Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Decided to go out for a bit of a ride rather than walk round some of the Yarra Flats course (although it was a pity to miss an event on home ground). This ride was mainly about testing out what I could do; it paled in comparison with Bruce's epic (although I suspect he didn't have quite as high a density of traffic lights). Hamstring felt a bit sore at times (oddly enough, more when going downhill than uphill), but didn't flare up post-session in the way that it did after Friday's swim, so it looks like semi-serious riding can be added to the mix for the time being - nice that I can do something. A fairly solid northerly wind, though this was a less exposed course than the Bay is.

I don't know about you, but I think "Attenzione Al Serpenti" sounds more impressive than "Beware of Snakes" (these messages being borne by a sign at the start of the Darebin Creek bike path).

C • If it really says that 2

The original plan today was Kooyoora, and by the time it became apparent that I probably wasn't going to be up to running I'd already committed to being the transport for Jenny, coming across for her annual Kooyoora fix. I did tell myself that my participation was "subject to late fitness test" but I knew what the result of it would be - 100 metres of jogging was enough to demonstrate that I wasn't up to running yet.

Still, it was a nice day and a nice place, and it's the first time I think I've had a proper look around Melville Caves, including reading the information boards which made it apparent that the Captain ranks high on the list of the least successful bushrangers in Australian history, failing to achieve any significant hold-ups and only managing a couple of minor burglaries of nearby farms before being arrested in a Geelong brothel. Transplant him forward 160 years and he'd probably have been making regular trips to Broadmeadows Magistrates Court for petty burglaries, driving while disqualified, and perhaps netting $60 and a few packets of cigarettes after holding up an outer-suburban 7-11 with a screwdriver.

I'm starting to think that the planned Royal National Park coastal run for next Saturday may not be happening for me - I'd want to be in a position to get through at least an hour on Thursday before considering taking it on. It may not be happening for anyone else either, because an indefinite total fire ban has been declared for the Sydney region, presumably until there is decent rain (which may or may not happen in the second half of this week), and while it's in force the park's tracks will be closed.

Headed into the pool this morning but it wasn't exactly an raging success - all right when in the water (although had the sense on occasions of being about to cramp), but the hamstring flared up afterwards and feels like it's about back to where it was on Wednesday. Might wait a bit before trying that one again.

Improved significantly overnight and felt only slight discomfort walking, which makes me a bit more optimistic about being back in action by the weekend. Will have a go at going into the water tomorrow.

As anyone who was anywhere near Sydney (or a television) will know, this afternoon was particularly meteorologically eventful (at one point it was 8 degrees with hail in Melbourne with fires blazing in Sydney) - I suspect at least one section of the preliminary annual climate summary I've been working on is going to have to be rewritten. There was a bit of irony to the fact that in the late afternoon, while I wasn't looking at updated on the fires, I was collating a list of Australian sites which have experienced 250mm+ daily rainfalls.

Not much improvement but dragged myself out for half a commuting ride (starting from Clifton Hill), if only because it was Ride to Work day. Managed to handle that OK without a sense that I was up to pushing much harder without something giving trouble, so I don't think riding is going to be much of an exercise replacement (yet).

Had some fun and games at lunchtime after deciding to buy another pair of trousers. One would think we would be well served for this sort of thing through the used-to-be-a-DFO centre on top of Spencer Street station. I quickly discovered that (a) I was immediately ruled out of the market of 80% of the places there through being a bloke (b) some of the remainder were closed for lunch (in a centre whose location means a lot of its potential business is office workers - go figure) and (c) some of the remainder had plenty of stuff if you had the build of a jockey or a sumo wrestler but thin pickings for anything else (nothing between 77 and 107cm was pretty typical). Eventually found something, but was left reflecting that Australian retailing is too often its own worst enemy.

C • I hate shopping for trousers 3

Not a whole lot of improvement today, not that I would really have expected a lot of improvement. At least that gave me the chance to catch up on some of yesterday's missing sleep ahead of lots of writing and number-crunching (none of it to do with world ranking points schemes this time).

Intermittently you see online ads which are not exactly appropriate to the websites they're located on (or alternatively, sometimes a bit too appropriate), but today's example was a beauty - recruitment ads for Victoria Police appeared on the website of a bikie gang.

C • Which begs the question.... 8

A very early start this morning - an IOF Foot O Commission teleconference which started at 4am (must remember to change my alarm tonight). By the time that finished and I was ready to run it was close to 8, with the plan of a fairly standard recovery run. The hamstring sore spot from the second half yesterday was there at the start but I didn't think anything much of it, and after a grinding first few minutes was starting to move quite nicely. Soreness started to build up, though, from about 2km, and by 3km had reached the point that I thought I'd better cut the run short and come straight in (about 1.5km from that point). I didn't get that far; a few hundred metres later the discomfort increased to the point that I could no longer run (at least not in any meaningful sense), whereupon I walked in (not very convincingly).

I'm hopeful that this is just a particularly severe manifestion of back-related hamstring issues I've had three or four times in the last five years; the fact that the soreness built up over a few minutes rather than suddenly going bang makes me cautiously optimistic that I haven't torn anything (something which would presumably mean several weeks on the sidelines; four weeks seems to be par for the footballers). Starting to walk a bit less awkwardly by the afternoon but it will still be a bit of time before this comes good, I think. It will certainly be frustrating if I have a significant chunk on the sidelines at the start of summer for the fourth time in five years, just as things were showing signs in the last couple of days of coming together on other fronts.