Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

In significant news for any northern suburbs Melbourne orienteer, the Coburg level crossing on Bell Street is no more.

Monday morning ride. Started up the Heidelberg hill as usual (which felt a bit easier than usual, probably because there was a bit of a tail wind), but somewhat different thereafter, partly in the name of avoiding a couple of magpie trouble spots. A bit of rain in the middle part but otherwise decent riding, and felt OK.

Hamstring pulled up sore this morning but somewhat better by the afternoon. Will see what it's like tomorrow before making a decision on running.

One of the numerous bits of news of the day is that Jim's Mowing is apparently suing the Victorian government for lost earnings by its franchisees. Presumably any payout would be based on the declared taxable income of the claimants in the last full financial year, in which case the government probably isn't too worried - the most they're probably up for is around $2.50.

C • Jobkeeper 4

With some level of uncertainty as to how my body would hold up, I decided not to go too far away from home and instead did some colouring-in for grown-ups. The run wasn't too bad in the end, although the hamstring did develop a bit of soreness in the last 10 minutes (not enough to stop me from using my full quota) and wasn't quite right afterwards, so will need to continue to watch this. Warmest run for a while, although not enough to be a problem.

As a result of my meanderings this morning I've now cleared the last remaining area south of the railway line and north of the river (apart from east of Darebin Creek), as well as everything east of Victoria Street and south of Separation. One of the dead-ends explored today was Bryan Street, named for the family of one of my uncles (the family dairy, which survived into the 1950s, was subdivided to create it). I suspect I'll get more opportunities yet to explore the neighbourhood because I'm not expecting any more than a cosmetic change to anything in two weeks' time.

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.