Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First attempt at getting out didn't work, unusual for a Sunday - I suspect my back didn't like extracting weeds from the front courtyard (I'm actually having to do some of this gardening thing now that Mum isn't paying regular visits to do it for me).

Second attempt was in the afternoon, in a somewhat different direction, heading to Reservoir and spending quite a bit of time in Reservoir (it's one of Melbourne's largest suburbs - and calling it "wah" rather than "war" is a sure sign of not being from Around Here), partly to see the latest defunct level crossing, which gets rid of a nightmare intersection into the bargain (I'd have stayed well clear of here on a bike up until a few months ago).

The ride, though, almost ended as abruptly as the run did when a runner stepped out from behind a building at the point where the bike path goes into the street. She was apologetic but I don't think she had much to be apologetic for, it being classifiable as what would be called in F1 parlance a "racing incident". Both of us were surprisingly unscathed - just a few grazes for me - and the bike was making slightly odd noises but seemed to be functioning normally. Once settling down about 20 minutes in, the rider was functioning reasonably normally too.

Out to Darebin Parklands. As with last week, the intention was to run all the odd-numbered controls first, then all the even ones, but I wasn't feeling brilliant and in any case the elements got in the way - two hours of heavy rain before I started had made the creek rise enough to make all but one of the crossing points not safely passable (and flooded a couple of the riverside paths too), so some of the legs involved very long detours. In the end I settled for the odds and the first loop of the evens. A bit iffy, but better than last week.

I feel as if I've fairly much exhausted the possibilities of this map for now - I wasn't really navigating for most of this. Hopefully we'll be able to go a bit further afield next weekend, although I think we're still a few weeks away from actual events in Victoria.

Back home from the parklands, as the rain started to get heavier again. (Strangely, there didn't seem to be anywhere near as many people around as there had been on recent and more clement Saturdays).

Morning ride on the La Trobe loop. Hard work early on - not really warmed up and a steady headwind - but took advantage of that in the second half. Oriel Road really is a nice way to come down on a bike, and particularly when there's a tail wind (perhaps I should have found this out at some point in the 17 years when it might have been part of a plausible commute route). Still nothing resembling a morning peak hour, although I would have been going against it anyway.

With everything else that's going on the world, the attempted mercenary invasion of Venezuela didn't get a great deal of media attention. I'm not sure why they thought that an invasion force of 60 was going to be able to defeat an army of 300,000 (maybe they got ideas from the Venezuelan navy losing to a cruise ship a few weeks back?), but perhaps the most bizarre thing was that they (or their backers) tweeted the raid while it was in progress.

Got out at lunchtime after a morning false start (which might have had something to do with sitting down at a teleconference since 5am). Fairly marginal, and getting more so as the run went on. Was hoping for 40 minutes but ended up pulling up somewhat short of that.

All Nations intervals at lunchtime. Actually got through the set this time; no dramas with the back, although tiring a bit in the last couple, as seems to be usual at the moment.

Warm-up and down. After a false start in the morning it worked out OK at lunchtime, although coming back was a bit of a struggle (as has occasionally happened of late, a traffic stop seemed to help settle the quads down).

A reasonable session efficiently done, after taking the first couple of exercises to loosen myself up. Didn't loosen myself up enough to be up to running later in the day, though (which was the plan) - a pity not to take advantage of such a nice day (other than by walking). Still, I got a paper accepted today, so it wasn't as if the day was a total loss.

Quads still sore today. Riding probably wasn't the ideal recovery session for this (in the water would be better, but that's not a realistic option at the moment - even in the river in its current state, being tested by a rather bold whitewater canoeist below Dights Falls, unless you want to end up a long way downstream). Took on the first part of the Boulevard but struggled badly with the quads on the first two climbs, at which point I decided that this was meant to be a recovery session and headed for mostly flatter ground along the river.

Ended up feeling reasonably recovered in the rest of the day, so the session may have achieved its objective even if it didn't really feel like it at the time.