Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Had its good stretches in the flatter parts, but one of those days where climbing set my back off, so a bit of a struggle in an area with lots of short climbs. Still managed to settle it down enough to get through at least the lower end of the range of what I'd hoped to get through (and, after a few near-misses, I finally managed to crack the 50k mark for a week for the first time in over three years, so that part is relatively pleasing). Starting to make more inroads into drawing lines on the Blairgowrie map too, and in the process learning which of the dead-end streets off the southwest side of Melbourne Road have paths connecting to the back beach tracks, which have paths connecting to the next street, and which don't connect to anything and the only way out is the way you came in.

Update on the next area to 100 streets is that Mornington Peninsula, Boroondara and Melbourne are all in the 90s, but I expect to do at least one more run in this area before I leave here so Mornington Peninsula should be first (and now that it looks like we'll be out of the office again for a while, the Melbourne tally might be stalled for a bit).

Orienteering (of sorts) for Christmas morning - the Maprun Blairgowrie street course from last summer (the one I did two weeks ago was from this summer). This started at the northwest end of Blairgowrie, had a certain amount of overlap with the other one (including some common controls), but also some unique parts at the northwest end. I was doing this as a 45-minute run again so was never going to get them all, but getting them all would have been a big ask on this one even in 60. Not too bad as a run, though (with a bit of an interruption to take a Christmas call from one of my aunts).

I was out a bit early to see many new Christmas presents in action, with most of the people I saw out either walking dogs, pushing strollers or queuing for coffee at the one place at the Blairgowrie shops which was open (especially the latter). A pleasant and relaxing day thereafter (and cooler than it was in WA).

One quirk that I've noticed before, but was particularly visible today on an afternoon walk to Bridgewater Bay, is that the beach crowds on Christmas Day here are predominantly not white - I guess it's logical enough that if it's a public holiday but one of no particular significance in your culture, you might as well take advantage of the (relative) lack of crowds while everyone else is otherwise engaged. The Indian subcontinent was particularly well represented.

C • A Jewish friend from school... 2

C • Cooler than WA 1

Street names with a footballing theme are not exactly unknown in Melbourne (1960s Hawthorn is well represented in the new Alphington paper mill development), but I suspect that the name of one of the streets I collected today is a coincidence (either that or the Mornington Peninsula council has a very creative Bulldog-supporting planner).

Taking on a bit more of Kew. A bit of an unexpected sight at the start (someone riding a penny farthing towards Yarra Boulevard). Struggling early on but got going from about 15 minutes onwards, handling the hills on the west side of Kew better than I expected. Had a bit of a flat patch around 40 minutes but finished off reasonably well. Not much traffic on the roads, plenty of pedestrian traffic around the Kew Junction shops.

As I sort of expected after the way I pulled up last night, the back was still a bit tight for running this morning, so headed for the water instead. A consistent session without being any less slow than recent weeks.

I'd forgotten how crazy things can be on 23 December - the local shopping strip was as busy at 9am today as it normally would be at 11 on Saturday (and that's without a Covid testing queue backing up into it) and it took 10 minutes to get through a normally straightforward intersection during the afternoon. Getting closer to getting a paper finished before Christmas, though (although I'm not sure I'll quite make it).

C • 23 Dec 1

Had hoped to try something faster today but hamstring was a bit tight when I planned to go out at lunchtime (possibly from standing around at the MCG media conference), so instead settled for adding another piece to the jigsaw at the end of the day, in the strip on the west side of Merri Creek south of Bell. Wasn't especially confident about this before I started because back was a bit tight, but it generally went OK - though there are a few short sharp climbs here and I had to stop briefly to settle the back down after a couple of them. (It's also quite tight afterwards - will see how it is in the morning). Have now completed most of the area east of Nicholson, except for a few bits down at the Fitzroy end.

Morning pool session, running rather than swimming today because my arm was still sore after a vaccination yesterday (the only apparent side-effect), and I thought gradually moving it through the water would do it some good. It did. A nice relaxed session on the whole under a clear summer sky, though with just a hint of foreboding with the panic which appears to exist in some quarters.

C • New Daily 3

Tuesday at Princes Park was this week's street-O outing. An interesting course format with clusters of controls (although, as with last Thursday, the number in the clusters was such that needing to get one more or one fewer might have made the decisions more interesting). Was reasonably happy with the route, and planned it to minimise the number of major road and rail crossings (with only one significant hold-up). Not exactly running smoothly, but probably a bit advanced again on previous evenings. Got far enough into the grassy bits of Royal Park to collect a few more grass seeds in my shoes, having just about got rid of last week's Bundoora ones.

Monday morning Pilates - in a somewhat different sequence to usual because one of the bits of equipment was broken and hence the other similar one was in high demand. Seemed to be going OK on the whole.

Didn't have great expectations after the last post-Pilates run, but this one ended up being pretty reasonable after an uncertain start - especially the last 15 minutes which were probably as good as I've felt on a run for the last month or two. Started out by clearing the remaining patch in the north end of North Fitzroy (in the process finding what must be the houses which get inundated when there's a major flood warning for Merri Creek, something I think I've only seen once in my time in Melbourne, and it didn't verify), then picked up a few remaining bits in back lanes a bit to the south - getting closer to completing the suburb now.

Left hamstring OK on the run, although a bit of tightness again post-run, so I think I can add this one to the "can be managed" file.

Got my third vaccine dose today; hopefully the side-effects will be as minimal as they were for the first two.