Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Jumped out of the blocks a bit faster than I sometimes do these days. Didn't quite live up to that early promise, but still a nice one across the Darebin bridge and across the river; seem to be in a reasonable patch at the moment. Somewhat unusually for me these days, was slower in the second half than the first, but that probably had something to do with the first half having tailwinds and the second half not.

I was having a casual look around the Swedish election results and noticed that the Gula Party ("yellow party") got one vote in all of Sweden, presumably its candidate's own. This sets something of a benchmark for spectacular electoral failure - the lowest I can remember in Australia (apart from lower-ranked candidates on Senate group tickets) is seven. Three other Swedish parties failed to make double figures. Sadly, Google has failed to enlighten me about what policies (if any) the Gula Party proposed to enact if elected.

C • Gula Partiet 14

What's starting to become a regular Monday morning session. Seem to be making some progress (and seem to be getting better at not getting slack on some of the exercises which you can let yourself get lazy on).

This was followed by a very smooth ride into work, only for the bubble to be burst when I arrived (in the form of a failure of the building security system which means we couldn't get into the bike parking area). At least I didn't have my work clothes in there too - there were quite a few people in bike gear around the office today.

C • Bike gear 3

Northcote in the evening. Feeling as if I was pushing it a bit harder than I have on the last couple of swims, and the clock agrees with that, in a session which had a sense of an evening's work solidly done. Feeling reasonably energetic in general - hopefully it lasts (at least until the morning).

Victorian Long Championships, 2nd M45, 6 minutes behind Fredrik and 2 minutes ahead of Dion (the round-number gaps indicating that we finished together). Not in the top bracket physically - struggled with the hills - but a steady run with almost no navigational issues, perhaps just a slightly suboptimal route on 8, the first long leg on a course with some technical mining early and late and longer legs in the middle. Saw Dion when I was coming into 9 (concluding, correctly, that we were about level at that stage), and Fredrik coming out. He caught the remainder of the gap to me at 10 and ran away from me after that, but then lost time at 12 (by which time Dion was also in sight), and we diced for the remaining short legs to the finish. We're the relay team in two weeks' time, so good to see everyone's in reasonable form.

One of the more challenging car park entries I've encountered - I suspect I wasn't the only person to leave a bit of paint on the post. Just as well I wasn't driving a hire car this week.

Headed out into Yarra Bend after the first front went through. A somewhat interrupted run, partly through encountering Keith halfway through, then through finding a dropped/discarded purse on the ground on the way back through Northcote and deviating to deliver it to the address (a couple of streets away) on the licence therein - not sure whether it was lost or stolen, although the absence of cash makes me suspect the latter. Felt a bit sluggish through most of the run, but no injury issues.

Was planning to do a pool run but got there and discovered I'd left my belt at home, so went for a swim instead. Not the greatest of swims and drifted out of it a bit later on, possibly because my mind was full of writing ideas (my first batch of draft material for IPCC was due tomorrow).

With Melbourne up against Hawthorn at the MCG, there weren't too many Range Rovers to be seen on the streets of the city tonight. (While we're on the subject of stereotypes, I suspect a lot of journalists would have liked the job of the Age reporter who was sent to Hotham to look for Melbourne supporters).

From which song do these lyrics come?

"When gallant Cook from Albion sailed,
To trace wide oceans o'er,
True British courage bore him on,
Til he landed on our shore.
Then here he raised Old England's flag,
The standard of the brave;
"With all her faults we love her still"
"Britannia rules the wave."

C • AAF 5

Starting to get closer to something resembling a proper Thursday long run. A bit stiff in the back in the first 5-10 minutes, but settled pretty well after that. Headed out mostly along Merri Creek, and it was long enough that I was able to get to my favourite section of said creek, the bushy bit on the west side north of Normanby Road. Achilles a little touchy at times in the last 20 minutes, but improved on yesterday (and definitely on last week). Was ready for some needlework on my calves in the evening.

The traffic through the inner north was vile. This is not such a bad thing when running (it's easier to cross stopped traffic than heavy moving traffic), not quite so good on the bike afterwards.

A handwritten sign at one point along the creek said that a tiger snake had been seen in the area. This might have been cause for diversion at 2pm but at 7.30am I thought it would be fine.

First time down to the river since I got back - out through Wilson Reserve into the east end of Ivanhoe. Always nice to be down there even if it meant picking my way across the Heidelberg Road early-morning traffic jam (possibly soon to disappear, at least temporarily). Working fairly hard on the hills and a bit of Achilles soreness later (although not on the scale of last week), but in general reasonably satisfactory as a session.

Got a reminder in the last couple of minutes of the run that I'm definitely back in Australia, in the form of a driver launching into an F-bomb laden tirade against a cyclist. I didn't see what the cyclist had done to upset him (and it's usually a him, although the worst abuse I've been on the end of myself was from a woman), especially as it was a quiet back street.

C • Cyclist 1