Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The latest bit of urban exploration brought to you by the number 81. This took me to a corner of Melbourne which I've often crossed but rarely spent any time in - centred on where Eastlink crosses Dandenong Creek. I've only touched the edge of the area once on a street-O a few years back.

Main centrepiece of this was a place whose name was familiar to me from many years of Victorian flood warnings - the Police Road Retarding Basin. There's been a lot of rain lately - I timed this well, heading out just as the last heavy rain finished - but the eastern suburbs are relatively sheltered in southeasterlies so the heavy falls (and flooding) were elsewhere this time. Thought this would be a relatively flat run, but there was a bit of up and down on the east side of the creek (I was a bit tentative on some of this with the slippery ground). The run itself was a struggle with soreness again in the glutes, although it didn't flare up on downhills as much as it did yesterday and seems to have come up OK afterwards.

Local mysteries department: why is the school Rosewood and the tennis club Rosswood?

Collected streets on this run in three different local council areas (Knox, Monash and Greater Dandenong, none of which are likely to imperil my ability to enter other states). There are plenty of places where you can go through a few council areas in a short space of time (doing the Darebin Creek trail south from my place will get you four in as many kilometres), not so many where you can complete streets in each of them easily.

Overtook my 2020 tally of hours trained today, which makes it the longest year since 2017. Should also pass 2017 before the end of the year if things go to plan. Definitely won't pass 2016.

C • Eastlink crossing 2

With downhills troubling in the last few days, I decided to go for a flat route, out west to cover some ground on the west side of Merri Creek south of CERES. However, the gentle descent off Ruckers Hill was enough to set things off, and from there it was a case of trying to keep the glute soreness under some sort of control in a run which was quite hard work (and quite slow). The positive was that, after spending most of the second half thinking I'd do well to get to a 60-minute target, the last few minutes improved enough for me to do the extra to get to the front door. Quite sore afterwards. Not as wet as anticipated.

Did something this morning somewhat akin to what I was planning to do last night, except in a different place (from a base at the Fitzroy pool before a planned session in the water). A bit of a struggle - this was earlier than usual and my back wasn't in great form today - but at least my other issues seem to have settled down. Cleared up various fiddly-to-get alleys in the southwest corner of North Fitzroy. Pretty slow, but I think a few dead-ends in small alleys weren't giving me full value.

Followed up with the originally planned session in the water (that is, immersed in the water and not with lots of water landing on me - that's tomorrow). Not the most convincing of these I've ever done, but got it on the board at least.

MFR Wednesday night from Aislinn's. Was looking forward to re-exploring some of my old haunts, but I pulled up sore after last night and, although it improved somewhat through the day, I decided after a few minutes that it wasn't quite ready for a proper run. Hopefully OK tomorrow.

Tuesday night at Gaffney Hills. You wouldn't think approaching this area from the east that it plays host to some of the steepest streets in Melbourne. The steepest of all, O'Hea, is named for the priest who baptised, and gave the last rites to, Ned Kelly, and has no doubt left a few cyclists and runners who've taken it on wishing that the Lord had mercy on them. (I've run it once, a decade or so back, but made no attempt to do so tonight).

The best that can be said for this was that it was the first time for a long time that I've got through a B course in an evening event (am stepping up from C where I've been the last couple of years). It wasn't easy and I didn't run the sharp climbs, but it was probably the downhills which caused me more grief - the glutes flared up after the longest one, and although it settled down a bit after a free pitstop at the Gaffney Street level crossing, it made its presence felt the rest of the way. Think I got the route basically right, although the results aren't up yet so I don't know for sure.

Put a couple of new bits of gear to the test tonight: a new pair of shoes and an arm holder for the phone. Both seemed to work OK.

Monday morning Pilates. A full contingent now (which for this session is 5), another indication of things starting to return towards normality. Glutes not totally right but certainly improved on yesterday (and the foot soreness has disappeared).

Moved on to Fitzroy for the water part of the day's activities, in a pool that is also becoming increasingly well-populated. Starting to get back into the groove a bit more and was slightly less slow than I have been the last two attempts. Occasional mild spasms in my quad early for no obvious reason (also noticed this walking yesterday before I started running), but doesn't seem to be getting in the way of anything.

Thought today might be a struggle but for the most part it was one of my better runs for a while. Started out towards Kane's Bridge, then up onto the hill and doing some of the cul-de-sacs going into some vastly expensive real estate (with some short sharp climbs to add to the longer one up onto the ridge). Started to have some glute soreness around 40 minutes in, and unsurprisingly, they didn't like the steep descent down Princess Street. That settled but then I got some right foot soreness, and having achieved the baseline goals for this run, decided that was enough (I'd hoped to get out to 70-80 minutes if things had kept going as they were in the first half). The foot is already settling down by late afternoon so hopefully it will be OK by the time I next plan to run on Tuesday (and in general I was reasonably happy with the way I came up for a fourth day in a row, something I haven't done often in the last three years).

It felt quite chilly this morning, which is perhaps an indication that I got some heat acclimatisation out of yesterday if nothing else. Judging by the forecast for this week I may lose it fairly quickly. With its timing, heat and/or high fire danger were potential issues for the NSW Championships; it's too soon to tell whether it will be hot in two weekends' time, but it certainly won't be this weekend (current forecasts suggest it will struggle to get far into double figures on either day), and this week's rain should put paid to any serious fire risk that might have existed.