Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

All Nations intervals. As seems to be becoming the norm with this session, felt like a bit of a struggle on the way there but more or less OK once I was actually doing the intervals. Even working hard enough to get a bit of a stitch on one of the reps.

On-leash compliance rate today: 1 from 10 (low even by usual standards).

Warm-up and down. As usual, getting across Station Street is easier at 8.00 (when it's at a standstill) than at 7.20 (when it's moving slowly). I suspect it will be easy to get across on that basis at all hours of the day in two weeks' time, when Grange Road closes for three weeks for level crossing works.

The left hip twinge in the pool yesterday didn't feature on the run, but did a bit on the ridge home. One to watch.

And they say no-one wins a trade war, but the headline-writers are doing OK so far, particularly the British one who reported on EU threats to impose retaliatory tariffs on American cars and bourbon: "Hit The Chevy With A Levy, Tax Your Whiskey and Rye".

C • That headline 4

Back to Fitzroy for the first time in a while. The main thing that's changed is that it is harder to get a parking spot nearby, which may be something to do with (a) the presence of a number of vans and 4WDs which look like they're being slept in and (b) the appearance of a number of notices advising that camping in vehicles on public land is illegal in the City of Yarra.

Session was reasonable. A bit of left hip soreness at times but that disappeared quickly enough.

Another (non-) landmark that's changed - the block of buildings on the La Trobe/Swanston corner (of which the Hungry Jacks was the best-known) is no more. It will be a new station a few years from now.

One of my intermittent attempts to see whether I can function after time at work. Took 10 minutes to get much beyond a shuffle but ended up doing OK, although this was never a particularly smooth run even in its better parts. I must have acclimatised pretty well to the European cold; 19 degrees felt warm.

Got back out into the bush again, at a mass-start race in a patch of previously-unused bush near Heathcote - some decent pockets of mining, although the gully-spur parts had a high track density. I wasn't alone in looking for some bush practice before Easter. Was quickly reminded that I wasn't in Spain this week by collecting a spider web in the first couple of hundred metres (that's if I hadn't already got the message from the assorted roadkill on the way to the event - saw the first ex-kangaroo before making it past Craigieburn).

The splitting system was sufficiently comprehensive that I didn't see anyone on my course for a long time after the first couple of controls, although I did see people on other courses (seemed to cross paths regularly with Carolyn Jackson). Felt pretty ordinary to start with but gradually settled into it, and navigated pretty well with just a few 10-second stops in control circles. Ended up getting into a scrap with Geoff Lawford for the last 3km or so (not the first time this has happened at an early-season mass start event). The last few controls were technical and I conceded a critical 20 metres by going the wrong side of a knoll on the third-last, although I think he would have done me in the sprint if it had come to that. Thought I was going to get outsprinted by Ted too, but he was a (short) lap down.

Pleased to hear the reports of some good 5k times over the last week (Pat, who won today, was particularly impressive in almost breaking 16). The other news of the day was the creation of an orienteering club at Federation University in Ballarat. We may need to give some thought to their club abbreviation.

C • At least 1

Achilles was very tight when I woke up this morning and only loosened a bit in the course of walking to the newsagent and back; was in two minds about running but gave it a go and it worked out OK. Not a bad run, reintroducing myself to the pleasures of going past Saturday morning cricket matches in progress at Yarra Bend (seeing one somewhat inelegantly-struck four to square leg and one very big wide).

I then moved on to some walking the streets in the name of democracy, with a generally positive response (not too surprising as we were north of Bell Street). One house I visited would probably have received us better had we been promising to abolish the import tax on BMWs; there were five in the driveway and a sixth in the street. (Also knocked on a door to be greeted by the colours of a well-known bikie gang; he was polite enough but I didn't linger).

Sleep patterns update: got woken up not much after 4 by a crying baby, which puzzled me somewhat since, unless they've been keeping it very well-hidden, my neighbours don't have any children. (I'm assuming either they had guests or were looking after a niece/nephew for the night). Did get back to sleep, though.

So much for getting jet lag sorted: I set my alarm for 5.45 to get a run in pre-massage, and ended up waking up at 2.45....

The run itself turned out to be pretty reasonable, up through Thornbury and back along the Merri Creek on a nice morning (dark early now though). Achilles, a minor nusiance for most of the run, worsened in last 10 minutes; ankle felt quite stiff through the rest of the day.

Fairly predictably, not my most productive afternoon at work.

C • Jet lag 6

Slept a pretty normal amount at a pretty normal time (and didn't feel unwell in the same way as yesterday afternoon), but still a pretty lousy run - a battle throughout. Achilles a bit iffy but not disastrously so.

This was the prelude to a slightly misadventurous trip in; first my bike tyres were very low and I didn't want to risk them failing altogether so bailed out at Clifton Hill, then discovered that I'd left my Myki at home (first time in the 8 years the system has been in). At least this means I now have a spare card for visitors.

Spent the day trying to stay awake. I'd originally had thoughts of getting out to tonight's street-O (which might not have ended well), but was feeling out of sorts in the afternoon - presumably ate something which didn't quite agree with me in transit (or perhaps it was just the airline feeding us dinner at 3.30am Sydney time?) - and decided to give it a miss today.

Politics clearly hasn't got any more edifying in my absence. Today's highlight was that news emerged that some Coalition sources were trying to circulate a rumour that Bill Shorten had made a former staffer by the name of Shannon pregnant. The steam rather went out of the rumours when it transpired that Shannon was a bloke. I guess people can be made to believe anything these days, as demonstrated by those who believed that Hillary Clinton was running a paedophile ring out of the basement of a Washington DC pizza shop. (That particular bit of fake news almost turned into something tragic when someone turned up, in possession of their full Second Amendment entitlements, with the apparent intention of liberating the "victims").

(My flight reading: Timothy Garton Ash, 'Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World'. I've made it as far as number 7).