Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The long day of the Bendigo weekend, a mass-start two loop race at Diamond Hill. I expected to be dropped immediately at my current pace but was hoping to get through with a reasonably solid effort, and did. Only very minor errors (the worst being a 15-seconder on 14, on paper the easiest control of the second loop), and didn't tire to the extent I thought I might, although hills were definitely weak.

The first loop was short with numerous splits. Came through the changeover and the first common control of the next loop with Laurina but she dropped away on the next split. Then ended up in a bunch with Craig Feuerherdt and David Birch. Craig dropped off on the climb into 8 but David stayed with me for longer. I knew if it turned into a running race there was only one possible result, so I was quite happy to see him go in front on the way to 12, and make a mistake. Solid finish from there. Ended up 11 minutes behind Simon; half that would be a respectable result, although it's hard to know how much to attribute to the existence of the lead pack.

All things said, this was a reasonably encouraging weekend. The Achilles stood up to a weekend in terrain (there was a little soreness further down the foot - similar to mid-December when I first started to jog/walk - but I think this is just unemployed muscles being made to do some work and not anything more seriousness). My fitness is certainly down, but I felt better running hard than I have on the last two Wednesday nights. Hopefully I'll make further progress in the next three weeks.

Event: BendiGo ToDay
 

Ventured into the terrain for the first time since the injury at Fiddlers Green as part of Nuggets training (with a fair SA contingent too). Didn't want to test it at speed on the first go, so instead jogged around putting out some tapes. There was a fair bit of navigational rust in the system - which isn't surprising as I haven't orienteered in four months - but the body held up reasonably well.

Fiddlers Green is adjacent to Eaglehawk, which has a reputation as Bendigo's bogan capital. We saw a few pieces of evidence that this reputation may not be entirely undeserved (starting with a 13-14 year old on a BMX with a can of Jim Beam and something, and moving on to various trailbike riders doing doughnuts in the sand quarry that was used for the NOL a few years back), but the piece de resistance was the ute next to us at the lights on the way home; the driver had a mobile phone in one hand and was drinking a vodka cruiser with the other. (It was, however, noted by some that mobile phone + vodka cruiser fits the profile of a Borough girl better than that of a Borough boy).

After the first terrain training session it was time for the first race, a slightly elongated sprint on a technical piece of Diamond Hill. This was a lot of fun and certainly felt better than I have on either of the street-Os, but was rather spoint by a 90-second mistake at 8 - game over in a sprint race. (The initial miss was through placing too much faith in the green on a 20-year-old map, but my relocation was poor). Reasonably clean otherwise.

My pace was well down as I expected and I wasn't too far off the bottom. About 5 1/2 minutes behind Simon; when in reasonable fitness in this terrain I'd consider 2 1/2-3 to be par. Spent quite a bit of time in the vague general vicinity of Kez (who started a minute in front of me and was all over the place). Schwepps went through us on 16 without my noticing.

It's evidently easier to accidentally kill yourself at the Winter Olympics than the Summer one; the last death at the latter was a cyclist who dropped dead in 1960. You'll be shocked to learn that drugs were involved.

Quite a nice session at Fitzroy. Thought I might have been getting some water from above as well as below on the way there, but it didn't happen.

Felt quite weak in the quads when I got up; obviously running two days in a row is a big ask for them. I'll want to do something about that in the next seven weeks.

As Melbourne readers will know, the city got hit by what was (by local standards) a very impressive thunderstorm yesterday (still nothing compared with the 2008 Gapocalypse). You won't be surprised to learn that on such occasions, not a lot of work happens in our building (the actual forecasters are somewhere else). Heidelberg missed out a bit, although I suspect something funny was going on with the gauge that said we only got 0.8.

And proof that there are a fair number of people out there who tell fibs to pollsters: a poll found that only 6% of Australians owned up to having knowingly accessed porn on the internet of a level that would be refused classification, but 25% claimed to have come across it by accident.

C • Somewhere else 1

First attempt since October at the Wednesday street-O/Thursday "long" run combination (complete with sleep deprivation). Started out reasonably well, and continued to go steadily (if without any spark) on the flat, but any sort of climbing was a struggle (not that there was a lot as this was the Yarra/Darebin Creek circuit). Pleasant at the start but very humid by the end (a prelude to a spectacular storm in the afternoon).

Reintroducing myself to this training combination also reintroduced me to a related phenomenon: the 2pm Thursday productivity slump. At least I didn't have any meetings to fall asleep in.

Summer Series at Yarra Bend. I guess today was a step forward - still horribly slow, but at least I didn't fall apart like I did last week; in fact the last kilometre was the best of the lot (trying, without quite succeeding, to run down Andrew Baker - which says something about my distance from my normal position). Some challenging route choices, as always at Yarra Bend, and a little bit in the terrain. I think I got the best of the route options, but at current speed that doesn't make a lot of difference. About 6 minutes behind Bruce which suggests I'm currently 4-5 minutes below par.

A little bit of tightness early but that soon disappeared, and I don't seem to have got sore afterwards.

A bit of a transport debacle this morning - I took the front wheel off the bike to load it into the car (with some difficulty as the brake cables are very tight). I had even more difficulty reattaching the wheel for the same reason, only to find once I finally got the wheel on that I'd done something to the brakes and they were stuck. At this point I bailed out and got the tram. Reubster fixed the problem this afternoon; to add insult to injury, it turns out I can get this bike into my car without having to take the wheel off anyway (something to note for future reference).

Riding to work the long way on a humid morning. First chance to really get going properly on the new bike. The speed differential isn't as much as I thought it might have been (5% or so), but I suspect it would be more on the open road - weaving through traffic it doesn't matter much what you're on (and, it being February, there was a bit more weaving through traffic than there was last time). Climbing is definitely a lot easier, though - not that there's a lot of climbing after the first few kilometres.

Minor miracles department: people in cars stopped in places they didn't have to to let me cross - twice. Maybe the new machine is giving out good vibes.

Morning swim at Fitzroy for the first time in a while. Very slow out of the blocks but finished reasonably strongly (at least for me).

Monday night run from my place. Only two others for company - Bruce and Nicola - on a hot night (33). We headed for the Banyule flats and the singletrack along the river, not a bad place to be on a hot night. Struggled a bit on some of the hills coming back, if not as desperately as last Wednesday (not that I started as fast as last Wednesday).