Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Stepped it up a little to 2 on/1 off, getting out before it got too hot and heading into Cook and around the base of Mount Painter. Probably didn't feel quite as good as Wednesday, but managed OK, including a couple of reasonably sharp short climbs.

This run took me past the residence of one of our regular antagonists (whose address I know through his abundant correspondence and FOI applications). I resisted any temptation to moon the premises or throw any eggs at any motor vehicles parked in the vicinity (disappointingly from a stereotyping perspective, none of said vehicles were gas-guzzling 4WDs or bore any redneck bumper stickers).

It was probably appropriate that we were talking about heatwaves this afternoon. (The last speaker, in the spot that nobody wants - unless you had laryngitis for the middle days of the conference like I did in Edinburgh in 2010 - embraced her situation by putting a 'X minutes until weekend' countdown on each of her slides). Lots of exciting climate science work being done at the moment, although a bit less of it will be done soon because three of the main players are about to go on maternity leave. There was also a good session on renewable energy, and the occasional opening of the doors may just possibly have allowed some facts on the subject to have escaped into the wider world, where they have been in severely short supply of late.

C • Nah. 1

Circuit of the lake in the morning. Took a few kilometres to get the feel of the borrowed bike (in particular it's got drop bars which I'm not used to), but once I was comfortable with it this went quite well. Evidence of how much better this bike was than the last one I did this loop on is that I was 11 minutes faster this time round. Starting to feel warm by the end, although nothing compared to what we have to look forward to on the next two days.

Another busy day at the conference, although my main talk is still to come tomorrow.

C • Warm 3

Around the flatter parts of Aranda. Definitely an improvement on Monday - a bit of discomfort but much less than two days ago (and more diffuse, which is interesting), and even managed to handle a couple of small climbs with no noticeable difference. I'm starting to wonder if the different chairs at the conference might be a contributing factor? (in which case I'll be looking for a new one once back in Melbourne).

Another point from yesterday's health talk I didn't mention was that one of the case studies they cited was one which looked at rates of gastro in Gothenburg, classified by the number of consecutive wet or dry days. I presume the "5 or more consecutive dry days" statistics were drawn from a very small sample of events.

C • Chairs 1

Down at CISAC, which had become a 25-metre pool this morning. Didn't feel like a particularly good swim but less slow than I thought it would be (unless their measurement of 25 metres was imprecise, which is entirely possible).

First conference day today: not having to do anything except listen was more relaxed than most recent days. (I'm speaking on each of the next three days, although only Friday's is a full-scale talk - the other two are brief introductions to posters). One slide which grabbed my attention was in the keynote on climate change and health, featuring the potential for climate change to affect the occurrences of various diseases in Europe. High on the list were two which will be of interest to many readers: Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.

First attempt to head out for a couple of weeks (1 on/1 off). Can't say I was terribly happy with the results - I can run (at least on the flat - didn't try anything more ambitious), but it didn't feel a great deal better than it did a couple of weeks ago. Looking increasingly like it will be a slow road back.

I took the opportunity to check out the assembly area for the Victorian Relays at Darebin Parklands to see how it coped with the heavy overnight rain, the answer being well. (I'm controller for these, with Aston Key and Max Dalheim as setters).

Now up in Canberra for a conference for the rest of the week. Any Canberra readers (especially nearby ones) have a bike I could borrow for a couple of sessions later in the week? (Dad's old one is in the cellar, but from past experience it struggles to cope with Black Mountain Peninsula, let alone Black Mountain).

C • What sort... 5

Figuring this would be my last opportunity for such a session for a while, I headed to Northcote as soon as possible after opening time this morning. (I'm certainly hoping that restarting running works out - the logistics of doing anything else whilst away will be fairly challenging). Fairly reasonable as a session if not terribly exciting.

What's becoming a bit of a standard Saturday session before what's also becoming a standard Saturday of crunching numbers. A bit better than last week for the most part. Definitely appreciated having had a proper night's sleep. Hamstring a little sore afterwards, which is a bit of a step back from yesterday.