Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A delightfully sunny morning at a time of year when a sunny Sunday is still a blessing, and not a curse as it can be in January - the marathoners must have enjoyed these conditions (as did the cyclists, who were much in evidence). Fairly familiar ground out to the Finns Reserve bridge, but in the reverse direction to what I usually do (which, among other things, meant I spotted a gap in a fence I hadn't seen before). Never felt as if all my body parts were functioning quite as they should, but feeling better on the run than I have on other days this week, flowing quite well at times. A bit of left knee soreness overnight but no sign of it on the run.

The Albert Park branch of the Liberals have declared war on possums - Jenny will be pleased:

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/animals/birth...

I'm not sure how many members the Albert Park Liberals have - when I was living there, they struggled to find people without criminal records to put up as election candidates. (One mischief-making soul circulated a flyer congratulating their 1993 Melbourne Ports candidate on successfully completing her good-behaviour bond).

C • Fence hole 3

Took a bit longer to start than I sometimes do on a Saturday (and paid the price later in the form of queues at the Preston Market). A somewhat ho-hum run but grinding up the hills OK (and there were a few in this one, based on Eaglemont). Some tightness in my left hamstring - normally it's the right one that does this.

A familiar name in the real estate section of today's Age was the surgeon who's done my two operations in Australia (and made a good job of it), for compartment syndrome in 2002 and taking the metalwork out of my elbow (and some other cleaning up) in 2006. Evidently surgery is a more lucrative occupation than climate science because the quoted asking price for his soon-to-be-former property is "more than $7.3 million".

Pool running at Fitzroy. Going along very nicely until I got a really sharp lower leg cramp with a few minutes to go - this happens every now and again in this session. Quite tight in the quads early on, surely not a legacy of the mountains of Montmorency?

It's going to be a rare weekend this weekend; I have no plans to go outside the boundaries of metropolitan Melbourne.

It probably doesn't qualify for the "You know you're an orienteer when" thread since it isn't strictly about orienteering (it would have been had it involved recognising a control site), but it may say something that the biggest thing I noticed on the Gangnam Style video clip was that I recognised three of the locations as being places I'd run in or through on this trip to Seoul a few years ago.

Didn't sleep well last night, for no particular reason. This had a spin-off into the run, where I seemed to be more asleep for most of its first half than I had been through large parts of the night, and feeling as if I was definitely thankful that this one would only be one hour and not two as it will be in a few weeks from now. Started to work into it a bit more in the final third and handled some decently-sized hills in the last 10 minutes without too much trouble.

Always hard to concentrate at work on a big weather day, even if most of the action was in South Australia (and will be in north-eastern NSW, perhaps spilling over into Queensland, tonight and tomorrow morning).

Irony of the day: Japan Tobacco have stopped sourcing plants from the region around Fukushima after testing revealed elevated levels of cesium. Presumably they're worried that the radiation might give people cancer.

Went to street-O at Montmorency tonight, partly because it was close, partly because I had some gear to offload. It's a long time since I've run a street-O here (although I set one a few years ago) - it used to be on the Eastern Series rota but became part of the Northern Series when that split off. It was about 25 degrees cooler than on at least one previous occasion here, but the hills are still there.

Taking it fairly easy, still being in break mode, and feeling a little clogged up, especially early on. Hills decent though, and started to get a bit of flow going later. Most people took a fairly similar route. The main decision was when to get two low-scoring central controls, 1 and 8 - which in turn depended on how confident you were of getting the lot (if you weren't confident, they were best left for the end in case they needed to be dropped). I'd seen that the finish was straightforward and hence that one could afford to be behind the clock with four controls to go and still get in comfortably.

It is council election time in Banyule (and just about everywhere else in Victoria), and various posters and some letterbox-stuffing were in evidence. Those unfamiliar with the machinations of Banyule City Council will be unsurprised to learn that the posters of a candidate who claimed to be '100% independent' are 0% true (OK, so he's not actually a formally endorsed Liberal candidate).

C • Whipstick ward 2

Gradually reacquainting myself with the concept of 'running', although still in small doses. This one felt a bit strange in the internals early on but otherwise pretty routine, not anything to get excited about but not too bad either.

I've previously noted that Palmerville was near the top of the degree-of-difficulty stakes when it comes to the 21 temperature stations on my list which I haven't yet been to, and a news story today has not disabused me of that notion. The story so far is that a gold prospector in the area has disappeared without trace, the station lessee and his wife (both of whom have declined to be interviewed by police), who have a reputation for being, shall we say, unfriendly towards visitors, were seen by three other witnesses in the area with a rifle, and shots were heard. (On the other hand, perhaps there will be a window of opportunity to get there if/when the current occupants are relocated at the pleasure of Her Majesty).

A fairly relaxed swim at the newly-renovated Collingwood after getting off the boat. Water warm as always indoors.

Spent most of the swim pondering the state of the Tasmanian economy (not very good on the evidence seen in the last couple of weeks, the collapse of Gunns being only the most visible example). To at least some extent they're going through the process of disengaging from a traditional working-class economy a couple of decades after the rest of the country did, and without too much obvious yet to replace it. Tourism doesn't seem to be doing that brilliantly at this time of year either - not that some of the businesses do a lot to help themselves, such as the place that wanted a 2-night minimum booking midweek in off-season (Swansea), the one (and not a small B+B either) which had a note up saying that reception was currently unattended but if you hung around for an hour someone might turn up (Strahan), or eating places which purported to serve dinner but closed at 7pm (numerous examples all over the state). If any of the above go broke it will not be the fault of either Julia Gillard or Lara Giddings, not that it will stop the owners saying so.

(Perhaps I'd have been more uplifted if I'd instead been pondering Tasmania's natural beauty; I reacquainted myself with many parts of this, and took in some new ones).

C • In a constructive way... 3