Cycling 1:03:00 [3] 25.0 km (2:31 / km)
First time for a couple of years that I've ridden for training (as opposed to commuting). First step was to find a route - the Yarra Boulevard is nearby but until such time as the tack-dropper is caught I'm reluctant to go that way, so had to think of a suitable route without too many traffic interruptions - settled for the Yarra and Koonung Trails out to Bulleen Road, across the river, up to Macleod and La Trobe. Felt pretty good and certainly faster than I go in commuting. Didn't take on what's known in Melbourne cycling circles as the Col de Burgundy, but it's a short sharp climb through Macleod regardless.
I've said in the past that peak-hour traffic behaves more predictably than traffic at other times, and I think you get more drivers of the get-off-the-f***ing-road-you-f***ing-c**t variety on weekends too (I encountered one on the Banksia Street bridge for whom three empty lanes apparently weren't enough).
Proceeded from the ride to a session of walking the streets stuffing letterboxes in the name of democracy, my patch this time being up the very northern end of the electorate in Keon Park. (I'd ventured into one part of the area a couple of times in the past because Jamie had a tutoring job there when he was living with me, but the western section was new to me). Nice afternoon to be out; very warm for the time of year. The Greens vote in Batman drops from the 20s and 30s south of Bell Street to single digits north of it, and the density of 'No Junk Mail' signs drops away to a similar extent. A lot of political letterboxers ignore these because legally political advertising is not junk mail, but I take the view that voters are unlikely to be impressed by this technicality and you have a much better chance of losing a vote than winning one by doing so. (Incidentally, one thing you'll see a lot less of this year, unless you're in a real battleground seat, is direct mail - with the increase in mail charges it now costs $60,000 to do a mailout to an electorate, or $90,000 if you want it delivered in under a week, and most seat campaigns don't have that sort of money to spare).
Saw a sign on the way to Keon Park 'Bring Back Our Buses Baillieu'. I would suggest this campaign has probably been overtaken by events. (It's a while since I've seen a 'Don't Bugger The Bay Bracks' sticker, and even longer since the last sighting of an 'Export Fraser Not Uranium' one).
Hamstring felt like it was fatiguing a bit towards the end of both the ride and the walk but was otherwise OK, so I'll test it out a bit more tomorrow.