Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Spit to Manly with Tracy and Paul - one of those iconic Sydney coastal runs which I haven't previously experienced. You do these for the views, definitely not for speed - lots of ups and downs (including a decent number of stairs). Coped OK with the climbing - definitely no back issues today.

There were a few excursions into local history. These included Clontarf Park, scene of the 1868 attempted assassination of Prince Alfred (the criminal justice system was a bit more efficient in those days, because the incident occurred on 12 March and the culprit was hanged on 21 April). Also included was Forty Baskets Beach, which is named for a delivery of fish to a contingent of Sudanese troops stuck at the North Head quarantine station in 1885; presumably they were involved in fighting on our side in what still ranks as one of the more ill-advised adventures that our military has been involved in (it will move down one place in the ranking list if we start bombing Syria), and had to scarper or face the wrath of the Mahdi. (We weren't quite so generous in providing refuge to locals who fought on our side in Iraq and Afghanistan).

We finished up by going past the house of Jeff of the Wiggles. There was no sign that anyone was awake.

C • my local, and favourite run 1

I've got a workshop in Sydney from Monday-Wednesday and decided to do something a bit different, travelling by (non-airborne) public transport. It's the first time for a long time I've got an interstate train in Australia (2007 to Adelaide), and the first time I've done Melbourne-Sydney (have done Melbourne-Yass a few times).

Working backwards from an 8.30 departure meant a 6am start for this, and it wasn't pretty - a bit like the first half of my more ordinary Thursday long runs without the second half. If anything, felt even sleepier in the last couple of kilometres than the first couple. Came across Nicola and her running group ready to start about halfway round, but given my tight timetable couldn't link up with them.

We were reminded that this isn't exactly the Deutsche Bahn when we were 30 minutes behind schedule by the time we got to Seymour (thanks to signal problems around Kilmore), but they must put a fair bit of fat into the timetables because we reached Sydney a few minutes ahead of schedule. Quite a pleasant trip and I'd do it again if the stars lined up appropriately.

Going past it reminded me - what's happened to Gardiners Lookout (where we last were for a NOL race in 2000)? Have we lost access, has it got too overgrown to be usable, or has it just gone out of fashion? If it's the last of these, wonder if it's worth bringing it back for 2017? (With Oceania at Easter in NZ, QB3 will become the "main" Australian 3-Day in 2017). Information from our Wagga correspondents would be welcome. (Also spotted a semi-cleared granite hill with some communications towers on top next to the line between Harden and Yass, which might be worth ACT having a look at?).

Of course, one of the aspects of public transport is exposure to the public. Exhibit (a) was the old man wearing a terry-towelling hat of the sort last sighted on the head of someone chanting "Lillee, Lillee" in the outer of the WACA circa 1982 (I'm pretty sure they'd gone out of fashion by the time the outer had switched to "Hadlee's A Wanker"). Exhibit (b) was the late teens/early 20s couple in the seats behind me where the bloke mentioned something about calling his father for Father's Day and his girlfriend reminded him "remember, you're a father too".

C • Gardiners Lookout 1

Reasonably standard session at the end of a reasonably hard week. Some tightness in the groin area this morning but didn't get in the way of this session (not sure if it would have been a different story had I been trying to run).

Definitely not on the level of yesterday; perhaps I shouldn't have expected it to. Still, it was the first time for a couple of months that I've got out for this much midweek (and the first time for longer that I've done it this early in the morning). A few hills through the middle in North Balwyn and surrounds, and handled those without pain or tightness (if not especially quickly). As with a couple of weekends ago, felt as if I was tiring in the final half-hour but was going somewhat faster then than I had been earlier on (being more awake helps).

A couple of items of political news this morning caused me a certain amount of amusement. One was the revelation in the Australian that two WA businesspeople had paid $20,000 not to have a private dinner with Tony Abbott (the Liberals were trying to get 10 takers but only four signed up, and two of those four said they'd fork out the money but didn't want to come to the dinner). The other was the claim that Labor are running dead in Canning because they don't want a result so bad as to see Tony Abbott given the flick; I must have been imagining the e-mails soliciting donations for the campaign or calling for volunteers to do phone canvassing. (What probably is true is that Labor are concentrating their efforts on the parts of Canning that are going to be split off into a new, more marginal seat before next year's election).

While on the subject of alleged tanking, I would be highly amused if North Melbourne's sneakiness blew up in their faces by virtue of an (unlikely) Sydney loss to Gold Coast. For those who haven't been following, North are planning to rest half their first team this week and it has not gone unnoticed that a loss guarantees that they won't have to go to Adelaide in the first week of the finals - but if Gold Coast do win then they might have to go to Sydney instead....

And, as an indication that other sports do live in a totally different financial world to orienteering, I was reading today of one Gary Hooper, who is in Norwich City's squad but can't get a game at the moment (a planned loan deal to Sheffield Wednesday fell through, allegedly because they turned down a request for a VIP box for family and friends at every match, although he's denied that). His salary: a lazy A$3.5 million per year (not too far short of ten times Orienteering Australia's annual budget).

For the first few minutes I thought this was going to be another grind, but early tightness didn't take long to work out. By 3k this run was settling into a nice rhythm, and by 5k it was clear this was going to be a very good run by recent standards. Continued at a decent level the rest of the way; a bit longer than planned (still learning what's how far from where in the new neighbourhood) but I definitely wasn't complaining today. Not quite sure where that one came from.

This was one of the more frantic days I've had in the office for a while - the first day of a season is often busy but this one was more busy than most. I think my score for the day included, among other things:

- preparing an urgent brief for the Minister on why winter wasn't as cold as everyone thought it was. (In Melbourne it was a massive 0.1 degrees below normal, although that was the first below-normal winter for 26 years).
- several media interviews (a more eclectic range than usual, because our Victorian and Tasmanian state reps are away)
- writing another article on the winter
- putting together a presentation for a workshop in Sydney next week
- drafting some stuff relating to plans for forthcoming WMO statements
- keeping track of various interesting things happening today (Ballarat, with -4.6, was one of a few places which had their coldest September morning on record)
- writing a new bit of code for some updating of the long-term temperature data set

In amongst this, it was good to get out at lunchtime (the run having being rescheduled from the morning because of the need for an early start at work), on a nice sunny lunchtime. Did the 250 on/250 off session at the Tan, not feeling as if I was particularly "on" on the ons (it didn't help that a couple of people who seemed to be cruising were keeping pace with me in those sections), and hints of tightness, but got through it more or less OK. Saw Bruce, who has more excuse to be slow this week than I do, leaving as I was getting back to the finish.

Going to/from the Tan.

Entries have now closed for the Australian Championships week. We're up to 860 for the Long (and the other individual championships are almost as high); off the top of my head I think the only times we've been higher have been when there has been a major international event (WOC or WMOC) in conjunction. In the last decade 700-800 has been more typical when it's been in a southeastern state.

Other news of the day is that the Australian Communications and Media Authority have ruled that Kyle Sandilands calling Barnaby Joyce a "wanker" (among other things) was not in breach of the broadcasting code of practice. This decision was made on the grounds that the statement was true it was ruled to be part of "robust political debate".

C • Entries 5

After the first of what will be quite a few early starts this week (this one to drop Jenny off at the airport), headed into Fitzroy for a loosen-myself-up session (notwithstanding that quite a lot of other people will have required more loosening-up than I did. Predictably fairly slow, although was enjoying myself a bit more than I sometimes do with this session. (Perhaps I was reassured by the knowledge that there is absolutely no chance that anyone in my organisation will be responsible for the biggest communications debacle in the Australian Public Service this month).

A rare winter Monday street-O outing, prompted by the fact that it was more or less on my home turf (starting at Northcote Plaza and taking in the suburbs to the north and east). Reading the "controls" (light pole numbers) takes up a bit of time here but better once I got into a rhythm. Never fast, but did feel like a reasonable recovery run - except that hamstring tightened a bit in the last 10 minutes, so will need to see how it comes up.