Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A run which started badly, came good and ended in frustration. Headed out in search of my old stomping grounds; really struggled through the first 10 minutes but then settled down as I headed into Aranda and past my old place (which still looks the same from the outside). Starting to feel quite happy about things and then my calf flared up again at about 30 minutes coming off Aranda Hill; struggled on for another 10 minutes before pulling up stumps a bit early. Seems I've still got an upper limit at the moment.

Heavy smoke came in on an easterly change last night, but it had improved a bit this morning; from Beijing levels to Guangzhou so to speak ( although in fact Beijing has cleaned up its act somewhat in recent years; most of the world’s air pollution hotspots these days are in India, with Delhi a particular problem area).

As with yesterday, the Conference had its moments (in particular the discussion around the structure of the Schools went a bit more gnarly than I was expecting it to), but happy with most of the outcomes in the end.

Not for the first time, I hit the wall fairly soon after the end of proceedings - although this year I don't have any cricket to hit the wall in front of (or at least didn't think I did - having seen the Heat batting on TV earlier in the day I'd assumed that the WBBL final was in the morning, which seemed a bit strange, but they must have been replaying the semi). Won't get home until after 10 (assuming the flight is on time); not too upset I don't have a 7am Pilates session tomorrow (I'd reshuffled it to Tuesday in anticipation of a possible work trip to Adelaide that's ended up being a videoconference instead).

C • Conference 2

C • Adelaide 2

Headed out after a long OA Conference day for a re-run of the Sprint Canberra 2018 course on Bruce Ridge. I didn't have high expectations for this after sitting all day in a sometimes challenging meeting (having failed to complete the equivalent event in the last two years) - a bit squeezed for time because I kept everyone in until they'd finished their day's work - and the warm-up kept my expectations low, but it was nice once I was in the terrain - though didn't push myself too much up the hills. One element which was missing this time which was there in 2018 was dicing with Ella Cuthbert (it was one of those runs you occasionally have with a junior who's a little faster than you but a little less accurate) - a repeat was unlikely not just because Ella wasn't there, but because even if she was I think I'd struggle to hang on to her for more than a control or two these days. (I did get to chase Jenny through a few controls early before we split on a route choice).

Time for the O component was about 23.50, about 2.30 slower than I did in Sprint Canberra; I'm reasonably happy with this given it wasn't a race and for most of it I didn't have the head-to-head competition I did last year.

Plan was to do something in Fishermans Bend before dropping the car off for a service. This works well for long runs where the industrial area is just the start and the finish and there's lots of coast in between; not so well for shorter ones. Thought it might have been a total write-off when my back was quite sore driving over (which is unusual); turned out to be OK running, but this was still minimum-viable-session territory (more because of the leftovers of the cold than for any other reason). Calf held up OK. Still, I got to run along Vegemite Way (and even smelt some of the substance it's named after).

One of my other occasional running haunts (although not for a while because it's too far away to be in range for runs of the length I've been doing recently) was in the news today and yesterday for all the wrong reasons (about the only consolation is that the victim survived). The Age's article said that some details were too horrific to print; given how horrific some of the details they did print were, I shudder to think what else might have happened.

C • Port Melbourne running 1

Victoria has a new taskforce with the role of ridding the state of blackberry plants. I wish them luck.

C • New? 7

C • New? 1

Calf still tight this morning so headed for the water, where things went OK. Caught up with one of the regulars who I haven't seen in months, so more conversation than is sometimes the case in this session. (Calf was feeling better in the afternoon, so hopefully tomorrow?).

A bit of online exploration revealed that it is relatively straightforward to travel by public transport from Canberra Airport to (within close proximity of) the AIS at 9 on a Friday night. Certainly wasn't like that when I were a lad.

Street-O at Croydon Town (which sounds like it should be an entry in the football scores being read out on the BBC: something like Croydon Town 1 Charlton Athletic 3 has a certain ring to it). The objective was to see if I could handle running after work this year, and I got my answer (at least for now) - hip flexors probably more of an issue than back itself. Calf also a bit tight.

The numbers are not particularly good - I suspect under 100, as has been the case for most of the season - and I'm still around the 10th percentile of the age distribution.

Felt pretty ordinary during the night and decided I would be better off sleeping in (a relative term) today rather than trying to train. I may have misjudged this because I felt significantly better as soon as I got up, but then I hadn't left myself enough time.

First Pilates session after getting back. Somewhat to my surprise, I remembered how to do everything (although I had plenty of help had I needed it because no-one else turned up for the class), and once I loosened up did it more or less OK.

Second leg of the Monday double, on a morning with a chilly wind but no moisture (other than what was in the pool). Ended up as a reasonably solid session and a bit quicker than last week - a pleasant surprise because I'd woken up with the beginnings of a cold. Flagged a bit more later in the day (but hopefully still sounded reasonably intelligent when telling my various media audiences about Australia's driest spring on record).

C • Driest spring 2