Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Was a bit sore beforehand and early in the run (more so with the knee than anywhere else) but loosened up reasonably well and not a bad run after the first couple of kilometres, with no real sign of further trouble. No big climbs but hillier than yesterday, climbing up gradually through the bush at the back of Watsonia before coming back through Springthorpe. Flowing quite well at times in the second half although a solid tail wind may have helped; today had the potential to be quite a nasty fire weather day but I haven't yet heard of anything significant happening.

Quite a busy family day after that, with the combination of Mother's Day and the 21st of my youngest cousin (the knee didn't appreciate the landing after I went for a floating-across-the-front-of-the-pack mark in the backyard kick-to-kick, but seems OK now). My parents are based here for the next few weeks (providing support to my grandmother because my aunt's out of town).

One more small step on the Banyule alphabetical challenge: Abelia Court, Bundoora. I'll be seeing a bit of Bundoora in the next few weeks if I keep this up because they have more than their share of As.

C • Footy 2

A low-key return to running, staying on the flat (to the extent that I walked down the Hawdon Street hill to start and up it to finish). Wasn't exactly flowing but back didn't give me any trouble of consequence; in as much as anything was sore it was my hips (perhaps more evidence that there's a single underlying problem). As a flat run it perhaps wouldn't have been expected to test my back that much in any case, but the ramp up from the Banksia Street bridge would have been enough to set it off earlier in the week.

The football last night was a big night even if the result was ultimately not what I wanted. You could tell it was a big night from the beginning, negotiating the crowds on the bridge and going past four different lots of tin-rattlers (one was the Australian rowing team; as I've noted earlier on these pages, the annual budget of the Scotch College rowing program is rumoured to be larger than that of Rowing Australia). Going to a night like this, though, is a reminder of a lot that is right about this city and country (in an era when a lot of people are dedicated to telling us what is wrong), not least the completely peaceful mixing of the two tribes throughout and afterwards - symbolised in my mind by the embracing couple walking back to the station, him in red and black, her in blue and white.

One of my neighbours at the game was a small boy called Ryder who had, I would guess, just learned to read his own name and was very excited on numerous occasions to see it in my copy of the Record (and, unlike the Ryder better known to most readers here, he was wearing the colours his name suggests he should). By the last quarter I was muttering that if the Essendon selectors had seen fit to include his namesake we might not have been losing.

Session at Ivanhoe, before coming back to hang around home for most of the day while waiting for some gas work to be done (first time I've been on the Heidelberg station platform at school getting-out time). Not too bad and working pretty hard in the second half, but back still a bit tight. Might try a run on flat ground tomorrow if it feels OK when I get up, and see how it goes.

Feeling a bit better than yesterday but still some away from thinking I want to get running - not that it's the worst time for a bit of a break, providing it's not too protracted.

Reviewing papers can sometimes take a bit of time but I've dealt with an easy rejection in the last couple of days - someone who claimed to have found that a large part of observed warming in the UK was driven by urbanisation, but had actually found the not-exactly-earthshattering result that Scotland is colder than England. (He was comparing "urban" and "isolated rural" sites, but all his "isolated rural" sites were in Scotland, Wales or the far west of England, while all the "urban" sites were in southern or eastern England except for one in Glasgow).

No better today - in fact probably a bit worse - so gave it away early. The tightness was more in the hips today which makes me think it's all fundamentally glute-related.

Plan B was to switch to the pool instead, not that this was 100% comfortable either. At least managed to get some exercise behind me; the regulars know me well enough to know that a midweek appearance normally means bad news of some kind.

The topic of conversation was the proposed east-west freeway. If this is built with interchanges into the city (not currently planned, but who knows?), it's possible that the pool will be a casualty as it will probably be considered more expendable than houses. I'm not convinced the tunnel as proposed is going to do a lot to help peak-hour traffic as the bottlenecks are mostly before you get to Alexandra Parade. There is a bottleneck going west on weekends, when there are no clearways, but this could be fixed for the price of some "no standing" signs by getting rid of a few parking spots near the Dan O'Connell. Wonder if the Victorian taxpayers are going to offer us any commission on the $7.99999 billion we've just saved them?

Felt as if I'd improved enough to venture out for a run this morning. Most of this run was managing, but not much more - certainly a struggle going up the first hill before I was properly warmed up (not that there's anything unusual about that). Some good patches going down through the parklands in west Ivanhoe, in steady light rain (not something we're going to see much more of for a while).

Streets collected - Abbotsford Grove, Ivanhoe.

Still pretty sore on getting up this morning - enough to ditch any thoughts of a run today. Will see how it goes tomorrow. Wasn't too bad swimming but faded away to a somewhat worrying degree in the second half.

Things I didn't know before this weekend #1: one of my fellow travellers is officially qualified to hold a stop/go lollipop sign (not that it's a skill which is likely to be employed in her current job).

Things I didn't know before this weekend #2 (and still don't know for sure): I'm wondering whether the new Shep/Jo residence is built on the location of my first solo control, in early 1980. I don't have the map but do remember where the assembly area was, and the (former) track bend where their house is located would have been a logical novice course first control from that start location.

C • #1 2