Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

For the first 10 minutes this run felt like it was going the same way as yesterday, struggling up the first decent climb. Then things clicked as I left Warwick behind, heading east towards the Hermitage research station. By 25 minutes it had turned into a reasonable run and by 40 minutes into a good one. By then I was on an almost deserted, gently rolling country back road; I often have good runs in that environment and this was no exception. The pace was somewhat quicker than I've been used to for long runs this year; often I've struggled to get any kilometre splits starting with a 4 but today 17 of them came end to end. Started to feel a bit sore in the last 20 minutes and didn't feel as if I would have had a lot left to do, say, another half-hour (and I certainly know now that I've put in a big morning), but it was still the best long run I've had this year - the sort of run that I thought might have been coming after some of the ones on the South Australian trip - and I'll happily settle for that.

I then took a somewhat roundabout route back to Brisbane which became a bit more roundabout than I was expecting, thanks to the fact that a chunk of the Queen Mary Falls-Boonah road ended up somewhere in Moreton Bay after the January floods, which necessitated a detour through some back tracks across the top corner of NSW. (I could have just turned around and gone down the main highway, but where's the fun in that?). One bit of not-totally-unexplored territory was the road from Boonah to Ipswich, last encountered as we tried to find a route to the Gold Coast which was still passable in the May 1980 floods. On that occasion we got through, just (my memory of it was good enough that I recognised the creek crossing involved), although some water got into the floor of the car and claimed as casualties Cassie's favourite doll and my Football Record from the first game* I went to (we were three and eight respectively).

(* - I didn't pick the best of debut matches - Essendon managed to lose to a Melbourne team who were coming off what was then, and is now, the largest losing margin in history, to Fitzroy the previous week).

A morning run in Toowoomba. I thought traversing the top of the range northwards from where I was staying would make for a good run, and it did, or would have if I'd been up for it a bit more. There was ruggedness there I didn't quite come to terms with; the map I saw showed much of it as being on roughly the same elevation but you can hide a lot in 20-metre contours, with some very sharp (if short) climbs, as well as a fair bit of mud (thanks to heavy rain on Thursday night) once off the bitumen. Felt a bit better in the second half, through the suburbs with a bit less up and down, before finishing off by going down to a creek which had rather less water in it today than it did one afternoon in January 2011.

Toowoomba isn't a place I'm especially familiar with - the last time I spent a night here was during the 1991 carnival, and I've never run here. The east side of town seems quite a pleasant place. Even saw a couple of cafes which looked as if they wouldn't be out of place in inner Melbourne, somewhat belying the city's reputation as Redneck Central. (I think I went past one of the places which contributed to that reputation, the rugby ground which once had the "Nigger Brown Stand" - if I did have the right ground it's not surprising it caused offence, as it's across the road from an Aboriginal drop-in centre whose occupants would have seen the sign every time they looked out the window).

Most of the rest of the day was spent in hitherto unexplored territory (I haven't previously been west of Dalby, apart from passing through St. George and Roma from south to north), initially out to Miles to tick another site off my list, before meandering southeast through the back roads of the Downs with the day's ultimate destination being Warwick. Miles is the last of the relatively low-hanging fruit; all of the remaining 17 sites on my list are at least 600km from the nearest capital city, and at least 1000km from Melbourne.

Miles also appears to be the epicentre of the coal seam gas boom (an area of land probably a kilometre long and 200 metres wide on the way into town was stacked with pipes). As one might expect, visible signs of non-enthusiasm for the industry were more evident further south-east than they were in and around Miles itself. The infusion of very recent new money into areas that haven't seen much of it for a long time makes for some interesting contrasts, not least in Tara, where a fading off-the-beaten-track small town (for the Victorians, think Goroke or Boort) now boasts the somewhat incongruous Tara Spa Apartments.

(As I've previously noted I'm something of an agnostic on the industry at this stage because of the conflicting evidence on the most serious issue in my view, the potential contamination of groundwater. The thought did, however, cross my mind that Queensland cotton growers are not in the ideal position to object to alternative land uses on environmental grounds).

Near the end of the day I passed close to the area used for the long day of Easter 2012 but I wasn't really tempted to go out for a run there. Pratten got hit by a suspected tornado a couple of weeks ago; the unkind might suggest that it is hard to tell the difference.

A pretty early start this morning to get everything done before getting on the plane north. At Ivanhoe, and got to find out that one of the other regulars had indeed succeeded in his Cairns Ironman bid. (I'm impressed with anyone who can finish one of these - I'd probably fall at the first hurdle through failing to complete the swim inside the time limit). A decent session once properly under way and once I felt decently awake (took the chance to catch up on a bit of sleep on the plane).

Next week (most of it, anyway) will be spent in Brisbane (I went up early because the Asia-Oceania Geophysics Society was having their conference in Brisbane this week, and their committee was keen to meet with me in my Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society capacity). With a dubious coastal forecast for the weekend I've decided to head inland and pick up Miles, the weather station equivalent of the out-of-the-way rogaine 20-pointer that you only go for if you think you can get them all (it doesn't fit into a logical combination of any other sites, and isn't on a route I'm likely to travel for any other reason). Headed up as far as Toowoomba this evening - after ignoring Apple Maps (which I was only consulting for a route from the Convention Centre to Ipswich Road), which was trying to send me there via Tumut. It's not the easiest of drives because they're still patching up flood damage from a couple of years ago - and you know you're in Queensland when you start seeing the anti-abortion billboards. (Those who think this is a dead issue in Australia may be in for a shock if the DLP have the balance of power in the next Senate). Had a very nice dinner with an old family friend whom I haven't seen since the 1991 Australian Championships carnival.

(There were some roadside produce stalls, but nothing like the 2c/kg potatoes from the 1991 trip - which, if nothing else, was an eye-opener as to how little of what you pay at the shops is actually seen by the farmers).

A new starting point today - the top end of Royal Park (thanks to positioning myself for an evening engagement in Brunswick). Headed out towards the Maribyrnong River and Essendon, with my grandmother's old house as the far point of the loop. (Somewhat to my surprise, it's still there and clearly lived in; when it was sold last year we assumed that it would be demolished and rebuilt). Came back through Brunswick, by accident rather than design ending up in a street that's been in the news a fair bit in recent months (and going past Melbourne's best-known security camera).

Wasn't always at my best in this run; hills were a bit of a struggle and felt as I was tiring in the last third, but didn't drop off in performance at all. Longest I've done in a few weeks. Back felt a bit iffy without fully seizing up at any stage. I'm wondering if riding is what's setting it off as it was feeling a bit sore on the bike yesterday (a day on which I spent more time on the bike than usual, thanks to realising 15 minutes after leaving work that I'd left my wallet behind and going back for it).

Wasn't feeling that enthused before I went out but OK once I was running. Felt a bit lively at the start but it didn't really flow on to much pace once trying to run fast, although improved a bit once I started to attack the faster sections a bit more on the second loop. A frosty morning on the lower ground (though no fog this time round).

Given what else was to happen today, it was perhaps fitting that my ride in was puncutated by going past a string of power poles decorated with pictures of the local Liberal candidate (not that you would have known that if you were driving, because the candidate's first name and 'Liberal for Jagajaga' were printed in white on a yellow background and thus almost illegible when passing at speed).

I'm not sure what to make of today's events. On the one hand Kevin Rudd will probably be more competitive in the election than Julia Gillard would have been (I still don't expect to win or even go particularly close to winning, but it might make a difference to the post-election Senate); on the other hand, I fear that the message that this sends about the best way to win a party leadership will ultimately be as corrosive of Australia's governance as the message that the likely election result sends about the best way to win an election will be.

C • And the ALP should learn the message 1

Not sure why my body has decided to stop functioning properly again now I've returned to Melbourne - surely it can't be just starting earlier in the day? (Maybe I should try sleeping on slowly-deflating air mattresses more often). This run took a long, long time to get going, and being on sometimes rough Yarra tracks in marginal light was only a minor contributor to this; only in the last 15 minutes did I feel particularly comfortable.

I'm back in Melbourne for all of five days before disappearing again (this time to Brisbane), and feel as if I still have a fair bit to get done between now and then. Looks like I might be in for a bit of moisture, although given our family's 1980s experiences with Gold Coast holidays that's not exactly an unknown experience even in the so-called dry season.

It's been pretty cold in Melbourne while I've been away, as evidenced by the inside temperature of 7.5 when I arrived home last night.

It was still pretty cold when I headed out this morning (and unlike the outback, it doesn't start warming up as soon as the sun gets above the horizon). It was also earlier than I've been used to over the last couple of weeks and there was a lot of creakiness to start with. Got better once that was out of the way, but never a particularly good run.

First swim for a couple of weeks - and possibly a new personal best for the lowest temperature for a Fitzroy pool session (about 2 degrees). As always on cold mornings, it's nice once you're in. It was also a steady swim with a consistent pace (except when I was trying to overtake someone), but didn't quite kick on as much as I had hoped.

Finished off the trip with a run in the SA OY event at Narrinyeri - a map I've been on a couple of times but not concentrating so much on the area we were today (in 2009 I didn't get far anyway because of an injury). It was a tougher area than I expected, with lots of small rock in low-vis vegetation, often without a lot of contour detail - would be good training for certain parts of Europe.

I was a bit disappointed with the running side of things today, given that things have been going well the last couple of weeks; never really felt as if I got out of second gear and lacked a bit of confidence in the terrain, and strength up hills (OK, so hills weren't exactly a big feature of the last fortnight). Only two actual misses, neither of them bigger than 15 seconds or so, but a few other legs where I lacked confidence in green and/or wasn't happy with my path through it. There was no opposition today - Simon, who would have gone close to or under the hour, is already overseas and others who might have made an appearance either weren't there or ran shorter courses. Gave my knee a bit of a bang while collecting controls but hopefully nothing too serious.

Later in the day I had a Skype hookup on world rankings, so it was perhaps fitting that today was at the scene of possibly the ranking algorithm's most bizarre performance - the 1999 SA Championships where there was a field of six, five of us between 95 and 99 (hence a tiny standard deviation) and Greg Morcom on something like 160 (outside the 50% cutoff, anyway). If there hadn't been a lower bound of zero, this result would have scored Greg something in the order of -5300 points.

Flying back to Melbourne tonight. It's been a good break and I feel a lot more relaxed than two weeks ago; not being in a state of semi-permanent mild sleep deprivation (nothing compared to the new parents out there, I know) probably has a fair bit to do with that.

The pouring rain at dawn didn't sound exactly conducive to heading out into the surrounds of Jamestown and I was half-thinking that doing something in the evening after returning to Adelaide might not sound like such a bad option, but the rain stopped (apart from occasional showers) and we headed out a bit later in the morning, essentially for a lap of the town, with a slight ulterior motive of checking out sprint potential for the Easter 2015 prologue (answer: not very high). The rain might have become intermittent but the northerly wind was stiff and hard work whenever it was a headwind; I was also feeling a little off form this morning, perhaps because of eating too many salty things at the pub last night. Became better later on, more so in the last 15 minutes, where I also experienced the classic country scene of the chorus of horns at the football ground as the players ran onto the field. (Obviously they weren't finding the conditions easy either: when we went past again on the way out of town an hour or so later, the score was visitors 2 goals, Jamestown 0).

That was the prelude to the last leg back to Adelaide (via a very nice lunch at a Clare Valley winery). Now to sort through 300-odd photos (as well as run an event tomorrow before flying back in the evening).

As I'll be flying back in the dark I won't get to see the spectacularly crass Sportsbet ad which I presume is on the edge of Woodlands (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-21/cheeky-ad-27...). One can only hope they get the book thrown at them for doing something like that on Parks Victoria land without permission, but I'm not holding my breath.

The last day in the outback proper - you know you've been in remote country when you see a road sign saying that some homestead or other is 74km down a side track and you think that doesn't seem too far. This was a fairly short run from our campsite to the park headquarters at Balcanoona (where, surprisingly, there was a fairly rustic shower). A smooth run on a nice morning (after a cold night); a decent pace too, although probably slightly net downhill.

From there, it was Chambers Gorge (impressive Aboriginal carvings)-Blinman-Parachilna-Hawker-Jamestown. The rain started about five minutes after we got off the dirt for the last time.

I hadn't originally thought that Copley/Leigh Creek would be a promising venue for a long run (had been thinking more of something from Arkaroola later in the day - which would have been good too), but Jenny convinced me that Leigh Creek's dam was a worthwhile destination and I was glad she did. It was a fairly rough track at times across a couple of ranges of hills (the drainage patterns, in this country of parallel ranges with occasional gaps in them, are a bit counter-intuitive to those of us brought up on gully-spur country), but a nice run. A few steep pinches of the sort which would have troubled my back for much of this year; dare I think that that might be a thing of the past now? (It's often surfaced in terrain, so Sunday may tell us more).

Didn't cover an enormous amount of ground today despite not having tents to pack up, but did some worthwhile exploring around the Gammon Ranges - lots of rugged peaks and gorges - before camping near Balcanoona.

The night was spent at Coward Springs, an area where artesian bores (one turned into an open-air spa) have made for a well-vegetated campground in the middle of otherwise barren country. Unsurprisingly it's a popular campsite for those travelling in these parts (i.e. it's only the second time on this trip that we've had any company in a campground at all).

This morning's run was a one-way one from Coward Springs to another group of mound springs, bigger than the one at Strangways. Passed a convoy of 4WDs on the way who probably thought we were a bit crazy. A smooth run and better than yesterday's, although it was noticeable that a corrugated track slows things down a bit on foot as well as on wheels. (In general I've been surprised how few corrugations the main tracks have had, but some of the side tracks are a different story).

The rest of the day was about passing through Marree with a viewing of Lake Eyre en route, then finishing up at Copley, next to Leigh Creek (a relocated-in-1982 mining town which looks like Wanniassa transplanted to the Outback). Lake Eyre South did seem to have a fair bit of water thanks to recent rains, but probably very shallow and likely to disappear quickly. (The perils of investigating further were illustrated by the man who walked up to the lookout while we were there, his legs covered in thick black mud). Lake Eyre was clearly very good business in this part of the world when it was reasonably full, judging by the sea of demountable motel units next to the Marree pub.

It was perhaps fitting in this part of the world that one of the ABC talkback questions we heard (in a segment on traffic laws) was whether it is legal to carry an unrestrained camel in an open trailer being towed by another vehicle. (Answer: no, but any cop who tried to enforce this law would have an excellent chance of ending up on the front page of the NT News). Also heard, in a segment on not recognising modern music, was a text from "Bridget of Blackwood", who may or may not be someone known to us, who said she was 24 and didn't recognise the song in question either.

Heading out to Arkaroola tomorrow, and then southwards from there.

An out-and-back trot from our campsite along the Algebuckina waterhole, an impressive body of water 20 or so metres across and several kilometres long. (Reminded me a bit of the Diamantina at Birdsville, although this one doesn't have such a big catchment to feed it). The old Ghan railway line's bridge across it was described as the longest bridge in SA (although I would have thought the road bridge at Murray Bridge, at least, was longer), and looked very robust which is why it didn't get washed away in any half-decent flood like many of the Ghan's other bridges.

Felt a bit flat on the run, and I think Jenny was more so, so this was a fairly slow run even after considering a short terrain component later on.

This was the first camping morning we've had without dew but somehow the process of packing up still went until well after 11. As we didn't plan to cover much distance today - 200km or so to Coward Springs - this wasn't really a problem. One highlight of the trip down was a side trip to Strangways - an old Overland Telegraph settlement (with a surprisingly large scattering of ruins) alongside some mound springs (where artesian outlets have come to the surface and mineral deposition from them has formed mounds - with small knolls scattered all over the place it would have made an interesting small map). The police station was set up in 1886 in a largely futile attempt to control the sly grog trade; the number of broken bottles around suggests that alcohol abuse is still an issue at this site 127 years later.

Rest day today - switched from the more normal Friday because I suspect I'll be in more interesting places to run on Friday (most likely around the Flinders Ranges) than I will be today. Headed from Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta via the Painted Desert (striking desert landforms and colours of a sort I haven't seen before in Australia), then along the track to a campsite by a waterhole about 60km southeast. Track conditions were a bit boggy in places - glad to be in a decent 4WD, and more glad not to have been attempting this three or four days ago - rain leaves its mark for quite a while in this country.

A long(er) run in Coober Pedy on a nice morning for it (although it's remarkable how warm 13 degrees can feel in full desert sun). Started out for the first hour on an out-and-back with Jenny, on a randomly-chosen road out of town which turned out to be a good showpiece of what the town had to offer (particularly in the things-dug-into-the-side-of-hills department, the most spectacular example of which was the Serbian Orthodox church). Once she went back I then continued on a further loop through the main section of town. Another fairly reasonable run; I've had quite a good week this week. Getting a proper amount of sleep undoubtedly has a fair bit to do with this. (No sign of trouble from any niggles, either, although there haven't exactly been any hills to test the back issues).

Coober Pedy during the day (on a Sunday at least) seems to be pretty dead - certainly not much sign of action in the tourism trade, which surprised me a bit given the town's reputation and how much accommodation there is here, and much less lively than it seemed in 1990 (although, on the positive side, I don't think gelignite is used quite as much in local dispute-resolution these days). Perhaps a sign of how the local economy is doing (or not doing) is that what seemed a reasonable house was on sale for $70,000 (a three-bedroom dugout we saw advertised for $158,000). I get the impression that the opal-mining game these days is largely a game for old-timers hanging on (the Census stats which show that 28% of the population are over 60, compared to a national average of 20%, would seem to bear that out); there are quite a few mines in the area for things other than opals but their workers presumably live on site. There are still plenty of signs around warning of the perils of opal shafts - one of them disturbingly close to a sign advertising a dog off-leash area.

(I did have some fun going through the Census stats. One which surprised me was that the proportion of dwellings with 3 or more registered vehicles was below the national average, although as Jenny pointed out, the figures might well have looked very different if unregistered vehicles were included).

This was possibly the most remote run I have ever done - apart from the three of us, I think there's a fair chance that there were no other people within a 50-kilometre radius (we didn't see another vehicle between Ceduna and Tarcoola).

The day started at Googs Lake, about 50 kilometres along the sand-dune section of the track. The plan for the run was for Geoff to drop us off at the Mount Finke turnoff (after 73 kilometres and three hours of dune climbing), and for us to run from there to the base of the mountain - a real standout rising probably 250 metres above endless rolling sand-dune country. The run itself was short, and nothing too startling, but that wasn't really the point - it was a chance to get close to the landscape in a way you don't experience so much in a vehicle (even one doing 20-30 kilometres an hour).

Apparently Stuart was so impressed by the exploits of William Finke (or maybe just by the amount of money Mr. Finke may have contributed to the expedition) that he named both this mountain and the Finke River for him. I don't know if he also gave his name to the Finks motorcycle gang.

The track was slowish going but not exceptionally difficult (although I was glad someone with dune experience was doing the driving) - there was only one dune we had to make a second attempt at.

And then we got to the end of the track and hit the smoothest dirt road I've ever been on, past the settlement of Tarcoola (where I ticked another name off my weather-stations list). The tentative plan was to stay at Kingoonya, either camping or at the pub, but when we got there just before last light it was already apparent that a lively night was in prospect, so we quickly changed plans and decided to go on another 300 kilometres (mostly highway) to Coober Pedy - I was already aware from the 1990 trip that I was missing precisely nothing by doing this in the dark (and we only saw two roos in the middle of the road). The day's last 400 kilometres took less time than the first 100.

C • Remote runs? 3

Leaving Minnipa, and its silos that are too tall for even Billy Brownless to kick a football over, behind this morning. Plan from here is Ceduna-Tarcoola-Glendambo-Coober Pedy-Oodnadatta-Marree-see how much time we have left. Ceduna-Tarcoola will be the most challenging part - lots of sand dunes.

Shortish session along the Ceduna foreshore before heading for the wilderness. Both of us took a while to get going but not bad after the first 10 minutes.

The route north from Ceduna goes along Googs Track (pushed through by a couple of locals in the 1970s - don't think you could get away with doing that in a conservation park these days). Once you leave the farmland about 30km north of Ceduna, it's 130km of dune crossing (supposedly 360-odd, although that includes a lot of small barely noticeable bumps) before the dunes end about 20km short of the railway line.

Once again, outward from Minnipa in search of rocks (this time a one-way trip - Geoff came and picked us up at the other end). A pleasant run on rolling country roads stretching to the horizon, and somewhat faster than I've been doing for runs of this type this year - haven't often been stringing together kilometres with times starting with a 4 unless I've been specifically doing speedwork. No niggles either after the first few minutes. All in all, a return to normal service, despite still coughing a bit more than I'd like to be.

The rest of the day was then spent looking at various rock domes in the Wudinna area, then exploring bits of the Gawler Ranges. Heading into more remote country north from Ceduna tomorrow if things go to plan.

We're using Minnipa, in the west-central part of the Eyre Peninsula, as a base for the next couple of days, doing day trips from there (today out to the coast, tomorrow into the Gawler Ranges now things have dried out a bit). This morning's run was an out-and-back from town (such as it is - it's a classic grain belt row-of-silos-plus-a-couple-of-hundred-people settlement) to the nearest significant rock; this part of the Eyre Peninsula has a reasonable number of granite domes, some just areas of bare rock but others (like this morning's) with a fair number of boulders too. A fairly undemanding run but one which didn't trigger any real issues - the cold is slowly fading away. Missed all the just-enough-to-be-annoying showers (and missed them at most of our major sightseeing points too, along the coast at and south from Streaky Bay).

Took the last chance for a couple of weeks to hit the water to loosen myself up in the Whyalla pool (on a morning where it wasn't much wetter in the pool than it was outside it). Quite a strong session by the standards of recent swims. Given the time of day, it wasn't surprising that most of the lanes were taken up by swimming lessons and the one remaining also had someone noodling, but we managed to stay out of each other's way.

Whyalla itself seems to be doing OK (somewhat ironically, the one signifcant local industry which is in trouble is a solar power station project), although the old town centre still looks like it could be frozen in 1970.

The original plan was to head to the Gawler Ranges today but the rain made that not such a good idea, so instead we've set up a base in Minnipa and will be doing day trips to the coast and the ranges the next couple of days.

Middle distance at Wilpena Spurs. A technically accurate but tired effort, particularly in the first half when various body parts were very reluctant to perform at any sort of speed. The flat areas of this map make you feel as if you should be running fast, but it wasn't really happening (and, as with yesterday, there was more on the steeper parts of the map than I'm used to here). Not even in the frame as far as results are concerned.

Now in Whyalla (which I can report is still here), in preparation for heading further afield tomorrow (although perhaps not as far as originally intended tomorrow, as the forecast rain will make the remoter dirt tracks a no-go zone for a day or two). Updates may be sporadic.

SA Long Championships at Wilpena Spurs. Expected that the result of this would be Simon, then daylight, then Bruce, then daylight, then me (Toph wasn't running). As it turned out Bruce's misadventures on the long leg meant that it was Simon, then lots and lots of daylight, then Bruce and myself.

This was a tougher course than anything I've run before at Wilpena with probably two-thirds of the course in the steeper country. While I've still got a cough it was apparent early on that today was going better than the last few runs, and so it continued - still not especially strong but I actually felt like running today (and for a bonus none of my intermittent injury issues surfaced during this run). Went through Greg Morcom (who I wouldn't have been totally confident of beating in yesterday's form) at 2, which he'd missed a bit, and then set off on the 2.7k long leg, taking a right route (essentially through 10 and 11), not entirely confident of where I was at a couple of points in mid-leg, but hitting the control cleanly.

From there it was a steady, fairly unspectacular run. I knew Simon had come through me on the long leg because the controls had been woken up, but kept expecting Bruce (6 minutes) to come through as well and it didn't happen. Kept plugging away without fading to any great extent, with only one minor wobble when I almost got on the wrong ridge leaving 8, until an annoying 30-seconder on the third-last. The last kilometre suggested that it was well that the course wasn't a lot longer.

Didn't quite achieve a 25% behind Simon target, but getting within striking distance of it. Definitely knew I'd been for a run for the rest of the afternoon; tomorrow may be interesting.

First day of the Flinders weekend, and not one I'll want to remember for too long. This has been a very frustrating cold - not too bad in terms of actual cold symptoms but has knocked my running for six. Felt a bit better today than Thursday, but not a lot better.

My navigation was also ordinary today in sometimes vague terrain, including a major error on 9 which cost me 3 minutes or so (and I was probably lucky to get out of it as lightly as that). Also drifted more than I would have liked on some other legs, including 1, 4 and 11. Probably still wouldn't have got much under 40 with a clean run, though, on a day when Simon, Bruce and Toph were in the low 30s. Hoping for better tomorrow, but only on the technical side am I vaguely optimistic about being able to achieve that.

A reasonably relaxed session in the Monash pool before a workshop there this morning - not an ideal location as the deep end is only short. Pleasant enough but still had the feeling my body wouldn't have appreciated anything much harder (feel a bit better in general today than yesterday, though).

Now on the road to South Australia (my parents are also going, which is why I'm writing this from somewhere near Bridgewater, rather than being behind the wheel).

I'm not always very good at looking after myself and can be too stubborn for my own good, refusing to concede that there are times when I might need to slow down a bit. Tonight was the point at which it caught up with me - after feeling as if I was picking up a bit on Tuesday I've been on a downward swing first, and this run was awful. Probably should have called it off at an early stage - but what was that I was saying about stubbornness?

At least I won't be pushing myself on the work front for a while - today was my last day in the office for a couple of weeks (although I'm going to a workshop at Monash tomorrow morning before heading for SA). Will need to pick up a bit in the next three days to be in reasonable shape for Sunday's race.

C • Says it all 1

Original thoughts for today a few days back, knowing that I would be starting the day in Moss Vale and had no commitments in Canberra until lunchtime, were to do a long run somewhere in the Southern Highlands - possibly around Fitzroy Falls or Bundanoon. As it turned out I didn't exactly feel in long run shape (if anything taking a bit of a turn for the worse from yesterday - doing an evening talk and teleconference back to back may have had something to do with that), so settled for something more modest once arrived in Canberra - initially around Aranda Hill and the lower Black Mountain slopes, then around the outside of Aranda and Cook.

Felt ordinary throughout, and quite weak at times but not so bad in the last 10 minutes. Not as slow as I thought I'd be though.

There was a control hanging 50 metres away out the back gate; presumably the Wednesday lunchtime event was here.

10x1 minute session in Barton Park, just underneath the end of the Sydney Airport flight path if there's a westerly blowing (which there wasn't today). Not especially strong and had a bit of trouble finishing off some of the reps, but a lot better than I feared it might be given my weakness on the first uphill bump getting here.

Still in the croaky-but-improving mode; the croakiness was tested tonight, as I was giving an hour-long talk (very well received) in Moss Vale at 7, and then followed up with an international teleconference at 10. Definitely a long day.

Warm-up and down from the intervals.

The Wingecaribee council chambers (where my talk was) has a sign out the front proclaiming it to be a "Coal Seam Gas and Longwall Mining Free Shire". I assume what they actually mean is that they've proclaimed themselves free of the extraction of coal seam gas, not the gas itself. Not the sort of thing you'd normally expect to see in a conservative semi-rural shire but, as noted previously, the coal-seam gas debate has made for some interesting political bedfellows.

C • My parents live in Moss Val... 5

I'm staying at Wolli Creek, mainly in the name of tomorrow's logistics (I wanted somewhere close to where the M5 crossed a train line). The immediate surrounds aren't exactly inspiring - mostly off-airport car parks, plus a row of dilapidated houses across the street, at least a couple of which I suspect are brothels - but once you get to the other side of the railway line, within a kilometre of so, it's a pocket of reasonably pleasant Sydney suburbia, including a couple of the pockets in the bottom of sandstone valleys which Sydney specialises in (as well as a couple of sharp hills coming out of said valleys). Started slowly and struggled a bit with the sharp hills - as expected at this stage of a cold, I'm feeling a bit more clogged up but also a bit stronger - but reasonable towards the end. Lovely morning with a piercing morning sun you just don't get in Melbourne at this time of year.

Plenty of discoveries today, although as many were about the absurdities of old-time bureaucracy as about things of interest to the science I was doing. I don't know about you, but I don't think the seven years of correspondence between 1971 and 1978 over whether the Bureau should stump up for the cost of connecting a telephone to the observer's house in Bombala was exactly a cost-effective use of taxpayer-funded staff time.

Away from the files, the undoubted discovery of the day was the new outdoor pool in Prince Alfred Park, only 5 minutes' walk away from our Sydney office. I only found out about it when I looked the pool I knew about on the web to see what time it closed (with a post-work visit in mind). Better still, it's free until November.

There's something nice about swimming under a warm sun (especially in what is theoretically winter). The sun was actually a bit of a hassle early on because it was at the wrong angle for glare on the odd-numbered laps, but that improved later on. Also a few more issues with foot cramps than has been usual of late, but still hard not to enjoy this.

And Melbourne people might like to bag Myki, but it's light years ahead of the ticketing system for Sydney public transport. It took me 15 minutes of digging around the transport info website, and a certain amount of guesswork, to determine what sort of ticket I needed to get the bus to Maroubra (where I was catching up with a friend for dinner).

C • Last swim for 3 weeks? 3

I had a pretty rough night and was in two minds about whether to start this morning - although, unlike many of my companions from yesterday evening, my feeling lousy was the result of a virus and not excess alcohol consumption. (Our group, though, weren't as raucous as the class of 1983, last seen packing a rugby scrum in the lobby of the Lakeside Hotel).

I decided to start and see how it went, knowing that the course had plenty of bailout options if needed. The long climb up the track on the long 4th leg was a slog (in part because the track itself was extremely slippery after 24 hours of rain, which broke just before the start), but started to settle OK after that, although hills were never easy, and didn't seem to be flowing that well in the terrain. Kowen East, though, is a very enjoyable area to run in (if not especially challenging technically), and that lifted my enthusiasm considerably. I couldn't get through a whole long(ish) race without injury issues, though, and this time it was the knee stiffening up about two-thirds of the way through. The main consequences of this were lack of confidence in the terrain (especially downhill), and later an occasionally screaming quad as a result of its extra workload. Started to improve a bit towards the end. Also thought I was on track for a virtually clean run, but had small misses on the last two (the last didn't have a flag but I was a bit wide on it anyway). A finish, even a slow one, is a result I definitely would have taken at 9 (or 6, or 3) this morning, though.

I left fairly soon after I finished so don't know how the final results ended up, though Andrew Barnett did 74 and Jase about 90. I'd expect Craney to go sub-5s on a good day here, but given that he's been sick himself and it was slippery underfoot, he might be a bit slower than usual (but I'd still be surprised to see him much over 70).

And I didn't even notice that the map was 1:15000 and not 1:10000 until I was analysing my splits tonight....

The rest of the day was spent getting to Sydney, by a somewhat roundabout route in the name of adding site number 92 to my list, Point Perpendicular Lighthouse (on the north side of Jervis Bay). The thing which adds to the degree of difficulty here is that getting there involves crossing a Navy bombing range which is often closed at short notice (which was what happened in 2009). Made it this time, though (even if I almost got blown backwards by the southerly gale once I got there).

The Canberra-Nowra route through Tarago and Nerriga now has only about 1km of gravel - and it was apparent that I'm not the only person who knows about this route choice option judging by the number of vehicles with ACT plates coming in the reverse direction. Nerriga would once have been one of the most isolated settlements in south-eastern Australia - until the last few years getting there from any direction involved long dirt roads which became 4WD-only after rain - but is a bit less so now. There were a couple of signs which suggested that not all the locals are enthusiastic about this development (although I'll believe "truck gridlock" when I see it). It does strike me as the sort of place which might attract the sort of people who stockpile tinned food, bottled water and ammunition and await the apocalypse.

C • nerriga 2

Given one of the main purposes of the Canberra visit, it was fitting that today's event was at Red Hill - with the far end of the course featuring the saddle well-known to generations of Canberra Grammar orienteers, and the track leading down from it which I've run on many, many occasions.

I probably haven't orienteered on this area for the best part of 20 years, and the north end of the ridge is more vegetated than I remember it, now that old Charlie Russell and his cows are no longer around (the last I heard of him was some 1990s media controversy about the ACT government's plans to evict him - he attracted a fair bit of sympathy because he was over 90 by then, notwithstanding the fact that he hadn't paid any rent for the land for at least the preceding decade). Not as much up and down as there could have been here, but quite a few legs across slopes with not many features which offered potential to come unstuck. Didn't really miss anything, although I was grateful to Rob Jessop for showing me into 3, a control whose description was perhaps not quite in accordance with ISOM specifications.

Back was giving some trouble through 3, at which point Rob went through me and I couldn't respond, but settled down from 4 onwards. Had a bit of a throat tickle this morning but didn't seem to impact my running horribly. A couple of fences provided awkwardness - especially as the corner posts and rails were metal and hence very slippery in today's light rain. Rob did 38; Lizzie was 44, which surprised me a little as I wouldn't really have expected to finish ahead of her, but I guess I was on home ground.

Even the graffitists in Canberra are better-educated. I saw a sign on a reservoir fence which said "K9 (presumably shorthand for 'canine') Unit Patrol These Premises" and someone had written an "s" on the end of "Patrol".

The other part of the day was controlling work for the Australian Sprint - although not as much of it as I expected, because the mapper had had a computer meltdown and his last few weeks of backups also proved to be corrupt (Canberrans who know who the mapper is will appreciate the irony here), so we're running further behind than I hoped and we couldn't do much more than check out assembly/start/finish configurations. I'll be back in late July. One added complication announced during the week was the $8 million donation which will become a construction site by September, reducing the area we have to work with (this will probably mean map changes on the longer courses).

And they didn't have a coffee van on school premises on a Saturday morning when I were a lad....

C • Aust sprint champs 7