Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Ran out of legs in the end and pulled up a little short of the 2.25-2.30 that I was hoping for, but I shouldn't be too upset after a tough three days. Perhaps I might have found enough to go round the long side of the last block had I known I was a minute short of my longest week for three years. Can't be too upset to put together a week as big as that in my first week back, and with Wednesday night's dramas thrown in.

It was an early start before the OA Conference but as it turned out I was awake from 4.30 anyway like I have most other mornings for the last week. (I still slept better than would have been the case at home, thanks to the person or persons unknown who set the cubbyhouse in the front yard on fire in the early hours of Saturday morning - fortunately the neighbours got on top of it before it spread any further).

Started out down through Belconnen, inspecting the now non-existence of the old bus interchange (scene of one of the more unfortunate design stuff-ups of living memory - it was designed by an American who didn't realise we drove on the left in Australia), then past the east side of Lake Ginninderra with a pitstop on the way - at least that part of my body clock is getting back closer to normal - before going to the AIS to link up with Bruce, Jenny and Craig. By this stage it was looking extremely black out to the west (although the early-morning sun exaggerated that), and we were in steady rain for most of the rest of the run, although only one clap of thunder. Spent most of this sector of the run on Black Mountain, around the secondary park and then down to Rani Road before coming back around the bottom of Aranda Hill and back towards the AIS. Broke off from the others after crossing Belconnen Way and headed back home.

Things I should have thought of earlier: my shoes were soaked and I didn't have another pair for the rest of the day (other than my O-shoes, which might have made for some interesting moments with airport security this afternoon). Fortunately my father is a similar shoe size.

I'm also continuing to get occasional spasms in my lower left leg - I'd initially attributed this to cramp after Wednesday but it's persisted too long for that to be a plausible cause. Isn't interfering with running (at least not yet). A massage this week will be long overdue.

C • bus interchange 1

OA Conference weekend, which traditionally starts for me by taking advantage of the family home's location next to some bush to do some terrain running. This time round I went across to Black Mountain to do it as the long grass on Aranda Hill looked ferocious (discovering in the process that my Achilles doesn't like uphill starts at the moment). Not too bad once going although uphills a bit unsure.

The OA Conference event, combined with a street-O (Melbourne style, although with enough off-road to get a decent number of grass seeds into my socks) around Bruce and the AIS. It was probably close to the least important event I'll run this year, which is just as well because I combined more technical misadventures into one course tonight than I've had in the last few years in Melbourne put together.

It's never a good sign when no-one else goes your way from the mass start. My route choice did indeed turn out to be disastrous but not for any reason that could be determined from the map, something I found out on the first leg when two unmapped locked gates meant an unscheduled 300-400 metres around the indoor arena. Twice more this direction of travel fed me into uncrossable fence 'traps' (once a gate at the far end was locked, once the control circle position suggested the control was on the other side of the fence to where it was in reality); neither would have been an issue going in the reverse direction.

I wasn't feeling brilliant, and with three or four minutes already blown in the first five controls decided to turn this into a training run, but my mind must still have been steaming because I did something I haven't done in 17 years of Melbourne street-Os and missed a control - and celebrated by doing it again not too far down the road. I didn't realise either of these until a point where the least inefficient way to get it was a 1.5k out-and-back at the end of the course. Motivation was definitely an issue at this point. Plodded home to swap tales of epic misadventure.

Bruce did 2.5k (and 20 minutes) less than I did. A lot of people will have claimed my scalp for the first time tonight (Jenny is definitely one of them).

I was a bit apprehensive about this one, still not really feeling normal last night, but seemed in much better shape this morning - still waking up at 5 of my own accord rather than through an alarm, but it suits me for this to remain the case for the next couple of days.

It was a warmish morning (low 20s), though I took advantage of my knowledge of the valley bottoms where cool air was more likely to be found. Planned a route with a number of bailout options but in the end didn't need them; it was a run which felt a bit on the edge at times but ended up being reasonably solid, even downright good at times in the third quarter going down the Darebin Creek valley. About as good a session as I could reasonably have expected, and hopefully a sign that a difficult 36 hours or so is behind me.

Sometime around 3.30 in the morning, having woken up for about the fifth time for the night with lower leg cramps, I decided that any attempt to do a long run this morning was liable to end in tears; it seems that when unacclimatised, 27 degrees takes as much out of me as 42 degrees did in January 2009. (I've been drinking, and eating salty things, all day and still don't feel quite right; will see how things are before making another attempt tomorrow morning). Perhaps treating the recovery from a round-the-world trip as if the trip didn't exist is something that didn't quite work either.

Instead I took to the pool (and got a cramp there too, although that's not especially unusual). Started OK but felt rather washed-out by the end.

C • Salt 1

From Clifton Hill upriver as far as the Kew underpass, back across the Studley footbridge. In contrast with yesterday, nothing particularly special although did finish off more or less OK.

Monty Python fans will be disappointed to hear that the 'Romans Go Home' graffiti on a Wellington Street building has become a casualty of construction work.

Street-O at Forest Hill. I'd almost talked myself out of it before the start - it was a warm day (27-28 at start time) for which I wasn't properly acclimatised, it was a score event which meant it would be longer than usual, and I've been struggling in the afternoons.

Went a different way to most others early but reconverged with them shortly afterwards - after the dust had settled a few controls in, Bruce was a couple of hundred metres behind me but with a control in hand. I felt sort of OK for the first half but then started fading quite quickly, and lost motivation once Bruce had passed me. By three-quarter distance I was starting to feel a bit dizzy and light-headed and knew I had to back off, but managed to finish without further incident - not competitively though.

I was 3kg lighter at the end of this run than I was yesterday morning.

Had planned a long one for tomorrow but am not sure how I'll back up from this - will see how I am in the morning.

I thought jet lag was supposed to reduce your athletic performance. It certainly didn't do so today - instead, after having barely been able to get under 10 for this circuit all year, I suddenly popped out a 9.34. Flowing well down the hills, and reasonably strong elsewhere as well, although it didn't seem that much better than previous occasions.

This is the first time in three years that I've put together a proper first part of the summer build-up season and perhaps it's showing. Tomorrow night will be interesting - I won't beat Bruce (unless he does something silly) but I'd be hoping to be more like 2 minutes down than the 4 that's been par for the course so far. (That said, I hit the wall this afternoon and evening, more so than yesterday, and if the same thing happens tomorrow it won't augur that well for performance).

Connoisseurs of exotic soft drinks may be interested to know that both L+P and Irn-Bru have appeared at my local supermarket (and yes, the latter is in the drinks section, not the paint-strippers one).

C • IrnBru 3

Another not-in-Switzerland-any-more moment, but this time a positive one: Fitzroy Pool under the summer morning sunshine (having managed to sleep sort of OK and woken up only 20 minutes before my alarm). Felt pretty good and it was reflected in my best swim for a while.

The water was a bit cooler than usual (24.something) and there was talk in the changerooms that some of the regulars had chickened out and gone to Richmond, to which the general response at our end was along the lines of HTFU.

And it looks like I missed a change to the road rules while I was away - apparently now vehicles turning right have right of way over those going straight in the opposite direction.

MFR Monday night from Dion's, distinguished mainly by the first appearance (at least while I've been there) on a full run of a member of the next MFR generation - Max Dalheim, who went the full distance (albeit a distance shorter and slower than might sometimes by the case). Down around Studley Park and the newly-opened-up Victoria Park.

It was a pretty comfortable run: I was a bit concerned about it when, after doing well most of the day, I hit a flat spot about 5pm, but was fine again by the time the run started.

I think Max was quite impressed by the distance-measuring watch: possibly a request to Santa coming up?