Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Felt very tight today, perhaps not surprisingly given how marginal yesterday was, and didn't take long to work out that going out today was going to be a problem. With the PM10 level (otherwise known as the Crap In The Air Index) somewhere north of 200 after an overnight wind change, it probably wasn't the worst of days to swap with a planned non-running day tomorrow.

Hobart's a nice place and the workshop was worthwhile (one talk yesterday afternoon was worth the trip on its own), but in the current circumstances I'm not too upset to be out of there. Hope things improve soon but there doesn't seem to be any real prospect of substantial rain - the only thing that will put out fires on this scale - in at least the next week. (Not sure if Anna, whose mine is expected to get roughly a full year's normal rain in the next week, can send them some of the surplus?).

C • rain 1

This was pretty borderline - felt sluggish throughout, a bit awkward on the climbs, and stopped to stretch my back a couple of times, but eventually got through it, more or less. Probably about as flat as it's possible to get in this part of Hobart but still a few sharp slopes (more down than up) and a long grind back up the rivulet to get home. Knew I was in for a rough morning when the downhill first split started with a 6 (and I don't think I can blame the smoke - better than yesterday evening but still pretty ordinary - for this).

My historical discovery of the day was the continued existence of the Guano Islands Act 1856. This entitles any American citizen to claim any uninhabited and unclaimed island upon which there is a deposit of guano (and let's face it, what island doesn't have one?) for the United States. No claim has actually been made to any island under this act since the 19th century (and there aren't that many unclaimed islands around these days), but it's the thought that counts.

C • Any excuse 10

In Hobart, staying with Kirsten, Keith and family in their new place near the Cascade Brewery (where Keith is working) - about 3km from the city centre (but still sufficiently close to the bush that I encountered a couple of bits of roadkill walking up last night). From here there are undoubtedly plenty of good runs to be had if you feel in the mood for some vertical, and hopefully I will by later in the week. For today, it was just a short one, climbing most of the way up Old Farm Road (a steady but not overly steep climb with which my back coped sort of OK), before coming back and doing a loop down to the Female Factory. (Before you get any ideas, this was a facility designed to keep women convicts away from the unladylike activities taking place in central Hobart).

It hasn't got a lot of attention so far in the mainstream media (perhaps it will now that the Tahune Airwalk has been burnt out), but Tasmania has large and ongoing fires. For most of the day it wasn't too bad, but in the late afternoon a seabreeze brought the smoke plume from the Central Plateau (which had been tracking east of here) back into town and the PM10 pollution index jumped to bad-day-in-Delhi levels. I think it will clear out to some extent overnight, but if it doesn't I'll need to give some thought as to whether it's runnable in the morning.

C • You call that vertical 4

Last stage of Sprint Adelaide at Mount Barker - a couple of blocks of schools/TAFE campus with some parkland in between, but in general the challenges were more those of route choice than fine navigation - plenty of fences. Didn't feel too brilliant in the first few controls, but gradually got into it and not as bad on the climb on the long leg as I though I might be. Only navigational wobble was starting down the ramp instead of the stairs at 14. Was chasing Tyson (1 minute) most of the way; gradually pulling him in but didn't quite catch him, while Warren was doing the same to me. (Other reports from weekend rivals watch: Leith dropped a minute on #2, was pulling me in most of the rest of the way but ended up 21 seconds short).

Thought I might have got within 50% of the lead (a rarity for me these days in good sprint fields) when Simon came in, but Martin dropped the benchmark a bit further. (I suspect a few competitors, although not Martin or Simon, would have been a bit below par whilst recovering from last night's beer-O). Still probably my least worst run of the weekend, even if Jenny did claim my scalp; showing our consistency, the only splits where we were separated by more than 5 seconds or so were #1 (where she didn't realise the straight line was legal) and #14 where I wobbled at the ramp.

So ends a well-run series of events, although it's a pity there wasn't a bit more local attendance. Onwards (for me at least) to Hobart for the next few days, where the land environment is good for running but the atmospheric environment probably won't be.

Qualifier for the knockout sprint at Flinders Uni. I obviously wasn't going to qualify (although I thought that last time I was here, too) and was happy to settle for just getting round a course feeling reasonably OK after last night's debacle. That more or less happened, although I was blown away for speed by the people I expected to be blown away by. Got the key routes right, I think.

Apparently a sign on the way in (I didn't see it) said Flinders was a 'top 2%' university, on unspecified criteria. Not sure if it's in the top 2% of Australian campus sprint venues but it's still well above the median.

Usually on these weekends you end up finding someone who's running on the same level as you. This time it seems to be the South Australian junior Leith Soden, who beat me today by the narrowest possible margin after being 15 seconds or so ahead of me in the night event. Comparing splits, he blew me away on the downhill legs at the end, confirming what I already knew - I'm not much good at stairs (in either direction) at the moment.

Mass start for those who weren't in a semi-final. To my less than overwhelming surprise, I was dropped immediately from a mostly junior lead pack, did the unconventional mass start thing of doing a different route on #1 to everyone else (seemed to come out fairly even), then settled into things. Once we were through the butterflies, got into a bit of a scrap with Tyson; another split separated us but we came through my second-last (his split meant he had an extra control to get) and I thought we were still pretty close. I hit the last control a few metres ahead, which I didn't think would be enough, and it wasn't. Don't think either of our finish splits would stand up against the sprint finishes in the actual semi-finals.

Another mass start on the final course. I wasn't sure how I'd come up after the break (which I spent doing not much; Dante found other ways to keep himself occupied between races), but it turned out more or less OK (probably a bit worse than the morning). Once again, fell off the main pack immediately and found myself in a three-way battle with my two main competitors from the two morning races. For the most part I was at the back of this group and I doubt I would have been able to win a running race, but I didn't need to because it was decided by the two route-choice legs at 13 and 14; Tyson took the sub-optimal option at 13, then Leith followed up at 14. (Martin Dent lost the A final on the same leg).

A good event, and good to be able to give people exposure to this format, before it starts getting run regularly at international level.

Really hoped for better today, but the back wasn't cooperating - I knew it would be trouble from very early on, and confirmed it when it refused to respond to a suggestions that it might wish to help me run up a two-contour hill on the long leg from 8 to 9. At this point I decided that tomorrow looked more interesting, although not before I had the chance to get as confused by the map around 10 as everyone else was.

A late afternoon start meant a fairly free rest of the day. There were some flags out although not as many as I've seen on some previous occasions (two was the most I saw on any one vehicle this year, whereas I've seen up to five in the past). None of the flag-adorned vehicles this year had stickers saying "F**k Off We're Full" or similar sentiments.

First day of Sprint Adelaide, a night event at the (defunct) Belair golf course - first time I've done a night event (other than on streets) for years. Main concern for me was how my body would function late in the day and coming off a plane. The answer for the first 15 minutes was ugly and had to walk up a couple of the hills, but then loosened up reasonably well and not too bad for the second half. Never really much beyond a shuffle though. Navigation reasonably good, although with the 30-second start intervals there were enough people around to show one into a lot of the controls (most of which were in the strips of forest between the fairways). Took a while to work out how the tees and greens were mapped.

Leith claimed my scalp, and Jenny almost did (from memory I think she's done it once, when I came horrendously unstuck at a post-OA Conference street-O a few years back).

Definitely glad I wasn't trying to run in Melbourne this morning. It hit 35 degrees in Melbourne (a temperature of some significance to tradies who get to knock off for the day when this happens) at 7.36am, beating the previous record of 8.26am set on 29 January 2009. I tried to do a long run on 29 January 2009. It didn't end well.

C • Jenny 4

Woke up with a stiff back this morning so thought the water was a better option (had I been in Adelaide, on its way to 47 degrees or thereabouts, I would have considered the water a better option for other reasons; our turn comes tomorrow). Ended up a fairly routine session, even though I didn't feel much looser at the end than I did at the start (I eventually felt somewhat better after getting the train to work).

Lots of records-tracking once in the office, as you might expect.

C • Records... 6

The objective tonight was to see if I could get through an evening run; it being the first one back, I decided to go for C rather than A. Calf and Achilles were OK, and back was only troublesome on the steep climb through 11, but this was still a real struggle - don't think my quads enjoyed their first steep downhill in months. Will get better from here (I hope!). At least I think I got something close to the optimal route - it was 800m shorter than the setter's projection so it can't have been too bad.

My version of Attack of the Killer Physio seems to have worked, at least for today - it was a rather sleepy and unenergetic run (probably thanks to a late night at the tennis last night) but all relevant body parts were functioning more or less as they supposed to, and ventured onto some rougher tracks on Darebin Parklands without any problems other than being very slow (a marked contrast to Sunday where a half-contour bump was enough to set the Achilles off). Hopefully something to build from.

There was some mirth around today at news that the government was announcing funding for a replica vessel to circumnavigate Australia for the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's voyage (those with a knowledge of Australian history will recognise the problem here). Other parts of the voyage which I presume will not be accurately re-enacted include sailing straight past the entrance of Sydney Harbour, running aground on the Great Barrier Reef and firing muskets at uppity members of the local indigenous population.

There was also some discussion today as to what we should call this summer now that it looks highly likely that it will comprehensively beat most of the heat records set in the so-called "Angry Summer" of 2012-13. My entry so far is that the Angry Summer is about to be downgraded to 'slightly miffed'.

C • Things Cook didn't do: 20

Early-morning pilates session. Seemed to be working some of the muscles harder this morning, which I take to mean that I was doing more of the exercises properly.

Unusually, this was directly before a massage/needles session, which as noted in recent days was badly needed. The fact that it was badly needed was reinforced by how strongly my calves responded to the needles - I was shuffling round for most of the rest of the day.

Once again, 30-40 minutes seems to be an upper limit for my calves/Achilles at the moment. Getting out for this is better than nothing but still well short of what I'd want to be doing. Did feel at least half-reasonably for as long as that part of the body held up.

Not the most convincing of efforts, but at least I managed to get out for something which bore a vague passing resemblance to a run without completely falling apart. Achilles still not brilliant - next physio session on Monday can't come soon enough. More pleasant conditions than has been the case through the week.

Having a weekend day at home did provide the opportunity to get some things done (albeit not as many as I had intended), as well as spend some Christmas book vouchers...

Still struggling. This is getting frustrating.

Felt a bit less drained after a decent night's sleep but stiff and tight all over, and took to the water. The best that can be said for this session is that it would be good training for a challenge mentioned elsewhere on AP, given that the objective of that challenge is to come last - a feeling discreetly indulged in towards the end of the season by supporters of underperforming AFL teams, and more openly in the NFL where a few years back fans urged their teams to "suck for Luck" (next year's version is apparently "tanking for Trevor"). Both calves got tight towards the end, not something I'd expect of a swim.

Glad I'm not in Wagga though.

I was not previously aware that a potato cannon was a thing. Subsequent discussion suggests this may simply reflect the fact that I didn't spend much of my childhood around farms or quasi-farms (although it still seems a rather strange weapon to use for a drive-by shooting).

At least this was a run, although it felt like something of a struggle for much of the way. At its best in the middle running along the bottom of the Darebin Creek valley on the track on the far side you get to on the stepping stones (perhaps because it was cooler in the bottom of the valley). Not really any injury problems, but definitely still getting used to the humidity again.

Felt pretty drained after riding home tonight; hope this isn't indicative of anything other than perhaps some lingering jet lag.

So what random body part is going to act up post-flight this time? Your answer, for 10 points, is the right hamstring. Felt better once I'd ridden into work so will try again tomorrow. Fairly sticky, but at least it wasn't Tarcoola (49.0) or Port Augusta (48.9).

The evening session was a rather unusual one - I thought I'd booked for 8am but there had been a stuff-up somewhere, and by the time I got the reminder text the 8am class was full. My shoulders were pretty sore and stiff in the exercises which worked them - probably another product of the flight - but otherwise this was reasonably standard.

It was our line's turn to have a meltdown tonight - glad I was riding. I thought something funny was going on when I saw 15-20 people standing, mostly on their phones, outside the Clifton Hill Maccas, then rode a bit further and saw the line for buses stretching from the station almost back to High Street. There was also a steady stream of people walking along Heidelberg Road, having worked out (correctly) that the 30-60 minutes it would take them to walk from Clifton Hill to Dennis/Fairfield/Alphington was less than they'd have to wait for a bus.

It may have gone smoothly up to Sydney but the last leg was rather less so; after 20 minutes doing laps of Mount Buller, I spotted that the flight track had switched to Canberra as a destination. Given the good flying level, I was thinking of possible scenarios as to why Melbourne Airport might have been closed, of which the one which actually happened (a fire alarm in the control tower) was amongst the less unpleasant. By the time we landed in Canberra, Melbourne was open again so we got going quickly after refuelling, and ended up getting in around 2 1/2 hours late.

After a not-especially-productive afternoon at work (at least I cleared my in-box and crunched enough numbers to ascertain that even if the second half of the Australian summer is average the summer will still be the hottest on record), a crowded, delayed, train trip (what holidays?), and the walk home from the station with my gear in 38 degrees, it was time to do a bit of exercise, if only in the hope of keeping myself awake a bit longer. With some apprehension about its crowdedness, I headed for Northcote pool.

It was busy, but manageably so - found a bit of space once far enough away from the edges. I might be below the 10th percentile of the age distribution at some Summer Series events but I was definitely above the 90th percentile here - mostly teenagers and near-teenagers, but also a few of the demographic whose conversation contained words like "startup" and "investment groups". The session itself wasn't super-energetic, but pleased to get it on the board.

C • I am hoping that everyone g... 5

This day essentially disappeared, even in a theoretical sense - in terms of time zones being overflown, I think the passing of midnight wasn't too far away from the crossing of the date line. The Vancouver-Sydney flight wasn't too bad as long-haul flights go; had one of the few vacant seats on the flight next to me, and got 6-7 hours of at least intermittent sleep.

Wasn't flying out until the evening so took the opportunity to link up with Louise Oram and Thomas Nipen (over here visiting family) and their running group, mostly other Vancouver orienteers. Thomas's group is too fast for me these days so I joined the Louise group instead, for a session mostly on forest tracks through the Pacific Spirit Park out towards UBC.

This was a very nice run - good setting, good company, and the relevant parts of my body worked (with the Achilles only starting to play up a bit in the last 15 minutes). A nice day too, dry and maybe 6-7 degrees. Definitely felt good for having done this. Good lunch afterwards too (with the added bonus of 1st birthday celebrations for Tessa). A nice note to leave Vancouver on.

(The bus going back to the city was standing room only, at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon. I wonder if it's occurred to anyone in a relevant position of authority in Australia that if you provide frequent services - every 15 minutes for this route - people will use them? In general I was surprised how relatively little peak-hour traffic there was in downtown Vancouver, and can only assume that public transport gets heavily used).

Not really looking forward to plunging straight back into a heatwave, although Melbourne will miss the worst of this.

C • Thanks 4

Stationary bike in the hotel. Was originally thinking of the morning but felt very sleepy (possibly the product of a late night last night at the hockey) and knew I'd have a potential timeslot in the late afternoon, so went for that instead. A decent session although no more interesting than a stationary bike usually is, despite the collection of three news channels to watch (the news being displayed thereon wasn't very cheery, although I did find slightly quirky a headline relating to a car factory closure in Ontario "Union calls on Ford to meet GM CEO").

The meeting is finished now; as with last time, not quite sure what I've let myself in for but hoping the outcome will be worthwhile.

Canadian cultural assimilation note: consumed poutine today.

Had really hoped for something better here, but Achilles was suspect from the start and didn't get any better as it went on. Had planned to get deep into Stanley Park, but only got as far as Third Beach, and from then on it was really only workable in sections which were flat. The calf is the fundamental problem here, so will do some work with the foam roller and hope for something better - want to be able to do something worthwhile on Saturday.

Following the meeting sessions today, I took in a genuine Canadian cultural experience - the ice hockey. Vancouver lost 4-3 in overtime. As far as I know there have not yet been any riots.

Hotel pools are never really ideal for this sort of session, but I was a bit slack to walk to the main public pool on a wet morning (that pool - built for the 1954 Empire Games - was about a 10-minute walk away), so this was it. Never felt as if I properly got going, but a bit more awake than I was at this time yesterday (and not feeling quite as flat during the day, either - perhaps energised, if that's the right word, by the news that I've had two significant new issues dropped on my plate by discussions here in the last 24 hours).

Late afternoon was devoted to each chapter finding a Vancouver landmark to have ourselves photographed at. We contemplated doing ours at the Trump hotel (Vancouver has one, which I assume is a popular gathering place these days for demonstrations of all kinds), but thought that might be a bit too cheeky.

C • Wait for summer 3

Not really injury problems but otherwise a terrible run. Didn't sleep very well last night, for no obvious reason, and still felt half-asleep when I set out. Sometimes beginning a run shakes me out of this mode but it didn't really happen today. Had started out with thoughts of going to an hour or beyond - taking advantage of the last dry weather for a while - but was quickly reassessing in terms of "minimum respectable session".

Did at least manage to explore a new bit of the city, the Kitsilano Beach area after going across the Burrard Bridge (not as cold as it would have been in yesterday's wind).

I think this is talking about the Fitzroy pool, although I'm usually too early in the day to see any of the described subcultures on display.

C • PRR 2

Thought my quads (or perhaps other muscles) might have sent me a message about doing things yesterday that they were unaccustomed to. That didn't happen, but this was still a fairly mediocre run, and definitely a slow one. Headed up towards Stanley Park, just getting into its near corner at the far end. A windy morning, windy enough that waves were splashing over the coastal path, which led me to give it a miss (there's a section of the full Stanley Park circuit that gets closed under such conditions). Back OK for the most part but a little tight later, which is unusual.

Plunged into work in earnest today, although there was enough time at lunchtime to go to the waterfront and get pictures of the mountain view, this being the only clear day we're likely to see here.

Took the opportunity of a spare day in Vancouver to take to Cypress Mountain - first time I've been skiing in a few years (other than my not-very-successful outing into cross-country in Norway last year). Originally expected to have company but my potential companions pulled out for various reasons, so I was on my own.

I've actually been here before, on a previous occasion with a spare day in Vancouver. That was a weekday, this wasn't, and it was predictably crowded, with fairly long lift lines and, by the afternoon, quite crowded slopes as well. (I got the bus up so didn't have to deal with the traffic jams getting into the car park).

The locals didn't think the snow conditions were great but they seemed OK to me (there's been some fresh snow after the big storm during the week, which partly fell as rain at this elevation). Felt my way back into it on the first few runs, and generally spent the day on a couple of longish but fairly easy runs that I liked - did a few blue runs to prove to myself that I still could, but found them hard work (especially on the quads). No crashes, which some would suggest indicates that I wasn't trying hard enough.

Back in action - Achilles sore for the first 10 minutes or so but otherwise OK. A loop through Campbell River, starting out through downtown while I was waiting for it to get light (on a morning of low cloud and drizzle where it wasn't completely obvious that it was daylight until at least an hour after sunrise), then on a trail behind the suburbs which I presume, from its consistent gentle gradient and the odd cutting, was a rail trail. Moving reasonably well by this stage, although it was a little annoying that the elevation I spent 3km gaining was all lost in a few hundred metres - like a lot of western North American towns, Campbell River's street grid doesn't pay much attention to the topography. Definitely felt better for having done this.

The morning plan was to go out to Strathcona Provincial Park and do the walk to Lady Falls - the low cloud definitely made it a waterfalls day, not a views day. This fell through because there was snow on the ground out there - not so much a problem with walking itself, but with the trailhead lot uncleared and snowbanks along the roadside, there was nowhere to park. In other circumstances a 120km return trip to that might have been annoying, but I still saw some nice country, and it meant I had enough time to see two very impressive falls on the way back (I thought the Elk River falls would be worth seeing when a sign at the start of the track warned that flows could be up to 40 times normal).

Got the ferry back to Vancouver this afternoon. One thing which caught me by surprise was how many people use the bus to connect with the ferry terminal - which meant standing in the bendy bit of an articulated bus with a full pack. Not the most comfortable trip I've ever done.

C • Elk Falls 2

Noticed coming back into Nanaimo that it was carpeted with election signs, whereas nowhere else had been. Some post-visit googling revealed that there is indeed a by-election coming up here, and an important one at that (with an effective majority of one, the BC government will probably fall if they lose here).

Still feeling tight, and at times very sleepy (maybe not fully adjusted to the timezone) - didn't feel properly awake until after 10, despite having gone to bed at a normal time.

Made my way back across the island today, in better conditions than yesterday (although still with only limited views of the higher peaks). The coasts look even wilder at high tide than they did at low; on the other hand, the rivers have dropped quite significantly. It would also be fair to say that the economic transition from logging to tourism is less well advanced in Port Alberni than it is in Tofino (which is where, I found out via a 'year in review' piece in the local paper, is where Justin Trudeau goes for his summer holidays).

Ended the day in Campbell River, the northernmost end of the populated part of east Vancouver Island (from here it's 250km of forest and not much else to the ferry terminal at Port Hardy). Hoping to get to a couple of waterfalls inland tomorrow morning before heading back to Nanaimo and Vancouver, although from experience so far not a lot of park walking tracks have been opened.

Saw lots of driftwood on the beaches on both the west and east coasts, but nothing more unusual. Perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough.

C • WHat!? 4

The storm was still raging this morning and I thought that doing something in the afternoon would be a more promising option - but I still don't seem to be able to do it after spending a long time in the car. (The plane didn't seem to cause any problems, strangely enough).

I was a little nervous about crossing the island given the conditions, but BC seems to have a detailed and current road reports site, and the relevant road looked OK, so I decided to go for it. (Just as well I wasn't trying to take Highway 1 across to Calgary, which was closed all day because of avalanche risk). The road itself worked out fine, although it was one of those days where you didn't need to go looking for waterfalls - every gully intersecting with the road was a waterfall - and more substantial rivers were seriously pumping. Didn't do many photo stops - I come back the same way tomorrow when conditions will probably be a bit better. The storm broke just before I reached the coast, so I didn't see it at its wildest, but it was still impressive (the log perched on top of a big rock outcrop perhaps the most impressive).

Ended the day in Tofino, an end-of-the-line town which used to be a flashpoint in the battle over logging old-growth forests, but makes most of its money from tourism these days. Was a bit more indulgent at dinner than I usually am (a famed local seafood place), but passed on the $900 bottle of Grange...

C • Calgary Highway 1

Essentially a repeat of the False Creek run from August (I was staying one block away, in an establishment at least twice as good at half the price), except that this time I knew how to get onto the Granville Street bridge the first time. Started quite promisingly but didn't really pick up in the second half as I'd hoped it might, and found the climb over the bridge hard work (fortunately in this context that was the only climb on the run).

I then headed across for a few days on Vancouver Island, getting the ferry across to Nanaimo in the morning and then making my way up to Ross Burnett's place about 80km up the coast, via a few provincial parks (most of which were closed as a result of a big storm a couple of weeks ago). A not-quite-as-big storm was unfolding during the afternoon, although the serious rain didn't really get under way until after dark.

Spent some of the waking time on the flight alternating between reviewing a draft IPCC report and doing some more work on the historical results archive. Was wondering if I'd got the two mixed up when, in the space of a few paragraphs of each other in the former, I came across references to Sinickas et al 2015 and Round et al 2017, to say nothing of quite a few Hogg et als a few pages later on. (In case you're wondering, Alex was writing about avalanches, Vanessa about unstable glaciers and Andy about various things to do with the Southern Ocean).

The actual results I was looking at involved presumably the youngest participant in an elite race in Australia: in the 1980 Australian Relays Kathryn Tarr, who I think was 11, teamed up with her mother and Libby Meeking in Yarra Valley's W21 team. Those of us with experience of M/W12 courses circa 1980 will know that a 21s course wouldn't have come as quite as much of a technical shock to an 11-year-old of that vintage as it would now. (One of these days I must get round to scanning and posting the M12A course from day 1 of Easter 1982, which was 4.5km long and featured controls which I would consider bingo controls even on a hard-navigation course; somehow most of us got round it, and a few even broke the hour).

C • citation 5

The original plan for this run was to head out early in the morning before leaving Melbourne. My back was giving trouble then, but one of the benefits of the date line in this direction is that you get two bites of the cherry for a 1 January run, and I took advantage of the second of them after arriving in Vancouver. This was a straightforward shake-out-the-cobwebs and orientate-myself run along the shoreline and through the West End; slow, but no injury problems except for a little back tightness on the steepest climb. Lots of people out on the shoreline path, as you'd expect on a public holiday on a nice afternoon ('nice' being defined here as 'not precipitating', but in fact it was quite pleasant - weak sunshine and around +4); not concerned at all by the cold were the participants in the Polar Bear Swim, which had recently finished.

The flights were both on time although I didn't get as much sleep as I'd hoped for. Had 5 hours in Los Angeles (an airport which has improved significantly since my last visit, with immigration being particularly painless), and decided I didn't want to spend that long hanging around the airport, so decided to get out of there for a couple of hours to the nearest beach, Manhattan Beach. Not a cheap excursion (taxi was the only option given the time window and that it was 7.30am on a public holiday), but glad I did it. Manhattan Beach is the spiritual home of beach volleyball and there are nets set up for at least a kilometre along the beach, but none were being used on a chilly morning (plenty of people walking or running along the esplanade though). With clear skies most of the way, the flight from LA to Vancouver was scenic, particularly a fairly close pass of Mount Rainier.

(Manhattan Beach would have been a decent place for a run, too, had I had anywhere to stash my gear).

Tofino, my tentatively planned destination for Thursday night, is famed for surfing in summer and storm-watching in winter. Current forecast: about 100mm of rain in 18 hours from 6am to midnight tomorrow, with clearing showers and high winds to follow on Thursday. Should be fun (providing the road's open).