Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Fairly hard work this morning. The conditions weren't as tough as yesterday (26 and cloudy), but still warm, and although I was able to maintain a reasonable pace it always felt as if it could fall apart at any moment. Was originally hoping to stretch the Sunday distance out a bit but next week's conditions will be more favourable for that. Didn't help that the water point I thought there was on the Darebin Creek trail didn't exist (will have to plan runs a bit more around water point availability on future warm days).

This one took me out to West Heidelberg and the east bit of Preston, clearing some streets in an industrial area (New Year weekend isn't a bad time for this). Saw a bit of road rage on display passing the Repat Covid test site, though I guess it's a minor blessing that it involved only horn-blowing and a few rude words rather than anything more drastic. (The problem here is that on a day like today, the queue stretches around the corner into Bell Street but you don't see this until too late if you're turning right into Waterdale).

(Speaking of matters Covid, a familiar name was in the news today - Nigel Crawford, whose back I saw a lot of in ACT junior cross-country races back in the day, is taking over as co-chair of the immunisation advisory group ATAGI).

This week was at the short end of what's been normal in recent times, but I've negotiated the first significant heatwave of the summer so not too concerned.

Off the mark for 2022, having retired early last night with a view to getting out early this morning on a hot day. When I did the same a decade ago the reward was one of my best runs of the year. I doubt that will be the case this year - 8am was too late to set out to beat the heat (it was 29 by the time I was out). The run started reasonably well but by the 25-minute mark I knew I was fading quickly (as was the case for the last warm-weather run) and it was definitely hard work to finish off, although the pace did hold up OK (even the uphill kilometres were sub-6) which might augur well for the next run I do in easier conditions.

Today's number was 20, which took me back to once-familiar terrain in Rosanna and Macleod; in particular, the closing bit of this run, through Rosanna Parklands, was the T-14 to T-7 stage of many a run from Heidelberg (usually feeling a lot easier than it did today). Had hoped to get as far north as the Gresswell Forest but that was a bit out of range today.

Had hoped for a decent run to round out 2021 but left hip was a bit sore this morning (a physio session seems to have fixed that), so headed for the water instead - busy as you might imagine on a hot day even if it was relatively early. Roughly par for a water session for me in recent months.

From an athletic perspective, 2021 was certainly a better year for me than the preceding two - definitely fewer injury issues (or perhaps I've learned to manage them better), illustrated by not missing more than three consecutive days of running at any point this year, which partly explains why my distance was more than 50% more than either of the last two years. (Also partly explains why I'm carrying 6-7 fewer kilos at the end of the year than I was at the start, although still some way from where I'd like to be there). The circumstances of this year means I didn't really get the chance to see if any of this improvement has filtered through into competition (the NSW Championships weren't really a representative sample, with the extreme terrain on the first day and running injured on the second) - hopefully that will come reasonably soon in 2022.

Hard to pick out a best run, but perhaps the most enjoyable was the 50th birthday one, making the most of the river and a frosty morning (honourable mention, although bits of it barely qualified as a "run", to the Middle Harbour mission with Tracy in November). The Broulee weekend was probably the high point of the orienteering season for me (and probably many others) before life started going pear-shaped.

The Pilates schedule is different to usual at the moment with two successive Monday public holidays, so here was where it slotted in (which means a different instructor). Generally went OK.

Post-Pilates run. I'd watched the morning cloud layer break up during Pilates, somewhat to my annoyance, but the surface layer of cool air was still intact for a bit longer and the conditions were pretty good. Hard work for the first 10 minutes but then settled quite well; fairly slow but some of that was probably going in and out of a lot of small alleys.

I thought I'd make some significant inroads into the remnants of North Fitzroy, but in fact I got the lot except for one notional extension of the end of Smith Street (think I'll need to go out to the tram stop to get that one). The most interesting part of this was a maze of small lanes around a Housing Commission area which would make an interesting pocket of sprint terrain (though far too small to use on its own), the most oddball the ramp between Heidelberg Road and Hoddle Street which Citystrides considers a street (the Christmas week was definitely the time to do this one, although in fact there is a decent amount of room off the traffic lane). This makes it seven suburbs I've completed in practical terms, plus an eighth which I'll recomplete once I finish the new bit of Alphington. Five others are between 50% and 64%; three closish to home (Ivanhoe east, Kew East and Heidelberg Heights), one close to work (South Wharf), and Blairgowrie.

Headed east for the rest of the day in pursuit of the Ada Tree (a famous big mountain ash in the forests east of Warburton) - this had been on my to-do list for a while but I hadn't had the right opportunity (I didn't think it was really the place to be in either a wet winter or a hot summer). The tree was impressive, the rainforest gully walk to get there was also impressive, and I think that the Ada Tree car park to the Starling Gap campground would make a nice run (though at 13k one-way it would need a drop-off, at least at my current distances). On a hot day, the Yarra at Warburton was also being well used.

Once again trying to go six days in a row was a bridge too far; attempted to take on the Summer Series event at Camberwell but was apparent within a couple of hundred metres that it wasn't going to work out, so just walked a few controls (and in the process got held up by two trains, something which would have been frustrating if I was running). Did plenty of walking today though, including going round the rock shelves at Sorrento back beach for the first time (the tide's not often low enough to do it), and getting down to one of the few accessible bits of the shore west of Flinders.

Back in Melbourne now. Expect I'll be lying reasonably low for a bit (certainly the combination of high 30s forecasts for both Friday and Saturday, and being on call on Saturday, is an incentive not to do anything significant for New Year's Eve).

Didn't have high expectations for this after last night but actually turned out to be at the better end of my recent runs - tempting to go longer but that wasn't the plan for the day. An ideal morning for it. Filled in a few more gaps on the Blairgowrie map (and Mornington Peninsula wins the race to be next to 100).

After a relaxing day in which I had less to do than I was expecting (thanks to the combination of quality Australian bowling and inept English batting), and an excursion out to the rockpool (plenty of people there, though no-one jumping off the rock tower today), this was a late afternoon session in the backyard pool - always nice to do this on a fine day with the view out to Arthur's Seat. Didn't feel too bad, although was a bit dry by the end (possibly the pool treatment - not sure if it's chlorine or salt).

C • Chlorine or salt? 2

Will file doing the street-O at Moorabbin in between the MCG and Blairgowrie in the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" box - I discovered fairly quickly that running after a day sitting down at the MCG didn't suit me any better than doing it after a day sitting at a desk. Struggled throughout, despite the relatively flat terrain, and was glad to get it over with. Don't think my route was great either.

This took me into territory I haven't been in for a very long time - I think the last time I ventured into this corner of Moorabbin was to watch Essendon play St. Kilda there, which tells you a bit about how long ago it was because St. Kilda last played home games there in the early 1990s. Did add Kingston to my list of LGAs run in since I started keeping track of such things.

I suspect I will be making alternative plans for day 4 of the Test.