Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Early session before a day at the cricket. Fairly similar to Wednesday's ride except that I went out to London Bridge rather than the Point Nepean entrance, and being earlier there were fewer people around (even allowing for the post-Christmas influx). Not super-awake early on but settled reasonably well. Northerly starting to get going by the end, which worked OK because it was more tail than head wind in the second half.

The day's meteorology was possibly more engrossing at the MCG than the day's cricket; the squall near the close of play (117 km/h gust at Fawkner Beacon) was one of the more impressive ones I've experienced, and coming as it did near the close of play it had plenty of rubbish to redistribute.

Had another go at running, this time on level ground, but that didn't work out either so took to the water. Felt reasonably routine (and seemed to go faster than Thursday), hamstring didn't feel quite right in the water but no pain. Wanted to get at least some exercise in given I wasn't going to be getting much in front of the cricket for the rest of the day (I'll be there in person tomorrow).

According to Google Maps, there is something not too far away called "The Ultimate Games Room House". Someone obviously trying to stand out in the holiday house rental market (not that you really need to stand out; at this time of year the right sort of house in this part of the world goes for $10,000-plus a week).

The hamstring had settled enough by this morning that I thought it was worth testing it on a run, to which the answer was yes on the flat, no on downhills. Plan B was a ride, and it ended up being quite a good one, heading east as far as Tootgarook. (Somewhat incongruously, the best riding road here is the main highway, which mostly has decent verges; others tend to be narrow for the traffic they have). Saw plenty of evidence of people creating space for later feasting, not so much evidence of newly acquired items being put to use (my count was one skateboard and one cricket bat, although I'm not totally convinced the latter was new).

Session late in the day in the backyard lap pool (don't feel too jealous); you go round and round in circles a fair bit but there's a pretty good view to compensate. Hamstring still didn't feel quite right but is improving, and is at a level where I might at least consider going out on it tomorrow, at least for a bit.

All Christmas preparations are completed; not that I have to do too much other than buy things, but I did managed to negotiate a site in Norwegian to buy online gift vouchers for some of that branch of the family (hopefully they work); unusually from my experience of online shopping in Norway, they actually accepted Australian credit cards, but they did only accept a Norwegian address and phone number, so it's just as well I knew one I could quote at them.

C • Having seen photos of the h... 2

Still some level of tightness this morning, more so on the inside of the leg than in the middle of the hamstring where the issue was yesterday. Was OK on the bike although the hamstring was fatiguing a bit towards the end. Did a fairly standard ride for down these parts, out to the entrance to Point Nepean and then back along the front beach (noticing in the process that at least early in the morning, the posh cars to be seen at the Portsea end were Teslas). Fairly quiet for the summer in these parts, although I'm told it got busier later in the day (I was working and didn't venture out much after the ride).

Not quite sure why the house at the end of Hotham Road was flying the flags of Australia, Tasmania and Iceland.

This was going to be the run where I completed filling in the 2km circle with the last few bits in the Fairy Hills segment between Ivanhoe Grammar and Heidelberg Road.

(Not sure who else knows this area as Fairy Hills; I do because of the name of its polling booth, at the Fairy Hills kindergarten. It's definitely a good year for Labor in Jagajaga or Ivanhoe if they win Fairy Hills, normally the second-strongest Liberal booth in the area after the one in Mick Gatto country at Lower Plenty).

After a slow start, it was going pretty well - in particular, climbing up the Ridgeway past Ivanhoe Grammar was as good as I've felt on a hill for ages. Shortly after that I stopped briefly on encountering a family friend. A few minutes after that, without warning I had a hamstring ping. Kept going for a few minutes in the hope it might be temporary, and although it eased a bit it was still uncomfortable both up and down hills, so much to my disappointment I had to leave the last bit of zig-zagging back up the hill uncompleted. It's a bit worse than Sunday, but had settled somewhat by evening; I'll still give it at least a couple of days before trying to run again.

Headed down to the Peninsula this evening, initially for a gathering of one branch of the family before some of them head off elsewhere. Had a you-realise-you're-getting-old moment when I was watching the cricket with my cousin's 13-year-old son (a cricketer of some talent himself) and mentioned, after a reverse sweep, Mike Gatting getting out to one in the 1987 World Cup final (considered scandalous at the time), and then realised that's almost as far into his past as Don Bradman getting out for a duck in his last Test innings is into mine. Incidentally, Jackson's playing in the senior thirds for the local club and recently won their player of the month, for which he won a voucher for the local hardware store (at least it wasn't Dan Murphy's).

This gathering also eliminated me from Whamageddon.

Flew back from Adelaide this morning and headed to the Northcote pool (which I notice has got a clock you can actually read since I was last there) at lunchtime. Some further evidence that last Friday was an indicator I wasn't counting and not that I'd lost my ability to swim (such as it is), as this was fairly normal. Very quiet at the pool - it wasn't really a pool day, but I still would have expected more there now that it's school holidays.

Switched Pilates session to the evening, which meant that I was more awake than I normally would be for the start of this. Seemed to go OK - I've settled into a reasonable routine on this.

I was preparing myself mentally during this session to plunge myself into a shopping mall (Northland) on one of the last evenings before Christmas. I needn't have concerned myself - going during most people's dinner time proved to be a winning strategy. It was considerably quieter than a normal weekend day. (At least I'm assuming that it was quiet because everyone was eating and not because everyone was scared by a disease outbreak 800 kilometres away, although the latter isn't a completely implausible scenario).

C • Disease outbreak 1