Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Melbourne Bush-O at Police Paddocks. Not an awful lot of actual bush running in this - it's the sort of area where route choice is largely about finding the best place to dive off the track (although some parts out the back were more open than near the start) - but still a bit nicer than I expected. March is probably better for it than in winter when it can apparently be a mud-fest (we had steady light rain, although nothing on the scale of Sydney).

This didn't get off to a great start. The first leg featured a mapped track which, for all practical purposes, did not exist, a mapped gap between uncrossable fences which did not exist, and a couple of unmapped gaps in other uncrossable fences, which at least minimised the damage. (The last two were on the grounds of Dandenong City Soccer Club, whose logo suggests that football-loving Serbs in Dandenong would better look elsewhere). Settled down after that, and while we won't get too excited, I was definitely feeling better running than has been the case for most of the week (even managed to run up a few of the gentler hills). Deliberately cut a few corners to give myself terrain training; some of these worked (#10) and some not so well (#12).

Woke up pretty uncomfortable so was fairly confident that the back wouldn't be up to doing the run I'd hoped for in the morning, which was quickly demonstrated, but it loosened up during the morning so I thought I'd have a go at doing something, even if only at the minimum-viable-session level, during the morning - taking advantage of having caught up with a friend for coffee/vegetable purchasing at the Merri Creek "farm" to go into previously uncharted territory on the west side of Croxton on the way home. Still finding this hard going for reasons which aren't immediately obvious - wondering if I'm not 100% well although there are no apparent symptoms. Found what turned out to be the warmest part of the day, too.

The Australian reported today that "a new investigation into employment in the horticulture industry finds the worker shortage is driven by poor wages and conditions". I assume next week they'll report that the Pope is still Catholic. (It was the second accurate thing they reported today, because they also gave Pat's album a nice review).

C • Myths need dispelling 1

A late afternoon ride to make up for the planned running I hadn't done, on the Heidelberg hill circuit (of sorts). A stiff easterly is an unusual wind for Melbourne and my splits were similarly unusual (a minute slower than usual up the hill, a minute after later on). Hard work uphill with the aforementioned wind but decent after that.

Reintroduced myself to the pleasures of going to the football in the evening, which also meant reintroducing myself to the idea that it's a long (and quiet) way home when your team has lost by a point. It was going so well too...

A struggle most of the way, but did get a bit of a second wind in the last few minutes which meant finishing on a positive note. Coloured in a few more bits of the map, which completed all of Northcote east of High Street (just the section between High and St. Georges to go now). Quite a humid morning.

Was hoping to run but didn't come up after last night, so took to the water instead. (Today was a day in the office, so it was my first ride in from the pool for a while). Pleasant enough and felt reasonably comfortable once moving.

Data analysis fail of the day goes to a study which got published in the Lancet which mentioned, among other things, what appeared to be an abnormally high rate of Covid deaths amongst young children in Spain. It turned out that the data sources they were using were recording 103-year-olds as 3-year-olds, and similarly for other ages. (You'd rather hope that the reviewers would have spotted something like this, although I get the sense that a lot of Covid papers are getting published without quite the level of rigour in peer review that one might hope for).

C • COVID paper reviewing 1

Street-O at Blind Creek. Another pretty ordinary evening session - the sort of night where a couple of seasons ago I'd have given it away after the first 5 minutes, but kept plodding on, and even started running a few of the gentle uphills in the middle; faded late though. Not really much of a week so far (from a running perspective at least). Decent route although I think I wasn't alone in that. Quite a short one (they often are at this end of the season), which I wasn't too upset about tonight.

First attempt at a run didn't work out so instead went late in the day, with similar results to what has usually been happening in the evenings this summer - a struggle most of the way. At least I gave the physio something to look at (I had a session with them after this), and took advantage of a different start location to fill in a few blank spaces at the southernmost end of Northcote and in Clifton Hill.

Spotted on the way home: two protective services officers outside Westgarth Station looking as if they were auditioning for the Ministry of Silly Walks. I guess they don't have anything else to do (at least before dark). Another slightly oddball sighting of the day was in the morning, a group of boys walking to school with the one in the red shirt towering over all the others in green shirts (the reason this is worth mentioning is that at Fairfield Primary this year, the Year 6s are the ones in the green shirts).

And we no longer have an (occasional) orienteer in the Victorian shadow Cabinet, following Nick Wakeling's resignation for backing the wrong horse in today's contest between Whoonearthisthat? and Whatshisname. (Tomorrow night's Summer Series event is in his electorate; maybe we'll see him?).

Definitely felt as if I'd been doing some work on the weekend; distinctly stiffer than is typical for a Monday morning (suspect trying to run this morning would have been a challenge). Did a couple of new variations on exercises which probably increased the challenges, too.

Moved onto the pool, which was also a struggle - didn't actually feel too bad but the clock doesn't lie. Only really got into it towards the end; there was a definite lack of smoothness here.

There was a bike outside the pool when I arrived with a sign on it ('free to a good home'). It was gone by the time I finished.