Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Going six days in a row proved to be a bit much - a bit of left hamstring tightness. Tried in the morning and again in the late afternoon (the latter in much more favourable conditions after a squall line went through), but each time not quite ready. Should settle down in a day or two, I expect.

The number 16 also proved to be roughly the number of hours it took my test result to come back (slower than I've had before, but I've heard far worse).

C • Far worse 15

16 was today's number so it was an early-morning trip to beat the worst of the heat. This isn't exactly untrodden recent territory for me - I've done two park/street events out here in the last few weeks - so instead went for the Strathmore side of Essendon Airport and a zigzag down through the suburb. Felt a decent run for the most part but was definitely tiring later on - probably the warm conditions starting to get to me.

The day's urban exploration, though, was finding a test site that didn't have a ridiculously long wait after getting an exposure alert - ended up pretty close to where I started, at the Showgrounds. Still don't have a result as of 9.30 (unlike the other two times) so missed the MFR Christmas party, which was a disappointment.

Experimenting with taking it out to a 6-day week (at least that's the plan), and did a short run from work in the morning. Definitely grinding the gears in the first 10 minutes, but improved steadily after that and finished off by going up and over the Collins Street bridge (without an excursion to Southern Cross Platform 8 on the way, whatever my GPS track may tell you).

Amongst the streets collected today was the unfortunately-named Rona Walk (doubly so because earlier in the year it hosted a quarantine hotel). I'd planned to clear the small pocket of South Wharf, but tracks are a bit erratic in the CBD so there are still a few red dots to get where my watch thought I was on the other side of the road or in the middle of a nearby building.

Post-work session at Fitzroy, where there's definitely a different vibe on a warm evening to what there is in the morning, but the crowds were starting to thin out by the time I arrived and it was never an issue. Felt tired at first at the end of a work day, but the time in the water did me some good and I was functioning reasonably well by the last 10 minutes.

To the undoubted disappointment of some people, a private prosecution of Dan Andrews for treason failed to get past first base today at the Myrtleford Magistrates Court.

C • I tried to go at 6 earlier ... 2

Thursday street-O at Bundoora Park. After a couple of decent runs this one wasn't so good - back to what's been the norm for street-O events this year, struggling a bit with my back and not really running hills. This map isn't especially steep for the most part, even though it contains what's occasionally described as the highest point in metropolitan Melbourne (for a definition of metropolitan Melbourne as archaic as the old MFB-CFA boundary), but still enough to be a bit of work, and it was the sort of night where the second-last leg felt like it was uphill but the GPS revealed afterwards that it was 2m climb in 400.

The route choice was reasonably straightforward. We had to get 17 controls out of 25, and there were three obvious drops in the north and a loop of five in the south, so as long as there was a reasonable way to get the rest it was pretty easy. (The north bit of this map is always a bit of a trap). This was occasional long-run territory for me when living in Heidelberg but I don't think I've been into the newish housing on the northeast side, centred on Snake Gully Drive (which has no gully, and now that a suburb's been built there, probably not many snakes either). Enough cross-country bits to pick up a sufficient grass-seed collection into my shoes to make them likely prohibited imports into New Zealand, although I suspect that these shoes will have been consigned to the bin by the time I'm no longer a prohibited import into New Zealand.

C • Prohibited imports 1

An ambitious midweek session by my modern standards and it worked out OK, in particular taking on what I think is probably the biggest (if not steepest) hill within reasonable range of my place, up River Retreat/Molesworth from the river in Kew (in the name of colouring in another couple of bits of the map). Started out on the Yarra trails, which provided another positive - there were no road crossings in the first 20 minutes but my back was in good enough shape today that it managed without what's become the usual traffic/stretch stop around 6-10 minutes in. Still hard work at times, and quite slow (with the mix of hills and trails in the first half), but generally happy with this. Finished off by clearing a few bits of the newly-opened bits of the Alphington mill development.

A little bit of left knee tightness again, but settled pretty quickly.

Started from a different location in preparation for tonight's edition of Attack of the Killer Physio (tm), although I didn't get the logistics quite right because I forgot to load my helmet into the car with the bike (got the train in instead, which wouldn't have been an option yesterday). This enabled me to clear a bit more of the north end of North Fitzroy, on either side of the boundary between Yarra and the soon-to-be-former Moreland. (The thought did cross my mind that, given that the logo is a stylised M, they could save themselves some rebranding money by choosing a replacement name which also starts with M, and indeed it seems that Merri is the early favourite).

Felt at the good end of recent runs, although the flatness could have contributed to that; this will be put to the test more tomorrow. A little bit of tightness behind the left knee again, which the physio put down to tightness further up (something which was demonstrated by my left quad being barely touchable, although it hasn't directly felt uncomfortable while running). A bit of a change for my left side to be tightest after a stretch of some months where the main issues have been on the right; the right glute hasn't caused any problems running for a couple of weeks now, although it can still be uncomfortable at times sitting. The one test I haven't put it to yet is going fast (for a certain value of "fast"); may give that a go next week.

Reasonably standard Monday morning session, after a slightly earlier than usual start to the day to watch a recording of the F1 finale (I expected controversy and was not disappointed). Seemed to go smoothly enough.

A rather strange session: seemed to be going routinely for half of it, but then slowed down by 10 seconds/100m or so halfway through for no particularly obvious reason. Not quite sure what was going on there.

Felt a bit of tightness on the inside of the left knee afterwards, though loosened quickly with a bit of walking.

With this session, 2021 overtook 2017 to be my biggest year of training since 2016. Don't think I'll do the 40 hours needed in the next 18 days to catch up to 2016, but it's a bit of a landmark, at least.

C • Landmarks 7