Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

2020 life lesson learned: now that the kids are back, do not attempt to get coffee at 9.05am at a cafe in close proximity to a school drop-off area.

Evening session (since that was the time I could get). There were a few squad people who didn't seem to have noticed that their usual lanes are currently the slow lanes, which meant being overtaken at rather high speed on occasions, but I wasn't going too badly myself (by my usual standards).

A scoreline from the WA-SA Shield game which will have been noted by fans of backyard cricket: Wes Agar c & b Ashton Agar 4.

C • Agar 2

7x1 minute with 1 minute walk, which got me four-and-a-bit times around Pitcher Park instead of three (once the jog parts get longer than a minute I'll look for more varied alternatives). Pretty similar to Friday: not entirely comfortable while I was doing it, but didn't get any worse through the session and pulled up OK afterwards.

The day's proper session, essentially doing the northern and western half of the circle (the bits I didn't do last Saturday), from Heidelberg around through Preston and East Brunswick to Collingwood. Not a bad ride; felt comfortable on the initial climb (a light tailwind helped), and didn't really tire, nor did the hamstring give any trouble as it sometimes has later on rides.

A bit of bike infrastructure has been done since I was last out this way: a proper opening has been put in the gate at the end of the footbridge at the northeast corner of Northland (you used to have to negotiate a narrow gravel, and often puddled, gap between two posts).

Street signs in some places bear details of who it was named after - the bit in East Brunswick that Victoria Street was named after Queen Victoria was something of a statement of the obvious (although the bit about her being the world's longest-reigning female monarch has been overtaken by events) - but in West Heidelberg, where the 1956 Olympic Village was, the small print details which teams stayed in which street. The streets themselves are mostly named after things to do with World War 2 - one wonders what the Germans and Japanese would have thought (particularly as a few of the older athletes would probably have been returned servicemen). Also noted in the names department was the Carringbush Hotel, although I'm not sure whether it takes its name from its home suburb's fictional name or whether the fictional name was taken from the pub (the pub looks reasonably old so possibly the latter).

The Economist does deadpan very well: "El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced an inquiry into whether El Faro, a digital newspaper, had engaged in money-laundering. El Faro recently reported that Mr Bukele’s government secretly asked imprisoned leaders of MS-13, a big criminal gang, to reduce violence in exchange for privileges."

The second attempt at the pool was a lot better than the first - actually felt as if things were functioning and got down to a reasonably normal time. It helps somewhat when it's under the sunshine (it's getting to the point of the year where the sunscreen needs to start coming out - those of you further north would already be there, of course).

Trying this route back on the advice of my physio - at least it's a start. Didn't feel as if I would have been up to a proper run today, but at least things didn't get any worse through three laps of the oval at 1 minute on/1 minute off, and I pulled up more or less OK afterwards (even if the hamstring didn't especially like kicking the football back to the kids across the road).

There's traffic again on Grange Road. When did that happen?

The council election ballot papers arrived today. We've ended up with five candidates, making (a) to (d) on my earlier list, and arguably (g) (someone who doesn't think the Greens are hardcore enough). We've also had the compulsory feature of any modern election, a candidate - this time a Labor one in the north end of Darebin - going down in flames after being sprung having said something racist/homophobic/misogynistic (delete where inapplicable) on social media. (Someone, presumably not a candidate, ticked all three of those boxes in 30 seconds while ranting, mostly to himself, outside the bakery at Fairfield at lunchtime).

The morning hardly constituted a proper session so this was a late afternoon outing on the Boulevard, not always at my sharpest but got through it all right (including the hills). A few bikes out, which is usual, and a few fast vehicles, which is less so - one motorbike's speed wouldn't have been too far short of three figures.

Lunchtime session after a late night last night (my plans were also influenced by the wet forecast for this morning, although as it turned out it had cleared by sunrise). Headed down to Yarra Bend initially then through Clifton Hill and North Fitzroy. Quite blustery, and felt good going south, working harder going north but that's the idea.

Heidelberg, then west, on something akin to the usual loop on a misty morning of the sort we don't often see at this time of year. Not always super-awake for morning rides but the hill was OK this time. A few more interruptions than I would have liked for traffic and construction people holding up lollipops, although there perhaps should have been a few more lollipops for the trees being lopped with some enthusiasm in the streets around me this morning. (Perhaps I should redirect their attention to the tree that's now overhanging the path on the Merri Creek bridge on Heidelberg to an extent that you now have to duck pretty low underneath it).

Seeing news that Berlin's new airport is (supposedly) opening at the end of the month reminded me that I was booked to fly into it once. In 2012.

A landmark reached today was that I've now done more training hours in 2020 than my annual total in 2019. I thought the annual total of rainfall for Melbourne might also reach a significant benchmark today - it's about to pass the long-term annual average, giving Melbourne only its third above-average year since 1996 - but today's rain is taking its time arriving and giving us the 5mm or so required.

C • Well... 1

I'd felt good enough the last day or two to think it was worth a try again, and for the first few minutes it felt OK - not quite right but no pain - but thereafter the hamstring went down the same general slide as it did last time. At least I was seeing the physio this afternoon so she could have a proper look at it at its worst, but this feels like another slide backwards (a feeling which is probably pretty common in this part of the world at the moment).

I'd planned to go for a ride post-physio, but after some needlework I wasn't really in the shape for anything more substantial than getting home (perhaps this was a good thing as it was pretty bleak and drizzly by then in any case).