Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Up in Canberra today. Was hoping to get down to the pool at the end of the work day but not quite enough time to make it there and get back in time for an OA Board meeting. I've now borrowed a bike from Andy so it will get a bit of use over the next couple of days.

Saw the vital statistics today for Sunday's event. They might provide an incentive to be injured for a couple of days longer - 5.7km/460m...

C • Incentive 1

Spent a bit of time today looking at the extreme fire weather conditions of the weekend and previous vaguely comparable events in March. One which came up for the NSW South Coast was 2 March 1985. By coincidence, that day I was in Tathra - staying, I think, in the caravan park that got burnt out yesterday. (On that weekend, most of the fire action was around and east of Canberra). It was also - yes, I've got the records going back that far - the first time I ran further than my age, although definitely not the last....(Must have gone out early - even at 13, I didn't fancy the heat that much).

Back to Fitzroy, after negotiating the route to get there, a more challenging task than usual with the trains and the Grange Road level crossing out (Station Street wasn't as cactus as I thought it might be, but bottlenecks were starting to appear elsewhere, fortunately all in directions I wasn't going in). A decent session once I was actually in the water. Others said the water was cool but I didn't really notice anything unusual.

I was hoping to get the physio all-clear tonight to start running again but she wants me to wait a few more days. Off to Canberra in the morning until Thursday.

Best line I heard today was someone who noted that South Australia has voted for a Marshall who doesn't like batteries. (Reminds me of Gough Whitlam's line about ultra-social conservative union leader Joe de Bruyn - "a Dutchman who hates dykes").

Had a speaking engagement this morning out at Pakenham so decided to take the bike out to test out whether I could ride without any injury issues (answer: basically yes). Wanted to make sure I missed the squall lines so was happy when the first one went through about 10 minutes before I started (still breezy - tail out, head back - but not as bad as it would have been for much of the day). Felt pretty good.

This is unexplored territory for me, although it was a road (out towards Nar Nar Goon) which I wouldn't have been comfortable on in traffic any heavier than 8.45 Sunday; the back roads around here are mostly dirt, Cardinia Shire having to put too many resources into playing catch-up on outer suburban growth to put any into paving rural roads. My turnaround point gave me the chance to put a "face" to a familiar name, Chairo Christian School (they usually had the stand across from us when I was running the Bureau stand at the Gippsland Field Days); their middle-of-nowhere location was presumably chosen because someone had a vision of the Lord on the spot the land was cheap. Did some more exploring of unexplored territory on the way home by going via Cockatoo and the Dandenongs; the only times I can remember going to Emerald were for the Puffing Billy race and Nigel Aylott's funeral, and I hadn't been east of Emerald at all.

Late in the day was a moment which showed that sometimes professional sport isn't all that professional: one of the goal nets became detached, and was fixed by someone lifting up Kostas Barbarouses to the crossbar with a roll of electrical tape (while the crowd sang, to the Bob The Builder tune, "Barbarouses! Can he fix it?").

Was advised not to do anything too strenuous today, either (although ended up doing a reasonable amount of walking). Felt fine and back into things tomorrow.

This also meant I didn't spend time out on the polling booths today, although I did scrutineer (this time for the pre-poll votes, counted in a big warehouse). Unexpectedly strong result for Labor and the pre-polls were particularly good, although that's partly because of the timing - last time was in school/uni holidays so pre-poll voters would have been younger on average as a group than they would be in normal elections.

As noted earlier, got some medical tests done this morning (and got the result I'd hoped for, "nothing much to see - come back in five years"; the fact that I'd done this in the first place was because of a family history, not because I've shown any symptoms myself). Easier than I thought it would be; the most annoying part was that my low resting heart rate kept setting off the alarm (40 is the magic number apparently).

The hamstring seems to be improving steadily. Almost feels like I could have a go at running on it but I think I'll leave it until seeing the physio again on Monday (and I've probably still got some residual dehydration from the last couple of days, which could be an issue if tomorrow is as hot as forecast).

Another session in the water, this time vertically rather than horizontally. Not the most energetic session I've ever had (probably not totally unconnected to being in the midst of 36 hours without eating as a precursor to some tests I'm doing tomorrow, although I've held up better through the day than I thought I might).

There's no good time for a train line meltdown (and for bonus points, the power problems which caused it also caused every level crossing on the line to be stuck down), but today was probably worse than most.

Took to the water this morning after getting the OK yesterday to do so. A slow session but didn't really feel any issues with the hamstring (the slowness may still indicate not generating as much from the leg as usual), and didn't pull up sore afterwards. (Coped better with sitting at work than the last couple of days, as well).

Occasional campaign insights: whatever they might say, someone who refers to the ALP being run by "Marxist ideologues" is probably not a swinging voter, except perhaps between the Liberals and the Australian Conservatives (being able to spell "ideologues" probably rules out One Nation).