Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

This was my longest run since August. It was a bit of a struggle at times, but how it feels tomorrow will be the biggest test. Quite hilly through the middle stages in Greensborough and Montmorency (and hillier than I'd planned on because part of the riverside path was closed for building work). Didn't have a lot of strength on the bigger hills, and after the biggest of them - up onto the ridge at Montmorency - started to get a bit of Achilles soreness, always a bit of a worry when it develops during the run. I was certainly glad to have a largely flat last half-hour back along the Yarra, and handled the final climb to my place OK.

Having something on the stopwatch which started with a 2 was a landmark, but I can't say that it's yet given me a lot of confidence about my ability to handle this on a consistent basis. Still, I've said that before on pushing boundaries for the first time.

Down on the Mornington Peninsula. Not quite a replication of my Cup Day route which didn't have the happiest of endings; I avoided the soft sand on both the Blairgowrie beach and the back beach track, but didn't avoid the many small ups and downs on the tracks and roads that cross the dunes.

In case Thursday had left me under the illusion that the Achilles injury was behind me, I was very tight this morning, but loosened slowly on the run itself (and was fine afterwards). Working hard at times when the hills were particularly frequent, but reasonably happy with this on the whole.

Noticed while watching the ice hockey today that one Miroslav Satan plays for Slovakia. I imagine his jersey sells reasonably well, although perhaps less well than it would if it read 'SATAN 666' instead of 'SATAN 18'.

Pool running at Ivanhoe. Arrived into the middle of a vigorous political discussion, but I don't think I succeeded in shifting any votes. A reasonably solid session on the physical front, though.

Someone went to the Federal Court this week trying to argue that a Hummer is a bus. If you're wondering why someone would do such a thing, the reason is that if it is a bus it is not a luxury car, and therefore does not attract luxury car tax. They didn't have a lot of joy in the lower courts and I doubt they'll have much joy in the Federal Court either. It looks like Hummers, whether classified as a car or a bus, are likely to become an endangered species, something I won't shed too many tears over.

Didn't find it that easy to get myself going today; still getting used to the Wednesday night/Thursday morning combination (even with a slightly later than usual start because I was dropping the OA books off to the auditors this morning). A bit better in the last third. Never comfortable going uphill, but doing more hills than of late, and one big positive is that the Achilles was just about the best it's been since October (although calves were still tight two days after the Tuesday needlework session).

I was glad I was running and not in a car; the traffic around the Manningham Road bridge was the worst I can remember seeing. At least one person is yet to realise that you cannot make a traffic jam dissolve by tooting your horn at it.

Didn't have a lot left for the ride home, but it had two highlights: (a) seeing a sign outside St. John's Primary in Clifton Hill 'EDUCATION AT IT'S BEST', and (b) the broken-down Scientology truck just up the road from Ivanhoe Cycles. Surely L. Ron Hubbard can do something about that?

Street-O at Camelot Rise. Continued progress, although it doesn't really show in the results because this time I lost time on route choice rather than gaining it; all things considered probably about a minute better than last time.

It's always a bit nerve-wracking when everyone ahead of you turns right from the first control and you turn left, but turning left was a good option - my poor option was after that (although I did at least avoid being blocked by some unmapped economic stimulus). Bryan and the Birdman came with me and I had a good stretch chasing them before we split. Faded a little in the second half, but found something at the end to hold the Birdman off in a sprint finish. (He must be getting close to 60 now but he can still run). Bryan was about three minutes up, and Schwepps two.

There was a fairly strong Bureau presence tonight, in the form of Bruce Stewart (a Wednesday night regular and my boss a couple of levels up), and Chris Godfred-Spenning (recently back from a few years working in Perth, and coming to these as his forecasting shifts allow). Also saw one of my colleagues walking home, and for good measure my direct boss was quoted in the climate change piece that shouldn't really be in the "Australian Orienteer".

Also had an encounter on the way in with one of Victoria's more ancient road-ragers (a fairly unremarkable horn-plus-finger effort). As a climate scientist I'm used to dealing with angry old men but you don't often see them on the roads.

First attempt at a speed session (fartlek) since the injury. I thought this might be horribly slow, both because it's my first go at speedwork, and because it was done earlier (like at dawn) than my speedwork sessions usually are. It was slow but not as bad as I'd feared (9.50), only a little slower than previous returns to speedwork after an easy period, and I felt OK for the most part.

Being out at 6.30 means that the traffic is dominated by Ute Man, and Ute Man doesn't give way to pedestrians when turning. This was a prelude to the worst traffic I can remember seeing at 7.30 in the morning on the way into town; I was definitely glad to be on the bike. This also took me past an ill-fortuned building site, near the Fairfield boathouse, where some action was taking place at long last. (The site was originally created by a factory fire in 2003 or thereabouts, then a squatter was killed by a wall collapse several months later; for a long time the site sported a 'Construction Commences Q1 2007' sign, but that disappeared last year).

Next challenge of the day was the first session of needlework on my calves for several months. They obviously needed it badly because they responded very strongly - so strongly that I was barely able to walk for several hours afterwards. This led me into a somewhat unsettling day on several fronts (none of them anything to do with orienteering).

C • Mt Macedon 4

Swim at Fitzroy. A bit less slow than last week but that's saying very little; still not moving with any fluency in the water. It was trying to rain for quite a bit of the session but that wasn't a problem; it would have been more of a problem had the outer suburban thunderstorm put in a more proximate appearance.

A lunchtime run which I'd made plans for when I thought I had a meeting this evening (it turned out I'd got the date wrong by a week). Quite a warm lunchtime but not an unpleasant run once loosened up, and less soreness than I've had over the last few days.

Oddball sight of the run was a hundred or so people in army camouflage-style shirts. At first glance one might have mistaken them for a boot camp group but I thought that unlikely (a) because all were of first-year-uni age and (b) no self-respecting boot-camper would be seen in public after 7 a.m. Yes, it's O week again. This was actually my second O-week sighting of the day, the first being a similarly large group, mostly wearing blindfolds, on a street corner outside Melbourne Uni on my way in.