Training Log: blairtrewin

Back to going onto random maps, this time 49, centred on Ringwood and slightly awkward in shape because Eastlink and the bypass cut it into three. I headed for the southeast quarter and ran controls from a Ringwood Wilds street-O from last September. It's a bit hillier than it looks from 10-metre contours, with a reasonably solid climb back up from the bottom in the last 10 minutes, but mostly not too steep (apart from one back street which must be known to others because it's a Strava segment).

Thought I might struggle a bit today coming off a long day yesterday, but this was pretty good. No signs of back issues. Chilly with low cloud not yet having broken up.

In terms of landmarks, this run was notable for things which are no longer there; of the five schools on the 1990 map, only the two Catholic ones still exist, while a more recent disappearance is the Bedford Road level crossing (which I think has only gone in the last few weeks). I noted looking at the 1990 map that, in an interesting juxtaposition, another now non-existent primary school not too far to the west was next door to something labelled on the map as 'Cadbury-Schweppes Pty Ltd Confectionery Division', although I'm not sure whether the school or the chocolate factory was there first.

C • Bedford Rd level crossing 2

Long run switched to Friday, although not quite as early in the morning as usual as I was working from home today (thanks to an IOF Council meeting starting at 4pm). Headed north to do some colouring in in an area of Preston north of Murray and east of Plenty, in the process reaching the 600 milestone in Darebin. Hard work for the first 20-25 minutes but thereafter flowing reasonably smoothly on a crisp morning. A bit of left hip soreness at times coming off downhills (no big ones in this area, but lots of small rolling stuff).

This was a slightly frenetic morning after I'd accidentally turned my alarm off last night, but then as it turned out my back wasn't any good for running this morning anyway so I swapped today's and tomorrow's plans. Took me a long time to loosen up in the pool too, but did so eventually. It's the time of year where Fitzroy's starting to get down to the hard core.

Part 2 was a lunchtime run, heading towards the CBD (something I keep for days when I think my body might want a few traffic stops). Tough going for the first 10 minutes but improved considerably thereafter - helped with the flow that I got a good run with the traffic coming back. Nice lunchtime to be out again after the morning low cloud broke up.

The route started out along the Yarra to Birrarung Maar, then round a few blocks in the southeast quarter of the centre before heading back along Flinders Lane. Ticked off a couple more streets in the central grid (at least according to what I've actually run although the GPS doesn't always agree). Two demos today on the steps of Parliament (one Palestine, one public housing), both with a banner and a handful of people (in the former case most of the action currently seems to be at the universities).

Something which is increasingly noticeable when riding home after sunset is that a lot of the bike lane traffic is food delivery riders on e-bikes, some of whom are better than others (pretty sure that using a handheld mobile while riding is just is illegal as doing it while driving). They're not as nuts as the 1990s couriers though.

C • Mobile traffic 8

Pilates after a post-midnight finish. Felt more awake at the start than I thought I might, probably because I rode rather than drove there (recognising among other things that it certainly wouldn't be any easier to compete with the construction workers for a park at 8 than it is at 7). Not too bad a session although felt a bit of soreness in my right calf at times, this vanished afterwards though.

I liked this morning's playlist and passed on my compliments to whoever chose it, but it turned out that the 'whoever' was a Spotify algorithm.

A lunchtime run from home, rare these days, a lot more common in 2020 and 2021 and thus being vaguely discomfiting (there's enough remnants of those times that I still get triggered when someone - they still exist, although few in politics or the mainstream media take any notice of them these days - advocates bringing back Covid restrictions). Nice day for it though, and not too bad as lunchtime runs go.

The target for this was recompleting Bellfield after a new street appeared in the development where Banksia Secondary College used to be. This loop has quite a bit on paths along the creek (took the direct steep route out of the creek for the first time in a while, and probably the last in a while because it is usually too slippery to use in winter), and also back through the west side of Ivanhoe.

All Nations intervals. A bit slow, particularly early on (eventually got down to 61/64), but didn't feel too bad doing this - back definitely better than it was at times on the weekend (perhaps making an early morning visit to the shops beforehand to replenish my fruit supplies did me some good on fronts other than nutritional).

Last year I gave one of my nephews a Melbourne Victory shirt for his birthday and remarked that it would probably become a collector's item because I expected the sponsor to go bust within six months (as it turned out it was a bit over a year). Hopefully no intending Australian Championships participants had booked one of their Melbourne-Tamworth flights.

Warm-up and down, even slower than normal. Don't think I can blame the (relative) cold.

Staying in central Brisbane at the top of the Roma Street parklands (ahead of working out of the Brisbane office today and heading home tonight), which put me within easy range of the Spring Hill baths. This is one of the more characterful pools in Australia, an only modestly altered 1886 facility (complete with century-old signs advising men not to loiter on one side of the pool), and is a convenient location too, although it must be too cold for the locals because I pretty much had the place to myself. (The water, if anything, was a bit warm).

I wasn't moving that well so my time was a bit faster than I expected. It wasn't until I saw a sign on the way out that I realised what I should have initially, that an 1886 pool wouldn't have been measured in metres and so my swim was a bit shorter than I'd planned (that said, it wasn't a round number in yards either). I had also forgotten about the road crossing outside a hospital whose principal purpose appears to be give it more customers (and I am sceptical that a planned 14-storey building whose construction has so far made it to one storey is going to be open for business in 'early 2024', a definition which I would say even on a generous interpretation ends tomorrow).

Made use of both Attackpoint and Strava for work-related purposes today: Attackpoint to dig up some comments Claire had made after my 2009 visit to the Torres Strait so I could respond to a question someone had asked about climate change/tropical cyclone risk there, Strava to check the elevation of some of the lower-lying bits of my late July 2023 run in Dublin to follow up a query about work being done on coastal flooding risks in Ireland.