Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Woke up with something of a cold this morning, which was gratifying in one sense as it gave me a reason for why I ran so badly yesterday. Still thought I'd go out and see how it felt, not expecting it to be an especially physical course - sometimes I start feeling better running at the stage where I start sounding worse. As it turned out, I never really got the chance to see how that side of things held up because my hamstring flared up again coming into 2; at a level where I might or might not have been able to push through it (certainly would have tried harder to do so had the event counted for something), but not worth it here.

Bruce brought up his 300th NOL race today, and made a much better job of his 300th than I did of mine, getting his best result of 2nd (albeit in probably the weakest field to contest a men's NOL race since the first couple of years). He'll probably overtake me (306) sometime next year. Don't think anyone else is likely to get to 300 any time soon; Jim's in the 280s but not running many NOLs these days (although he got round today), then amongst active people you're down to Simon and Anna in the low 200s.

Event: OY10 - Wilmot's Waterholes, Applethorpe - Qld Middle Champs - NOL 11
 

I did get my top-10 place, but not especially convincingly; this was a disappointing run, feeling without any real energy (perhaps a bit better later on), and being 4 minutes down on Jim and Geoff was a good indicator of where this run was at. Didn't miss a lot but the biggest mistake was an annoying one, missing 30 seconds on the one at the start of the spectator leg (15) by misreading where the edge of the yellow was on the ground. Ended up beating two home, so 8th in the end.

Felt like the sort of run where I'm about to get sick - was certainly glad that it wasn't a more physical course - but I guess we'll find out if that materialises tomorrow morning.

Even by its usual standards, the quantity of roadkill on the Warwick-Stanthorpe road was truly impressive.

Headed up to Brisbane first thing in the morning (starting to get used to 5am starts), so today's options involved doing something after work before going to Warwick. Wouldn't normally leave work quite this early but it was forced on me by the fact that the car rental place closed at 5 and Brisbane pools on Fridays close at 6 - in any case, by 4.30 I was in "my brain hurts" mode after making some headway on the (virtual) pile of 231 papers on my reading list.

My chosen pool was the Centenary, on the north edge of the central city. Seemed to be working reasonably hard without moving all that smoothly through the water. Still not a bad session, and got out of there 5 minutes before closing time...

Did think it was a little unusual that there was an RBT set up on the highway 30km from Warwick last night, but having read this and this I'm suspecting that they were really looking for something other than drunk drivers.

Felt like a bit of a plod but got through the distance OK, at least in an endurance sense. Hamstring and back fine but left Achilles a bit troublesome in the last 20 minutes, which deterred me from trying to do any more. Got to see the rebuilt footbridge across into Bellfield (after a false start last week); the suburb itself is no great shakes to run through but it sets you up for the nice gentle downhill path back to the creek.

Media question of the day: "Does the Bureau of Meteorology believe there is evidence that praying for rain can lead to rainfall?". I suggested that we should respond that, as we have no records of prayers for rain and the places and dates they were applicable to, we were unable to assess that question, but I think we just declined to respond. (In fact, there is one case we could study - every year, Fred Nile prays for rain for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and it should be possible to see how the frequency of rain on Mardi Gras night compares with the long-term average for late February/early March in Sydney - but I couldn't find a handy list of Mardi Gras dates).

C • Question 7

C • Dates 13

Hamstring was OK for lower-speed running, but not quite ready for intervals - certainly didn't want to do anything to jeopardise this weekend. Stopped after the first couple.

Warm-up and down (not that there was a lot to warm down from). It was a day that was book-ended by dog owners who don't think the law applies to them in the morning, and drivers who don't think the law applies to them in the evening (at least the latter didn't involve any crashes, unlike Bruce yesterday).

Had a go this morning but not quite ready. Hopefully tomorrow. Would have been a nice morning for something longer - possibly the last cold morning of winter? (it was the coldest September morning since 2003).

One milestone for the Australian Championships this year - the largest class is no longer a men's masters class. This year it's M16 (45), with W17-20E the largest women's class. I take this as a positive.

C • The balance of contibutions? 6

At Fitzroy after an early-morning airport drop-off, a little shorter than usual to get to my next engagement in time. Hamstring a little sore this morning - not sure what it would have been like to run on but didn't put it to the test. A chilly morning again, certainly more so than we'll be seeing this time next week.

You learn something new every day: looking up Tina Turner on Wikipedia (to answer a question from my parents about how old she is - 78 being the answer) and seeing her described as an "American-born Swiss singer". She's now a Swiss citizen (and has a house on one of Geneva's more expensive streets, as previously noted here), and renounced her US citizenship in 2013, probably for tax reasons. I wonder if Switzerland will sign her up for Eurovision?

Pilates session. Starting to get back more into things today, which means doing things properly (or a closer approximation thereof than last week), which means some of the exercises were harder than last week. I take this to be a good thing.

Saw a couple of good online threads over the weekend. One was of news headlines which would make unfortunate titles for Enid Blyton books (a sample: "Five Arrested After 'Significant Quantity Of Cocaine' Seized In Cornwall"). Another was of how to determine your West Indian fast bowler name - add the name of the last seaside town you visited (this one probably works better in England) to the name of the U.S. President when you were born. I get Granville Nixon (from Granville Island in Vancouver), which sounds like it would fit reasonably well.