Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Was hoping to stretch the distance out a bit further from Friday, on a Mother's Day visit to Blairgowrie, but realised fairly early on that it was going to be a struggle today; none of the sand dunes here are particularly big, but you don't get much of a break and with my back a bit below par today it was pretty hard work. Decided that I would be happy to get something respectable on the board and just about managed that (and given that I went months without getting this far, to do this on a difficult day can be taken as another sign of progress).

Finishing long-running projects is a bit of a theme at the moment, and today involved getting the last few permanent course controls I hadn't got at Westerfolds - I do these in numerical order so it can mean a lot of back-and-forth across the map, but not a bad thing having an excuse for some long legs. Thought this one might be over almost before it started when I took a heavy fall in the first 30 seconds (tripped over a bit of pipe I didn't see), but there seemed to be no lasting damage, and in general I was running significantly better than last time - running all the hills, for a start (there weren't a lot of hills, but even taking on two- or three-contour climbs in terrain has been more than I've been able to manage for most of the year). Didn't take a compass and lost direction a bit across a flat spur on the west side, which in turn took me into somewhat unexpected territory looking for 28, but picked myself up soon enough.

C • Long legs 8

First few minutes were a bit iffy but from there it developed into a second successive positive Friday. Handled the early crossings of Ruckers Hill without too much difficulty (with an extended break at an unusually heavily trafficked High Street, probably because of the Mernda line shutdown), but it wasn't until about 30 minutes in that this one caught alight - and it really did, giving me my first proper taste of the runner's high for as long as I can remember (peaking in the somewhat incongruous setting of the Northcote Plaza car park, where I'd gone in pursuit of a few leftover nodes). Came a little off my peak in the last 10 minutes but still a really positive session in the end. Longest since last July, and longest midweek for a couple of years. Even went long enough for the traditional 2pm letdown in the office (at least I didn't have any meetings to fall asleep in this time).

Cleared the Croxton block and most of the remaining bits of Northcote - just have a few bits on the west side of Ruckers Hill to go, which I should be able to knock over in one more session.

Limited amount of faith you can put in them nine days out (especially for fairly small-scale features), but I'd probably have preferred to see today's ECMWF model run doing something other than spinning up an east coast low for next weekend. (That said, if things did play out exactly as forecast, the serious action would be further south, on the far South Coast and in east Gippsland).

Took to the water this morning - at Northcote for the first time in a while. Felt quite relaxed and was perhaps a bit too relaxed for its own good judging by the time (there still isn't a functional clock which means not getting feedback on a slow pace). Very quiet in the outdoor pool, despite the nice morning.

Body corporate annual meeting night in my old place was often a fraught affair (I was sometimes grateful to get out of it without a punch-up) but it's a different story here, and not just because the stakes are lower (the houses themselves are on individual titles and the only common property is the driveway). Most significant news of the night was that I'll soon be getting a new neighbour (a very small one); past experience with the previous tenants (and their twins) is that the wall insulation is up to the job.

C • Up to the job.. 1

Wasn't feeling great in the morning (seems to have been a bit of a common thread this week), so headed out into the lunchtime sun instead. Went out with hopes that I might stretch this a bit from last time, but I was starting to tighten up in the later part of the uphill reps and in the end I was happy just to get through 6 - maybe next time...

Back pretty tight in the later part of the warm-down, too - wouldn't have wanted this to be much longer. (Felt pretty good afterwards, though).

I spent a fair bit of today reviewing an annual global climate report (a different one to the main one I worked on). As always, there's an impressive amount of detail, also as always, there's the occasional geographic clanger when people writing a global description of the anomalies in some variable or other are writing about a place they're not familiar with. (No, runoff from the Georgina River does not go into the Indian Ocean - or anywhere else, except maybe into Lake Eyre in a good year).

Sometimes managing to get through a run on a bad day is as much of an indicator of progress as doing well on a good day. Today was a struggle, more through not feeling awake/sharp in the morning than anything to do with injuries, but I was able to push through it and got through the distance I'd planned to (ticking off a few bits of Bellfield and west Ivanhoe as I did so; now have everything in the latter west of the creek). Also saw the spot for the time capsule for Bellfield Primary, which has well and truly outlasted the school itself. (Can't blame Jeff for this one - the late 2000s government amalgamated multiple schools into a single site).

(As I think I've noted previously, one of the oddities of Bellfield Primary was that it wasn't in Bellfield).

It rained heavily overnight and Darebin Creek was flowing strongly, although it wasn't really in flood to the extent that I expected.

Always knew there was a reason why I bought a car with a manual transmission.

C • That is gold! 6

Early Monday morning again, although it didn't feel quite so early after starting with a 5am IOF meeting. Still getting used to the new program so this took a bit longer than I've been used to - will get the hang of it sooner or later, no doubt.

And a bit more program-rearranging. I'd got a bit of soreness in my shoulder on Saturday evening (a non-issue running on Sunday but felt a bit uncomfortable changing gears driving home), and while it didn't cause any trouble during Pilates I thought it prudent to swap my two planned water sessions for the week. Worked out fine once I was going, and managed to dodge most of the showers both going to work and home from it. (At the moment I'm doing two days a week in the office, of which this was one).