Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Woke up to a conga line of gloating conservatives on the ABC radio news - exposure to Hanson, Christensen, Abetz and Abbott in the space of a minute is a bit much to bear. (Perhaps fortunately, I hadn't eaten breakfast yet).

Didn't feel as if I was riding that well, but ended up a reasonable session. A somewhat extended commute, heading out to the Burke Road bridge first before coming back along the Yarra. This is a distance which is perhaps a little long for me to be taking my work backpack, and my back was telling me a bit about it.

Physio still doesn't think I'm quite ready to start running again (maybe this time next week), so it will be the bike and the pool for a bit yet.

C • time to get panniers...? 6

One late night's doable, but back-to-back 11pm+ finishes is tough and I was feeling pretty sleepy this morning. Carried that form into the pool, but ended up as a reasonable session.

I wasn't having a particularly good day to start with and it certainly didn't get better as news from the other side of the Pacific started to come in. I was in a shocked daze for most of the afternoon and so was everyone around me; apart from all the other consequences of the result (and there are many), all of us know numerous people in the US climate community, many of whom will lose their jobs, and a few of whom would be on the unwritten list (headed by Hillary) of those that the new President-elect would like to see in jail.

With the alternative being to go home and sit around feeling miserable, I decided to venture out to Ringwood even though I can't run yet, and venture into the street-O walkers division for the first time in a few years (and hopefully the last for a similar length of time). It's a good format for strategic thought - usually when I do score events at street-O it's simply about the most efficient route to get all 20 controls, but once you know you have no chance of doing that it makes things more interesting. I almost but not quite got it right, dropping a string of five low-scoring controls around the south and east sides of the map and hoping to get all the rest, but ended up with a minute or two too little to go for 13 at the end (I would have been better off dropping 4 instead and picking up two extra points).

Heard someone remarking at one point near 11, reached by a crossing of the rail line, that they were happy to have got across before a train. There was never any risk that they would not; the next train on that line is due in approximately one month. (It's closed for level crossing removal works a couple of stations further up).

Let the office with the words "see you tomorrow, if nuclear war hasn't broken out in the interim". It was that sort of day.

Morning out and back on the Boulevard. Didn't feel especially sprightly, perhaps because I'm putting in some pretty hard yards at the moment - an 11.30pm hook-up last night (and didn't get in the door until close to 11 tonight). It's a bit easier to put in that level of effort when you know how important the thing you're working on is - it will be hitting the world's headlines this time next week (assuming that Donald Trump's election hasn't triggered a nuclear war first).

A somewhat laboured session - didn't feel as if I had that much this morning, and was consequently not as good as last week. Still managed to find something for a bit of a surge at the end.

The ride into work (and home) seemed reasonably tame today.

I'm assuming that at least some of the area we ran on at the 2012 WOC trials has been burnt by the Cessnock fire - can any Newcastle people enlighten us?

C • Cessnock & Port Stephens fires 1

With running still not part of my plans (would have been a nice morning for a long run), I decided to head some distance afield for a ride. My selection criteria were (a) looking for something around 60-70km, preferably without much doubling up (b) bitumen roads (my bike wouldn't cope with too much dirt) (c) not too far from Melbourne (d) not too much traffic (e) enough hills to keep things interesting but not mega-climbs.

I thought west Gippsland might fit this bill from my experience of some years of Gippsland field days. That made me pretty familiar with the country to the north of Warragul and Drouin, so I decided to go south instead, as there was what looked like a pretty good loop from Drouin south to Poowong, a place whose name amuses the small child in all of us, especially small children. (There's soon to be less poo in Poowong - a sign on the way into town announced that South Gippsland Water was in the process of building a new sewerage system - although I'm sure the cows will still produce plenty).

The route was what I expected - rolling hills, more so in the first half than the second, but only one long climb, about 4km from about 26km (and pretty exposed on the top). At its nicest in the kilometres before that, on a quiet back road snaking through the top end of the Lang Lang River valley and the gloriously green hills on either side. (The road's name was Main South Road, but its "main" status is probably at least a century in the past - my guess is that it was the overland route to Korumburra and points beyond in the horse-and-cart days, before the swamps around the northeast side of Westernport were drained). More traffic coming back on a more major road coming back, although everyone outside town left me plenty of room - my only vehicular issue was someone coming out from a side street a few hundred metres from the end who, despite a clear line of sight, good weather and my wearing the bright yellow Norwich top which on a good day is visible from outer space, somehow failed to notice that I was about to cross his path.

This was a good solid ride - tame compared to what some do, but still the longest I've done for a few years. Handled the climbing reasonably well for the most part. Could never really relax on the faster bits because of the crosswinds; whilst trees provided shelter from them much of the time, every now and again you'd get a burst. (The piece on Paul Crake in the Saturday Age magazine was a reminder of what can happen when a strong crosswind gust hits a fast-moving bike). Didn't feel as if I had a great deal left at the end, but I often feel like that at the end of a session regardless of its length.

Ride out on the Koonung Trail to basically the same place as last time plus a loop around the block to avoid doing a U-turn. A false start as I realised what was causing the front wheel vibration (one bit of the tyre wasn't sitting on the rim - surprised I could ride as well as I did with that on Thursday) - nice once that was sorted. A bit later than I'd thought so a few more dog-walkers and the like out, but it worked out fine. Quite a windy morning, but there's more to get in the way of the wind here than there is on the Hay Plains (or on Beach Road), and in any case the headwind bits were also generally the downhill bits.

Something of the end of an era today with the sale of the old family house in Aranda, although my parents won't leave until July so I'll have a few more visits left (it suited the purchasers to rent the house back until early in the new financial year so they can claim anything they want to do to the house in the interim as a tax write-off, or something like that). One of my school friends had been seriously interested but in the end decided to build on a vacant block instead (thanks to Mr. Fluffy, there are a reasonable number of vacant or soon-to-be-vacant lots scattered through most suburbs without having to go to the trouble of demolishing what's there now).

I've been watching the cricket most of the day (whilst working on IOF and OA Conference papers, among other things). One thing's changed this year - I have yet to see a single piece of memorabilia being advertised.

In at Fitzroy. It was a slightly misadventurous morning in general, but that part of it which was in the water was fine. Lots of sun - we're starting to get more hints of approaching summer.