Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Morning session at Northcote. Lane a bit more crowded than it normally is but at least most of them in my lane were going at about the same speed. A bit faster than I've typically been doing these of late.

It's been cold here but it's been colder elsewhere; in area-averaged terms, Sunday was the coldest June day on record for NSW (and the coldest in any month since 1984), not reaching double figures in any inland areas except for a few northern border areas east of about Walgett.

Lunchtime session on the Tan. Not too many people out, which may or may not have had something to do with the temperature not having yet reached double figures (although in fact that's pretty nice for running as long as it's not raining, which it didn't do until after lunch). A steady run, continuing what's been a pretty decent few days of training.

The election campaign approaches its conclusion. Tonight was my last session of being one of those annoying people who rings you up in the middle of dinner wanting to talk about policy. Not sure how much of this the other parties do but Labor has been big on this, taking its cues from the Obama campaign (which, at least in its early days, had heaps of volunteers but not much money) who found that having real people talk to voters was a much more effective way of shifting votes than traditional forms of advertising. I've been surprised that people have been mostly friendly (I've only had one abusive person in five sessions), although you do well to have 6-8 meaningful conversations in a two-hour shift.

(I've also learned a few other things, not that they're really that surprising. The lists we work from contain the names of those on the electoral roll at that address, and if an address contains three or more people with different last names, (a) it's probably a student group house and (b) the probability of the landline being disconnected is somewhere north of 90%).