Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Morning session at Fitzroy, for the first time in a while an earned rest day at the end of a hard stretch rather than a plan B. Would probably have struggled to run today anyway as back was quite sore (as opposed to tight) - whether a hard physio session had anything to do with this is an open question. It wasn't entirely comfortable during the session either, but didn't really interfere with it.

Didn't quite manage to match my numbers from last August, but it's still only the second month since 2017 that I've averaged over an hour a day, so a decent month's work.

Put in a solid day at the office today, which reacquainted me with the dubious pleasures of riding through the city at 7pm on a Friday evening (although driving a car would be worse). Encountered a couple of blokes at the Fitzroy pool pedestrian crossing who were quite clearly as pissed as the proverbial newts, but they did manage to get themselves across the road without getting squashed, not something I was especially confident of when I saw them.

Ate something that didn't quite agree with me last night. By morning I was feeling fine in a general life sense, but still thought it best not to push things too hard and backed off a bit from plans to go long (by midweek standards). This proved to be sensible as this run turned out to be slow and lacking energy, although back was basically OK so that's one good sign. Mostly flat through bits of Brunswick (as with the last couple of Thursday runs in this area, this was about positioning myself ahead of a physio session later in the day).

Well and truly starting in the dark this time (which may explain a bit of the slowness); it's this time of year that I'm just about ready for daylight saving to finish. Also no signs of any significant remaining heat, although I'm keeping a close eye on what have been so far wildly variable model forecasts for next weekend (they all agree that there will be intense low somewhere but "somewhere" can be anywhere between the Bight and off the NSW coast). One run yesterday definitely grabbed my attention - if that scenario played out (unlikely but possible) for Easter Saturday we'd probably be looking at 100+mm rain and high winds at the competition area, which would probably mean no competition.

Looks like there's still gold in them there hills. (I note the article is very coy about exactly where the nugget was found).

Last night of the Summer Series at Tunstall Junction. Didn't get off to a good start when I managed to make three mistakes on the way to the first control, firstly not realising that I couldn't take a straight line across the area behind the community hub (the map wasn't much help in this respect), then not thinking and turning in one street early. (The third mistake was going to #19 at all in the first place - I would have been better off dropping it and going to #9 instead). Brain switched on after that and I think the rest of my route was OK, but back was troublesome throughout and never got into any sort of consistent pattern with the running. Lanita passed me at considerable speed differential on several occasions (and I'm assuming that the several occasions was because of different sets of controls that we got, and not for the reason that Bryan Keely once passed me eight times during a Victorian Middle Championships at Rowdy Flat).

As anticipated (especially as we stayed entirely south of the freeway tonight), Whitehorse was next to 100.

The presentations were supposedly afterwards, but I wasn't sure how far afterwards and by then it had started raining (like a few others, I miss the days of the end-of-season BBQ in the scout hall at Maroondah Triangle). Not sure if there was anything on offer for getting a richly-undeserved second in M50 at the park-street championships.

Original plan for the day was intervals first up in the morning, but woke up with a stiff back and a bit of walking didn't seem to make a lot of difference, so decided to head for the water and hope that a run was a proposition later in the day. Turned out to be pretty good once in the water, somewhat to my surprise; churning out consistent laps and my least slow session for quite a while (certainly in the morning).

Ride in was pretty smooth too, and there are now only three construction sites in the way on La Trobe Street (although no doubt more will appear).

With an online workshop all day (the sort of workshop that you come out of with five times as many ideas as you'll have time to implement) I thought I might have to save an attempt to run for after work, but looking at the schedule I thought the first talk after lunch was missable, opening enough time to try in the middle of the day instead. It worked out fine - probably felt better than a lot of my lunchtime intervals sessions, although pace wasn't great (65-67) and got a bit lactic at the end of the last couple of reps. (Even though this is dead flat, I find this session harder mentally than All Nations because it's dead straight, and particularly on the even reps the finish line looks a long way away).

Warm-up and down. Got a message that I'd been trying pretty hard during the session when the small climb over the Yarra footbridge was enough to set my quads off (although they settled down soon enough).

Monday morning Pilates, definitely starting well and truly in the dark this time (even though I was a bit late arriving, thanks to managing to encounter three trains and two garbage trucks in the 3km there). Not too bad once I was underway, and not even as sleepy as I thought it might have been.

Had a bit of left foot soreness during the day (as with a bit of left shin soreness at one point yesterday, I suspect the calf was the underlying cause). Not sure of how it would hold up (and with the rest of tonight's MFR group much faster than I am), I decided I wouldn't hold them up and did my own thing - on a night where I thought I might have to stop a bit, picked a route to clear some main street areas where there would be some traffic breaks (traffic involving umbrella-wielding pedestrians wasn't factored into this). Hard going but as it turned out the foot was fine, and I've certainly had worse evening runs - encouraging coming off a tough day yesterday.

Spotted a sign at one point for the Collingwood English Language School, which did make me think about what parts of the English language students would pick up if they learned it from attending Collingwood matches. (And speaking of football, there was a "how to know you're old" moment at the start of the run when I mentioned something about Warwick Capper's shorts and none of the others there - all of whom, I suspect, were born after Warwick's retirement - knew what I was talking about).

A later start than usual (having started the day by going to vote for Labor state conference delegates) on a cool morning. I'd made a couple of false starts in the last couple of months on this route, but today I knew within the first 10 minutes that I was on and could reasonably target 90 minutes or more, heading out initially through Heidelberg before coming back across Rosanna and West Heidelberg. Pretty smooth through the first hour, including most of the hills except for the steepest one (coming out of Rosanna) which was harder going. Tired somewhat beyond the hour but it was good tired rather than bad tired, and once it became apparent that even a direct route home would give me a time in the mid-90s I decided it was worth staying out the bit extra to set a new (recent) benchmark - haven't been longer since early 2018. Very encouraged by this (and in general it's been a decent few days when I thought it might be a difficult few days, given my schedule).

Not especially energetic for the rest of the day, although events at Docklands between 5.30 and 6pm were enough to give me a second wind.

Another post-midnight finish (IOF this time), so didn't fancy too early a start and did this in Woodend before getting to a course-planning workshop there I was helping at. Not too many times I've explored Woodend before (I think I did a Macedon Ranges series event there once in the mid-2000s - when I was OV President I tried to get to each of the park/street series at least once each year - but couldn't find my map). Did an initial loop to the north, which featured a potentially busy road with no verge but also a nice path along the creek. That was a bit shorter than I thought it would be so did some weaving around in the streets in the second half (adding Macedon Ranges to my list in the process) - Woodend is a smaller place than I thought it was. A fairly sluggish run although the later parts were a bit better. Somewhat odd weather - a chilly southeast wind and Woodend was right on the northern limit of the drizzle on the ranges, so sometimes had sunshine and windblown drizzle at the same time (and didn't really get wet).

Pleased to have been able to manage a reasonable set of sessions through a busy three days - hopefully tomorrow will be better coming off a proper sleep for the first time in a few days. Also pleased to see the turnout at the workshop :-).

Late start after a 1.20am finish last night. I went in with low expectations and for the first 15 minutes this run lived down to them, both in terms of energy levels and tightness, but improved considerably in the second half. Unusual to do a run of this length from home which meant venturing into corners of Alphington I haven't been into for a while (with a bit more progress on the paper mill redevelopment, although not yet at the stage of producing any new streets). Pretty slow.

A session at the end of the day. Was at a bit of a low point before doing this but the water woke me up, as I thought it might, and the session ended up as quite a reasonable run. Pool was pretty quiet; I guess people are out of summer mode now. (We're about to go past the average date of the last 30, with no sign of anything close to that in at least the next week).

Unlike the last two weeks, managed to back up from a Wednesday night to do something longer on Thursday. An earlier start than usual to be into the office in time for an online talk at 9.10, which meant that it was still properly dark when I started - thought this might be an issue heading south through Yarra Bend but there was enough ambient light for it not to be an issue (if anything the lights at the golf driving range were too bright and affected my night vision, although it was almost at the point by then of it not being needed). Did some back-and-forths through the section of Abbotsford west of the convent to clear a section there (wondering in the process why a street several kilometres from the ocean is called Marine Parade; is the City of Yarra - the subject of my day's milestone, reaching 300 streets there - planning in anticipation of 25 metres of sea level rise?) before heading back.

Going up the (few) hills was sometimes a bit iffy, but otherwise this was decent for the most part, starting to flow very well in the last 15 minutes. Felt a bit faster than it was; perhaps the early start had a bit to do with that?

Got to work and discovered I'd mixed the dates up and the talk was actually next week. At least this made sure I got back before a somewhat unusual morning thunderstorm. (The storm was to lead to one of my occasional uses of Attackpoint for work-related purposes, when a forecaster preparing for an interview asked me for examples of past notable morning thunderstorms in Melbourne and this enabled me to pinpoint a relevant date).

And, after several hundred years, the long arm of the law has finally caught up with Robin Hood, who was due to appear in a Nottingham court today. (Sherwood Forest would be a strong contender for the least interesting terrain I have ever orienteered in).

Penultimate Eastern Summer Series event at Ashwood North (if this was Sydney they'd have given the map a name which makes reference to the former biscuit factory redevelopment that makes for some of its more interesting bits, but we're a bit more boring here). The good news was that my hip was fine, the bad news was that my back was in its usual Wednesday evening shape, although there were some good patches of flow on some level and downhill parts, particularly in the middle. Again at the longer end of the scale (if not quite as long as the last two weeks); some tricky route decisions but haven't yet seen an obviously better option.

My back was quite tight afterwards but was improved after a dinner stop in Box Hill; perhaps the bowl of Sichuan pork soup, which tested the outer limits of my spiciness tolerance, acted as a muscle relaxant. (The restaurant I went to certainly met the authenticity test - I was the only white person in the place). The centre of Box Hill is increasingly becoming a facsimile of a pocket of modern urban China, with its gleaming high-rise towers; this isn't to everyone's taste, but if it isn't to your taste it's not as if alternative low-rise suburbs are exactly in short supply in eastern Melbourne (and I see increased urban density around major public transport hubs as a Good Thing).

A slightly earlier than usual start for a swim and felt a bit sleepy before I got in. That disappeared pretty quickly once in the water and I felt as if I was moving reasonably well, but the clock at least partially disagrees.

The hip was again a bit uncomfortable in the later part of the swim, and felt iffy enough that I decided to put off plans for a lunchtime run - will do something Friday instead.

Early morning Pilates. Found it hard work at times this morning for no obvious reason, and left hip was fatiguing relatively easily in some of the exercises, although no pain. Not getting any lighter at the start (that will come with the end of daylight saving in a couple of weeks).

My first outing for a while at an MFR evening run (which have recently restarted), from Andrew and Cian's place and doing a circuit of Albert Park Lake in about the time it will take the F1 cars to do 20 of them the weekend after next. In one way this was slightly frustrating for me in as much as I dropped 50 metres off the bunch at the start and never pulled it in (I'd hoped I might as my pace increased once warmed up, but the rest sped up at a similar pace), in another way it was positive because it's pretty rare for me these days to go 30 minutes without having to stop to settle my back down, particularly for an evening run. Got plenty of chances post-run to catch up on the socialising I'd missed during the run :-).

Koonya Monrington Peninsula street-O, with a mix of the back beach tracks and the streets between it and Melbourne Road. It had the feel of a day when I might have settled into a nice flow on a flatter route, but in the end the ups and downs on the dunes (both on the tracks and on the streets that have been built over them) was more than my back was ready to handle today (quads also quite stiff afterwards). Did manage to find a bit at the end to get myself under the time limit, but didn't extend the run as I was originally hoping to do.

Probably just about optimised my route for the distance I was capable of doing today; I dropped four controls (all low- to mid-scoring) and Andrew Rowan needed another 2.4km to get them all (and be slightly late).

Earlier than I normally would go on a Saturday given the forecast; it was still early enough that the wind was cool rather than hot and it ended up quite a pleasant run. Started out on the back track towards Number Sixteen then back through the streets, picking up a couple on the north side of Melbourne Road. After a slow start in the soft sand bits, had some nice sections in the middle (particularly on the track amongst the moonah trees near Tasman Drive), but quads starting to feel it a bit towards the end and decided to stop at 45 minutes (still OK for the day after something longer); there are bigger fish to fry tomorrow.

Occurred to me going through the intersection of Andrea and Belinda that this may well have been another of those places (I've seen a few) where a developer or councillor named the streets after his daughters (in the 1960s it definitely would have been 'his'). The neighbouring Rodney and Nerissa may have come from that source too, although the latter sounds a bit out-there for that era.

And one of the signs you've been in a workplace for a while is when you start having colleagues who weren't born when you first started. I haven't reached that milestone yet (at least if you only count when I was officially a Bureau employee and not the four years before that when I was a PhD student partly based there), but it's getting closer - our latest recruit in climate was only a few months old when I joined.

C • DOB 3

Plan B did work - I woke up a bit stiff after a particularly vigorous session of Attack of the Killer Physio last night, but loosened up OK once going and had a reasonably solid session (if a bit slow). Headed out to Heidelberg to fill in a bit of space between Darebin and Burgundy, zig-zagging down with one very notable exception (the Stradbroke climb which I think is probably the steepest thing I've run up in years, though short). In this process I completed everything on the north side of a 4km circle, although there's still plenty to do on the south side in Abbotsford and Kew.

It was a bit chaotic at the Heidelberg end because it's the first day of an extended rail shutdown from there outwards. Also got a reminder that some Ivanhoe Girls Grammar parents aren't doing a great job of teaching their daughters that turning traffic is supposed to give way to pedestrians, and at the end had to dodge a Fairfield Primary student carrying a very large stuffed animal on his head.

My parents flew in late last night and I took them home this morning (then worked from Blairgowrie for the rest of the day and will be there over the weekend).

As with last week, I didn't come up soon enough from Wednesday night to manage a long run this morning (unlike last week, Friday is available as a plan B). Headed instead for the water for what turned into a reasonable session once I was going.

The second part of plan B was the lunchtime run. I decided to head for the central city this time, partly because it would have more shade on a warm day (although as it happened lunchtime was when a seabreeze pushed briefly into the city before retreating again later). I expected a few interruptions and got a few interruptions, although not too many, possibly facilitated by a few bits of jaywalking (one intersection where I didn't try that was the one outside police headquarters). Didn't feel too bad all things considered.

Part of the objective here was to draw some more lines on maps, and I did draw some more lines on maps (including Bourke Street Mall for the first time), but the GPS was being even more wacky than usual in the inner city - giving me almost a bonus kilometre in the end - which meant that a lot of those lines were a lot less straight than the ones I actually ran. One of the upshots of this was that I supposedly registered seven "streets" (mostly laneways parallel to Elizabeth Street, which I did run) which I didn't actually enter.

Dodging pedestrians is part of the deal with a lunchtime CBD run, but at one spot on Bourke Street there were more to dodge than usual - a shop was being auctioned and the crowd spilled onto the street. Both the premises being auctioned and the people in attendance were more respectable than the last time I saw a lunchtime CBD property auction. That one was in the early 2000s and involved a dodgy amusement arcade in Russell Street (at that time a notorious drug strip) around the corner from the old Bureau office; well represented in the crowd were those whose by-then-mostly-terminated lives were subsequently portrayed in Underbelly. As one of my colleagues said at the time "the bids weren't in millions, they were in kilos".

Pilates session, moved from Monday because of the long weekend. Felt surprisingly good doing this, despite Achilles tightness beforehand.

Summer Series at Mulgrave, a rare Wednesday excursion south of the Monash (combining business with pleasure, I took the opportunity on the way to check on a potential new observing site at Wantirna). Flatter than most Wednesday areas (although not quite as flat as the almost-contourless map suggested - was it a 20-metre interval?), and slightly less genteel than most Wednesday areas, at least at the point near #20 with the probably-harmless-but-slightly-discomfort-inducing bloke standing in the middle of the road with a crushed can in one hand and a beer bottle in the other.

I knew this would be a long one when it was 17 controls (B is normally 13 or 14) and the first few legs weren't particularly short. (Often the courses get a bit shorter at this end of the season as sunset gets earlier, but the last two have been the longest of the lot). Running probably slightly improved on last week, or perhaps I've just got a bit more systematic about settling my back down when it needs it. Route was OK, I think.

This part of town turns into a pumpkin early; the eating options after 7.30 appeared to be Maccas, Maccas or Maccas. (I went back to Fairfield instead).

Definitely needed a rest day from running (apart from anything else, both my Achilles have been a bit tight today). Wasn't super-energetic to start with in the water either, but ended up a reasonable session. Saw quite a few people pool running in the adjacent lane, not super-common here.

The "oops" award of the day goes to whoever was responsible for the NSW Liberal candidate biographies, which included the statement "Sophie Bruce knows our community and will be a strong voice for Prospect and ensure it is the best place to live, work and raise a family.". This would be an entirely unremarkable thing to put in a candidate biography except that Ms. Bruce is actually running for Blue Mountains. (They've fixed it now).

An informal event to finish the weekend, on Georges Heights and Middle Head (with its old fortifications) - I've been on the latter before, but not the former. (My previous outing on Middle Head was the day after the Six Foot Track, although I doubt I was going any faster today). Some interesting bits technically, some controls which were definitely there for the views (which were impressive, on a day which was drier than expected), and some transport legs. Body functioning a bit better than yesterday (though still not great - definitely in need of a rest day), and almost celebrated my first control miss yesterday by doing it again today (realised when I was a bit past it that I hadn't been to #18). Concentration was a bit patchy in a few other spots too.

30 minutes late getting back to Melbourne, but my bag got there at the same time as I did this time, so I think we'll call this a net gain. (And after picking up some things at the shops on the way home - not many eating places are open at 8.45 on a public holiday night - I was once again reminded that microwaveable ready meals are never anywhere near as good in reality as they look on the packaging).

However long you do this sport for, you can still find new ways to stuff things up. A first for me today after nearly 45 years in orienteering - missing a control altogether (as opposed to getting a wrong one). The offending one was #6, at the end of a sequence of short legs before heading around the oval. I guess if it was going to happen, a qualification race that I was never going to qualify from is not the worst place for it to happen, but it's still annoying. (Simon Uppill - who's been jogging this weekend because of injury - may not have been pleased that my misfortune left him with what I suspect is his first last place in a very long time). Wasn't a great run anyway, although maybe it was just that everyone else made me feel slow (and I still think the left route on #12 was a decent option even though few others took it).

There was certainly some spectacular carnage in the quarter-finals, including one of the women's where three of the six missed a phi loop and all got disqualified (leaving Alice Martin to inherit a semi-final place she definitely wasn't expecting). Arpad on commentary suggested later that mispunches were a risk of the young and inexperienced but I note that both of the over-50 competitors in the men's race did so (Grant did it in the quarters).

St. Gregory's Campbelltown has quite a rugby league reputation, and there were a few names on the boards which were familiar to me (most recently James Tedesco), although not so to the Victorians and South Australians.

C • 12 1

C • Alice Martin 5

As with last year, four races in two days was a bridge too far - my back was being particularly troublesome and I was really struggling to run (and often didn't). This made it hard to focus on the course, too (in any case a bit of an afterthought between the elite semis and final), which was a pity because it would have had some challenges at a decent speed. Definitely a good spectator afternoon though, but a disappointing day for me personally.

Ended up at Tracy and Paul's in the evening with some of the Tasmanians; I was able to enlighten the youngsters as to where the Bottom of the Harbour establishment they'd got fish and chips from got its name from. (I've long been somewhat amused that a Royal Commission set up into alleged dodgy activities of the Painters and Dockers Union got sufficiently sidetracked that they ended up exposing massive tax scams by other people).

Race 4 Public Course 1 - Splits

First race of Sydney Sprint weekend at Sydney Uni. Was a bit concerned before the start as my quads were a bit stiff this morning (after cramping at one stage during the IOF meeting last night), but ended up as relatively smooth, if slow. The course was marked more by route choice than by fine navigation and I don't think I made any major blunders, just a brief wobble out of #5 before realising there was no way out in that direction. Didn't come last which was objective #1 achieved for a WRE (because I actually had some WRE points, I started further into the start list than my form warranted), and about the distance down that I expected.

Some university traditions seem to be disappearing: at neither Sydney Uni nor UNSW were the words "Arts Degrees: Please Take One" written above any toilet roll holders that I saw (and the police horses weren't heading to a demo at the university itself, but to one in Victoria Park nearby).

At UNSW. Unsurprisingly the Victorian sprint relay teams were not in need of my limited services, so instead I went out afterwards in a mass start. I was even less confident about this than I was about the morning, given my poor recent history backing up for a second time in the day, but managed to get myself into some sort of state of mobility in the warm-up, and settled OK into a position at the front end of the grupetto. The back started to play up a bit from about one-third distance on and I did end up walking a few stairs (although did manage to get far enough up the big stairs to get out of sight before doing so), but I've had far worse afternoon races in recent years. Reasonably smooth technically.

One control was definitely on familiar territory: #14 was at the front door of the Climate Change Research Centre, a reasonably regular haunt of mine over the years (but not since 2019). I have been known to use my orienteering skills in these parts to plot an optimally efficient and rapid route from conference session to source of coffee.

C • Source of coffee 1

Race 1 Elite 1 - Splits

Race 2 Public Course 1 - Splits

Headed up to Sydney in the morning with the plan of working during the day and then getting a run in before an IOF Council meeting at 6. Things didn't quite go to plan in some ways - I made it to Sydney on schedule but my bag didn't. There was still no indication that it had been found at 4pm so I left the office a bit early, dropped a couple of hundred dollars on two new sets of running gear at Rebel (at least this means I'll be able to retire a couple of my older sets of gear) and headed to where we're staying in Camperdown to link up with Jenny for a run.

We headed down to the water - Glebe is reasonably familiar territory for her, but not for me. Some nice spots going down there, and along the waterfront with occasional spectacular harbour views and equally spectacular vessels (I assume none of these have been seized from Russian oligarchs). My back was in a reasonably standard evening state, though, which means some of the hills coming back were hard going - will certainly want it to be better tomorrow but I think it will be.

Back tight this morning so took to the water instead, not wanting to push things too far with races ahead this weekend. Once in the water ended up as a reasonably steady session in the water, picking up a bit in the second half. A little bit of left shoulder soreness early on.

Decided to have a crack at doing something at lunchtime, which mainly served to provide evidence that my decision not to attempt doing something longer this morning was sound. Headed down into various nooks and crannies of South Melbourne around the market and the town hall (with its Boer War memorial), in the process making it the second time my street count has matched the postcode (3205). (This will be the last time it happens for a while as I'm now through metro Melbourne's range of postcodes - the next likely possibility is in the 3900s on the Mornington Peninsula).

Also in street count news, Port Phillip is up to 97, but I suspect it won't be my next to 100 as Whitehorse is on 95 after last night, and I doubt I'll run in Port Phillip again before the Ashwood street-O in two Wednesdays' time. (Also not too far away from reaching three figures is Geneva, which should happen while I'm there in late April).

And outdated Covid signs (an occasional series): a sign on the door of a shopping centre at South Melbourne said not to enter if you'd been in Italy in the last 14 days or in contact with someone who had.

Street-O at Blackburn Lake. I've long had a soft spot for this area, partly because it's a nice pocket of bush in the suburbs plus bushy suburbs to surround, and partly because it's where I made my first Eastern Summer Series appearance 30 years plus a few days ago (coming somewhat unstuck as a visiting Canberran because I found it hard to grasp the concept that adjacent blocks of streets didn't necessarily have any pedestrian routes between them).

It was a good running night - cool with low humidity, a combination more typical of September/October than March - and it was as well that it was, because this was definitely at the long end of B courses - I knew it was going to be by the time the 2k beep went as I was exiting the third control. Hard work as always in the evening (although I'd feared worse after sitting all afternoon in a course), although better than the last few weeks. I think my route was reasonable, although there were a number of other options which were fairly similar; a bit disappointing to spend only a couple of hundred metres in the lake reserve itself. #11 did give me the opportunity to identify potential post-run eating places.

Garmin Connect says I earned the International Women's Day badge. Are they trying to tell me something? (whatever the something is, it's probably illegal in Florida).

C • International Women's Day badge 2

One of the more significant transformations I've had in a run for a while. Started out with a very stiff back, struggled through a warm-up and made a token attempt at intervals before deciding I'd do well to get through a minimum viable session. Improved a little over the next 10 minutes down to the Westgarth level crossing. I'd already had a hint with the traffic queues crossing Victoria Road that all might not be well with some aspect of the road system, and indeed the level crossing was stuck down - after a couple of minutes I gave up and went across the pedestrian bridge instead (probably to the envy of the queuing drivers). At this point the run suddenly came good, and the last 15 minutes were as smooth as anything I've had in the last few weeks. Go figure.

Monday morning Pilates. Not too bad on the whole, although may not have been entirely switched on because on one of the sets I was wondering why it was feeling so hard and realised that I'd put one too many springs on. Quads feeling a bit stiff before warming up.

Followed with a session in the water, swapped around from Friday for logistical reasons. A decent recovery session which did its job of loosening up various stiff body parts. Fairly quiet this morning, both in the water and on the road afterwards.

Started early in the hope of missing the heat, with the intention of heading northeast. Inside the first 10 minutes it was clear that my back didn't want to play ball on hills today so I instead switched plans for something flatter, turning north and northwest rather than northeast from Ivanhoe. It was still a struggle most of the way and there were numerous times that I thought I might be calling it a day early (and the back's reaction on the few brief upward bumps made it pretty clear that missing the climb out of Rosanna was a good move), but at least I got this on the board, and the pace was actually half-reasonable later on, perhaps because of a bit of a tailwind. Longest this year, which doesn't feel the greatest of benchmarks this far into the year; a somewhat more obscure benchmark is that it's the first time since 2020 that I've done a run from/to home that has got far enough from home to enter 2020/2021-vintage out-of-bounds areas (by about 50 metres).

Real estate boards have gone up on the house on the corner and one two houses along. Somewhat strangely, even though they're being sold by the same agent the auctions are at the same time. (In fairness, there probably isn't much overlap between the markets - the corner house will almost certainly be demolished for either a rebuild or a multi-unit development, the other one is a villa unit at the rear of a block that will probably be bought by an investor). I won't get to see either auction as I'll be in Woodend helping out at a course-setting workshop (which also means I'll miss the CWA goodies for sale that I mentioned earlier in the week).

A story in today's Age said that a survey of football fans found that 45% had heard a supporter racially abusing a player (sadly plausible, although I can't remember hearing it happen myself) and 25% had heard a supporter racially abusing an umpire. They must have long memories because non-white AFL umpires are conspicuous by their absence (the only non-white field umpire I can remember is Glenn James in the 1980s).

C • Racial abuse 4

26 was today's number. I had thought this might either give me the chance to challenge Clare's lead in Cairnlea streets visited or do some sprint training on the VU St. Albans map, but both are mostly on 25. Instead I started not too far on the far side of the E.J. Whitten Bridge (am I the only person who thinks it somewhat ironic that the principal purpose of a bridge named after Ted Whitten is to make it easier to avoid going to Footscray?) and did a loop in the eastern part of St. Albans.

This is fairly standard western suburbs suburbia, a mix of 1970s in the west and 1990s in the east (the latter, in classic 90s style, has lots of cul-de-sacs connected by small parks which means you register lots of streets completed even when you aren't really trying). I've always thought of it, perhaps because of the affiliations of the more prominent local soccer teams, as a place of the Maltese and those of the former Yugoslavia, but in fact these days a substantial slice of its population (and, on the evidence of the signs I saw, almost all of its real estate agents) are of Vietnamese origin. I suspect that it's hard rubbish season here which meant it looked a bit scrappy (notwithstanding a sign which said rubbish dumpers risked a month in the slammer, which I think is unlikely unless the dumping is as egregious as this), but the proportion of waves to people in front yards which were reciprocated was at the upper end of the historical average so I'll classify it as friendly territory.

(There's an interesting thread going on the subject of Strava heat maps as an indicator of segregation in American cities; I had a look at the Melbourne equivalent and while the west is a bit lighter on than the east, in general it tracks not too badly with population density, with certainly none of the stark divides that you see in the U.S.).

The terrain was pretty flat, notwithstanding the existence of an establishment called St. Albans Heights Primary School (elevation 62m, compared to 59m for St. Albans Meadows Primary School, which I also passed). My run was similarly flat, and I don't think I can really blame this on being out earlier than usual on a Saturday (partly to avoid the heat, partly to get back for Thea's first birthday gathering), but at least it was consistent and nothing hurt too much.

Run into Collingwood (mostly) from near the pool (the session I'd hoped to do last Friday). Decent for a Friday run, which hopefully means what the new physio is doing is effective. Took me into parts of Collingwood which were the subject of what used to be called "slum clearance" (reading "Power Without Glory" gives you a bit of a picture), now a mix of high-rise and low-rise public housing. (Also finished off everything within a 4km circle from home that's west of Hoddle Street; still plenty left in Kew and Abbotsford, and a small pocket in Heidelberg).

Tash saw me but I didn't see her.

Onwards to the pool, still busy as extended summer winds down (the first round of leaves are starting to fill the gutters). Not the smoothest of sessions and often threatened to cramp without actually doing so, but a bit more relaxed by the end.

Riding home, La Trobe Street eastbound was at a standstill at 6.15 on a Friday evening. Nature is healing (although I must say I don't miss the drunk pedestrians wandering into the bike lane on Friday evening, who I guess will make their presence felt again sooner or later).

The next in the current sequence of taking advantage of positioning myself for a sequence of Thursday physio appointments to cover ground in Brunswick and Coburg that isn't within range from home. I was hoping to get up as far as Bell Street, thinking (probably correctly) that that would be a 75-80 minute loop, but it was apparent early that this was not the day to be committing myself to something big. I did take in some of an old favourite, the path on the western side of Merri Creek north of Normanby (though it feels a bit less bushy now that the dirt track has been replaced by gravel), and did eventually wake up gradually from about 30 minutes onwards, for a respectable final third.

The 'you learn something new every day' moment, thanks to seeing a poster for an event they're staging, was discovering that there is an Alphington branch of the Country Women's Association (mis-spelt 'County' on the poster; it must have been a bad area for spelling because a nearby sign warned of 'steep decents' on the bike path). The CWA has moved on a bit from pumpkin scones in recent years, one example being their campaign a few years back to stop country women (along with the rest of us) from being exposed to the grossly misogynist slogans on Wicked campers. (The event itself looks like a good opportunity to stock up on some home-made edibles).

As some of you will know, the Sydney Summer Series staged a special event last night as part of World Pride. I feared the worst when I saw that it had a long Facebook comments thread (given the cesspit of homophobia that some corners of social media can turn into), but in fact the reaction appears to have entirely positive, as it should be.

Normally Wednesdays are an evening session for me in summer but I had a meeting tonight, so instead took the opportunity to clear out the remaining bits of West Heidelberg, with an excursion into a pocket of eastern Preston north of Northland added into the mix, through suburban streets and past a couple of schools (had I seen any playground fights at East Preston Islamic College they probably would have involved the school board, who have been in the news of late; they're already onto principal number three of the year). A good steady session once I'd settled in; certainly felt better than most recent Wednesday evenings did. Also my first wet-weather run for a while, although most of the drizzle was before or afterwards.

West Heidelberg is completed suburb number 17. Not sure what the next one will be; the three currently over 50% are Docklands (effectively uncompleteable as part of it is the working part of the port), North Carlton (where most of the remaining "streets" are the cemetery) and Preston (a big suburb which I wouldn't expect to finish this year). Suspect it might end up being one of the Collingwood/Fitzroy/Abbotsford trio, unless the opportunity arises to clear out a micro-suburb in one go like it did with Kooyong. (This leaves aside Blairgowrie, which I should finish in one or two more goes).