Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

You don't see a lot of mornings like this in Melbourne at any time of year, much less in April (+3 in the city, -3 at Coldstream which is representative of the Yarra Flats). Brilliantly clear and nice for running once you got through the first 15 minutes.

Headed south through Balwyn and Mont Albert as far as Surrey Hills station before returning by a generally more westerly route. Always felt like the engine was functioning OK, although it took half the run for the pace to pick up a bit (early darkness and a reasonably hilly start may have a bit to do with this). Solid through the later stages across the hills of Eaglemont. Again some nuisance-level soreness at the front of my left knee, mostly up hills.

Randomness department: coming back across Canterbury and Balwyn in a general north-westerly direction (which in an area with a regular grid of streets means alternating between north and west), at one intersection I turned right instead of going straight because I didn't feel like waiting for some traffic. This ended up taking me into a pocket I've never been into before - and opened up a spectacular view (especially on a morning like this) over and beyond the northern half of Melbourne from the oval at the back of Fintona school.

One of my work colleagues (who, as it happens, won a W14 Australian championship in a past life) is currently in Mexico, and is reported to have been seen throwing up (she got seasick on a boat trip). I'm sure that if we tipped off a journalist we could turn this into front-page news (and it might mean there's less space for the nonsense that the 'Australian' has been printing on climate change for the last two weeks).

C • mis quote? 4

Thought I might have encountered my first frost of the year this morning but cloud cover kept it somewhat mild in Melbourne (a different story at higher elevations, with state records for April for NSW and Victoria).

First half of the run, down through Eaglemont to Wilsons Reserve, was not unpleasant, but felt a bit awkward pushing on some of the hills. This disappeared in the second half which was pretty nice. Building back towards full training; will be interesting to see how I come up tonight.

Cruised round street-O at Macleod as a training run on a cold night. Untroubled aerobically all of the way and came home nicely. A little soreness at front of left knee at times for no obvious reason.

Route choice was a little more challenging than I expected - given the size of the area used I expected getting all 20 to be a formality but it was actually a reasonably close-run thing (although not at racing speed). Ian Dodd was with me for the first two-thirds; not sure what he did after that as I don't think there was an obvious alternative route from there.

A not-exactly-stellar fartlek session - promising start but didn't go anywhere and felt slow on all the fast bits. Pulled up a bit tighter than I would have liked, too.

Sights of the big city: a busker playing 'Seven Nation Army' on a didgeridoo in Swanston Street.

The person on the counter at Fitzroy pool seemed most perturbed as he told me that the water temperature this morning was only 25.7 degrees. I replied that anyone who was worried about 25.7-degree water probably wouldn't be swimming at Fitzroy on a morning like this in the first place.

Was flailing around for the first couple of laps but settled into my best swimming rhythm for a while in the second half.

C • if the pool temp was 25.7 a... 3

MFR Monday night run from my place with a small contingent - Nicola and Amy. A bit slower than I was really comfortable with but a reasonable recovery session. Made good use of the radar beforehand on a wet evening; it suggested a window between about 7.15 and 7.45 and this turned out to be the case (it started pouring again about a minute before we finished).

Ten years ago this would have been a routine run but I'm a bit mystified as to why I suddenly pulled it out today; after the (muddy and uphill) first 3km I was cruising along at 4.5 minutes per kilometre pace with no discernable difference in effort to the 4.8-5.1 that has been typical for the last few months. I wasn't trying to go faster - it just happened.

The venue was a novelty. I went up to the Wombat Forest, where the Victorian MTBO Championships were happening, (a) because I'd been delegated to present AJ with his athlete-of-the-year award and (b) because it was somewhere different for a long(ish) run. A cold and windy morning (about 4-5 degrees) but stayed dry throughout and quite comfortable while running. Headed essentially west on forest roads from the event centre, emerging into farmland just east of Trentham at the far end. Gently rolling for the most part, with some more solid hillwork from about 6-10km. A headwind for the first half and a tailwind for the second, although it was only really noticeable in the farmland.

It felt smooth but not spectacular, which made the pace more surprising, and there were a few more niggles from the groin on the hills than there have been over the last couple of weeks. Had plenty left at the end which is a good sign for the longer work ahead.

I suspect runs consisting of dirt tracks stretching to the horizon are something I'll see quite a lot of in June and July. Don't expect too much of today's weather in the Kimberley or the Gulf Country, though.

The Wombat Forest hasn't, in general, been used for orienteering since the early 1980s. The bits I saw were runnable enough to be usable, but looked very bland. Probably better for rogaining. Definitely good mountain bike country, despite the mess that the 4WDers and trailbikers have made of some of the tracks.

Not quite the usual 'home' Saturday routine here - I thought it seemed unusual and then realised that Anzac Day hasn't fallen on a Saturday since 1998, at which stage I was still living with my aunt and therefore not spending Saturday morning replenishing food stocks. Not quite the usual Anzac Day routine either, because this year I missed out on a ticket to the football (and what a game to miss out on!).

I was expecting to be awake early because I live pretty close to the local war memorial, but their dawn service didn't seem to be at dawn because the sounds of marching didn't appear until after 7. The run started a bit later than Saturday morning runs sometimes do, and ended up being reasonably routine. Still a bit of a runny nose but nothing worse in the cold department (yet).

Morning swim at Richmond. Arms didn't want to move at first but improved later on. Expected morning rain struggled to materialise.

One upside of the global financial crisis has been the general disappearance of ads promoting investment schemes of varying (mostly high) levels of dodginess, but there's a series of ads now on promoting currency trading - 'make money the way the banks do'! Given the amount of money the world's banks have lost of late (hundreds of billions, if not trillions) this might not be a great time to be running such a line.

Making the transition back towards base training routine - it will be a while (injury permitting) before I have another Thursday under 2 hours.

This was an improvement on yesterday, although still a little below par. Headed up the Yarra Valley, although starting on the streets because it was dark for the first 15 minutes, crossing the river above Westerfolds and then a reasonably hilly route back through Lower Plenty and Viewbank. The long gentle hills were reasonable, the short, sharp ones less so. Distance not an issue.

Sights of the day: (a) a large film shoot happening at the end of Martins Lane in Viewbank (don't know what they're filming, and neither does my work colleague who lives locally); (b) a line of ducks and a lone canoeist on a misty Yarra just up from Westerfolds. Also encountered some very deep dust on a few of the smaller tracks. which will presumably be less dusty by Sunday or thereabouts.

The ridge-valley temperature difference was bigger than usual this morning, probably about 10 degrees between the Yarra valley and the top of the Lower Plenty hill. (The minimum temperatures at Coldstream and Mount Dandenong were 3.2 and 12.7 respectively). Rather smoky from all the burning off.

A pretty disappointing morning; started out enjoying the nice autumn conditions but it was quickly apparent that this run wasn't really going anywhere. Started to pick up in the last 20 minutes but never much good. Continue to feel as if I'm on the margins of a cold, something that used to be a post-Easter tradition for me.

The balloonists put the conditions to good use. There was also a brilliant red sunrise, presumably a product of burning off.

A couple of familiar names have popped up in the newspaper letters columns this week. The Hoggster bravely put his head up over the top of the trench to get stuck into the way the 'Australian' in general (and Saturday's especially egregious edition in particular) covers climate change - you won't be surprised to learn they only printed half of it - while Hania Lada, not for the first time, had her say in the 'Age' on bushfire-related matters.

Still struggling to get used again to alarms that start with a 5.

This won't be the most demanding of weeks but I thought I'd still have a crack at doing something faster today. Started promisingly on a cool morning but didn't have an extra gear today. Fastest loop 9.42. Feel as if I'm in the process of fighting off a cold, which will hopefully not get any worse.

Got to see a couple of local transport initiatives en route - the new orbital SmartBus (promising if it works, although it probably needs to be a bit more frequent to have real impact) and some roadworks on Burgundy Street which look like they might be a long-overdue pedestrian crossing in the shopping centre (probably delayed until now by a lack of squashed pedestrians in the vicinity). It's been a busy week in the transport infrastructure department because two roads that Victorian orienteers will see a fair bit of, the completion of the freeway to Bendigo and the Deer Park bypass, also opened while we were away.

On the way into work, noticed a sign at the Fairfield premises of Doncaster BMW saying they were relocating to Bundoora. I would have thought it would make more sense for Doncaster BMW to relocate to Doncaster, but perhaps my mind's too logical. As I do not anticipate having any need for the services of BMW dealerships any time soon this is only of passing interest.

A slow and rather tedious session at Albert Park after getting off the boat (again a pretty smooth crossing).

Noticed that Devonport was the warmest place in Tasmania on Saturday, and Burnie on Sunday. This doesn't happen terribly often - in fact we get regular correspondence from local, state and federal politicians in that part of the world aggrieved by the alleged Bureau conspiracy to deprive their towns of tourists by understating their summer temperatures, something which has more to do with the fact that northerly winds come straight off Bass Strait at both locations, limiting the potential for high extremes (30+ days are very rare at both, and Low Head, further along the north coast, has never reached 30).

Unsurprisingly after Easter it was a small Monday night crowd from Torgeir's - only James, Hanny, Torgeir and myself. Normally that combination of people would mean a reasonable pace but that wasn't the case tonight, although this was partly through the influence of darkness on off-road running speed. Not exactly pushed, but felt better than I had for most of the day. Also managed to offload quite a bit of the gear that I brought back with me (various bits and pieces for Hanny, some SI equipment for Jim, and a box of Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society stuff that needed to get from Hobart to Melbourne). Just as well they don't ask you 'did you pack your bags yourself' on the boat.

NOL Long at Livelys Bog. In the past I've done well in this fixture, perhaps because my motivation deficit at the end of the Easter week is less than everyone else's motivation deficit at the end of the Easter week. (There are often a lot of DNFs on this day, although not this year - only two across the two elite classes, and one of those was Bruce who for all intents and purposes was a DNS).

My last outing on Livelys Bog was the 1988 APOC relay, an epic last-leg slugfest with Ant Burnett on a hot day which is among the more memorable (if perhaps not the best) of my 1600+ races; he did me in the finish chute and then collapsed immediately after crossing the line. (A few of those I was running against today hadn't been born the last time I was here). In 1988 there had been a recent fire, most of the forest was very open and most of the marshes were yellow. I'd hoped it might be similar this year as there were programme notes about fire but as it turned out it was quite similar to the 2005-model Littlechild Creek, although a bit less steep - lots of bracken and fallen timber and generally pretty physical.

Crashed some dark green on the way to 1 and immediately regretted it (although it probably cost me 30 seconds at worst). Settled after that and didn't miss anything on fine navigation through the first eight. Caught Ryan at 5, which surprised me a little; he seemed to be struggling a bit to hold on but it was still unexpected for him to disappear from sight at 7 (as it turned out he pulled out after hitting his leg). My one significant error followed shortly after, failing to see 9 from a short distance and wasting 90 seconds in the circle as Simon came through, then it settled back into the grind. Tired a bit in the last quarter by which stage I would probably rather have been in a cafe somewhere (Hanny claimed to have reached the same state by halfway but you don't have to believe it). A bit disappointed with 12th, especially as 4th was less than three minutes away (although the gap from 1st to 4th was 19 minutes!).

Had the chance to look at the split times from Easter. An interesting quirk is that on the last three days (the three that are on Splitsbrowser) I had the 8th fastest overall time, but only placed higher than 8th on six out of 56 controls - although this did include a rare split win (especially when Julian is involved!), leg 3 on Saturday (I dropped down and then came back up, which seems to have been a better option than going straight, plus I was working pretty hard to try to get clear of Eoin).

C • Fires 1

Event: SILVA National Orienteering League
 

Urban sprints suit me - as long as the urban area in question is at least 500 years old. This rather limits my options in Australia. The most positive spin I was able to put on today's result was that it is great that we have National League fields of sufficient size to give me the opportunity to come 36th in a domestic race.

This was a race with paired starts and a butterfly loop, starting with a dash across the oval at UTas Launceston to the first control. The draw was kind to me in this respect - I was paired with Jim so it didn't look too embarrassing. Felt in reasonable shape for a sprint but never competitive on speed. Lost 15 seconds by running to 15 when I thought I'd seen 14. Narrowly lost the race with Jim at the end.

Over to St. Helens in the afternoon, giving us the opportunity to inspect their foray into big-city crime - the practice of blowing up ATMs in the hope of extracting their contents has spread to the east coast of Tasmania and there isn't a lot left of the front of the local ANZ. (I would have thought that it was easier and safer doing it the old-fashioned way with a stocking and a sawn-off shotgun). There seemed to be potential for other forms of big-city crime too when we saw that there was a Harley-Davidson show in town, but the Tasmanian gangs (if there are any) declined to use this as a pretext for a bikie shootout.

Fairly easy run from central Hobart, out along the western side of the Derwent as far as Cornelian Bay, back across the top of the Domain including a pretty steep climb up the side. Felt fairly lacklustre on the whole, although better in the second half. A few twinges from time to time, particularly on early downhills.

Swim following the run. Took a couple of laps for my arms to get going but fairly reasonable after that.

Spent today on Bruny Island (including a visit to the lighthouse - number 70). Wouldn't normally run as long as this during a race week but had heard good things about the Labillardiere Peninsula track, both from the Hawthornes and from Jenny, so decided to give it a go. It was nice - the first half along the exposed ocean side with quite a few ups and downs (you can hide a bit in 20-metre contours) and great views, a section round the end which was partly beach and partly traversing small rocks, and then a small track along the bay side for the last 6k, flatter but rougher than the first section - this had some scratchy vegetation and I might have been better wearing long pants. A few photo stops en route, and unsurprisingly encountered some other orienteers (the Brownlies and a couple of other WA people).

The run was fairly smooth on the whole; handled the climbs well and felt better in the final quarter than I did yesterday. Again got the best of the weather with the showers just starting in the last few minutes (whereupon I went to Cape Bruny and got a practical demonstration of the potential impact of site exposure on wind and rainfall measurements).

C • weather stations 4

Waking up to the sound of heavy rain on the roof, I thought this might be a test against the west coast elements. As it turned out I managed to fit a 61-minute run into a 63-minute dry window - it started pouring again 30 seconds after I finished.

Headed out to the Ocean Beach, as I did when I was last here three years ago (that time as support crew for AJ and Alex on the Wildside). This was a shorter run so I only spent a few minutes on the beach itself - the surf was a good deal less wild than I was expecting (the serious storm action was in the northwest).

The run was very enjoyable in the middle but faded away a bit in the last quarter. A little tight.

Spent the rest of the rather wet day crossing Tasmania (even encountered a bit of snow on the way into Butlers Gorge, which becomes number 69 in my list of significant weather stations visited). A better day for waterfalls than for expansive mountain views.

Neglected to mention yesterday a rather unfortunate juxtaposition in the 'Age'. Half of one page was devoted to an ad from the Thai government investment agency about what a wonderful place Thailand was to inves in. Most of the facing page was devoted to a news story suggesting that Thailand might not be such a wonderful place to invest in (or visit) just at the moment.

Spending a couple of days going around the west side of Tasmania. Started the day in Burnie but the pool there wasn't open until 10 (and not much else was open at all - Easter Tuesday is still a holiday in Tasmania, and off the tourist track a lot of businesses are taking the whole week off). I thought this meant I wouldn't get the recovery swim I was hoping for (not being sufficiently brave to take to a west coast beach), but Smithton had a pool which was open. You know it's a country town because when I presented a $20 note for the fee of $5, got asked if I had anything smaller and could only offer two $2 coins, they let me in for $4.

I thought it was a 25-metre pool but was suspicious once I was in that it was a bit longer - thought it was 30 but it turned out to be 33, hence the longer-than-usual distance. Quite a pleasant session (and eased up the calves which were burning walking up the very steep Nut at Stanley).

Groin seems to be fine after four days of racing.

Spent the rest of the day going round the once-controversial Tarkine road, ending up in Strahan. It was interesting but very different to what I was expecting - I thought it would be mountains and wet forests but a lot of it was undulating coastal heath.

C • Tarkine 2

Final day of Easter, unusually with a 'conventional' start draw, which probably suited me, going into the day in 10th but with two within nine seconds, and four within two minutes. Had the acceleration of the Spirit of Tasmania as I started my warm-up but fine once going. Got off to a good start, nailing the first three in vague country where it would have been easy to lose time pinpointing the control (the good visibility helped). Was having to work a bit up the top in the bracken, but then got a second wind on the long downhill stretch through the middle, mostly open forest with a bit of rock - lovely! Julian went through me just before the spectator (8 minutes this time) but I'd gone through Ecmo and Jim at 7 without seeing them. Had a wobble at the vague 16 on the second loop, but otherwise pretty clean, and as strong as I've been on the last day of an Easter for years.

Ended Easter in 9th, which I'd certainly have taken before the start (it's higher than I've been in either Victorian State League race this year, for a start), beating Craig by a single second over four days (two years ago he did me by two). I actually spent the final loop thinking I wasn't going to get Craig because I'd heard on the grapevine he was in the clubhouse with 47 (he started early). A pleasing weekend, even if I could have got a place or two higher with absolutely clean run.

Started a little scrappily, not spiking any of the first four, but only lost about a minute across the four (worst being 30 seconds at 4) and then settled down, undaunted by having Julian (predictably) catch 2 minutes by 2 - made no attempt to stay with him (Peter Sheldon tried and paid for it). Solid through the middle stages on a course that was less physical than I was expecting, and finished off quite strongly, even if Patrick Saile ran away from me over the last two controls. Drifted wide on 16 but got picked up by the gully to the right and didn't lose much.

This was another top-ten result. I was lacking confidence a bit going into this given my lack of long races this year and poor training recently, but held up pretty well. It was a bit shorter than some recent Easter long days have been, and a fairly unimaginative course with little meaningful route choice.

The middle day at Easter and a pleasing day it was. Felt good in the warm-up and this carried on into the course. The first part of the course was in low-visibility eucalypt plantation; started well, then had small misses on 4, a potentially dangerous control in the green, and 5, but only 15 seconds apiece, and then settled into the faster stuff across the paddocks. I'd gone through Eoin (two minutes) at 3, and looked back at 7 and saw a Nomads top. My first thought was 'I would have expected to get a bit more ground on Eoin than that' - and then I realised it wasn't Eoin. Craig had missed 4 badly and I'd gone through him without seeing him. He got back on to me, more or less, and we were close to each other for the rest of the day.

Ended up with a single-digit placing, and only 30 seconds out of the top six; at this stage I'm pleased with that. My fears going into this weekend were that I'd lost a lot of ground over the summer, but on the evidence of today that doesn't seem to be the case. The two hardest days are still ahead, though.

Event: Australian 3-Day Orienteering Championships
 

Easter prologue. Pretty fast and furious with four starting at once, multiple butterfly loops and controls every 100 metres. Also an impressively large field - 81 including the juniors. Ran fairly well but a couple of mistakes, including a 25-seconder at the third-last - which cost me the small matter of 14 places. There were 22 people who finished on the same minute, and it's certainly the only time I've been in a triple dead-heat (with Bruce and Lachlan).

Quite pleased with the way my running was going today, and came up fine afterwards.

Today also saw another example of something that there's been a plague of in recent years, protests over controls too close to each other (29 metres in this case). For once the jury took the decision that the disqualifications of those who went to the wrong control stood.

Dropped into Albert Park for a swim on the way to the boat. One always feels a bit inadequate here (although the biggest guns were in the indoor pool and I went outside). Swim itself was fairly gentle.

The crossing was very smooth (not surprising with winds under 10 knots). Unsurprisingly there were a fair few orienteers on the boat, and quite a bit of orienteering business got done (notably sorting out Sprint Champs courses with Kathy Liley).

Last run before Easter, much of it on the rougher tracks around the Yarra at Studley Park. Still slower than I'd like to be but felt pleasant for the most part, and flowed nicely in the last 10 minutes. Groin a bit better than the last couple of days.

Off on the boat to Tasmania tomorrow. I can't say I'm filled with confidence going into the event given my indifferent form in the lead-up, but we'll have to wait and see how things develop.

C • 'Dear Mr Weather Man' 6

Last longish run before Easter. Quite hilly and with frequent interruptions (the newsletter delivery run). Again most of the body was moving reasonably well - the extreme lethargy that marked the first 10 minutes of just about every run I did in February seems to be a thing of the past. Groin still at nuisance level though.

Didn't time my ride very well this morning - got clobbered by a heavy shower in the last 10 minutes going into work. Surprised it only registered a millimetre (and didn't show up as much on the radar).

Useless trivia department: Diddleum, where we're running on Saturday, was the wettest place in Tasmania on 23 June 1952 with a daily total of 71mm (discovered this in the course of writing an article on the June 1952 floods, previously mentioned in these pages).

Back to Northcote for the first time in a while (thanks to tonight's run location). Not such a bad thing being at an indoor pool on what felt like the first morning of winter. A bit less slow than I have been in recent swimming sessions.

Monday night from the Arthur residence. A big crowd in attendance tonight, including multiple candidates for various JWOCs of the 2020s, although none of them ventured out (except for the one who won't actually put in an appearance until September or October). Also the first dark Monday night run of the year.

A bit shorter than usual tonight, out on the bike path as far as the Children's Farm. My main interest was on how the groin would come up post-race. The answer: not as bad as it was on the Sunday of the SA NOL weekend, but still not brilliant (and it definitely doesn't like turning right suddenly). At present I think this is manageable but it would still be nice if it disappeared (and Easter Monday may be more of a test). Might have been tempted to do another 10 minutes on another night but didn't see the point tonight.

State Series 2 at Spring Gully. An interesting course which made the best of an area with only limited bits of technical terrain (we were using the SW corner of the map), with lots of short stuff in the one detailed gully.

Felt reasonable running, if not quite totally awake at the start (my start was early but not that early - especially with the daylight saving finish). A small mistake at 7 and a more significant one at 15, not seeing the control when I was 10 metres away from it and concluding I'd overshot; cost me about 1.15.

I'm clearly still well below pace. Even with a clean run I would have been, at best, just under 39, five behind Troy and 2-3 behind a big cluster. Some of the others got to run in bunches but it's still a reminder that my form is short of where it was this time last year, even though I'm not feeling as bad running as I did for much of February and March. There isn't a lot of time left to do anything about this. It's good, though, to see sufficient depth of competition to make it a battle to make the top 10 at State Series events.

Groin was OK, although lacking a bit of power on the steeper climbs. Will have to see how it comes up tomorrow; there was a bit of a delayed reaction after the first day in SA.

Second race of the day, a sprint. This used controls from the main event (some of which we'd already been to, some of which we hadn't) and was pretty straightforward technically, with several controls either on tracks or visible from a long way. It turned into a running race. I didn't have a lot of expectation for a running race and wasn't disappointed. Only one 10-second miss on 7, and felt better running than in the morning, but not much of a result.

A pleasant run which became very nice indeed in the last 15 minutes, in cruise mode most of the way. It's a while since I've had a chance for a not-overly-stressed, not-especially-early Saturday morning float around the suburb (and it was nice running weather too). Was worried about the groin before I started but it was OK on the run, especially in the second half.

My research occasionally takes me to historic newspapers, which produces an interesting moment or two. I doubt that a 2009 newspaper would contain a sentence which began "Seven people, including two cripples, were rescued from rising floodwaters in western Sydney last night....". (The flood in question was in 1952). Not quite on the level of 'the cyclone killed five people, 400 sheep and 20 natives' that you occasionally see in late 19th/early 20th century cyclone reports, but still somewhat politically incorrect.

Never got going at all this morning, for no obvious reason apart from being half-asleep, and was flaining around even more than normal. Spent much of the time wondering if the change was going to come through before 9 and therefore keep the minimum temperature out of the record books (it turned out that a dip to 21 around 3 a.m. had spoilt it anyway).

It's as well that I didn't encounter any muggers at lunchtime - had $51K of OA's money to deposit in the bank. At least, being in the form of cheques, it wasn't quite as perilous as it was in my early days as VOA Treasurer, when moving money between the cheque account and term deposits involved carrying several thousand in cash from bank A to bank B - it was only half a block but that half a block was Russell Street, which was then, and I presume still is, Druggie Central. I didn't fancy either encountering one of the ill-intentioned locals, or the police who might have mistaken the money for the proceeds of a deal.

(Russell Street has a long history of such activity; along with another venerable location of illicit substances, Smith Street in Collingwood, it was the scene of Melbourne's first ever bust in 1919. It's also remembered by us at work for the auction of one of its dodgy amusement arcades, attended by numerous prominent local identities - most of whom are now either deceased or incarcerated. As one of my colleagues put it, the bids weren't in millions, they were in kilos).

A bit longer than I'd planned on. Like yesterday, felt quite comfortable in the aerobic sense but muscle still at the annoying-niggle stage; would like it to be in better shape than this. Hopefully a day's rest will help - I've run on it for 8 straight days now.

A nice route, starting out along the Yarra and Gardiner Creek and coming back past the Fairfield Boathouse. Quite a warm morning for this time of year (and became a very warm day for this time of year).

Noticed on the way out to Olympic Park at lunchtime that it was being used for a school (as opposed to inter-school, which is quite common) athletics carnival, complete with scores on the electronic scoreboard. Whichever school it is must have a bit of money, and the scoring system is probably more sophisticated than the one we used for similar gatherings 20-odd years ago. (The carnival scoring team was something of a gathering place for the school nerds - feet may be able to comment on whether this remained the case after my departure. None of us were any good at swimming so there were no distractions on that day, but a few of us were decent distance runners. Fortunately 1500m races take a long time so there wasn't much happening while we were away).

C • Of course 1

Felt reasonably smooth aerobically, but rather slower than usual (early darkness probably contributed to that), and a bit tighter than I have been in most other post-comeback runs. Will await developments.

Spent my ride home last night thinking of a good April Fool's stunt.