Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Late in the afternoon I realised I hadn't put my phone on to charge for a whileand was wondering whether 24% battery was enough to get me around a Maprun course. This turned out to be somewhat moot as my phone's 24% battery was 24% more than my car's battery had, and by the time the RACV turned up it was far too late to get to the actual event, so plan B was to run an event which never actually took place - the scheduled season opener at Penders Park which was set up instead as a Maprun event.

This was a 45- or 60-minute score, but by the time I got out I was thinking I'd be happy with 30 (although it ended up being a bit more). Certainly did a reasonable job of optimising the route. The body was behaving a bit better tonight than it was last Thursday (at least after what's becoming the regular pause at 7 minutes to stretch things out), but still reasonably hard work. Perfect night to be out, though. Even at this pace, I think I'd have gone close to getting the lot had I stayed out the full 45 (and certainly anyone doing the 60-minute option would do it easily).

I can confirm that nobody has approached Orienteering Australia to sponsor the armpits of any officials (although we're open to offers if anyone wants to make us one).

C • Speak for yourself... 2

C • 24% 2

A run whose first kilometre was unpromising ended up being a bit more than I'd planned on (my longest in four months as it turned out). Headed for the west side of Ivanhoe in the name of clearing some more streets, which was a more convoluted process than expected (partly because I'd misremembered the street configuration and thus had to rework my carefully laid plans), but the run itself was pretty reasonable after the first 10 minutes and I still felt as if I had a bit left at the end (not a common experience in recent weeks). A pretty flat run so there are more tests to come, but I'll take this one.

Didn't get quite as much done as I thought I would; there's still a pocket on the east side of Oriel Road to do, along with the two larger ones remaining, one north of All Nations and one on the west side of Ivanhoe Grammar. The latter is probably the hilliest of the lot but I'm getting closer to building the confidence for it (and if I can't handle that then I probably can't handle the hills on offer in Adelaide next week either).

A first for a few months on a couple of counts: it was the first instance since then of what was a familiar autumn and early winter experience, the second attempt after being too tight to get going in the morning, and the first intervals session since then too. (I'd originally planned slower today and intervals tomorrow, but swapped). Didn't work out too badly as a plan B; had got into reasonable shape by the time the warm-up was done, and although I was a second or two a rep slower than the last time I did this, I'll take that for a first attempt. Didn't go lactic but still felt as if I'd been working reasonably hard, and wasn't too disheartened on the third rep when I wasn't making ground on someone who looked like they were jogging.

Definitely not as many people out in All Nations at lunchtime as there were in July and August, although the fact that the lunchtime temperature would have done justice to August or (at a pinch) July might have had something to do with that.

Warm-up and down. Definitely knew on the way back that I'd been running hard - appreciated the traffic break at Victoria Road - but not too bad on the whole.

Getting back to the regular start to a Monday morning (it may not be that many weeks away before this is a step on the way to the office, but we're not there yet). Felt like a reasonably routine morning's work, although not without a feeling-inadequate moment on hearing that one of the others was 26 weeks' pregnant (it must be said that this is not particularly visible).

...and onto the second stage, which was unexpectedly dismal - never felt as if I was really moving at all. At first I thought this was possibly imagining things as people were coming past me at regular intervals (to the point that at one stage I looked up at the end of a lap just to make sure I wasn't in the wrong lane), but the clock doesn't lie. Quite a chilly morning.

Had planned to join the MFR "long run" (at least in spirit) but nobody else was at Fairfield Boathouse, so either I went to the wrong place or nobody else came today (perhaps supporting Brodie's marathon effort?), so headed out on my own. I may not have been that good to run with today anyway as I'm still not up to running the steeper hills, although managing the smaller ones is gradually building confidence. Back never felt 100%, which deterred me from trying to push out to the hour, but didn't get any worse through the run.

Cool Sundays in summer are definitely not to be wasted.

I did take the opportunity to get onto some of the Yarra trails for the first time in a while, noting that quite a lot of work (presumably not officially opened by the local state MP) has been done in the bat-frequented area, and that more of the path has fallen into the Yarra than it has last time I was here. I also picked up the remaining bits of road south of the Yarra and within the circle - a couple of bits of the Yarra Boulevard, and the road into Willsmere from the bottom.

A few final checks at Kensington before running a more general loop (which means anyone who thinks my track is an indication of the course next week is likely to be disappointed; it's more of an indicator of potential routes to the arena from parking areas and public transport routes). Something of a struggle of a run - very slow early, and I don't think that was just my watch failing to pick up twists and turns in the more complex bits - and the wind got up later on with lots of grit and dust. Definitely minimum viable session territory.

On the subject of public transport, the 404 seems an appropriate number for a route on which buses cannot be found (at least on Sundays), not that it was a particularly useful route for accessing the event unless you live in Footscray or Moonee Ponds.

At Fitzroy under the bright sun of a summer morning (now is just about the earliest sunrise of the year). As I thought I might last night, felt a level of tightness which suggested that trying to run wouldn't have ended well, but eventually loosened up in the water. The pool experience is a bit more relaxed now than it was, too.

Spent some of the afternoon looking at sea level rise maps. Don't think I'd be investing in property in Port Adelaide. (The Power might become the first AFL team to represent a place which no longer exists). On the other hand, I can definitely endorse the aspiration in the ACT Climate Change Strategy to plant up to 5700 hectares of forest as a carbon sink (although I'm not sure whether or not this includes those pine forest areas which were never really replanted post-2003).

C • coastal areas 2