Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I wasn't wrong about not expecting to get much sleep last night - the radio session was one of the more interesting I've done, but it went on for two hours when I was expecting perhaps 20 or 30 minutes. I didn't get home until 2.20 a.m. - don't think I've been up that late (without changing time zones) since my 21st. Older readers may recall that I somehow managed to score a win of some consequence the morning after my 21st (the first time I beat Jock), but that was probably because I'd had the foresight to invite all my opposition to the party too.

Definitely wouldn't have welcomed an 8.00 start for a long run (or for that matter trying to run a fast 10km in the rain, which is what I would have been doing had I not been sidelined). Wasn't really in the mood in the morning and the weather was expected to improve during the day, so decided to head out mid-afternoon ahead for a longish ride.

The route was to Whittlesea and back. Felt terrific through a lot of the first half despite the unpromising preparation. Part of the reason why things felt easy in the first half was immediately apparent on turning around - the sort of wind that isn't strong enough to be obvious when it's behind you but is certainly apparent going into it. The second half was pretty hard work for the most part - and facing the prospect of an unbroken 30km into the wind is a bit daunting - but settled into a reasonable rhythm after a few kilometres; it helped that the rain eased off. Got an excellent run with the traffic coming back, not having to stop at a single red light between Whittlesea and Watsonia (and there are a few more lights than there were the last time I was out this way because the city extends several kilometres further now than it did then), but got a bit of a shock when my calf suddenly cramped climbing up the hill into Watsonia. This was sorted out by a brief stop but that was the end of my energy, and I was glad that most of the remaining 7km was downhill.

Definite thumbs up to the Whittlesea road as a training venue - good sealed shoulders all the way except for a couple of bridges. The hard core keep going up the hill to Kinglake but I'm not that committed.

C • 2:20 am 1

A session round what's become the usual Saturday loop. Pushed a bit harder than last time (partly because I was running a bit late) and went a couple of minutes faster (also got a decent run with lights this time on the bits that had lights). Surprised how many people were on the streets at 7-something on a Saturday morning; perhaps everyone has switched to being early-morning people as a result of the heat of the last couple of weeks.

Dropped into the State ALP conference later in the day, and discovered that in the 21st century factional deals are done on smoke-covered terraces rather than in smoke-filled rooms.

As I thought it might, the e-mail 'scandal' referred to in yesterday's entry is snowballing. Someone helpfully put a searchable archive of all the mails on a website somewhere so naturally I did a search on my own name (like half the rest of the world's climate scientists), coming up with only two references, both innocuous to even the most paranoid eyes.

Goggles have put in a regular appearance in swimming reports the last couple of weeks. I got some new ones and they let in water immediately. Thought - must adjust nose strap. Repeat result. It was at this point that I realised I'd put them on upside down. Worked fine when I sorted that one out. The session itself didn't work quite so fine but I'm used to that.

Latest injury update is that I'm hopefully 1-2 weeks away, more or less on track. In one sense it's been as well that I haven't been operating at my normal training level this week; I'm not sure how I would have coped with the hot mornings and the intensity of work this week. I've worked until 11.30 or thereabouts the last two nights to get a report on the heatwave ready in time to be released today (which meant I was none too impressed to be told when I'd finalised it that it had been decided not to put it out until Monday). In Year 12 I would routinely go for two or three weeks at a stretch with 4-5 hours sleep a night if I was lucky; I've never been able to work at that level of intensity since (with the possible exception of the last week before PhD submission), and age must be catching up with me because two nights like that have left me ready to flake out at 9.30 (in fact I was probably ready to flake out from about 2 onwards).

The other sort of work-related news of the day is that somebody has hacked the e-mail system of the Hadley Centre (one of the main climate research institutions) and posted the entire e-mail outboxes of various individuals therein on a Russian FTP site, feeding a climate denialist frenzy of taking lines hopelessly out of context. Not sure how keen I'd be about the contents of my outbox turning up in public (although the worst they'd probably be able to accuse me of is sending orienteering e-mails in working hours). One thing the perpetator(s) may have failed to notice is that the Hadley Centre ultimately falls under the British Ministry of Defence, and I imagine unauthorised entry into MoD computers is the sort of thing that could result in an invitation to spend some quality time enjoying the fine hospitality of Her Majesty. It would be even more fun to imagine that a certain well-known newspaper columnist could be prosecuted for reposting the material concerned on his blog, but I don't think the law goes that far.

I won't be doing as much catching up on sleep as I might have done over the weekend either; I made the mistake of agreeing to do a radio interview 'tomorrow evening' without checking what time it was at. The answer is 11.45 (and it's a studio one rather than a phone one so I'll do well to be home before 1).

C • Rudd v Trewin 17

C • Goggles 1

From near work out to the Maribyrnong at Essendon and back along the river and Footscray Road. Couldn't really get going this morning, even though I slept OK for a 28-degree night. Headwinds early on didn't help; felt a little bit better after turning around.

There is a flood marker on the Maribyrnong with year markings which show that it flooded just about every year - until the mid-1990s.

Looks like the building works blocking most of the last bit of the path into our building from the north are approaching completion. This is the building which is planned to play host to the "venue" which was attracting so much media excitement a couple of weeks ago; seemingly lost in the discussion was the idea that just because a place has a liquor licence it's going to turn into a clone of the worst of King Street. The area could actually use some places to eat in the evening which fit into the gap between fast-food chains and big night out (their absence is something I notice working late on evenings, or when I'm going directly from work to the football) and if the new place fills that gap I won't be too upset by it. Much more concerning in my view is the proposed 1500-capacity nightclub in an industrial area on the other side of the Westgate, not least because there is no nearby public transport and getting to most places from there requires negotiating the Westgate/Lorimer/Montague intersection, a serious challenge even when sober.

Home to work via a rather roundabout route; decided to go east rather than north today, heading out along the Eastern Freeway path as far as Kerrimuir, then south across the eastern suburbs to Mount Waverley and in on Waverley Road and then the Gardiners Creek path. This probably wasn't a great route for a peak-hour morning ride; there aren't a lot of north-south options which means that the ones that do exist carry a lot of traffic, and the one I chose turned out to have pretty narrow lanes too. One small bonus was that on the section I was most dreading (uphill and narrow) a bus stopping behind screened the traffic and I had no problems. Gardiners Creek, though, is a nice run, especially from the Battlestar Galactica onwards (anyone who's driven the Monash will know exactly which building I'm referring to here).

Warmed up slowly but got going pretty well by 40 minutes or so, and certainly happy with the way I was handling the hilly middle section (at least when I wasn't picking my way through lines of traffic). Hamstring a bit sore later on.

Passed someone early on who had obviously been out for a while; they had their rear light on and it was a good 90 minutes after sunrise.

The Carwford report on Australian sports policy came out yesterday and today's media was full of the reaction to it (notably a truly world-class dummy spit by John Coates of the AOC). Hard to know what the implications are for us, although it is certainly more promising than what the leaks suggested of a 15% across-the-board cut and a concentration on larger sports - if that had come to pass our chances of retaining any funding would have been remote. There are quite a lot of positives for us in general - in particular they are very keen on sports with lifetime participation, which fits us very well - but I couldn't find any specific mention of smaller non-Olympic sports (in contrast to the extensive coverage of smaller Olympic sports, and large non-Olympic sports) and worry that we might be squeezed out in the post-report horse-trading. I also suspect that sports infrastructure might be the part of the report that gets the best support from increased funding; it's too much of a political temptation, especially in an election year. Naturally this infrastructure will be evenly distributed between safe and marginal seats.

A little bit shorter than I'd planned on - I don't have the feel of my route lengths as well on the bike as I do on the run, and the Melbourne CBD isn't exactly optimal for doing extra bits at the end. Started in west Hawthorn (where I had something on later in the day), out to Glen Iris and then in on the Gardiners Creek track. A bit slow in the first 20 minutes, most of which was gently uphill, but got going quite nicely after that (certainly a lot easier than yesterday now that I've got the seat sorted out).

I had hoped to pick up some new goggles before swimming today, but they didn't have any the right size at the pool so I had to press on with the old ones - which duly filled up just about every lap. This was annoying as I was feeling pretty strong (by my standards) today but never got the chance to get into any sort of rhythm.

Stat of the day: the Victorian average temperature for November so far exceeds the existing record for December.

Substituted a Monday night ride for the Monday night run, doing an out-and-back on Yarra Boulevard from Warren and Tash's while everyone else was out on the run.

Equipment annoyances were a bit of a theme today - this time it was that my seat post wasn't done up tight enough and started slipping down, which made the hills pretty hard work. Finally decided I'd had enough about two-thirds of the way through and fixed it; amazing how easy the last few hills seemed after that. A rolling course which makes for a solid workout.

C • Code red 4