Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Sunday long run with Bruce for the first time in a long time. Our speed has diverged a bit in that time, and this was a little faster than I would normally do a long run on a day when I was feeling a bit indifferent, which meant it ended up being a bit shorter than I'd originally planned on - started similar to Friday's run but didn't pick up in the way that Friday's did (perhaps trying to do two long runs two days apart was a bit of a stretch?). Certainly left behind on the hills and stairs. Not very energetic in the remainder of the day.

Something of a classic run from here - the two Yarra bend footbridges with the Kew hills in between. Didn't really feel like it setting out but ended up not feeling too bad considering I was coming up after a long run yesterday, but definitely on the slow side. Hills a bit of an incremental improvement on recent days without being close to my best.

Got back to see a truck out the front - the people who were delivering a new couch/sofa bed had arrived an hour earlier than scheduled (unsurprisingly there were messages to this effect on the phone I hadn't taken with me).

Off-field incidents in the sporting arena have been in the news a bit this week (although I wonder if the Chris Gayle matter would have generated quite the reaction it did had it not fallen on ground already made fertile by events in the political arena). This isn't something we normally have to worry about, although this week's denouement in the Inverness courts of some post-WOC drunken misadventure was considered newsworthy enough to make the (UK) Daily Telegraph. Probably still won't unleash a Something Must Be Done media frenzy though....

C • post woc 13

C • Also making the news of sorts... 7

Long run shifted to Friday as described yesterday. Started from Fishermans Bend, something which would normally be the precursor to spending a fair bit of money (normally if I'm doing that it's because I'm getting something done to my car; today, it was because I was heading down to Geelong after work). First section along the river as far as Como Park, feeling fairly ordinary but maintaining a reasonable pace, then cut south/southwest towards St. Kilda (with numerous road crossings, this bit is definitely best suited to early January) before coming back along the water, past a rather chaotic Station Pier due to the near-simultaneous arrival of the Spirit of Tasmania and a cruise ship and the non-existence of trams (not running due to trackwork). Gradually built into the run as it went on and pretty good in the last half-hour, where at times I was even in danger of enjoying myself; the handful of hills were still hard work, though.

Passed something at the end signposted as a "Duck Education Centre". As this was part of the Luv-A-Duck factory I presume that this is not about educating ducks and is about educating people about how to cook ducks.

The Geelong trip was for what turned out to be a rather crazy game between Melbourne Victory and Central Coast (Victory came from 3-0 down to draw 3-3) - went down partly to see what Kardinia Park is like, given that Essendon will probably never play there again, having last done so in 1992. (Geelong play four of their home games each year in Melbourne, and those four are always against the higher-drawing Melbourne clubs). The ground seemed surprisingly limited in advertising until I realised that that was because all the Ford logos, which are here in great abundance, had been covered up because Hyundai are the A-League's major sponsor. Geelong's association with Ford (which goes back to the 1920s and was allegedly founded on the principle that Ford noticed they got better productivity in their factory on Monday if Geelong won on Saturday) is apparently the world's longest-running sporting sponsorship.

After last night I decided to defer the long run to Friday (it fits a bit better with Friday's logistics in any case). The way I felt immediately before, and in the first 10 minutes of, this session did nothing to disabuse me of the thought that trying to go long today wouldn't have ended well. Got a bit better after that (and felt better during the rest of the day).

C • Run or crawl? 2

Street-O at "Blackburn North" (actually mostly on the north side of the freeway in south Doncaster). About the only thing that can be said for tonight is that it wasn't quite as much of a debacle as last week - felt reasonable for the first 20 minutes or so, which is 19 1/2 more than I lasted last Wednesday, but then my quads went (whether this is an after-effect of Sunday or not is unclear) and I couldn't do much up the hills, of which there were a few. Got the route right (I think) but that was only of limited relevance.

It was annual climate statement day: it's always a bit strange when you're listening to yourself on the radio on the way to the event. (If I'd chosen the right station I could have done it going home, too).

Will want to run myself back into some sort of form soon, though I'm not sure a 35-degree day at Croydon Hills is going to be the place to do it.

C • Radio National 3

All Nations intervals. Definitely not as sharp or strong as I was last week, especially on the uphill reps, but no niggles at least (once Achilles, always tight early, was warmed up).

Warm-up and down from the intervals session.

Took two mornings cycling in Melbourne in 2016 before being on the end of my first f-word for the year. (Oddly enough, it came from another cyclist who didn't seem to quite grasp the idea that if you want people to give way to you on a pedestrian crossing you need to be a pedestrian).

Had thoughts initially of doing both a run and swim early, but didn't sleep well and was too tempted by the snooze button when the alarm went off (first day back at work today), so the swim was the morning part of the operation. Felt somewhat flat and lacking in fluency, although a nice morning to be in the water.

Lunchtime around the Tan. Normally this wouldn't be the most challenging of sessions but today it was about as much as I could have managed, suggesting all may not be quite right. (Quads seem to suffered a bit from the descent yesterday, too, although other niggles were OK). Felt hot at the end; it was a bit warm (25) and a bit humid, but certainly nothing which should have caused too many dramas.