Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Was hoping to go long today but was feeling a bit marginal from the start, though kept plugging away. Back had a bit of a flare-up around 30 minutes in and I was almost on the point of calling it a day early, but decided to give it another few minutes and it settled down (a bit). Was happy to get to the hour mark (which makes it my biggest running week this year) on a day when things weren't going smoothly, even if I'd hoped for 15-20 minutes more.

Cleared the remaining streets of Fairfield today (most of which were fairly close to home), and picked up a few awkwardly placed ones of the next stage, the rest of the postcode (i.e. Alphington). Never went outside a 1km radius from my house.

O training at Westerfolds - didn't want to go too far from home. This was regular far-end-of-long-run territory for me when living in Heidelberg (and of course home to many OV meetings) but I don't think I've ever orienteered on the map here (which has a permanent course).

I wasn't actually expecting it to be that pleasant on a damp day - lots of mud and long damp grass was what I was anticipating. The mud was there in places but the long grass wasn't, and it was quite nice running through the area (which I think has more tree cover than the map suggested). Back was fairly marginal so didn't push up the hills; just a little high coming across the slope on one control.

Westerfolds' permanent course control numbering follows no obvious logic, so doing the controls in numerical order, as I was, means going back and forth across the map a lot. That suited me fine; I should be able to get at least two more runs out of this. Heading out this way also gave me an excuse to drop into one of my old haunts, the (very good) Heidelberg supermarket, on the way home, even if a football scarf didn't work so well as an improvised face covering (too hard to keep it above the nose).

And I even saw a ranger take someone to task for having a dog off-leash in an on-leash zone.

Morning ride on the La Trobe loop, a bit later than usual after an 8am meeting. Felt reasonably strong up the hills but didn't finish off quite as well as I'd hoped. Quite a cold morning, though not enough to require gloves.

False start in the morning (possibly something to do with having been sitting in a meeting since 5am), but worked surprisingly well - back was fine and moving more or less OK (although I thought trying to run up the two-steps-forward-one-step-back bank on the Bellfield side of Darebin Creek might be taking things a bit too far). Nice lunchtime to be out too.

In the process spotted a small park named after someone I actually knew (from Ivanhoe Labor days, though that was only a small part of her life).

First time for a while I've managed three runs during the week; now let's see if I can manage two on the weekend.

Reading the text of the public health directions, it appears to be legal to travel of exercise or outdoor recreation as long as you don't leave Greater Melbourne/Mitchell Shire (though it may be best not to push this early on while the police feel like they have to make a show of force). This prompted me to think about what maps Mitchell Shire has but the pickings are fairly thin; two tough and probably badly outdated granite maps at Mount Hickey and Warrigul Rocks, and the Strath Creek plateau which wasn't that exciting when I first moved to Melbourne and probably hasn't been improved by post-Black Saturday regrowth. (The Yarra Ranges shire, which is counted as Greater Melbourne, is also rather thin for maps, especially runnable ones).

C • Greater Melbourne Maps 8

All Nations intervals for the first time in a few weeks. Haven't been sleeping that well this week and seemed to be awake most of the time from 4am today (would be nice to swap this with tomorrow when I've got a 5am meeting), but managed to get this session under my belt OK - if a bit lacking in pace.

Also managed to get a nice dinner with my parents in before we all retreat into our shells for the next few weeks.

C • parental get together 1

Warm-up and down. As with Monday, settled my back down with a minute or so of stretching about 5 minutes in (normally traffic stops serve this function but I got a clear run across the two main roads in each direction today).

Morning swim at Northcote, not quite as slow as last time. Shoulder starting to get a bit sore in the later stages, but if it's a swimming injury it won't be tested for a while: I had a feeling it would probably be the last swim for some time as we slid back towards square one, and so it proved.

At least there's a bit more clarity this time round as to what is and isn't possible in the exercise department (last time a lot depended on whether you encountered a cop and if so, what sort of mood they were in), but it's still going to be a frustrating time ahead - especially as I suspect the risk aversion this time round is going to be extreme, so it could drag on a lot longer than six weeks.

Monday morning Pilates, with a full complement for the first time in a few months. This meant doing things in a different order to usual, which in turn meant it felt like things were a bit out of kilter (since the first couple of exercises normally get me loosened up). Not bad once going though.

MFR Monday night. Very similar story to last week - fell off the back after a few minutes and had to stop for a bit to do some stretching/mobilising, but OK once I did so (on a lot of runs from home a traffic stop fills this function; perhaps I need to start this session a few minutes early?). Even managed to make a better fist of the (small) climbs up from the river than I have in recent weeks (and ticked off the one remaining bit of nominally-Fairfield road south of the railway line).