Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Back into starting this in daylight (and the last session of its type for a while). Seemed to go OK; shifting to a partially new set of exercises.

At the point the submission deadline expired for the latest IPCC draft I was doing my opening lap of the Fitzroy pool, thinking at the time that it was appropriate that it bears the name of a meteorological pioneer (although the Melbourne suburb is actually named after his brother, a mid-19th century NSW governor). My own work was done yesterday evening but one still feels more relaxed once there's officially no more to be done (at least until you start wading into the pile of all the other things which have accumulated in the interim).

The swim was the first I've done for a while, and felt like I'd forgotten how to do it (to the extent that I've ever known). Hint of a sore throat later in the day; hope this doesn't develop into anything.

And is the Government really going to start running a culture-war campaign against electric cars?

C • Is the Government... 6

Victorian Relays at Mount Lofty - a moderately steep gully-spur area, most of it open but with an area of regrowth we went into on the last few controls.

I was running first in a team with Glen White and Ted - not usually my favoured position but worked OK in this team. Felt a bit more energetic than usual in the warm-up so had a certain level of optimism. As expected I got burnt off pretty early, but then settled into reasonable running form, which continued through most of the rest of the course. Not quite so happy with my navigation - went offline a bit on 4 and 9 (neither costing me much time), then dropped 45 seconds or so on 13 in the low-vis - but it was good to get a bit of rust out. Was in a good scrap with Clare for much of the course; she was starting to get the better of me for speed, but then lost time in the final control-picking section. As a team we were outgunned, and ended up last of the finishing teams on course 1, I think. Fastest leg times were around 30.

Main thing I was pleased with here was that I managed to run pretty much all of it, including some reasonably solid hills - certainly a step up from where I've been for much of the last few months. Not very fast but you've got to start somewhere. Stringing together a few days in a row is also encouraging.

Spotted on the way out of Kyneton was a sign "WE'LL BE FIXING THIS ROAD SOON". There was obviously a certain amount of local scepticism about this as graffitists had amended both signs (by adding quotation marks to the "SOON" on the northbound sign and the letters "ish" to the southbound one), but it does look like the relevant work has been done.

Wouldn't normally go to a Saturday park event but the attraction of an event within walking distance of home (Darebin Parklands) was too much to pass up - it was also about time for me to test out whether I can run three days in a row (this being the second of the plan). Plan was 30-35 minutes.

Not an especially convincing start and found the climb out of the parklands hard going, but not too bad after that, albeit a bit slow. Happy with the route within the parameters I had in mind (Bruce, Mason and Torren all got the 17 controls north of the river inside 45 minutes, which doesn't surprise me). Even got a stroke of luck with the misplaced control, 6 - came across it 100 metres earlier than I was expecting to, which then opened up a route choice option which gave me an extra control.

Having managed to get one run done without any significant back soreness on Wednesday, I managed another one today. I've had far too much experience with this issue to get excited yet, but it's at least vaguely positive to string a couple together. The run itself was pretty similar to Wednesday night - not fast, but reasonably steady. A bit of traffic around, which I guess I couldn't be too surprised by at this time of the morning (but as always the bit on the far side of Darebin Creek was nice).

A good solid session on a day when I was more awake than I sometimes have been in the mornings of late (notwithstanding that it was still semi-dark). Felt a little bit of stiffness in the quads early, but the post-fall bruising I was worried about after last night's fall failed to materialise.

A poll by the Australia Institute today addressed the burning question: Greens are no more or less likely to drink lattes than anyone else (contrary to the impression you may have been given by various media commentators). However, One Nation voters are somewhat over-represented amongst drinkers of spirits.

Left it until the last night of the season, but finally got through a Wednesday night without pain - it was slow but I didn't really care. (Probably the only comparable one was the Tim Dent memorial back in October). My main problem was a good one to have - I badly overestimated my route choice (score event) and ended up being 7 minutes late for C, which I'd entered anticipating that 30 minutes would be a struggle as it had been on recent evenings.. The organisers were happy enough to let me retrospectively upgrade to A :-).

Only mishap (other than not seeing a footpath passage as it got dark) was falling over about 3/4 of the way through - one of those falls which takes at least 10 metres from initial stumble to ending up on the ground. At least I had enough control to end up on the grass and not the concrete. (Shoulder feels a bit bruised; will be interesting to see how it comes up in the morning).

Had a go at heading out, but still pretty weak, and back wasn't great either (which is a bit of a surprise given how little I've done in the last week; it was fine on Sunday for the little I was doing). Hopefully gradually on the improve.

Oops moment of the day went to prominent Sky News identity and ABC obsessive Chris Kenny, who was outraged that an ABC program somewhere talked in light-hearted manner about killing conservatives. It was quickly pointed out that they'd actually said "conservators" and the context was a murder mystery set in an art museum. (Mr. Kenny has been one of the more strident media critics of my work of late, so I'm not too upset to see some metaphorical egg on his face).