Training Log: blairtrewin

Planned a longer run this morning in place of a trip out to Wellington Chase which was an area I wasn't wildly enthusiastic about, especially from the planned start location (the results suggest I may have chosen wisely). The plans for the actual route changed rather abruptly when it turned out that Kanes Bridge was closed, but I had settled down quite nicely by then and was prepared to commit myself to something a bit longer than the 70 minutes I'd originally planned for, and ended up going the long way round into the north end of Richmond and back through Kew. Back intermittently tight at times in the second half but manageable, and coped OK with the climb through Kew (if anything the descent was more problematic).

One bit of construction that wasn't happening was the supposed weekend closure of the Chandler Highway freeway on-ramp (which had been a contributing factor to my decision-making about what to do today) - they must have finished whatever they were doing early. (Meanwhile, the vague reference to engineering issues on the Parks Victoria website, and Parks not being noted for giving a rat's about fixing infrastructure quickly - they've only just reopened a major section of one of the Gippsland parks after fixing a bridge damaged in the 2020 bushfires, and the Sealers Cove track at Wilsons Prom has been closed for almost as long - gives me a distinct lack of confidence about the bridge being open again this year).

The run was my longest this year. I knew I'd been for something reasonably long afterwards (although making the trek to see my football team lose again seems to have loosened it up a bit).

C • Yes, good job you didn’t pl... 2

First parkrun outing for the year, at Coburg on the way to do a controlling visit to Metcalfe (Victorian Long in September). Wasn't totally sure about this early on and took it easy at the start (was forced to a bit because of the crowded start), but back was behaving itself and didn't arc up with a couple of early climbs like I thought it might. Settled down quite nicely after the first few hundred metres, though didn't really push the pace. Bit of a sharp hill coming back a bit after 4k but coped with it.

Familiar faces spotted: Mel Gangemi (in the middle of a longer run) and Peter Collins (with small child). It's my first time at Coburg, which raises the question of what my NENDY now is (it appears to be line-ball between Westerfolds, Maribyrnong and Gardiners Creek).

Saw what I went to see at Metcalfe. It's classic hilly central Victorian gully-spur, open forest (there's barely any green on the map), a few bits of mining but it's knolls and pits, no erosion-type features.

Again tight in the early morning, but close enough to being ready to go when I tried from home that I decided that the time taken to get the train in would be enough to do the necessary, and then headed out from the office before work, with the west side of the Domain my target. Within a couple of minutes I came across Pat heading the other way (on his way in to work), and like the last time this happened, that seemed to be the trigger to turn an unpromising run into a decent one, particularly through the middle where I felt as good running as I have for some time. Back tightened a bit in the last few minutes.

There may have been certain festivities at lunchtime, but I saw ads for an occasion of a different sort - one of the local pubs is running a Canada Day event next Wednesday, including a Justin Bieber and Avril Lavigne lookalike competition (from what I've seen of the JWOC competitor profiles so far, some of that team may be disappointed to be missing this).

And speaking of gatherings, I note with interest that the medal ceremony for the WOC sprint is scheduled for 5.10pm local time on 7 July, and the World Cup match which Australia will be playing in (if they get that far) starts at 6pm. I foresee the Australian supporters (and possibly the team, given that the next day is a rest day) adjourning to a suitable establishment (as long as it has a TV).

Not quite what I'd planned for this morning, and seemed to drag on a bit, on a morning which was threatening to become foggy without actually doing so.

Got out of the changerooms afterwards to be greeted by the ambos (I take it to be a good sign that the person they were working on was talking to them).

A rare evening run from work (there was a lunch on), south into the west end of South Melbourne. Didn't have a lot of confidence before the start but had some pretty nice stretches in the middle, until some back tightness surfaced in the last 10 minutes. Slow, but I think that was darkness doing its thing.

First run in new shoes, which had a nice spring to them.

C • What shoes have you got?? 2

From Malahang Reserve, a little later than usual after a(nother) set of late night meetings. Fairly standard run of recent times, hard work for the first 10-15 minutes but built into it a bit after than. Left calf tightness and associated Achilles soreness early but that eased.

I thought I might finish off a block on the east side of Plenty Road (and with it everything in Darebin between Plenty Road and Darebin Creek) but didn't quite manage it, so that will have to wait for next time.

Morning plans were disrupted for a somewhat unusual reason; on the walking part of the warm-up, I heard behind me the sort of screeching-brake sound that you'd expect (but on this occasion wasn't) to be immediately followed by crunching metal, turned around abruptly to see what had happened, and tweaked something in my back in the process. It had settled down enough to do a jog at lunchtime (intervals would have been asking too much); not the most convincing of sessions, and pretty slow, but at least I got it on the board.

This did bring up a minor milestone (155,000 career kilometres). The next significant one in this department is probably 100,000 miles, which I'd currently be on track to reach sometime in 2029.

Glad I'm not living at Yarra's Edge - there was piledriving going on for construction on the other side of the river and even at several hundred metres range the noise was annoying.

And it was reported today that Donald Trump is not planning to attend any World Cup matches involving English-speaking countries (other than the US), possibly related to the enthusiastic adaptation by English, Scottish, Australian and NZ supporters of a chant used in English football on the sadly frequent occasions that an opposition player has what we'll describe as "consent-related legal difficulties".