Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Didn't expect a lot from this one either, this time because of a very poor night's sleep (for no obvious reason apart from possibly eating too much at a colleague's 40th last night) on top of yesterday's long run, but a pretty good one - a very nice morning helped. A bit faster than usual for a recovery run, too. Out quite early again because of commitments later in the day (see next paragraph). Did feel again as if a tougher course would be a test.

The reason for this weekend's arrangement of runs was that I then spent most of the rest of the day making a visit to Benalla to check things out for next year's Sprint Championships (I'm controller). The grass seed on the river flats is ferocious but hopefully it will be better in early October than it is at the end of November, and the assembly area will be terrific for spectators.

Benalla is the furthest afield I've been this month; it's the first month since June 2007 in which I haven't left Victoria at least once.

Cricket as a sport seems particularly prone to commentators of the everything-was-better-in-my-day variety, and there was a particularly bad example yesterday when Tony Greig was ridiculing the softness of present-day players and saying that the sore backs and sore shins they used to play through in his day were now "stress fractures" and "compartment syndrome". As someone who's had both of these, I can confidently assert that Mr. Greig has had neither. (Of course, what used to happen is that a lot of conditions which are treatable today caused people to disappear without trace; in an earlier era I would most likely have been forced into premature retirement at 31).

On the subject of obnoxious sporting commentators, Rex Hunt came before the courts on Friday on charges of assaulting a cyclist in an alleged road-rage incident on Beach Road. If he gets sentenced to X hours of community service he will presumably be able to carry this out by not commentating on X/2 football matches.

Was a bit apprehensive about this one, given the limited time for recovery from Thursday and that I wasn't quite feeling 100% this morning (bit of a runny nose).

It turned out to go pretty well, although it was low degree of difficulty for a run of this length; benign conditions, few hills of any size and a not-especially-fast pace (even allowing for the slippery state of the rougher tracks on the Yarra I think this was a bit slower than usual). Comfortable at cruising speed but had the feeling that anything more ambitious would have been hard going. With Bruce and Liggo for the middle 90 minutes, with additional loops at the start and end; all based on the Yarra, starting and finishing from Bruce's place. Felt in danger of dropping away a couple of times in the final half-hour but held it together reasonably well.

It isn't a great weekend to be a public transport user in our part of the world; in an impressive feat of coordination, the railways people are digging up the train tracks at Clifton Hill on the same weekend as the trams people are digging up the tram tracks at Clifton Hill. Had to detour around one of the building sites at one stage.

Moved on to another couple of hours on my feet handing out at the Council elections. Highlight this time was a man who sounded like he was ready to explode at any time, who came up and announced 'Who are the racists? I want to vote for the racists!'. At first I thought he was taking the mickey but it became apparent he was serious. As no candidate was admitting to being racist I'm not sure where his vote went.

Not surprisingly, after this I fell asleep in front of the cricket.

The main function of today's swim was to reinforce how close to (or possibly beyond) the edge I took myself yesterday. Not an enormous amount of energy but the main issue was that my feet and calves were threatening to cramp at just about any moment (and did several times, having also done so during the night). I must have looked even more clueless in the water than usual on those occasions. The swim will do me good but it didn't really feel like it while it was happening.

Went past the Council elections polling place on the way home last night (election day is tomorrow). Unusually for a local council election our ward, which is a particularly bitter contest this time around, even made it into the 'Herald-Sun' (the highlight being that the local state MP has admitted that he referred to the sitting councillor as a "bitch" and a "stupid cow", but has denied attempting to run over her son).

Essentially a repeat of two weeks ago, backing up for a long run after a street-O on a warm night and in the end not being up to the job. I underestimated the conditions somewhat; it was a windy 21-24 degrees, which means you don't feel hot but lose a lot of fluid - and occasional bubbler stops aren't enough to replenish it. (Post-run weight was 68.5, 3-4 down on the norm).

Took a long time to get properly going as I started through the hills of Bulleen (more often a finishing section). I then had a good stretch on the long gradual climb up the Koonung bike path into Kerrimuir, but didn't feel great on a sharper climb out of Box Hill at about 70 minutes and knew then that it was going to be a struggle. Kept plugging away, but felt very weak on a small hill at about 100 minutes which was an indicator of significant trouble. I would have liked to cut this one off at about 110 but was at a point of no return; made my job a bit easier by taking the (flat) low road rather than the high road to get across the east end of Eaglemont, but was still thinking seriously about pulling the plug and walking in for much of the last 20 minutes. In the end I almost made it but decided that the final 90 seconds up Hawdon Street was a challenge too far and stopped at the bottom. A tough morning's work.

A morning run from home which developed into a nice one, particularly in the second half. Did the Yallambie rollercoaster for the first time in a while, taking me past the new prison (it's actually called Streeton Primary School, but the intimidating high fence would do justice to a minimum-security penal facility). Particularly nice rolling down the gentle hill through Rosanna Parklands, always a good way to finish a run. Would have been quite happy to go on for longer so hopefully tomorrow is similar.

My good mood continued to the bike but was rudely interrupted when I experienced my worst bit of road rage for several years, from the unlikely quarter of a fifty-something woman in an expensive car, her tirade finishing with the charming sentiment that "I hope someone runs you over sometime". If she'd been concentrating on the road rather than her horn she might have noticed that the reason I'd moved out from the gutter (the presumed casus belli) was because there was a fallen tree half-blocking the lane 50 metres up the road and she would have had to have gone around it whether I was there or not.

We get a few of the rural papers at work ('Queensland Country Life' often provides a bit of entertainment with their rants - they sometimes left the impression that if they were in a room with Peter Beattie, Osama bin Laden, a gun and two bullets, they would shoot Peter Beattie twice). I noted that 'Stock and Land' had an ad for socks which supposedly don't catch grass seeds. If they actually live up to their claims I can imagine they might have a market in Queensland orienteering.

I also got a bit of a laugh this morning on seeing a headline on the 'Guardian''s website, "Rachel Johnson wins Bad Sex Award". (In case you're wondering, the Rachel Johnson they were talking about is a British writer, and the award is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek one bestowed every year by some British literary worthies for the worst depiction of a love scene in literature in the preceding 12 months).

There was probably a certain amount of karma to the fact that, after having a bit of fun at Rachel Johnson's expense in the previous entry, I would spend a fair proportion of this evening's run looking at her rear.

The event was at Tunstall Junction in Doncaster East (presumably not named in Arthur's honour) and was advertised as 11.1k, on the long side for a warm night. (The courses are often long here because of the limited number of freeway crossings and a convoluted street pattern in places - it's one of the few places where I've failed to get all the controls at a score event).

The start was pretty fast despite Bryan's absence, and for the first three controls I was only about sixth or seventh, but had worked my way to the lead by 14 (about 3k in). This was the critical decision point - I got the selection of controls right but lost concentration and got my route to the next control wrong. This did have the effect of causing an explosion of the lead pack (and flinging Adam into outer space, or at least onto a route that was at least 1k longer than the rest of us); once the dust had settled at the next control I found myself about 100 metres behind Rachel and Peter Hobbs. Both of them were moving very well (I needed to look at the Garmin to reassure myself that it was them being fast, not me being slow) and it took me a few controls to make much headway on them, but I ended up going through them on some small hills in the middle and built up enough of a lead to be comfortable. Faded a bit in the last quarter but the race was won by then unless I did something stupid (and I'd exhausted my stupidity quota for the night). Rachel was about 200 metres behind and Peter another 100 behind that; Adam was about 4-5 minutes down.

C • You really 4

Back on the usual Banyule fartlek loop (which may not be long for this world if reports in the news today are correct - there is speculation of a new freeway joining the Ring Road and Eastern Freeway and the Banyule Flats are on the obvious route). A better run than last week's Tuesday speed session, but that isn't saying much. Fastest loop 9.30 which is definitely at the mediocre, if not disastrous, end of the scale.

A nice reflection of relative priorities on the newspaper posters today. The 'Age's one was about saving the world's biggest bank, the 'Herald-Sun''s was about saving Ben Cousins. (I did, however, like the letter in the Herald-Sun which said that Mark Webber had finally got into a fast, reliable vehicle - unfortunately the vehicle in question was a Tasmanian ambulance).

Swim at Fitzroy. Started fairly sluggishly but moving as well in the second half as I have for a while.

Shock news in the Herald-Sun today: apparently the Melbourne City Council director of tourism, major events and marketing has been on four overseas and five interstate trips this year. I'd be more concerned if someone in that position wasn't travelling. (Coincidentally, this is exactly my tally for work for the last 12 months; being on the end of the Herald-Sun blowtorch is something which is always at the back of one's mind in our game).

Lunchtime around the Tan. A smooth and generally pleasant session on a cool day (don't expect to see 14 at lunchtime again for a while).

Event: Victorian Sprint Champs
 

Vic Sprint Champs at Ballarat Uni. A pretty disappointing effort, lacking much in the way of sharpness. Didn't get off to a great start when I made a mistake on the first one (although it didn't cost me much time); reasonably good technically after that but never really firing on all cylinders. Probably reflecting the stage of the season that I'm at. Ended up 7th in a decent field, about 2 minutes down on Bruce.

Down on the Mornington Peninsula - my parents are down for the weekend making final wedding arrangements for Cassie and I went down to join them.

As other Victorians will know it was a reasonably wild weekend, meteorologically speaking. The wind wasn't as extreme as I thought it might have been (although still pretty fierce on the more exposed parts of the Bass Strait side), and I managed to miss all the hail showers, partly by going out immediately after one (it's rare in this type of set-up to get two separated by less than an hour). Started at Blairgowrie, initially along the front beach (such as it was - pretty well all the sand had been submerged by a storm surge) to Sorrento, then along the track which runs along the coast on the Bass Strait side. This is sandy in places (although firmer than usual because of the overnight rain) and also has its share of sharp climbs over the dunes.

The scenery was nice - some of you will get a chance to look at some of it at the end of the year (I plan to lead a run over the highlights of this route on New Year's morning) - but my run wasn't so brilliant, lacking strength on most of the climbs.

Saw something in an article about road safety in developing countries that Kazakhstan has apparently made seat belts compulsory. In 2004 I didn't see a seat belt (let alone see one being used) in four weeks in the country, so they must have done a lot of work in a short time.

At Richmond. Not particularly energetic this evening, although better in the second half.

Heading down to the Mornington Peninsula for the next couple of nights before Ballarat for the sprint on Sunday morning. Will get to see some pretty wild seas tomorrow with a bit of luck.

C • weather balloons 2

Vic Sprint this weekend (and therefore no proper long run), so I decided to go longer than usual today, in what ended up being my longest midweek session for a decade. Started from near work (as a result of complicated logistical issues), initially east along the Yarra to Como, then generally south as far as Brighton before coming back along the bay.

A solid run that never reached great heights, but was never bad either. Had to do some hard work on the second half; most of the stretch along the bay (from about 17 to 27k) was into a headwind of sorts which was quite tough at times. This was familiar ground in my Albert Park days, although the bike path runs all the way along the Brighton foreshore now (something which was opposed tooth-and-nail, not for the first or last time in Melbourne's more affluent bits, who hate the idea of the hoi polloi venturing into their neighbourhood and disapprove of anyone moving around the area unless it's in a BMW or a Range Rover).

Discovered one of the positives of the Global Financial Crisis when I met Mum at lunchtime to go shopping for a suit for Cassie's wedding; expensive suits are a lot less expensive now than they used to be.

Thought yesterday might have been a one-off and it was. This morning was a perfectly routine session, if a little on the slow side, exploring the streets of Toorak (among other places). Didn't have too many close encounters with very expensive cars. Also didn't see too many "for sale" signs outside mansions, so the Global Financial Crisis can't be biting too deeply in this part of the world (yet).

Arrived at work to find a fire drill in progress. Seems a bit strange to hold it when half the building hasn't turned up for work yet (maybe they wanted to increase their chances of breaking the record for fastest building evacuation).

Question of the day: there is a remarkably close correspondence in the American South between counties where significant quantities of cotton was produced in 1860 and counties where there was a majority vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Anyone care to guess the connection?

C • I'll have a go. 6

A event which turned into an interesting race, but then ended in frustration.

It was a decent field for street-O (all the usual suspects were there, plus Liggo put in his annual appearance at Smiths Dell). Liggo and Bryan Ackerly got a break fairly early on. I tried to hang in there, knowing that I probably wasn't going to gain much on them while they were together but hoping that they might split and/or tire. They did split when Liggo made a mistake about a third of the way in and ended up 200 metres behind me (I thought he would pull me in again, but he didn't). That left me chasing 200 metres on Bryan. I was gradually making headway on this and had pulled it in to about 100 metres with three controls to go, probably not enough to mount a serious challenge - until Bryan made a mistake. For about 30 seconds I thought I was going to win - and then hit a traffic jam. Only lost 20-30 seconds (before going for a gap I'd never dare to go through under normal circumstances), but it was enough as I ended up going down by about 50 metres; without the hold-up it would have been a sprint finish at least. To add insult to injury Adam, coming from the other direction, just got me too. Still pleasing to run a fastish race, especially in the second half; being 15 degrees cooler than last week helps.

Occasionally a shocker arrives out of the blue and this was it. A 3x1km session on the Tan in the morning, based from work. Felt weak and light-headed at the start and didn't get a lot better. Largely going through the motions on the 1km fast sections, which barely qualify as "intervals" (3.50-3.52); might have been better off converting this run to something else and trying my luck with a fast session another day.

A morning session at the endearingly decrepit Hawthorn pool. I don't think the black stripes on the bottom have been repainted since the days when Peter Hudson was kicking 12 goals a game at Glenferrie Oval (which really is decrepit) next door, but the water's nice. Felt reasonable but pretty slow.

Monday night from Susannah's. A bit faster and longer than has been usual of late, heading out from Susannah's to the Anniversary Trail at Alamein - a nice route. Rather lacking in sharpness, not surprising after a big weekend, but not an unpleasant session.

I'll see quite a bit of the City of Boroondara this week, with street-O nearby on Wednesday as well. Hopefully the local council is not long for this world (elections are a bit under two weeks away) as they appear to exist mainly for the benefit of miserable sods - their latest effort was to threaten to close down the Kew Little Athletics club because one resident complained about the noise from the starting pistol on a Saturday morning.

There were times leading into today when I wasn't quite sure whether I was doing the right thing by orienteering the day after such a long run, but I felt that I needed to push myself out of a comfort zone (to say nothing of preparing for running relays after a long distance, something I haven't been great at in recent years), and this week's schedule was a good opportunity for it. Being a score event with a limited field was a plus here, as it meant that if things went pear-shaped the opportunity was there to bail out or back off without too much drama.

After the first leg or two I was feeling OK and decided I might as well have a go. On an area as fast as this getting all the controls within 90 minutes was always going to be on, barring disaster. I wasn't quite going flat-out but certainly at a decent pace and felt surprisingly good - perhaps a little weak on the hills but I've had plenty of worse runs this year with much less severe lead-ups. The fine navigation was pretty easy - there was a night-O using the same controls last night and the tape hung above the control stands was often visible in daylight from 100 metres or more - but there was enough subtlety between the controls to keep it interesting. (Smiths Reef is a very under-utilised area). Not many options off the straight line on such an open area - the Garmin distance was only 14.7.

It's very pleasing to have stressed my body and have it respond positively - this was a tough five days (probably close to the longest week I've put in for the last seven years) and, after feeling it on Thursday, I seem to have come through it pretty well.

48 hours can make a lot of difference. On Thursday morning it wouldn't have seemed likely that I could come up for my first really long run since August two days later, and do it well, but that is what happened. A little uncertain at times in the first hour, which had plenty of hills (on the way out to Eltham), and had a bit of a bad patch after a very steep downhill in Eltham that my quads didn't like, but the final hour was terrific - one of those days when you don't really want to stop. It was tempting to go out to 2.40 or 2.50 or even beyond 3, but I'm not quite ready for that yet (plus I'm orienteering tomorrow - not the most serious of events, but still a bit more demanding than the usual post-long-run blob, especially if I stay out for the full 90 - it's a score event).

It helped that it was 15 degrees cooler than at the same time two days earlier, and that most of the last 30 minutes was into a light, cool breeze.

There might have been cause to have been a bit apprehensive when I noticed at one point in Eltham that the police helicopter was circling directly overhead - not much to be done except hope that one had sufficient speed to run away from whatever crime was in progress if necessary. (No idea what it was but there was nothing in the news so it can't have been too drastic). Also spotted, on two separate occasions, a famous Melbourne name which I thought had long disappeared on the rubble heap of history - Whelan the Wrecker.

Swim at Fitzroy. Unsurprisingly stiff when I woke up but fine once in the water. Also seem to have replaced everything lost between Wednesday lunchtime and Thursday morning, although not without feeling awful for most of Thursday (it's not a good sign when you drink 3 litres over 8 hours before anything comes out the other end).

There were thunderstorms about early this morning (cleared out before the swim, otherwise I would have had to switch to the indoor pool at Collingwood), and the usual quota of drivers with water-soluble brains. Once again a bit of lightning was enough to throw most of the Melbourne train network into chaos. Can any of our Brisbane readers enlighten us to whether half their train system shuts down every time there's a thunderstorm, and if not, what it is that they're doing that we're not?

The annual soccer tournament between the Bureau, CSIRO and Melbourne and Monash Unis (the Priestley Cup) - three 30-minute games with unlimited subs. I arrived a bit late and then played about half the time, and got my name on the scoresheet for the first time in a decade. Unfortunately it was at the wrong end, but you can't have everything.

My role in these games is to run around a lot and hope the opposition don't notice that I can't do much with the ball once I get it. I think I touched the ball six times in the first two-and-a-half games, one of which was a throw-in, one sort of accidentally colliding with the ball in a goalmouth scramble, and one the aforementioned own-goal (although I'm not convinced it should actually count as one because it would still have gone in if I hadn't got a foot to it). As usual, had a bit more of it towards the end as everyone else got tired. I did lose my 2004 record for the worst miss ever by a Bureau player in this competition when someone had an air-swing two metres out, although he redeemed himself by scoring 30 seconds later from the subsequent corner.

Melbourne once again had by far the best team, even if the geology postdoc who'd played for PSV Eindhoven reserves was just a scurrilous rumour. They won all three games with a bit to spare. We put ourselves in the box seat for second by losing to Melbourne by less than everyone else did and then settled it by beating CSIRO 2-1.

Unexpected orienteering connection: came across Bruce Duncan at the post-game BBQ. He's out here for the Rat Race next weekend and is staying with a friend who was playing for Monash.

Leg 3 of the epic sequence. At least it was cooler than it was for either of yesterday's runs - it was only 27 at 7 a.m. :-)

I didn't exactly go into this one with high expectations, despite rehydrating as best I could after last night - not that I needed the scales to tell me, but any weight with a 6 in front of it is a sign that I need to replace a fair bit of fluid (my normal post-run weight is about 72). Didn't sleep very well either.

For the first 80 minutes it was better than I dared expect, which meant that it was a smooth and reasonably routine run, although with a few hints that there wasn't much extra left in the tank for hills (this didn't matter in the first half which had almost no hills). Not surprisingly, 24 hours of very hard work eventually caught up with me and the last 40 minutes, especially the last 10, were a struggle (not least the last hill up to my place).

A possible explanation for the good start: the song running through my head for most of it was the exuberant 'Sun City' by Artists United Against Apartheid, which I heard for the first time in 20 years on the radio last night. (Political songs sometimes have a limited shelf life if their cause is either achieved or goes pear-shaped - does the line 'peace has come to Zimbabwe' still appears in performances of 'Master Blaster' at Stevie Wonder concerts?)

C • peace has come to zimbabwe 2

We've been lucky over the years with the Corporate Cup; I can't previously remember having had a seriously hot day for it, which is a bit of a surprise given that it covers March and November. That luck ran out today; 34 degrees at running time (and 35.3 and counting as I write).

The field took little notice of the conditions initially as the start was unusually fast; many of them paid later. My own start was reasonable and I was level with last time at 2k, but gradually fell away in the second half despite having some good battles to fight. I was making up ground towards the end so others were obviously falling away faster (and 6 seconds slower than last time seemed like it was at the low end of the population).

Km splits: 3.33, 3.43 (uphill), 3.36, 3.33.

To/from the Tan. One of my colleagues showed me a short-cut through the Arts Centre carpark and up a ramp which I have not-so-fond memories of trying to walk down because the gear return for the 2005 Melbourne Marathon was at the bottom of it. It didn't feel like a short cut but it obviously was because I went back the old way and he was well in front.

Doubling up is not easy even under ideal circumstances, and two factors served to increase the degree of difficulty further. One was that tonight was a score event, which means for us, unless the course is short enough for us to get all the controls well inside the distance (which happens as often as not), it's up to 50% longer than usual. The other was the heat; it had cooled a little by 7, but was still over 30 at start time (this could be determined more precisely than usual because the Scoresby weather station is on the map - just south of control 5).

The event was at Blind Creek, in the as-close-as-Melbourne-gets-to-a-Bible-Belt suburb of Wantirna in the City of Knox (a.k.a. 'Knox - City of Fear' for those who remember the serial-killer episode of 'Frontline'). This was where I did my first Melbourne street event back in 1984. The map's gone backwards since - none of the substantial thick vegetation in Lewis Park is shown. There was a bit of bunching in the first few controls, including the leg which took us down through the outdoor-restaurants alley of Knox City shooping centre (this wasn't exactly as it looked on the map, either), but Bryan soon pulled away, and I similarly pulled away from Adam. The first half was reasonable, but an 800-metre leg of continuous uphill at about two-thirds distance took a lot out of me and it was a struggle to the finish from there. Adam recaught me two controls from home but I had nothing left to fight with.

I'm not too upset that I won't have this combination of races again until March at least. The initial reaction from most of you is probably "are you crazy", but it's not too different from running two middle-distance races in a day, which means that it's probably good preparation on occasions for international aspirants (and central Europe has been known to get that hot, too). I shouldn't be an international aspirant, but on current indications somewhere between 1 and 3 of the present Australian top 10 are going to be available for next year, which in turn means that at least one, and possibly more, of the WOC team will be people ranked outside the top 10 (this means there will be opportunities there for any of the younger brigade who are prepared to take them). The part that's real fantasy is that racing twice in a day requires qualifying for a final. (The middle's also spread over two days next year).

C • 1 Middle + 1 Middle = Long 2

Uncertain through the first half, not particularly strong on the numerous small hills through Banyule and Viewbank, but picked up after that; another run which finished very well. Definitely a nice morning for it too, cool and clear.

It was a nice morning for riding, too. The traffic was especially heavy (a couple of recent debacles on our rail line haven't helped) and I decided to count the number of cars I rode past in the traffic jam stretching back from the Alphington paper mill; the number was 151. I wonder if any of the drivers looked at us and thought there might be a better way of getting to the city than the one they were stuck in?

Also noticed that Sterling airline has gone bust. Having seen the debacle which unfolded at the gate next to us in Oslo which they were using (among other things, they made an announcement which said that the airport staff didn't know why there was a delay and advised waiting passengers to call head office in Copenhagen for further information), I'm not surprised.

A morning session under the Fitzroy sun. A little earlier than usual and hence a little more crowded (the swimming culture is such that most of the crowds have cleared out by 7.30). Felt a bit stronger than usual, especially in the second half. Left arm a little sore at end.

More intense than usual for a Monday night - two sprint courses, one on Carlton Gardens, one on Melbourne Uni. Slow initially (although, I suspect, less so than I would have been coming off a longer weekend), but picked up well later on and felt pretty good. Some real rabbit-warrens in the Melbourne Uni campus - this will be a great area if we can ever get to race on it.

Getting to, from and between the sprint courses.

Sri Chinmoy 10k at Geelong. I was looking for a 10k at about this stage (the Olympic Dream was run in mid-year). This looked like a potentially nice one on the Geelong waterfront. It wasn't quite as fast a course as I thought it might have been, being a bit twisty (and a bit breezy, always a hazard of waterfront runs), but still not a bad one.

Hooning the start isn't normally my style but there wasn't much option here, with two sharp turns and a narrow footbridge inside the first 200 metres - this was one point where the smallish field was a blessing (although it was a curse later). Settled reasonably well after the first 500 and looked quite promising for the first 3k, but then the field thinned out and it became more of a struggle. Hit a bad patch once properly on my own between 4-6k, and at one stage thought I might struggle even to beat my split from the half-marathon (38.18), but improved after that, helped by chasing down someone through the eighth kilometre. Had to work at the end for the sub-38. Would have hoped for something a bit better than that; a sub-37 would have been a bonus, but I definitely would have wanted to be in the lower 37s rather than the upper end. Still better than either of my 10ks from last year.

It was two 5k loops: splits 18.48, 19.08. I'm not convinced of the accuracy of the individual k marks so don't place too much store in them (I think the 2nd was too short and the 4th too long).

Training gets serious from here; this will be a pretty heavy week coming up (and the heat expected midweek will add a few points to the degree of difficulty).

Great corrections of our time (an occasional series):

"In last week's Sunday Age, a page three report said that trainer Rod Douglas was fined for calling two stewards at a Yarra Glen race meeting 'imbeciles'. In fact, he called them 'numbskulls'. The error was made by a writer".

A Saturday morning run based around Ivanhoe and Darebin Creek (making use of the new bit of bike path). Seemed pretty quiet for 8.45 on a Saturday, even to the extent that the newspapers outside the Macklin house were as yet uncollected - I can't imagine you get too many opportunities for a sleep-in when you're a federal minister (especially when your boss is Kevin Rudd). Also a few mud patches from yesterday's rain, although 7mm is hardly stellar (northern Victoria did much better).

The run was reasonably mundane for the first half but became good in the second, especially in the last 15 minutes as it did on Thursday. I've got a bit of a sniffle at the moment but it doesn't seem to be affecting my running at all.

Seems to be a big day for auctions: two today in my street and eight at places I either ran past or drove past on the way to the markets. Whether anyone will actually buy any of the houses in question is something we'll find out in tomorrow's paper.

Also finally got around to filing the pile of maps that's been accumulating since January. I have two filing cabinet drawers full of maps; the only folders I didn't add anything to today were Western Australia, New Zealand and Britain + Ireland.

The fairly usual loosening session on a Friday morning, awaiting the impending rain.

Melbourne has a reputation of being a fine place for all sorts of multicultural dining opportunities, but a new level was set today when I saw a place in Richmond offering 'Japanese tapas'.

Back to the routine of 2 hours (or more) on a Thursday morning, always a little harder in summer coming off the night before (although last night was easier than it usually is). A solid effort, wavering a bit in the hilly middle section but then an excellent last 30 minutes - you know it's a good day when you strike a red light at 1.45 and decide to go around the block rather than wait for the lights to change.

Saw Kez heading in the opposite direction early on; will have to join forces sometime.

A loop based on Surrey Hills station, positioning myself in anticipation of tonight's street event. This goes into some nice suburbs, some rolling hills and a few reasonably-sized parks. Felt a bit sleepy in the first half but considerably better in the second. Might be the last time for a few months I get to run on a morning with single-digit temperatures.

30 minutes until the polls close in Indiana as I write. I suspect I'm not going to get a lot of work done today.

C • I didn't either 2

I expected to feel a bit more inspired than this after the afternoon's events (not quite sure why as I had a terrible run on the morning of 25 November last year, although that may have had something to do with some very late-night celebrations, by my standards, of the previous day's result). A reasonable run without really quite reaching full speed. Got the key route choices right on a day when it was easy to get them wrong (a good course, although a couple of kilometres short).

I didn't face a lot of opposition tonight; Bryan and Adam were both coming off Four Peaks (and picked bad route options for good measure). Ended up winning by three minutes, which normally only happens when it's either pouring rain or near 40 degrees (or, in the case of the famous Upwey event of 1998, the latter for the first half and the former for the second).

C • 8.2k 2

It seems a bit of a waste to do a short run on a public holiday but I decided not to tweak my standard weekly schedule. Did it somewhat later in the morning than is usually the case (after having joined the small army assembled by one of my work colleagues to move a very heavy window at his house). Plenty of people out and about, but didn't see anyone severely underdressed on their way to the races (it's rather cool and breezy today).

Felt lively on the run, probably through being more awake than usual, but not especially quick (fastest loop 9.18).

Morning swim at Northcote, after watching what was looking like another in the long list of heroic British sporting failures but wasn't. Nice once loosened up.

Actually got woken up by some respectably heavy rain in the early hours of this morning. We got 16 but the city only managed 3.

Many of you will have heard about the prank call in which some Montreal comedians successfully impersonated Nicolas Sarkozy in a call to Sarah Palin. (For those who haven't, you can find a transcript, complete with explanations of a few cultural references, at http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2008/11/1/151958/...). My highlight was when "Sarkozy" referred to 'my great friend, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stefan Carse'. (M. Carse is actually a country-and-western singer from Quebec famous/infamous, at least in Quebec, for doing a cover version in French of Billy Ray Cyrus's 'Achy Breaky Heart'). I'm not sure which is scarier - that a candidate for Vice-President clearly had no idea who the Canadian Prime Minister was, or that somebody had seen fit to do a cover version in French of 'Achy Breaky Heart'.

C • Worse 5

Monday night from Bruce's. Again a fairly small turnout, although double what it was the last time I ran this. Mostly based around the Yarra Bend golf course which was deserted approaching sunset (no bad thing if you're trying to run in the vicinity without being noticed too much). Some fairly rough ground to deal with at times.

Christened my new shoes today - they're good on the flat but don't have a lot of support on steep side slopes. As I don't plan to use them much on steep side slopes that isn't a huge problem.

Felt indifferent for the first three-quarters of the run - which may or not have been connected with a nose that suddenly started running this afternoon at work - but a nice last quarter. The tail wind probably helped.

Something a bit more modest that what I'll be doing on a lot of forthcoming Sundays, as I prepare to move out of a couple of relatively easy weeks and build into heavy training for the summer. Took in various bits of well-trodden ground through the east, including the old Outer Circle rail cutting path and the hills on the street that Clemmie used to live on, and finished across the hills of Bulleen.

Didn't feel quite as good as at times yesterday but still a pretty solid couple of hours' work. Felt as if I might have struggled to hold the pace for another half-hour, but that often happens at this time of year (and works out fine once I get around to actually going out to 2.30 and beyond). Again reasonably strong on the hills, particularly in the second half. Starting to get warm towards the end, although nothing too extraordinary (23 or thereabouts) - there will be many hotter Sundays than this in the next four months.

Sight of the day: the tenor standing on an East Camberwell tennis court and singing to no-one in particular as I was going past.

A nice run based on the east side of the Yarra. There have been times in the recent past (1995, 2004) when this has been a good place to see floodwaters around Melbourne Cup time, but definitely not this year. It's rougher than it is on the west side, and goes through some nice bush, and past the remnants of one of the 21 defunct drive-ins referred to in Monday's entry. (I'm a little surprised the site hasn't been redeveloped in 20+ years; it's probably too flood-prone for housing, but would be a big enough site to be turned into sports grounds or the like).

While I wasn't planning to go that way anyway, I noticed that the northern entrance to the golf course has been blocked off (no surprise after years of seeing progressively more intimidating signs on the fence), closing off the option of staying next to the river down to Burke Road. This might change a few plans later in the summer as this is a route I sometimes use for long runs in extreme heat (cool morning air lingers longer in the valley than it does elsewhere). Came back through the Eaglemont hills.

The run felt faster than it actually was (perhaps a product of the roughish tracks at times in the first half). Quite smooth on the hills, in contrast with some runs in the last fortnight.