Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I love the smell of eucalypts at dawn on a summer morning. This run wasn't at dawn (though it was when I first stuck my head out the door), but it was a bit closer to it than most runs of late (a forecast of min 11, max 35 provides some encouragement in that respect). It took me to Gunbower Island, formed where the Gunbower Creek splits off from the Murray before rejoining it and variously claimed as Victoria's, Australia's and the world's largest inland island. (Only the first of these is true - in fact you only have to cross the Murray to find a much, much bigger one, formed by the Murray and Edward Rivers, although that one doesn't have a name; according to Wikipedia, the NSW one, which is about 70 times the size of Gunbower Island, is third-biggest in the world after two in Brazil).

Most of this run was on fire trails in river forests, and was dead flat (I suspect Strava's 3 metres is cheating me out of a bit of climb, but not much). Once again found things a bit of a struggle with the back intermittently troublesome; I'd hoped for an hour but didn't get there. Still nice to be in the bush, though - very open forest, but no features so I'm not in a rush to suggest it be mapped. Somewhat to my surprise, post-run waffles were on offer at the local cafe.

Made my way back to Melbourne via bits of the river forest (some of the roads were pretty badly cut up, I suspect through locals using them in the wet last winter when no-one was looking), then Echuca, the Lower Goulburn NP, Tatura and Murchison. A pleasant weekend at least until I ran into the traffic jams coming into Melbourne (part of the Hume Freeway after Craigieburn was closed for works, with predictable consequences - if I'd known I'd have taken the Wandong-Epping route, as I used to before the Craigieburn bypass was built). I was impressed by the visitor centre at the Torumburry Weir, particularly their accounts of some of the more offbeat things which had happened there (like the strike during construction in 1919, triggered by the sacking of two waiters at the construction mess for throwing tomatoes at each other).

Every second farm between Cohuna and Echuca seemed to be flying a Eureka flag. In the city the flying of Eureka flags is most commonly associated with the CFMMEU or, occasionally, the sort of people referred to politely as "white nationalists" (not that such people really deserve politeness), but out here I presume it has something to do with water.

C • Epping 5

The vagaries of my music shuffle turned up Talking Heads' "Burning Down The House" three times in a couple of hours (given where I was and what I was doing, perhaps "Take Me To The River" would have been more appropriate).

Headed up to northern Victoria for the weekend, making a success of this trip on the third attempt (I'd originally planned it for July, and then for two weekends ago). Stopped in on the way to do a run at Browns Reef, using part of a course from 2016 (including one very long leg, hence the modest number of controls). Probably a similar sort of run to last Sunday, moving more or less OK on the flat and downhills but finding climbing of any sort increasingly problematic as it went on. Got under 8 min/km (straight-line) for the first time in a while, but it's the sort of area where the likes of Aston and Pat would be deep into the 4s. A pretty cool day for February in Bendigo - only about 18 when I was running, although it warmed up later as the cloud broke up, which made for good conditions for some of the most impressive mirages I've seen for a while in the flat country north of Bendigo.

Did a bit of a tour of granite hills as I continued north, most notably at Mount Hope which Neil had previously mentioned (lots of rocks, and would definitely make for an interesting map with some similarities with Korong). Finished the day at Cohuna, where I certainly won't have any hills to deal with tomorrow. Just being on the road felt reasonably relaxing after a pretty stressful week.

I thought it in the interests of diplomacy to stay clear of the discussion in the pub about the forthcoming duck-shooting season. There were also various signs expressing disgruntlement with aspects of water policy, which I suspect differ from such signs which have been on display in various parts of the Murray-Darling Basin for decades only in as much as these days they have hashtags.

Definitely appreciated some time in the water today (at a somewhat unusual time because I had a 7am meeting; this sort of flexibility is one benefit of not being in the office, although on a day when I was otherwise going most of the time from 7am to 10pm, it's perhaps a modest benefit). Felt pretty good once I was going. Rather strangely, had a twinge in a muscle in the stomach area while getting changed afterwards, but nothing seems to have come of it (we'll see if any issues are evident when it comes time to run tomorrow).

Haven't tried doing two evenings in a row for a while. Might be a while before I try doing it again - my back, which hasn't had a great week, was a bit of a disaster area tonight. Perhaps a bit less awful in the second half but this was always a struggle, even on the flat.

Looking at the course (with controls on either side of it) I thought I might have had the chance to run down the middle of Victoria Park and imagine myself bouncing the ball several times before slamming it into the cheer squad behind the goals, but there was training on so I had to go round the outside. The ground was last used in 1999 but $20 for a seat in a private box (as indicated by the sign) seems a bargain even by 1999 standards. I seem to recall we were in one of these on the one occasion I went to an Essendon game there, in 1980, but that might have been because my parents/grandparents thought that even as a nine-year-old I'd be taking my life in my hands - or at least have my vocabulary significantly expanded - venturing into the outer as an away supporter. (Dad tells me that when he was a hanger-on with his uncle coaching in the VFA in the 1950s, Port Melbourne was the one away game he wasn't allowed to go to). Essendon had long since stopped playing at Victoria Park by the time I moved to Melbourne, and the only game I've been to there since was a Collingwood-Freo one.

(Anzac Day notwithstanding, Essendon and Collingwood are some way down each other's rivalry list - both teams certainly dislike Carlton more, and in Essendon's case probably Hawthorn too. I suspect this is probably because the successful eras of Essendon and Collingwood have rarely coincided, so they've met in remarkably few big finals - 1990 was their only Grand Final meeting in the last century).

Went a night earlier than usual and a course longer than usual for the street-O championships - I knew I wouldn't be competitive but still thought I'd give it a go (a mass start was also a novelty this season). Felt reasonable on the warm-up and early on, but as with yesterday, back started to become a problem from about 25 minutes on, and this time the climbing wasn't done - walked a lot of the hills in the second half, though still an improvement on most recent evenings (being cooler probably helped).

The route choice was interesting, and I changed my strategy twice during the course. The first time was early on after noticing that #6 wasn't a good option, and I switched to counter-clockwise rather than clockwise. The second time was by accident - I made a mistake exiting #9 (in a small bushy park) and found myself heading towards #15 (which I hadn't planned to go to), but that opened up the option of dropping the other three controls in that part of the map, rather than finding one drop on the east side where there wasn't an obvious drop.

Cathies Corner (as it was then) was a regular venue in my early Wednesday night days, but I haven't been there for a while - I think it may have been a Monday venue a lot of the time once that series was introduced? My other well-remembered visit to this part of town was for the 2001 Aston by-election, when this was still considered a marginal seat (these days it's the heart of the Bible Belt and just about the strongest Liberal area in Melbourne). As with a lot of by-elections, this featured a large and sometimes eccentric cast of characters, including someone from Help End Marijuana Prohibition who disappeared periodically behind the bushes (presumably to smoke a joint), and the Wilderness Society koala turning up to scrutineer for the Greens. (You're actually not allowed to wear partisan clothing inside a booth, but I was hardly going to attach my name to a PR disaster by complaining about it).

Morning session out towards Ruckers Hill, clearing up a few loose ends on the east side of High Street (I've now completed this area between Separation and Westgarth). Started out reasonably well - didn't even need what has become the semi-standard stop at the 6-8 minute mark this time - and handling the climbs OK, but back was starting to become a little troublesome from about 25 minutes onwards. I might not have fancied climbing at that stage but it was all done by then. Coolest (and least humid) morning for a while, which made for nice conditions to be out in.

Fairly quiet week this week by recent standards: only five meetings outside working hours (not counting orienteering ones), and none of them are between midnight and 7am.

C • Urgh :( 1

Looks interesting.

Back after a week's break, with a new instructor (who extended me a bit further on a couple of the exercises, something I was probably ready for). Woke up with a rather stiff back, which loosened a bit during this session (and more during the swim); would definitely have struggled to run this morning.

Took longer to get going than some of my recent swims, but picked up later on and brought it home with a relatively fast final lap (even if I felt anything but smooth during the course of it). The low sun in the closing laps is another reminder that autumn is approaching.

This evening we (finally) approved the OA constitutional changes which seem to have been going on forever (but it's actually been a couple of years, I think). Amongst the consequences of this is that no amount of persuasion will be able to get me to stand again at the AGM for President (or Chair as it will become) - I'll have reached my maximum term on the Board and am ineligible to run again.

C • Ineligible to run 6

The second day of the Bendigo weekend. Running B again (certainly the way this went indicated I wouldn't have appreciated 10k). Took a few controls to loosen up physically, and a couple of controls to get myself into the map, but the navigation side was functioning OK for most of the course. Fading away in the later part, though, and walking more of the (modest) hills (although not on the scale of Thursday). Went out on the last loop about a minute behind Ted but didn't think I was likely to run that down, and in fact it blew out after I unwisely attempted to go straight through the green to #21 (probably dropping a minute or so there) and then equally unwisely attempted to bash through the bush at the base of the embankment on the way out.

A bit of a blast from the past on the way out seeing a partly covered up 'USA OUT OF IRAQ' on the back of a road sign. You used to see a lot more of this all around the world (often in English even in non-English speaking countries, although when it wasn't, the likes of the 'TROEPEN UIT AFGANISTAN' I saw in Utrecht needed little translation). Other notes of the return trip after some months away; the paddock at Kyneton which contains lots of demountable school classrooms is emptier than I've seen it, and the multi-story old bluestone mill next to the freeway near the Kyneton exit, which looks like it should be a haunted house, is on the market.

Back tightened up quite a bit in the afternoon, which is unusual (but then I guess I was asking it to do something this morning it hasn't done for a long time).

C • You didn't note the 10 degr... 3

Morning ride on the Yarra Bend Park loop. This wasn't exactly a double crossing of Macedon as a warm-up for this evening, but still useful to wake myself up if nothing else (squeezing this into the window between staying in bed as long as possible - it's been a long week - and a 9.30 coffee date). The cricketers were already out there not much after 8, and (less surprisingly) were the parkrunners (Yarra Bend is not a course you go to for a PB). Feeling good by the end.

Bush sprint as the first part of the Bendigo weekend - my first competitive outing in the bush since July (and second since March). Thought it was OK for the first couple of minutes but the first steep climb up an embankment triggered the back and it was a struggle thereafter, although started to free up a bit at the end. A bit hesitant on a couple of controls as I got my flow back (and #2 wasn't in quite the right spot, being on an unmapped pit 10-20 metres away). 33 degrees but the cloud came in as a started, so not as hard as it might have been.

I'm running B this weekend because I wasn't confident of getting through 10km tomorrow (with good reason if tonight is anything to go by). Finished up in front, although I wouldn't have done if Milla hadn't been diverted by chasing a slightly misbehaving dog.

C • Chasing a dog 2

C • misplaced control 1

Back to a Friday morning session at Fitzroy after a tough week (mostly for non-running reasons). Got into it after a sluggish start. Felt a little hamstring tightness at the end but doesn't feel like much to worry about (gave the physio something to work on at lunchtime, though).

It was over 30 degrees at 7pm, I was coming off a second successive night of midnight-3am meetings, and had been sitting all day. Strangely my run was rubbish. Can't work out why. (Back was not functioning on even the slightest hills).

Springthorpe did take me onto once-familiar territory (including the reserve which was a nice bit). Was with Jayne for a while (more or less) before she headed down into Macleod (probably not the best route-choice option, especially now the vacant lot on the west side I used to use as a gap has ceased to be vacant).

On what turned out to be the last day (for now) that it is relevant, I thought I'd look at one of the more distant parts of a 5km circle, on the west side of Northcote/Thornbury east of the golf course - wanted something flat, with a lot of zig-zagging in the name of collecting streets. (I didn't actually collect that many complete streets - most of the east/west streets here continue under the same name on the other side of St. Georges Road).

My expectations for this run were low after a meeting which ran to 3am overnight. It would be fair to say that these expectations were matched, although it did pick up a little right at the end (just as I'd taken the decision not to go to 40 minutes as I'd originally hoped). Hamstring was OK, though - not even a slight niggle this time.

There was a coffee van at the park where I started and finished (whilst visiting it post-run I saw Bruce disappearing into the distance); for added inner north bonus points it was a "social enterprise". (In contrast, when it was a waypoint en route from one lot of grandparents to the other back in the 1980s, the intersection of Normanby Road and St. Georges Road was one I remembered for its abundance of fast-food outlets, of which only the KFC survives).

C • What park had a coffee van ... 2

Yarra Boulevard with Darebin Trail extension. Didn't have a lot of energy today, especially early on, and noticeably slower than in recent outings on this route. Reasonable number of bikes, not a lot of cars. It's going to be a tiring week, I suspect (not much of this to do with training).

The bats seemed further up the river than they usually are. Maybe they heard rumours that the local MP was around.

Was feeling a little soreness in the morning and almost didn't go out, but gave it a go and it was OK after the first couple of minutes - muscle fatiguing a bit at times but certainly better than at the equivalent stage on Saturday. Not flowing especially well as a run but I'll take this in the circumstances. Even managed to fill in a couple of blank spaces on the map just outside a 2km circle.

A bit of soreness again this morning so rode rather than ran, initially up the Heidelberg hill then tracing a course west then south (with one diversion because a key path connection has become a building site since the last time I was out here). Seemed to be plodding a bit and tired a little at the end, but not too bad. Fairly quiet out as might be expected.

I was more confident of where west and south were than whoever was responsible for naming the streets in one pocket of West Heidelberg I passed through - when you get to the point where you've been on South Crescent until it turns into North Crescent, you'd expect to get into East Street by turning right, not left.

Back out to Eaglemont Flats on a Saturday morning, a somewhat familiar experience from last year which hopefully won't be quite as familiar this year. Soreness had improved somewhat overnight; still not quite right but runnable. A bit nicer in the terrain than I expected at this time of year - the grass here is the sort that doesn't seed - but still didn't feel a lot of fluency. Reacquainted myself with the spider web facial, something we'll probably see more of next weekend (if it happens). Starting to get a bit more painful at the 30-minute mark and pulled up there, perhaps 10-15 short of what I'd hoped for, but OK for a restart.

I wasn't quite sure whether masks were required running this time, but given that of the 20-odd runners and cyclists I saw on the way here the percentage wearing them was zero, I decided to follow their lead. Even if I've got this wrong (and if I have the authorities need to publicise it better, because it's a change from last year), the chances of running into any police off-track at Eaglemont Flats are pretty low - at any rate lower than they would have been along the Darebin Creek (currently the subject of a murder investigation).

There was a flyer on a sign at the Eaglemont car park offering a $5000 reward for a missing dog. Must have been a valuable dog (the flyer was from October but I don't know what the outcome might have been).

C • I had a look at this ad it'... 2

C • Dog reward 1

C • 1

Without a lot else to do and with the morning having fallen a bit short of expectations, I went out again in the afternoon (wouldn't want to let too much of the allotted two hours - which appears to be breakable into any number of parts - go to waste). A bit sluggish early on but started to get into it, though there seemed to be headwinds from more directions than there should have been.

A couple of freshly minted 'Sack Dan's were painted on paths, although I'm not quite sure who is supposed to be doing the sacking. For those who need to refamiliarise themselves with this democracy thing (and, given that a lot of these people are Trump fans, perhaps they do), you get the opportunity to sack Dan on the last Saturday of November next year, providing you can convince a majority of voters in a majority of seats to agree with you.

Tightness/soreness on inside of left leg from last night was still there this morning, so after failing to loosen it up, plan B was an evening ride - an out and back along the Koonung path (if only because it's somewhere I won't be able to go again for a while). Ended up as a decent ride though quite dry by the end of it (not sure why as it wasn't that warm).

Street-O at Belmore. About the only thing that could be said for this run is that I came in 500 metres less than the course-setter's distance estimate, so I must have done something right. Otherwise it was a real struggle - back tight after a day sitting and, unlike some other times, a break of a minute or two a few minutes in wasn't enough to get it going again. Ended up walking most of the hills but did manage to jog the rest. A bit of groin tightness later on, too.

It was a warm night, but after a cool summer we're about to see a bit more of this, with a prolonged warm spell next week which may well stretch into the Bendigo weekend.

C • Far better route than me! 2

First time for three weeks or so that I've had a false start on the running front (hopefully nothing persistent), so instead switched to the pool at the end of the day. Fitzroy is a rather different place on a hot sunny late afternoon to what it is in the morning, but I managed to find enough space to get this done without bumping into too many people.

Dumb criminal of the day (an occasional series).

C • I must have been there at t... 1

All Nations intervals. Starting to feel a bit stronger than the last couple of sets but began to get a little lower back tightness on the last two reps (just when I was starting to think about stretching it out longer). Still an improvement, I think. Very nice morning to be out - I definitely don't mind cool summers (although the next couple of days will be warm).

Warm-up and down. Tight early but a pause for a road crossing fixed that, and felt much better coming back than I have the last couple of times; stringing some solid weeks of training together is hopefully having some impact.

Monday morning Pilates. Mostly fairly routine but did feel a little hip soreness with one of the exercises; went away pretty quickly though.

Moving on to Fitzroy pool. A bit more up and down than last week and was occasionally threatening to cramp, but ended up not too different in the end result.

It's a conference week this week, but all online this year (and as a local conference at least it's in a local time zone). Inevitably there were a few technical issues on the first day but it seemed to work OK for the most part.

Given my recent propensity for (a) struggling with my back at around the 5-10 minute mark and (b) settling it down after a pause (often through a strategically timed road crossing) at about that stage, I thought I'd try doing a more substantial run before the sprint this week, starting from near the event assembly area on a loop defined by two institutions more familiar to those of a different demographic to mine: the zoo and the Royal Children's Hospital. (As it happens, the last time I set foot in the latter was on this day 12 years ago to see my cousin and his son - born very prematurely while they were over in Melbourne for Cassie's wedding, but all's worked out well in the end - before venturing outside to see what 42 degrees at 11am felt like, and moving on to help out on what proved to be a very busy day in the office....).

(My last visit to the zoo was also memorable for reasons which had little to do with the venue: it was a conference dinner on the night Australia beat Uruguay to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. The penalty shootout took place while we were driving home).

It wasn't even half the 2009 temperature today, and the run was quite reasonable; I don't expect to sparkle on runs these days but this was one where nothing went wrong, and there was no hangover from yesterday's issues.

The warm-up plan worked: I felt significantly better than last week and it showed in the times, being (relatively speaking) about a minute closer than I was last week. Not flowing too badly and I think got most of the key route choices right, although I'd still want to be moving a bit faster. A bit more technical than last week without being super-challenging, and a pocket of Melbourne I haven't previously been to (I would occasionally do Royal Park runs in my Melbourne Uni days, but at that time this was still a psychiatric hospital).

The northeast edge of this map features a very uncrossable uncrossable fence, the boundary of an institution which seems to change its name every time I come this way but is currently the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct. It's not the most uncrossable fence I've seen on an orienteering map, that honour going to the previous map of (some of) the area used for the 1991 JWOC long distance in Berlin (the uncrossable fence in question being the Berlin Wall).

Had hoped to extend my (recent) maximum distance a bit further today and for the first 20 minutes it was looking quite promising. My back, which had been reasonable early, then decided that it didn't like climbing hills today (meandering up through Ivanhoe), and was causing sufficient trouble that I was prepared to settle just for making it home without having to stop, which I managed, more or less. The back did seem to settle somewhat once on the flat so I'll take that as a positive.

I'm not sure what was the least surprising scientific finding I saw today: that young men overestimate the extent to which risk-taking behaviour impresses members of the opposite sex, or that floods multiply plastic waste in rivers. (In fairness, the latter study did attempt to quantify exactly how much floods multiplied plastic waste in rivers in various environments).

Pool running at Fitzroy, expecting the worst from the weather but it turned out to be OK with only a few spots of rain. Woke up with a bit of a stiff back and might have been apprehensive about trying to run, but it was fine in the water - a pretty good session as these things go.

Couldn't make tonight's event so instead decided to do one of the Boulder Dash Maprun courses in the morning, discovering fairly quickly that doing this coming off a couple of hours worth of meeting (and after a couple of hard days by recent standards) didn't work out so well. Felt tired from the beginning and didn't get any better as it went on, and in the end I settled for a fairly typical C course length rather than staying out for the nominal 45 minutes as I'd hoped to.

First day back in the office. This meant, among other things, a somewhat overdue car service (the place where I get it done, in Fishermans Bend, is much more convenient to the office than to home), and hence a morning run close to where that was (which means it's pretty industrial). Started out with some zig-zagging through the South Wharf residential area in the name of getting some low-hanging Citystrides fruit (except that it turns out that most of the routes in question are not actually classified as streets on Citystrides), then out on a longer loop crossing the freeway at the Salmon Street bridge. Something of a struggle in the first half and had niggles at different times in both hamstrings, but improved later on.

Another incremental advance on the length of a midweek run. There's a certain irony, given that I thought one benefit of working from home would be to help my running, that my first day back in the office was my longest midweek run since 2019 (though let's not get too excited just yet).

Original plan for this was the morning but was feeling too sleepy in the morning to think that running fast was going to work, so rescheduled for lunchtime (a cool day may have had something to do with this). Was probably feeling a bit better than last week (and was going a little faster), but was tiring on the last couple - I'd originally had thoughts of pushing out a couple of extra reps if I was feeling OK but decided to leave it for another time. Will put this one in the "modest progress" box.

Warm-up and down. Not quite as much of a struggle coming back as it was last week. Less traffic around in the middle of the day, too, as the city gradually returns towards its more normal patterns.

Monday morning Pilates. A bit more awake than I sometimes am for this, and seemed to go reasonably well. Starting to get a bit more gloomy at 7am now (it won't be too many more weeks before it's dark).

I forgot to book a session for Northcote so plan B was Fitzroy (which doesn't require booking) - perhaps fitting as an on-the-way-to-work spot given that we're going back to the office part-time this week (although not today for me). This actually turned out to be a pretty good session by my recent standards - not sure if getting feedback on my pace every lap (there's a clock that's more visible than Northcote's) helps there, but was going pretty consistently, getting a bit faster at the end. Remembered that I had a left arm this time, not something I always manage when swimming. Right shoulder a little sore at the end.

There was quite a bit to be positive about today, including on the work front (got a couple of major things done on top of the usual start-of-the-month jobs, which mostly involved telling people how uninteresting January's weather was compared to the last couple of years), and elsewhere (tried cooking something new successfully, and first harvest from the tomato plant in the backyard - although I can't claim too much credit for that one).