Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A new one this morning - shin soreness (maybe my issues are migrating upwards). Distinctly uncomfortable on my attempt to run, but has the feel of something which will settle quickly (was already feeling significantly better by the afternoon). After that false start took to the water, which was OK (and less crowded than last week).

My long-standing interests in cricket stats and weather stats collided today: 43.4 is the highest temperature on record for a Test match day in Australia, and probably the world. (The only Test-hosting countries which get hotter, India, Pakistan and the UAE, don't host internationals at the times of year when such high temperatures occur).

Early for a Saturday in the hope of getting through before the overnight inversion broke down, and thus missing the worst of the heat. Feeling fairly nondescript most of the way, probably at its best in the section on the east side of Darebin Creek (which was also relatively cool). Only started to get warm in the last 15 minutes; I'll settle for that.

I was feeling a bit sniffly before starting, and the Garmin said '4 days' recovery time (which I presume means it picked up on a higher heart rate than usual), so I may not be 100% well. Will watch this, but still planning something long in the morning (which will be much cooler) at this stage.

Quite a lot of similarities to last Friday: struggling for much of the way (probably not to quite the same extent), though OK on the injury front. Picked up somewhat in the last 20 minutes and stretched it a bit further than last week (if not quite to the 90 minutes I was originally hoping for). Nice morning to be out - definitely better conditions than we'll have tomorrow.

Nice to do a session more or less as planned. Didn't feel especially convincing - a bit weaker than the last couple - but still picked up reasonably well in the later reps. A little bit of generalised left ankle soreness at times.

This is one session where first-week-of-January traffic is actually a disadvantage - on a normal weekday at this time, at the point I cross Station Street, the traffic is normally at a standstill and thus easily crossable.

Not feeling great this morning so took to the water instead, where I was pretty slow (although not quite as slow as last week) - not sure what's gone wrong with my swimming just at the moment.

I've decided to give the street events a miss until such time as I can get through an evening training run after work (will probably make the next attempt at this on Monday) - this may be as well because tonight's event apparently ran out of maps because of a printing mix-up.

Lurid accounts of crime have been occupying the front pages this week, but I was somewhat amused by an account I saw today of a crime of around 40 years ago. This involved someone who took hostages in a Melbourne restaurant in an attempt to secure the release from prison of Chopper Read (then in the early stages of his criminal career). The siege ended abruptly when the gunman's mother turned up, hit her son over the head with her handbag and told him to stop being so stupid, whereupon he surrendered forthwith to police (presumably out of humiliation).

Went to the Port Melbourne event as a sort of fitness test to see if I could handle evening runs any better than I could before Christmas. The answer was basically no: this area is dead flat so there weren't any hills to seize up on, but still felt pretty awful and eventually decided I wasn't achieving anything.

Decent area with plenty of alleys (not all of them mapped, which confused me a bit at 7), and went past what I've always thought of as Melbourne's leading candidate for a haunted house, a big rambling mansion on the corner of St. Vincent's Place. (Back in the day I made the occasional visit there on pick-up duties - in my first few years in Melbourne I lived with an uncle and aunt in Albert Park, and one of my cousin's school friends lived there).

Got off the mark for 2018 unconvincingly with the running equivalent of an inside edge which goes just past the stumps and runs down to fine leg for four, but I'm taking it as a positive that the struggle was because I was stiff from a hard day's work yesterday. Down the Peninsula again - this time along the front as far as the original 1803 settlement (with a few more signs than there once were).

Saw a bit of evidence on the beaches that the liquor ban was being honoured more in the breach than in the observance (I'd already seen this last night when I headed down just after midnight to catch the tail end of various fireworks - Melbourne was just visible, and Geelong more clearly so).

With the level of muscle stiffness I'd had in the morning, a session in the water was in order and I did one on returning to Melbourne. Lots of people at the pool as you'd expect on a warm, sunny holiday, but managed to stay out of their way, even those who were doing bombs at the deep end.