Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Did seem to have improved somewhat today but no point in pushing things too hard in a race week - Ezy (who had what appears to have been a similar injury) noted significant improvement around the 10-day mark so I'm hoping the same is the case with mine.

A lot of today was devoted to keeping track of all the September temperature records broken in Australia this month (haven't counted them all up yet, but 700 will do as a first guess). In between I went to the Schools and Capital-O opening ceremony, which had an impressively high-powered turnout, once we'd actually found it (I've been to the outside of the Girls Grammar campus plenty of times on dropping-off-little-sister duties but don't think I've ever actually been inside). Guest of honour was ACT minister Shane Rattenbury (Canberra is a small town moment #3981: Shane was a year below me at school), much better known outside the ACT for altercating with a kangaroo while running a few months back than for any of his political activities - he's certainly the only member of the ACT Legislative Assembly ever to get coverage in the Washington Post.

At times when my mind was wandering in school geography classes it would sometimes turn to the ACT 1:100000 topographic map on the classroom wall. The shape of the ACT is such that a rectangular sheet which incorporates all of the ACT also incorporates a fair bit of country outside the ACT, especially to the south-east, and I'd always been fascinated by the south-eastern corner of it, remote country well off the beaten track which we only ever went to once (exiting the 1987 Australian Relays through Jerangle, on the way to Cooma and Jindabyne where we were next headed) - contours with four-digit numbers on them, and stretches of bush in the middle of nowhere.

I'm not sure if Slap Up Creek quite makes it onto the ACT 1:100000 - Jerangle certainly does - but it's at the very least close to it. It promised to be, and was, a nice area, and one that I was very much looking forward to prior to last weekend. By midweek I knew the best I could hope for might be to jog around the course, and yesterday suggested that even that was going to be a struggle, especially as I suspected the ribs would give me more grief with the extra jolting in terrain. Nevertheless, I thought I'd at least start, trying to tell myself that if Dermott Brereton could play two hours of a Grand Final with broken ribs then I could orienteer for a similar length of time with bruised ones. (Perhaps a crucial difference is that orienteering has no equivalent of resting in the forward pocket).

For the first four controls, in country which was either open or relatively flat or both, I was functioning sort of OK, although not able to stretch out, and with a feeling somewhat like a permanent stitch. Started to struggle much more on the steeper slope across to 5. The configuration of the course made 5 a bit of a decision point, but I thought I'd at least see if there was some improvement on the flatter first half of 5-6. There wasn't, and I decided that that was going to be that. 20-25 was a logical set of controls to get on the way home (and one consolation was that I did spike all of the controls I did get), but it was very slow going by then - as demonstrated by the various people (mostly considerably older than me) who blew me away downhill in the open. Crossing fences was also a major problem as I couldn't bend properly.

This year I've been drifting towards the decision that this will be my last year running elite at championship level as I've become uncompetitive at that level, but this is not the note I want to go out on (and the M40 field next year in WA probably won't have many other than the locals), so maybe I'll give it one last shot? Depends a lot on what sort of summer I can put together.

Definitely a well-run event on a nice area, and the Jerangle Public School produced the second-best food item I've eaten at post-event catering (behind only the time I ran a course in Italy which finished outside a mountain restaurant).

C • Food review detail please? 3

C • WA Locals 1

C • Commentary 3

LONG Course 1 - Splits

Event: Australian Sprint/Long Distance Championships
 

Jogged round turning sprint controls on before the start of the event. Didn't feel particularly comfortable - I'll start tomorrow, but in the absence of any improvement, 15km is going to be a long way...

Everything was in the right place (just a couple of bits of additional taping of out-of-bounds areas which needed doing), which set the stage for an event which seemed to go pretty well. If the spectator control (which I'd thought beforehand was pretty straightforward) was anything to go by, there was a lot of interesting decision-making going on out there - we tried to make it as intense as we could. Biggest problems were that the finish banner collapsed in high winds, and that the last control-to-finish leg was too short (the newest generation of SI sticks can't cope with legs under 5 seconds, and some people were doing it in 4). Hit the target pretty nicely with the winning times too.

Definitely enjoyed the day - very much felt as if I was on familiar territory, whether it was doing some of the commentary from our regular lunch hang-out spot in Years 10 to 12, the line-up of unclaimed pencil cases in the window of the front office (some of them might well have been there for 25 years), or there being a control at the spot where many of my early training runs started from (the one at the top of the stairs just before the spectator was next to where my locker was for my last few years). Dragged out my rather-the-worse-for-wear Burgess House 1988 T-shirt for the occasion (somewhat to my surprise I could still get into it, more or less).

(And the previous map of the area on display on the noticeboard was my 1984 Year 8 project. Definitely not ISSOM).

Improving in very small increments. Probably would have tried to go out if there had been a race today, but there wasn't so I didn't. Quite a busy day, with bits of work in between a meeting with the Sports Commission, an ASADA-hosted lunch (with lots of scary figures - relating to the percentage of them which contain undeclared banned substances - for anyone who's thinking about taking any supplements) and going out to check the state of progress at Grammar in the late afternoon.

More very gradual progress, although did manage to cope with running a couple of hundred metres for a bus - enough to give me some confidence that I'll start on the weekend (although not enough to give me confidence that it will be an especially pleasant experience).

I may or may not have mentioned here that one of the complications in event planning for Saturday is that Friday is the last day for Year 12s. Competitors should note that any teachers' cars which have been temporarily relocated to the middle of courtyards have not been mapped.

(Stop press: I've just heard that among the casualties of today's storm was a mapped distinctive tree in reasonably close proximity to a control site).

Started to feel a bit better during the course of today after a couple of days of not much apparent progress, which makes me a little more optimistic about being able to front on the weekend than I was this time yesterday. Still plenty of anti-photogenic areas of yellow on my chest....

In sprint news, it looks like we've managed to acquire a couch for the "hot seat" on Saturday, which may or may not be something to look forward to if you're in front.

C • 1

Headed up to Canberra tonight - I'm doing a talk up there on Thursday, and it was good to be up a bit early anyway so I can do things like check Saturday's maps.

I've sometimes mused as to whether iTunes shuffle mode has a selector for geographically appropriate songs - if so it was certainly working last night, pulling out Killing Heidi's 'Weir" as I went past Violet Town and Boom Crash Opera's "Great Wall" on the way into Albury (the great wall in question is the Hume Weir). I have recently been contemplating a possible soundtrack to my 112 temperature sites and have tentative thoughts for about half of them. Some are pretty obvious ("Blue Sky Mining" for Wittenoom), some are linked to how I came to be there ("Many Rivers To Cross" for Kalumburu), and some will make no sense whatsoever unless you were there (you had to be on the 1996 Victorian Schools trip to understand the connection between "One Night in Bangkok" and Eddystone Point). If anyone feels like making suggestions the site list is here.

C • Snowtown - Roll Out The Barrel 5

No chance of training today - not much you can do with this type of injury (although I was able to cruise in a short distance on the bike). Did seem to peak overnight and then ease during the day, though, which is about as I would have expected it to behave and is hopefully a sign for some optimism.

On the subject of injury, in the days when I edited the squad newsletter in the 1990s, there was an annual award for the most original injury (the best of them being the person - an APer who is welcome to out themselves here - who did an ankle when they tripped on a role of ankle tape on their loungeroom floor). I was reminded of this on hearing of the NSW orienteer who is currently laid up with a broken leg, suffered when they slipped on a copy of the Australian Orienteer lying on the floor.

C • who 1

Decided that I'd at least attempt to warm up - sometimes with bruising it's manageable once you start running - but the fact that it was painful going from a lying to a sitting position, or from sitting to standing, didn't fill me with confidence that I was going to be up to 13km (or even 1.3km) today, and a couple of hundred metres of the jog to the start was enough to confirm that today was no go. Picked up a map and walked back to the finish, picking up three controls on the way (and presumably having the slowest last control to finish split of the day, especially as I stopped for a chat in the middle of it).

From past experience of heavy bruising in other parts of the body I'm expecting to be off for maybe 2-3 days, and am cautiously optimistic that I'll be OK for next weekend. At least the weather was nice and I caught up with some non-orienteering friends I haven't seen for several years, so it wasn't a completely wasted weekend.

HARD 1 - Splits

NSW Middle Championships. Hopefully I've got all this season's disasters out of the way in one day (although the ongoing consequences will cause trouble tomorrow, at least).

It was hardly an auspicious start when I missed a turn on the way out of Newcastle and thus undertook a detailed exploration of the back streets of Wallsend. The absent-mindedness continued at the start - I didn't notice it was a punching start and was heading off until the starter called me back. (As it turned out this was a run I would have preferred to have had wiped from the record books). Was feeling a bit weak and vague at the start, drifted in mid-leg on 3 and then missed a couple of minutes on the bingoish control (a ditch in the green about as big as a wheel rut).

Settled down after that, both technically and physically, and ran the next sector of the course decently well. Screwed up again on 12, though, misreading a track/long knoll combination and thus missing a gap in the green I was aiming for - probably about 1-1.5 minutes there. Ben went through me there, but I got back onto him when he missed 14 - only to trip on a vine and crash at high speed (high speed for me, anyway) on the way down into 15. I was lucky to land on reasonably forgiving ground but it still winded me badly - had to walk for a minute or so and was in a bit of a daze for the rest of the course. The final technical indignity was at 21, the second-last - I went across one too many gullies, ended up at the last control, and then missed it again coming back. (It turned out I wasn't starting the leg from where I thought I had - 20 was about 50 metres too low). And just to cap the day off, I had another fall (a hole this time) in the finish chute....

For a while it looked like I was going to come last but three late finishers saved me that indignity, at least. Think 43-44 was doable with a reasonable run and 41 with a good one, which I would have settled for (Shep won in 35).

The end result looks to have been bruised ribs - and I'm lucky that I got out of it that lightly - at the speed I was moving, I'm pretty sure any rocks or logs in the way would have meant something broken. Still doesn't feel good, and I suspect I'm a doubtful starter tomorrow, at best.

H1/2 - Splits

A fairly straightforward session in the pool at Ivanhoe. Back a bit tight during the day but hopefully no dramas this weekend.

Heading up to Newcastle tonight for the NSW Championships - feeling a bit better about things now than I was a couple of weeks ago (and I won't have been standing up all day handing out how-to-vote cards) but will still be pleased if I'm only halfway down the list.

I'm definitely struggling with the earlier morning runs at the moment and today was no exception - although trying to take on the Col de Burgundy (as it's known in Melbourne cycling circles) first up was perhaps not the wisest of moves. Not too many hills after that (down to the Fairfield pipe bridge, back along the river), but still a struggle which only eased gradually over the course of the morning. A little better over the last few kilometres.

Wednesday street-O at North Balwyn. Decided to have a crack and reasonably happy with the result on a hilly area, though still a long way to go to consider myself in good form (and there aren't going to be any miracles worked in the space of 11 days). Felt a bit awkward on a couple of the steeper climbs in the middle but otherwise OK. Not a good result from the route choice point of view because I made a fatal mistake at the start by getting 3 first (rather than as part of an internal loop later). Was cutting it pretty fine to get all the controls and get in in time and pushed pretty hard downhill at the end, which I might pay for tomorrow. Drizzly at times, turning into more substantial rain later.

I've had some fun looking at what is a very dry document, the Administrative Arrangements Order - 18 September 2013. This lists which minister is responsible for which laws (I went there initially to see which minister CSIRO was going to fall under, now we don't have a science minister), and some of them are obscure indeed (although, sadly, the Morgan-Whyalla Waterworks Act appears to be no more). My favourite is that the Minister for the Environment is responsible for the Removal of Prisoners (Territories) Act 1923 in as much as it applies to Heard and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory; I wonder if anyone's told Greg Hunt yet that if an alleged malefactor washes ashore at Casey, it's his responsibility to do something about it? Another curiosity is that said minister is responsible for abating pollution at Captains Flat (under the Captains Flat (Abatement of Pollution) Agreement Act 1975) but doesn't appear to be responsible for abating it anywhere else. Also discovered (under Industry) was something called the Coal Industry Repeal Act 2001. Repealing the coal industry sounds like quite a good idea to me, but in reality I suspect it was probably repealing a levy of some kind on the industry.

I'm currently listening to a countdown of the "25 worst number 1s of the 1990s". I'd forgotten just how awful "Jump" by Kris Kross was.

C • it's 1

Headed out for a South Wharf intervals session (instead of morning fartlek as I'm assuming my usual circuit for that would have been flooded) at a belated lunchtime after a frustrating couple of hours banging my head against a document-formatting brick wall. No real sparkle, and didn't speed up through the session as I sometimes do on these, but felt reasonably strong and somewhat improved on other recent attempts at going fast.

Today's historical newspaper-trawling took me to January 1971. There were at least two signs it was a different era. One was that there was a round-up of the day's strikes (on this particular day, it was the Qantas maintenance workers, posties, hospital laundry workers, and three different disputes involving wharfies - one of them also involving Patrick Stevedores, of whom more would be heard). It was also reported as a quiet weekend on Victorian roads, with only six deaths recorded.

(Despite the increase in population over that time, the Victorian road toll these days is about a quarter of what it was in the early 1970s).

Warm-up and down.

Water felt a bit treacly this morning. Must have slept well, though, because the early-morning thunderstorm didn't wake me up; it had more or less stopped raining by the time I hit the water.

Lunchtime around the Tan, before the second round of the rain started in earnest. Felt a little proppy at times, particularly early on, but on the whole not bad coming off a reasonably hard three days, and some pretty good patches.

Spent quite a bit of this run pondering the front page of today's Australian. For those who missed it, this featured a story about an alleged leak from the next IPCC report (due out in two weeks) which claimed that said report reported warming of 0.12C/decade since 1951 which was "half" the rate of 0.2C/decade in the 2007 report. Leaving aside the fact that 0.12 isn't half of 0.2 (at least where I went to school), the 2007 report said nothing of the sort - its reported warming rates were 0.13C/decade for 1956-2005 (the period most directly comparable to 1951-present), and 0.16 or 0.17 for 1979-2005 depending on which data set you use. Don't think you could make much of a story out of the difference between 0.12 and 0.13, although I'm sure they'd try. It looks like my Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (virtual) presidential pen is going to be deployed, in the form of a complaint to the Press Council.

A somewhat unusual Sunday long run, starting from Holmesglen because of something I had on there later that morning (and earlier than usual too). Oddly enough, I ran in this part of the world more when I was living in Albert Park - partly because I'd sometimes go east in search of hills, sometimes because my usual Wednesday Summer Series day strategy was to drive first thing to a station suitably positioned for that evening's event and do a morning run from there before going into work. (There were also more Wednesday events in that general area in the 1990s; these days most areas south of High Street are now in the Monday series).

The first part of the run was poor at best, really grinding on the climbs (much of this section was gently uphill) and not much good anywhere else either. A toilet stop at 40 minutes was the circuit-breaker it needed; improved a fair bit from that point onwards. Got as far east as the Jells Park entrance and handled the climb out of there reasonably, and finished off well - the last 20 minutes were probably the best of the run, although the net downhill on that sector helped. A fair bit of hard work over the last three days and handled it at least passably; hopefully this will do me good (and getting through this after an unpromising start will give me some confidence for long races on the next two Sundays).

Not a fast run but a reasonably hilly one through Eaglemont. Came up better from yesterday than I thought I might have done. One of those reasonably rare weekends (at least during the cooler months) when I have no plans to leave metropolitan Melbourne.

The slightly curious state of the political scene at the moment was illustrated by a comment from Tony Burke yesterday, who noted that since the new ministry has not yet been sworn in he is both the acting minister and the acting shadow minister. I don't know whether he has issued any media releases attacking himself as yet.

Taking advantage of the aforementioned furniture delivery to go out a bit later than usual, although I'd still been awake since 5.30 thanks to either a possum fight or a possum orgy (I don't speak possum well enough to be able to tell the difference in the dark). Headed southeast for the first time in a while - am still waiting for the right opportunity to get the far-end-of-St.Helena street which is next on my Banyule list.

This one went along smoothly for the most part; not especially strong across the Balwyn hills, and leg muscles definitely fatigued in the last 15 minutes, but it was still at the better end of my long runs this year (that said, there is a time when I would barely have classified 1.44 as a long run). Pretty tired through the second half of the day though.

C • Possums 2

Swapped to go long tomorrow instead as I'm getting some furniture delivered then so won't have to get up as early to get a decent length in. Instead headed to the pool for a session which was reasonable, although probably not much more. Rained quite heavily for the last 15 minutes - finding enough of a dry patch on the towel after wards to sort-of dry off was a bit of a challenge.

Struggling at the start (when it's in the first kilometre, the small climb at the west end of Darebin Street feels like a mountain). Fairly reasonable for the last two-thirds but never especially comfortable; did find something a bit faster when called on for a gap in the traffic.

We're currently finalising various things for the Sprint and were discussing this afternoon whether we needed water containers in the finish area. Not sure if I should be pleased or worried that after 25 years I can still remember the location of the bubblers accurately enough to know that they were too close to the last control for general public use.

Better than last week, i.e. I actually completed the session without any significant pain, but still nothing you would describe as speed in any meaningful quantity.

Heidelberg football ground looks like it's about to have another incarnation as a film set (long-term readers of these pages will know that it featured as a fairground in Charlotte's Web; I never did find out whether the scoreboard, Heidelberg West 18.16.124 Visitors 9.9.63, made a cameo appearance). Not sure what it's for.

The F5 key again got a decent workout today, this time on the Sydney temperatures as well as the Indi election results.

C • Sydney weather 3

Headlines don't come much better than this:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-ele...

A fairly sluggish swim on a warm morning, thinking of Indi and Fairfax and various potential Senators.

Monday night run from Todd's place, at which I was the only non-Neve present, following an afternoon when I wasted far too much time pressing F5 on the Indi results page. Possibly a record short Monday run (both in time and distance) - no-one wanted to do too much after the race yesterday. Spent some time explaining the finer points of how it's possible to convert 0.22% into a Senate seat.

Starting to do a bit more of what I do best with the election, crunch numbers. Contrary to expectations, western Sydney barely swung at all (if you define western Sydney as starting at Parramatta as I do; I'm aware that there are some who define it as starting at Glebe), about 0.3% on average. The one seat lost, Lindsay, was one the Liberals should have won last time had they selected a better candidate (as Greenway demonstrated, if you want to win a marginal seat, it's a good idea to find a candidate with an IQ higher than the percentage margin of the seat you're trying to win). There were much larger swings in general in middle-ring suburbs then outer ones, both in Sydney and Melbourne (western Melbourne was a bit of an exception, but some of that was the loss of the personal votes of Julia Gillard and Nicola Roxon).

Victorian Middle Championships. As expected, i.e. lousy - couldn't generate power on short 2-4 contour hills which were not in short supply today. Nice area which I couldn't take advantage of; certainly wasn't remotely competitive on pace. A day spent at the frontlines of democracy yesterday probably didn't help.

Reasonable race technically until the end, when there was a 45-seconder on 15, trying to work out which of the 55 rocks on the ground were the two on the map. The only real high point was nailing 7 when Leon passed me mid-leg and then missed it (didn't stop him from winning).

A smoke plume was visible on the way home which turned out to be from the old Smorgy's restaurant in Bundoora. This building has been vacant for the last couple of years and is the subject of a contentious redevelopment proposal. You'll be shocked to hear that the arson squad are investigating.

After setting up our booth in the early morning (for the first time in five elections, the Liberals turned up before 7, but we still got there first), I took a break from political duties for my traditional election-day tour of as many booths as I could take in, touching base with various comrades on the way. The less said about the run the better - felt a bit like I'd eaten a dodgy sausage, and overall about as inspiring as a Warren Truss speech on the Meat and Livestock Corporation Levy (Amendment) Bill. Hills particularly ordinary.

Very quiet in the second half of the day at Rosanna Golf Links - it's a relatively small booth but seemed to tail off even more sharply than usual this year after lunch.

Australian readers (at least) will not need me to tell them the election results (more or less what I expected in terms of percentage, but worse in seats). Closer to home, there was a fairly substantial swing in Jagajaga - not totally surprising as the Liberals threw a lot at the campaign (certainly much more than in any previous campaign I've experienced). Looks like about a 7% swing in the seat, although less than that on our booth (4.0%) - which makes it five times in a row that we've outperformed the electorate average. As always, the atmosphere was very civil - I've never seen any serious aggro between campaigns on a polling booth (although, having said that, I've never worked in a genuine battleground seat).

C • Battle grounds 7

Didn't hit the water in the morning because I was otherwise engaged outside Heidelberg station drawing attention to the Liberals promising not to fund urban public transport, so headed out in the evening instead at Ivanhoe (in between picking up the how-to-vote cards and preparing the results-and-swings-by-booth spreadsheet). A fairly nondescript session as it often is here. Pool very quiet (certainly quieter than it would be a couple of hours earlier); it was getting late.

I'm not expecting to have a lot of joy tomorrow night, apart from the possible political demise of Sophie Mirabella (a shadow science minister who would be hard-pressed to spell CSIRO) at the hands of an independent. (At least the AFL Commission have stopped me from having an even more miserable night). We can, I suppose, be grateful that with all the intense passions on display at times through the last three years that we've got through those three years without anybody getting shot, not something I've been especially confident of at times during those three years.

My tip's a two-party vote for the Liberals between 52.5 and 53% and a majority of around 26, with Labor losing 3 seats in Tasmania, 2 in Victoria, 2 on the Central Coast and another 5 or 6 in Sydney, and no net change anywhere else (I think a regional Queensland seat, most likely Dawson or maybe Leichhardt or Hinkler, might do some strange things on Katter/Palmer preferences to offset a loss or two in Brisbane, while I think Labor is holding up in regional NSW - that's the only way to reconcile the modest swings in statewide polls with the big swings in western Sydney). I expect that Wilkie (easily) and Bandt (just) will retain their seats, that Cathy McGowan will win in Indi, and give Clive Palmer a decent chance in Fairfax. Locally, I think the swing here will be bigger than the state average (thanks to the most energetic and best-funded Liberal campaign here in living memory) but still expect Jagajaga to be held with a margin around 5-6%. Let's see how it works out....

C • Sophie's demise 17

Never woke up on this run, from the top of Royal Park as far north and west as Essendon, past Essendon's soon-to-be-vacated headquarters at Windy Hill (might not be vacated for a bit longer now they have to find an extra $2 million). A struggle most of the way although at least didn't fall apart at the end like last week. Probably can't even blame the weather, although 20 degrees at 6am in the first week of September is faintly ridiculous. (The eventual minimum was 19.7, easily an early-season record and equal second-highest for September as a whole).

Matters election-related are starting to dominate discourse (and not just the ones which gave us a good laugh last night - you'll be pleased to know that the Palmer United Party have promised a "conscious" vote on gay marriage, although a few unconscious votes have probably been given in parliaments over the years, particularly the 1989-92 ACT Legislative Assembly). One policy which is a bit of a worry is the Coalition's to introduce the potential for political decision-making in the allocation of Australian Research Council funding, which could easily be used as a basis to cut off funding for fields of research the government doesn't like. (I don't come under ARC funding myself, but many in the university sector do).

I've also been having a look at possible scenarios for micro-parties to surf cascading preferences all the way to the Senate. Three in particular stand out; 0.2-0.3% could be enough to elect the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics in SA (as long as Nick Xenophon is not too far above or below one quota, which is 14.3%, roughly what he got last time), the Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party - not to be confused with the Shooters and Fishers Party - in Queensland (unless either Palmer or Katter get close to a quota in their own right), and the Bullet Train for Australia Party in Victoria (as long as Family First are eliminated before Palmer United). Nothing quite that crazy in the other states, but depending on how the vote splits between the major parties, 2-3% might be enough for Pauline Hanson in NSW, or Family First in Tasmania.

At least One Nation won't be getting anyone up in Victoria - they forgot to lodge their Senate ticket which means they don't get a box above the line, and I suspect that numbering the boxes consecutively from 1 to 97 is beyond the intellectual capabilities of most One Nation voters.

Just in case you thought you could escape here, Liberal Party ads are starting to turn up on Attackpoint (although so far down the page you'd have to look very hard to see them).

C • My ads are for sa solar fee... 5

After yesterday's fartlek fail I decided to have another crack tonight at the Wednesday night street-O at Kerrimuir, doing alternate legs hard/easy (this always confuses the heck out of anyone around me who's not used to it). Ended up as a reasonable session although it's always hard to go flat out in the dark. Thought after the first few controls that I was going to be comfortably inside the hour, but there were enough can't-get-there-from-here legs later on that it was a reasonably close-run thing. Very warm night - if it wasn't dark one could imagine this being December. No injury issues but tired right at the end (and definitely out of practice when it comes to punching at metal plates on the ground).

The local football club was having its best-and-fairest count, but the MC didn't seem to have quite managed the fine art of Andrew Demetriou's pregnant pause when someone with the same first initial as a Brownlow favourite gets votes late in the count.

Training session fail - started with the intention of doing a fartlek session but back and associated muscles were playing up today, so bailed after the first couple of reps and turned it into a standard run. Will try again tomorrow (this time using the street event as a basis).

As expected, had plenty of sore spots to iron out. Not sure how good a job I made of it but at least not too disastrous a session in the water. Slept well last night, as I expected I would. Already at the stage where brilliant sunshine in the early morning means warmth rather than cold, something more normally associated with December.

Lunchtime on the Tan, with plenty of people out on a sunny early spring afternoon (the seabreeze was in so it only got to 21 - warm in the sun but pleasantly crisp in the shade, which the Tan has plenty of). Didn't feel like everything was flowing but didn't end up a bad session. Slight hold-up at the end because I didn't think crossing Flinders Street in front of a policeman was a great idea (although I'm reasonably confident it was technically legal, being more than 20 metres away from the nearest lights).

Notable records of the day: probably a toss-up between Canberra's earliest-ever 25 (11 days earlier than the previous record), and the 41.1 at Fitzroy Crossing, the highest ever in Australia so early in spring. Up until this year the only place in Australia to have reached 40 on or before 2 September was my much-loved Kalumburu (in the news today for crocodile-related reasons - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-02/man-rescued-...) in 1970, but alongside Fitzroy Crossing, Curtin (near Derby) and Mandora (halfway between Broome and Port Hedland) have also been added to the list.

C • Fitzroy X 1

Event: Victorian Championships, Long Distance
 

Victorian Long Championships at Chewton. At the head of the second bunch in 6th but the second bunch was a long, long way back - I would have needed to be 20 minutes faster to gain any places. This is a pretty good indicator that my speed is uncompetitive at this level at the moment, because technically it wasn't a bad run - three 15-seconders and a couple of dubious route choices.

As noted on Thursday I've been struggling with long runs lately, having fallen apart in the closing stages of several in the last couple of months, so was badly lacking in confidence - making today more about enduring than racing. Had an organiser's early start, no bad thing on a warm day (although not ultimately warm enough to be a real issue) - had to wake up the first few controls but that problem was solved once Bruce went through me at 4. Hesitant coming around the slope on 8 but eventually hit it, and had trouble getting good lines in the short mining legs from 12-15; pretty straight on the long legs at 10 and 16. Missed 16, a very shallow gully, a little, and my back (generally not bad today) had a few twinges in the steeper stuff around 18 and 19 (also slightly missed). This drew me into what turned out to be a sub-optimal fairly flat but wide track route on 20 - probably dropped about a minute there. Very slow over the hill to 23, but finished off OK and didn't fall into any of the traps of the later controls, and generally felt better in the last 20 minutes than on most other runs of this length this year (in time terms I think this was actually the longest I've done this year).

This was the first proper long race I've done since SA Championships (and even that was perhaps a little short for a true long distance). It's also only my second appearance in a non-metro Victorian event since May. Getting through will give me something to build from, but how much remains to be seen.

Things you wouldn't see in too many sports - at one stage the three finish officials were the presidents of the club (Jas), the state (Bruce) and nationally (me).

And I'm not exactly comfortable with the thought, as reported this morning, that there are plausible scenarios under which the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptic Party can get a Senator in SA with as little as 0.15% of the vote. Having them with the balance of power (possibly in the company of some other fruitcakes) is perhaps a scarier prospect than the Coalition having outright control. If you're wondering how such a thing could happen, the various right-wing micro-parties (e.g. Shooters and Fishers and Outdoor Recreation) preference tightly to each other, which may get whichever party emerges ahead of Family First; they would then absorb Family First preferences, and also end up getting Wikileaks and Sex Party preferences (so, if you're thinking of voting for either of those two, make sure you go below the line if you don't want your preferences to end up at some odd destinations). The key to all of this is the Nick Xenophon vote - he's preferenced against assorted loonies, but if he gets very close to a quota (as he did in 2007) very few of his preferences will be distributed.