Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

6.30: it will get better when I loosen up a bit.
6.45: it will get better when I wake up properly.
7.00: it will get better when it gets light.
7.15: it will get better when it flattens out a bit.
7.30: it will get better when I hit the single track along the river.
7.45: looks like this is just going to be a lousy run.

Not sure why it was lousy after a pretty good few days, but it was. Devoted a bit of my time to checking out my designated booth on Saturday to look for the best places to put advertising up - the one I usually work has been closed and I'm organising one in Heidelberg instead.

South Wharf intervals. Another small step up from the last couple of weeks and felt like a solid lunchtime's work - although, before we start getting too excited, this was still about the same pace as what I was doing for a marathon 20 years ago. Had someone just behind me on one rep whose shadow suggested he wasn't pushing too hard but was still going at the same pace as me. No injury issues.

Warm-up and down. Not as tight early on as is usually the case for these.

A run which had its moments of eventfulness - someone dropped a lit cigarette butt on me (presumably accidentally) as I ran past, and when I suggested they might care to apologise for this, reacted in such a way as to make it apparent that not vacating the area immediately had the potential to seriously endanger myself. That must have given me a bit of an adrenalin rush because I felt like I was going pretty quickly for the next kilometre or so, before settling down into a still-decent second half. In a reasonably good spot at the moment.

On the positive side when it comes to law-abiding, I didn't see a single illegally unrestrained dog on the Merri Creek trail today.

Morning session at Northcote. Lane a bit more crowded than it normally is but at least most of them in my lane were going at about the same speed. A bit faster than I've typically been doing these of late.

It's been cold here but it's been colder elsewhere; in area-averaged terms, Sunday was the coldest June day on record for NSW (and the coldest in any month since 1984), not reaching double figures in any inland areas except for a few northern border areas east of about Walgett.

Lunchtime session on the Tan. Not too many people out, which may or may not have had something to do with the temperature not having yet reached double figures (although in fact that's pretty nice for running as long as it's not raining, which it didn't do until after lunch). A steady run, continuing what's been a pretty decent few days of training.

The election campaign approaches its conclusion. Tonight was my last session of being one of those annoying people who rings you up in the middle of dinner wanting to talk about policy. Not sure how much of this the other parties do but Labor has been big on this, taking its cues from the Obama campaign (which, at least in its early days, had heaps of volunteers but not much money) who found that having real people talk to voters was a much more effective way of shifting votes than traditional forms of advertising. I've been surprised that people have been mostly friendly (I've only had one abusive person in five sessions), although you do well to have 6-8 meaningful conversations in a two-hour shift.

(I've also learned a few other things, not that they're really that surprising. The lists we work from contain the names of those on the electoral roll at that address, and if an address contains three or more people with different last names, (a) it's probably a student group house and (b) the probability of the landline being disconnected is somewhere north of 90%).

Melbourne Bush-O at Tikalara Park at Templestowe, a new venue for me in an orienteering sense (although the bike path on the west edge of the map was occasionally at the far end of long runs from Heidelberg). Seemed pretty close to the suburbs but the deer which charged past the assembly area before I started felt otherwise....

Bit of a mixed bag today - most controls fairly technically easy (though a couple of interesting ones in some erosion detail), some open bush, some not-so-open bush (best avoided), some small tracks and some open land. Also had to cross Mullum Mullum Creek twice; it was pretty high and definitely required getting wet. The track coming out of it on #2 was also exceedingly muddy and slippery and didn't seem to fit the map that well, which made me momentarily confused as to whether I'd come far enough, my only mistake of the day (although a couple of my route choices were possibly sub-optimal).

As is often the case with these events, coming off a long run on Saturday meant I wasn't at my freshest, but I did feel somewhat better than I sometimes do on these, especially in the second half. Still got blown away for speed in the flatter and more open areas and on the tracks (Max Dalheim managed to take 40 seconds out of me in the 425 metres between the last control and the finish). At the back of a close bunch.

Spent some of the afternoon trying to convert people to the cause in the northern reaches of Batman (or, more often, preaching to the converted). We do this with a list of the electoral roll by address (partly so we don't waste time knocking on doors of houses where no-one is enrolled), and I noticed that one of the people on the roll in our patch went by the name of Harsh Overseer. One might speculate that someone with that name might not think very much of unions (but we didn't find out because no-one was home at that address).

I think many of my British friends can probably relate to this at the moment:

"We're setting sail to the place on the map
From which no one has ever returned
Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool
By the light of the crosses that burned
Drawn by the promise of the women and the lace
And the gold and the cotton and pearls
It's the place where they keep all the darkness you need
You sail away from the light of the world on this trip, baby
You will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
You will pay tomorrow

Oh, oh, oh
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no, no
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no, no
I want to run and hide right now

Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
Or drowning in the oceans of history
Traveling the world, you're in search of no good
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like you knew you would
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
As you're little boat struggles through the warning waves, but you don't pay

You will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow, yeah
You're gonna pay tomorrow

Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no, no, no
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools
Where's it comin' from?
Oh, where's it goin' to?
It's just a, it's just a ship of fools

All aboard now"

Visited my grandmother in the morning (she's back at the nursing home in Moonee Ponds) and took this as an opportunity for a run somewhere different, swinging initially out to the northwest before coming home across the northern suburbs.

For most of the first hour it didn't feel terribly smooth, but I was moving at a reasonable pace and handled the two short sharp climbs OK. Got going better from around the 13k mark after hitting Coburg Lake, which set me up for an excellent last part of the run, at a pace I rarely manage on training runs these days (including four consecutive sub-5 kilometres towards the end). Very pleased with this (although not hugely energetic through the rest of the day).

My route took me past where my grandmother's place used to be, in Essendon. At the time it was sold, the purchaser (who lived next door) had made mention of his Grand Designs ambitions and he hasn't disappointed.

First visit to Ivanhoe pool since I moved, mainly because it seemed a better option than outdoors on such a morning. There were plenty of signs up saying that the water was colder than normal but it seemed a nice temperature to me (I'd always felt Ivanhoe was a bit warm for my liking). Reasonable session but it's a bit of a change to be going round and round in not-very-big circles.

Not the most productive of days at work as I'm the go-to person for electoral interpretation (and of course I had a strong interest myself). Certainly didn't see that result coming. I'm not convinced that many of those who voted to leave know exactly what they voted for, but they're stuck with it now (with the possible exception of the Scots).

A run which felt promising at the start but turned into what felt like a bit of a plod (it was getting a bit quicker as it went on but the second-half tailwind might have had a bit to do with that). Still a steady morning's effort with nothing really going wrong.

Cassie (and Katinka) were still asleep when I stepped out the door to work at 8.20. I certainly wasn't about to disturb them.

Not the most lively of sessions, rather slow throughout, although reasonable strength for the climbs up through Eaglemont at the front end.

The house just up from the Hells Angels clubhouse has been on the market. I was hoping for a certain level of creativity in the advertising (as someone said on Facebook, this is one place where you know the neighbours won't call the police if there's a noisy party), but it was straight down the line. Must have been effective - the property has sold.

Bill Posters, who shows no sign of having been prosecuted, is playing an increasing role in this election. He's been active on behalf of the Liberal Democrats for a while now, and has now appeared on behalf of the Marriage Equality Party (who, as the saying goes, does what it says on the can) and, more surprisingly, Labor.

A bit of bruising seems to be showing up around the (presumed) leech bites from the weekend. Only a nuisance problem at the moment.

The swim that didn't happen yesterday. More or less par for the course; less crowded indoors than it sometimes is.

Cassie's visiting at short notice from tomorrow night (our grandmother is on a downhill slide). She's bringing Katinka out with her so I've been in the process of borrowing various bits of baby stuff (fortunately I have numerous work colleagues whose youngest children are around 3-4 and so have lots of recently redundant baby stuff). The slightly evil thought did cross my mind as to whether having a baby seat installed in one's car means that one can get away with parking in a Parents With Prams spot (just in case you're wondering, I didn't).

Lunchtime South Wharf intervals. Hard work on the upwind reps (the forecast rain largely failed to materialise but it was still pretty windy), somewhat easier on the downwind ones. A bit of an improvement on last week, and the hamstring held up this time.

Warm-up and down. Felt pretty stiff in the warm-up but fine once under way.

Just in case I hadn't had enough of being out in the rain in NSW yesterday, I spent another (short) spell out in the rain in Victoria this morning. (I'd probably have preferred a form of exercise which involved getting wetter still, but a puncture on my heel took a long time to stop bleeding yesterday - had yesterday's weather not been about as reptile-unfriendly as it gets, I might have suspected a snake and not some prickly vegetation, but I think it was just in an awkward spot - and I didn't think it was stable enough to put uncovered into the water yet).

As expected, this was a slow session, but after feeling pretty ordinary at the start, the second half was OK.

Rogaining brings a different crowd out to orienteering (probably only 20-30 of yesterday's field were people I recognised as orienteering regulars). This does mean the chance of encounters with people not normally encountered; among the other competitors were someone from my year at school, and the older brother of someone else from my year at school; I'd seen neither since Year 12. (The latter ran with his son, whom I'd guess to be about 12; they were only a couple of places behind us, which suggests the youngster may have some common genes with his uncle, who won our age group in the school cross-country a couple of times).

C • Puncture wound 3

Event: Paddy Pallin 6 hour Rogaine
 

Paddy Pallin rogaine with Jenny, at Catherine Hill Bay at the north end of the Central Coast on a rather miserable day - rained almost throughout and quite heavy in the second half, turning more than a few sections of tracks into lakes. Bit of a mix of terrain - very thick coastal heath and banksia where tracks were the only realistic option, coastal headlands and rock platforms, some reasonably open forest in the southern part, and bushfire regrowth closer to the start.

This ended up being somewhat below par - certainly well below the level of our performance in the Otways last year. Jenny had a bad patch around 1.30-2.00, to the extent where I was getting quite worried about her, especially as she'd made several uncharacteristic navigation errors in a short time. Turned out some food was enough to make the difference, but we still weren't doing much running except on level and downhill tracks, and didn't really come good until the last 40 minutes. (My hamstring was giving enough not-quite-right hints that I wasn't that upset - I'm not convinced it would have got through pushing things hard for six hours). One navigational issue of consequence, at 72 (perhaps 5 minutes or so). Ended up 3rd in mixed veterans (and 23rd overall), which was about what we deserved.

Seemed to pull up more or less OK, although tomorrow will be more of a test. Lots of wet gear to put through the wash when I get home.

C • Just held off... 1

Sydney sandstone offers a bit more potential for running adventure than Melbourne does. Went with Jenny on a loop on both sides of the river from Tracy's, with the rain adding a few points to the degree of difficulty. Not especially pushed as a run, but glad that the hamstring held up OK - didn't feel quite right on the flatter sections but not something to get in the way.

Then it was off for a day talking about orienteering on a day which was better for talking about orienteering than actually doing it.

Not taking any chances with the hamstring so went for a swim at Northcote. Bit of a nothing session. Hamstring itself felt a bit awkward during the swim (and otherwise during the morning) but somewhat better as the day went on - hopefully it will be OK for Sunday (as long as it isn't water-soluble).

South Wharf intervals, having gone into work early to make sure I didn't get caught out by any train delays (with a fixed commitment at 9). Rather sharp northerly crosswind during those few weeks a year when northerlies are cold. Pretty slow through the early reps but put in a few faster ones at the end.

Bad news: left hamstring twinge appeared on the last rep. It's still a bit tight tonight (although not as bad as the equivalent one before the SA weekend), so I'll be careful with it between now and the Paddy Pallin on Sunday.

Warm-up and down. The former was definitely needed (Achilles mostly), although I definitely didn't feel as weak as I have on earlier days this week.

Had something more or less long in mind this morning, but felt somewhat out of sorts and back wasn't great so took to the pool instead. Ended up a reasonably routine session but without a lot of energy. (Felt a bit livelier in the evening).

I came across the full list of Victorian Senate candidates today. This also lists their stated occupations, some of which made for quite a good match - you probably wouldn't be too surprised that the lead candidate of the Mature Australia Party is retired, or that one of the candidates for the Arts Party is an actor ("general store owner" also seems a good fit for the Australian Country Party). The only candidate describing themselves as "home duties" is running for the Australian Christians, and carrying on the fine tradition of Ben Chifley, someone who calls themselves a "locomotive driver" is bearing the standard for the Socialist Equality Party. (In fact, by the time he started to get seriously involved in politics, Ben Chifley would probably have been more accurately described as a union official than as a locomotive driver, but we won't spoil the story too much).

A pretty flat effort - didn't really get going and feeling rather weak at times (perhaps a continuation of how I was going yesterday). Pushing on at the moment - it's going to be a bit of a rearranged week because work commitments mean a long one on Thursday isn't really feasible.

C • You don't want a long one on Thursday 1

QB3 sprint. Felt much as I did last Monday - clearly coming up on the third day after a long race on the second is a bit of a problem for me at the moment (even if yesterday was a fair bit shorter than the previous weekend). Today was a fair bit shorter than last Monday, though, and although I wasn't exactly enjoying my running, I did get through it this time (albeit with a fairly dismal placing).

Didn't get off to the best of starts when I realised I'd forgotten to clear my stick and had to dash back from the start line (punching start fortunately). Only glitch otherwise was a few seconds in a dead end on the way to 9, although I would have done better to take a few more stair-avoiding route choices, I think. Needed all the strength I had today for the king-of-the-mountain 14 (and a bit of agility to avoid the swooping birds around 7 and 8).

Most of the others (including those I might have hoped to stay in front of) seemed to be in the 16s (though Andrew Barnett was just over 15). Not sure what Josh was doing but he stopped me from coming last.

Hopefully this was a successful weekend in building the profile of the sport in this part of the world. The local club (with a certain amount of outside support) did a great job of making things happen. Would be a nice spot for a Christmas 5-Days, although accommodation might be a problem at that time of year.

Saw my first bit of political advertising for the weekend on a campus noticeboard - a flyer for the Health Australia Party. (Just in case you might be tempted to vote for them, they're anti-vaxers with a bit of homeopathy thrown in). Looks like Rob Oakeshott's last-minute nomination might have caught a complacent local National campaign by surprise - I'll be surprised if he wins (the redistribution has cut his old territory in half and he has no history at the Coffs Harbour end of Cowper), but he's at least a bit of a wildcard.

War by other means - the Russian state news service's take on the weekend's altercations in Marseille:

“Two hundred and fifty Russian fans repulsed an attack by several thousand English and forced them to flee. English fans started the fight by attacking our fans, but 250 Russians from different corners of our country did not flinch and repulsed the attack of the heavily drunken islanders.”

(General consensus seems to be that it was the Russians, in conjunction with the local ultras, who started it, although the English weren't exactly unwilling to engage).

Hard 1 Day 3 - Splits

Long day of QB3, in the Bom Bom State Forest just south of Grafton. I ran on an area north of Grafton at a junior squad challenge a long time ago (sufficiently long that I think at least four of my opponents today hadn't been born yet) and recalled it as being one where the number of controls on the course approximately equalled the number of features on the map. The course stats today suggested that it might be similarly bland, but it was a bit more interesting that that - probably similar to some of the Maryborough terrain, with a bit of detail in the gullies and some watercourses on the sides of slopes. Nevertheless, in most cases, the objective was to stay as close as possible to the straight line.

I felt pretty sluggish at the start, and given the way I was feeling on small hills, was glad that this area doesn't have any big ones. Never really running that well, but made a reasonable fist of staying close to straight lines (although one where I didn't, 11 where I went to the track, seems to have paid off from the splits). Only miss of any size was at 14 where I came in a bit low, but only 20 seconds or so. Seemed to pick up a bit in the last 20 minutes, and that showed in the splits too.

Shep did 71, a bit longer than I thought he would, and there was a cluster around 80, much of it comprising people who'd made mistakes yesterday but could run faster today. I'll be defending a 38-second gap on Andy Hill in the sprint tomorrow (not something I'll be confident of doing) after two narrow wins.

Might not be the world's most technical area, but it will be excellent for establishing a local base in Grafton (especially as it looks like there's enough area for two more maps), and is more runnable than I expected in a coastal climate.

Hugs score for Hug A Climate Scientist Day was five - four at orienteering and one from the person at the general store at Wooli, a place which saw a fairly spectacular climate extreme of its own this time last week. Whilst today saw about 459 millimetres less rain than last Sunday there (something of which there was surprisingly little evidence), it had still become not great for the beach by the time I got there.

Hard 1 Day 2 - Splits

Day 1 of QB3 at Coffs Harbour. This sounds like (and is) a fair way to come (especially with Kooyoora as a rival attraction), but it's the first major event to be staged by any of our new post-2012 clubs and I thought I should put in an appearance.

It turned out to be a pretty interesting bit of terrain - a strip of sand dunes 200-300m wide between the railway line and the beach, with a real mix of vegetation and enough yellow patches to make it reasonably runnable if you chose your routes carefully. After the first couple I also got into reading the vegetation, and once I could read that I always felt reasonably in touch with the navigation - a couple of wobbles but not more than 15 seconds (certainly a vast improvement on last weekend). Didn't feel very aggressive with the running, especially when there was lantana about. Shep blew us all away, but I wasn't too far away from the rest, without claiming many notable scalps (Andy Hill being the most notable). Fairly happy with this.

One thing you certainly wouldn't have had at Kooyoora - seeing dolphins on the warm-down.

Having a direct flight certainly made the trip easier. First time I've flown Tiger - didn't expect any frills and didn't get any (the Melbourne terminal 4 certainly has "cheap" written all over it), but they got me from A to B when they said they would, which is the main thing.

C • Mapper 3

Hard 1 Day1 - Splits

First stage of a Friday morning double from Fitzroy Pool. Managed to find a route which didn't involve crossing any really major roads and didn't have any crossovers, although it involved a bit of convoluted stuff around the Exhibition Gardens. Stiff early, but going along reasonably well after the first 10 minutes or so.

Spotted the first defaced poster of the election campaign (someone had added "AND GUNS" to the Liberal Democrats "Tax Cuts For All"). They're a bit slow off the mark this year - usually by this stage at least a few candidate posters are sporting Hitler moustaches. There was a poster sighted in my part of town yesterday "Bruce Wayne for Batman", but sadly, when the list of nominations was announced today, Mr. Wayne was not amongst them.

The swim didn't go so well. Was having trouble with foot cramps almost from the beginning, and when I started to get calf cramps as well it was a worry - one particularly sharp one was enough to convince me enough was enough. Not sure what the problem was - there was no sign of trouble on the run, I don't think my diet this week has been unusually salt-deficient, and lack of hydration certainly hasn't been an issue. To add to the mystery, no sign of feeling untoward through the rest of the day, either.

It may not have been exactly as scenic a setting as this time last week, but this was also a pretty good run. Settled down nicely within a couple of kilometres, and flowing pretty well through the first half, including up some some reasonably solid climbs in Balwyn. Tired somewhat in the second half but still moving OK, and had a nice sharp finish. This was a bit longer than planned (I'd been aiming for 1.45), but not too upset about that - thought the only consequence of the longer time might have been having to get a slightly later train, but my normal train was running a bit late so I didn't even have to do that.

Not terribly fast, but darkness in the first half and mud at times along the river in the later stages may have contributed to that. (Something I've noted here is that if you're not running with a light, there are limited options for getting across the river and associated parklands in the dark, as one has to do to get to the south or southeast at this time of day at this time of year).

One interesting piece I encountered today was on the rise of Icelandic football (Iceland have qualified for a major tournament for the first time, having just missed out on the last World Cup). They've invested very heavily in coaching infrastructure, to the extent that even under-10 coaches are expected to have a UEFA B accreditation (which I think roughly equates to a Level 2 in the Australian system). Something to think about, even if we don't have the financial resources that they do (EUR 11 million, their cut of UEFA's TV income, goes a long way in a country the size of Iceland).

Not a great start, but settled into it and was enjoying myself by the second half. Noticeably more mud and general slipperiness than there had been the last time I was in these parts, particularly in Darebin Parklands (but probably not as much as there would be had I been attempting to do this run in northern Tasmania, eastern NSW or the ACT). No injury issues once warmed up.

Not for the first time, some of this run involved dropping something off to Hall Street which was delivered to Rushall (they're three blocks apart). Hopefully not too much is going astray in the reverse direction.

At Fitzroy in preparation for a day which I expected to be (and was) largely devoted to crunching numbers on the last few days' meteorological excitement (among other things, the 2015 World Cup sprint prologue arena at Cataract Gorge is currently under a couple of metres of water). Fairly standard session - felt a bit odd to be starting it in something resembling darkness (although that was partly a result of being a little earlier than usual).

Wasn't feeling great this morning - probably a combination of tiredness and a bit of a cold (had a sore throat of sorts, although it's settled this evening). The last two days were the important races so today was about enjoying myself, so I thought I'd give it 20 minutes to see if I felt any better once running. That question was answered in the negative (back also wasn't great today) and I wasn't really in the mood for the 90-100 minutes it was looking like being. By then I'd already made one error of some consequence.

Rather disappointing end to an enjoyable few days. I've been rather disconcerted by how much difficulty I've had in coping with a terrain type which I've run well in in the past (albeit 20 years ago). I've also noticed more difficulty than I can remember in reading detail on the maps. I haven't noticed anything similar in other terrains (including complex granite), so wonder if a contributing factor might be the low light levels in the forest here - although I'm also well aware that not too many orienteers get past 45 without needing glasses and I'm only a month away from that milestone.

C • Map colour? 5

NZ QB long. Once again, the coastal strip was my undoing - headed out there for controls 3, 4 and 5. I didn't really have a clue on any of these, not getting a grip on which features I could and couldn't rely on and which bumps were mapped, and lost significant time on all of them (in the company of a number of similarly befuddled people, mostly Australian junior men).

By 5 I'd probably dropped 8 minutes or so. From there it was a pretty reasonable run; didn't feel especially confident in the macrocarpa section to 10 but hit them all OK, then much more confident as the forest opened out from there, although still lacking pace even in the flatter country; soft ground was a bit draining and a couple of times took partial track options to give myself a bit of a break. A few small wobbles in this section but nothing worse than 20-30 seconds. Knew there was another coastal loop right at the end and was extremely cautious on it, but this time got through with only minor losses and found something at the end to get under 2 hours.

I clearly need to do a lot more training in this sort of country if I want to be competitive next year. I'm sure I didn't find coastal dunes so difficult on my early trips to NZ - indeed APOC 1994 at Knottingly was one of my best major-event runs (and certainly the only time I've beaten a current world champion). On the positive side, reasonably happy with the way the body held up for the distance, though I'm sleepy this evening.

QB3 (the NZ version), first day on the World Cup middle map from 2013. Not much confidence on 1 (the flat bit on the map - often a good feature in this terrain - didn't seem to have much of a counterpart in the terrain), but hit it more or less OK. Then ran into trouble on the open dunes at 4 and 5 - a bit wide on 4 (maybe 45 seconds-1 minute) and a bigger one on 5, staying too close to the coast and misreading the elongated flat depressions, probably another 2 minutes there. Got a bit easier from there and my navigation improved accordingly, except for 14, where I couldn't quite make sense of which gullies were/weren't mapped in the circle, perhaps 1.5 minutes there? Finished off reasonably well, helped by getting a bit of a pull from Brodie.

The result was a bit of a shock. I dropped 4-5 minutes over the course, but even without that, I still would have been last (apart from the mispunches) and about 5 minutes further back than I would expect in a field of this strength. Nick Hann did 31. Shows that experience in the terrain counts for a bit.

Original plan was another tourist run somewhere in the Nelson Lakes area, but I woke up to be greeted by low cloud, so decided to rearrange things a bit and do a run in Murchison, in the hope that this would give the cloud a chance to break up by the time I got to the lakes. I wasn't especially confident that it would break up (low cloud like this can persist in late autumn/early winter for weeks in Geneva, which is at about the same latitude as Dunedin), but it did.

Headed up a side road from Murchison. I expected it to be quiet and it was (saw two vehicles, one of which was a farmer's quad bike). Steady, if very gradual climb out of town and was feeling yesterday a little early on, but nice in the second half. One plus of the low cloud was that the temperature was above freezing (although not by much).

I think it would be fair to say that waiting for the cloud to break up before I got to the Nelson Lakes was worth it....(and the Marlborough Sounds aren't bad either, once you get clear of the mudflats at the Havelock end). Now on the boat across to Wellington in anticipation of the weekend's events.

One of the opportunities which arises from being a tourist is to do a tourist run, and this was an opportunity par excellence. My chosen target was the southernmost kilometres of the Abel Tasman coastal track, on a gloriously clear (although cold) day.

This turned out to be probably my most enjoyable run of 2016 so far. Took a couple of kilometres to get going, but then settled into a nice rhythm and flowing very well by 4k or so. Couldn't have asked for a better track (even leaving aside the views, which were excellent) - mostly on the contour 20-40 metres above the water, weaving in and out of gullies and no mud. I'm sure there are locals who run the lot (I'm also guessing it gets a bit more rugged further in), but I settled for an out-and-back to Yellow Point about 8k from the track start. Started to tire a bit in the last 20 minutes but definitely a good day.

Spent the rest of the day exploring various bits of the northern South Island (not always the bits I'd planned on - I took a wrong turn out of Motueka and didn't realise until I was 30km up a road I hadn't planned on taking) and have ended up in Murchison. Nelson Lakes tomorrow before getting an evening boat across to Wellington.

As one might expect of a remote settlement with a mining background, Murchison has a reasonably colourful history - including abruptly losing its publican in the 1950s after it was discovered by the local law that he was wanted in Western Australia for armed robbery.

Travelling from Melbourne to NZ, leaving home at 6.30am and getting into Nelson around 7pm. (The Melbourne flight was a little late into Wellington, killing off any chance of getting onto an earlier flight to Melbourne). Thought about doing a short run from Wellington Airport between flights if I could find somewhere to stash my gear but I couldn't, so passed it up.

NZ is going to be under high pressure for the next week (this is half of a "blocking pair", the other half of which looks set to unleash mayhem on various parts of the east coast of Australia over the weekend), and the views of the northern South Island coming in were sublime. I'll see them at slightly closer quarters over the next couple of days.