Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

3-hour street/park event at Werribee. I was thinking that something like 2.15 was about what I was wanting to do today and this event gave a good purpose to such an undertaking. Needless to say, once I actually got running, the idea of pulling up at 2.15 with 35 out of 40 controls done became less attractive as an option, and I ended up doing one of my longest runs for some time - hopefully I won't end up regretting this. Hamstring a bit more touchy than it has been in the last few days, but didn't get any worse as it went on (if anything it probably improved a little).

As a long run it was a pretty good one, settling down nicely in the early stages and going nicely for most of the rest of the way, only really tiring in the last 20 minutes. Also a faster pace than most long runs in recent months (especially when you factor in, say, 5 seconds per control for punching), which suggests that the competitive juices may have subconsciously penetrated me to some extent. One careless error when I ran up the wrong street and lost 90 seconds or so, and a few other time losses when I planned route choices through gaps which no longer existed (or, in one case, had become part of a gated community - something I will ban when I become dictator of Australia, after I finish with suspending the broadcasting licences of any media outlet caught referring to "mini-tornadoes"). Apart from these misadventures route choice seemed reasonable.

Werribee is a fairly easy place to do a long run - there certainly aren't too many hills to get in the way. Events like this are also a chance to do some suburban exploration, which at the south end of the map involved a lot of boganmobiles parked on nature strips (no sign of the owners - 10.30 on a Sunday morning is too early for them).

And one of life's little mysteries - my right big toe was hurting a bit on the run, but when I took my shoe off to reveal a very photogenic red stain on my socks, it was being generated by toes three and four.

Bendigo Saturday event at Mandurang, with a weaker field than is sometimes the case for these (no Toph, Evan, Jim or Keelys). My last hit-out in the terrain before leaving, as well as being my first run in terrain since the hamstring injury - the good news on that front is that there was no sign of trouble (and indeed hasn't been all week).

My main objective here was to get my navigation as clean as I possibly could, a mission which was accomplished. Not super-fast but felt reasonably strong uphill (albeit on hills which were mostly fairly short). Found a bit of pace at the end in pursuit of a target of cracking 40, which I did - just. A bit over a minute up on James Robertson.

My (bright orange) 2005 NT Championships T-shirt may need to be used this week for purposes other than making myself visible on a bicycle. (In the days before Australia qualified, my World Cup support was generally directed towards Ireland, Holland and whichever Scandinavian countries qualified). As I think I've noted earlier, I expect to be watching the final in an Edinburgh pub and would imagine that Holland (assuming they make it) will be reasonably popular in those parts too. (I'm also led to believe that, had England made the final, the locals would have been supporting whoever England was playing against).

Somehow, I don't think I'll be going sub-6 minutes/km on the Trossachs this time next week.

Pool running at Fitzroy. I've been talking a bit about lack of light lately but this was something a bit different; this session was a bit earlier than usual and I started it in darkness, which feels a bit odd in an outdoor pool. The session itself was pretty good; working reasonably hard.

I'm also working hard outside the pool, being in the usual pre-overseas mode of having three weeks' worth of stuff to do and only one week to do it in. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy long-haul flights - once you go through Customs you can relax.

Not one of my better Thursday mornings - perhaps I can blame it on not having any soccer to watch at 5.30 for the first time in a while. (It also had the feel of a day when I was about to get sick, but no signs of that, yet). A pretty sluggish session, out through Balwyn initially and then back via the Chandler bridge.

Being out when the light begins to glimmer and the city awakens is a nice feeling, but it will still be good when it happens a bit earlier.

I don't do a lot of winter street-Os (at least since my days as VOA president when I felt I needed to fly the flag occasionally at all the series of significance), but this one was local (Watsonia) and the timing suited. It's a nice area for street-O, although a lot of the short-cut options are through parks which makes things challenging in the dark if your light isn't good (or is non-existent). Bryan Ackerly found this out when he ran full-bore into a chain and took a nasty knock on the shins, thereby demonstrating that when the soccer players go down in apparent agony it's at least sometimes real (the cases where they go down clutching their face when contact has been to the arm are another story). No referee was present to give the offending chain a yellow card.

The run was pleasant and the hamstring continues to respond well. Not working terribly hard.

Big score of the day was that I found out in the nick of time that the Bureau was throwing out its topographic map collection. After an hour or so of scavenging I am now the proud owner of 1:250000 sheets covering, at a guess, a quarter of Australia, along with a fair number of NSW and Tasmanian 1:25000s and a few historical curios - some of the maps had printed on them 'Official Document - if found please return to the nearest military post or police station'. (Some of the maps I didn't take documented a history of post-WW2 military adventures, extending from Korea to Malaysia to Vietnam). Getting the pile home will be the next challenge.

C • maps 14

First attempt at anything fast since the hamstring started giving trouble. The good news is that the hamstring gave no trouble, even on the steep downhill exit from my place. The not-quite-so-good news is that, despite feeling lively at times, this was pretty slow (9.50). The poor light wouldn't have helped, especially on the first lap; this is as late as sunrise will get (and in any case in 10 days' time I'll be in places where it's light by 4 or earlier).

The icy wind was again a feature today (complete with a sleety drizzle). We spent quite a bit of the day talking of 10 July 1995, the last day that was like this, but today ended up warming up very late in the day (reaching 10.8 at 8pm after hovering around 8 most of the day).

And we've found out about a sound which can drown out vuvuzelas - a crowd of English supporters chanting "the referee's a wanker".

C • Bendigo Station 5

A day for the hard core today at Fitzroy - even ice on the cars on my street which doesn't happen all that often. Started the session quite well but drifted out of it a bit in the second half. Unsurprisingly there wasn't a lot of traffic in the lane today.

Clearly someone forgot to tell Mark Webber last night that he wasn't in the Red Bull air race.

Lunchtime session around the Tan on the sort of day that you see a lot of in Canberra winters but not many of in Melbourne - sunny but with the temperature barely touching double figures, with the first hints of the northerly wind that was to become bitterly cold (at least by Melbourne standards) later in the day.

A somewhat ho-hum run, but hamstring more comfortable than it's been on a run for some time. Looks like the Tan is going to have reconstruction work on it for the rest of the year so spring might not be a great period for fast times.

Someone's apparently called me "corrupt" on a blog somewhere. It's tempting to try to make an example of him but I've got better things to do with my money than use it to make lawyers rich.