Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

I'm not fit enough at this stage of my preparation to race for five days, something I more or less knew before I came here. Today didn't feel as out-of-my-depth as yesterday did, but the result placewise was worse, in part because it was an easier area (despite the long grass and occasionally dubious mapping) and many of the juniors ran well. (Some, like Josh, have been running well all week). Once again weak uphill; occasionally threatened to get into some sort of rhythm but never sustained it for long. One mistake of significance, a one-minuter looking for a waterhole at 7, and a couple of dubious routes.

The biggest positive to take out of this week is that I seem to be more or less injury-free with both the knee and the Achilles surviving more or less unscathed through a challenging week, which should open the way to step up to more or less full training over the next couple of months - which in turn will hopefully see me performing much better at Easter than I am now. (If I am as far off the pace at Easter as I am now, it will be time to start asking some questions about whether it's time to become a fully-fledged M40, as I will be eligible to be as of tomorrow).

Corridor training at Dumaresq Dam post-event. Very slow but managed to keep my brain more or less together, and only drifted offline once at the end.

This being my last training session of 2010, it marks the time to rule a line under a year which, from the orienteering point of view, has been a frustrating one - both because of injury and because of running bad races on some of the big days (most notably the World Masters Long final). It's also been a rather intense, if often rewarding, year in my day-to-day life; I enjoy the challenge, but it will be nice to (hopefully) be sufficiently on top of things by autumn to be able to leave before 10 on a Friday night without feeling guilty about it. One of the issues with having a not-easily-replicated set of skills is that if the demand for those skills is more than one person can handle, the problem is not easily fixed by throwing more money (i.e. people) at it.

Best race of the year for me, for the second year in a row, was the Australian Middle Distance Championships. Once upon a time I had a reputation for being a weak middle-distance runner (in part because of butchering the middle WOC trial in 1995, after having a blinder in the previous day's long), but as it's evolved into a more technical event (and as I've struggled in the last couple of years to maintain the training load necessary to race well over 100-110 minutes) it probably suits me now at least as much as the long does.

For the best run I'm struggling to choose between two separate long runs in upland areas of Britain: the Cairngorms in July, and Dartmoor in September. Perhaps I'll go for the Cairngorms because I could see more (much of the Dartmoor run was done in mist, although that added a certain something to the atmosphere).

And I noticed, on seeing the Swedish O yearbook yesterday, that SMHI (the Swedish equivalent of the Bureau of Meteorology) had a team in this year's women's Tio-Mila. They came last.

5-days day 4 at Mount Brown, a new tough granite area which was rather wasted on this level of event (although there looks to be plenty more out there) - the Armidale region in general would be well-suited for a major national event, perhaps an Easter, although obviously clubs other than Northern Tablelands would need to be involved. It was technically challenging, though would have been more pleasant in August (or in a drier year) than it was in December, with long grass making its presence felt.

You needed to be strong in the terrain to do anything here and I wasn't. Missed a minute at the first control as I got the feel of what was mapped and what wasn't, which meant Josh caught me immediately (my one contribution to his run was to help him win a split on 2). Reasonable technically after that, though found myself caught on the wrong side of big rock clusters a few times, but the biggest problem was lacking any sort of strength and fluency in the rough stuff, the ground vegetation providing an extra element which wasn't there at Banalasta. Probably lacking a bit of confidence down hills as well, as various juniors demonstrated (Josh at 2, Kurt at 10, Kas at 13). Managed to salvage a bit in the flatter final section. Probably drained a bit by running hard (or attempting thereof) four days in a row, and passed up the post-run training session - something which meant I was there to get a cake in the post-event barrel draw. Will need to find some people to share it with now.

Random clothing observation 1: the Nuggets top is particularly unflattering if you are carrying some excess load as a result of a shortage of training.
Random clothing observation 2: in terrain like this traditional O-pants collect about 5% the number of grass seeds that tights do.

One thing I didn't see on the way out west of Armidale which I recalled from last time a few years ago was a sign for Birkenau. A few old Nazis do appear to have ended up in these parts (judging by the Germanic-sounding names which occasionally popped up as candidates in Gwydir and New England for the Confederate Action Party and similar outfits), but I'm told the property was actually owned by a Holocaust survivor.

C • windfall 2

C • One up for the pyjamas! 4

5-days day 3 at Sawmill Creek east of Armidale - pretty open gully-spur, a bit rougher in the later stages, and not even really any long grass. Enjoyed myself on the whole although pace still well down. An annoying mistake at 14, probably 30-45 seconds (though more on the route choice), and had a bit of trouble pinpointing control features in some of the vaguer areas. Couldn't quite defend a 12-minute start on Jules, or a 3-minute one on Ecmo.

Compass training, using a map with no contours (which in this part of the world removes a lot of the features). Seemed to do a better job of finding termite mounds without contours than I had earlier in the day with them. Fairly casual pace. A pity we're not getting more people to these sessions; there aren't a lot of senior squad people here, the juniors are doing their own thing and several of the seniors who are here have families to worry about.

First foray into the terrain since the Victorian Championships, on the rock (and sometimes long grass) of Banalasta. Didn't feel as hopelessly out of touch physically as I did yesterday, but still well below par for pace, and strength in the hillier parts. A few wobbles, nothing more than 15 seconds or so. No knee issues in the rougher ground, which is encouraging. I'll be better for a week in the terrain here, but am not expecting any miracles in the results yet (although I was a bit further up the list today than I was expecting) - I'm someone who needs to be working hard all the time, otherwise I quickly revert to my natural level (as indicated by coming halfway down the field in the year 7 school cross-country).

Saw quite a bit of Brodie Nankervis today after seeing him between 6 and 7 (I think I'd gone through him and then he'd caught back up). He was faster than me but making more mistakes (not the first time I've had cause to say that of a junior), but I liked that he was prepared to make his own decisions, some of which worked and some of which didn't. We finished pretty close to each other. Josh went through us late in the course; in better form I would have expected to have been somewhere near his 56.

Very wet underfoot in the gullies. We're not used to that in Australia (the Swedes would have felt at home).

Line training on a contour-only map of Banalasta. Navigated reasonably well with only one point of awkwardness, but startng to run out of steam on the hills towards the end.

As mentioned yesterday, I'm running with odd shoes this week after a packing mishap, but it didn't seem to cause me any issues today.

Event: Australian Xmas 5-days
 

Opening sprint of the 5-days. I've got further to go to get back into shape than I thought I did - had absolutely no strength up hills (and not a lot of speed anywhere else) and was blown away. Probably a couple of minutes below par. At the time I last saw the results the only ones who hadn't beaten me, apart from NMFC, were the ones who, at their start time, were stuck by a flooded roadside somewhere east of Warwick. Didn't really miss anything - which makes the time even more embarrassing - although was taken a bit by surpruse by the roughness of the last couple of legs (plenty of long grass, which we'll see more of over the next four days). Didn't feel terribly awake, possibly related to a 4.45 start this morning (flight to Newcastle, drive from there).

Had the novel experience at the finish of being sledged by Tiia Marsh (who's seven) - it has to be said that my performance was eminently worthy of being sledged, so maybe she's a more discerning judge than I suspected.

It looks like the serious rain is going to stay north of here, which is as well because the ground is very wet and it wouldn't take much to start a flood here, too. All the creeks are running very strongly.

At least running this meant I didn't get to see the last session of the cricket. When I was at school I used to run a cricket competition based around calculator-generated random numbers (it evolved into quite a complex affair, with different scoring tables depending on the ratings of the batsman and bowler on a scale from 1 to 20, plus pitch evolution factors). In this competition there was once a match in which a team batting first was bowled out for 89; second time around they got 936 (it was a semi-final so there was no time limit) with someone getting 301 not out from number 6. We'll need a similar miracle to salvage the Ashes from here.

Sprint-O training after the race with three short courses and various staggered or mass starts, in which I was in the intermediate group. First time was as sluggish as the race, but started to get into it a bit more over the last two and getting within some sort of reach of holding my own towards the end (helped by a couple of route choices).

Will be interested to see how things go in the terrain tomorrow; it will be my first time in terrain since the Victorian Championships. An extra challenge will be provided because I've packed shoes from two different pairs; at least, unlike the last time I did this - in the fitting venue of the 1989 Northern Ireland Championships - I have one left and one right. (That said, in 1989 I still won the race, not something which is in much danger of happening here).

University of New England is a decent sprint area, and Julian's training courses made a bit more of it than the event did.

Not the easiest of runs, feeling a bit bloated after yesterday, but ended up not being too bad for a post-long run effort - more energetic than a typical Monday night would be. Had to work pretty hard on the softer parts of the Back Beach track. At its best in the last quarter-hour.

Then spent most of the rest of the day at the cricket, about which the less said the better.

Santa brought my first decent long run since September. It wasn't really looking that way in the first third, though I think some of that was the result of being half-asleep after an earlier start than I would have liked (in the name of logistics later in the day). That sluggish first third got me from Blairgowrie as far as London Bridge, but the run really got going on the next stretch, along the Portsea back beach, and became a reasonably solid session from there (although the climb on soft sand out of Portsea back beach hasn't got any easier) - it's definitely the first time in a while that 1.40 has been a staging post and not inducing thoughts of whether I can get through the next 5/10/20/30 minutes without collapsing in a heap. Had plans of doing the full back beach track, but my Achilles was starting to play up a bit after 40 minutes on the sand, so I bailed out to the streets (whereupon it settled down). Tired at the end, but not in the way I have been at the end of recent long runs.

Did see quite a few other runners out (and very few cars); didn't see any new bikes or cricket bats in use, but then not much of this run was in residential streets. Plenty of room created for feasting through the remainder of the day.

Felt pretty exhausted last night but much better after a decent night's sleep. Headed to Ivanhoe, which was a slightly strange colour (at least to me) because of the angle of the incoming sun. Quite a pleasant session and seemed to pass quickly (not always a given in the pool).

The amount of traffic is down significantly so I could actually get a seat on the 8.05 (a train I normally avoid).

Reasonable if rather sluggish for the first half, out as far as the Studley boathouse bridge (where I saw Nicola on her own run), with no sign of quad trouble. Started to flag on the hills of Kew and hit a really low patch about 90 minutes; picked up a little bit after that and negotiated the final hills better than I thought I might have, but was still in no mood to do an out-and-back up the street to get to 2 hours. Probably not quite ready for the full Wednesday/Thursday combination yet, but perhaps I will be in another two weeks? Pleased at least to see the quads recover (and this is still my longest midweek run of this cycle).

I didn't notice it on the run, but a nasty blister blew up on my little toe afterwards. Hopefully this will settle quickly. It did make walking at lunchtime (in the process of finalising Christmas shopping) somewhat unpleasant.

Wikileaks took a new dimension today, with mention of one Anna Nicole Smith (remember her?). The US ambassador to the Bahamas reported back that "Not since the category four hurricane Betsy hit the island in 1965 has one woman done as much damage in Nassau.'' (If there's one thing the saga has underlined, it's that a lot of American diplomats have quite a way with words; one of these days I must do a search on the database on the name of an acquaintance (father of a school friend) who was American ambassador to various bits of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s/2000s and see if he said anything interesting).

And a couple of would-be muggers (operating not too far away from Shep and JLA if I'm reading it right) should have chosen their victim a bit better:

http://www.police.act.gov.au/media-centre/media-re...

Street-O at Camberwell. Quads were a lot better today (i.e. I could actually walk properly, which was as well with a CBD Christmas shopping expedition at lunchtime), but it was apparent by halfway to the first control that they still weren't fit to be raced on. Turned it into a tempo run rather than a full-on race but it was a bit of a struggle. Also knew from early on that it was going to be a long one, and it was (although it was longer for many others after sub-optimal route choices, which is why I placed somewhat higher than last week). Can't remember a Summer Series as long as that (other than score events).

Will see how I feel in the morning before deciding what to do. It might have been tempting to defer tomorrow's session to Friday but that would cause it to collide with Sunday's session being brought forward to Saturday (partly to give a day's space before the 5-days, partly because Christmas morning is logistically easier for me for a long run than Boxing Day).

Got in the door at midnight after a delayed flight (not as badly delayed as the Jetstar one from Launceston scheduled for 7.30 p.m. which was listed as arriving at 2.35 a.m.), quads still stuffed and a blister in an awkward spot too. Nothing for it but to take some Harden Up - which experience tells me is good for quad tightness - and go for a token attempt at a Tuesday fartlek session. Quads loosened a bit on the run (it's certainly more comfortable to run than to walk), but still couldn't stretch out downhill. Times don't bear mentioning.

Saw a blog post today from someone who'd done a search of Hansard to find out when various terms were first used in Parliament. "greenhouse effect" was first used in 1981, by a Queensland National Senator of all people - and he was even in favour of doing something about it. (OK, so the "something" was building lots of nuclear power stations in Queensland). "endangered species" was first used in 1968, but it was unclear whether this was in reference to flora and fauna, or to the speaker's political opponents.

And the latest data have shifted the odds a bit further in favour of 2010 being the world's hottest year on record. There's a lot more to the globe than northern Europe (or, for that matter, southeast Australia).

I know yesterday had its share of long downhills, but it's still a bit of a worry that something that shouldn't have been too far removed from a normal summer long run has taken as much out of me as, say, an Australian Long Championships. Quads, in particular, were rather the worse for wear (although by no means at post-marathon levels).

This was basically a circuit of Lake Ginninderra. Once upon a time I ran around Lake Ginninderra in 23 minutes - wouldn't happen now...Loosened up sort of okay on a morning with a sharp westerly wind which belonged in September rather than December. Plenty of evidence of the floods of recent weeks (the beaches, never especially attractive, are even less attractive than usual at present).

Historical monument of the run: a vacant building which once housed the Pizza Hut, which was the scene of the 1992 occasion on which the combined resources of the ACT and NSW junior squads successfully ate it out of pizza.

C • Pizza Hut 17

A rather tedious session done mainly in the name of muscle-loosening. Was originally planning to do a water-running session instead, but the cellar has been rearranged and I couldn't find the flotation belt (and wasn't about to wake my parents up at 6.40 to ask what they'd done with it).

Canberra Tour de Mountain. Did this with the intention of it being basically a training run - significantly longer and tougher than anything else done so far in this cycle - and perhaps winding it up in the later stages if feeling good. It took me into some previously unknown territory - I've never run up Mount Taylor from the south, or Isaacs Ridge at all.

The first two-thirds of this were reasonably encouraging - much stronger uphill than I have been. It helps when the biggest climb is early. There were five major climbs, and I'd got four of them out of the way when my quads started to struggle. From there the run was a struggle - walked the steepest bit of the final Isaacs climb (not that I was exactly alone there) and plodded home around the back of Isaacs and Farrer, finding even two-contour hills a bit of a challenge. Still, I got through something that I probably wouldn't have got through last week, and the knee, which hasn't been quite 100% at times this week, pulled up fine. Suspect there'll be quite a bit of stiffness in other places to be worked through in the pool, though....

Up in Canberra until Monday. Did a run in the middle of the day, taking me past landmarks which will be known to many of you (the hole where the Hoggster tree used to be - if reports of its size are to be believed, the volume of material produced by its demise is the largest single reason why Gunns are phasing out native forest logging in Tasmania), and some which aren't (the Hawker oval where I saw 79 runs made with such elegance that for a couple of hours it was possible to imagine their maker a decade hence, at the G on Boxing Day underneath a baggy green). As with my previous Canberra run, another feature of this was seeing water in places where I haven't seen water for a long time. I also expected to see wildlife in unusual places, but it was still a surprise to see a pony grazing next to the bike path between Macquarie and Jamison.

The run was nothing to get wildly excited about, although my hill strength is returning slowly. It will be tested more severely tomorrow.

And the Stating the Bleeding Obvious Award: the sign at the Virgin check-in in Melbourne which says that it's illegal to carry explosive devices on planes. This doesn't appear to be accompanied by any receptacle for getting rid of unwanted bombs.

C • Tiny 1

Pool running at Fitzroy on another nice morning. Came out of the session with quite a few ideas for work, as I sometimes do (for some reason pool running seems to be more productive than swimming for this). Seemed to be working pretty hard today.

The knee has given me no real issues running in the last couple of days but is a little stiff walking today. Will need watching.

In Canberra over the weekend (including Monday).

Had to work pretty hard for this but continuing to feel as if I'm making some progress, getting through the challenging Wed night/Thu morning combination with a bit more of a ramp-up in the distance. Certainly not as dire uphill as at times last week. Half-asleep for the first half-hour but then improved after that. Legs pretty fatigued at the end (and afterwards) - the long descent through Rosanna wasn't quite as relaxed as it can be.

Looks like a job for Constable Frogga:

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/dreadlocked-fugi...

Street-O at Croydon. Drew some positives from this, even if I lost to, among others, an M55 and someone currently undergoing chemo. Definitely an improvement on last week, although that wouldn't be hard.

I was actually in front briefly tonight - for about 30 seconds on the way to the first control, by virtue of being the first person to make their mind up where they were going. That turned out to be just about the last bit of decision-making of the night on what was a pretty unexciting course in a reasonably flat area. It quickly developed into a pack race. I fell off the lead pack after a few controls and settled into a spot about 50 metres behind Ian Davies and a similar distance in front of Rachel Johnson. Held ground there for a while, but was struggling a bit to hold my pace (a similar problem to yesterday). By three-quarters distance it was looking like it was only going to be a matter of time before Rachel caught me; I have beaten Ian from this position before, but tonight wasn't the night. It ended up as a five-way sprint from the second-last control (thanks to a couple of mistakes from people in front); Rachel won it comprehensively and I was at the back. Bruce was about 3 1/2 minutes ahead, Bryan a minute behind that; if I can get two minutes closer I'll be starting to feel as if I'm getting back into some sort of shape.

Minor knee twinges at times but nothing to worry about.

First time back out onto the usual course. Was hoping for something not totally embarrassing and got it (where "not totally embarrassing" is defined as loop times which start with a single-digit number). A bit closer to pre-injury speed than I thought I might have been but still struggling for endurance at high intensity - tired more than I usually do in this session. This may be tested a bit more tomorrow.

A few knee twinges on the later uphill reps. I'm hoping that this is merely a response of muscles being worked for the first time and not a sign of deeper problems; the fact that the soreness disappeared on the warm-down is an encouraging sign in that respect.

Hard to beat a mild sunny morning at Fitzroy (except for the sun glare). Started this well but tailed off a bit in the second half. A little soreness in the left shoulder later on.

MFR Monday night run, the last one of the year, from Kirsten's. A lot of this was on the rough tracks on the east side of the river but even considering this it was pretty slow. Still, running felt a good deal less unpleasant than it has for the last week, so hopefully this is a sign I've turned the corner. I'll have a better idea tomorrow.

We had some extra company this evening (and probably a few more evenings during the summer) in the form of Georgia Whitla, who's over here for the summer doing engineering work experience with ExxonMobil (I won't hold that against her). Also saw Dion for the first time in a while.

I've made a late decision to go to the 5-days and am weighing up logistical options. One of them is flying to Newcastle on the morning of the 27th; is there anyone who might be interested in sharing transport from there?

Longest run since September. With Bruce, starting on the fairly standard east bank of the Yarra, but didn't come back through the Kew hills, mainly because I wasn't particularly confident I would get to two hours if we took on a challenging route home, on a day which was a bit of an improvement on earlier in the week but still one with absolutely no uphill strength. A struggle for much of the second half but didn't get any worse, and ended up with a decent last 15 minutes as the pace picked up a little, which gives me a bit of a note of optimism to finish on.

The east bank of the Yarra was a bit more adventurous than it had been the last time I was there, with parts of the track having become part of the river (either through flooding or landslips). The river had dropped below flood level but was still flowing strongly enough (and was brown enough) to make it obvious that falling in would seriously endanger your health. Also had my first encounter with something which will become a regular feature of this summer, long grass (and seeds thereof).

Encountered plenty of familiar faces en route, including Ilka, Bruce and Louise Fairfax, and Jasmine.

I don't seem to be making an awful lot of progress at the moment. This run was another struggle, although a little bit of the explanation came through its being hillier than some others this week, through Bulleen and the north end of North Balwyn. Was expecting to see the Yarra in flood but it wasn't really in flood by the time I got there. I have been wondering whether I've been trying to shake off an illness this week, although it probably didn't help matters that I got into not-leaving-until-I-get-this-done mode yesterday and didn't end up leaving until after 10.30 (and, not for the first time this week, was in bed within 10 minutes of walking in the door).

C • Food being optional? 2

In the pool this morning at Fitzroy, loosening myself up quite nicely. Felt much better after a decent night's sleep (the drop in humidity probably helped a fair bit too).

First attempt since the summer of 2008/09 to do the Summer Series/long run combination (of sorts - the Summer Series wasn't that fast and this run wasn't that long). Still struggling for form, but not as dire as Tuesday. Felt like it was falling apart a bit around 90 minutes but got a bit of a second wind at the end. Slow, though newsletter delivery had a bit to do with that.

Ended up very tired indeed in the afternoon and evening as lack of sleep caught up with me.

Meteorological news of the day was that major flooding hit Queanbeyan this morning. The rising Queanbeyan River cut the town in two, stranding the bulk of the population on the opposite side of the river to McDonalds and KFC. I trust the SES will do helicopter drops if required.

I challenge people to get to the end of the second paragraph of this without bursting out in laughter:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/12/152465.ht...

C • Fail 3

The principal purpose of this event was to ensure that next week was an improvement. It was my first attempt at anything with any sustained intensity since the comeback started, but it was quickly apparent that the legs didn't really want to move today. I lost a bit more interest with a dud route choice early, and still more with a misplaced control at which I dropped a couple of minutes. Weak and sluggish, if not quite as bad as yesterday.

There was heavy rain in the lead-up to the event, and not-quite-as-heavy rain after it finished, but the run itself took place in a not-so-wet window. Heaps of water underfoot though. Also a bit more 'terrain' than usual for a street-O.

OK, so trying to plunge straight back into things (not just running) at the level of intensity I was at before leaving didn't quite work out. Very weak and sluggish throughout this run; thought it might improve as it got going but that didn't happen. Warm (25) for the early morning, and humid, which didn't help. Did get to check out some Yarra flood debris (there might be a bit more by the weekend if tomorrow's forecast comes off).

Now that the knee no longer seems to be an issue I also did the full bike commute for the first time in several weeks, which took a little getting used to. Harbour Esplanade is still a mess and still worth avoiding.

MFR Monday night from Kew. Didn't expect a lot from this on a humid day after almost falling asleep on the train (which was 20 minutes late - you mean Ted hasn't fixed everything in his first week in the job?). It wasn't great, but certainly better than yesterday - which wouldn't be hard. Wouldn't have wanted to go much further. Much talk en route of cricket and Australia's less-than-sparkling bowling performance; much talk afterwards of Warren's canine-related legal issues with the Boorondara Council (if they're that harsh it's a pity they're not responsible for enforcing dog laws in the vicinity of the Clifton Hill athletics track).

C • The canine issue is... ? 2

A pretty awful run from Aranda after the end of the OA Conference - not surprising after a tough couple of days. Headed around the bottom end of Aranda Hill and through the Black Mountain area, seeing water in places where I can't remember ever having seen water before. At least I didn't have ice to worry about this time.

It was never going to be an especially relaxing trip back, although at least the non-relaxation was for different reasons than the last time I flew Swiss (when the country was swirling with rumours of the airline's imminent collapse - they ended up getting sold to Lufthansa). Got on an earlier Geneva-Zurich flight and it's as well that I did because I don't think I would have made my original connection, but ended up missing my connection in Sydney after that leg was two hours late. (Just to throw European aviation into still more chaos, the Spanish air traffic controllers went out on strike).

Snowing again in Geneva although it seems to be easing off - I tried to cancel the Geneva-Zurich leg and get the train instead but Swiss wouldn't let me.

Assuming I do make it to somewhere in the vicinity of Zurich, it will be tempting to make a rude gesture in the vague general direction of FIFA headquarters. Yesterday's events did remind me somewhat of the old saying in the Labor Party (which I've often found very useful for calming down angry voters at polling booths), "the only person you can ever trust in a ballot is the one who looks you in the eye and says 'I'm not going to vote for you'".

C • Transparency index 2

This was a run I wasn't expecting to happen. I was expecting to be heading to the airport around 5.45 for an early morning flight, but checked the BA website just before leaving the office for the night to get the unwanted news that the Geneva-London flight was cancelled. After some time on the phone we got as far as doing a tentative booking for a flight out of Zurich tonight, but it was this morning before I got confirmation that this had actually happened. I'm glad somebody else is paying for it - I didn't realise that cancelling your flight, refunding the discount fare and then making you rebook at last-minute prices happened on long-haul international routes as well as on the Tigers and Ryanairs of this world. (I'm not yet sure if the 'somebody else' is the Bureau, WMO, the insurance companies of the aforementioned organisations, or BA).

Didn't expect a lot of this run after getting very little sleep (not really the way you want to be heading into a long-haul flight), but it was OK once going. Still icy but not quite as icy as yesterday.

The downside of all of this is that I now get into Sydney Sunday morning rather than Saturday night, which means I won't get a night's sleep pre-OA Conference. (This is assuming I get to the OA Conference, and there are still a few things that could go wrong on that front, starting with a 55-minute connection in Zurich).

The snow stopped yesterday afternoon (final score 31cm, the fourth-largest fall on record here), so this morning was about dealing with the remnants. Snow is generally OK to run on, ice is not, and in the inner city I was searching out snow patches the way an F1 driver on intermediate tyres searches out wet patches on a drying track, but once into the suburbs it became much easier apart from the occasional section of deeper snow. Once again this was slow with the tricky going underfoot. A reasonably solid effort, though, tiring a little in the last 10 minutes as I did on Saturday but otherwise quite OK. Knee again a little iffy in deep snow but OK otherwise.

Apart from the conditions, the most memorable thing about this run was that it crossed an international border, venturing into French territory without medical certification (some would suggest that heading out in the conditions of the last two days warrants certification by another type of health professional). Admittedly the crossing involved a token 100m lap of the old customs post (abandoned since Switzerland joined the Schengen treaty a couple of years ago). Assuming that I'm back to the two-hours-on-Thursday-morning routine by then, I should have opportunities for more extensive cross-border forays in February. It's the first time I've crossed an international border during a run on purpose, although I managed to do it by mistake on the JWOC 1991 training camp (I've also crossed a border which may or may not become an international border at some point in the future, Quebec's, on a run which was otherwise chiefly notable for setting a coldest-run PB at minus 31).

Coming back through the city, I saw a pedestrian end up on his backside, probably because he was paying more attention to his cigarette than the footpath.

Extreme temperature update: on Tuesday morning , where I'd previously mentioned a low of -18.9 at La Chaux-de-Fonds, it reached -31.4 at La Brevine, which is fairly close to (and at a similar elevation to) the WMOC long final area. La Brevine is a famously cold site (it holds the Swiss all-time record of -41); must have very favourable topography. I suspect, but do not know for sure, that this was a November record for Switzerland.

This is what I've been working on for the last two weeks:

http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_release...

The 2010 figure is what will get the headlines (or at least such headlines as are still available after the World Cup announcement - perhaps somebody should have told FIFA about how it reached 50.4 in Doha on 15 July this year). However, I think the very strong recent warming in Africa, parts of Asia and the Arctic is much more significant - the Saharan/Arabian region, East Africa, Central Asia and Greenland/Arctic Canada have all been 0.7 to 0.9 degrees warmer in the last decade than in any previous decade.

I thought from the forecast that this might be an interesting session and it was. 20 centimetres of snow fell overnight, and I woke to news that the airport was closed, the buses weren't running, traffic was expected to be in chaos etc. - just the conditions for a run.

Headed out past the UN complex into the suburbs. It wasn't too bad on the whole once I cleared the slush of the inner city; for the most part the footpaths had been scraped but not salted, and hadn't had enough traffic on them to get wet or slippery. There were only a few places where I spent any significant time running through deep powder. Finished off by swinging across from the UN to Servette, a five-minute run which a talkback caller had claimed, not entirely implausibly, that it had taken him 2 1/2 hours to drive last night.

It wasn't a fast session by any means, and I suspect the novelty would wear off after several months of it, but as a one-off it was a lot of fun. Knee a bit iffy on one of the climbs, but then it was tested more severely today than it has been.

Conditions like this morning's create a bit of a fellowship amongst those who were braving it (including one person who was sensible enough to commute on skis), and many a 'Bonjour' was exchanged. I broke off briefly from the run to join an unsuccessful effort to liberate a van from a snowbank. Later on pedestrian traffic jams were a bit of an issue, as people gave up waiting for the buses and started walking into town.

The snow continued through most of the rest of the day before finally stopping around dusk. Tomorrow could be a bit more challenging, in the inner city at least, if the slush refreezes overnight. If I was leaving tomorrow I'd be pretty apprehensive about getting out, too, but by Friday morning things should be OK.

Having some fun at the moment watching the Europa League game between Young Boys Bern and VfB Stuttgart, live from the Wankdorf (previously mentioned in these pages). On the evidence I've seen it's a lot easier to attack than defend in the snow - I guess defending is challenging when the defenders can't stand up.