Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: Victorian Club Relay Championships
 

Victorian Relays at Plenty Gorge. Went out on first leg for a Yarra Valley team which there were no great expectations for (I was its youngest member by more than a decade, although we've scrapped for third a couple of times in recent years). Ended up a decent run which was made to look better than it did (at least on first leg) by the misadventures of the opposition, though Eon put it into perspective later on.

I was up against Fredrik, David, Patrick and Aislinn. It was quickly obvious that there were big splits early on and that only Fredrik was on my split. I shouldn't have expected to see much of him, but he lost a bit of time at 1, got ahead of me at 2 and then managed to make three separate mistakes on 3 - two small ones in transit and a more substantial one in the circle. I also lost 30 seconds or so there, not quite relating the contours to some scrappy rock, but slipped through there and wasn't overtaken again until 7. Did solidly in the stretch on the far side of the river (and a bit stronger on hills than I have been); didn't get good lines in the steep green gully after the second river crossing but I don't think there was any such thing as a good line there. From 16 onwards it was in the open; was having a bit of a left hamstring twinge there, but went through Fredrik again at 18 (he'd run most of the way from 17 to 19); he was still running faster than me and got me in the end by the length of the chute. David was 3 minutes ahead, Aislinn 4 behind - a result which kept Eureka in the hunt with Brodie and Eon to finish, but Bendigo just held on. We drifted back to 4th as expected.

This was a fun race and an indication that things are going forward for me rather than backwards, albeit slowly.

I don't think I've ever seen so many kangaroos at an event (something for which a forewarning was the kangaroo-with-a-death-wish dicing with the traffic on Plenty Road, one of the busier thoroughfares of outer Melbourne, on the way to the event). At least no-one pranged into a roo, unlike Bathurst.

Event: Sprint Into Spring Race 1 VU St Albans
 

First race of the sprint series at Victoria University at St. Albans, a suburb I'd previously only been to on the way home from the (in)famous 2004 Deer Park street-O. (This time the only issue was getting a chance to see why the level crossing at St. Albans is considered Melbourne's worst traffic blackspot, although I was somewhat bemused to see a sign point to St. Albans Heights Primary School - the suburb is so flat that the 'King of the Mountain' leg today was a small ramp).

It was a generally well-set sprint - not always easy to do much with big buildings, which they mostly were, but it was done well. Still not feeling exactly at a peak, but definitely more intensity than I managed at any stage in Canberra, without much in the way of trouble from either of my injuries. A couple of very small wobbles - perhaps 5 seconds apiece - looking one entrance too early along buildings, and didn't feel as if I got a great line on the "green jersey" leg, but as it was one of my better splits, maybe not many others did either. Not always easy to tell which garden beds were mapped as olive (a common issue with sprint areas, which is why we taped a lot of them at the Australian Sprint).

Ended up 4 minutes behind Eon - he caught me right at the end - which is about where I'd expect to be at the moment, although I'll want to be a minute closer before the summer is over. More significantly, Lanita claimed my scalp for the first time, and almost certainly not the last. We were within a couple of seconds of each other on almost every leg (she beat me by 11), and I can foresee some good battles ahead on Wednesday nights this summer (if she runs A). Apart from a bad option on the long leg, Asha was right in it too until fading a bit in the last quarter of the course.

Back to Fitzroy for the first time in a bit. Was going along pretty nicely for the most part until I got a nasty cramp about 5 minutes from the end - not sure why this seems to be an occupational hazard of this session?

Starting to get into the swing of various strengthening exercises (and in the process putting the 10-15 minutes my work computer takes to start up each morning to good use - and no colleagues are looking at me too strangely yet).

C • too strangely 4

Another fairly nondescript run, stretching the distance out a bit further - heading out after an early morning of discussing world ranking schemes. Back and ribs both a little improved on the last couple of days, although that might have been because the first half was flat.

Before I headed out I heard about a bit of the morning's local excitement, in the form of a traffic report that Heidelberg Road was closed at Alphington because of a "police operation". It didn't need too much imagination to work out who the police were interested in, and it was indeed the case that they'd paid the Hells Angels a visit. (Seems to be a bit of a motorcycle-themed week for me, starting with the first time I've been on one - on Tuesday night when I accepted ahead of time the offer of a lift between two different ALP meetings I was going to without realising what vehicle was going to be used for the purpose).

Then it was another day of potential record-watching, although today there were more near-misses than hits (42.6 at Alice Springs was one which did make it).

Gradually building back into things, with a fairly similar sense to yesterday. Ribs much as yesterday, too (and definitely reminded me on the massage table afterwards that they are still not right). Another reasonably early morning session, on a day which threatened to be the first day of summer but didn't quite manage it (it will be a different story in Sydney tomorrow).

Saw some real live Bandidos on Bourke Street near the office this morning (not committing any crimes as far as I could tell).

A somewhat tentative return to the world of the morning run. Ribs a bit worse than they've been for the last couple of days, but I'm guessing that's timing - for the last week they've got better as the day has gone on and this is the first time I've attempted to run first thing in the morning. The swim might have made a bit of a difference too. Once warmed up, the run had its moments but was never entirely comfortable.

The logistics didn't work for a morning swim so I went after work instead, Ivanhoe being my destination of choice. The swimming motion was still a bit painful for the ribs (at least I can roll over in bed now without it hurting much), but at a tolerable level which made this a reasonable recovery session. Had a few issues with a stray noodle in the lane.

Still thinking about plans for the next few months, now that the season's effectively over (although we still have the Victorian Relays this weekend). A lot of this will depend on whether I succeed in making headway with my injury issues now that they've (hopefully) been diagnosed properly - I still cling to the prospect that a solid summer of training will bring back to something better than I was able to manage at any stage in the 2013 season. I don't plan to make a decision on whether or not to attempt to run 21E at championship level next year until January or so.