Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Couldn't back up for a second day, so instead it was taking to the water - early enough that there weren't a lot of people in the outdoor pool (different story inside where swimming lessons were in full swing). Went OK as these things go, but I'd rather have been running.

Trying to get into the city on a day when both our area's rail lines were out of action was perhaps not my smartest of ideas.

Currently watching an interval-start cross-country ski race from Falun - watching these gives you an indication of where the IOF get some of their ideas from. As I write an Australian early starter got to match Matt Doyle's WOC experience last year of a stretch on whatever their equivalent is of the leader's couch (although I suspect her Australian connections are somewhat distant as her home town is Anchorage). Also seeing quite a few classic Scandi flops on display at the finish line.

Feared that today would be another write-off when I woke up with a stiff back, but it loosened up a bit by the time I headed out and ended up being more or less manageable, even a bit more than that by the last couple of kilometres. Better to have done this than not done this, though tomorrow will be more of a test.

Moved on to my first stint of political doorknocking in this campaign, discovering in the process that the street the Arthurs live on isn't the only one in that pocket with slightly quirky street numbering (it has numbers which go up in intervals of 1 rather than 2 because the railway line is on the other side). In other streets in the area numbers abruptly jump by 6 or 8 in a few spots for no obvious reason. As usual, you do well to have half-a-dozen decent conversations in a couple of hours, but of those we did have, there was a pretty strong consensus in this part of town that (a) climate change is a big problem and (b) Fraser Anning is a national disgrace. The former is slightly challenging ground in these parts, mostly because "stop Adani" makes for a snappier slogan than "let Adani fall over by itself to avoid the risk of a massive compensation payout" (the latter being Labor's de facto policy on the subject).

Speaking of Adani, they rather ludicrously claimed yesterday that mining 10 million tons of coal would produce only 0.04% of Australia's emissions. This is true only if none of the coal which is mined is actually burnt. (If it is burnt, it's more like 6%).

C • Early door knocking 3

Seemed to take longer to get going than usual for this session, but worked out well in the end. Next step is to see how running goes tomorrow - no events planned this weekend but still hoping that things will hold enough to get something done.

It was a day which started in a sense of great optimism, and ended in something very different.

Was getting the car serviced today. Plan A was to run from there before dropping the car off, but that didn't happen, so instead switched to plan B, which was going for a ride afterwards (thus delaying my departure from Fishermans Bend by an hour and avoiding the worst of peak hour). Out and back first through the industrial area and then down the foreshore bike path as far as St. Kilda. Pretty windy, as you'd expect for a coastal ride (more crosswind than anything else) and pretty slow. Got going better towards the end.

One hazard that definitely wasn't in evidence in Yea; people trying to hand out flyers for a strip club to passing cyclists.

Geography fail of the day goes to Michael McCormack (who, in case you have forgotten, is the Deputy Prime Minister), for saying of a plan to relocate jobs in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority out of Canberra that its jobs should be closer to the Basin. I must have been imagining which river the Molonglo ends up flowing into.

Street-O at Templestowe Heights. Went into this cautiously optimistic and was still cautiously optimistic when I warmed up, but that was knocked out of me at the first hint of a hill - obviously can't handle post-work runs yet. From there I decided to stay out there and hope it loosened up, jogging (not very convincingly) the downhill/level sections and walking the hills - probably ended up running about 70-75% of it. It never really did loosen up, so will have to see what it's like tomorrow.

This is a steep area, and the steeper parts of the area had a certain theme to the street names, which included Hotham, Feathertop, Buller, Howitt and Macedon. Didn't see a Buggery.

Early morning pilates. Not totally convinced that I'm improving but the instructor thinks I am (or maybe he's just trying to make me feel good).

Had tentative plans of trying to get out for a lunchtime run, but came up post-morning session with a bit of soreness in my right hamstring, so left it for tomorrow. One of those days where I didn't feel as if I got an awful lot done.

C • One of those days 1

Decided to get out for the day on a public holiday Monday (my original thoughts, once I'd decided I was sufficiently on top of work to be able to actually take the holiday off, were to keep going west after yesterday's event, but by then there was no reasonable accommodation left near the Grampians). Requirements were within a reasonable range of Melbourne, not likely to be ridiculously crowded on a long weekend (like beaches), and not currently on fire or smoked out (which ruled out most of Gippsland).

Settled on a northeast loop, taking in the Kinglake Ranges (first time I've been there since Black Saturday), Yea, Eildon Dam and the lookouts above it, and a side trip up the Rubicon valley - a nice day out and took me into a few areas I haven't previously been into.

I was never going to run today (felt sufficiently tight this morning that I doubt I would have been able to anyway), and instead took to the bike, using this as an opportunity to do a bit more exploring. My chosen starting point was Yea - headed from there on the road towards Highlands. This was a decent ride once off the highway, but the first 3km or so out of town along the highway weren't a lot of fun (with hindsight I probably should have parked at the turnoff and ridden from there) - at least the highway west of town wasn't as busy as it was to the east or south. Some moderate hills on both sides of the Goulburn River crossing, but turned around before the main climb to Highlands (which as the name implies, is a long way up) - felt better coming back.

On a day like this my eyes are open for quirkiness. Inevitably there was someone with lots of signs proclaiming a grievance, which seemed to be against the nearby Rubicon Education Centre (an outdoor ed place) along with just about every federal, state and local government agency imaginable. (My guess is that it's someone upset that what they thought was going to be their solitary mountain retreat is in close proximity to sometimes noisy kids). A political grievance of more distant vintage is hinted at by the property called Nareen (the same name as Malcolm Fraser's farm) with a large Eureka flag flying outside.

And the small town of Buxton seems to be a bit geographically confused: a sign on the takeaway proclaims "voted Melbourne's best burger", and one entering town says "welcome to the Yarra Valley". (The Yarra catchment is about 15km away at its closest point).