Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Another Thursday morning long run in a new setting, Geelong this time - a little later in the morning than I sometimes do them because the conference was starting at 9 rather than 8.30 this morning. (This isn't entirely coincidental - I wrote the conference timetable). Started out around Eastern Park then down to the river along much the same stretches as yesterday morning, then a hilly loop through Queens Park at the far end. Had planned to do another lot of hills on the south side of the river too, but ran out of time. Just to show that Geelong's rust-belt image isn't completely behind it, the Queens Park loop took in an abandoned industrial site (the old cement works).

The run was pretty ordinary for the first 40 minutes with some quad soreness, but then settled quite nicely for the rest of the way. Steady rain which built from a few spots in the first hour to quite heavy by the end, nice conditions in summer.

This was a second successive 500k month, which is a benchmark for summer base training. Given that I've spent more than half of December and January travelling I'm quite pleased to have been able to get as close to normal volumes as I have.

A reasonably solid morning session with Andy (who's also at the conference), from central Geelong down to the Barwon and then along it for some distance. (This is the course of the Geelong half-marathon, which I've run a few times). Felt a little faster than usual for a steady training run, and felt pretty reasonable.

Saw a sports shop in town with a non-Geelong football jumper in the window. Perhaps it's the only one that hasn't yet been sold?

With a little influence from Ben's prodding, threw some faster sections into the afternoon run - two separate laps of the Eastern park circuit (2.4km) at what I thought was street-O pace but was actually a little faster (about 3.50). Felt very ordinary in the warm-up after a long day but pretty reasonable once the harder stuff started, although a stitch made its presence felt at times.

Down in Geelong for the annual conference of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society - involved with the organising otherwise I probably wouldn't have come.

10x1 min in the park at the eastern end of the Geelong waterfront - quite a nice setting. Quads sore in the warm-up but fine once the reps got going. A pretty solid session on the whole.

Felt better than yesterday after a good night's sleep, with early stiffness easing, but still pretty sluggish most of the way - rather like a normal Monday run.

The stay at home was brief - I'm down to Geelong for the next few days for another conference. Not quite as exotic a destination as New Orleans but should still be pleasant enough, and it looks a pretty good conference.

C • All your runs are at 4:33-4... 2

First swim for a couple of weeks. Not a lot of energy, and quads felt quite weak (although I didn't really notice that until it came time to get out of the pool). Less crowded than I would have expected at Ivanhoe for a public holiday, but perhaps I was a bit too early.

When I originally planned to shift my long run to Friday to take advantage of the fact that I didn't need to be anywhere early on Friday (in a city where you need to be careful about where you go between sunset and sunrise), it hadn't occurred to me that the time change would mean that I would, in essence, be doing 2 hour-plus runs on successive days (I already knew that much of the time in between would be spent in the air).

I slept OK on the plane and it wasn't excessively hot for summer (although a reasonably humid 23-24 is still hard work when your previous run was in +5), but I expected this to be tough and it was - felt uncomfortable almost throughout, and weak on even the slightest hills (hills not being something I've had too much practice on in the last week, unless you count going up the sides of a couple of levees). Also discovered, not for the first time, that my internal plumbing doesn't adjust to new time zones as well as my sleep patterns. Picked up a little in the last half-hour after a toilet stop. Definitely a run which was mostly useful for building HTFU reserves.

The American food has taken its toll - 2-3 kilos over par when I checked after the run.

This day essentially disappeared thanks to the Date Line.

I alluded in yesterday's entry to some somewhat irregular goings-on that had been known to happen in Louisiana politics. In the process of reading two local papers, the Times-Picayune and the somewhat more irreverent New Orleans Levee (slogan: "we don't hold anything back"), the scoreboard was one state Agriculture Commissioner who had just been re-indicted after an earlier raft of charges had been dropped, a New Orleans councillor who was appealing against his 3-year sentence for taking bribes, the Governor fined after pleading guilty to (fairly minor) campaign finance irregularities, former Governor Edwards seeking early release, an official of the previous mayor being indicted for alleged tax fraud (the third such official to suffer such a fate in recent months), a conservative Christian Senator (why does this always happen to conservative Christian politicians?) who got sprung emerging from a Canal Street brothel, the Orleans Parish District Attorney who got kicked sideways to another job after it turned out that a frend of his girlfriend's had used his place as a hideout after robbing a petrol station, and the local member of Congress who is currently facing trial after $90,000 in alleged bribe money was allegedly found in plastic bags in his freezer. (You may have noticed that Mayor Nagin is missing from this list: as far as I can tell he's honest but useless).

LA Airport was even more of a dive than usual. New renovations will supposedly bring it up to a standard which wouldn't embarrass Bangladesh by 2010 or thereabouts.

C • Attorney General's hideouts 1

A nice note to finish the US trip on with a good long run, including an excellent second half. Headed out west again past Audubon Park, then picking up a bike path along the Mississippi River levee, which is paralleled by the unfortunately-named Leake Avenue (although this was the one levee that actually did its job). Got as far as Metairie, a place which had a couple of black marks against it - it was David Duke's electorate (he was the former KKK Grand Wizard who made something of an impact in local politics) and was mentioned in today's paper because of a new law which bans its motels from renting rooms by the hour (just as well I didn't pick that strip for my first night). Didn't see any of that in the riverside parklands. Turned around a bit before the Huey Long Bridge, named for another colourful Louisiana political identity of a somewhat earlier vintage. For a lot of the last quarter was in the floating mode where one becomes increasingly detached from one's surroundings, which can be a dangerous thing in a city. Tired a little in the last few minutes. Again a chilly wind.

A sign early on in the run announced that Governor Edwin Edwards had proclaimed the street a Drug Free Zone. (Former) Governor Edwards has the opportunity now to ask drug dealers whether they take any notice of such signs, in his current capacity as a guest of one of America's many fine federal correctional institutions. (A pre-Katrina New Orleans ritual was that, at 3 p.m. every Wednesday, with a jazz band playing to the assembled onlookers, someone would emerge on the steps of the Louisiana Supreme Court building to announce which politicians or other notable public identities had been indicted that week).

The police may occupy nice buildings but they don't appear to be especially efficient. Yesterday's local paper gave an impressively detailed rundown of all the city's crimes of the day in a page of smallish print, everything from shootings (only one, and they missed) to purse snatchings, but there was only one entry under the 'Solved' heading.

It's been an interesting week here in New Orleans. The city obviously has massive problems still, but it also has a great deal of character and it's not difficult to understand why so many people are determined to stay.

And, to illustrate that we are two countries divided by a common language, I brought a poster along to the conference on behalf of somebody from the Queensland DPI (or whatever it calls itself these days) about wet-season rainfall forecasts for northern Australian graziers. Most people didn't understand what we were talking about - the word "grazier" doesn't exist in American English (over here they're ranchers).

Another session which showed more potential than it turned out to produce, although still a reasonable run. Steady rain throughout but not really enough to cause problems (although the local drainage system struggled to cope with what I would guess is 1mm/hour).

Headed to the French Quarter and then northwest - this area got bad reviews in my guidebook but seemed fine when we went through it on a bus yesterday, and was. This area flooded but now seems to have been reasonably fully restored, although there are still some signs of what has happened, like the (abandoned) school with the sign outside 'Dance 2 Sept' (presumably 2005, especially as 2 September 2005 was a Friday).

Headed out west this morning into the Garden District, out along Magazine and back along St. Charles - didn't quite get as far as Audubon Park (will save that for a longer run on Friday). This is a (generally) quite wealthy area and wasn't badly affected by the floods, and has the feel of a reasonably normal community - most businesses are functioning, and the schools appear to be operating (unlike 80% of the city). A few of the side streets have a pothole density similar to rural Kazakhstan or the Boulevard in East Ivanhoe, but the locals tell me that was the case before 2005 so I won't blame it all on the hurricane.

The run felt very promising early on but didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, felt a bit flat later. No sign of the foot twinge from yesterday but Achilles and calf a bit tight. Cool and misty.

C • Infrastructure renewals 2

Headed in the same direction - west - as this morning, but this time along some of the back streets. Didn't always feel entirely comfortable in some of the places I was going, but that was probably more the feel of the area than any real threat. Even in this part of town, which didn't flood, there are a lot of abandoned buildings (both residential and commercial), some of which still have the markings you see more of in more hard-hit parts, showing who searched the building, on what date, and what they found (one wonders what state the animals were in in the house marked '9-30, SPCA, 2 CATS').

Felt reasonably good on the run - definitely better than this morning - despite a long day at the conference.

Also spotted something I haven't seen anywhere else - an architecturally interesting police station (occupying one of the old mansions in the Garden District).

Had to improvise a bit on this one given the lack of good venues for an interval or fartlek session in the inner city - normally I'd search out a park but most of the parks here are fenced off and not open in the early morning (one indicator of the problems that exist here behind the scenes). Found a large enough patch of ground in Lafayette Square for three-quarters of a lap of it to be 1 minute, although I was a bit uncomfortable (given my NZ experiences three years ago) to be going hard around corners on recently-watered pavement.

10x1 min, 1 min recovery (doing the fourth side of the square). Not as good as the equivalent session last week with a hint of a stitch at times. Twinge in my left foot pushing off for the start of the third rep; got through the session OK but a little sore afterwards. Will need watching.

With a conference in New Orleans, and specifically in the New Orleans Convention Center (which, as the 'Economist' memorably said, "became internationally infamous as a monument to misery"), it's difficult not to have Katrina at the back of one's mind, and there have been plenty of relevant talks to reinforce that. The most striking thing I've heard was that there was a fleet of 400 buses waiting to come in, but they couldn't - because legally someone had to be found to inspect the depth of their tyre treads before they could be used.

Couldn't come to New Orleans without starting out through the French Quarter, which is as attractive as I thought it might be - the west end of Bourbon Street is tacky but the rest looks great. Very quiet at 7.30 in the morning; like Rod Laver Arena, Bourbon Street is somewhere where most people to be seen at sunrise are still finishing the night before. Finished by side-stepping grandstands being built for the Mardi Gras parade (only two weeks away, with Easter being so early).

The run was reasonably pleasant and smooth. Again a biting cold wind with temperatures just above freezing, but it should warm up from here.

As expected, the conference is reasonably full-on (today's highlight being a couple of stand-up arguments in the tropical cyclones session). Tomorrow will be more full-on - if it were possible to do so I would be wanting to replicate myself 9 times for the 2.15 session, because that's how many places I want to be in simultaneously.

I wasn't expecting to return to Florida on this trip, but ended up here as a result of finding an answer to a question I once saw in a book of 'Useful Latin Phrases for Modern-Day Situations' - "Is there a way to get there without going through Atlanta?". Finding an Atlanta-free route was necessitated by the snow there, and I shifted plans further and further south three times before finally settling on cutting down to Interstate 10 as quickly as I could and going across from there (about the same distance as my original plan, but longer in time because the first 400km were on back roads). The objective of the exercise - missing the snow - was achieved although I didn't pick the best of places to stay in (at least I saved the Australian taxpayers some money in the process).

I picked Pensacola, a couple of hours along the road this morning, as my venue for no obvious reason, but it wasn't a bad one. The tourist literature makes much of its historic district, which was pleasant, but I didn't see a lot of evidence of great history. Had some nice stretches in the vicinity of a lake north-east of town, apart from a minor altercation with a protruding brach (which has left me with a bit of a black eye but no lasting damage). Pleasant conditions out of the wind but biting in it (especially crossing bridges) - sunny and +1C with a solid north wind. The run was pretty uninspired and workmanlike for the most part - not surprising after some pretty hard work yesterday - but was pretty good in the last 20 minutes.

Notes from the highway: my tally of places sighted claiming to be the world's largest fireworks warehouse now stands at four (two in Florida, one in South Carolina, one in Alabama). I asuume that they're illegal in Georgia given the enthusiasm with which they're advertised just on the other side of the Georgia border in all directions.

Now in New Orleans until I come home on Friday.

Event: Georgia Navigator Cup
 

It was a happy coincidence that running this fitted into my schedule - I'm always keen to get new orienteering experiences and this was one (for that matter, it was the first time I've got into the forest anywhere for nearly three months).

The conditions took a bit of getting used to - 4 degrees and steady rain throughout (it was forecast to turn to snow but didn't, at least while I was there). The terrain was pleasant, essentially gully-spur in mixed deciduous and pine forest with quite a bit of intricate erosion which the course-setter didn't use as well as he might have done. I didn't really miss anything - one minor wobble and one dubious route choice - but sometimes had trouble getting good lines in the terrain, and working out what vegetation was and wasn't easy to get through (got caught in vines a few times) - an occupational hazard of new terrain. Even allowing a minute or two for that, though, I felt I was running OK, and would have expected to have been a fair bit closer than 8.5 minutes to William - which says something about his form at the moment. On the evidence I've seen here he's at least competitive, and possibly more than competitive, with other potential candidates for the last spot or two in the WOC team like Kerrin and Reuben. Will await developments.

One oddity of the area - the lake the forest is next to is bordered by both South Carolina and Georgia, but has different names depending on which side of the lake you're on. South Carolina named their bit after a local politician (Strom Thurmond, who finally retired from the Senate in 2002, aged 100), but Georgia declined to follow suit.

Often during races I have a song or songs running through my head - usually completely irrelevant to anything I'm doing, but today it was 'The Devil Came Down To Georgia'.

C • Was that 3

A fairly mediocre run, not really surprising as it was coming off a tough day yesterday, not a sequence I normally do. Not as hilly as it was yesterday, although still enough to keep me honest. Dry but windy; the bonus of the wind was that it kept temperatures above freezing, which in turn meant no ice on the ground (I thought there would be, with yesterday's leftover moisture refreezing).

The Asheville leg was productive, especially as I found the document I was looking for (on the background behind parts of a tropical cyclone data set I'm using) in the middle of the 27th box I looked through - the joys of archival work :-).

Looking forward to the orienteering tomorrow, although it looks like a pretty unpleasant day for it - rain turning to snow with temperatures around 4. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the day will be the route-choice problem afterwards, trying to decide how far south to swing to stay clear of the worst of the snow on the way across to New Orleans.

As mentioned a couple of days ago, I thought the weather this morning had the potential to be interesting, and seeing someone from the Weather Channel in the hotel lift last night, sent there to cover the 'story of the day', did nothing to disabuse me of this notion. Naturally, I wasn't about to let minor trivialities like snow deter me from going out this morning. There was about 5 centimetres overnight, which had more or less turned to freezing drizzle by the time I was out there. I went out in full winter gear (thermals, hat, gloves) which I'd normally reserve for -10 or lower, because I didn't want to have much exposed skin with accumulating ice, but as it turned out it wasn't too bad - the only surfaces that ice accumulated on were those not receiving body heat, like the top of my hat and the front of my headtorch. (From the visibility viewpoint I didn't really need the headtorch because snow does such a good job of reflecting the town lights that I could see a couple of kilometres even before sunrise - it was more about other people being able to see me).

The run was hard work at times with several major hills, in particular a half-hour of almost unbroken climbing in the middle (climbing on snow is pretty hard work, too), but it was all worth it for a magical 20 minutes snaking down Patton Mountain Road, a narrow road winding down the side of the hills, with snow only disturbed by a couple of foot tracks (I was by no means the only person out running this morning). Thought the quads might suffer from the long descents but they seem fine. It only became unpleasant in the last 15 minutes, as the heavier traffic closer to the town centre had created a lot of slush.

Definitely a morning to remember (at least for people like me for whom it's a novelty). Not so good from the work point of view though - I may have got here from Melbourne but it looks like a lot of the people I came here to see aren't going to make it in from the suburbs (either because of problems with the roads or because they have kids to look after with the schools closed). Hopefully better luck tomorrow.

C • slush 1

A morning session where I stayed overnight at St.Augustine, on the north Florida coast. This is the original Spanish settlement in Florida and the oldest continuous European settlement in North America, so the town has rather more character than most in this part of the world. Much of my run was rather mediocre - at its best in the later part through the historic district. (As far as I could tell there were no 16th century buildings, but there were plenty of 18th century ones). The radar on TV looked ominous but only a few spots fell while I was out there.

I would have preferred to take a more interesting option north than just straight up the Interstate, but with snow forecast for tonight I wanted to get to Asheville before the snow - or worse, freezing rain - arrived. (For those Australians who've never seen freezing rain, it's where rain falls from warm air aloft into a cold surface layer, becomes supercooled and turns to ice as soon as it hits anything. Nasty stuff, especially on the roads).

Went out for a second session of the days just after arriving in Asheville. The route was more about getting my bearings than taking in the best of the scenery (not least because it was getting dark) - will save the latter for tomorrow. Not a bad run after sitting in the car all day - definitely colder than on other days so far (4) but no moisture yet. A few solid hills for the first time this trip; handled them reasonably well.

This is my third time in Asheville, which is by far my favourite North American town or city. It's a terrific setting (700m up in the Appalachian foothills, with the suburbs snaking up into the hills - a bit like the Dandenongs), and, unusually for an American town of its size (about 80K) its downtown has some real character (and numerous excellent eating places). This is a product of the area's long-time poverty - because the region was so poor in the 50s and 60s the downtown never got bulldozed and concreted the way it happened elsewhere, and by the time some money came into the area in the 80s people appreciated what was there.

As mentioned yesterday, the area where I'm staying in Miami isn't the most optimal for running, but there was a park about 10 minutes run away - it would have been pretty boring going round and round it but it was ideal for an interval session. 10x1 min, 1 min recovery. A pretty good session gaining in speed as it went on - a little lactic towards the end of the last couple of reps but that's what's supposed to happen.

I was reminded that I was in hurricane country because the local council building across the road was the Herbert S.Saffir Permitting and Inspection Center. (Herb Saffir, recently deceased, was a noted hurricane-impacts researcher and was responsible for the 5-category scale: appropriately, the office deals with enforcing building codes).

I didn't expect Miami to be my sort of place - most of the things I knew it for previously were negatives (heat and humidity, fanatical anti-Castro Cubans, sleaze and crime). I'm still not sure I'd want to live here but it was interesting for a visit. One thing I didn't expect to find was a rabidly left-wing talk radio station.

Spotted on the way north - a sign 'Exit: Kennedy Space Center. No Re-Entry'. (Presumably this was a reference to the lack of an on-ramp there).

Swapped my regular weekly routine a bit, partly because Asheville (where I'll be on Friday) is far too nice a place for running to waste a rest day on, partly because it's easier to find a pool in Miami than I suspect it will be in Asheville, and partly because my hotel is in the middle of a shopping mall-and-industrial area which doesn't look the nicest of venues for a run. The swim itself was reasonable, although a bit dizzy by the end as was the case the last time I swam in a hotel pool. Even by the standards of what I expected in Miami the water was warm - surely they don't heat the pools here?

On a work trip you're often insulated from a lot of what goes on in the country around you (although I try to get as much a feel for it as I can), but one place where you do come into contact with the local population is in doing the washing. In this case, a visit to the local laundromat illustrated the extent to which Miami is a Spanish-speaking city - I arrived and someone immediately spoke to me in Spanish without starting in English. My Spanish is pretty well non-existent but I did get the message (that the change machine was broken).

Out at the National Hurricane Center in the western suburbs today (sensibly they've located themselves as far away from potential storm surges as possible). I haven't seen the beach yet but that will come tomorrow when I visit another centre on the coast.

C • Does it come with ice? 2

Running in Asheville might be a bit more interesting than I'd counted on: the current forecast for Thursday morning is "snow, heavy at times".

Had my pick of venues today anywhere between the place I stayed (about 80km SE of Tallahassee) and Miami. I was thinking of Ocala National Forest but was deterred when I read advice that if entering the forest during hunting season (which it is) it was essential to wear bright orange, so instead picked one of the rail trails listed on the Florida map, south-east from Cross City. It wasn't terribly exciting - for most of its length the old railway line ran parallel to the highway - but it was traffic-free. Never a stellar run but kept churning out the kilometres steadily, and only tired at all in the last 15 minutes.

It was quite humid for the run, which went on to turn into torrential downpours on and off for a couple of hours in the Orlando area - there would have been a lot of very wet and miserable small kids at Disney World today. There's a drought there too but I'm not sure if it's yet at the stage where people grit their teeth and say 'it's good for the catchments' like they would in an equivalent situation at home.

First run on American soil. As regular readers will know, I quite often use my runs for other purposes and this one was to investigate the recovery (or lack thereof) from Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (which was the place which actually took the direct hit). Did a loop through Biloxi, starting out along the beach before cutting in to the bay at the back of the town and coming through the centre.

At first coming along the coast it looks like a lot of the damage has been repaired - until you realise that there are about a quarter the number of buildings that there should be for prime waterfront real estate (at least prime in the absence of storm surges). It's a slightly odd mix of gleaming new buildings, buildings under repair, slabs and overgrown vacant blocks. (A lot of the gleaming new buildings are casinos. Gambling was formerly only legal here on boats, but almost all the casinos sank during Katrina - or, in at least one case, ended up a couple of kilometres inland - and obviously the laws have been changed. The effects of casinos haven't changed - one of them had a pawn shop operating in a hut in the car park). An indication of how bad it was here was a sign showing the waterline, up to top-of-door level on a house at least 1.5 kilometres from the shoreline.

It wasn't the most cheery setting for a run (or the best run I've ever had) but that wasn't the point.

It was surprising just how much forest there was on the way east - I'd been driving at least 500km before seeing any evidence of any sort of agriculture. With the long, flat roads lined by pine forests and the odd lake you could be forgiven for thinking you were heading for Tampere rather than Tallahassee (at least at this time of year; I don't think you'd confuse the two in summer).

When I was originally looking at rearranging this week (because of being in Canberra Wednesday night, and leaving it too early Tursday for a long run then to be a realistic proposition), I was thinking of going long today, but was deterred when it became apparent that it would probably be hot - not that I was anticipating 33 degrees at 7.30 a.m.

This was a bit of a token effort - one of those days when you're good for 20 minutes but fade quickly after that. In addition to the heat, a strong headwind on several of the sprints made it hard work. Fastest loop 9.32.

I head to the US later today - looking forward to the science. Also looking forward to some of the running (especially in Asheville and in Georgia), although I suspect New Orleans and Miami may not be quite such an ideal environment.

A remarkably smooth trip to the US. Arrival in New Orleans was on time just about to the minute, the immigration queue in LA was about a quarter the usual length (and the officials were actually friendly), and I'm feeling remarkably unjetlagged for 8.45 p.m.

Getting a government official visa was a pain in the backside (you need one if you're travelling on an official passport), but it has upsides - it meant I didn't have to go through the fingerprint process.

C • Bendigo 5

A flying visit to Canberra to give a talk at the National Mathematics Summer School last night (they usually invite one or two of their old boys/girls to talk about their scientific career). They seemed to particularly enjoy the story of my encounter with 'Today Tonight' a couple of years ago (the one where they managed the trifecta of getting my name, title and institution wrong and edited the word 'not' out of one of my sentences).

Went swimming at Belconnen - pretty early which meant there were a lot of lap swimmers out. Mundane for the most part but built up a nice rhythm in the last couple of laps when there wasn't traffic in the way.

Aranda has long been a gathering place for orienteers - there was a time when you could have assembled a respectable National League team from within a 1km radius of the intersection of Bindubi and Bandjalong. It might produce a few more in time because anyone who can successfully navigate from the northbound Gungahlin Drive into the suburb has already demonstrated some relevant skills. Also spotted a few signs on bus stops 'save the 41', which in its earlier incarnation as the 433 was a regular haunt of mine in school days (to the extent that I gave it as my address in the year 12 handbook).

One of the better long midweek runs I've done in recent times, a solid effort throughout and flowing quite well for much of the middle section. Not bad at finish although not as strong as I would have liked on some of the hills. Pleasantly cool, although very humid (with the secondary impact of a top streaming red in strategic places by the end from chafed nipples).

According to reports yesterday a crowd of anti-republic protestors in Kathmandu were chanting 'Long live the constitutional monarchy'. I trust it sounds better in Nepali.

C • The trouble is 1

A fairly mundane run after a very ordinary night's sleep. Once again back a problem overnight but no problem once awake. A bit weak on the later hills (there were no early hills).

A rather expensive day today - visiting the dentist and getting my car serviced on the same day.

Street-O at Skeleton Creek - went tonight rather than tomorrow because I won't make tomorrow (with a bit of further reshuffling to come). A dead flat area at Hoppers Crossing, but the street pattern (and some nice setting by James Fell) made it quite interesting. Made to work harder than I expected, but responded quite strongly with one of my best street-O efforts this year. Broke away from a bunch of 3 about 1/3 of the way through, but one of the others hung in there and was probably still only 60 metres down with two controls to go. He clearly thought this was unbridgable (he obviously doesn't know about my sprint) and took another route home, which wasn't a good move. I got a stitch myself in the last 800 metres and might have struggled to defend a close finish.

Not a bad session at Fitzroy, a bit earlier in the morning than I normally go (and consequently more people around than there usually are). Back was again uncomfortable overnight and again fine once I'd started moving. Not sure what the problem is but whatever it is I'm not sure that 20 hours on a plane will be exactly helpful, so hopefully it's gone by Friday.

Saw a report today that 700 people at an 'alternative lifestyle music festival' in a forest near Tenterfield had been stranded by floods and that the SES was organising a drop of 'essential supplies' to them. I wonder what constitutes 'essential supplies' to a group of 700 marooned hippies? (and is marijuana still the substance of choice for such people, or have they moved on to other vices?).

Supposedly the MFR Monday night, starting at St. Kilda and going down the beach to the north end of Brighton. (I say 'supposedly' because, as is normal at this time of year - there wasn't much of a turn-up - just Suse and her partner Owen). Did a surprisingly solid session with Owen, working hard into the wind on the way out before coming home quite quickly. Felt reasonably good after yesterday's efforts.

Second of three epics scheduled for the summer. I feared the worst when I got up (a) because it was still 28 degrees and (b) because I'd had a restless night with some soreness in my lower back. The change, such as it was, had some through by the time I started (although it was still 23-24 and quite humid for most of the run, nice if you were in the shade or going into the breeze or both, not so good if you were in the sun and out of the wind). The back was noticeable for the first hour without causing real trouble then settled down well.

On my own for the first 50 minutes from home, then met up with Bruce, Liggo and Reuben at the pipe bridge. Was with them up to Banksia Street, and then back down the east side of the Yarra to Burke Road where I split off to come home. Finished via a slightly unusual route through Ivanhoe, prompted by the availability of reliable water at a particular place on the Ivanhoe playing fields (and the lack thereof at the Eaglemont tennis courts).

Never reached the heights I did at times two weeks ago, but a good solid effort in more difficult conditions. Working pretty hard in the last half-hour but not utterly exhausted.

I won't be too upset to farewell the serious heat for a couple of weeks in a few days' time, although there may be a bit too much contrast - the high on Thursday in Asheville (a lovely place to run from past experience) was -6 (+18 forecast for Monday, though). Miami, and to a lesser extent New Orleans, can still get pretty warm at this time of year, but at least 30 is close to an upper limit.

C • Run length 6

A session on the Kew hills with Bruce (and initially Nicola) on a warm morning. Had memories of a dire session (probably my worst of 2007) on the same hills on the same weekend of last year. Today wasn't as bad as that (got 15 minutes further before my legs refused to surge up another hill) but still not great - I can run hills well in a race but surging up them in a training session is a problem. (As Bruce dropped me on another surge, it seemed a very long time ago since I broke away from him with a hill surge during the 1998 Australian Championships).

Northland on a Saturday morning was just a tad less frantic than it was last time I visited three weeks ago.

Very stiff when I got up this morning, and took a long time to get going once in the pool, but did seem to have the desired effect. Also tried out the new goggles for the first time - they work, which is more than can be said for the last lot towards the end of their life.

A note indicated that Richmond had been judged pool of the year (or something like that) in Victoria by the relevant industry body. Obviously the judges didn't visit the mens' showers (on a typical day a third of them don't work and the others are lukewarm). The pool itself is good, though.

Not as busy a media day as some other annual statement days have been, but still managed nine interviews yesterday (mostly for newspapers).

A lovely morning but for most of the run my performance wasn't matching the conditions, uninspired through the earlier stretches along the Yarra and then downright bad for a section across Montmorency and Watsonia between 70-100 minutes. Unexpectedly came good later on, starting with a section through La Trobe Uni, and the last 20 minutes were quite reasonable.

Saw quite a bit of wildlife along the Yarra, both native (kangaroos) and non-native (rabbits and foxes). I've seen plenty of kangaroos and rabbits in the area but can't remember seeing a fox before. There was a short-lived bounty on them a few years ago - you could get $10 for each fox tail handed in a Natural Resources and Environment office (which led to some inventive criminality when a person or persons unknown burgled an NRE office and made off with several hundred fox tails).

And the prize for the biggest local idiots of the holiday season goes to a learner driver and his companion, who both blew over the limit - outside the Rye police station, which they had gone to in order to retrieve some confiscated alcohol. I assume they didn't get their grog back. (Internationally, it's hard to go past the pair in New Mexico who managed to accidentally shoot themselves while tracing an outline of a .357 pistol to use in a tattoo).

A somewhat sleepy run back at home, thanks mainly to the efforts of Jetstar who managed to be 3 hours late on a 1-hour flight; didn't make it home until close to midnight. Didn't really want to be going back to work in a sleep-deprived state but there you go. At least conditions have cooled considerably since yesterday (although it looks like being a brief respite).

Park Orchards, but not as we know it - the northern part of the old map, crossing to the east of the Warrandyte Road.

First event of 2008 and made my first mistake of 2008 inside the first minute, failing to notice two parallel tracks inside the bush reserve. Retrieved that one easily enough but then made an even more clueless mistake shortly afterwards, being so absorbed in planning for the challenging route-choice problems ahead that I completely forgot to punch 16 as I ran past it and had to come back 100 metres for it. At that point I was still behind Ted van G, Ian Davies and Rachel Johnson, but went through them over the hilly middle section, and I think I got the route choice roughly right (although 14-6-19 was probably a better option than 14-11-19). Enjoyed running through the 100 Acres bush reserve on the way home, but didn't have any great speed (although did manage to trigger the radar speed display running along the road to the finish at a less-than-stellar 13 km/h). I've not found it easy to get 'up' for the street-Os this year and today was no exception. About a minute behind Bryan, which means he can't have had much of a run either.

Old Warrandyte Road between 1 and 18 was an unpleasant historic site for me - the only place I've ever had to abandon a training run because of injury (a knee problem - interestingly, the only knee overuse injury I've ever had - in late 1997). Had to hitch a ride back to where my car was parked which is easier said than done in outer suburbia (the first person I asked said no but then had second thoughts when they saw me limping heavily 500 metres down the road). Had a vague twinge this time in remembrance but it disappeared quickly.

A run from the Fairfax residence up onto some nice farm tracks of varying degrees of roughness. Started out with Louise and Yelena as a warm-up, then did sets of 5x1 minute (walk recovery) and 10x20 secs (20 sec jog in between). Most of the latter set was downhill so it wasn't as demanding in one sense as such a set normally would be, but it was good to train running hard downhill on fairly rough ground. Didn't feel enormously sharp, but does anyone feel sharp at 9 on New Year's morning?