Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A street-O based on Mount Waverley which I used as a training run, along with an unexpectedly good field for company - not just Bruce, but also Jim, Bryan and Troy.

Lost the field immediately, partly because of a route choice out of the start but mainly because my camelback, which I was testing for the first time, was leaking and I stopped to empty it on some needy plants (this is probably in technical breach of water restrictions). It wasn't as hot as I'd expected anyway and I coped without it. Settled then into a steady training pace; not the most stellar run I've ever had but solid enough. A bit of knee soreness in the middle.

Unusually for a street event it was a line course (there was also a score option). The 1:20000 map took a bit of getting used to. I thought there might have been some major route choice but there wasn't - not that it's that easy to get major route-choice long legs in the suburbs unless it's hilly or there are big obstacles in play. Made a stupid mistake looking on the wrong side of the road for the last one.

A minibus labelled as the State Government's graffiti clean-up team was evident on the exit from 9 - I'm guessing its occupants are serving community service orders. It wasn't the only evidence of criminality seen today - I counted 14 cars parked by the side of the Eastern Freeway near Doncaster Road, which is a pretty good indicator of where last night's booze bus was.

Identified what seemed like a promising lunch spot on the way to 15, but it wasn't as good as it looked.

Was up in Ararat for the day (nothing to do with orienteering). Only mentioning this because someone else has clearly noted my recommendation of the Vines cafe - I walked in there and arriving at much the same time were Zoe and Tony Radford.

Fairly easy pre-massage run (as opposed to pre-massage swim) from Richmond, including the springy surface of the kilometre of bike track hanging underneath the Monash (if you haven't run it yet, do). A reasonably mundane run. Spotted someone I presume to be a Scotch Year 12 walking the streets in a kilt and frilly socks. As Melburnians will know, Year 12s getting up to mischief have been in the news a bit this week (memo to potential miscreants: it's a lot harder for the Herald-Sun and Today Tonight to find you if you don't put the incriminating evidence on YouTube). We await developments.

Also noted that one of the numerous referendums on the ballot in California in a couple of weeks time (any proposal which gets a certain number of signatures has to be put to the vote) is a proposal to rename the San Francisco sewage treatment works after George W. Bush.

C • Monashi! 1

Session at Richmond at the end of the day, my schedule being somewhat reshuffled because I won't have time to do much tomorrow. Tired at the end of a long week work-wise (if not training-wise) and it showed.

A much better run than the last three days - the change of scene may have helped. Headed out east from Leeton on a dry, cool morning (clear enough that the rising sun was a nuisance at times early on). Flowing nicely in the second half at a higher pace than usual recently for a longish run - there's something which feels particularly pure about running alone along a deserted dirt road stretching to the horizon on an almost endless plain (the next hill of any size to the west would be the Adelaide Hills).

Only saw one bit of blatant water wastage in the irrigation area, an errant spray which spent half its time watering the road and the other half watering an impressively diverse roadside collection of noxious weeds. A bit of a culture shock to see lawn sprinklers though - they haven't seen the legal light of day in Melbourne for more than two years.

An interesting day. My own talk seemed to go down well, and I've learned a lot more from the others present about the complexity of the issues involved in extending an emissions trading scheme to agriculture.

Now back in Melbourne. Noted a sign en route which said that Ned Kelly will hold up the Euroa bank at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday 6 December. It's nice of Ned to give that much notice, although I hope someone remembers to tell the police this time.

C • Compass 3

Did this one from work in the morning as part of the complicated logistics related to heading off in the afternoon - this time for Leeton in southern NSW (am a late stand-in to give a talk on climate change there tomorrow). More energy than yesterday (although also more evidence that I've got a bit of a cold), but still not a great run.

This was essentially a Tan run, except that I went a bit further and went up Walsh Street instead. From the running point of view this has the distinction of being the biggest hill in inner Melbourne; from the point of view of other Melburnians it has a certain infamy, being the site of the murder of two policemen in the late 1980s. (No-one was ever convicted but I think the theory is that some of Melbourne's many now-deceased underworld identities were responsible).

It also goes past Melbourne Girls Grammar, presumably awaiting their 2009 star recruit, and into territory where I did some campaigning for the 'yes' campaign in the republic referendum in 1999. That didn't get off to a good start when the first letterbox I stuffed had a label 'Sir (name) and Lady (name)' , but as it turned out inner-city areas of all political colours were fertile ground for the 'yes' vote, which declined pretty uniformly with distance from all major city GPOs. (I once saw a strikingly similar map in Norway showing the distribution of the 'yes' vote in their referendum over whether to join the EU).

A very ordinary run - felt semi-asleep and very lethargic for most of it. Improved a bit later on but never good. Working through a bit of a bad patch at the moment - although my only half-decent runs in the last six days have been the two races. Probably a mixture today of post-season letdown and perhaps not being as well as I'd like.

Normally I'd be going fast on a Tuesday morning, but I'm glad I wasn't trying to today.

Had the requisite obnoxious driver of the day on the way into work this morning, but this one had a very appropriate number plate - WNK-111. Not too difficult to play the word association game with that starting point...

A rather lethargic session after a big weekend. It was also a big weekend for the host venue, Fitzroy, which marked its 100th anniversary as a swimming pool on Sunday (if I recall correctly public swimming had barely been legalised in 1908 - or was that only in the ocean?).

Something from yesterday I neglected to mention was a near-miss of a truly historic event: Henry Post almost got what I presume would have been the first badge credit of his career. He did 98 and for a fair while the leading time was 50, but Hugh Moore did a 44 to put him outside the 100% cutoff.

Mad Monday this wasn't. It was supposed to be the MFR Monday night from my place but everyone else was obviously too exhausted from the weekend to make the trek out to Heidelberg, so it was just James Allston and myself on the Banyule flats. A reasonable but not sparkling run at a slightly faster pace than we usually do on a Monday night.

Orienteers (at least in this part of the world) don't normally replicate footballers, so I am not expecting to hear reports of any (male) members of our fraternity being spotted in Federation Square at 5 tomorrow morning wearing a dress and brandishing a "sex toy".

C • are you sure.... 1