Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

First event of the new sprint series, at Carlton Gardens. This was pretty straightforward technically with only a couple of moderately challenging route choices, but it was great just to get out and remind myself again of what a control flag looks like. By the last few controls I'd even started to remember to look at the control descriptions.

Felt a bit flat on the running side, perhaps not surprising coming off yesterday, but again no injury issues, and I'm happy with the way this week has gone - I've actually done all the runs I'd planned to do and the amount was the most since the winter. Hopefully I can build on this. (I'll certainly want to build on my speed; it was a runners' course so I expected to be blown away at the front end and was, but finished behind some people I would not have expected to finish behind - the time was probably at least 2 minutes worse than par for the standard I'd expect to be at).

Past an hour (just) for the first time since July. Wasn't really hurting but felt a bit flat for a lot of it, and was just about at the point of thinking that 50 minutes was going to be enough but decided to press on to the hour, not entirely convincingly. A bit of unplanned stuff early on because the signs said the Merri Creek path at the bottom of Westgarth was flooded (looking from the other end it turned out the water had just dropped below the footbridge, but there was still a lot of debris on it), then round a block of Northcote west of the railway line (marking the outer boundaries to a block I plan to explore in more detail in due course).

Switched from the start of the day to the end when it became apparent that I wasn't up early enough to beat the rainband (obviously in the water you're wet but keeping gear dry is a challenge when it's pouring). Nothing like 40-odd millimetres of rain to clear a pool; it had just about gone by the time I did this but the place was certainly in no danger whatsoever of exceeding its capacity. Ended as a good solid session after all that.

The sign out the front said that it was 28 minutes to Flemington Road. Normality is returning. (Actually, 28 minutes is pretty ordinary even for a normal peak hour).

Street-O at Greenhills (northeast bit of Greensborough), a part of town I was an occasional visitor to in 2014 when my mission of the time was visiting all of the streets of the City of Banyule in alphabetical order - it had a disproportionate number of As. (I only got to the tail end of the As before leaving the area).

This one was another sign of modest progress - this time I was running the small hills and only walking the big ones, of which there were a few (although not as many as on some other route choices). Was pretty happy with the route, and while I'd certainly like to be running better, was satisfied to be going in the right direction (figuratively speaking). Managed to string together three days for the first time in a while, too.

I spent some of the day drafting the ACT climate summary for January; I think it would be fair to say that it is less exciting than last year's. Another part of the day was spent doing what I think should be the final run of the observed global temperature change numbers for most of the data sets to be used in the IPCC report, with some multitasking points because that job was finished off in the middle of a group admin meeting (there are some advantages to online meetings).

C • At least you didn't get loc... 6

C • Disproportionate As 5

Return to All Nations intervals. No injury issues (after a traffic stop on the way settled an initially troublesome back), and managed to get through the "fast" part of the session OK - didn't feel as lactic at the end as I sometimes did in the equivalent session in winter. Definitely tired afterwards though.

The park was very quiet, but the dog on-leash percentage was no better than it was when a larger sample was being drawn upon.

Warm-up and down. Numerous traffic stops but it was the sort of day where I was grateful for this (on the way there because a break a few minutes in seems to help in settling my back, on the way back because I was definitely feeling my first fast session for a long time).

Down on the Peninsula for the day (and night) and took to one of my favourite routes there, the back beach track southeast as far as Number Sixteen beach , before coming back through the streets. This was another increment of progress, my longest run so far this year, and I didn't fade away to the extent of the last couple of runs (which I'd like to think is improving fitness but probably also owed something to friendlier conditions). A bit of very mild hamstring discomfort at times in the second half but nothing of any great concern, pleasing given the number of small ups and downs in dune country. Decided to finish off by going past the house to the end of Ritchie Avenue (a dead end) to "collect" the street and found that final 90 seconds uphill hard going, so maybe this is pushing my limit at the moment, although I'm still pretty encouraged about my prospects of doing something beyond an hour in flatter terrain this weekend.

It rained a fair bit overnight but had all but cleared by 8am. I suspect a lot of people saw the forecast and assumed it would rain all day (and went home), because things were a lot quieter than I would have expected on a public holiday.

The early part of the run took me past the remnants of a New Year's Day fire, then to two features in the Number Sixteen car park: a sign saying "Please Take Your Rubbish Home", and two people in fluoro tops with garbage bags collecting the evidence that some visitors didn't read the sign.

Back to Monday mornings, after a hot night (although it fell just below the 25-degree threshold which I classify as a Really Hot Night in Melbourne), and with a new instructor - the old one (who was also my physio/masseur) has moved to the Here Be Dragons side of Bell Street. Seemed to go reasonably well as a session.

Moved on to the pool, not as crowded as it probably was later in the day, but still a bit busier than usual. This session seemed to drag on for a long time and the time taken suggests that it did; seemed to be drifting a bit.