Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Out to Eaglemont Flats again, doing the course from back in June, although a couple of wider route choices were needed because some of the billabongs were still flooded from earlier in the week (with abundant mud to show for it). Felt like I was moving OK in the more open bits of forest and was a couple of minutes faster than in June, so that's progress of a sort. Hamstring was fine on the run, but felt a little sore in the afternoon - hopefully nothing too significant.

It was probably the nicest day of the late winter/early spring so far, and plenty of people were taking advantage of it, in a law-abiding way as far as I could tell.

The interruption to the usual Saturday routine this week was a morning interview with breakfast TV (which my equipment dealt with OK despite an early worry). Also noted from the shopping expedition that the shelves were cleared of bottled water despite the fact that our area is unaffected by the current issues.

C • Bottled water 7

Decided after a few minutes that I still wasn't quite ready, although getting closer. A nicer morning for a walk than yesterday. Our neighbourhood seemed to get off more lightly than many from last night's squall line (although I'm still a bit surprised at the scale of the damage in other parts of town; the wind gusts were certainly significant, but nowhere did they even reach a 1-in-5-year level).

Left hamstring still a bit tight this morning, and didn't warm up on a brief attempt to run (which turned into a longer walk; the river is still running very strongly). Improved somewhat in the afternoon so maybe it will be better tomorrow; not taking risks with it given the current lack of treatment options.

Something a bit different today. It has been a long-standing thing that there was a bottle of wine on offer for the first person in the Bureau to publish a paper co-authored with our head of research (who's been here for three years or so). A claimant to the prize emerged last week, the next challenge was to get the bottle to them, by means of a 'relay' of sorts within everyone's 5km circle across Melbourne's eastern suburbs. The bottle landed on my doorstep on the weekend, and while Kevin lives just outside my 5km radius, we organised a rendezvous on the Yarra Flats at Heidelberg. This took me to what was once very familiar territory but much less so now, the path along the Yarra Flats (gravel but in very good condition), before heading off with load slightly lightened to climb through Heidelberg - taking the Col de Darebin rather than the Col de Burgundy option - and then onwards. Didn't feel as if I was going that fast on that climb, but settled into things after that.

A little bit of left hamstring tightness when I got up this morning: not an issue on the bike but will need to watch.

C • Relay.. 2

Pretty marginal today after a morning sitting in meetings, but at least managed to do the intervals part of it more or less OK.

Ended up bailing early on the warm-down - was starting to struggle and didn't see a lot of purpose in pressing on and making things worse. Calf was feeling a bit tight too, probably a product of a while without a proper massage (at least another three weeks to wait for that).

At least walking back down the street was an opportunity to talk with two different lots of neighbours who were out the front, which I think triples the number of in-person conversations I've had in the last month.

What's becoming the reasonably regular Monday loop (although it might change soon because it's acquired a magpie, albeit not as aggressive a magpie as the Fulham Road one). Reasonably mundane but nothing went wrong, and got a good run with the lights. Put in a bit of an effort to get under the hour at the end. (On the one hand I suspect the authorities are tracking phones for some purposes, on the other hand I suspect that if anyone actually had been fined because their phone showed them to have been out for 62 minutes we'd have heard about it).

A bit of semi-random map trawling today led me to Melbourne's various Melbourne Cup-themed streets, which in turn led to the discovery that Rain Lover Drive is in a bad place for rain lovers - Melton is one of the driest parts of metropolitan Melbourne. Melton also plays host to the first bit of public infrastructure officially named after Jeff Kennett, although the Exhibition Centre has been known as Jeff's Shed since the day it was built. I wonder if it will be officially named after him after his death? (State governments generally don't name things after the living, although councils definitely do, one notable example being Kevin Bartlett Reserve in Richmond, where the plaque somewhat optimistically says that he has played in five Richmond premiership teams "to date").

C • Rain 10

Headed down in the first half to check out the Yarra and Darebin Creek after heavy overnight rain; there's a minor flood warning for the former but it was still within its banks (though flowing very strongly) in this section, with plenty of puddles to dodge on the bike path (but not many bikes). By this stage it was clear that this was going better than the last few Sundays and, although the quads started to feel it a bit as it got hillier round the Ivanhoe side of Darebin Creek, the day's mission was accomplished.

Covering more streets within the radius wasn't the primary mission today - you don't get a lot of opportunities to see the river in flood - but I still picked off a few otherwise fiddly-to-get ones in Ivanhoe. I expect to have quite a few more opportunities to do this before it's over - I've almost convinced myself that there isn't going to be any significant relaxation until December (although if that actually does happen, Victoria will be going much further than any other democracy has attempted, and the politics of trying to maintain severe restrictions through weeks of a handful-but-not-yet-zero cases will be challenging at best).