Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Headed out with Jenny before conference proceedings started, heading over Gossan Hill and into Aranda (although not as far as my old home turf). Tried to take a short cut back past Calvary but ended up in a marsh on an overgrown track, leading to a bit of terrain running. (Was also feeling like exploding at this point - often my internals are the last thing to get back on a normal timezone, although given that I was awake at 4am I don't think my sleep patterns were back on a normal timezone either).

Felt pretty ordinary, though the first runs back after a substantial layoff often do. Calf starting to fatigue somewhat in the last 10 minutes and feels a little tight later in the day.

With some time to fill between the Conference and a flight home, I headed off to Weston Park to relax on the grass with some reading for a while. Shortly into this I saw someone walking with an orienteering map and visiting what was clearly a permanent course control, and thought "good to see the permanent course getting some use". A few more people later I was beginning to suspect that something more organised was happening, and when I started spotting familiar faces that was much clearer. It turned out I'd stumbled across the Parawanga Christmas party.

The good news is that my calf seems to be functioning OK. The bad news is that my back isn't (at least after sitting all day in the OA Conference). Headed out for a course on Stirling Park (at least as I refer to it) but gave it away fairly early.

The original plan was that I'd try and fit a bit of a run in this morning before going to work. We did make up a bit of time en route (and I then had a fairly smooth passage through the airport) so I got home at 3.30, but still didn't feel like facing an alarm any earlier than 7.30. (The calf doesn't feel too bad, though, so I don't think running would have been a problem from that perspective, just a sleep one).

Thought it might have been a hard day of work to get through but it didn't work out too badly - helped that I was always busy enough that I didn't really get the chance to feel as if I was tired. (Didn't do the amount of media that I thought I might have done either, with the global statement coming out last night - I think their attention was directed more at kids with funny signs).

Headed up tonight to Canberra for the OA conference.

Very smooth to Dubai (and had a row to myself), not so smooth after that. Got onto the connecting plane in Dubai to be told "we have a last-minute technical problem". An hour later, the update was that there was a fuel leak and they couldn't find the location of, so they had to find a new plane. (Recent events in Indonesia demonstrate what can happen when an airline knows a plane is faulty and takes off anyway). Fortunately, this was Emirates in Dubai so they can find another A380 on two hours' notice, and we eventually left about 3.30 late.

This did squeeze the time at the other end to slightly absurd levels; we were due in at 11.20pm, so I hadn't been expecting to get home before 12.30, so with 3.30 added to that I was looking at arriving home around 4am. With that in mind, I was hoping I'd at least sleep well on the plane, but that wasn't really to be either; had a seat next to the galley (so lots of noise and some light) and probably only got about 3 hours' worth.

Had another crack at running this morning. Calf a bit tight early and almost thought about calling it a day after the first few minutes, but kept going and it did improve a bit. (In its present state, it certainly doesn't stop, or even hinder, me running, my concern is to make sure I don't do additional damage). Traffic a bit awkward. The nicest morning I've had so far - could actually see some of the mountains.

On the way home now. It's going to be a pretty frenetic couple of weeks once home - I have three trips to Canberra and two to Sydney in the fortnight after returning.

Back out to the Vernets pool this morning - a bit more crowded than last time because it's the only pool that's open on Tuesday morning, but that didn't seem to be a major problem. Felt pretty similar to last time but a little slower. Thinking I might give running another go tomorrow.

Looks like I'm missing some interesting weather back at home, both in Sydney and in north Queensland. Nothing terribly interesting about Geneva's weather at the moment, although the clouds did lift for long enough to see that the snowline's currently at around 1100m.

C • the snow in Falls Creek was... 5

Still a bit tight in the calf this morning - started out on a run but pulled up quickly. Don't want to take chances with this one. It did seem to settle down later in the day.