Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

One of those days where the best I could say is that I got through it. Decided on something flat, namely clearing a few more bits of the south end of Fitzroy North. Soreness in the glutes but didn't seem to be referring pain anywhere else, so decided to push through it, but it certainly wasn't convincing - perhaps a few good patches towards the end.

I'm never quite sure in this area which lanes count as "streets" and which ones don't. I also discovered that none of the street-O map (which I took with me), OpenStreetMap and the Melway are entirely reliable when it comes to which lanes connect to which other lanes (but their unreliability is in different places).

Perhaps part of the reason I was struggling was that it was an early-season run in the middle of the day in relative warmth (22, let's not get too excited here). Good to build up experience of this for when it's needed later in the year. I haven't entirely given up hope of (a) the NSW Championships taking place and (b) being able to get there and come home again, and that could certainly be warm. (The possibility of running this comes only because it got postponed by a (further) two weeks to avoid what turned out to be a non-existent clash with the (further postponed) Bathurst 1000; I think it's unlikely state borders will be open by the first weekend of November, but they could be by the third).

Did some exploring after lunch on the north side of the Yarra; 15km gets you into some more forested country on the south side of Eltham (and the river was up significantly, although below flood level). Found a track along the north side of the river which I didn't know existed, which is always a plus.

Another of Pat's training courses, this time in Royal Park - surprisingly difficult when the vegetation is mapped in detail and the controls are on it (I'm not totally convinced I hit all of them). Was definitely glad I'd remembered to bring my compass this time, particularly on the corridor section. Was still a bit sore beforehand and not totally convinced I'd be up to running, but it was OK once under way (though the test will be what it's like in the morning). Humid.

Back to where I was parked after the courses, doing a bit of incrementing of my City of Melbourne streets tally for the first time in some months.

Felt like I was close to running but a morning attempt showed I wasn't quite there, so instead headed out for a late afternoon ride - my plans were to head northeast and seeing a storm to the northwest (which was to drop 48mm on Fawkner) did not discourage this route choice, which involved not having to turn left at Southern Road for the first time in a while. Didn't miss the rain altogether - was quite damp in the last 15 minutes, although I think we still probably fell about 47 short of Fawkner - and it was getting quite dark by the end. My front light's battery is getting low, but it will probably be six months before it's needed again. Felt quite good on the bike, although a little sore afterwards (more so on the side of the leg now).

First two months of the current lockdown down. Planning for two more although hoping for one.

Woke up with very tight glutes referring pain into the upper right hamstring - felt this is a little bit early yesterday but not on the run, but it was worse today and I thought it best not to put it to the test (feels like the sort of thing that might need a couple of days to settle down, but I guess I'll find out sooner rather than later). It was fine on the bike, though, and headed out on a morning when the dampness kept most others inside (although it wasn't raining when I was out) - fairly smooth without being anything to get wildly excited about.

Didn't quite make my 25-hour monthly target, but OK to be relatively close given there have been a few injury interruptions.

At least three tornadoes reported in NSW today (near Narrabri, south of Mudgee and north/east of Bathurst). The last of these did draw my attention to a slightly unfortunate road name.

Finishing another piece off in a week when I'm planning to do a bit of that, namely the northwesternmost corner of Preston-below-Bell that was (mostly) out of range when 5km was a thing. Accomplished that mission but this was hard work; back was tight today and the many short ups and downs on this route were not particularly appreciated (the post-run coffee with a colleague who lives in the area was, though). Not a day to push the distance out further beyond the lower end of what I was trying for. Knee only very slight twinges.

Not the most uplifting of afternoons: I'm working on shortlisting potential candidates for the extreme events part of this year's global climate report and spent the afternoon trawling disaster reports.

I've now run out of control description sheets and splits printouts to use for shopping lists, but they've been replaced with expired supermarket fuel vouchers (I'll probably go about two months without buying any, although that's less than the four I went without buying any last year).

Another attempt at my first post-injury intervals session, and this time it worked (at least in the sense that no relevant parts of the body were hurting). Not a particularly convincing session and somewhat slower than in the recent past (60-66), but got through it which was the main thing. (Also left my knee untaped for most of it after the tape started coming off, and that seemed to work OK, too).

It was a warm lunchtime in All Nations, with lots of people having picnics and no riot police (or people looking for fights with riot police).

Warm-up and down. Feeling a bit below par coming back but I think (hope?) that that's just being out of practice.

Monday morning session. Seemed better than usual today, and no sign of knee issues getting in the way this time. Perhaps it was the sunny ride there that put me in the right sort of mood (won't be as bright this time next week).

Followed up with a ride, a little longer than I'd planned on but I didn't mind that too much. Seemed a bit slow early but I think that's partly because of the deceptive north-south gradient in this part of the world - certainly slowing better later on. Pushed on a bit further north this time as far as Regent before going east on Tyler Street (occasionally an east-west route for me in my Heidelberg days). Managed to stay out of the way of any magpies (although, if magpiealert.com is anything to go by, the Oriel Road one isn't around this year).