Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Fairly borderline today, but managed to get through something even if it wasn't quite as much as I'd hoped for - it's a while since I've got through four days out of five so this counts as progress. Hip started to feel a bit sore after the small ups and downs on the Darebin Creek bike path. Saw Nicola on the way which provided a pretext for the first sort-of in-person conversation (more substantial than a shop transaction) I've had with anyone for a week.

While it's still well short of where I'd like to be, this was the biggest month I've put together for a while (April 2019 was the last bigger one for running distance, September 2018 for training time). Calves feeling rather tight so a physio session at lunchtime was welcome - they're still functioning, at least for the time being, although somewhat lacking in customers. (Although it's not exactly the message which is being communicated, it's clear from reading the small print that if it's legal for a business to open, it's legal to leave home to do business with it).

Hungary overnight became the first nominal democracy to use the current situation as a pretext to give themselves the powers of a dictatorship. I suspect they won't be the last.

Morning session on the Boulevard. Didn't feel significantly different going up the hills (one of the things about this route is that, although none of the hills are big, almost none of it is flat), but was somewhat faster so maybe the regular rides are having some effect? Back and calves were both tight this morning, so I think I probably would have struggled with a run today.

Heidelberg along the river to Finns Reserve and back - a routine run back in the day, which I succeeded with at the third attempt in recent weeks. Was always battling here and almost gave it away a few minutes in, but settled down enough to pull through and was good enough at the end to take it past an hour. Had to walk across the Finns Reserve bridge (a narrow suspension bridge) due to other people but that probably wasn't a bad time for a break. Longest I've done since last July; things have fallen a long way. Reasonable number of people out, but no groups so the message is obviously getting through to most people (though the beach shots from last Friday looked worse than they actually were; telephoto lenses will do that).

Headed out in the afternoon to have a look to see if there was any potential in the bit of forest out Toolern Vale way which I saw from the air coming in from an unusual direction in January. (Had a few misgivings about this, but surely there's not much difference between not interacting with anyone in a house and not interacting with anyone in a car?). The good news is that from a distance it looks quite large, not too steep and not too thick, the bad news is that it has no road access and is almost certainly private property (and many of the adjoining properties are posh horse studs), so I think we can scrub that one off the list. (The area around Toolern Vale is a mix of the very posh and the derelict - the latter are probably properties long since abandoned whose owners are waiting for their value to instantly increase 100-fold at the stroke of a planning minister's or councillor's pen, a phenomenon which has been known to lead to the distribution of well-stocked brown paper bags or the digital equivalent thereof).

Was a bit apprehensive when I felt fairly tight walking to the shops early on but this ended up being a pretty nice one by my recent standards - felt quite comfortable after the first few minutes (and didn't stiffen up with a level crossing stop in the middle as I thought I might have).

If it wasn't for everything else going on in the world it would have been a nice day. Did manage a couple of domestic achievements - finally getting around to setting up my speaker system and connecting my TV to the household wi-fi (these have taken about one and four years respectively), and the acquisition of some toilet paper.

Fox Footy have taken to showing replays of classic past versions of the games which were fixtured for this weekend, which will work better for some than others - there's no shortage of classic Essendon-Sydney or Adelaide-Port Adelaide games, but they're going to have to look pretty hard to find something for Geelong-Gold Coast.

Managed to get out this morning, some early tightness but settled down reasonably, though the fitness side was still a bit of a struggled until the last few minutes (maybe I was finally properly warmed up then). A little longer than I'd planned on as the area from Bellfield down to the creek was blocked off for works, so dropped down instead to the path on the east (quiet) side of Darebin Creek. Nice to get this one in the book.

Closer to being runnable today but not quite there, so instead headed out for a lunchtime ride on the Koonung trail as far as Doncaster Road. A nice day and plenty of people out, although none in groups other than families, so people are doing what they're supposed to. (The City of Darebin has one of the lowest case counts of any local government area in Melbourne, but I haven't yet heard any suggestion that it should close its border). Felt reasonable, though this route only has short hills.

There are not many winners out of this sorry situation, but one is probably the Narromine Turf Club, whose race meeting today was probably one of the only ones taking place on the planet (it was certainly the only one in Australia). I presume betting turnover was significantly above expectations.

And today's nomination for most stupid criminal goes to the person who tried to go through the newly-established Queensland border checkpoint in an allegedly stolen car with paper number plates. You probably won't be surprised to hear that the driver allegedly had numerous outstanding warrants and that a search of the vehicle discovered drugs and prohibited weapons.

C • Betting on the weather 3

Back not functioning today, and there's a shortage of available plan Bs (although I at least did plenty of walking during the course of the day). The day managed to fill up somewhat thanks to a total of 5 1/2 hours of teleconferences (just as well I'm on an unlimited internet plan these days). Managed to get a few other work things done too (like answering a request for temperature data from all corners of the world with a view to seeing what temperature dependence there is in Covid-19 spread rates).

First day of working from home. With no pool option I went for a bit of a hit-out on the Yarra Boulevard (which actually has some traffic at 8-something on a weekday morning, albeit somewhat less than it normally would). Struggled a bit through the first 15 minutes but felt reasonable after that. Coolest morning of the autumn so far.

Slept the best I have for a couple of weeks last night, which I take to be a good sign.

It's been reported that the loss of the sense of smell is one of the most consistent symptoms of Covid-19, in which case going past the Yarra Bend bat colony provided abundant evidence that I don't have it.

C • Smell 4

I suspected this would be the last such session for a while (something confirmed by an announcement later in the day, although at least the massage/physio side of the practice is staying open for now). Seemed to go OK, although with a slight air of surreality.

Took part in a teleconference for national sporting organisation CEOs/presidents today (organised by Sport Australia). The situation is challenging for us, but most other sports seem to be in a far worse situation - many will struggle to have the cash reserves to handle a shutdown of a few months. (The NRL gets a double whammy because the business model of a lot of clubs is dependent on money from leagues clubs which are shut down too - no wonder they were so desperate to keep playing).

Managed to get through this, which is a pass mark for a Monday. Pilates had loosened the back up enough to be functional through this, but still something of a struggle.

We're working from home from tomorrow for who knows how long (although I've been designated as "essential" which means I can still go in if necessary). Just about held it together during the day but got pretty emotional on the way out - if this is any indication then I'm probably not going to cope too well with retirement when the time comes.

C • Retirement 15

Couldn't come up after the run yesterday, which was a bit unfortunate, but took to the bike instead and not too bad. Did the Springthorpe/La Trobe loop, which has most of its climbing in the first 5km; not a bad route to ride (if we're still allowed to). Got hit by a sharp shower in the middle, although it wasn't quite as dramatic as it was on the equivalent session last September (and there were no magpies this time either).

Bendigo not-really-an-event at Kooyoora (no timing but the controls were out). I was in two minds about going to this but felt I could manage it without making much contact with anyone, and if this is going to be the last time for several months (and perhaps the last time out of the city for several months), going to a special place isn't the worst way to do it - particularly the leg to the last control, across the top of the Melville Caves slope with the expansive view over the rocks below.

The body wasn't really playing ball today - couldn't really run any of the hills - but there was no way I was going to pass this one up in the circumstances. At its best on the long gentle downhills from 2 to 5, although I made a bit of a parallel error mid-leg on 5 and picked it up without too much time loss. Also minor wobbles in the circle on 6 and 7. Pretty tired on the way home (which perhaps stopped me from getting too emotional about it).

A lot of things in the world are getting worse at a rapid rate at present, but one thing which has improved in the last couple of days is the state of the shops - I was able to get almost everything I wanted this morning (and they even had some toilet paper, albeit in single industrial-sized rolls). Maybe all the people stuffing every cranny of their cupboards and freezers have finally achieved their mission.

Trying to preserve such semblance of normality as is still possible for as long as is possible. Being, as far as I know, the closest pool to inner Melbourne which is still open, I was wondering if Ivanhoe was going to be the aquatic equivalent of a supermarket rumoured to have a supply of toilet paper (and had thus planned a swim rather than a pool run because of limited space for the latter - Ivanhoe's deep end isn't very big), but in fact it was reasonably quiet. Swim went a bit better than Monday's; who knows if there is another one ahead?

On Friday this week, having moved my timetable in anticipation of a trip to Canberra which never happened. This class is taken by the manager of the clinic, who's understandably concerned about what lies ahead. (I'm only too conscious that personally I'm in a very fortunate position to ride this situation out compared to an awful lot of people, with an ongoing government job, no debts and generally good health). Reasonably good as far as a session went.

Quads feeling weird today, but otherwise got through OK - the sore spot was starting to flare up 25-30 minutes in but a traffic stop was enough of a reset to settle it down. There are a few things about the way I'm feeling which seem a bit strange at the moment, but I think at least some of that is mental (and some is through not sleeping well, although that seems to have improved over the last day or two).

Didn't feel especially energetic, but at least got through a set without too many dramas, other than with dogs (clearly the other users of the park were under the assumption that the City of Darebin's partial shutdown extended to the enforcement of on-leash areas).

Numbers of people in the city seem to be gradually dwindling, although there's still a fair bit of traffic - I suspect some train users are swapping to cars (and some to bikes, still to be found in some abundance).

Don't intend to try to brave any food shops until the weekend - hopefully by then the craziness will have settled down a bit (and the local shops seem to have held up better so far than the big supermarkets). My version of panic buying is that I've bought five new books since the weekend.

Warm-up and down. Neither of these were especially convincing but at least my back was functioning, and will hopefully be functioning better now that the physio (still working, at least for now) has had another go at it.

An updated statement has come out from the Government on the current situation. Working through recommendations now but looks like local events should be able to continue for now in some form (of course what's current on Wednesday may not necessarily be current on Friday).

C • Guidelines 9

Things didn't work out today, although I spent long enough out at lunchtime to discover that the City of Melbourne's parking inspectors are definitely not working at home at present.

The roads didn't seem much quieter than usual when I was riding - I'm guessing that the number of people working from home is offset by people who are driving in rather than using public transport - but I didn't have to take the usual 17 March diversion around the Dan O'Connell.

It's difficult to plan anything too far ahead at the moment. I started today not knowing which city I'd finish the day in (just as well I don't have to do drug-testing whereabouts forms) - I was supposed to be going to a meeting in Canberra but thought there was a good chance either the Bureau would stop interstate travel or the meeting would be called off. The former hasn't happened (yet) but the latter did, so I'm still in Melbourne.

Sessions which rely on public facilities also can't be planned too far ahead at the moment, and I suspect the pools won't be open for much longer (the City of Melbourne ones are already closed). Until it gets too cold the river might be an option (especially for water running which don't require putting one's head under the water), although I don't know how strong the current is.

The swim was pretty ordinary at best, and featured the return of a long-lost friend, the foot cramp (on two separate occasions, one for each foot).

As someone who's read a lot of cricket history, one of the more surreal bits I've encountered was reading of the final round of the 1939 English County Championships, which took place as war was declared (and was, I think, played to its completion).

Hopefully we'll be back to doing things normally within seven months rather than seven years (seven weeks is a bit too much to ask, I suspect), but after today's event I've got a bit more of an idea about how this must have felt; doing an event with no idea about when we'll be doing this again (which could still be Kooyoora next Saturday) or when we'll see everyone again.

Would have liked to sign off, if this is a temporary sign-off, with a decent run, but this was a struggle until my body started functioning properly about 20 minutes again (on another day I might have come back after the first few controls, but I wasn't going to do that today even if I had to walk around). Probably at my best in the section from 9-15. A tough course, with most of it in the low-visibility area (Borhoney Ghurk has a lot of post-fire regrowth) and quite a bit of mining detail, but the only major time loss was 30 seconds or so on the vague knoll at 16.

Course 1 had a relatively faster course (essentially they had all our slow bits plus 3km of fast open stuff), but Aston's time was still spectacular and does nothing to disabuse us of the idea that he might add to his tally of JWOC gold medals, if he gets the chance to do so (not something I'd be especially confident about).

Second successive 5-hour week (and third in four). Baby steps...

The first cool day of the autumn always has a sense of renewal about it, and my body was co-operating today to take advantage, in what was probably the best I've felt on a run this year (even if the pace was a bit slower than some). The sorts of modest hills that have triggered problems a lot of the time did nothing of the sort today.

This all made the overwhelming sense of foreboding about everything today seem all the more jarring. At least I found one of the benefits of shopping local - apart from you-know-what (which I shouldn't need to resupply on for another couple of months, and perhaps indefinitely if News Limited publications are still being produced), everything I was looking for was on the shelves, if not always in vast quantities, and the queue was at normal levels.

One of those weeks when I've been struggling to come up in the mornings (it doesn't help that a busy week has meant having to try to get out a bit earlier than usual). Plan B was the evening but that didn't work out either. Probably would have liked to have been able to get out and do something, if only for mental health reasons.

For those of you who haven't already read it on the US thread, various decisions are in the process of being made and I expect there will be an announcement in the next day or so.

Had planned for a run but didn't work out, so took to the water instead. Ended up as a reasonably straightforward session, and even felt reasonably awake by the end of it.

Starting to get into the swing of the new program (and, this being a different day to usual, a different instructor to point out things that needed to be shifted a bit - it's remarkable what a difference an apparently tiny difference in position can make to which muscles are being worked).

Original attempt for a very early session before Pilates didn't work (I needed to be at work too early for going after to be an option). Decided to have another shot at lunchtime and it worked OK from an injury point of view, although definitely struggled in the warm conditions (high 20s) - haven't done a lot of warm-weather runs this summer.

Morning swim. Took a while to get myself going but not too bad as a recovery session (to the extent that I had something to recover from). I'm going to be burning the candle at both ends at work a bit this week - hopefully the training holds up.

Down the Peninsula for the day and went out to Number Sixteen and back. Thought I might struggle to come up after yesterday afternoon but things weren't too bad - it helps that no uphill in this part of the world lasts for long (although they can be short and sharp, and soft and sandy underfoot).

Even by their usual standards, the kelp beds on the beach at Number Sixteen were impressively deep.

C • Deep.. 2

A bush sprint at Granite Hills Park, near Mernda. This area had been on my radar for a while (Bruce and I went to check it out in 2011) but this was the first time it's been used.

The arena was on top of the hill and had great views of the CBD (the carpark, looking northeast, instead had views of those great suburban icons, an enormous Bunnings and the golden arches). Of course, such a location meant an uphill finish was inevitable, as was a downhill start. Quite a tricky area with some vegetation, and lots of small rock and earth mound detail without always a lot of definition in the contours; with the 1:4000 scale, lots of overshooting was happening (I only did it once, to the tune of about 20 seconds at 10) and lots of mistakes were visible. Not a lot of speed, but handled the downhill and flat bits respectably; couldn't run much of the hills, and trying to run the last two legs uphill resulted in feeling pretty ordinary at the finish, but I did make it.

Sprint relay at La Trobe. My back hasn't been too bad this week but this was one step too far for it - started playing up early on and I would have stopped had it not been a relay. Instead, I struggled round at a slow pace (slowest by a couple of minutes, I think) - didn't miss much but at this pace I wouldn't have wanted to. Didn't quite achieve our objective of not getting lapped (I was running third leg with Clare, Matt van der Peet, and Mel Gangemi).

There was carnage amongst the rest of the field and at one point it looked like we might have been in danger of being the scoring Victorian team, but one of the other four teams did manage to get across the line.

Race 4 C1 - Splits

Event: Melbourne Sprint Weekend
 

Checking controls for race 1 of Melbourne Sprint Weekend at Overnewton. Everything was where it was supposed to be - the only annoyance was the mud (not surprising with construction around and heavy rain on Thursday), which made the later part of the course a bit unpleasant (the runners found this as well). Body functioning acceptably by current standards.

The event seemed to go pretty well - only complaints I heard were over the aforementioned mud, and an issue with the finish which affected the first couple of finishers (sorted). Good reception for the courses, as I thought there would be (and I think the long leg down to the fence maze is definitely a World of O Route To Christmas candidate).

Got to compete in the afternoon (I was going to say "race", but there are laws against misleading and deceptive advertising). It was Deakin University, which remarkably enough I've never orienteered on despite several events over the years (usually when I've been in Europe). Turned out to be one of the more technical sprints I've done in Australia, with quite a bit of multi-level stuff - starting with #1 which I didn't make a good job of the route choice for. Was struggling a bit with the back and walked some stairs, but that at least gave me the chance to plan legs like 8 which a lot of people must have had trouble with (judging by the fact that my split place was about 10 better than on any other leg). Didn't come last, but the winning time was a fair bit lower than I was expecting - thought this was a 50-60% behind the winner performance, not a 70+.

C • 8 1

Generally a fairly relaxed session. Surprisingly quiet around this morning - I assume lots of people took an extended long weekend (or at least enough to make a difference).

In Canberra. Wasn't sure how this would work out but ended up OK - even coped with a bit of climbing, albeit the gentle climbing to the top end of Ainslie (once I never would have referred to this as climbing, but times have changed). Steady rain throughout; stayed in the suburb - exploring in the process a few streets I don't think I've seen since my driving test - because venturing into a likely mudbath when you're travelling with hand luggage only didn't seem the smartest of ideas. Bit longer than I'd planned on, which suited me too.

I think the last time I finished a run with gear dripping wet as much as that was Singapore, but it wasn't raining there...

Decided to have a crack at intervals for the first time in ages. The warm-up was unpromising but it went OK once I was under way, although starting to go a bit lactic on the last one (6 x 1 minute all up). Doing this a bit later in the morning than I usually would, which may or may not explain why, for the first time in recorded history, I did not see any illegally off-leash dogs in the on-leash bits of All Nations Park.

Warm-up and down. A bit of a struggle in both directions but at least it didn't hurt too much.

Up in Canberra for a day and a half now. Thought about trying to get out to the Wednesday night event but the logistics looked a bit challenging even before it became clear that today would be very wet.

Deals you probably wouldn't have expected to have been offered in 2020: an aquarium shop is offering a free roll of toilet paper with any purchase over $500.

Felt very tight last night and still somewhat so today; a lunchtime attempt didn't last long. A solid massage this evening should have helped.

My discovery of the day was a list of 19th century words deserving of revival. Perhaps the best is "scurryfunge" (the act of hastily cleaning before a guest arrives), but I was still amused to learn that "trumpery" meant "things that look nice but are actually pretty worthless" a couple of centuries before the first Trump hotel came on the scene.

C • Scurryfunge 1

Monday morning Pilates session. Still getting the hang of the new program and didn't feel quite as good as last week. The instructor survived her half Ironman in Geelong the weekend before last.

There are a lot of things I like about March, but being barely light at 7am is not one of them.

C • Barely light at 7am 4

With a stack of February and summer climate summaries to get out as early as possible today (certainly wasn't lacking in material for the extreme events section of the ACT summer one), I thought it best to save my swimming for the evening. Going OK for most of it but drifted out of it later on and seemed to be flailing around a bit (even by my standards) in the last couple of laps.

One of my afternoon engagements was to accompany our state manager to a meeting with the MP for Gippsland East to discuss concerns he (or his constituents) had with gaps in rainfall observations. I learned some time ago that a good way to win brownie points with any MP (especially regional ones) is to express an interest in their electorate, so my weekend activities came in useful (especially as it turns out he grew up in Metung). Also learned a few things, such as that the irrigated river flats I went past on the way from Bairnsdale to the Mitchell River NP produce 60% of Australia's lettuces.

Not up to yesterday's standard and was wondering early in if much of a run was going to happen at all, but managed to get something done, even if it felt like my body would seize up with the slightest incline (so a run mostly along the Metung waterfront was good for that).

It was Clean Up Australia day and there were a few people out doing their bit. They would presumably have encountered the efforts of the person who put their dog's droppings in a plastic bag (good) and then left the bag by the side of the road (not good).

Made my way back to Melbourne via a somewhat meandering route, taking in two national parks (Mitchell River and Morwell) and the western end of the Grand Ridge Road, now all bitumen (despite what the tourist info and both the Melway and Vicroads map says; some googling suggests that it was done in 2016). Some nice scenery to be had, particularly going down to the Mitchell River, although the river itself is very brown (presumably post-bushfire runoff), and an unexpected surprise at Briagalong - hitting there at lunchtime, I expected the options to be the pub or a general store pie, but it turns out they also play host to a greenie cafe (of the vegetarian rather than vegan variety, although vegan is definitely there if you want it) and an art gallery.

And I'm somewhat sceptical of the claims on Glengarry's sign that it was founded in 1830. (For those playing at home, apart from a couple of short-lived coastal settlements, the first European settlement in Victoria was in 1834, whilst the Aborginal people have been around for a lot more than 190 years). Wikipedia says 1883 which seems more like it.

C • dog poo 2