Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I've been in a bit of a quandary deciding what training to do in this period. The season isn't over for us yet - we have Victorian Long and Middle Champs in three weeks' time (after which I'll have a couple of reasonably easy weeks before launching back into full summer mode). I've settled for moderate volume but fairly high intensity.

This morning was the first stage of this - a hills session based on the lower part of Walmer St in Kew (10 uphill reps of approx 1 minute, jog downhill recovery). Picked this location as I've got something on in the area after work. (I seem to recall Bruce using this location at some stage for another reason - there's a playground at the top of each rep which would make it possible, at least in theory, to keep the kids occupied and do a proper session at the same time).

Didn't feel like I was going that fast on the hills, but did manage to shrug off some early stiffness and ran a reasonably solid session. Didn't see any suddenly impoverished residents of the eastern suburbs throwing themselves in front of heavy vehicles or such like.

It was a late return last night, but not as late as the last time I flew home from an Australian Champs (2006, 2.45 a.m), and I didn't have to do a briefing for the Prime Minister on my first morning back this time either. In fact I had the luxury of a slightly late start (a relative term which meant a 6.15 alarm rather than 5.something) because of a 9.00 appointment to collect the books from the OA auditors.

Went to Ivanhoe to do a bit of recovery. A reasonably smooth if unspectacular session. There are certainly a few war wounds from the weekend; scoreboard as far as I can tell are a bruised elbow, a bruised hip, various scratches from a face-versus-lantana altercation on the way into 24 on Saturday, and a lump from an ant bite on my ankle while waiting in the changeover area to start my relay leg. If you want a pretty face or legs you're in the wrong game.

One episode from Saturday I neglected to mention was an encounter with one of the locals (of reasonably mature years) who said that it was about time young people like me did some of the work, or words to that effect. I was pretty offended by this and I think he has probably worked out that I was offended (and I was still wearing my running number so mistaken identity isn't an excuse). It was a reminder that whatever respect I have amongst the hard core that frequent these pages doesn't extend to the broader orienteering community.

C • classic 11

A fairly easy lunchtime session around the Tan in the absence of a Monday night session this week. Rather on the slow side although traffic hold-ups explain part of that; felt ordinary early but better later on. A slight variation to my usual route because of a gathering for Police Remembrance Day; I didn't think jaywalking in front of a couple of thousand police was a brilliant idea. The speaker as I was going past was expressing the apparently worthy sentiment that 'we are the people's police'. He probably doesn't realise that the People's Police (or Volkspolizei in German) was the name of the force responsible for maintaining law, order and repression in Communist East Germany.

Not surprisingly, brown and gold was much in evidence around the Melbourne CBD today.

C • ...you don't believe in res... 3

In recent years I've developed a habit of having exactly one good run on Australian Championships weekend - a good individual has meant a bad relay or vice versa. 2008 continued this pattern with a satisfying run, feeling sufficiently comfortable at speed to make me think that I hadn't been trying hard enough yesterday.

The first six or seven all went out on the second leg within a couple of minutes. I went out second, but had the long split on the first control where I also wobbled slightly, then lost a bit of time trying to get across the crrek into 2. This didn't work out badly as it then meant I was attacking the packs from behind (apart from Grant, who slipped through at 1 without my seeing him). On a course with little splitting, I then settled into a nice rhythm while working through packs, first edging clear of Nino Calabro by 6, then pulling in James Bradshaw and Steve Todkill by 10, and getting a little ahead of them when they missed 11 slightly. They were then reasonably close for a while, but dropped back a little over the closing controls (James never dropped off totally, but was far enough back for me to be able to withstand his sprint). By then, though, Ben Rattray came through on a flyer and passed me en route to the last control; I couldn't hold him and neither could anyone else. We ended up fourth after Rob Preston went through Bruce on the last leg.

It was a memorable sprint finish between Rob Walter and Simon Uppill, but the result was decided on the first leg when Lachlan Dow came back with the leaders, a result which should give him a lot of confidence about his ability to compete at this level (we ran exactly the same time, which may or may not end up being a symbolic result), and John Nieuwenhoven was four minutes down when it could easily have been ten and left the Arrows out of range.

"Interesting" trip back home from Queensland. Like, I suspect, a fair number of other readers, I was caught up in the shambles when someone (from the past history of such incidents, probably a clueless pensioner) entered through an exit and therefore caused the entire terminal (and planes, like ours, that were on the tarmac) to be cleared out for re-screening, a process which took a couple of hours. It was a bit disappointing that the assembled multitude didn't get the opportunity to throw rotten tomatoes at the offender...

On returning to Melbourne, I then had the misfortune to have a taxi driver who had been working continuously for 20 hours (one would have thought there was a law against that, but apparently there isn't). He was friendly but clearly exhausted and erratic, and I was seriously tempted to offer to drive it home myself (and probably should have done). He also appeared to be seriously navigationally challenged; I was half-expecting to see him still circling the block this morning after being unable to find his way out of Heidelberg. Eventually made it home in one piece just after midnight.

C • Security Breach 2

A pretty disappointing day in the race that I was building for in the second half of the year. It was particularly disappointing because my problems were more mental than physical - most obviously in my worst mistake in a major Australian event for fifteen years, a four-minute parallel error on 13, but also in thinking that I'd horribly misjudged my pace when in fact I'd probably got it close to right.

I took the first part of the course reasonably conservatively but didn't have any real glitches, other than a fall at 1 when I hit the elbow I broke in 2005, which was fairly painful for a couple of minutes. (It's swelled up quite significantly since; had it been my knee I probably would have struggled to run the relays). The first glitch was at 9, a knoll in the green, which I overran and lost 45 seconds at. It was here that I saw Liggo. This really rattled me. I knew he'd started six minutes after me, and also knew he was in excellent running form; two minutes wouldn't have alarmed me too much, but six? For the rest of the day I was thinking that I was running much too slowly, but couldn't lift my pace much further. (It turned out it wasn't surprising he'd got there six minutes faster than me - he was running a different course).

After the mistake at 13 I spent most of the second half thinking I was on a catastrophic run, when in fact it was merely mediocre. Held the pace OK on a warm morning, and was reasonably smooth for most of the second loop, before blowing another minute or so at 22, something which had a turnover-in-the-backline-when-30-points-down-at-the-27-minute-mark-of-the-last-quarter feel to it.

I ended up 11th; a couple of those ahead of me probably benefited from a train, but this didn't deserve to be a top-ten run and wasn't. I think 105-106 would have been a good time for me; Craig's 102 for third was probably out of reach. Had a reasonable amount in reserve at the end which did give me some optimism for tomorrow, but today was an opportunity lost, and at my age one's conscious that there may not be many more.

The rest of the day was devoted to Grand Final watching, three separate selection meetings, a presentation and dinner and my second-last passage through Maryborough. I still haven't worked out what keeps the place afloat (other than Centrelink) and none of the Queenslanders seem to know either, other than that it's there because it's there and used to be important.

Australian Sprint Championships. I may have done some significant things in sprint races overseas but today was never likely to be a repeat performance except in the unlikely event that somebody had set up a replica of a medieval European town centre at the back of the Maryborough Showgrounds. As it happened I felt very flat and produced a performance which was disappointing even by my sprint standards. Also wobbled and hesitated on the way into 6, a greenish flat gully and the one difficult control on the course. Not a day to be happy with - hopefully I got it all out of the way today and tomorrow will be a fresh start.

Afternoon session at Hervey Bay after the Schools Relays, out along the waterfront to its eastern end, back through the inland. A stiff south-easterly wind, pleasantly cool but hard work to go into on the way out (and with the close proximity of the ocean I'd acquired a bit of salt on my face by the end). As is often the way with mid-afternoon runs, didn't really fall comfortable but kept plugging away steadily.

It wasn't really a beach day but there was still plenty of evidence of school holidays; in a place with Hervey Bay's demographics (and where you could fire the proverbial cannon down the main street at 9 p.m. and not hit a soul) this will probably prompt an outburst of outraged letters to the local paper from that portion of the local citizenry who think that it should be an offence to be under 30 in a public place. The MP for Maryborough (independent, ex-One Nation) has already got in on the act by calling for the reintroduction of corporal punishment in schools.

Wide Bay may have a political reputation as a redneck haven but Gympie even more so, so I was interested to see in today's news that one Ron Owen, the most infamously rabid of Gympie's collection of infamously rabid gun lobbyists (and collector of something like 120 votes in all of Queensland when he ran for the Senate some years back), had been ordered to apologise to the 'homosexual community of Gympie' as a result of an anti-vilification case. I suspect said community is pretty small; it's the sort of place where one could easily imagine anyone known to be a bit queer being run out of town at the hands of a pitchfork-wielding mob.

Finished the day at the Schools presentation dinner (as OA representative). I left before there was time for any potential scandal (there's usually one about every five years and the last one was in 2003). Most memorable moment was seeing a certain prominent South Australian elite orienteer who's a lot closer in age to World Masters than she is to JWOC successfully passing as an under-18 to avoid having to join the signing-in queue at the RSL.

Off to Fraser Island for the day tomorrow.

Not quite up to the level of the weekend races. Schools Tuesday is never an easy one for me to race well on; my focus is on other things for a lot of the day, and the faster terrain wasn't quite as much to my liking as some of the thick stuff on the weekend. My principal objective on this day is to beat all the kids, something I haven't managed since 2001. This time, like last time, I beat all of ours but got beaten by one of the Kiwis.

One 30-second mistake, coming over the top of 11 (which seemed to be very low), and a couple of other minor wobbles, but the big problem today was not being fast enough in an area where that counts for a lot. May not augur well for the weekend as those areas are supposedly also pretty fast.

A body was found in forest near Maryborough on the weekend, but it was nothing to do with us. I also saw a sign on the way into Maryborough "Baby Shoot". They do like their guns in these parts, but I think this particular sign was a reference to photographs.

Didn't expect a lot of this session but it turned out to be a really nice run, flowing along well after initial warm-up. Particularly nice along the Hervey Bay esplanade in the second half of the run (spent the first half inland, partly in the name of exploration). No sign of stiffness from yesterday; only lingering issue is some itchiness where my arm encountered an air-borne nest of fire ants while pushing through some green yesterday.

C • dust storm on radar 2

Queensland Championships. Another day, another fifth (and another close race with Darren Ashmore - after a dead-heat yesterday he beat me by 5 seconds this time). Probably a better run than yesterday, but a long race in the heat was a tough proposition and for much of the second half I felt like I was on the outer edges of what I was capable of sustaining physically. Only one mistake of any size, 45-60 seconds on 9 in the green.

The area was greener than what I was expecting before the start of the week, although not as bad as initial reports from the early starters suggested - in particular light green on the creek flats was quite runnable.

A lot of people struggled today. Thought I was going through Eric out of 14 but it was actually Steve Todkill; also caught Bruce (who's coming off a long layoff) towards the end. A bit frustrating to narrowly miss the placings again, but if the breakthrough comes next Saturday I won't be complaining. Thought Simon might have been a bit more than 6 minutes ahead of me. It was a good day for the old men again, with four of the top five eligible for M35 (Grant, Craig, Darren and myself).

Had a glitch at the start - picked up two maps and hurriedly dropped the second. I don't think I can claim it cost me 5 seconds.

Did a bit of scaring of small (well, mid-sized) children on the way to the start, by telling the group of Queensland W16s I was running to the start with stories of Kapamahunga. This was prompted by someone commenting on a brief downhill en route - I responded that they didn't know what a downhill trip to the start looked like. (Kapamahunga's was something like 200 metres descent in 1k).

C • Telling stories of the old days, huh? 2

C • Was it just me ? 8

Event: 2008 Australian Championships
 

Australian Middle Distance Champs. Not the best physical race I've ever run - was feeling the heat (28) despite the modest distance, and certainly appreciated the drinks control. A reasonable race technically; a few wobbles (some of them not entirely unintentional in an area where aiming off when heading for the creeks and erosion detail wasn't a bad strategy), but nothing bigger than 15 seconds or so. A more interesting area than I was expecting, with lots of low visibility around the creeks. Reasonably happy with the result (5th); only 32 seconds away from the placings, and will hopefully have a few shots at minor placings in the longer races (although Simon looks untouchable).

Travel day up to Queensland, first Brisbane and then Hervey Bay (via a visit to our Brisbane office). We're used to bumping into familiar faces all the times at major orienteering events once you get to (insert whichever small town is the host), but I wasn't quite expecting to see any at Brisbane Central in the middle of the day (the Doyles).

Around the Yarra from Hawthorn pre-massage. Not for the first time this week, took a long time to get into any sort of running rhythm but improved as it went on, with a pretty good last 15 minutes. A nice morning for it (if not particularly useful for Queensland heat acclimatisation), and a reasonable final hit-out before things get under way in Queensland.

The only thing that surprises me about today's events in Swanston Street is that it's taken this long for a cyclist to get killed there. It was my usual route when I was living in Albert Park and I crashed twice there (once being my (in)famous 1998 altercation with a horse and cart). For those who are unfamiliar with it, cyclists have to take their chances alongside tour buses that use it (mostly legally) as a car park, trams, couriers and delivery vehicles (mostly illegal), out-of-town drivers who don't realise they're not supposed to be there, wandering pedestrians, and the occasional horse. The council has been talking about moving the main hazard, the tour buses, out for years but has continually buckled in the face of pressure from business interests - perhaps something will finally happen now. One would hope that if they had a conscience said business interests won't sleep well tonight, but as not having a conscience is generally part of their job description I suspect they will.

The Tan. About the only positive thing that could be said about this run was that it was faster than last time, as it should have been, given that there was at least a semblance (if only a semblance) of an opposition this time, the conditions were perfect and nothing else got in the way. Got off to a slow start, passably strong up the hill but no real pace after that. On the 9%-behind-PB benchmark par for me at the moment should be somewhere in the 13.20s, so this was a long way outside it.

Made it in time for the 12.25 bunch this time but discovered that it wasn't much of a bunch - I was leading it by 1k (although got overrun by a couple at the end). In times gone by you'd have been 30 back going at the sort of pace (or lack thereof) I was. I found out afterwards that 12.30 is the new 12.25.

Km splits: 3.35, 3.43, 3.37, 3.34.

To/from the Tan. Felt pretty reasonable warming up, which makes the subsequent performance a bit harder to fathom.

A run of two halves, flat and listless for the first half, flowing increasingly well in the second. Hopefully the second half is a more representative sample of what's to come than the first. This was the last run of any significant length before Queensland.

The far point of this run (which started near work) was Windy Hill, which is in somewhat better shape than Glenferrie (presumably at least in part because VFL and first-grade cricket are still played there). Something I wasn't expecting to see was a queue outside the Essendon social club which had clearly been in place (with chairs) for some time (and getting the full force of the westerly in the process). I presume they were in search of preliminary final tickets but wouldn't have thought you would need to go to those lengths to get them (especially at a club that didn't get anywhere near the preliminary final).

The short ride from my parking spot in Arden Street (I've got something on in the area tonight) to work had more obstacles than usual, ranging from flooding on the Moonee Ponds Creek path - probably a storm surge backing up from the bay as there was little rain - to a later part of the path being dug up. Didn't have to dodge anyone jumping off the roof of the National Australia Bank building.

After having ventured into the Hawthorn pool for the first time last week, I was there again today, this time because tonight's run is in that direction. The pool has seen better days (as has the adjacent Glenferrie football ground - it's hard to imagine that it ever hosted matches in the old VFL), but it's decrepit in an endearing sort of way, and a nice enough spot to swim. On a day as windy as today, the collection of gum leaves on the bottom was also reminiscent of swimming in the backyard. Felt quite strong, but not especially fast.

A new venue for Monday night, from Susannah (and Owen)'s new place in Glen Iris. This is not quite unexplored territory for me - I occasionally find my way here at the far end of long runs - but still not especially familiar. It is unexplored territory for many others (and still is because a few of the regulars didn't make it).

It would have been more interesting had it been a couple of hours earlier (and I would have got the chance to see what a 109 km/h tailwind feels like on a bike). As it happened it was quite a nice run after a slow start, with no sign of stiffness from the weekend. Spent a fair bit of it giving James a crash course on how to argue with climate-change denialists (whose influence might be a bit less now that Malcolm Turnbull is Liberal leader).

Event: NSW Long Championships
 

The good news was that today's results were highly encouraging for Australia's international prospects in 2009. The bad news is that the international prospects in question are those of our M35 and M40 contingent in WMOC.

In many ways this was a frustrating day because after Shep's withdrawal it was an eminently winnable race and I didn't win it. It was long(ish), it was green, it was technical and it was wet, all of which should have worked in my favour. A NSW win is high on my goals list as it's one of only two state/territory championships I've never won at senior level, and the window of opportunity to do something about it is closing faster than it is in WA where Craig's getting older at the same rate I am (or maybe it isn't closing, of which more later).

That said, there was a lot to be positive about today, starting with the area, the map and the courses. A kilometre rate just under 9 might indicate a long slog, but you always felt as if you were making progress - there wasn't much in the way of rockclimbing, scrambling or scrub-bashing. I was also happy with the way I was running physically, starting with the warm-up. Never really tired which is unusual for a long race. The main reason I lost was because I blew 2.5 minutes on control 8, not quite sure of the cliff lines and running just over the top of it. Also smaller misses at 7 and 14, drifting wide over the top of hills on both occasions, and at the end of the long leg at 20. Fastest in the field from 12 to the finish, but the damage was done and I ended up at the back of the closely clustered top four.

Liggo's result, probably the best of his career, is one that's been coming for a couple of years - he's been fit but hasn't really been able to put it together on the day in a big race. It would have been an interesting 'what if' if I hadn't missed 8. He may well have caught me anyway (he started 2 minutes behind and had cut that in half by 7), and while I was faster over the second half I don't think it would have been by enough to drop him in a head-to-head.

It is definitely a worrying sign for the future that the only four who were competitive yesterday are 41, 39, 32 and 37 (you can add into that mix Steve Craig and Jock Davis, who were 1-2 in M35A in similar km rates to use and walloped the M20s on the same course). It may be a partial defence that no-one under 25 has run a serious championship race in this type of sandstone terrain before (not that inexperience in the slightly-different pagodas terrain stopped Simon Uppill from producing his tour de force at Ganguddy in the 2004 NSW Championships), but there is a real hole in our ranks and not a lot of signs of people likely to fill it.

In the end, for me the result was disappointing, but the run showed potential for something better next week.

C • map 2

A hit-out at Mittagong - wanted to go out in the afternoon to maximise my exposure to the heat with Queensland in mind, even though such a strategy may not have been strictly optimal for tomorrow's performance. As it turned out it had clouded over a bit and 25 degrees didn't feel excessively warm (certainly less so than I would have expected having not training in anything much over 15 since returning from Europe).

Headed out from central Mittagong up to the top of Mount Gibraltar, a steady 250-metre climb over 4k or so. They must have been somewhat lacking in place-naming originality in this part of the world as I can think of at least four similarly-named hills in the Southern Highlands (this one, the 2002 Easter area north of Marulan, one near Bungendore and one on the ridge between Corin and Birrigai). Had had thoughts of dropping down the other side into Bowral and coming back along the base, but that would have made it longer than I wanted and involved a quad-risking very steep descent, so I contented myself with running around the top for a while and then coming back down the gentle way, past lots of expensive real estate.

The run itself didn't feel especially brilliant, but did have quite a bit of strength when it was needed on the climbs.

Plenty of channel-surfing opportunities this evening with two rugby league finals, an AFL final and a rugby union Test, all of them live on free-to-air. Didn't get too many of the results I wanted, though (and even my temporary St. Kilda allegiance was driven more by tipping-competition expediency than deep passion).

C • Saints 5

C • The Gib 1

Experienced a new pool this morning - had to get some urgent repairs to my car (a headlight blew last night) and Camberwell was the best place to do it, which placed Hawthorn on my route. After previous experiences at swimming pools within Melbourne's more affluent eastern suburbs I was a bit apprehensive, and feared the worst when the change room conversation seemed to be focused around overnight moves on Wall Street, but it was fine - being a 50-metre pool helps with spreading out the crowds. The bottom hasn't been painted for a while and, on what was the first proper warm-north-wind morning of spring, there were even a few gum leaves in the water from time to time.

The swim felt like it was lasting for a long time but was quite a reasonable session. Off to Wagga tonight (en route to NSW Champs), hopefully with functional headlights.

Quote of the day goes to British cycling gold medallist Chris Hoy, after somebody asked him "We've heard a lot about what other people think of Chris Hoy, but what does Chris Hoy think of Chris Hoy?". The response:

"Chris Hoy thinks that the day that Chris Hoy starts referring to Chris Hoy in the third person is the day that Chris Hoy disappears up his own arse".

C • Hoy 2

Just like last time, I marked the failure of the world to end as speculated by starting my run with a lap of Warringal Cemetery. Unfortunately, for much of this run I felt about as energetic as the occupants of Warringal Cemetery. From time to time it looked like it might have been about to come good but never really did, although did manage to handle the numerous hills through the second half better than seemed likely at first. This will be my last long(ish) training run for a while - hope the races are better than this.

Had a shower chasing me around for most of the first half, which was a bit strange with clear skies all around.

You may recall my mention a couple of weeks ago of the news report which started "A Mount Gambier woman has warned the community against cleaning lawnmowers in bedrooms while smoking". I've now seen the full article and it contains plenty of other gems, including "Ms Goldsworthy said although she had been convicted of arson before, this time it was an accident. 'I swear, this time I did not do it', she said". The journalist must have had to exercise considerable self-control to avoid cracking up with laughter during the interview.

C • End of the world 1

C • Shower 1

C • right vs left 2

A session that started promisingly, on a very pleasant crisp morning, but didn't quite live up to its potential, not helped by several breaks for traffic in the second half.

Noticed on going past the VicRoads HQ in Kew that there was a large American flag flying out the front. Presumably this is indicative of where they get all their ideas on transport policy from.

3x1000 on the Tan again with jog in between. Gradually building a bit more pace in this session: km splits 3.44, 3.39, 3.35, which is a couple of seconds quicker across the board than I've previously done in this session. Felt quite sharp at the end although less so elsewhere - and even the last kilometre was only at a pace that I could do 21 of in succession in 1997.

If I haven't updated my log by the end of tomorrow the world has probably ended (but then none of the rest of you will be around to notice either). I'm mildly surprised that I haven't yet fielded any phone calls on the subject, unlike the last occasion (6/6/06) when such an event was heralded in certain quarters, and someone rang me six times in a day and a half trying to convince us that it was the Bureau of Meteorology's responsibility to warn the Australian people of impending doom.

Felt better this morning, after some initial stiffness, than in recent fartlek sessions. A slightly more respectable pace too (9.19), but still somewhat short of where I'd like to be at this stage of my preparation. Hopefully another week of sharpening will do (some of) the trick.

Didn't quite go to plan this morning - was going to swim at Fitzroy on the way into work but got a puncture, so went to Collingwood instead (which is close to Clifton Hill station). A pleasant enough session which loosened up some pretty tight muscles (especially quads) from yesterday. Collingwood must be one of the hotter pools around - felt like a warm bath (water temperature was about 31, I think).

Nothing to add interest to an F1 race like a bit of rain, is there?

Monday night session from my place to mark 10 years (minus one day) at my current premises, taking on various hills of Heidelberg and Ivanhoe. Not the best I'll ever feel on a run in my life but hills were OK. Had some there who don't normally make it out to the wilds of Heidelberg, and one for whom Heidelberg is closer than other venues - James Allston, making his first Monday appearance to my knowledge (and probably not his last). It seems another Allston is also applying for jobs in Melbourne, but I suspect that the Monday night pace will be much too slow for her liking if and when she makes an appearance here.

Athletics Victoria half marathon at Burnley. Not really sure what to expect as I hadn't done a half since about 2000. Various extrapolations from marathon times, 10k times, % behind PBs etc. all pointed to something in the mid-82s, but I was hoping for something better than that, especially after cruising through halfway in Canberra in 83.47. It's a pretty flat course, quite fast (I ran my PB of 74.59 here in 1997, in a Sri Chinmoy race with almost no-one else around), and a good field.

Took a couple of kilometres to settle into a pace after being surprised a bit by the starting gun, but then ran comfortably through the first half. My 10k split (38.18) was actually faster than either of the 10k races I ran last year, which probably has something to do with said races being run in a gale (Sri Chinmoy, Williamstown) or after I'd been celebrating the election result into the early hours of the morning (Olympic Dream). Went through Kathryn Ewels, whose start was a little over-ambitious, around 11k, after which my pace drifted back from 3.50s to 3.55s and the possibility of a low 81s or high 80s faded away. Had a couple of bad stretches around 14 and 19k when I felt quite light-headed, and didn't have much left for the last kilometre where I gave back a few of the places which I'd picked off over the preceding 7 or 8; by then the mission was to get under 82, which was achieved (without a lot to spare). A solid run but not an exceptional one; the closest in % terms that I've been to PB pace for a couple of years (the vdot number bears that out a bit too). Suggests I'm not as far off the pace, at least over these distances, as some of my speedwork performances in recent weekes have suggested.

Kathryn ran 83, and Rachel Johnson 84. Sophie Barker was entered but I didn't see her.

C • 82 10

Bendigo Series at Mount Alexander. This is a very good area - rather physical because of its steepness, but really nice forest to be in at this time of year. You can certainly notice the difference between 1984 rock mapping and 2008 rock mapping though - there wasn't a lot of variation in boulders sizes on the map so 6-metre monsters were small dots.

Only a couple of very minor 15-second misses. Not as strong on the hills (or as fluent down them, particularly on the 35-contour descent into 7) as I'd like to have been, but still not bad - certainly better than midweek. No sign of hip twinge on the run. Well clear of everyone else which was a minor surprise.

Felt reasonable - certainly better for a good night's sleep - but still pretty slow. A little bit of hip soreness at times, something that's surfaced intermittently this week but more so outside running than within it.

Spotted yesterday afternoon - something almost as bleeding obvious as the 'Federal Agents Raid Gun Shop, Find Weapons' headline mentioned a couple of days ago. This was a story which started off by saying that a NSW Supreme Court jury had been told that the Gap was a well-known suicide spot. One might have imagined that most potential jurors in NSW would have known this already.

Not as bad as yesterday but still working my way through a bit of a flat patch, never awful but never really comfortable. Not significantly different after 110 minutes to what it was after 10 minutes. Did manage to find some unexplored territory relatively close to home - a rough (and occasionally muddy) track on the west side of Darebin Creek.

A very ordinary morning session around Ivanhoe, despite the nice conditions. Felt weak throughout the run, particularly on the hills. Probably the worst I've felt on a run for several weeks; no obvious reason for it so will await developments.

First hit-out this season on the Tan, but not as I'd hoped it would be - a late-running meeting at work meant that I missed out on being in the traditional 12.25 start-time bunch. (It turned out I didn't miss much as most of the other regulars were also missing, but I would at least have had Liggo to chase). Instead I started at 12.45 with one other person; I thought he might be a useful target when he jumped to a 20-metre break inside the first 100, but I was through him by 600 and never saw him again, so it was essentially a solo run.

Didn't feel too bad on the run - certainly much better than this morning - but still disappointingly slow, even factoring in the 15-20 second differential that seems to be standard between a race and a solo run. The hill was nothing to get excited about. Better in the second half. My training at present is more geared to longer distances - something we'll find out more about at the half-marathon on Sunday - but I'd still like to be sub-13.30 here.

A sunny lunchtime meant lots of walkers to get in the way (but at least not too many dogs, strollers or school groups).

Km splits: 3.40, 3.48 (uphill), 3.36, 3.32.

C • I hope you're not complaining about... 2

Getting to/from the Tan. We'd been warned that there was going to be a film shoot at the bottom of our building involving 'simulated explosions' but no-one had (yet) started blowing anything up.

Fartlek session from my place. Felt a bit light-headed when I started but got into it by the start of the first fast stuff. Not as slow as last week (9.28), but still 15 seconds short of where I should be and 30 seconds short of where I'd like to be.

The large billboard spruiking anti-impotence treatments of dubious merit has disappeared from the road into town, after being ruled offensive by the Advertising Standards Council. There was a letter in one of the papers. "'Nasal Delivery Technology'? My wife is quite happy with the delivery technology I use now".

And, thanks to Crikey, some headlines that could have used some better subediting:

'Police: Crack Found In Man's Buttocks'
'Chick Accuses Some Of Her Male Colleagues Of Sexism' (about a Ms. Chick who is a city councillor in Los Angeles)
'Utah Poison Control Center Reminds Everyone Not To Take Poison'
'Great Tits Cope Well With Warming' (about the response of birds to climate change)
'Tiger Woods Plays With Own Balls, Nike Says'

and my favourite:

'Federal Agents Raid Gun Shop, Find Weapons'

Pretty sluggish this morning, although nice to be outdoors in the sunshine. Not much new that can be said about chasing the black line.

This was my latest arrival at a Monday night run in living memory, thanks to hitting a long red light and then three successive trains at the Clifton Hill railway crossing. A frantic day at work didn't help either. (The first day of the month is always frantic, the first day of a new season more so, and when you throw a big weather event on the other side of the world into the mix...).

As this coincided with the earliest departure on a Monday night run in living memory, I missed everyone and thus headed out on my own, in the hope that I might catch up to them. Had everyone gone their usual way from Dion's I might have, but they didn't so I didn't. Instead I had a rare Monday evening solo run, faster than I usually do these (especially early on). Felt better than I was expecting to, and no sign of the left hip twinge that I noticed walking downhill at lunchtime. I wasn't the only one coming off a big weekend - on returning it was revealed that Dion had been adventure-racing and Nicola had done the best part of three hours herself yesterday (she runs to wherever her daughter is playing soccer on the weekend, and this weekend it was Jells Park).

This time three years ago the Monday night talking point was impending meteorological catastrophe in New Orleans (something people had probably become sick of hearing me talk about after a couple of near-misses in preceding years). Tonight we might have a repeat performance; Gustav is not as intense as Katrina, but this time New Orleans might take the direct hit from the main storm surge (last time the biggest surge was in the Biloxi area to the east, and New Orleans flooded from the back several hours later). We await developments.