Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Decided the pool would be more back-friendly than running (although it improved significantly overnight, not unexpected given this injury's history), and unusually for me went in the evening, quite a wet one - I'd made good use of the radar to get most of the ride from work done in between lines of showers but it was a different story once actually in the water. Quite a good session.

Excitement of the session came in the form of three police who entered the pool area. Last time this happened they were just in search of a loo but this time they seemed to have other business, spending quite a time in deep and meaningful conversation with someone on the far side. I briefly had visions of that person being hauled away in handcuffs and bathers, which would be a reasonably humiliating way to be arrested (albeit not quite on the scale of Captain Melville of Kooyoora fame, who was caught with his pants down in a Geelong house of ill repute), but the constabulary departed without him.

Meanwhile, a horse in similar condition to the one my money was attached to in last year's Cup continues to be flogged.

The You Learn Something New Every Day department - I wasn't previously aware that we sold any weapons to the Russians, but apparently whatever it was we were selling them we're going to stop doing it. Presumably the next move will be a vodka embargo.

Yesterday the body was feeling good, but it was a different story today - I had a definite sense in my (limited) warm-up that this was going to be one of the one or two random days a month when my back wasn't going to play ball, and so it proved. It was manageable on flat ground and downhill, both of which existed in reasonable quantities on the first two loops, but was no good on any sort of climb, and was gradually getting worse when I decided enough was enough at the end of two loops. At least I got halfway this year - at this rate I'll manage to get to the finish by 2016....

Technically it was a good run with no mistakes of any size, just a couple of questionable lines. Took an out-there route choice from the start, going back through the assembly area and up the road - not sure how it worked out but the people I was around at and after the first common control were roughly those I would have expected to be around on a decent day.

The event itself was a very good one which deserved a better turnout; Kooyoora is a lovely place to be (especially at this time of year) and it was frustrating not to be able to get a result.

C • Back 1

Event: Victorian Middle/Long Distance Championships - Mt Kooyoora
 

Victorian Middle at Kooyoora. What would have been one of my better runs of the year was turned into something less than that when I made a mess of the last control, coming in too low, overshooting and dropping a couple of minutes. First half was excellent, feeling well in control and running comfortably, and generally finding good lines in the terrain. Got a not-so-good line on the short 11 and also cut my finger going into it (one of those injuries that isn't terribly serious but produces a lot of blood), and was having a bit of trouble holding concentration through the remainder, dropping 45 seconds when I didn't see 17 and ran past it, before my final misadventure.

Still a really enjoyable course; ended up 12th of 21 (would have been perhaps 9th or 10th without the late problems). I suspect the bit of terrain we were in tody will be kinder than some of what's in store for us tomorrow, though. Definitely good to get out into the bush after a week like that, although when a simple correction of a century-old typo is enough to warrant another scandal-mongering article you know the conspiracy theory is well on the way to disappearing up its own clacker.

At Ivanhoe - had something to pick up at 9, but in any case Fitzroy might well have been closed because of the fog. A fairly routine session, not as stiff as I might sometimes be on a Friday given the relatively easy week (will be a very different story on Monday, I suspect....).

Things are gradually settling - the Australian has been as feral as ever, but the issue doesn't seem to be getting traction anywhere else. For a skewering of just one aspect of what's been going on, I recommend http://www.readfearn.com/2014/08/climate-change-co....

Might have seen the worst of things now - two of the things I thought might happen today (an appearance in Andrew Bolt's print column, and the Australian explicitly editorialising for sackings) didn't, and it also became clear that the minister's office doesn't see it as a serious issue (after all, they've got other things to worry about).

Joined the MFR crew in the evening at Studley. Just a couple of fast loops given the upcoming race, one partly in the terrain, one on the road. It's the first time I've run a hard kilometre on the road for a long time (not sure the last time I ran a road race, but it's quite a few years, I think) and the others showed me up a bit for pace (or a lot in Todd's case). Still felt reasonable.

Various bits of jogging before and after the harder stuff.

Another day, another hammering (today's lowlight was someone, with whom I've crossed swords on other issues in the past, claiming that he'd worked at the suddenly-contentious Rutherglen site and knew that it had never moved; obviously he's a lot older than I thought he was because it started in 1912). It's been a real roller-coaster ride this week and there have certainly been times when I've wondered if the only circuit-breaker available would be for me to head somewhere else (probably on the other side of the world) on a more or less permanent basis, but there has been a lot of support too - definitely one of those weeks when you find out who your friends are.

I hadn't seen any of this morning's press coverage before heading out on this run, which started sleepy but finished well. With no relevant Banyule landmarks within reasonable reach, I headed south of the river, something I haven't done as much in the last year as previously - out into North Balwyn.

Early start before a 7.40 massage appointment - which meant a certain amount of candle-burning at both ends having only got home at 11 last night. Felt rather sleepy in the beginning and feared the worst, got out of that mode fairly quickly and felt reasonable but pretty slow most of the way given the generally flat ground (up Merri Creek initially). Started to feel it was about to take off in the last kilometre or so, but by then it was time to finish.

The press pummelling continues (but at least it's only one corner of the press). They've progressed from selective quotation of the truth on to outright lies. It's frustrating being absolutely powerless to do anything about it.