Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

WMOC 2010 attendees may be interested to know that it was -18.9 in La Chaux-de-Fonds this morning.

First fast session of the comeback, once again with company (of a sort who's a little slower than me around the Tan but a little faster on sprints, as I was to find out). Did a set of 10 1 min fast/1 min jog through the middle of this. Lacking a bit of sharpness as would be expected, but not bad for a first time.

It dropped to -9 this morning (although, as with Saturday, I don't think it was quite that cold in the city centre), but it dried out enough yesterday for ice not to be a major problem. Tomorrow could be challenging though, with 20-30 centimetres of snow forecast overnight and in the morning.

A reasonably good run along the south side of the lake, a bit less slow than those of last week (despite having to deal with occasional icy bits). Knee a bit sensitive early but no further dramas. Started out a nice morning, but got caught later on in a heavy (and wet) snow shower which wasn't a great deal of fun.

An enjoyable weekend in the Swiss mountains, with only one disappointment - although the cloud was high enough for the Jungfrau and Eiger to be visible from the base, there was just enough cloud spilling through the gap in the range from the south to mask Jungfraujoch, which was a pity after going to the trouble of going up there. Otherwise a great weekend.

Conditions on top of Jungfraujoch: -17, 40 km/h winds. These are almost identical conditions to those in which I ran in Winnipeg on Christmas morning 1989. I must have been a bit more crazy in those days. (I did actually put long sleeves on for that one).

It snowed quite a bit in Geneva over the weekend, which may make things interesting for training this week.

A longer run before heading up to the mountains for the weekend. Two loops, the second of which was done with the colleague I missed yesterday. Started off around the UN complex, then essentially a reverse of Tuesday's run out to the Arve river, although part of it wasn't accessible because a gate was locked. Not a bad run, although tired somewhat in the last 10 minutes; no issues with the knee.

It was supposedly -6.4 this morning, enough for me to get out the long sleeves, but it didn't seem that cold in the city - I think the urban heat island was in full swing. If we go up the Jungfrau tomorrow (which we will if the weather is good) the cold-weather gear will be more severely tested - the forecast for there is minus 24 (although at least there's not expected to be much wind).

A shorter run based on central Geneva. The original plan was to meet up with a work colleague who's over here for something else, but he wasn't at the appointed meeting spot, so after going round the block three times I kept going. (I thought he might have overindulged at his conference dinner last night, but it turned out his phone alarm had reset itself to Australian time).

There was no snow where I was staying, but seeing quite a lot of it on some cars driving into town suggested that it wasn't too far away, and so it proved - climbing 20 metres in the old town was enough to put me above the snowline. There weren't huge amounts, and nothing on the road (just on grass, parked cars and similar purposes), but still more than I've seen for a while. Quite a reasonable run again with no injury issues; this is starting to get encouraging, although the 90 minutes I'm planning for tomorrow will be a sterner test.

I then went to work to discover that a journalist who I've worked with extensively over the years has gone public with exactly how the Australian deals with climate change (http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/11/the_austra...). You can reasonably assume that what's been reported has a ring of truth. If any of the actual or threatened lawsuits actually get as far as a courtroom (unlikely in my view) I suspect I'll probably find myself in the witness box at some point, not least because on occasions she would send me copies of what she'd filed and a comparison with what actually got printed has the potential to be relevant. A court case over the Australian's coverage of climate science is an appealing prospect in some ways, although those who have to pay the legal bills may not feel quite the same way.

And some results I got today mean I'll have something of a bombshell to drop myself next Thursday. Watch this space...

Headed for the hills on the south side of Lake Geneva, home to some vastly expensive real estate. Often this makes for nice running country but not always so here, with stretches next to too-congested main roads (I've learned quickly that Geneva's peak hour traffic can be ugly). A solid climb up onto the Cologny ridge which I handled reasonably well, then some nice stretches up on top, especially in the quiet lanes round the back of the (probably extremely posh) Golf Club de Geneve. Tired a little in the last few minutes on what was my longest run for several weeks, but no injury issues (other than a bit of Achilles tightness early) and generally reasonably happy with this.

Noticeably colder this morning, although not enough to prompt me to drag out the long sleeves of the gloves. It's trying hard to snow tonight but isn't quite managing it (yet).

Took to the water after work; Swiss pools don't seem to like early mornings. (I think in future I might try lunchtime). Felt like I was struggling a bit, and somewhat uncomfortable with the crowds at the end; the lane designations changed in mid-swim but I don't think some got the message that the fast lane was now the slow lane, and I don't think they appreciated the rest of us getting in their way.

Thorny diplomatic question of the day: when you want to include, in an official UN agency document, a reference to interesting weather in two east Asian countries which have been in the news a bit lately, what do you call them? I'm hoping the 'Korean Peninsula' will be acceptable. If I have to refer to the region as 'the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea' I might decide the flood wasn't really that significant after all.

C • Diplomatic Question 1

Took up Eoin's suggestion and headed south for the Arve river, although Bout-du-Monde was about as far south as I got; will be a nice launching pad for longer runs. It became a bit adventurous at one stage on a small riverside track similar to the one at Studley Park east of the boathouse (especially as it was still semi-dark), but in the end that track hit a dead-end. There was then a solid climb back out of the valley which I felt stronger on than on previous runs in the last week. It was trying hard to snow, but couldn't quite manage it.

The referendum I mentioned yesterday is being sponsored by the Swiss People's Party, whose previous formline includes a campaign poster featuring several white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag. Their opponents aren't taking it lying down though - I saw a poster today with a (white) sheep and the words 'Sheep vote Swiss People's Party'. There's another proposal up to harmonise tax rates for wealthy people between cantons - since this one's being pushed by the Social Democrats I think one can assume that the intended direction of harmonisation is upwards.

Felt considerably more lively than I have in other runs in the last week, although pace was still down a little early on; possibly the Garmin isn't fully picking up distances in the more heavily built-up areas? A pretty solid effort, at least by recent standards (I wouldn't exactly have been getting excited about a run like this two months ago), and knee continuing to hold up reasonably well.

Bits of practical suburban exploration: I found the local swimming pool, and while I didn't find the laundromat I was looking for, I did find two others which were closer and had longer hours.

It's also not only in Victoria that this weekend's election day: this weekend is set down for one of Switzerland's periodic clusters of referenda, with a corresponding abundance of posters. One of the polls is over the question of extending weekday shop closing hours to 8 (supported by the Liberals, opposed by the unions and the Greens). Another potentially more explosive one is to automatically deport any 'foreigner' convicted of crimes, which sounds nice in theory until you realise that, as with a lot of European countries, it is very hard to become a Swiss citizen and many of these 'foreigners' have been there for decades. (Not that Australia has a lot to boast about in this department, remembering the case a few years back of the person who was deported to Sweden, where he'd last lived at the age of five weeks - Max Walter had better watch out if he gets up to mischief in his later life).

Didn't last quite as long as I'd hoped for last night - was in bed by 9 - but slept until a normal time so it looks like I've got on top of the time difference.

A lot of this run was about orientating myself in Geneva (starting out by running to the offices of the World Meteorological Organization so I know how long it's going to take me to walk there tomorrow). Unfortunately the green space on the map out there was either botanical gardens which didn't open until 9.30, or the UN grounds which don't seen to be open to the general public, but the streets around there are still quite pleasant on a Sunday morning. I then dropped down to the lake and did a southern loop through the old town, before discovering the small red-light district on the way back (it's the first time I can recall being approached by a sex worker in the middle of a run; will cross that street off my list for future reference). Quite a pleasant morning for it - partly cloudy, still and about 4 degrees, and quite comfortable in shorts and running top. May need a bit more gear by the end of the week...

Felt better running than on Friday (that wouldn't be hard), although still a bit sluggish, especially uphill. Pleased with how the knee handled the longest run so far - no sign of it starting to misbehave at 35 minutes as was common before the layoff.

Not a lot happens in Geneva on a Sunday, so I went up to Lausanne to see the Olympic Museum and wander around the town centre (probably breaking various WOC 2012 embargoes in the process, but the chances of my being in the WOC 2012 sprint are on the low side of non-existent).

C • Le Bout-du-monde 2

A travel day, eventually making it to Geneva at around 6 p.m. local time. This was a somewhat unusually timed flight and route for me, which meant a daylight crossing of Asia - which in turn meant there was plenty to see, especially in the starkly rugged lands of central and western China. Even out there, the signs of new infrastructure being built are everywhere.

C • Which airline? 4

As a run this was pretty awful - felt weak and sluggish throughout, a reminder that the early stages of a comeback are not always terribly easy. The important thing, though, was that the knee held up fine - probably the best it's felt since I started doing anything on it again. Hopefully spending a day on a plane isn't going to be a significant negative for it.

I've done reasonably at whittling down the items on my to-do list before leaving, although haven't advanced quite as far with work as I'd hoped. This should be an interesting couple of weeks coming up - certainly won't need to worry about overheating...

(If I wasn't in the early stages of a comeback, I'd have been thinking seriously about trying to get out to the French World Cup area next weekend, but it looks like it will probably be under snow by then in any case).

The comeback started at Thursday night street-O. All other things being equal I'd probably have picked a flatter venue than Greensborough, but the course-setter was kinder to us than she could have been. The main objective tonight was to get through without hurting too much, and this mission was accomplished - didn't feel quite right at times but no pain and no instability. I feel this gives me a platform I can work from, especially when I'm no longer fighting off a cold as I have been this week (flying around the world probably isn't going to work wonders for that). Thought early on I'd committed myself to a bad route but I think it was OK in the end.

I ran down a grade tonight because I didn't want to go beyond 40 minutes on my first run. My reasons for doing so seemed fairly trivial when I noticed that one of the regulars (who I won't name because I'm not sure how public it is) was doing power-walkers tonight, and on asking why (expecting an injury of some description) got a matter-of-fact response 'I've got cancer - start chemo tomorrow'.

Hopefully the last one of these; still not quite right but close enough to it that I feel as if it's time to take the plunge and start running properly, which means I'll be putting in a (slow) appearance at Greensborough tomorrow night. Feel as if I'm fighting off a bit of a cold. This was a lunchtime session from work, getting a look at the Harbour Esplanade construction site that is making more of a nuisance of itself this week than it already was, as well as the remnants of the observation wheel (aka the White Elephant).

Next week looks like it could be quite hot, but that won't be of any direct concern because I'm heading for Geneva on Friday night (forecast for next Thursday: 2 with snow showers).

C • White Elephant 3

Swim at Fitzroy. Promising start but ended up drifting away a little bit; a bit hard to keep track of what was happening when because the clock was running backwards for reasons unknown. Knee a little stiff.

At least I can now rest reassured in the knowledge that the northeastern suburbs underpants bandit has been brought to justice - a man was arrested today and allegedly found to be in possession of 10 garbage bags of allegedy stolen underwear (the police declined to comment on whether it was men's or women's). He'll be paying a visit to Heidelberg Magistrates' in the not-too-distant future. As far as I know I haven't been a casualty.

And the result of a poll in Texas on whether humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time: 30% yes, 41% no, 29% don't know.

C • Humans and Dinosaurs 4

Sort of tagging along the MFR Monday night run from Simon's. 4 mins on/1 off. A fairly similar run to the last two - still pretty sluggish as I sort of expect coming back from injuries. Also a little sore early on but that improved significantly by halfway.

Again 3 on/1 off. Once again a run which was indifferent as a run, but the knee was in a reasonable shape, just feeling a little odd briefly at one point late. Started from the Ivanhoe pool and thought about going via Darebin Parklands but didn't think I'd be able to get across the creek after the rain of the last 36 hours or so.

If this had been a more significant run I might have entered it somewhat fired up after watching the soccer in the morning. I adopted Norwich City as a team when I was over in England in 1989 but I'd only previously seen them twice (once in person, once in TV) - they've spent most of the last 15 years in lower divisions which don't get a lot of coverage. This morning was the first time I've seen them score a goal. It was certainly an eventful match - six goals (three apiece) including a penalty against, the Norwich captain getting sent off, and the Norwich manager getting sent off. Can't imagine the referee would be too popular in those parts at the moment. (The penalty was there, the red card probably wasn't, and I don't know what the manager said).

Followed the run with a pool running session at Ivanhoe, struggling a bit for space as the session went on, being squeezed on one side by the aqua aerobics and on the other side by the enthusiastically-bombing ten-year-old older brothers of the five-year-olds having swimming lessons (the waves they generated would have been sufficient to power the City of Banyule). Managed not to get landed upon and felt fairly reasonable.

Event: Meeting Orientamento Venezia
 

In a surprisingly good mood after another dismal night's sleep (this time because of railway maintenance work, a more frequent occurrence this year than it has been in the past), finding the window of light drizzle between heavier periods of rain. Stepping it up again a bit with 3 min on/1 off. Knee slightly worse than Thursday but not enough to cause any real alarm.

The state election is now only two weeks away and aspirants are out and about. After running section number 4 I encountered the Labor candidate for Ivanhoe (whose views of the vibes are similar to mine - little enthusiasm but little hostility either); after section number 5 I encountered the Liberal candidate (and distracted him from an approaching shopper who might have actually been convinced to vote for him). The Liberal candidate is a fitness instructor by trade and certainly looks like an enthusiastic user of gym equipment (or perhaps an enthusiastic user of 'nutritional supplements').

Swim at MSAC after dropping my car off for a service. Felt generally rather sluggish.

I'm currently researching a piece I'm writing on the northern Tasmanian floods of April 1929 (with some help from Kirsten in determining which bits of Launceston go under when the Tamar's 4-6 metres above its normal level). As usual I've had some fun going through the papers, including the discovery that hooning was a problem in Adelaide 81 years ago (someone appeared in court on a charge of riding a motorbike down Anzac Highway at 50 miles per hour, which doesn't sound too exciting now but would have been in 1929). I was wondering if the Mercury was taking a particularly parochial view when the worst natural disaster in the history of northern Tasmania was relegated to a position well behind a court case in which a Hobart man was acquitted of stealing a tarpaulin valued at 10 shillings from the Tasmanian Railways, but it turned out that virtually no news of the goings-on in the north actually made it to Hobart until three days later. One picture showed a large crowd watching the show from the bridge at the bottom of Cataract Gorge, a somewhat brave move given the number of northern Tasmanian bridges that ended up somewhere in the middle of Bass Strait (where they were joined by the Duck Reach power station).

And there was an 'oops' in a more recent paper, today's Herald-Sun, which reported on a case in which the Minister for Immigration had stated that an American facing charges in Alabama would stay in immigration detention until a decision was reached on his extradition, which wouldn't happen until assurances were received that "Mr Bowen would not face the death penalty". I know his performance as Minister for Immigration hasn't been to the taste of everyone (especially in Woodside), but the death penalty sounds a bit extreme.

The annual Bureau-CSIRO-university tournament, indoors this year. I didn't think I was quite ready to put my knee through a game, and in any case the Bureau had plenty of players, many of whom are better than I am, so I put myself down to referee instead. Indoors this isn't actually too strenuous and can largely be done from up and down the sideline. Only did one thing reasonably controversial, awarding a penalty against CSIRO where it was fairly touch-and-go whether contact was inside the area, but they saved it anyway. The Bureau won, as they did last year (it is perhaps not coincidental that I haven't played the last two years).

Another step up, 2 on/1 off, down to the Banyule flats. Another morning where it wouldn't have been that brilliant as a run, but the main priority at the moment is how the knee is going, and the answer to that was reasonably positive - a bit of a twinge on the first running section, which was reasonably steeply downhill, but no issues after that.

2 mins on/2 off from my place out as far as Rosanna Station (normally my 'almost home' marker on long runs in that direction). Slept badly last night and felt like I had the beginnings of a cold (although no further developments during the day), which would have made for a difficult run under normal circumstances but this wasn't challenging from an aerobic point of view. Knee fairly similar to Monday with only slight twinges. The last bit was uphill and I got a reminder that it's a while since I've run up hills of any size (there's probably a bit more to move uphill than there was a month ago, too).

It seems the issue I mentioned yesterday is only an issue on domestic trips, not overseas ones.

What's becoming a fairly standard session (although hopefully progressively less standard over the coming weeks). Felt reasonable and seem to be putting in a bit more each time. Definitely a nice morning to be in the pool - one of the warmest we've had so far this spring (the only problem was sun glare when going east).

Noticed a news report about a case that's going on in Canberra over the issue of a public servant who got injured on a work trip while engaging in what might be described as extra-curricular activities and whose insurance claim is being contested by Comcare. This got my attention because if those sorts of extra-curricular activities aren't covered, arguments with icy Geneva footpaths in the middle of a run probably aren't either. (And, in further evidence that Canberra really is a small town, Comcare's lawyer was a couple of years below me at school).

Joined the MFR crowd from Bruce's for the first minute, then set about doing my own thing - 1 min on/1 min off, but for longer this time. Knee felt significantly better than yesterday with only minor twinges (most significantly on the downhill into Merri Creek) - definitely encouraging progress and probably an indication that I can build back a bit faster than I did last year (here's hoping anyway).

First attempt to see whether my knee works again, in the form of a few 1 min run/1 min walk segments. The answer was ambivalent - it's certainly not right, but it was significantly better than it was two weeks ago and feels quite stable. I think this will give me a base to work from but it will be a while before it's back to normal.

The setting for this was the main street of Walhalla. I hadn't been there before and an excuse to go to that part of the world was provided by Jenny being over here for a conference (I badly needed a weekend away from work-related things in any case). This was a worthwhile weekend, including climbing Mts Erica and St. Gwinear (neither huge efforts), and crossing the ranges from south to north from Thomson Dam to Jamieson through Woods Point. I went through these ranges from east to west back in 2002 but this is the first time I've done it from south to north. By Victorian standards it's a very remote area, and this winter hasn't been terribly kind to the road in places - some of the roughest surfaces I've seen since Kalumburu. Nice country though (and not as badly fire-affected as I thought it would be).

C • Did you 2

Pool running at Ivanhoe. Very quiet at the pool early, anything but quiet when I finished (the end of this session coincided with the start of Saturday morning swimming lessons).

In Gippsland for most of the weekend - staying at Walhalla which is a place I haven't been to before. Should be a nice break after a pretty full-on week.

A solid session at Ivanhoe, although didn't feel quite as up for it as I did on Tuesday. Surprised how well I've been holding up this week (although I hit the wall at around 5pm tonight) - might have been a different story had I been undertaking a full load of running.

The Canberra Raiders have got a bit more worldwide publicity this week than they would have liked; for me, the most surprising part of the whole sordid affair was the revelation that bestiality is not actually illegal in the ACT. (However, distributing 'pornography' that includes it is, so if you've been e-mailing around the photos....).

We also received some material from the Minister for Sport today about potential government initiatives to combat match-fixing. Can't imagine this is a huge problem for us although we'll probably find ourselves having to adopt a relevant code of conduct at the behest of the ASC. Hopefully that code doesn't include restrictions on providing weather information or I could be in a spot of bother.

I'd probably have taken note of the American elections anyway, but I took more note than usual because of a prospect which now looks like coming to pass - that of theatrical congressional hearings into climate change science which will give the usual suspects carte blanche to throw as much mud as they like at us. This is not a prospect I'm looking forward to, although those who might actually have to appear at said hearings are presumably looking forward to it even less. (Not sure if they can call foreigners - I suspect the answer is 'well, yes if you ever want to enter the U.S. again' - but I'm not high-profile enough internationally to be on their radar, at least for now).

Early night tonight: should be home by 10 with a bit of luck.

The longest pool running session I've yet done (long enough that the lifeguard thought my towel was lost property because it had been there so long; as well that I was looking in the right direction at the right time). A bit stiff this morning, and not especially awake at the start (thanks to another post-midnight teleconference), but developed into a reasonable session.

C • Mental state? 3

One aspect of working on a public holiday is the problem of fitting your schedule around those who aren't, which meant that this session was a little later than I wanted it to be, joining the crowd (well, a dozen or so) waiting for the doors of Fitzroy Pool to open. Once in, though, it was the best swim I've had for a couple of years - felt like I was really working hard (it makes a difference when it's not a recovery session as it usually is). Felt as if I was tiring a little at the end but that didn't show in the lap times.

Potential impacts of extreme weather I hadn't thought of: as many of you will know, Cassie is due around the end of January, and apparently (in Norway at least) you aren't supposed to take newborn babies outside in temperatures below -12 because their lungs can't cope, so if it's a cold winter they might be stuck in hospital for a while. (How this works in those parts of Siberia where it normally doesn't go above -12 between November and March is unknown, at least to me). This is a problem we don't have to worry about in Australia, although I came closer than most, making my appearance three days before Canberra's one and only -10 in July 1971.

Back to Fitzroy. A bit stiff early but got going reasonably well later on. Knee is feeling reasonably encouraging and I'm thinking I might be in a position to try a bit of jogging towards the end of the week.

Cup Monday is normally the easiest commute of the year, and today was no exception (although it would have been easier still if the traffic lights at the corner of Rathdowne and Grattan hadn't taken the day off too). You certainly can't cross the road to Fitzroy Pool without help from the lights at 7.30 on a normal Monday morning.

I suspected I might have taken a bit of a drop in the rankings but didn't realise just how far - all the way down to 30 after several years mostly in the low to-mid teens. Carrying that number around next year will be a reminder that I really didn't have a very good year this year.

Dights Falls was definitely in fine form this evening.

C • dont worry 1