Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Melbourne City Race at Docklands, sort of home ground. Never moving particularly well and found this pretty hard work. Most of the course seemed relatively straightforward technically (perhaps that's because I knew where the stairs are), although I took a poor route on #3 and probably dropped 30 seconds or so. Best splits were in the multi-level section at the end, probably because others lost time there. A shorter course than I was expecting (it had been advertised as 10km straight line; my GPS was doing some odd things in the buildings but I'm pretty sure my running distance would have been under 11, and measuring afterwards the straight line was 7.9).

Leading times were just under 40, about what I expected. Quads felt quite drained afterwards - I was planning to take a rest day tomorrow anyway (fits in better than Friday with the week's logistics) but it seems like it might be needed.

Took my first City Circle tram on the way back (to get back to the vicinity of Southern Cross station).

1 - Splits

For the first time, randomness took me to the outer northeast - map 22, which covers the east side of Eltham along with Research. (Newly acquired knowledge of the day: the latter's name comes not because it had been an experimental farm in a past life, which had been my assumption, but morphed from Research Gully which morphed from Re-Search Gully, so named because gold was found there at the second attempt).

I used the Woodridge street-O map as the basis for this (although not the controls marked thereon). This part of town can be ferociously steep if you're going against the grain - the powerline track was once an if-I-want-a-serious-challenge long run destination - and is reasonably hilly even if you're going with it, as I was for a fair bit of this (you can hide quite a bit in 10-metre contours even on supposedly contouring roads). Found it pretty hard work for the most part, although better on the long gradual climbing parts; a bit of left hip soreness was again evident on the warm-up but not during the run. Quite a bit of grass slashing in progress - it's that time of year (and bushfires are always going to be in people's minds in an area like this - I don't think there's been a big one since 1939, although they would have been in a lot of trouble had the wind change on Black Saturday been two hours later).

A lot of politicians have an eye on their legacy, and being instrumental in getting the bit of land (which I went past today) reserved that saved a critically endangered species is one of the better ones.

This was a very pleasant late spring day, and once back home, the numerous basketball hoops that have sprouted in my street were getting some good use.

Back to Fitzroy. Struggled to get back to sleep after waking up for the last bit of the cricket, and felt predictably tired on getting up - think I would have struggled with a run today, but felt more or less OK in the water (if not especially smooth). A little bit of left hip soreness at times today, although it seemed to have settled by the evening.

Another of my excursions up into the east side of Coburg on a day when I had an evening physio session (the last one for a while with this particular physio, who's heading off on maternity leave). Main target here was clearing a group of north/south streets, which was accomplished. The run was a bit slow but consistent, left hip a little sore at times but settled down. A couple of reasonably chunky but short-lived showers.

I was aiming for 75-80 minutes; thought at one stage I might have overcommitted but ended up right on 80, my longest midweek session for several years. Will look at consolidating around this for a bit but the plan is still to be trying to get out to 90 reasonably consistently midweek a few months from now.

The local council (in which I reached 200 streets cleared today) changed its name from Moreland to Merri-Bek last year, and I noticed that now the primary school has too. I don't read the Herald-Sun so I don't know if they got outraged about this (they've distinguished themselves this week by running with a completely baseless story about Dan Andrews allegedly being rejected for membership of the Portsea Golf Club).

Summer Series at Beverley Hills, an area on the south side of Doncaster that is very hilly if you go east-west (in my Heidelberg days I occasionally came this way if I wanted a challenge on a long run), less so if you go north-south. Took a while to settle on a route but think I got a reasonable one in the end (not that you'd know it from the Maprun distances, which have me at 500+ metres longer than Victoria Greenhan even though we ran virtually the same course). Usual challenges with an evening run and walked a few of the steeper hills, but hit quite a nice stride in the last 10 minutes or so.

My warm-up was a multi-tasking exercise, checking out potential post-run eating places in the Jacksons Court centre next door. After spotting a place called Ms. Jackson it's not surprising that this was my earworm for the run (it's probably my favourite song of the 2000s so this was pushing on an open door to some extent). It didn't end up being where I went - in this part of town you can't usually go too far wrong with Chinese.

Last clear run home from here until 2028 - the roadworks for the connection of the Eastern Freeway to North East Link start tonight.

C • Distance 10

A morning swim in a new venue - the rebuilt Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre, abbreviated as NARC (which may cause a certain amount of amusement to the local Latin American population), which opened to the public yesterday. It's had a lot of money spent on it and definitely looks the part; it's also been realigned so that the 50m outdoor pool runs north-south rather than NW-SE, which could be problematic on a sunny morning. (Today was not a sunny morning, although it didn't rain that much). I still expect Fitzroy will remain my regular venue, but it's good to have this back as an option.

They must have organised some slow water for the new centre, judging by my performance :-).

South Wharf intervals. Didn't see that coming - significantly faster than my last couple of attempts, starting at 64s and going down to 62s (still only about 4 min/km pace, let's not get too excited). Felt reasonable doing them although a little lactic at the end of each rep. Not much wind, which probably helped.

Warm-up and down. Found the warm-down harder going than recently, which I take as a positive sign that I'd been trying pretty hard in the core session itself.

Notionally the MFR Monday night but no-one else was there by 6.05 so I set out on my own (possibly not the worst thing given how I expected to feel). Went round the east side of Yarra Bend for the first time in a while, discovering in the process that the bats are now definitely on that side of the river (with numerous notices about protecting wildlife, and one advising that Parks Victoria "were aware of unauthorised music performances"). Encountered on-the-comeback-trail Bruce during this stretch.

Back wasn't great and this run was hard going at times, although no worse than other Monday evenings. Definitely a big improvement on yesterday though.

I guess the Las Vegas Strip is not the place you'd live if you wanted a quiet life, but I'm still somewhat surprised that whatever laws apply to noise there allow a Formula 1 Grand Prix to take place in the middle of the night (the race starts at 10pm local time, and one of the qualifying sessions is midnight-1am).

C • 6:05 8