus stop.

C • The waving loonie in Fitzroy 1