Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Given my recent propensity for (a) struggling with my back at around the 5-10 minute mark and (b) settling it down after a pause (often through a strategically timed road crossing) at about that stage, I thought I'd try doing a more substantial run before the sprint this week, starting from near the event assembly area on a loop defined by two institutions more familiar to those of a different demographic to mine: the zoo and the Royal Children's Hospital. (As it happens, the last time I set foot in the latter was on this day 12 years ago to see my cousin and his son - born very prematurely while they were over in Melbourne for Cassie's wedding, but all's worked out well in the end - before venturing outside to see what 42 degrees at 11am felt like, and moving on to help out on what proved to be a very busy day in the office....).

(My last visit to the zoo was also memorable for reasons which had little to do with the venue: it was a conference dinner on the night Australia beat Uruguay to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. The penalty shootout took place while we were driving home).

It wasn't even half the 2009 temperature today, and the run was quite reasonable; I don't expect to sparkle on runs these days but this was one where nothing went wrong, and there was no hangover from yesterday's issues.

The warm-up plan worked: I felt significantly better than last week and it showed in the times, being (relatively speaking) about a minute closer than I was last week. Not flowing too badly and I think got most of the key route choices right, although I'd still want to be moving a bit faster. A bit more technical than last week without being super-challenging, and a pocket of Melbourne I haven't previously been to (I would occasionally do Royal Park runs in my Melbourne Uni days, but at that time this was still a psychiatric hospital).

The northeast edge of this map features a very uncrossable uncrossable fence, the boundary of an institution which seems to change its name every time I come this way but is currently the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct. It's not the most uncrossable fence I've seen on an orienteering map, that honour going to the previous map of (some of) the area used for the 1991 JWOC long distance in Berlin (the uncrossable fence in question being the Berlin Wall).

Had hoped to extend my (recent) maximum distance a bit further today and for the first 20 minutes it was looking quite promising. My back, which had been reasonable early, then decided that it didn't like climbing hills today (meandering up through Ivanhoe), and was causing sufficient trouble that I was prepared to settle just for making it home without having to stop, which I managed, more or less. The back did seem to settle somewhat once on the flat so I'll take that as a positive.

I'm not sure what was the least surprising scientific finding I saw today: that young men overestimate the extent to which risk-taking behaviour impresses members of the opposite sex, or that floods multiply plastic waste in rivers. (In fairness, the latter study did attempt to quantify exactly how much floods multiplied plastic waste in rivers in various environments).

Pool running at Fitzroy, expecting the worst from the weather but it turned out to be OK with only a few spots of rain. Woke up with a bit of a stiff back and might have been apprehensive about trying to run, but it was fine in the water - a pretty good session as these things go.

Couldn't make tonight's event so instead decided to do one of the Boulder Dash Maprun courses in the morning, discovering fairly quickly that doing this coming off a couple of hours worth of meeting (and after a couple of hard days by recent standards) didn't work out so well. Felt tired from the beginning and didn't get any better as it went on, and in the end I settled for a fairly typical C course length rather than staying out for the nominal 45 minutes as I'd hoped to.

First day back in the office. This meant, among other things, a somewhat overdue car service (the place where I get it done, in Fishermans Bend, is much more convenient to the office than to home), and hence a morning run close to where that was (which means it's pretty industrial). Started out with some zig-zagging through the South Wharf residential area in the name of getting some low-hanging Citystrides fruit (except that it turns out that most of the routes in question are not actually classified as streets on Citystrides), then out on a longer loop crossing the freeway at the Salmon Street bridge. Something of a struggle in the first half and had niggles at different times in both hamstrings, but improved later on.

Another incremental advance on the length of a midweek run. There's a certain irony, given that I thought one benefit of working from home would be to help my running, that my first day back in the office was my longest midweek run since 2019 (though let's not get too excited just yet).

Original plan for this was the morning but was feeling too sleepy in the morning to think that running fast was going to work, so rescheduled for lunchtime (a cool day may have had something to do with this). Was probably feeling a bit better than last week (and was going a little faster), but was tiring on the last couple - I'd originally had thoughts of pushing out a couple of extra reps if I was feeling OK but decided to leave it for another time. Will put this one in the "modest progress" box.

Warm-up and down. Not quite as much of a struggle coming back as it was last week. Less traffic around in the middle of the day, too, as the city gradually returns towards its more normal patterns.

Monday morning Pilates. A bit more awake than I sometimes am for this, and seemed to go reasonably well. Starting to get a bit more gloomy at 7am now (it won't be too many more weeks before it's dark).

I forgot to book a session for Northcote so plan B was Fitzroy (which doesn't require booking) - perhaps fitting as an on-the-way-to-work spot given that we're going back to the office part-time this week (although not today for me). This actually turned out to be a pretty good session by my recent standards - not sure if getting feedback on my pace every lap (there's a clock that's more visible than Northcote's) helps there, but was going pretty consistently, getting a bit faster at the end. Remembered that I had a left arm this time, not something I always manage when swimming. Right shoulder a little sore at the end.

There was quite a bit to be positive about today, including on the work front (got a couple of major things done on top of the usual start-of-the-month jobs, which mostly involved telling people how uninteresting January's weather was compared to the last couple of years), and elsewhere (tried cooking something new successfully, and first harvest from the tomato plant in the backyard - although I can't claim too much credit for that one).