Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Something a bit more modest that what I'll be doing on a lot of forthcoming Sundays, as I prepare to move out of a couple of relatively easy weeks and build into heavy training for the summer. Took in various bits of well-trodden ground through the east, including the old Outer Circle rail cutting path and the hills on the street that Clemmie used to live on, and finished across the hills of Bulleen.

Didn't feel quite as good as at times yesterday but still a pretty solid couple of hours' work. Felt as if I might have struggled to hold the pace for another half-hour, but that often happens at this time of year (and works out fine once I get around to actually going out to 2.30 and beyond). Again reasonably strong on the hills, particularly in the second half. Starting to get warm towards the end, although nothing too extraordinary (23 or thereabouts) - there will be many hotter Sundays than this in the next four months.

Sight of the day: the tenor standing on an East Camberwell tennis court and singing to no-one in particular as I was going past.

A nice run based on the east side of the Yarra. There have been times in the recent past (1995, 2004) when this has been a good place to see floodwaters around Melbourne Cup time, but definitely not this year. It's rougher than it is on the west side, and goes through some nice bush, and past the remnants of one of the 21 defunct drive-ins referred to in Monday's entry. (I'm a little surprised the site hasn't been redeveloped in 20+ years; it's probably too flood-prone for housing, but would be a big enough site to be turned into sports grounds or the like).

While I wasn't planning to go that way anyway, I noticed that the northern entrance to the golf course has been blocked off (no surprise after years of seeing progressively more intimidating signs on the fence), closing off the option of staying next to the river down to Burke Road. This might change a few plans later in the summer as this is a route I sometimes use for long runs in extreme heat (cool morning air lingers longer in the valley than it does elsewhere). Came back through the Eaglemont hills.

The run felt faster than it actually was (perhaps a product of the roughish tracks at times in the first half). Quite smooth on the hills, in contrast with some runs in the last fortnight.

Let a bit of stiffness out with this session, but not especially energetic, possibly in anticipation of the building storm (17 interviews in the last two days, and probably a few more to come).

Made the mistake yesterday of getting the tram from work to the Melbourne Bicycle Centre (to pick my bike up from having some work done on it). By the time we'd moved 200 metres in 10 minutes in Smith Street I decided I'd get to my destination faster if I got off and walked (in fact I'd have got there faster if I'd walked the whole way - 5.5k in 65 minutes). This could be fixed easily by two actions - (a) putting in peak-hour clearways on the streets that have trams (and ignoring the whingeing traders, only about 50 of whom bothered to turn up to the 'mass protest rally' against clearway extensions last Sunday) and (b) actually enforcing the universally-ignored tram-only lanes that are so blocked by cars that it's just about impossible for law-abiding drivers to travel those streets without causing an accident.

(At least I wasn't trying to get the train - the Hurstbridge line got knocked out by a lightning strike and the crowd outside Clifton Hill station at 6.15 would have done justice to that outside the gates of the MCG 30 minutes before a big game).

A bit of a struggle, not surprising after the hard day yesterday. Going smoothly at times but didn't have anything extra when extra was called on, such as on the hills.

Put together various bits of familiar and not-quite-so-familiar ground in a new way, going along the Plenty River all the way from Greensborough to the Yarra. A few signs have sprouted announcing that the location is a protected historic site. Unfortunately they don't tell us what the historical significance of the sites is, which is something I'd quite like to know.

Tan 13.37, a couple of seconds slower than last time. Felt reasonably smooth for a lot of this run, but still no real pace, particularly early on. Around some good people for most of the way, and good conditions; a few obstacles (as always on a nice day on the Tan) of the sort that are annoying but don't take long to get around. (Note to other Tan users: it really isn't a good idea to park two prams side by side on the apex of a blind corner at 12.30 on a Wednesday). Some of my fellow runners were tempted to hurdle the six junior primary students walking side by side and holding hands, but it's probably as well that they didn't.

Km splits: 3.35, 3.41, 3.33, 3.29.

Going to/from the Tan. Some good smells drifting across from what I presume was an Indian Diwali celebration next to the river.

The start of the street-O season, at East Burwood, and one of the handful of occasions each year where street-O runs into the Corporate Cup and I try to double up. It usually doesn't work. It worked better this time than it often does; I felt reasonably smooth for a lot of the way, although faded away a bit at the end (and made a silly mistake on the last control, pulling up short). 2nd behind Adam; I assume Bryan wasn't trying too hard.

My route choice was reasonable, I think, although one negative of it was that doing an inner loop of two controls first was a bad move - it put me at the third control just as the C course pack was approaching it as their first. Had to do a bit of queue-jumping to avoid being held up behind 20 others.

Reasonably tame session, mostly in Yarra Bend park. A little further than I was planning on. This is the last day of genuine slackness - back-to-back races coming up tomorrow.

A pretty nice session at Fitzroy on a warm morning - felt like I was moving pretty well (by my standards at least). Got to see plenty of evidence of the Mallee's finest deposited on various cars in the inner suburbs (our area seemed less affected, perhaps because we got less rain to bring the dust down with it).

At the Yarra Valley meeting on Friday night we were gazing over a collection of old street directories. These had plenty of interesting features (the 22 drive-in movie theatres listed in the 1967 Melway have now shrunk to one), but the one I found the most interesting was the bush on the east side of Blackburn Lake - mapped as 'Camberwell Grammar (proposed new site)'. Even in 1967 I'm amazed they dared, not that the Bolte administration was exactly noted for being the world's most environmentally enlightened government. One wonders what reaction such a proposal would get now.

A steady lunchtime run based on the Tan. Felt pretty good once loosened up. Actually had to dodge a few puddles - although it's pretty sad when we're getting excited about 2 millimetres in October.

C • Wettervorhersage 3