Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Another step forward, actually going beyond the hour mark for the first time in a while. Didn't feel quite as energetic as yesterday; not too bad on the injury front after a few early wobbles, although Achilles was intermittently awkward in the last 20 minutes. Better at the end without a sense that a second hour would have been particularly easy; had thoughts of going out past 70 had it been a good day, but reasonably happy to settle for what I did.

Dropped in on the Darebin velodrome on the way back (discovering in the process that a new Bunnings is sprouting on Darebin Road) to see how Liz Randall was going in her bid for a W75 one-hour world record. She was well ahead of pace at that stage and still was at the finish line; over 36km (which I think is several kilometres beyond the previous mark - drug test results pending). I think I'd do well to get close to that now, and will certainly be pleased with how life has treated me if I'm up to anything remotely like that come 2046.

A perfectly routine Saturday morning run, which made it anything but routine by the standards of recent months. Felt like I was actually fit enough to do this and minor Achilles soreness was the only issue. Headed out after the heaviest of the rain and enjoyed myself in the cool post-frontal air, even if the rain had scared most other people away from Yarra Bend.

I headed down the street three times this morning - the first to get a paper, the second to run, the third to do food shopping. The first time there was a car parked across the road with its lights on. When I started my run it was still there with its lights off and I was wondering whether the owner had turned them off or if it had run out of battery. That question was answered on my third trip when an RACV van was just pulling up next to it. (Coming back, I caught up with one of the neighbours with an overflowing library bag who said she had a problem that a lot of parents wouldn't mind having - her kids read too many books).

Mission successfully accomplished today - no sign of foot soreness either during or after the run (and no sign of anything either when the physio poked around during our regular session this evening, apart from a bit of shin swelling). Felt rather sluggish through the early stages, as is normal these days, but got moving reasonably well in the 5-10 minutes. Hopefully that continues as this looks a good weekend to get things done.

Had a go this morning - no pain before the start but still felt a little awkward running on it, so didn't think it was quite ready. Also a bit sleepy after a late-night teleconference last night.

Crunching a lot of numbers at the moment (and talking about them a bit as well). Today's favourite is that the number of months which have been more than 2 degrees above average over Australia since September 2013 (9) is the same as the number of such months which occurred between January 1910 and August 2013.

Back to Fitzroy for the first time in a while - apart from my absences, it's been tricky to get to in recent weeks because of building work - and linking up with some old company (who know me well enough to know that it's usually not good news if they see me there on a Wednesday). A reasonable session, and the foot does seem to be continuing to improve; will have a go at running on it tomorrow.

The slowest swim I can remember doing, for no particularly obvious reason (but at least good to do some proper exercise after yesterday). This moved me onto the next stage...

Wasn't quite sure about this given the foot, but in fact it responded better than I expected and I only gave one out of my usual set of exercises a miss. (The foot's improvement continued through the day and it's almost tempting to try running tomorrow, but I'm going to give it at least one more day).

Your usual pre-election public service announcement: anyone who appears in the media claiming to be an ordinary swinging voter who is outraged about a party's policy on something is almost certainly actively involved in a different party. Today's exhibit was one Jon Gaul, who appeared in the Australian to claim that Labor's policy on franking credit refunds was going to send him and families like him into penury (or something like it). It didn't take much sleuthing in Twitter-land to reveal that Mr. Gaul, among other things, is president of the local Liberal branch, was part of the Liberal federal campaign team for every election from 1972 to the late 2000s, and was one of Peter Reith's advisers in the run-up to the 1998 waterfront dispute. (I imagine that Media Watch will run something next week suggesting that the Australian might have cared to disclose one or more of these facts to their readers, which in turn will spark a ferocious News Corp counter-attack on the ABC).

Foot probably a bit worse this morning if anything (although improved a bit later in the day). Still feels like it might be a bit away from being runnable.

Things I haven't seen before: a tree fallen (mostly) across the Hume, thanks to an overnight thunderstorm (another overnight thunderstorm, or perhaps the same one, woke me up at 4.30 in Albury). The job of chopping it up was just about finished by the time I got there, but we still had to take to the emergency lane to get past.