Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Event: MTBO St George's Lake, Creswick SS #2
 

After a few frustrating days, the first signs today of turning the corner - still some way away from being 100% (something which was evident when going up hills), but at least taking a step forward from, say, 50% to 70%. Still wouldn't have fancied going out and doing this distance again (as was my original plan for the day as of a couple of days ago), but a run I'm prepared to settle for at this stage.

Was catching up with various members of the extended family for breakfast in Williamstown and the Saturday street event was more or less on my home turf at Darebin Parklands, so I thought I might as well make it the venue for my Saturday run - the first of these events I've been to for about a decade. Course was an interesting use of a reasonably small area and I think I made a fair job of the route for the most part, but the running was again horrible (even factoring in a bit of slowness from parklands scrambling); this cold has not been particularly severe from the symptoms point of view but it's knocked my running around very badly, and I suspect a long run tomorrow isn't worth pursuing. Quite humid. Chasing Ian Dodd for a lot of the way.

Some of the back streets south of the railway line (no need to keep track of timetables today: it's closed all weekend for works) are ones I haven't ventured into since a 'theme run' of mine from around 2004; trying to fit a whole 2 1/2 hour long run on a double page of the Melway with no repeats or crossovers.

On the hills of Eaglemont. Managed to plod around, but just about the slowest I've ever been on this route - continuing to find training a real struggle.

Didn't quite get the revitalisation I was looking for at the football last night (although it was close); am encouraged by the signs for the rest of the season though. The people in front of me were using their phone to watch and bet on horse races in South Africa, which I would have taken as a sign that they should have stopped several hours ago.

A bit better than yesterday but this run was still very much in token-gesture territory, a flat short session around Fishermens Bend at lunchtime. Felt sort of OK without getting a sense that anything more challenging (like, say, a contour) would have been well received. Spent more time than I'd like thinking about the finer points of the Orienteering Queensland constitution.

The people of Australia can rest easy: as a result of one of the bits of redundant legislation cleaned up during red tape repeal day yesterday, amendments to the Defence Act 1909 mean that the Government no longer has the power to requisition your mule or bullock for military purposes.

C • My mule? 1

Woke up feeling horribly sluggish and unable to muster enthusiasm for venturing out on any sort of run (having previously downgraded my expectations from a speed session to a standard run). Decided to at least try to get something on the board and headed for the pool instead, which worked out sort of OK (although I still didn't have much energy for the ride in afterwards). As one might expect in the People's Republic of Fitzroy (this is the suburb where some graffiti appeared before the 2010 election "a fairy dies every time someone votes for Tony Abbott), the prospect of Australian knighthoods was being subject to general derision.

Talk of knighthoods might have kept us entertained in the morning but there was an alternative source of entertainment in the afternoon. In climate we're used to being on the end of conspiracy theories of assorted outlandishness, but never before have we had anyone accuse us of trying to crash the Indian stockmarket by making exaggerated predictions of El Nino. What's more, this wasn't coming from the Indian equivalent of Andrew Bolt - it was coming from the director-general of the Indian Meteorological Department (the full story is at http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-...).

(His grasp of economics appears to be as shaky as his grasp of seasonal climate prediction; if the hoarding he talked about was actually happening and causing shortages, that would cause commodity prices to rise, not fall. If price falls occurred it would be through, for example, a lot of stock being put on the market in anticipation of a drought).

Feeling a bit better by the evening. Hoping to run in the morning, but definitely not at the usual Thursday level.

Didn't sleep very well last night for assorted reasons and feeling a bit sicker this morning than I was last night (or perhaps just in a different phase). Being the stubborn soul that I am, decided to go out anyway since what I had planned wasn't overly strenuous. It was more or less OK in the first 3km on the flat, but anything more than level ground was a struggle, and faded further in the later stages. Decided after that that I was going to get the train into town...

Today's announcement of the reintroduction of Australian knights and dames brought back some memories of some past political campaigning. In the lead-up to the 1999 republic referendum I was doing a letterbox drop for the Yes campaign. My patch was South Yarra and Toorak, and the very first letter box I went to was labelled 'Sir David and Lady Hay'. I suspected it would be a waste of a leaflet, but dropped it in anyway. (It wasn't the first time I'd campaigned in Toorak - it's actually a marginal seat at state level because the Housing Commission towers in Prahran cancel out the mansions at the Toorak end).

(If I recall correctly, just about the last recipient of a knighthood in Australia had to leave his title behind at the entrance to the Big House - corrupt former Queensland police commissioner Terry Lewis).

C • Arise Sir Trewin 3

Early morning session at North Melbourne after an earlier-morning drop-off at the airport (in the course of which I made my best route choice decision of the weekend - going round the Ring Road rather than Bell Street after hearing of a crash on the freeway near Essendon Airport - coming back the other way I could see that the resultant jam stretched back several kilometres).

Plenty of sore bits, some of which eased up as the swim went on and some of which didn't. Rather slow, and doing a morning swim in the dark takes a bit of getting used to for me.

Evening session after a rather stressful day at work, around the Tan. Felt a bit better than I thought I might, but very slow (traffic had a little bit to do with this, but not very much).

I thought when I looked ahead at my February-March schedule that it was just about inevitable that I'd get sick at some point, and a bit of a cough and a sore throat are emerging today (although so far they don't seem to have any noticeable impact on my running).

C • Sorry :( 3