Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Was hoping to round out 2023 with something long but held myself back a bit given that my knee still isn't 100% (as with the last two days, it was fine on the run, but there's something about sitting at particular angles that sets it off - it was pretty tight after both the cricket on Friday night and a restaurant today). Headed out towards Abbotsford (the run I was planning to do last week) - had its moments in the middle but much of it was fairly hard work, and back tight in the later stages. Filled in a few more spaces in the southwest corner of Abbotsford, which I should only need one more go to finish off now.

Out quite early for a Sunday, as I needed to get to the airport to farewell the Norwegian part of the family. Definitely a nice morning for running for summer.

I was a bit disappointed to see that one marker of Melbourne multiculturalism seems to be no more - the Collingwood Masonic Temple is no longer sharing its premises with the Buddhists (the really radical thing would have been if they'd been sharing with the Catholics).

And so for 2023. I ran slightly more than last year (overtaking my 2022 tally yesterday), making it my biggest year since 2017 (6km more and it would have been since 2016). Overall training hours are slightly down on last year, mainly because I was travelling so much and didn't have as many options for alternative training.

Best race was the pair of races for the WMOC sprint (the qualifier was more on the ragged edge, the final smoother, but both involved a level of intensity I haven't reached for years). Best in the forest probably the last day of Easter or the SA Long Championships at Wilpena in June. Best training runs in terms of how I felt were probably a late August pair just after getting back from Europe, but also well up on the list were two May ones on my road trip, one near Forbes and one at Mataranka.

And it's probably an indicator both of my itinerant nature this year and the way the Victorian program has changed that I didn't run a single 'normal' Sunday bush event in Victoria this year (my tally of bush events in Victoria - Brimbank doesn't really count - was the Bendigo ToDay weekend, the May NOL weekend, the Victorian Middle and Long Championships, the Victorian Relays, two Bendigo Saturday events and the AWOC club championships). Did events in every Australian state and territory except Queensland and the NT, and in five other countries if you count the sprint event at the Prague IOF Council meeting.

Back in Melbourne today, and relatively close to home - today's number was 46 which covers the suburbs around Balwyn and Canterbury (I'm running out of numbers close to home, only 2 of the 9 in the 3x3 square centred on my house haven't come up yet). This is familiar street-O territory for me, but my plan was to do what you don't do on street-Os - go between the suburban blocks (i.e. crossing major roads).

A bit of a later start than usual, thanks to a day with nothing much planned (might have been different if the Pakistan tail hadn't folded last night) and cool temperatures so no reason to avoid being out late morning. My right knee was stiff again walking and I wasn't sure how it would respond on running, but it was fine after the first few hundred metres. Pretty steady climbing through the first 2km which I handled more or less OK, and a reasonable session from there.

In the absence of the Test, the only cricket on TV during the day was a NZ T20 match from Pukekura Park in New Plymouth (I'm assuming it is not an Oceania Championships embargo breach to watch a telecast of a sporting event taking place within an embargoed area). This was an unusual match for this venue (a batsman said it was somewhere where you 'get full value for your shots', which is another way of saying that the boundaries are not that far outside the fielding circle) in that (a) the team batting first didn't get to 200 and (b) they successfully defended it. Quite a few balls disappeared into places which will presumably be mapped as green but they did manage to find all of them.

C • Pukekura Park 7

Shorter session this morning, filling in a few gaps to the east. Not unusually for a Friday session, hard going in the early stages, but from about 10 minutes onwards decent for such an outing. A few bumps but not as many ups and downs as other runs down here. Noticeably less humid today.

I've got some cracked skin in the soles of both feet which is an unusual summer problem for me (it's more common in cold winter conditions), which is annoying but didn't affect my running. Some stiffness on the inside of my right knee also warmed up fine, but did resurface later in the day, especially after some time sitting down in a stadium while introducing my nephews to some Australian culture. (They may well have already absorbed it, because on the beach during the morning Max executed a classic Glenn Maxwell switch-hit as demonstrated on TV the previous evening).

C • Classic Aussie perspective... 5

Onwards to the water. Lots of going round and round, but at least the view's nice while doing it.

Longer run today, which felt like hard work for most of it although an improvement on Sunday - once again, the large number of small ups and downs was draining for various muscles (good training though), although there were also more flat stretches than on my other runs here. Headed northwest today with the main objective being to clear some areas on the far side of Koonya that I hadn't been to in the street event earlier this year. Good to get this on the board though.

I passed the Koonya store twice about 30 minutes apart. The first time was just after it opened and most of those there seemed to be in the company of babies, which probably means they'd been up half the night and were in desperate need of coffee. It was a more demographically diverse crowd second time round.

Have now cleared everything on the northwest side of map 167 (discounting the Point Nepean inset); still a bit to go on the east side (and for a 2km radius on that side, another target).

Early start this morning in the name of trying to get to the MCG for the start (fell a couple of balls short) - it was foggy, a rarity for summer, which was an indication of how humid it was (for Melbourne). Run was reasonable without reaching great heights, a bit faster along the back beach track than Sunday (probably because the rain has made the sand firmer), then inland, crossing the bit of bush that's a reservation for a freeway which will surely never be built in full. (The 1969 map of planned freeways in Melbourne makes, shall we say, interesting reading). Quads not as troubled by the ups and downs as on Sunday but still found them a bit draining.

Went down with Jim to run a street event course from earlier this year at St. Andrews Beach - a reasonably narrow strip of suburb on sand dunes with a few coastal paths as well. Not a huge number of route choice options, but did go south early to give myself more options later (ending up dropping a couple of in-and-outs to get in under my target of 45 minutes, although it was set up as a 60). Quads a bit iffy to start with, hard work into the wind (a stiff southeasterly) but much more comfortable with it. Had trouble finding the finish (or at least Maprun's interpretation of it).

Lots of surface water around after about 40mm in the last 24 hours, but the rain stopped just as we were starting (this was planned, at least to some extent).

Spent most of the rest of the day in front of the cricket (to the extent that the weather further north allowed).

A relatively quiet Christmas Day in the training department (after the rarity of my being the last person to get up who everyone had to wait for before opening presents), taking advantage of the lap pool at the house and a drier morning than I had been expecting. Pleasant enough once I got used to the coolish temperature of the water, which only took a couple of minutes.

The weather made up for lost time in the afternoon with 28mm of rain in a couple of hours. One might have thought that that would have meant that the pool went unused in the gap between Christmas lunch and dinner, but Norwegians are not so easily deterred.

Just as well I'd long since been eliminated from Whamageddon this year (the first time being in, of all places, an Indonesian restaurant in Dubai) - it's being played at the request of the youngest member of the extended household.

C • Whamageddon 9

First time for a while down on the Peninsula. Started out with the back beach track out to Number 16 (quite sandy in places as always), then northwards towards the bay with a few line-drawing deviations. Started out reasonably well, but after a month of mostly flat stuff, the sharp ups and downs with the dunes got the better of me and I was struggling with my quads (and later my back) from about 30 minutes onwards. Was originally hoping for 90 minutes but pulled up somewhat short of that.

Did a late supermarket trip today and spotted in the pet food aisle something called BARF (which apparently stands for "biologically appropriate raw food"). If the company ever intends to expand into the US I think they might want to consider rebranding.

And I also learned today that there is a Netflix series called Dubai Bling. They wouldn't be short of raw material for this.

For the third time in a couple of months, the spin of the virtual wheel took me to the southern beaches (which was convenient as I was heading to Blairgowrie later today anyway) - this time it was 87 and Parkdale/Mordialloc, a part of town I last ran through during the 2005 Melbourne Marathon (this can be said for quite a few of the southern coastal areas), on a day which was much more beach-friendly than at Beaumaris a few weeks ago. Started out from a park inland which turned out to host the Mentone athletics track (a decent-looking facility), headed out to the coast and along it for a while, then back through the suburbs, with a slight altering of plans because a rail crossing which existed on the map was a construction site, this being the location of a couple of soon-to-be-former level crossings, complete with a few anti-skyrail signs. (Personally, if I were running the Victorian Liberal Party and had lost the last two elections badly, doubling down on policies from those elections doesn't seem the best of strategies).

The run had its good patches, and even the not-so-good patches were a considerable improvement on the last couple of days, so hopefully whatever was going on the last couple of days is fading away (maybe it was just tiredness?).

The route here took me past Chadstone which seemed surprisingly non-busy for 23 December (Cassie, who by setting foot there equalled my lifetime tally of Chadstone visits, reported that it wasn't too busy later in the day either). The only shop chaos I encountered was the car park of the Parkdale supermarket but that owed more to bad design than excessive traffic (you could hardly set up more places for cars going in and out of spaces to block everyone else if you tried).

C • Opposition 6

Another weak and light-headed session today - I definitely have the sense that I'm fighting something off at the moment even though I haven't shown any outward symptoms of illness as such. Started with hopes of doing something over an hour and getting properly down into Abbotsford, but decided after a deeply unconvincing climb out of the Studley boathouse that I would need to settle for something less, and turned around at the bridge near the old convent. Didn't really improve much in the second half either.

Finished up work for the year (I think), leaving a probably unwanted present for my colleagues in the form of a "we have a problem..." e-mail five minutes before official knock-off time (I'd just discovered that something had gone wrong with the June rainfall analysis and that therefore the provisional 2023 rainfall maps, which aren't publicly visible yet but will become so on the 31st, were showing a lot more record lows in southern WA than actually occurred). Looks like it's been fixed but a couple of people didn't get home as early as they would have liked.

Thought given how much I struggled last night that I'd have trouble coming up for something long this morning, and so it proved. After an initial false start attempting that and deciding that swapping days was my plan B, I did manage something shorter when I was a bit more awake, heading south from the vicinity of the Fitzroy pool and filling in a few more gaps there. Struggled throughout, and was feeling a bit light-headed generally through the morning (that improved later in the day), but at least my back was OK and I was sort of into a stride by the later part of this.

An end-of-day session rather than a start-of-day one, after a ride from work that definitely felt like the last Friday night before Christmas even though it was a Thursday (various CBD purveyors of intoxicating liquor had clearly had a lucrative afternoon). Not the most sparkling of such sessions but got through it OK, sunglare heading west the most significant hassle.

My back is rarely at its best for evening runs but tonight it was at its worst - could hardly run a hill on an area (Birralee) which has a reasonable number of them. Did eventually manage to finish off OK to avoid having a kilometre rate which started with a 7 but this was not one I'll want to remember.

Think my route was reasonable, even if it did mean having to run past the group of bikers (I think they were bikers and not bikies - plenty of Harley but I didn't see any gang emblems) at the Doncaster park and ride.

One of the things about having a role in international orienteering is finding yourself wanting to go to more events than anyone, with the possible exception of Annika Bjork (last heard of in Senegal, where the police apparently didn't know quite what to make of a map with circles on it), could possibly manage. This was reinforced by seeing today the schedule for the ASEAN League in the later part of 2024. (Part of this involves WREs in Jakarta and Singapore on successive weekends in late October/early November, which could be worth a look for those chasing sprint World Ranking points).

C • Singapore 1

Warm-up was a bit of a struggle but fine once I was doing the intervals themselves, and not too slippery on a drizzly morning. A bit slow to start with but down to a reasonable pace (63/59) by the end. A little bit of a stitch on the last couple. The drizzle must have turned off the dog-walkers because I only saw one.

Warm-up and down. hard work to start but reasonably comfortable to finish. Traffic definitely dropping off at this end of the year.

Back to Monday morning Pilates for the first time in three weeks, starting a little late because with the building project across the other side of High Street ramping up, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find anywhere to park nearby at 7am. A decent session on the whole; the instructor thought I could handle a bit of extra weight on the exercises that involve weight, and she was right.

Onwards to the pool, which looked like it had had a busy weekend. A decent session here as well, moving as well in the water as I have for a while (despite the minor annoyance of the person doing mixed strokes who kept passing me on odd laps and then having to be passed on even ones).

The relationship between the number of things I need to get done this week and the time available to do them is looking increasingly mismatched.

C • Commitments 1

Plan A today was a longer run from home. My back wasn't quite ready when time came to set out; it had the feel that it would be ready in a couple of hours and at a cooler time of year I'd have tried again later in the day, but instead decided on an alternative plan - going out into the terrain at Woodlands. I haven't been in the terrain for a few weeks so this was probably a good option more generally, even if it wasn't quite the volume I'd planned on today.

It turned out to be quite nice out there (nicer than I expected - no long grass, and it looks like they've got rid of the Paterson's Curse that was there in abundance the last time I was there). Run was steady enough without having much of a spark, but I felt as if I accomplished something useful as a session in a way I wouldn't have had I slogged through something unsatisfying on the roads. (In general I've felt a bit flat and fatigued this weekend, although not sick as such - perhaps a slight surprise given how much coughing was happening nearby on the plane). Reminded me why the bush is a good place to spend time, even if this isn't the most serene of places (the west end is under the Melbourne Airport flight path).

My abortive first attempt took me past Pitcher Park, where cricket was on (probably about under-13s from the size of the players). They've got quite a flash electronic scoreboard, complete with animations when someone hits a boundary and a line for the progress Duckworth-Lewis target (unlikely to be needed today). One thing was definitely different to the international scene though - G.McGrath was opening the batting (and hit a nice four while I was watching).

The spin of the wheel this particular Saturday took me - nowhere. It was my home turf (31) which came up, and with no new territory to explore (apart from a pocket of Heidelberg in the extreme northeast which would be difficult to link together without going off the map), I stayed close to home. Didn't eschew novelty altogether, making a relatively rare excursion on the path on the east side of Darebin Creek north of Livingstone (the stepping stones to access this at the south end are only reliably crossable in dry weather in the warmer months).

I'd had an earlier start than usual for a Saturday, heading out to the airport to meet Cassie and family (and then to our cousin's in Elwood, returning from which gave me my first experience of the Punt Road bus). I didn't feel terribly awake for the first few hours after getting up; that had passed by the time I headed out to run, but it still wasn't a particularly energetic run.

Slept until a normal time this morning which I take as a positive. I'd hoped to do intervals today; quads were still no good for that, but were OK for something at a slower pace. Ended up turning into quite a decent run in the second half.

Things changed in the urban landscape: the derelict supermarket at the west end of Bell Street which has been in that state for the entire quarter-century I've been regularly using Bell Street has finally been demolished. Hopefully they now won't take as long to build something on the site as they have on the old Coburg High site (vacant for almost as long).

Notions of running today disappeared within a few seconds (it was the quads which most obviously refused to cooperate although I expect various other body parts would quickly have gone out in sympathy), so plan B was the water at Northcote. Not the most convincing of sessions there either, and was having increasingly frequent cramps in the last 10 minutes (as with the equivalent session on arrival day in Geneva a few weeks ago), but at leats made it through.

Narrowly missed out on that seasonal hazard, being booted out to make was for a school swimming carnival.

It was a tough day, although there was only one online meeting I almost fell asleep in (I was glad that an evening one was cancelled).

Set out about 5.30 working backwards from the required timetable for a 10am flight, the earliest I have been out for a run for a very long time, this century I suspect. (At least once in my school days I headed out at 4am to get a run in before a day trip to the snow, and then there was the time when I thought I'd heard my alarm, had got dressed and ready to go, and was just about to step out the door when I looked at my watch and it said 1.40).

Headed out to the west end of Jumeirah Lakes to cover the one bit I hadn't been to yet. The run was surprisingly decent (although the GPS track was again creative), and the last 15 minutes were probably the best since I've been here. Not even a hint of daylight, even at the end.

I was hoping that the very early start meant I'd fall asleep on the plane at something like 2-3pm Dubai time to get myself back on Australian time. I did - for about 30 minutes. At least the flight went relatively smoothly, unlike that of some of my Geneva-based WMO colleagues, who got diverted to Zurich due to the closure of Geneva Airport thanks to an errant private jet bogged next to the runway. The final COP deal (rather messy but better than nothing) was done just as I was leaving Dubai.

Emirates' sport streaming channel gave me the chance to see how rubbish the Melbourne Stars are this year from 11,000 metres above the Indian Ocean, although I think the rubbishness of the Stars this year could probably be seen from outer space.

Dubai was an interesting experience, but I'm probably not going to be in a rush to get back there (other than its airport).

Was hoping to get a decent run today but my back wasn't cooperating (perhaps not surprising at this end of the week, where I feel I've been on the edge for a while), so took to the hotel pool instead. Not a bad session although navigating became more of a challenge later on as my goggles fogged up (I seemed to drift to the right quite a bit).

As noted yesterday, my role (if not the role of my numbers) in the meeting is over, so I took the opportunity to head for Hatta, a town and reputedly scenic dam in the mountains near the Oman border. This almost came unstuck at an early hurdle when my first two attempts to get a local Myki equivalent and add value to it failed (for COP itself we've had a free one but it only works inside the city), but third time round someone pointed out the thing I actually had to press on the screen to add the value onto the card (which in turn meant that my first two attempts had contributed 60 dirham (about $25) to the Dubai public transport system for nothing - hopefully they make good use of it). The driver had kindly held the bus while I sorted all this out. Once actually on the road, it was an interesting enough trip, initially through sand dune country (a few camels sighted) then between barren mountains with the only signs of vegetation being in the dry-most-of-the-time valley floors, and walking up to the dam was also a pleasant enough outing although I wouldn't have fancied doing it at a hotter time of year (and at one point thought I'd have to turn back and find another route because of a construction site, but the locals told me to go through it so I did). Pretty quiet, especially away from the dam itself - I imagine it is a different story on a weekend - but nice to get a taste of things outside the big city.

Saw one area on the outer edge of Dubai (dunes with enough ground vegetation cover to stabilise them) that I think would make a decent map. (UAE is an IOF member, relatively recently joined, but I couldn't find any sign of an event program online, and the maps I've seen are park ones).

Got the Metro out a stop so that I could do the westernmost part of the marina loop that I didn't do on Saturday - this end is a little more unfinished (there was even a bit of dirt to run on at one point). Not too bad as Monday recovery runs go although I wasn't coming off one of my tougher Sundays. Took advantage of the cool conditions - it was only the second sub-20 minimum of the season (it was 19.6).

(I'm pretty tired generally though; the days here have been pretty long, although not as long for me as they have been for the negotiators - who I suspect will put in at least one all-nighter at some point in the near future).

Today's probably the last of the meeting which will involve me (although my numbers will be involved in further discussions). It was scheduled to finish tomorrow but probably won't the way it is going.

C • Dirt - do you mean sand? 3

Dubai is well endowed in totally artificial things so I thought I might as well have a look at perhaps its most artificial place of all, the man-made island in the shape of a palm. Ended up getting almost up to where the first 'fronds' came off before the turnaround. I thought I might get a bit of waterfront running on this one but there wasn't any public access to the waterfront either on the mainland or the part of the island I was on - it's all resort hotels or private beach clubs - so this was mostly along main roads, OK at 7 on a Sunday morning but might not have been so pleasant at a busier time. It did turn out as the best I've felt on a run since I've been here, fairly smooth after the first 20 minutes or so.

I've had some Achilles soreness in both legs towards the end of the day both today and yesterday (probably the work shoes I'm wearing), but it wasn't an issue on the run.

There were a few more science sessions on the agenda today (one which might get the interest of some here is the use of Lidar to do detailed global vegetation canopy height mapping as input to modelling global carbon storage by forests). I've also been asked to keep an eye on sessions dealing with "loss and damage", which today meant an earnest, well-meaning session led by NGOs putting forward funding propositions which are well-intentioned and utterly politically impossible (unless you think there is a country somewhere in the world where you could win an election on a platform of imposing a new 60% tax on fuel and sending all the money to other countries).

An even earlier start this morning. Main target today was the loop around the Dubai marina, home to lots of flash boats (although the superyachts are presumably elsewhere, the bridges here being too low for them), lots of waterfront restaurants with rather too many aggressive spruikers in the evenings but deserted at this hour, and a nice waterfront path. The advertising said it was 7km of path but it was a fair bit longer (I cut it short), I'm guessing because they didn't factor in the bridge crossings. Felt a bit better than the last couple of days though still not exactly flowing.

It was a long day at the venue too, with 7 hours of sessions during which, by my count, I heard presentations from people from 29 different countries (not including those representing UN agencies). Today was the day when I sampled the Montreal Protocol ice cream (kept cold with ozone-friendly refrigerants), and also the Australian pavilion coffee (reputed to be the best at COP, although I'll reserve judgement until I pay visits to Italy and Brazil's). There was an impressive display of cakes and pastries at the OPEC stand which seemed to be going largely untouched; most people here (apart from the lobbyists themselves) don't want to be seen to be engaging with fossil fuel lobbyists, although some are quite happy to do it unseen.

Celebrity encounter of the day: going up a staircase with Matt Kean (here for what I'll describe as a 'conservatives for climate action' gathering). It was only a brief conversation but it turns out we're staying at the same hotel, so it may not be the last we see of each other. Notwithstanding my affiliations, I'm always willing to engage with conservatives interested in climate action, not least because any genuinely lasting changes will need at least some level of bipartisan support if they're not going to be unwound with the next change of government. Don't think I'll ask him what he thinks of Scott Morrison (one of the many revelations in 'Bulldozed', which I read on the plane over, was that Scott Morrison vetoed a $600 million joint skills package with NSW, apparently just to spite Matt Kean who was NSW Treasurer at the time).

Pretty slow and hard going this morning, perhaps a bit better in the second half. Headed out west again, getting a bit further in the lakes area than I did en route yesterday. A bit cooler and less humid today (and there were even a few clouds visible later in the day).

This was a quieter day for me at COP (apart from the ABC interview which some of you probably saw - if you were really observant you might have seen me twice because I accidentally photobombed Chris Bowen's press conference too). Celebrity spot of the day - David Rudisha (here for a Sports for Climate Action event).

And apparently the Australian pavilion has the best coffee at COP, although I haven't put this to the test yet (and also suspect the Italians and Brazilians might beg to differ).

C • And you didn't go for a run with him? 5

A recovery session back at the hotel after the end of the day's proceedings. Given Monday's experience I thought that the pool after dark wasn't really going to work so headed for the hotel gym instead and the stationary bike, which featured backdrops of scenery as they sometimes do these days - but instead of being idealised footage, it was what appeared to be warts-and-all GoPro footage from a run/ride around a lake in California (with features including a crappily-surfaced bike path at one stage with a highway on one side and a golf course on the other, and more dogs than I want to be around when exercising any time soon). The ride itself was reasonable without being brilliant.

Another early morning run, a little more humid this morning. Never really felt as if I was flowing that well but kept plugging away and managed to get the distance on the board. Today I headed out into the residential suburbs to the southwest (once I'd managed to find places to get across the main roads surrounding our area) - as I expected, many of the estates were gated communities, but I found one which wasn't which was pleasant enough.

The street names in this area don't show much more imagination than they do in parts of the US, but this at least gave me the opportunity to (twice) visit the intersection of B1 and B2. Perhaps it was appropriate that my pre-run nutrition had been a banana.

Today was a rest day for COP (the meeting then continues across the weekend), so it was my one chance to get out and explore. I'd like to have got out of town and into the deserts and mountains to the east but there wasn't really enough time for that, so instead I went into what's left of the old city (including the markets, which featured lots of interesting narrow passages and predictable enthusiastic salespeople), then paid a visit to the Mall of the Emirates on the way back to see a symbol of Dubai's reputation as one of the most artificial places on Earth - the indoor ski slope. (I can think of better things to do with $160 than spend a day going down a slope with maybe 20m vertical drop, but they obviously do some business).

C • Indoor ski slope 1

I'm staying next to an artificial lake which I guessed was probably 1.5-2km around; with tall apartment towers around a lake and a waterfront path it reminds me a bit of some parts of urban China, except that English is the lingua franca here (only about 10% of the residents are UAE citizens, and I'm guessing not too many of the others speak much Arabic); you do see a bit of Russian around as well, probably after a lot of rich Russians decided that Dubai was a good option when they could no longer get into the EU.

The waterfront was a decent place for intervals, although a bit twisty (that makes it a bit easier psychologically too). Didn't feel as if I had much speed to start with but picked up later on. Despite what my GPS track might suggest, none of this involved swimming.

C • GPS track 7

Warm-up and down, a circuit of the lake each time (in opposite directions). Felt decent, and again reasonable conditions for this (although it gets hot if you leave it too much later).

My most direct responsibilities have been dealt with (though there were a few follow-up interviews), but there were plenty of other events to take in, ranging from heatwave warning services in Senegal to financing climate-friendly infrastructure projects in cities (the latter featured one of the more engaging and charismatic political speakers I've come across for a while, the mayor of Warsaw). There were rumours that Vladimir Putin was going to show up (he's visiting the UAE today, one of the few countries where he's not at risk of being redirected to The Hague), but that never seemed likely, if only because the leaders' forum was last weekend. There was apparently a demo against him anyway in the one small spot on the grounds that seems to be designated for demos.

(An unfortunately placed camera for the livestream of the Senegal event revealed that the balding spot on the back of my head is bigger than I thought it was #gettingolder).

You get a few fashion statements here too, one of them being the Madagascar delegates I was sitting next to at one session who were wearing T-shirts "Madagascar Is Not A Movie". (WMO is sharing a pavilion with, among others, Indigenous Peoples, which means we get to see a lot of impressive headgear from South and Central America).

A just-about-acceptable session for the first one after a big time zone change, having woken up at 3 and not really gone back to sleep (early starts suit me this week but not that early). Thought I'd go to check out the beach, which is about 1.5k away in a straight line but a bit longer than that to get to because much of the beachfront is taken up by hotel resorts (in general the waterfront had a sense that it would turn into Bling Central, although there wasn't so much bling on display at 6.45 in the morning, a time when the most prominent vehicles were yellow school buses). Felt like hard work early on but better in the second half, and made one very useful logistical discovery in the final minute, the location of a laundry. Not as humid as I was expecting, although still low 20s at sunrise.

Today was the day for the launch of the report so I had two major events, the launch event itself and a media conference beforehand. Seemed to go pretty well although there was a lot of background noise at the launch which made it hard to concentrate (there was something happening next door).

C • Report launch 2

Travel day with a very early start (although I guess I should be grateful for small mercies because in summer the early Emirates flight leaves at 6.15 and not 5.15). The flight went without too many dramas and got a bit of sleep on it early on, then had enough time later to do things like the formatting for the 2024 OA Competition Rules (definitely a good plane job). Route choice this time was leaving the continent over about Karratha, with a few minor subsequent bends, presumably to go around the storms which were dropping 350+mm in 24 hours on Chennai. Getting into the UAE was also pretty straightforward, as was sorting out my accreditation (I suspect the queues are longer in the morning).

Spent a bit of time getting my bearings in the neighbourhood. There will certainly be places to run, just perhaps not too many of them so things might get a bit repetitive, in what is not the world's most pedestrian-friendly city (perhaps not surprising in a place where you'd have to be very masochistic to be a pedestrian for any significant period of time between May and October). There seem to be a reasonable number of eating places away, with Indian prominently represented (as I expected), which suits me fine.

The session itself was at sunset in the hotel rooftop pool, a bit bigger than these sometimes are. Felt more energetic than I expected - you go in waves on arrival day and I think I was on an upswing at that moment. Started to run out of light towards the end (and then they turned on the disco lights, which did not help), but managed to avoid crashing into anything.

Livestream of tomorrow (Tuesday)'s launch of the decadal climate report available from here. Starts at 1345 local time (2045 in Melbourne, do your own conversions for elsewhere).

A pretty hard day, but there are plenty of times in the last few years that I wouldn't have got through something of this length on a hard day (in fact I went three years without managing something of this length at all). A bit of hip soreness at the start and back intermittently troubling (most significantly after coming off the Kew hills), but had its good patches too, perhaps more so in the end. Headed southeast into Kew, on a route which isn't as hilly as it can be in this part of town but still had some pretty consistent climbing from 2-6km.

There will be a bit of a break after this - I'm off to Dubai in the morning for the UN climate conference (mostly for the launch on Tuesday of the decadal climate report that I've been leading for the last couple of years). Not sure what the running environment will be like (except that it will be a great deal better in December than it would be in July) - there are some areas near where I'm staying which look promising, but I wouldn't mind betting that at least some of those which are centred around golf courses are gated communities. (I suspect I'll be getting some very early starts, too).

For the second time in a few weeks it was down to the bayside as number 86 took me to Beaumaris, on what was emphatically not a beach day - the rain eased a bit in intensity around the time that I started, but it was still definitely a proper wet-weather run - my first in a while - and there was a lot of surface water around (some of which was liberally redistributed over me by a passing car while I was waiting to cross Beach Road) after 15mm in three hours at nearby Sandringham.

The Beaumaris street-O map (which I last ran on in 2007) fits nicely into the non-maritime boundaries of map 86 so I went out on a course that TrishTash set from February last year. This was a somewhat unusual course - it was set up in four separate clusters of five controls, making use of some of the more interesting bits of what's otherwise a fairly grid-based street layout. Without a lot to compare with I'm not sure how optimal my route was, but I was well under the advertised distance of 7.5k (ended up doing an extra loop at the end to get the distance up to what I wanted). Felt like a decent run - again a bit slow but the conditions may have contributed to that, with lots of puddle-jumping.

C • Course distances 1

Session at Fitzroy. Wasn't quite sure how the top of my foot would respond to this since it's still a bit raw, but after some initial stinging it worked out OK (I had an allegedly waterproof cover over the site but it inevitably leaked). Body felt generally pretty tight through the early stages of this - I think a run this morning would have been tough - but was in a reasonable shape by the end.

Lunchtime run from the office, first in a while to head southwest into Port Melbourne to clear a few spots (I've now completed the area within a 2km radius and north of the tram line). Not too bad as lunchtime runs go, and moving a bit less slowly than on other runs this week. Quite a few traffic interruptions early and late.