Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Wanted to do something long today to round out a heavy training block, setting out with my sights on 2.40-2.45. I've been reasonably happy with how the longer stuff has been going lately and had the confidence that I'd be able to get through this, something which hasn't always been a given in the last couple of years.

Headed east as far as Mont Albert, taking on the old Rostrevor rollercoaster in the middle. Gradually built into it after an indifferent first half-hour and was feeling pretty reasonable on a sequence of hills, but just at the end of them, around 14k, my back started playing up - first time in a while. This called for a bit of a reassessment. It wasn't bad enough to pull the pin (and in any case to do so would either have meant a very long walk or taking a chance on getting a train without a ticket), but I decided to find the least hilly route from there, which focused on the Anniversary Trail. Was still functioning OK from there away from hills, but definitely feeling the strain about 25k. Unexpectedly, though, the back trouble disappeared as abruptly as it arrived around 26k (maybe it was just the revitalising properties of going back into Yarra Bend Park), and the last section was pretty good - to the extent that the 30th kilometre was my fastest non-downhill kilometre of the whole run.

Not terribly energetic through the afternoon.

I'm pretty happy with how this month has gone; it's my longest month for three years (even if I didn't quite crack the 40-hour mark), I completed pretty well everything I set out to complete, and got some long distance races under my belt which were good in the physical sense (even if my navigation let me down in Canberra). Hopefully this base will serve me pretty well for later in the year.

Bendigo Saturday series at Kangaroo Gully, with a pretty fast and flat course. Started a bit slowly as often seems to be the way for me with these races, but gradually built into it physically. Drifted a bit on 5 and 6 but picked both up without losing much time. Bryan Keely and Ben Goonan caught me at 7. Bryan ran away immediately, Ben was also going faster than I could so I decided to slip into crafty-old-fox mode, knowing that we were going into the most technical part of the course and he was probably in oxygen debt from being with Bryan (though not for long), and let him get ahead. He duly dropped several minutes on 9 (but still beat me, so his first half must have been very fast). I got through 9 and 10 OK and came home reasonably well.

10 minutes behind Bryan was my target (last week was 11.30 on a course of very similar times), but I fell just short. Continue to feel as if I'm improving just a little with some solid training behind me. Bruce did 37 and then there were several clustered in the 41-44 range.

A fairly standard session at Fitzroy. Seemed to take a long time to loosen up but working through the water reasonably well by the end.

Lunchtime run around the Tan. A slightly more convoluted route than usual to get there, thanks to tram works on Queensbridge without any convenient crossing to them. Construction was a common theme of this run; the Melbourne City Council seems to have found quite a few end-of-financial-year hollow logs so there were quite a few instances of minor capital works going on, from new park drainage systems to redecking of footbridges. (We might be beneficiaries of another public service June burn-off; the ASC has, metaphorically speaking, found $4 million down the back of a filing cabinet in Canberra that needs to be spent by 30 June, and has called for project submissions from sports, due Monday week).

As with the morning session, took a while to get going and was never flowing that well, but ended up going along reasonably respectably. A bit longer than planned.

C • Funding Projects 7

Back to reasonably familiar territory for this one. (In fact, my new residence won't take me into much unfamiliar territory, as I've done plenty of long runs from this part of town, starting at places like Bruce's, the Fairfield boathouse or Clifton Hill - rather, it will be pieceing together familiar places in unfamiliar ways). The difference here was that the Bulleen rollercoaster was at the far end of the run rather than early or late.

Almost inevitably of late, the start was slow, but I felt like I was rolling along reasonably well, especially once through the aforementioned hills. Tired a little in the last 10 minutes but nothing which is a cause for any alarm; quite happy with how my endurance is going at the moment.

I'm still learning bits and pieces about the neighbourhood. Today's lesson - how close do I have to be to the station when the level-crossing bells start to have a realistic chance of making the train? (Answer: a little closer than where I was today).

And I'm sure you're as shocked as I was at the relevations that there is (allegedly) corruption in FIFA.

Mainly an exploratory session - testing out the potential for a new loop in Darebin Parklands. Only did one lap this time but in a proper session it will be more like two or three. A couple of pretty solid climbs out of the creek valley and coped with them OK, more or less (considering I wasn't feeling too brilliant at the start of this run).

The non-speed parts of this run.

First run from the new abode on a chilly, clear morning, taking me to places which I expect will become more familiar in the near future - south to the Studley boathouse, up through Kew and back across Willsmere and the Chandler bridge (hadn't realised how much of the old paper mill has already been demolished). Didn't feel too bad, and foot was definitely better than yesterday, but still pretty slow, especially on the Kew hills.

Got more tired the longer the trip back went and knew that today wouldn't be sparkling, but was still surprised how sluggish I was in the pool this morning (notwithstanding having taken advantage of the extra 15 minutes' sleep my new location affords me). I suspect I wasn't using my foot that much either.

Original plans involved going for a run after work (no time at lunchtime), but my foot was still quite sore - decided to test it out anyway but was somewhat painful to run on so bailed after a couple of hundred metres. It would be fair to say that today was a day when I was looking for an excuse.