Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

This was my longest run since August. It was a bit of a struggle at times, but how it feels tomorrow will be the biggest test. Quite hilly through the middle stages in Greensborough and Montmorency (and hillier than I'd planned on because part of the riverside path was closed for building work). Didn't have a lot of strength on the bigger hills, and after the biggest of them - up onto the ridge at Montmorency - started to get a bit of Achilles soreness, always a bit of a worry when it develops during the run. I was certainly glad to have a largely flat last half-hour back along the Yarra, and handled the final climb to my place OK.

Having something on the stopwatch which started with a 2 was a landmark, but I can't say that it's yet given me a lot of confidence about my ability to handle this on a consistent basis. Still, I've said that before on pushing boundaries for the first time.

Down on the Mornington Peninsula. Not quite a replication of my Cup Day route which didn't have the happiest of endings; I avoided the soft sand on both the Blairgowrie beach and the back beach track, but didn't avoid the many small ups and downs on the tracks and roads that cross the dunes.

In case Thursday had left me under the illusion that the Achilles injury was behind me, I was very tight this morning, but loosened slowly on the run itself (and was fine afterwards). Working hard at times when the hills were particularly frequent, but reasonably happy with this on the whole.

Noticed while watching the ice hockey today that one Miroslav Satan plays for Slovakia. I imagine his jersey sells reasonably well, although perhaps less well than it would if it read 'SATAN 666' instead of 'SATAN 18'.

Pool running at Ivanhoe. Arrived into the middle of a vigorous political discussion, but I don't think I succeeded in shifting any votes. A reasonably solid session on the physical front, though.

Someone went to the Federal Court this week trying to argue that a Hummer is a bus. If you're wondering why someone would do such a thing, the reason is that if it is a bus it is not a luxury car, and therefore does not attract luxury car tax. They didn't have a lot of joy in the lower courts and I doubt they'll have much joy in the Federal Court either. It looks like Hummers, whether classified as a car or a bus, are likely to become an endangered species, something I won't shed too many tears over.

Didn't find it that easy to get myself going today; still getting used to the Wednesday night/Thursday morning combination (even with a slightly later than usual start because I was dropping the OA books off to the auditors this morning). A bit better in the last third. Never comfortable going uphill, but doing more hills than of late, and one big positive is that the Achilles was just about the best it's been since October (although calves were still tight two days after the Tuesday needlework session).

I was glad I was running and not in a car; the traffic around the Manningham Road bridge was the worst I can remember seeing. At least one person is yet to realise that you cannot make a traffic jam dissolve by tooting your horn at it.

Didn't have a lot left for the ride home, but it had two highlights: (a) seeing a sign outside St. John's Primary in Clifton Hill 'EDUCATION AT IT'S BEST', and (b) the broken-down Scientology truck just up the road from Ivanhoe Cycles. Surely L. Ron Hubbard can do something about that?

Street-O at Camelot Rise. Continued progress, although it doesn't really show in the results because this time I lost time on route choice rather than gaining it; all things considered probably about a minute better than last time.

It's always a bit nerve-wracking when everyone ahead of you turns right from the first control and you turn left, but turning left was a good option - my poor option was after that (although I did at least avoid being blocked by some unmapped economic stimulus). Bryan and the Birdman came with me and I had a good stretch chasing them before we split. Faded a little in the second half, but found something at the end to hold the Birdman off in a sprint finish. (He must be getting close to 60 now but he can still run). Bryan was about three minutes up, and Schwepps two.

There was a fairly strong Bureau presence tonight, in the form of Bruce Stewart (a Wednesday night regular and my boss a couple of levels up), and Chris Godfred-Spenning (recently back from a few years working in Perth, and coming to these as his forecasting shifts allow). Also saw one of my colleagues walking home, and for good measure my direct boss was quoted in the climate change piece that shouldn't really be in the "Australian Orienteer".

Also had an encounter on the way in with one of Victoria's more ancient road-ragers (a fairly unremarkable horn-plus-finger effort). As a climate scientist I'm used to dealing with angry old men but you don't often see them on the roads.

First attempt at a speed session (fartlek) since the injury. I thought this might be horribly slow, both because it's my first go at speedwork, and because it was done earlier (like at dawn) than my speedwork sessions usually are. It was slow but not as bad as I'd feared (9.50), only a little slower than previous returns to speedwork after an easy period, and I felt OK for the most part.

Being out at 6.30 means that the traffic is dominated by Ute Man, and Ute Man doesn't give way to pedestrians when turning. This was a prelude to the worst traffic I can remember seeing at 7.30 in the morning on the way into town; I was definitely glad to be on the bike. This also took me past an ill-fortuned building site, near the Fairfield boathouse, where some action was taking place at long last. (The site was originally created by a factory fire in 2003 or thereabouts, then a squatter was killed by a wall collapse several months later; for a long time the site sported a 'Construction Commences Q1 2007' sign, but that disappeared last year).

Next challenge of the day was the first session of needlework on my calves for several months. They obviously needed it badly because they responded very strongly - so strongly that I was barely able to walk for several hours afterwards. This led me into a somewhat unsettling day on several fronts (none of them anything to do with orienteering).

C • Mt Macedon 4

Swim at Fitzroy. A bit less slow than last week but that's saying very little; still not moving with any fluency in the water. It was trying to rain for quite a bit of the session but that wasn't a problem; it would have been more of a problem had the outer suburban thunderstorm put in a more proximate appearance.

A lunchtime run which I'd made plans for when I thought I had a meeting this evening (it turned out I'd got the date wrong by a week). Quite a warm lunchtime but not an unpleasant run once loosened up, and less soreness than I've had over the last few days.

Oddball sight of the run was a hundred or so people in army camouflage-style shirts. At first glance one might have mistaken them for a boot camp group but I thought that unlikely (a) because all were of first-year-uni age and (b) no self-respecting boot-camper would be seen in public after 7 a.m. Yes, it's O week again. This was actually my second O-week sighting of the day, the first being a similarly large group, mostly wearing blindfolds, on a street corner outside Melbourne Uni on my way in.

Terrain run at Macedon with Bruce before the VOA meeting. Felt horribly weak on the first couple of hills - no drive at all from the quads. Improved after that and feet felt reasonably comfortable in the terrain, but still didn't have much of an extra gear. Bruce ran the last part harder but I didn't really go with him.

At first glance this wasn't an especially positive run, but the more runs I do like this the better I'll be able to handle them (at least that's the idea).

Longest run since September on a warm morning (27 by the end). Achilles area not always comfortable but gradually improved through the run, although never ideal. Run itself was a bit of a grind as might have been expected in reasonably challenging conditions, but there's a fair chance that we'll get something like this for the first NOL so it's as well to be ready for it (or as ready as I can be). Being aware that I'm not as heat-acclimatised as I normally would be at this time of year, I stopped for water on several occasions - fortunately this route (out to Finns Reserve, across to Ruffeys and back around the north side of North Balwyn) has plenty of options for this.

As there was on Thursday, there were plenty of words chalked on the footpaths in the general vicinity of my place. Thursday's were a lengthy and romantic poem. Today's were somewhat more prosaic - they were advertising a garage scale up the street.

Arrived at Fitzroy a bit earlier than usual this morning, although did stay in the car long enough to find out exactly who the "top UN climate change official" was who had just resigned. (Somewhat to my relief, it was the person in charge of the Copenhagen negotiations, and not the head of the IPCC).

I'm used to the fact that pools are significantly more crowded at 7 than they are at 7.30, but it was even more the case this morning because what I presume was a school group was occupying two lanes for something or other. This made for a certain amount of interesting manouevring in the one lane that was supposedly for non-swimming activities - most of which involved going around me in some form or other. The session itself was a pretty good one, and even the sun glare in the second half wasn't too much of an aggravation. Foot feels a bit better today as well.

There is no truth in the rumour that I asked Cricket Australia what time today's game started and got the response "what time can you get here?".

Good news and bad news with this one. On the positive side, I certainly felt stronger than last week, despite coming off a longer race on the Wednesday night than last week. Handled the hills through Yallambie OK, not quite so good at the end. The bad news is that the soreness at the side of my foot has returned; it doesn't seem to be impeding my running at the moment, but it's a worry given my experiences over the last few months. Will be interested to see what (if anything) a rest day tomorrow does to it.

Street-O at Blackburn South. A score course and a challenging one - normally score events for us are just an exercise in getting all 20 controls as efficiently as possible, but there were some central and far-flung ones for which there was no easy way to get them, and I wasn't sure that I was going to get them all until about two-thirds distance. There were certainly enough options to break the packs up - was mostly on my own except for the first few and last few.

This was easily the fittest I've felt in a race since returning, although there was a bit of soreness from time to time (seem to have pulled up OK, though). Hard to read the results because of the influences of route choice. Schwepps was with me at the last control (before blowing me away) but had butchered his route; Bryan was 3.5 minutes ahead of me which is a couple of minutes closer than I would have expected at the moment. (My distance is a map distance - my GPS had a flat battery - so I'm not sure it can be validly compared with Bryan's 13.1 or Schwepps's 13.7). I also had a good scrap with a Scotch boy over the last three controls (he did me in the end), but he hadn't got all the controls, and was comfortably ahead of people like Peter Hobbs and Ian Davies who have bettered me in previous weeks.

It was a big day for bizarreness by lobby groups. The state government announced today that licenced premises would henceforth be required to provide free tap water to patrons. I thought the most ridiculous response of the way would be that of the person from the Nightclub Owners' Association who claimed there was no connection between alcohol and violence, but he was quickly surpassed by someone else from the same association who claimed that the measure would lead to more substance abuse because patrons would now have more money to spend on drugs. It was also an entertaining day in the retail lobby game, in which a potential legal battle looms involving the National Retailers Association, the Australian National Retailers Association and the Australian Retailers Association (the last of these appears to be a Liberal front). No doubt the People's Front of Judea will be pleased.

After a vaguely promising start, couldn't really get myself going this morning. A headwind didn't help, and neither did continually finding what traffic there was on the back streets. Plugged away but nothing to get too excited about. Had even less to get excited about when I arrived at work and discovered I'd forgotten my access card, which meant once I was in I didn't want to go out again (as it turned out the lifts were broken down at lunchtime anyway).

Still a little sore, but less so than yesterday. Will see what it's like running tomorrow at Summer Series.

Had a long interview yesterday which I was quite happy to see no evidence of in today's paper - it was with someone from the "Australian" trying to find out whether there was a local angle to a beat-up they'd reprinted from the British "Sunday Times" on alleged irregularities in temperature records. I obviously convinced him "move along, nothing to see here" because nothing appeared in print.

C • "move along, nothing to see here" 2

C • 27th Feb 5

Didn't feel too bad but never felt like I was moving (much), and the time - a PW - bears this out. Probably a little out of practice but that doesn't explain everything. A bit earlier than usual, which meant the pool was more crowded than usual, but Fitzroy never gets that crowded (at least at the times when I'm there).

Monday night from Dion's place - the first time I've been there even though he's been there for a year or so. Pulled up a bit sore from yesterday, and hints of soreness at the side of the foot for the first time in a couple of weeks, but it coped with the run, more or less, Will need watching. Felt pretty ordinary on the run, but better on the final 10-minute loop when it was just Bruce and myself.

Riding to Clifton Hill from work I spent a bit of time thinking of AC/DC references relevant to the trip - there was A Long Way to the Top (the climb up the Latrobe Street bridge), Highway to Hell (the William Street traffic jam), Jailbreak (the remand centre - although I think it's about 20 years since anyone escaped from there) and Back in Black (all the people on their way to the concert). I was through there before rock n'roll was in any danger of becoming noise pollution. (I don't even like their music that much).

The long day of the Bendigo weekend, a mass-start two loop race at Diamond Hill. I expected to be dropped immediately at my current pace but was hoping to get through with a reasonably solid effort, and did. Only very minor errors (the worst being a 15-seconder on 14, on paper the easiest control of the second loop), and didn't tire to the extent I thought I might, although hills were definitely weak.

The first loop was short with numerous splits. Came through the changeover and the first common control of the next loop with Laurina but she dropped away on the next split. Then ended up in a bunch with Craig Feuerherdt and David Birch. Craig dropped off on the climb into 8 but David stayed with me for longer. I knew if it turned into a running race there was only one possible result, so I was quite happy to see him go in front on the way to 12, and make a mistake. Solid finish from there. Ended up 11 minutes behind Simon; half that would be a respectable result, although it's hard to know how much to attribute to the existence of the lead pack.

All things said, this was a reasonably encouraging weekend. The Achilles stood up to a weekend in terrain (there was a little soreness further down the foot - similar to mid-December when I first started to jog/walk - but I think this is just unemployed muscles being made to do some work and not anything more seriousness). My fitness is certainly down, but I felt better running hard than I have on the last two Wednesday nights. Hopefully I'll make further progress in the next three weeks.

Event: BendiGo ToDay
 

Ventured into the terrain for the first time since the injury at Fiddlers Green as part of Nuggets training (with a fair SA contingent too). Didn't want to test it at speed on the first go, so instead jogged around putting out some tapes. There was a fair bit of navigational rust in the system - which isn't surprising as I haven't orienteered in four months - but the body held up reasonably well.

Fiddlers Green is adjacent to Eaglehawk, which has a reputation as Bendigo's bogan capital. We saw a few pieces of evidence that this reputation may not be entirely undeserved (starting with a 13-14 year old on a BMX with a can of Jim Beam and something, and moving on to various trailbike riders doing doughnuts in the sand quarry that was used for the NOL a few years back), but the piece de resistance was the ute next to us at the lights on the way home; the driver had a mobile phone in one hand and was drinking a vodka cruiser with the other. (It was, however, noted by some that mobile phone + vodka cruiser fits the profile of a Borough girl better than that of a Borough boy).

After the first terrain training session it was time for the first race, a slightly elongated sprint on a technical piece of Diamond Hill. This was a lot of fun and certainly felt better than I have on either of the street-Os, but was rather spoint by a 90-second mistake at 8 - game over in a sprint race. (The initial miss was through placing too much faith in the green on a 20-year-old map, but my relocation was poor). Reasonably clean otherwise.

My pace was well down as I expected and I wasn't too far off the bottom. About 5 1/2 minutes behind Simon; when in reasonable fitness in this terrain I'd consider 2 1/2-3 to be par. Spent quite a bit of time in the vague general vicinity of Kez (who started a minute in front of me and was all over the place). Schwepps went through us on 16 without my noticing.

It's evidently easier to accidentally kill yourself at the Winter Olympics than the Summer one; the last death at the latter was a cyclist who dropped dead in 1960. You'll be shocked to learn that drugs were involved.

Quite a nice session at Fitzroy. Thought I might have been getting some water from above as well as below on the way there, but it didn't happen.

Felt quite weak in the quads when I got up; obviously running two days in a row is a big ask for them. I'll want to do something about that in the next seven weeks.

As Melbourne readers will know, the city got hit by what was (by local standards) a very impressive thunderstorm yesterday (still nothing compared with the 2008 Gapocalypse). You won't be surprised to learn that on such occasions, not a lot of work happens in our building (the actual forecasters are somewhere else). Heidelberg missed out a bit, although I suspect something funny was going on with the gauge that said we only got 0.8.

And proof that there are a fair number of people out there who tell fibs to pollsters: a poll found that only 6% of Australians owned up to having knowingly accessed porn on the internet of a level that would be refused classification, but 25% claimed to have come across it by accident.

C • Somewhere else 1

First attempt since October at the Wednesday street-O/Thursday "long" run combination (complete with sleep deprivation). Started out reasonably well, and continued to go steadily (if without any spark) on the flat, but any sort of climbing was a struggle (not that there was a lot as this was the Yarra/Darebin Creek circuit). Pleasant at the start but very humid by the end (a prelude to a spectacular storm in the afternoon).

Reintroducing myself to this training combination also reintroduced me to a related phenomenon: the 2pm Thursday productivity slump. At least I didn't have any meetings to fall asleep in.

Summer Series at Yarra Bend. I guess today was a step forward - still horribly slow, but at least I didn't fall apart like I did last week; in fact the last kilometre was the best of the lot (trying, without quite succeeding, to run down Andrew Baker - which says something about my distance from my normal position). Some challenging route choices, as always at Yarra Bend, and a little bit in the terrain. I think I got the best of the route options, but at current speed that doesn't make a lot of difference. About 6 minutes behind Bruce which suggests I'm currently 4-5 minutes below par.

A little bit of tightness early but that soon disappeared, and I don't seem to have got sore afterwards.

A bit of a transport debacle this morning - I took the front wheel off the bike to load it into the car (with some difficulty as the brake cables are very tight). I had even more difficulty reattaching the wheel for the same reason, only to find once I finally got the wheel on that I'd done something to the brakes and they were stuck. At this point I bailed out and got the tram. Reubster fixed the problem this afternoon; to add insult to injury, it turns out I can get this bike into my car without having to take the wheel off anyway (something to note for future reference).

Riding to work the long way on a humid morning. First chance to really get going properly on the new bike. The speed differential isn't as much as I thought it might have been (5% or so), but I suspect it would be more on the open road - weaving through traffic it doesn't matter much what you're on (and, it being February, there was a bit more weaving through traffic than there was last time). Climbing is definitely a lot easier, though - not that there's a lot of climbing after the first few kilometres.

Minor miracles department: people in cars stopped in places they didn't have to to let me cross - twice. Maybe the new machine is giving out good vibes.

Morning swim at Fitzroy for the first time in a while. Very slow out of the blocks but finished reasonably strongly (at least for me).

Monday night run from my place. Only two others for company - Bruce and Nicola - on a hot night (33). We headed for the Banyule flats and the singletrack along the river, not a bad place to be on a hot night. Struggled a bit on some of the hills coming back, if not as desperately as last Wednesday (not that I started as fast as last Wednesday).

Getting to the start of this session didn't quite go to plan - firstly a diversion because a light pole was leaning at a strange angle over the road in the Ivanhoe shops (presumably because somebody drove into it), then I arrived at Bruce's place for what I thought was the agreed 7.30 start, only to be told by a rather sleepy Anne that he'd already gone (presumably because he thought we were meeting at the pipe bridge). Fortunately he was still there when I arrived. Tash joined us later on, and once again we had some random encounters en route (Sophie Barker twice, Nicola, and a few of the Melbourne Midday Milers).

This was a reasonable run, loosening up fairly well and no sign of the calf tightness from Friday. I'm still weak on hills but that's lack of practice. As usual for a Sunday group run this was focused on the Yarra and included some of the rougher single tracks (and negotiating several new gates installed to stop mountain bikes from using said tracks). Started to get a little sore in the last 10 minutes, but certainly didn't fade to anywhere near the same extent as last week. I think this is progress. (It probably helped that it was less humid than last week, and less hot than last year - although on this day last year it was 'only' 24 early in the morning and I managed to get a run in - just - before the temperature started skyrocketing).

Those who remember the Kiandra snowball fight between the SA and WA schools teams after the 2001 Australian Relays (or, in our case, getting blow-by-blow reports on it via Mace's phone) will know that snow is a novelty to South Australians. I was engaging in some newspaper-trawling yesterday (getting info on a 1910 cold outbreak in southeastern Australia) and discovered that it was a novelty then too; it was reported that the then SA Premier, who was travelling by train from Crystal Brook to Adelaide, had the train stopped on several occasions to engage in snowball-throwing. (This suggests it was a very impressive cold outbreak indeed - I wouldn't have thought that railway line gets much above 100 metres).

Something else in the news on the same day was a bit more surprising: the upholding by a court of a noise pollution complaint (not that they called it 'noise pollution') involving church bells. It wasn't a great day for the church in Melbourne because it was also reported that a clergyman had gatecrashed a Muslim prayer gathering in the Melbourne Domain and (to the obvious pleasure of the reporter) left without any converts.

Also saw that, in addition to the usual betting options on the Superbowl, one bookmaker is offering odds on who the Most Valuable Player will thank first in his speech. God is the $1.80 favourite.

C • Crystal Brook to Adelaide railway route? 6

First (and last) training ride on my temporarily borrowed bike, on the usual Saturday route. A solid effort, a bit quicker than in recent times but that was probably the machinery. The machinery will take a further step up soon as I picked up my new bike today.

It was the sort of brilliantly clear morning that only happens in the big city if it's rained the day before. I was enjoying the conditions and so were a lot of other people; the path was a bit crowded at times.

C • bike 1

Almost the first run starting in darkness for six months or so; there was just a hint of light when I set out. Doubling up with a run and a swim so ran from Ivanhoe pool, around the suburbs. Once again didn't feel quite right - and calves were very tight at times - but not struggling as much as I have the last couple of days. The kinder conditions (cool with drizzle) will have helped.

There was a farmers' protest outside Parliament House the other day. Apparently someone had a sign decrying the great Fabian Society conspiracy. As a member of that august organisation I can confidently state that the outer limits of their conspiracy-organising capabilities is to conspire to book a restaurant.

Headed from the roads into the pool, swimming for the first time in a few weeks (a) because I no longer have any strapping on my hand and (b) because various aspects of my schedule meant today was Ivanhoe rather than Fitzroy and Ivanhoe isn't a great pool for pool-running. Not as sluggish as I expected, although 30-degree water is definitely too warm for comfort.

Last night wasn't the night I would have chosen for a comeback to fast running and this morning wasn't the morning I would have chosen for a follow-up; 28 degrees at 6 a.m. (not the first time this has happened in Melbourne this summer, but the first time I've tried to run in it). Legs were functioing passably but I didn't really feel myself, whether because of dehydration or not being 100% well for other reasons (I suspect the latter may have been a factor). I was reminded late in the piece, by lower leg cramps at a fence crossing, that my difficulties of the last couple of days are not purely a shortage of HTFU (although the cramps were nowhere near as bad as on a comparable occasion a year and a week ago).

This route took me past Moonee Valley racecourse (having started in North Melbourne). The racecourse was in the news this morning because of the original reason for having to reschedule tomorrow's race meeting - a flock of cockatoos have nested at the ground and chewed through half the floodlight cables.

The competition is tough given that Lord Monckton's around, but we had a strong contender in today's paper for the most bizarre statement in a public policy debate. It came from a spokesman for the Australian Hotels Association, trying to put the case that his organisation's members have nothing to do with alcohol-related violence in Melbourne: his argument was that young people today don't have respect for the consequences of violence because they don't get beaten up at school as much as they used to (or words to that effect).

And I've achieved a milestone in the career of any Australian climate scientist: being the subject of a complaint to the ABC.

C • Melbourne Temperature 1

C • Complaint, why? 2

This was to be my first race in more than three months: Wednesday Summer Series, Lillydale Lake, 33 degrees. I didn't feel great before the start and was wondering if this might be asking a bit too much for a first fast session, and so it proved. My speed wasn't great at the start, but it was still obvious by 3k that it was more than I could sustain. By 5k I was in survival mode; between 4 and 17, at about three-quarters distance, I started to feel a little dizzy and decided enough was enough. I remember too well how badly I smashed myself in the heat this time last year. Don't feel the worse for wear now, though.

The good news is that the Achilles, which was very tight through the day (although strangely not on getting up), loosened up well on warming up and coped fine with running hard(ish) up hills early on. The fitness is no good but a few weeks' more work will fix that problem. Having not run much during the summer (and avoided the heat for most of what I have done), my heat acclimatisation is also not what it normally would be at this time of year.

Morning run based on the Yarra at Hawthorn before a physio session. Fairly flat early on and took my time loosening up, but reasonable on that front by the time I started to hit some hills in Toorak at around 20 minutes. Not the strongest run I've ever had; felt at its best when I got to the Kooyong level crossing to find the gates closed and decided to fill the time it takes for a train to crawl across the crossing (they have to go at walking pace because the train tracks cross tram tracks) by running up the Glenferrie Road hill and back. The hot spot continues to be largely trouble-free.

When I finished my PhD I was told that once you had 'Dr' in front of your name you got a better class of junk mail, such as ads for BMWs or upmarket investment properties. I'm still waiting (not exactly anxiously) for this, but I did get a call at work today from an 'investment advisor' (probably = 'scammer') in Hong Kong. They appear to be seriously deluded about the amount of money that a climate scientist might have to invest (perhaps they've been reading all the sceptic blog sites which list the grants allocated to various lead investigators and imply that they all go into that scientist's pocket, rather than most of it being used to pay supporting staff or pay for other research costs). I'm guessing they picked on me because I've been in the media a bit lately; it's a little surprising that none of the Bolt army have (yet) done likewise.

A paper I'm editing for the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Journal contains the sentence:

"This paper presents the processing of NAVOCEANO's GAC AVHRR L2P SST for use in BODAS"

It's just possible that the Hoggster knows what this means (more or less), but I'm guessing that not too many others here do. (At least they define all their acronyms elsewhere so you can look them up if you're sufficiently keen).

C • NAVOCEANO's GAC AVHRR L2P S... 2

Achilles felt much better getting up this morning than it has in recent days; perhaps doing a long run yesterday was good for them? I wouldn't be surprised if a contributing factor was bobbing up and down in the surf for a while yesterday afternoon, not something I'll be able to repeat on a routine basis.

This was a reasonably routine session. I've taken the strapping off my fingers now (although the hand is still not quite 100% right), so this was the first time for a while that I've done this session without a rubber glove on my left hand (something which usually raises a few eyebrows from others present).

C • rubber glove 1