Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Not quite what I'd hoped for - I'd started with thoughts of an hour if things went well, but settled for adding a small increment to my longest post-injury distance rather than a long one - but still more positives than negatives, starting with a near trouble-free climb up the Waterdale Road hill. The main limiting factor here was fitness on a fairly humid morning (although I got out early enough to miss the serious heat), but even there, I started to fade significantly at 35 minutes rather than 25 minutes as I did yesterday (and of course it was a second day back to back, something I haven't previously done in this sequence, at least of this length). No injury issues apart from a bit of back stiffness early, and will take this as a reasonable indicator of continued progress.

Coming off another three-meeting night (the first two IPCC, the last IOF), but at least the gap between them was six hours rather than four. Headed out a bit later than planned as the IOF part of it went longer than planned (mostly because of an extended discussion around WMOC 2024 bids), which meant it was a little warmer than I'd planned on, although not that warm.

The principal mission today was that I'd reached the point of being sufficiently confident of my capacity to run (modest) hills to complete the last remaining bit of the mission of filling the 2km circle, picking up the last handful of short streets in Fairy Hills that I hadn't got to when pulling up short on the last attempt a month ago. Was struggling with the back early on but a brief break at around 10 minutes settled that down; the main issue there was simply one of being tired, and the final 15 minutes were definitely a struggle from that perspective. Managed to push it out to the 40-minute mark though (with hopes for more tomorrow), and hamstring continues to be handling it well.

Tentative thoughts for the next extension on this concept are to complete the rest of the map on the wall of the Three Locals (a local cafe which has a map of the area as its wallpaper) - the 2km radius goes beyond this map on the east side but not the west, which goes out to about St. Georges Road (and takes in a bit more of Clifton Hill than I've previously done, too).

Unsurprisingly, my lack of sleep caught up with me somewhat in the afternoon.

Back in the land of the aqua (sic) profonda, where the only road crossing to worry about is getting across Alexandra Parade to the pool entrance (this can take a while). Felt pretty good this morning despite feeling not good last night; a decent night's sleep can do that. Fitzroy (unlike Northcote) doesn't require bookings these days but still didn't feel too crowded (might be a different story on Monday).

Street-O at Eltham Lower. This was the first proper hot-weather run for me of the season (32 at start time) and the question was how I would cope with it. The answer was "barely"; walked pretty well all the hills, and a couple of non-hills too. The orienteering part was a bit shambolic at times too; even at 7pm, Main Road is not easy to cross, so a route which involved doing so four times wasn't a good option, and I had trouble pinpointing #19 (although the map wasn't helpful here). The two "highlights" of the night came at the end, though; first attempting to negotiate the Fitzsimons Lane roundabout (the subject of numerous protest signs relating to its impending upgrading and the trees to be sacrificed to make that happen) at the same time as an extremely noisy posse of motorbikes which must have been close to 100 in number, then seeing that the mapped track downhill from the second-last didn't really exist and trying to go cross-country, which led me first into an area of medium green and then into grass-seed country (definitely haven't missed those).

At least the hamstring didn't hurt.

C • Main Road main road 9

Early-morning session, shifted to Wednesday this week given that I was away on Monday (and, unusually for this type of exercise, with the blokes in a majority). Generally went OK.

The other part of the usual Monday routine transferred to Wednesday, and again went more or less as per normal. I do this towards the back end of the timeslot (which Northcote still has, although I see that Fitzroy doesn't), so the numbers definitely thin out considerably later.

Was originally thinking of something hilly this morning but was feeling a bit out of sorts when I got up (just slept badly, I think), and upon starting fairly quickly decided today was minimum-viable-session territory. This just about worked out, improving somewhat in the later stages (and no sign of hamstring trouble, though back was a bit tight), so not too upset to salvage something from an unpromising start. Must have done me some good, too, as I then felt fine through the rest of the day.

Showing that the equivalent of road rage is nothing new, according to the book I was reading over the weekend, it was standard procedure for boatmen on French rivers in the mid-19th century to shout abuse at any boat they passed relating to "the derisory speed of the vessel, the ugliness of the crew and the profession of the captain's female relatives". (The last of these, I gather, is a fairly standard insult in a number of languages in that part of the world and has been responsible for more than its share of red cards when said to football referees).

Went for a ride, initially to the end of the bitumen and back, with one of the aforementioned colleagues. I tend to think of the Mount Buffalo plateau is being reasonably flat once you're on top but it's anything but: the climb from Lake Catani to Cathedral Saddle is 3.5km at 7%, which pales into insignificance compared to some of the other climbs in this area but still more ambitious than I've done for a while (my quads were certainly feeling it a bit by the end). Felt like I was working pretty hard on this. The last bit was very slow on a gravel track (I'm on a road bike). A nice morning out.

Headed home this afternoon, via one of the local swimming holes in the Buckland River. This was predictably busy (I suspect it would have been a lot busier on the weekend), and, with a couple of cliffs overlooking a deep pool, inevitably had some people jumping off said cliffs into the water - mostly teenagers seeking to impress their friends, plus one teenagers' mum seeking to impress her kids (the audience reaction suggested mission accomplished here).