Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Long run from my place out to Greensborough initially, then across to Templestowe (a combination which meant a reasonable number of hills, although it would certainly be possible to put together a much fiercer course than the one I ran). Wasn't quite sure about this coming off yesterday's race, and indeed didn't feel myself for large parts of the run, although it was a lack of energy rather than muscle stiffness, and improved a fair bit in the final third before tiring at the very end, as I did last time. Still good for a 2 hour-plus run to become a more or less routine event again, even on a not-so-good day.

The roadside flower vendors were out in force, not surprisingly. Mother's Day created complications later on. As I'm usually doing these runs on my own at this time of year we don't descend en masse on some eating place post-run, but I have got into the practice of browsing the Sunday paper over a hot chocolate at one of the local establishments; today tables were a very scarce commodity. Twice I walked into places with one table left and a group of four just behind me; I could hardly claim a table in such circumstances (well, I could, but upsetting people in your own suburb is not really in the interests of diplomacy). The hot chocolate never did happen this week.

(No Mother's Day gatherings for me this year: my parents are somewhere in rural Queensland).

Cross-country at Lardner Park. Even if I was in the same shape as last year I wouldn't have expected to match the time of last year (31.23), an unusually dry year on a course that has its share of mud and slippery ground - hard to know how much this was worth but I'll guess 30 seconds or so. (The mud wasn't actually as bad as I thought it might have been, and was really only an issue in the finish area and around a couple of corners).

As expected the start was a bit frenetic and I thought I started with a bit in hand, edging through the field once things settled down. Was feeling OK through most of the first lap (16.12) and thought I might have a decent chance of getting my target of a sub-32.30, but my quads started to hurt in a significant way on the first (and largest) climb of the second lap and I slowed down from there. Felt a bit better in the last 2k but got overrun on the downhill finish by a few (including by Tony Bird, which was a little disappointing). In the end, given the conditions, this was probably a minute or so down on last year, a par result but not beyond.

Evan did 29-something and Bruce 31. Kathryn was 5th in the women's race.

Pool running at Fitzroy. Seemed to be working a bit harder than usual, or maybe that was just my imagination.

Every Friday for the last couple of months I've either been out of town or worked deep into the evening, so it was a bit of a shock to the system tonight to reacquaint myself with the antics of Friday evening CBD traffic. A few breath tests wouldn't go astray, I suspect.

Wasn't expecting a lot after feeling a bit off-colour overnight, but decided to at least start and see how I felt. The answer was that I was pleasantly surprised - while it was never particularly quick (albeit slowed a bit by dropping off envelopes, and slippery ground in places), it was solid, and it was only in the last 10 minutes that I really tired at all. A pleasing effort on the whole.

It rained for most of the run, although it stopped in the last 20 minutes. The rain had some flow-on consequences because my top had a red patch from a chafed nipple (not a totally uncommon event on a wet day) and it kept going long enough to generate a red patch in the same spot on my work shirt. Fortunately I had no TV appearances today.

I wonder if the new business I passed en route, Grand Wash Auto, has had any letters from trademark lawyers yet? (Speaking of which, whoever it was who wrote a warning letter to Jessica Watson about the use of the term "pink lady" probably shouldn't be looking for a future career in public relations).

C • I think they got the damage control advisors in very quickly 1

Original plan for this lunchtime was to support a colleague trying to post a Tan time (and perhaps have a shot at one myself), but I had a meeting which ran overtime and he had to leave without me. Decided then to turn it into a 250 on/250 off fartlek session on the Tan. (As it turned out there would have been a few obstacles to a fast time, in the form of abundant pram-pushers and tree-loppers). Felt good on the way there, but didn't really get much speed going when it came to running fast.

Everyone was remarking on how cold it was today: it was so cold that it took until almost 1 o'clock for the temperature to exceed the average May maximum.

We have a geographically challenged spell-checker at work, which was wanting to change "Kalumburu" into "Korumburra". This prompted me to think whether there is a pair of places in mainland Australia which are further apart than Kalumburu and Korumburra (except for places a bit south of Korumburra like Fish Creek). Someone suggested Augusta and Bamaga; will check this out in the morning.

Swapped my regular Tuesday and Wednesday this week, based around Clifton Hill and out to Kew along the river. Didn't get off to a promising start and was coughing and spluttering a bit in the first 15 minutes, but this turned out to be a stuck bit of food rather than forthcoming illness (at least I think it is). Turned into a steady effort after that. Achilles seems to have come up fairly well from the weekend, despite the hilly course.

Went to Northcote because of its proximity to tonight's run venue. I guess it was appropriate, given that I was expecting to spend a fair bit of today talking about record high temperatures in the state of Victoria, that I experienced record high temperatures in Northcote pool - 32.something degrees to be precise. It was enough to send you off to sleep and my performance suggests that that's pretty much what happened.

Exchange (slightly paraphrased) a few days ago between Bruce and myself over arrangements for the next NOL round:

Bruce: I never hear anything back from (Victorian team member who shall remain nameless) when we're trying to work out arrangements for the NOL weekend.
Me: I've just sent him an e-mail telling him I have some OA funding for him and asking where I should send it - wonder how long it will take to get a reply to that.

(One hour later)

Me: Answer - not very long.

MFR Monday night from Nicola's place. An easier pace than recently (and certainly easier than last week). Didn't have to work too hard but pretty comfortable - no sign of post-race soreness. Headed out as far as Darebin Parklands but too dark to get properly into the parklands themselves.

The novelty of this occasion was my first Monday night run media interview (although as it turned out, by the time the interview happened most of the others had gone). I was a bit nervous about it because it was with the new Melbourne Talk Radio station, which features the likes of Andrew Bolt and Sam Newman amongst its talent. I'd never heard of their evenings person; on stations like that they tend to fall into one of two categories, the extreme-right nutter (David Oldfield, Stan Zemanek, Brian Wilshire et al.) or straight-down-the-line. Fortunately he was the latter and the interview was fairly routine.