Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Memo to self: don't try to run fast when you're not properly awake. Headed out earlier than I normally would for this, as I needed to be at work by 8.30, and it showed - no real sharpness and times pretty poor, a disappointment after yesterday's effort.

I thought I'd more or less seen the back of the minor knee issues of recent weeks but got a twinge this morning, though in a different spot, on top of the kneecap. It disappeared after a few minutes but will need watching.

The disappointment didn't end with the run: having heard that he was planning to let fly this morning, I was rather hoping that Andrew Bolt would overreach sufficiently to get himself sacked by the Herald-Sun, but no such luck.

Started on the Yarra Flats, ended up coming back through Ivanhoe, on a chilly morning. Didn't quite live up to its initial promise but a decent run. Achilles started well but flared a bit late, slightly unusual behaviour (they were also a bit uncomfortable on the ride into work, but fine on a later run).

3x1k on the Tan. Felt pretty lively on the warm-up and carried it through into the main part of the session. Let my concentration drift a bit on the first rep but much better on the next two, where I actually began to feel as if I was running with some sort of speed. We won't get too excited about it - 3.49 is still only 14.35 pace for the full Tan - but it's 10 seconds faster than last time I did this session, a bit more evidence in a week where I feel as if I'm starting to turn a bit of a corner. Being pushed to run hard against opposition on Sunday seems to have helped.

Going to/from the Tan. Felt pretty good and no real signs of the Achilles soreness which flared up after this morning.

At Ivanhoe before heading out to do a lecture this morning at Monash (I might have been tempted to swim at Monash, but though it might be better to make that trip after the worst of peak hour). Ivanhoe isn't my favourite pool but this was a smooth enough session, apart from having to relocate to make way for aerobics (one of the side-effects of being in the water a bit later than usual).

A new venue for the MFR Monday night run - Maribyrnong hosted by James and Saba, two new MFR members (so new they haven't actually been orienteering yet). The run was based on the Maribyrnong River at the bottom of Essendon which is not entirely unfamiliar ground for me, although putting it together in a different way to usual.

Cruised at the front of the group with Saba, who's of Ethiopian ancestry and seems to have at least some of the east African distance running genes (you won't be surprised to learn that east African drought was one of the items of conversation). A pleasant run and felt less sore and tight early on than I can remember feeling on a run for several weeks.

Plenty of points for dinner, too (part of it a testament to James' day job with an ice cream company).

First of a pair of sprint races at Yuille Station, an area alongside the Yarrowee River at Ballarat. Off-track running isn't a good option in most of this area - too many blackberries, gorse bushes and thinnings in the pines - but still a bit of fun. Took a few seconds to get the key route choice on the first right, thereafter planning OK but couldn't really make my legs move quickly. Bruce was on me by 7, and I couldn't go close to holding him, although a good route from the last control to the finish limited the damage. Less soreness in the terrain than has been the case in training in the last couple of weeks.

Second race with a reverse-order start, 1-minute intervals, so went out a minute in front of Jim and two in front of Bruce. I expected to hold off Jim but not Bruce, but instead it was the reverse. I started a bit slowly and Jim, who was clearly going for it, gained ground quickly; he was pretty close to me by 5 although took a while to get much more ground. Felt like I was running faster than in the morning (although still not fast enough), and perhaps that showed in the gap to Bruce, who didn't catch me until the last control - and then ended up behind me on the ground at the finish after being a bit unlucky with his line out of the last control.

The field here was small - partly due to the lack of promotion of the event, I suspect - but it was still fun and gave me a bit of harder racing, something I need pretty badly at present.

And the best comment I've seen so far on a certain sorry saga which has been occupying a fair bit of media attention of late was that of someone who remarked that, whatever else happened, you could no longer accuse the Health Services Union of not being able to organise a root in a brothel.

Like Thursday, not always the most comfortable of runs but couldn't really fault the endurance - 90 minutes felt absolutely routine today. Thought I might have overcommitted a bit on the distance (going along the south side of the river as far as the pipe bridge, then back through Alphington and the west side of Ivanhoe), but ended up hitting the time I was looking for right on.

Most of the mud on the near-Yarra tracks has dried, and what hasn't dried now probably will have dried by this time next week. Might be a fair bit of mud to be seen on and near the east coast of the US though. (Wind damage probably won't be a huge player, but flooding will be).

Learned a route-choice lesson on the way to the afternoon's social engagement - just because Burke Road runs in a straight line between Heidelberg and Highett doesn't mean that it's a particularly fast way to travel between those two places.

The regular Friday morning session at Fitzroy. Pool seemed a bit cooler than usual. Some semi-regular company, discussing the goings-on in Libya as we passed in the lane, as you do. Felt reasonably good and loosened various muscles which is the main objective of the exercise.

Geography fail of the day goes to the Age (http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/cyclist-run-over... - last paragraph). If the truck was travelling west on Mitcham Road I'm not surprised it crashed - Mitcham Road runs north-south.

C • Story correction 2

Planned this to be a long one but wasn't quite planning on something this long, out through Bundoora Park as far as RMIT Bundoora, then across through some new suburbia to Greensborough before heading back. This was never a particularly comfortable run - too many bits hurting (most often the left Achilles) - but a reasonable amount of strength when it counted, and finished off well with the last 20 minutes probably the best of it.

Topographic influences on temperature were even more pronounced than they were yesterday; with the north wind starting to get up, it was easily 10 degrees cooler in the bottom few metres of the Plenty River valley where cold air pockets persisted than on higher ground. The warmth on higher ground meant I didn't see any unusual clothing items in the vicinity of Greensborough College, whose school council voted a couple of months back to add blankets to the school uniform (the principal purpose of which was to cause sufficient political embarrassment to get something done about the school's heating - I headed overseas the next week so I never found out the final result, if there has been one).

Getting back to something close to normal (at least after the first few minutes); even felt like I had a bit of sharpness on the second loop, although not quite enough to get a loop time in single figures. Managed not to be deafened by the workers cutting through concrete next to the path.

It was also a morning when topographic effects on early-morning temperatures were particularly noticeable.

Morning session from near work up around Moonee Valley. Not as bad as yesterday morning (at least after the first few minutes) but still a bit of a struggle; if the purpose of Sunday was to build up confidence in handling long distances it may not have worked especially well.

I found myself on the Western Bulldogs e-mail list after buying a present for my brother-in-law from their online shop once (and haven't asked to be taken off because the team lists are useful). I'd previously pondered the question of whether my Essendon 2000 Premiers T-shirt has reached the point of ceasing to be something of pride and starting to be an embarrassing reminder of how long it is since we last won one, so where does that leave the 1954 Premiers T-shirt that the Bulldogs are currently offering? (At least neither item is as ugly as the pre-season jumper from about 15 years ago that Hawthorn are currently selling as a 'heritage' item).

250 on/250 off at the Tan (now more or less devoid of building works). Again nothing to get excited about although the hamstring tightness which was there early disappeared pretty quickly.

Going to/from the Tan. Had some company for the trip back in the form of Nicholas Bignell, a Corporate Cup regular whom I've been dicing with for the best part of two decades. We had some additional company for a couple of hundred metres in the form of the group of schoolgirls on excursion who decided to try to keep up with us until they got bored.

Starting to flow more or less OK by the trip home.

Acronym of the day: Understanding Severe Thunderstorms and Alberta Boundary Layer Experiment (UNSTABLE). The group responsible for this have some form as they have previously being involved with the Effect of Lake Breezes On Weather study and the Convective and Orographic Precipitation Study. (A European group once came up with a project proposal which abbreviated to FUNDME, but sadly it failed to get funding).

Monday morning rather than Monday evening, and it wasn't pretty. Very stiff after yesterday - spending a fair chunk of the afternoon lying down was probably unhelpful in that context - and took a long time to get going with any sort of freedom. 2.30 in benign conditions shouldn't be taking that much out of me, although it was the first of that length for a while.

Second leg of a Monday morning triathlon at Fitzroy on a nice morning (and you know spring is coming because the sun is up early enough to hit the surface of the pool). The main purpose of this was to loosen up some muscles, which is as well because it certainly wasn't fast enough to be of much use from the aerobic exercise point of view.

This was the longest planned run of this cycle, somewhat later in the morning than usual after not getting to bed until 1.45 this morning for obvious reasons (has anyone watched a more bizarre race than the last leg of the women's relay?). A very nice day for it, cool and sunny; headed along the Yarra initially as far as Templestowe, then back across Doncaster.

This wasn't one of the floating-through-two-hours-on-a-cool-winter's-day runs that I've had on occasions. It was hard work at times, with hamstring soreness occasionally a nuisance from about 50 miutes onwards, and quite tired after a big climb out of Ruffeys Creek at around the 1.45 mark. This, though, was about taking myself out of a recent comfort zone and that mission was accomplished, although I wouldn't have wanted to be going much further (but then I often think that in the later stages of longest-runs-for-a-while irrespective of what the actual length of the run concerned was).

Saw a couple of work colleagues in the last 10 minutes, but was sufficiently deep in the zone that I didn't recognise them until I was almost past them.

The other activity of the day was turning up to vote for local Labor conference delegates. There were apparently some shenanigans and unpleasantness earlier in the day but it seemed to have settled down by the time I turned up (either that or the alleged protagonists realised that getting up to funny business within the sight of someone with a reputation as a stickler for proper processes and with good media connections wouldn't be terribly smart).

I'm making trips up to Bendigo at the moment due to a lack of other racing opportunities (missing the relays meant I wouldn't have had a bush event in August otherwise). A very sketchy start suggested that I was in need of some technical training - lost time at four of the first six controls (although only #2, where the map could have used an extra formline, was significant). Settled down after that. Running OK although not brilliantly; the Achilles felt uncomfortable at the start but wasn't an issue during the race.

The southern end of Devonshire Reef burnt on Black Saturday and has regrown quite strongly - most of this area was light green at least, with low visibility, and made for a few fairly slow controls between 6 and 11. Unusually for an event on this side of Bendigo, I didn't see any of the local talent in action - maybe they were all preparing for the Holden muster at the racecourse tomorrow.

Pool running session at Fitzroy. Drizzle had mostly cleared by the time I got in. As usual a reasonably relaxing session, although my right foot hurt a bit in the later part for no obvious reason.

Good to see Victoria's gene pool is in good hands:

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/ten-kids-in-cras...

C • Reminds one of the old joke 2

C • Outback dangers? 7

I'm not used to doing this. The Thursday morning long run has been a part of my routine, most of the time, for the last 25 years, so it was definitely a change to do it in the afternoon - thanks to watching the WOC long distance online and not going to bed until 1.15 (which would have made a 5.15 start a bit challenging).

I wasn't sure what to expect, heading out around 5 from work (and with both a morning tea and lunch during the day which introduced considerable potential for overeating). Ended up settling pretty well, on a day which didn't feel like a sparkling run but was simply an utterly routine accumulation of kilometres - it's good to be back at the stage where two hours can be a routine accumulation of kilometres. Achilles troublesome at times; a calf massage is overdue.

Finding a route for a two-hour run from the central city in peak hour is a little limiting (at least if you don't want to spend 30 minutes of the two hours waiting to cross roads). Started out through Fishermens Bend, which isn't terribly attractive (and takes one past Melbourne's largest producer of toxic waste, the News Limited printing works), but does at least have not much traffic and very few road crossings; then down the coast to Point Ormond and back through Albert Park. The mission of avoiding traffic was accomplished - I didn't have to stop for traffic once in two hours (although I did have to stop to get rid of some of the aforementioned lunch).

Following WOC has meant rearranging my personal time zone for the week - it felt very strange to be setting an alarm for 7.30 - which meant doing a longer run at lunchtime than I normally might. This one took me from work out around the back of the MCG and along the river as far as the railway bridge, before coming back up the Walsh Street hill and around the back of the Tan. Walsh Street was a reasonably regular route for me in the days when the Bureau was in the eastern CBD (it's a bit too far away to be in range on a normal lunchtime run), being one of the better hills in inner Melbourne. It's also infamous as the scene of a notorious murder, although that was at the southern end which I didn't go down.

(Something that was in the news a bit a couple of weeks ago was the property for sale in Collingwood which was advertised as "part of Melbourne folklore in earlier generations" - it was actually the scene of another infamous murder).

This was a pretty reasonable run, flowing quite well once warmed up. Light rain throughout which sometimes threatened to get heavier but never quite did.

Cruised around street-O at Warralong Heights, an area in Watsonia with enough small hills to keep things interesting. Felt comfortable after the first couple of controls. Was sitting about 50 metres behind someone (who I didn't know) for much of the run. I decided to lift my pace with three controls left and went past him, but he decided to lift his pace too and ended up doing me in the sprint.

Going along the southern edge of the map to 18, then back to 14, meant not approaching 14 from the south, which meant I didn't see the allegedly psychotic woman who was making a nuisance of herself in that area. Last I heard the police had been called but I'm not sure what happened next. It's a while since we've encountered crime in a street-O: I think you need to go back to the 2004 Deer Park event where a drug deal in progress was interrupted by the arrival of the A-course lead pack.

Back on the traditional fartlek circuit, which has acquired a bit of new bike path since I was last out this way - which was a help as the bit of path it replaced would have been a bit muddy, judging by the mudbath that the local football ground has turned into. (It hasn't been an especially wet winter, so that's a bit surprising). Fastest loop 10.03 which has been reasonably standard for me this year, still well below par.

I was doing this a bit later than usual after an IOF Foot Commission hookup last night which went past midnight Australian time (whichever meeting is responsible for discussing the Senior Event Adviser's report for WOC 2011 might end up going all night). This put me on the Darebin Creek bridge around 8.30, a less perilous activity than it would have been at that time yesterday when a cyclist was run down, apparently intentionally from reports I've seen of the incident. It seems the driver's registration number was taken and if reports are correct they might find themselves enjoying some quality time as a guest of Her Majesty.

MFR Monday night run from Ilka's with a small crowd, out around Princes Park and back past the zoo. The rain stopped in time for us to have a dry run but still plenty of mud underfoot (which wasn't that easy to see in the dark). A reasonable run without being anything special. Had to dash off straight afterwards for an IOF Foot Commission hookup (although as it turned out said hookup was delayed by an hour - I'm still waiting for it as I write).

Perhaps I'm feeling more relaxed now the Victorian Relays are out of the way, and more significantly now that the international team which was out here reviewing my project last week has produced its draft report. I'm not sure whether I'd rather have been demonstrating being the best in the world at something in France this week rather than in Melbourne last week, but since the former, if it was ever a plausible dream, ceased being one at least 15 years ago, I'll settle for someone else thinking the latter.

Running around the controls at Nerrina before the start of the Victorian Relays to (a) make sure they were all still there and had been put out in the right place (this task was delegated so successfully yesterday that I only ended up putting three stands out myself, albeit the three most distant) and (b) turn on the SI units. As one might expect with such a set of objectives, the run was a bit interrupted through causes such as shifting the odd control a couple of metres to match the control description a bit better, and a couple of chats with the controller (Mandy Hennessy) who was going around at the same time, but it was quite a nice run when I got a chance to get going. Only found one problem of any consequence (two swapped SI units).

Knee somewhat better than it has been in recent days; perhaps that's one positive of missing out on both the long runs I'd planned for this week.

The relays themselves went off pretty well (if there were any complaints they didn't find their way to me), although the winning times on the shorter hard-navigation courses were a bit longer than I'd hoped for - perhaps indicating a gap in technical ability (at least in fine detail) as well as running speed. Wouldn't have been the easiest map to read if your eyesight is not what it once was, either.

C • Complaint 1

I'm not having a lot of luck with planned long runs at the moment. One was planned for this morning but that plan disappeared down the S-bend sometime around 4 this morning along with whatever it is I ate last night that disagreed with me (at least a certain streak which I have going for a year longer than Bruce did remains intact). No signs of further trouble so I'm assuming it's food and not viral.

After that I went out for the bare minimum in the morning before heading up to Nerrina. Didn't feel too bad, although a bit washed-out (understandable in the circumstances). Might add a bit to my checking-the-controls run tomorrow morning to make up for some of what wasn't done today.

Ended up delegating so successfully (with the help of a much larger army of helpers than I was expecting) that I only put out three controls myself (albeit the three most distant).

Whatever it was that was wrong with me seems to have sorted itself out. This was a reasonably routine run on a foggy morning, settling down well after a slowish start. Knee continuing to be at nuisance level but no pain as such - not too perturbed for the moment but will need to continue watching.

Was in bed by 8.45 last night and felt somewhat better after a good night's sleep, albeit still some distance short of 100%. Decided to do the easiest normal session possible today and save anything longer for the weekend. It seemed to work out OK, and I wasn't even perturbed by the southeast wind which seemed to perturb some others.

A run from Fairfield with a view to street-O from there tonight, across the Studley bridge and coming back across Chandler. For the first two-thirds this was a reasonably promising, if slowish, run, feeling like I was flowing OK and with a bit of strength on the hills. From 40 minutes onwards, though, it fell apart and I was happy to see the end. I thought something couldn't be right and I wasn't wrong - felt progressively more out of sorts as the day went on (not too bad when sitting down but weak and light-headed whenever doing anything else) and ended up giving street-O a miss. Hopefully a good night's sleep will sort it out; nevertheless it looks like a long Thursday run will need to wait another week. (If I feel better I might reshuffle it to Friday).

Headed out in the late afternoon (having failed to find a suitable time window either in the morning or at lunchtime) in a largely unsuccessful attempt to clear my head after a challenging day. Not horrendous as far as the running itself went, although not as much speed as I'd like in this session - which took me back to the south bank of Docklands for the first time in a while, an area which hosted a strip ideal for the 10x1 minute that I was doing.

Knee stiffening up a bit after the reps but fine on the run.

Apart from this run it was near-continuous meetings or travelling between meetings from 8am to 10pm. Finally ate dinner sometime around 10.30.

C • Melbourne 2

Warm up/down for the intervals session.

Back to Fitzroy for the first swim in a while. As usual for first-swims-in-a-while, this featured numerous muscles which have been underemployed for some time letting me know that they've been underemployed for some time, but I think it did do something to loosen the legs up, which is the idea.

Lunchtime on the Tan. Felt as if I was running against the current for a lot of it but didn't end up as a bad session (definitely better than the equivalent last week, although that's a bit of an unfair comparison as last week I'd just got off a plane).

Was looking at running with Bruce on an orienteering-free Sunday morning. It turned out Bruce was running with a group which included various Midday Milers plus Lauren Shelley (in town for a couple of weeks; she's based in Perth now and it sounds like you might see a bit of her at NavDash next season), so I joined this one too. This started from the Eaglemont Tennis club and went up the Yarra as far as Lower Templestowe (on the bike path throughout - the singletrack through the Banyule Flats section after rain is far too ambitious for a group of runners) and back, before a couple of adding-distance-on small loops at the end.

This was a pretty good run; the pace was a bit faster than I've been used to on long runs in recent years (in fact my fastest long run for a couple of years). Handled it OK although I was felt like I was hanging on in the last 15 minutes (no drop of speed though). I had been a bit concerned about the knee after it felt awkward jumping out of my seat at Docklands last night (something I had cause to do on numerous occasions, particularly in the last quarter) but it was fine on the run. The early stages were a reminder that it does sometimes get cold in Melbourne in winter.

Good to take myself a bit out of my comfort zone and respond reasonably positively. I'm planning to put in a reasonably big month (injuries permitting), much the same structure as I used with some success in 2008 (although the 2008 version would have had more success if I hadn't totally butchered a control at the Australian Long Championships).

Lauren related various stories of doing runs from airports (high points on the degree of difficulty scale was Heathrow, which you can't actually legally enter or leave on foot). The only place I've ever done this from is Adelaide, but I reckon Helsinki would be pretty good. Somebody somewhere probably has a website about this.

And, every now and again, a story comes out about abysmal sports administration somewhere else which reminds us why orienteering's governance and financial management is highly regarded by the Sports Commission. This time it was last year's Delhi Commonwealth Games, which, according to an Indian government audit released yesterday, was originally costed at $258 million and ended up coming in at $3.92 billion.

C • Out of your seat at Docklands ... 1

Bendigo Saturday event at Lyell Forest South. The area is not quite as fast as it once was (thanks to new undergrowth since last year's rains) and I'm not as fast as I once was, so I was never likely to get anywhere near the 4.6 mins/km I once did here (Warren did 4.3 on the same day), but my main problem today was an inability to readjust to navigating in vague country with contours and nothing but contours - a readjustment which I knew I'd have to make which was why I was here.

This inability manifested itself in a mistake which wasn't my biggest of the year but was certainly the most embarrassing; at the start I wondered why on earth we'd have a 1.2k leg across to a fence corner at 4, but as it turned out I drifted southwards, ended up somewhere near 5 and blew 2-3 minutes. Also overshot 3 by a minute or so but could be forgiven for failing to see the feature, an alleged rockface which was about the height of a pair of shoes. In general had a lot of trouble holding a straight line without reference points (and I did remember to bring my southern hemisphere compass so can't claim that as an excuse), although better towards the end. Running also indifferent, although better in the second half. A little bit of knee stiffness at the end which will need watching.

All that said, a bad run orienteering is still better than a lot of other things and I was in a much better mood after this run than I had been for a lot of the period preceding it.

C • the alleged rockface 4

First time in the pool for a while - at Ivanhoe at the end of the day because of a flying visit to Torquay for a work meeting (didn't get the chance to run on a beach which looks ideally suited to it, and declined the opportunity to join a few of my colleagues who were making a detailed personal investigation of current Bass Strait sea surface temperature anomalies).

The price of going late afternoon is that it's more crowded than early morning, and Ivanhoe doesn't have a lot of space that's deep enough for this purpose, so I just had to stay out of the way of everyone else, mostly kids who appeared to have noticed some 'Friday afternoons excepted' small print on the 'No Diving or Bombing' signs. (Telling kids off in front of people I presumed to be their parents has the potential to be a lot more trouble than it's worth; to add insult to injury, when the lifeguard finally noticed she thought I was responsible for them). Perhaps I was just a bit down through being in one of my occasional people-I-know-like-me-but-the-broader-community-doesn't moods (the cure for which is to reduce exposure to the media, especially letters and online comments threads associated with News Corporation publications).

You don't really expect to have issues with fluid replacement on a run in the early morning in Melbourne in the first week of August, but it was warm enough to be an issue today - 18 at 6am in Melbourne (and, astonishingly, 23.5 at 4.30am at Wilsons Promontory). In general the only thing that's changed in the conditions between this week and last is that it gets dark at 5.45 instead of 11.15.

First long(ish) run for quite a few weeks, from near work up along the Maribyrnong as far as Essendon. Working reasonably hard into the wind in the first half (with the payback coming later). A steady run on the whole although the lack of recent long work was evident; it would have been a struggle to get to 2 hours, but there's plenty of time ahead for that.

Lots of other people out on the warm morning, including a large contingent of teenage girls running (presumably one of the private schools has cross-country coming up).

Had a bit of knee soreness last night but I think that was a first-long-ride effect; it was a non-issue after the first couple of minutes of the run.

A reasonably mundane session. Still a bit tight despite yesterday's massage but Achilles improved.

It's a while since I've been out and about at sunrise (or close to it), which means it's a while since I've heard the birdlife on the Banyule Flats coming to life. Also good to see the footpath to get there is no longer blocked by building works.

Whoever's running the ABS's Census Twitter feed is having some fun (http://twitter.com/#!/2011Census). I don't know if any offence has been taken by truck drivers, New Zealanders, Melbourne footballers or Peter Andre.

And the Lithuanians know how to deal with motorists who illegally obstruct bike lanes (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/02/vilniu...). I wonder if they're available to pay a visit to the eastbound lanes of La Trobe Street after work next Friday?

Looking at options for the NSW Championships weekend; is there anyone going from either Sydney or Canberra who would be interested in sharing transport? Would probably fly up Friday night, or maybe first thing Saturday morning if it's to Sydney.

Woke up at 4.30, which doesn't normally happen to me after returning but does happen to lots of other people. I put the time to good use (clearing a lot of items on my to-do-once-home list) but paid for it at work this afternoon.

Planned to do something fast but was still pretty tight (in anticipation of a much-needed massage). Not exactly going flat out but still thought it useful to do something a bit faster than the norm, with laps in the mid-80s - probably a 3000-5000 pace for me these days.

A father and son were dribbling a soccer ball around the Clifton Hill track for much of this session, but unlike the dog (and owner) which made a nuisance of themselves at this venue on one occasion last year, they didn't get in the way.

Warm up/down. Very sluggish on the warm-up but Achilles a bit improved on yesterday.

Got into the city from the airport (doing my usual thing of heading straight to work). The original plan was to do the MFR Monday night run but that got cancelled, so I headed out in the morning before I got too sleepy (although as it turned out I never did get that sleepy - the aforementioned upgrade helped), based around the Tan, which they've almost - but not quite - finished rebuilding.

My Achilles tightens badly on planes - must be the angle one sits at (I can usually only shuffle for the first few minutes in the terminal). It still wasn't especially loose on the run, but manageable. A slow and rather uninspiring run but I expected that.

I'm now at home, having completed missions such as going through the mail, putting the washing on and restocking the food cupboards. The last of these was a good deal less exciting than it would have been at the same time last night - the local supermarket got held up by someone wielding what the police media release called a "conducted energy device" and the rest of the English-speaking world calls a stun-gun.

C • The suspect 5