Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A couple of false starts on this over recent weeks but decided, confidence built by yesterday, that today was the day to head for the river path and East Ivanhoe. This confidence wasn't entirely misplaced; it was definitely at the better end of my recent runs, probably better in the hilly middle than on the flatter sections early and late. Didn't quite go out to 90 minutes, but still the second longest I've done this year (and contributed to another small increment in the biggest-week-for-three-years benchmark).

One of the streets I collected today was Otterington Grove, where my grandparents once lived (of course I've run it numerous times prior to starting to track streets early last year). I remembered it as being a reasonably solid hill when I was little and wondered if it would seem less steep as a middle-aged adult. It didn't. (The house itself, at least outwardly, hasn't changed, but the two downhill from it are both new). Might have been a fitting one to take my tally of streets to 1000 but will have to wait until sometime in the coming week for that (currently at 987). Also made my first inroads into the steep block between Lower Heidleberg and Maltravers, although mostly on the contour this time (it's on the edge of a 3km circle, which I have only a few remaining bits of on the north side of the river, although lots in Kew).

Finished with a partially red sock, which I'll take as an indicator that I was trying.

C • Perceived steepness and age 4

Eaglemont Flats - mixing it up a bit by running the course from a few weeks ago backwards. Hip was a bit sore before the start but fine on the run, and in fact it was as good as I've felt on a run for a while - no doubt my mood was helped by it being such a nice morning to be out (something also being taken advantage of by numerous cyclists), and getting to appreciate the trees. Did lose concentration a bit and overran #6 (or #19, depending on how you look at it), and a slight annoyance late when a thorn got into my wrist (and produced a decent amount of the red stuff when removed, but no lasting impact as far as I can tell).

The area is drying out a bit; the billabong is still largely full of water, although the level has dropped enough to (just) expose the spur that #3 is on.

C • Very scientific 1

Morning ride. Felt a bit sleepy at the start but the Heidelberg hill knocked that out of me on a chilly morning with low cloud but not much wind. Fairly smooth thereafter, though still not quite the pace of equivalent sessions last year. Made my way back on a different route, up Gower and then south, spotting something which I suspect we'll see a bit more of - a vaccination site at a Greek Orthodox church. (Up until now the constraint on vaccination has been supply, rather than people to administer them or places to do it, but that's starting to change).

Hip, which has been fine this week, was a bit sore this evening for no obvious reason. Will need watching.

Morning session after a 5am IOF meeting (the meeting actually started at 2am but I only joined the last hour). I might have hoped that having been up for longer might have meant I felt more awake, but it didn't quite work like that. Still, the start of the run felt better than I expected beforehand; tired somewhat during the run and was not quite up to the steepest hill (venturing into Kew means a few of these, although not to the extent that it will be when I go to its western edge). Was definitely in a hole around 40-45 minutes but managed to fight it out and was feeling quite reasonable in the last few minutes.

Moments in home office improvisation: I was recording a video today and they wanted a blank background. The most readily available such background was the wall above the fireplace, standing up, but to do that I needed something to put the computer on at roughly chest height. The yellow wheelie bin fitted the bill nicely.

Out earlyish filling in a few more gaps in the Heidelberg Heights area, some of which wouldn't have been gaps if my recording went back further than last February - in particular in my Heidelberg days Dresden Street was a standard route back from pretty much any run to the northwest. (A lot of the streets in this part of the world have a WW2 theme but I'd rather hope that it didn't get its name from the RAF bombing the bejesus out of the place). A few things in the neighbourhood have changed since then, like a backstreet cafe (evidence of the westward creep of gentrification) and a very unassuming mosque which looks like it might have been a scout hall or similar in a past life.

The run was a bit of a struggle at times even though I loosened up OK after the first 10 minutes or so, but getting something on the board the morning after a physio session is something I haven't always been able to do lately, so that's a positive.

All Nations intervals. Feeling pretty good for most of it and got down to the sort of numbers I was doing a couple of months back (60/57), but was definitely tiring on the last two (at least it was tiring and not hurting). Nice running day, if a bit chilly for anything else.

Warm-up and down. Felt quite tight early on but that settled. Hard work coming back - I definitely wasn't left wondering whether I had left anything out there during the intervals session.

The Station Street Covid testing queue was the longest I've seen for a bit, not sure why as there are no nearby exposure sites (our part of the map is remarkably blank for now).

Definite Killer Physio areas this evening. Hopefully I'll bounce back quickly enough to be up for something in the morning.

Not sure which story gave me the most schadenfreude - the Trump wall being partly washed away by monsoon floods in Arizona, or McDonald's running out of milkshakes in the UK because of Brexit-exacerbated truck driver shortages.

C • I particularly like this article 4

Monday morning Pilates, still going for now. Seem to be settling into the latest routine reasonably well now, and not as sore as I was last night.

Lunchtime ride on a nice lunchtime for riding (cold but sunny, and not too windy), getting out in anticipation of the conditions getting worse later, although it wasn't until evening that it unloaded properly. Yarra Bend then Fitzroy; felt better riding than I have on most of my rides of recent weeks (although there are no major hills on this route), and going a bit faster too.