Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A smooth, cruising run for much of it after shaking off initial tightness, flowing well in the middle stages through Yarra Bend and Kew. Started to be troubled by left hamstring tightness in the last 30 minutes. This seems to be an almost annual event for me at this time of year, but it doesn't feel too bad now so hopefully won't be a major impediment.

Passed the site of a power pole being replaced in Fairfield. Presumably street-O had nothing to do with this, unlike the episode in Sydney in the 1980s when street-O controls were letters chalked on power poles: a chance encounter with an electricity worker revealed that a letter 'C' chalked on a power pole was an indication that the pole was condemned and needed to be replaced.

A bit of a nothing run through Banyule and Macloed, not particularly strong although some decent patches. Surprisingly slippery underfoot given that there hadn't been that much rain. Only the slightest of twinges in the knee so probably nothing to worry about too much at this stage.

Woke up to steady rain and thought I might be dealing with water overhead as well as on the rest of the body, but the main rainband cleared on the way to the pool with just a couple of residual showers. Not a bad morning and a reasonably steady session.

Right knee felt not quite right walking around today. It's given no sign of trouble running for months; will have to see how it shapes up tomorrow.

A Thursday long(ish) run with a bit of a difference, largely devoted to checking potential control sites for a street-O I'm setting at Balwyn next Wednesday (a job which needed to be done before dawn or after dusk because all controls need to be on functioning light poles).

This was quite a hilly run and fairly routine, although a bit slow (partly because of occasionally having to stop to make notes on the map). Tired a bit more than I'd like in the last 15 minutes too, perhaps because of the hilliness (and perhaps also because I haven't really had a recovery run this week). A frosty morning with the usual entertainment of watching people battling with frozen windscreens; was out 10 minutes too late for the lunar eclipse.

Internet advertising fail of the day 1: the ad on the Age website about how good Wellington was a short-break destination, next to a story about how no flights were operating to Wellington because of volcanic ash.

Internet advertising fail of the day 2: the 'every cigarette you don't smoke is doing you good' ad which appeared on AP when I was logging in this morning. I'm not sure exactly how many smokers are AP users but I'm guessing they can be counted without having to take your shoes off.

And I finally got through to Jetstar, at the 13th attempt...

C • Was it worth the effort? 4

I hadn't really been looking forward to the bus trip back to Melbourne - it's 18 years since I've been on an overnight bus and it's not an experience I really want to repeat for at least a similar amount of time. It certainly didn't help that my company for the trip was someone who appeared to be in the target audience for the announcement that "consumption of non-prescription drugs is prohibited" (and who I didn't think would take kindly to the suggestion that if he wanted half my seat he might want to pay half my fare). I suspect I slept for perhaps two hours in 10-minute increments before stumbling off just after 6.

The bus station is near work so I headed there, with a view to heading out once it got light. After I had, in the space of five minutes, (a) accidentally turned the lights off on my floor instead of pressing the exit button, (b) taken the lift up rather than down and (c) forgotten to take my keys down to the lockers, I thought I'd better leave the Bureau building before I accidentally burned it down and headed for the Tan, to do a session of 250 on/250 off (or attempt thereof).

The run was rubbish, but what did you expect?

Spent the rest of the day plugging away, and walking around the floor a lot to keep myself awake (in between relating war stories and trawling airline websites in response to the latest texted request for possible options for onward progress in the ongoing saga of Jenny and Susanne (try to) Go To Europe. It was somewhat ironic that, having spent yesterday trying to get out of South Australia, I spent today trying to get into it, in the data analysis sense (I was hoping to, and did, finish off the WA and NT parts of what I working on and start on SA by the end of the day).

It's 9.25. I doubt I'll last much longer tonight, even with State of Origin in progress.

Going to/from the Tan, a fair bit more slowly than usual.

A run I wasn't expecting to have (or at least to be doing in Adelaide) turned out to be one of my best of the year. I was supposed to be flying back to Melbourne first thing this morning but didn't, so headed out with Jenny and, initially, Susanne (who peeled off to do her own thing) to head up to Belair. This was a harder run than I'd envisaged but quite happy to do it, especially when the steep climb up to Belair demonstrated something I'd had indications of on Sunday - I can grind up hills again (something I haven't been able to do properly for most of this year). Quite a fast pace on the downhill stretch too, led by Jenny who was pulling things along quite quickly.

The views coming down off Belair at sunrise on a clear morning aren't bad either...

I'm spending the day in Adelaide before getting the bus back tonight - less comfortable than tomorrow's train but I can't really afford to lose a day's work at this stage. At least plan B worked so I didn't need to look for C, D or E. (It's as well, though, that I'm not trying to rebook a flight, as Jetstar's call centre appears to be permanently engaged).

Whyalla park/street O. Tried to run this hard but didn't really have the energy to do so, perhaps not totally surprising after yesterday (although coming up the day after a long race is one of the things one has to be able to do in our game), and perhaps also a poor night's sleep trying to think of plans B, C, D and E for getting back to Melbourne. Some good views from the hills and a bit of route choice, which is about as good as you can ask for from this sort of event. A couple of punches had disappeared - clearly Whyalla has some national-class vandals. (Using punches at all was slightly retro, although not as retro as punching on the map as we did on Saturday - something which really breaks up one's control flow).

It was rather chilly on the Whyalla foreshore, a nice illustration of the local impacts of coastal exposure (there was a SE wind blowing and Whyalla's max was 13; at Port Augusta, where a SE wind is overland, it was 17). I wouldn't have thought Spencer Gulf had cooled enough yet to have that sort of impact but obviously it does.

Sprint on the Whyalla foreshore. Much the same physically as the first event. I suspect this might be the first time I've gone down into single digits in a proper event - I don't think I ever had anything that short in my M10/M12 days. (Indeed, sometimes the M12 courses were quite formidable by current standards - day 1 of Easter 1982, my first Easter, was 4.3k and had controls on it which I would consider to be bingo controls if I got them on an M21 course now). Simon, unsurprisingly, went a fair bit further into single digits.