Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A milestone - first proper run (well, in as much as something as short as this can be considered a proper run, but at least it was continuous). Had a rather interrupted sleep thanks to the curse of the distant timezone - the middle-of-the-night phone call (one at 1am and one at 4.30am, both from telemarketers, which is bizarre as I wouldn't average one telemarketing call a month on my mobile at home). That didn't seem to get in the way of the run, which went roughly as I expected it to - feeling slight twinges at times but nothing to get in the way too much, and better in the last 10 minutes.

A bit longer than I planned as I went out to the riverside run at Bout-du-Monde, but I'm not totally upset about that. Also spotted something I'll probably see a bit more of next weekend, a plaque commemorating the 1974 Portuguese revolution. (Geneva has a substantial population of Portuguese origin, most of whom have been here since the 1960s/1970s or are descendants of those, and I imagine a fair proportion of the original migrants were fleeing the Salazar dictatorship).

Heading to Oslo for the weekend. I've learned my lesson from last time and am only taking hand luggage (there's a 30-minute connection in Copenhagen), but the incoming flight is showing on time and there are no weather issues of consequence in any of Geneva, Copenhagen or Oslo so I'm reasonably confident that I'll make it (late) tonight as scheduled.

C • Telemarketers 2

Back in the pool this morning after a couple of false starts getting out of the houses (and realising that I'd left things behind). Ended up as a decent session. There's plenty of people in the pool but the lanes are wide enough that they mostly don't get in each other's way, which helps. Another nice day - my Geneva rain-repelling properties are evidently working as well as they have on all my other trips.

A 4 on/1 off session this morning, on a clear morning with temperatures around zero - nice day to be out (at least if you've grown up with Canberra winters). Quite a promising day - only the faintest of twinges, and also felt reasonably good on the running parts, in marked contrast to the last couple of days I've been out. Possibly getting my sleep patterns into a normal enough pattern that I slept until my alarm helped - after drifting off several times while watching the football last night (although I was probably no less awake during that period than most of Barcelona's team).

Staying in a new place means some new routes. Although some of today took me into familiar territory from 2011-12, there were bits I hadn't been into before, featuring a plaque for the former Jonction velodrome and its hosting of the 1906 World Championships. I had thought this was a very drawn-out affair (albeit not so drawn out for its time - the 1900 and 1904 Olympics both spanned several months) because the plaque said it ran from 29 July to 25 August, but it seems 5 August was the correct finishing date.

Speaking of sport in Geneva, Switzerland may have a reputation for stability but it doesn't seem to extend to football: Servette, the main local team, has had 22 changes of coach this century, and 40 in the last 30 years. (They've also been bankrupt twice, and currently play in the second division).

The pool near WMO is closed for maintenance, but that isn't such a bad thing - the other major pool in Geneva (Vernets) is about 15 minutes' walk away from where I'm staying and is a better pool and somewhat less crowded. Was made to feel a bit inadequate by some of the others there, but ended up as a fairly decent session.

Today's leftover referendum poster was one which didn't need much translation, referring to "pillage de la caisse federale". The voters, however, decided that they didn't mind seeing the federal coffers pillaged if the money was going to be spent on roads.

Another session of similar format to yesterday, but along the lakefront this time. Still pretty gloomy when I headed out - sunrise is a bit later than I thought it would be (although we're at the stage of the year when the days start getting longer quite rapidly). Felt better than yesterday but a bit more soreness than yesterday (and a bit more afterwards).

Saw some leftover posters from Switzerland's most recent date with democracy on the weekend, trying to work out what the issues being voted on were (not much doubt what the Socialists thought of a corporate tax reform measure that they described as a "hold-up fiscale"). One of the proposals on the ballot was to make it easier for (hold the excitement) third-generation Swiss residents to get citizenship. The Swiss People's Party, not noted for subtlety in political advertising, had a poster featuring a woman in a niqab, but for once in a Western country in recent years, the voters declined an invitation to vote against Muslims (never mind that virtually none of the beneficiaries will be Muslims) and approved the proposal.

C • but for once 1

Fairly reasonable flight to Geneva via Dubai, the most unusual feature of which was that it was raining (lightly) in Dubai (the back side of this storm had dumped enough snow to give western Iran a somewhat unusual look, although Iran and, even more so, eastern Turkey, have much colder winters than most people think they do). Had a dilemma on the first leg in that my seat wasn't reclining properly, but I had an empty seat next to me, and decided that the extra space was worth it and that asking to move wasn't. Took my time getting to sleep but managed it eventually.

My temporary digs are in a different place this time - right in the core of the old town - a nice spot but a longer commute than I usually have here (probably 30 minutes walk or 15-20 on the bus). The commercial parts of town were as dead as they always are on Sunday, but the parks and cafes had a first-day-of-spring feel to them, with lots of people enjoying the 10-degree sunshine after a fairly dismal couple of months. (There were two separate stretches, one in December and the other in January, of a couple of weeks of near-unbroken freezing fog).

On the first day of arrival I tend to go in waves. As it turned out, the run was definitely done in a trough rather than a peak and felt dismal from a running perspective (almost felt like I was falling asleep on my feet at times). The good news was that there wasn't really a hint of trouble from the 'main' injury, although some other parts of my body were tight (not surprising after the long trip). 3/1 was a step up so this was encouraging.

After the ride I was talking with Jo while being waiting to be picked up, and Lewie (who is still sufficiently excited about having started pre-school that he was wearing his uniform on a Saturday morning) asked us what we were talking about. I thought that explaining how the National Electricity Market works (or more accurately, doesn't work) to a four-year-old was beyond my capabilities.

C • 4 year olds 3

Nice ride from Aranda out to Uriarra Crossing via Coppins, then back to Shep and Jo's place to drop the bike off. Went out early to miss the worst of the heat but still seemed to be towards the later end of the cyclists, who were out in abundance, in numbers ranging from ones and twos to a 30-strong, identically-dressed peloton. Saw Shep and Ian Prosser on the way. Still didn't have the confidence on this bike to let myself go on the downhills, but pretty solid for the rest of it, including the climbing.

This used to be familiar territory but not for a long time - I think the last time I was down at Uriarra Crossing was for a school camp at the old Camp Sturt (which wasn't rebuilt after the 2003 fires). Also not rebuilt after the 2003 fires was the western side of the Stromlo forest, where I spent a lot of time mapping in the early 1990s (before deciding that mapping wasn't really my thing) - this forest had quite low visibility and was a lot of fun. Slightly odd was the appearance of signs for 1-hour parking and a bus stop kilometres from the nearest bus route, opposite the old Bluetts Pines - my guess is that that's where some shops are going to be built and they decided to put the signs up early.

Left Canberra this afternoon, stepping onto the tarmac at almost the precise moment that Canberra reached its equal second highest temperature (41.6). I then went home for more or less long enough to swap summer clothes for winter ones and am now on my way to Geneva for a couple of weeks.

C • Geneva 4