Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Yesterday the body was feeling good, but it was a different story today - I had a definite sense in my (limited) warm-up that this was going to be one of the one or two random days a month when my back wasn't going to play ball, and so it proved. It was manageable on flat ground and downhill, both of which existed in reasonable quantities on the first two loops, but was no good on any sort of climb, and was gradually getting worse when I decided enough was enough at the end of two loops. At least I got halfway this year - at this rate I'll manage to get to the finish by 2016....

Technically it was a good run with no mistakes of any size, just a couple of questionable lines. Took an out-there route choice from the start, going back through the assembly area and up the road - not sure how it worked out but the people I was around at and after the first common control were roughly those I would have expected to be around on a decent day.

The event itself was a very good one which deserved a better turnout; Kooyoora is a lovely place to be (especially at this time of year) and it was frustrating not to be able to get a result.

C • Back 1

Event: Victorian Middle/Long Distance Championships - Mt Kooyoora
 

Victorian Middle at Kooyoora. What would have been one of my better runs of the year was turned into something less than that when I made a mess of the last control, coming in too low, overshooting and dropping a couple of minutes. First half was excellent, feeling well in control and running comfortably, and generally finding good lines in the terrain. Got a not-so-good line on the short 11 and also cut my finger going into it (one of those injuries that isn't terribly serious but produces a lot of blood), and was having a bit of trouble holding concentration through the remainder, dropping 45 seconds when I didn't see 17 and ran past it, before my final misadventure.

Still a really enjoyable course; ended up 12th of 21 (would have been perhaps 9th or 10th without the late problems). I suspect the bit of terrain we were in tody will be kinder than some of what's in store for us tomorrow, though. Definitely good to get out into the bush after a week like that, although when a simple correction of a century-old typo is enough to warrant another scandal-mongering article you know the conspiracy theory is well on the way to disappearing up its own clacker.

At Ivanhoe - had something to pick up at 9, but in any case Fitzroy might well have been closed because of the fog. A fairly routine session, not as stiff as I might sometimes be on a Friday given the relatively easy week (will be a very different story on Monday, I suspect....).

Things are gradually settling - the Australian has been as feral as ever, but the issue doesn't seem to be getting traction anywhere else. For a skewering of just one aspect of what's been going on, I recommend http://www.readfearn.com/2014/08/climate-change-co....

Might have seen the worst of things now - two of the things I thought might happen today (an appearance in Andrew Bolt's print column, and the Australian explicitly editorialising for sackings) didn't, and it also became clear that the minister's office doesn't see it as a serious issue (after all, they've got other things to worry about).

Joined the MFR crew in the evening at Studley. Just a couple of fast loops given the upcoming race, one partly in the terrain, one on the road. It's the first time I've run a hard kilometre on the road for a long time (not sure the last time I ran a road race, but it's quite a few years, I think) and the others showed me up a bit for pace (or a lot in Todd's case). Still felt reasonable.

Various bits of jogging before and after the harder stuff.

Another day, another hammering (today's lowlight was someone, with whom I've crossed swords on other issues in the past, claiming that he'd worked at the suddenly-contentious Rutherglen site and knew that it had never moved; obviously he's a lot older than I thought he was because it started in 1912). It's been a real roller-coaster ride this week and there have certainly been times when I've wondered if the only circuit-breaker available would be for me to head somewhere else (probably on the other side of the world) on a more or less permanent basis, but there has been a lot of support too - definitely one of those weeks when you find out who your friends are.

I hadn't seen any of this morning's press coverage before heading out on this run, which started sleepy but finished well. With no relevant Banyule landmarks within reasonable reach, I headed south of the river, something I haven't done as much in the last year as previously - out into North Balwyn.

Early start before a 7.40 massage appointment - which meant a certain amount of candle-burning at both ends having only got home at 11 last night. Felt rather sleepy in the beginning and feared the worst, got out of that mode fairly quickly and felt reasonable but pretty slow most of the way given the generally flat ground (up Merri Creek initially). Started to feel it was about to take off in the last kilometre or so, but by then it was time to finish.

The press pummelling continues (but at least it's only one corner of the press). They've progressed from selective quotation of the truth on to outright lies. It's frustrating being absolutely powerless to do anything about it.

Morning swim at Belconnen. Slept abysmally last night - after having held up more or less OK through the weekend (probably through being around friendly faces most of the time) things caught up with me. (Turns out my worst fears about how much traction the weekend's story would get weren't realised - got a bit of an airing from Alan Jones but not a lot else). Swim was mediocre but not as stiff as I thought I might have been.

One wonders what the Australian would have thought if they'd known that my next stop was a South American embassy. The embassy of Paraguay, where I was dropping off a visa application, turns out to operate out of an ordinary suburban house (in as much as any house in Empire Circuit, Forrest can be classified as "ordinary"), complete with kitchen liberally festooned with fridge magnets - not the worst place to, say, be holed up for a couple of years evading another country's arrest warrant. Very nice people, too, although I'm slightly sceptical as to how much of the visa fee (payable in US$ cash only) will see the inside of the Paraguayan treasury.

Headed out for a run after picking up the visa, in an atmosphere of gathering storm (although it didn't really start raining until the last 5 minutes). Definitely a nostalgia trip for significant parts of this run, starting out by going past the former house of a certain other APer before linking up with the back half of the old school cross-country course, behind the Mugga Way houses. For the first 10 minutes it was definitely feeling like it would be tempting to do a Cherry Lane (the short-cut occasionally used by less enthusiastic participants on said course), but improved steadily after that, particularly after rounding the La Perouse sign and recalling the day of doing so (at a speed probably at least 1.30/km faster than today's), seeing no-one in sight within 200 metres and thinking that there might be something to this idea of training.

The next part was also familiar territory - seeing people attempting the triple jump and mostly struggling to make it to the pit. The set-up was, and presumably still is, that you did as many events as you could over a few weeks and got a score out of 20 for each; in my case, this usually meant about 17 for the 1500, 15 for the 800, 12 for the 400 and less than 10 for the rest (the only field event I ever got double figures for was once in the high jump). Disappointingly for entertainment value, the pole vault (which normally about one or two people in each year could do) is no longer contested.

Like many cities, Canberra's drivers don't react well to rain and there was a big traffic jam coming back across the lake thanks to a prang on the bridge. Had to laugh on hearing a traffic report on the radio advising of said crash and saying that police had warned drivers passing the scene to slow down; as my average speed in the kilometre approaching the scene was about 5 km/h I'm not sure how much slower they wanted us to go.

Event: ACT Long Dist Champs at Gibraltar Hill (ACT League # 10)
 

ACT Long Champs at The Gib. This was a plodding performance but got round with no errors of any size (the only thing I'm not putting down as a spike is being a bit higher than I would have liked on 12). Well-set course with some good long legs and not too much on the north end of the ridge with all the fallen timber (this should really be green stripe).

The warm-up was as bad as the last couple of runs which didn't give me much confidence, but the first couple of legs were downhill (and the first section of the course generally was pretty easy physically, only touching on the rock) which gave me a chance to warm up. Got the route choice on 10 right (saddle, then low to the left), but struggled through the very rough section to the map change. Grant, Dave and Andy were near me here. Didn't see Dave again, but was back with Grant again at 19 and Andy at 20 - although as trains go this was definitely closer to all stations to South Morang than Paris-Lyon TGV. They were running faster in the open but not in the rough stuff and we were still sort of together at 25 before the last long leg, but split on that route choice and they got clear (I think, as it turned out, given our relative strengths and weaknesses we would all have been better off had we swapped routes).

Last of the finishers, which doesn't happen often (particularly with a slow but not horrible run). Tired without being shattered at the end (though later snoozed through most of the first half of the Bulldogs-Swans match, as did most of the Bulldogs' team), but was slightly daunted at the end to think that this time next week I'll have at least another hour still to go.

Considerably earlier than usual for a Saturday morning because I had something to get to at 8.30. The best that can be said for this run is that it wasn't as bad as Thursday, but it still left a fair bit to be desired, particularly up hills - not really the lead-in I was hoping for before tomorrow. I might have felt worse if I'd seen this morning's Australian before I started.

The early start also proved to be unnecessary, because I got to where I thought the gathering was, in East Malvern, and it turned out to be in Doncaster.

One more street collected: Anerley Street, at the southwest corner of Ivanhoe. It will be a while before I get another one because the next one is at the extreme northeast end of St. Helena (but at least once I get there there will be four in a cluster).

Not one of my better swims: was feeling tight early on around the right shoulder although that loosened up. The good thing was that I thought after yesterday's shocker that I might be getting sick but there's no further evidence of that.

Learned a new German word today: "Schnappsidee" (literally "schnapps idea"). It refers to having an idea which could only possibly be considered a good idea if one was under the influence of alcohol at the time (say, running onto the MCG without any clothes on).

Yesterday was one of the better runs I've had this year but today was up there with the worst - didn't sleep well at all (for no obvious reason), was weak throughout and back also more troublesome than it has been for a while. Originally set out with 2 hours in mind but in the end decided it wasn't worth flogging myself three days out from a race. Felt a bit sniffly on the run but nothing seems to have come of that in the rest of the day.

Three more streets collected: Anderson Parade and Andrew Place in Bundoora, and Andrews Street, a dead-end not far down from my place in Heidelberg. (There are, somewhat to my surprise, only seven streets by that name in Melbourne - might be a few more in 50 years' time depending on the result of the upcoming election).

One of my work activities today was looking at an evaluation report assessing the veracity of a potential New Zealand record low temperature: -25.6 at Ranfurly in July 1903 (uncovered when some previously unknown documents were found). Seeing names like Naseby and Middlemarch certainly evoked various NZ orienteering trips, especially the latter which was visited on one of the great orienteering road trips I've been on, the 1997 one with BJ, Jamie Potter and Nick Hain (all of whom were 15-16 at the time). I think the event there was run on the Gladbook property where there was an unofficial observation of -25 on that day in 1903 (which makes me think the Ranfurly number is OK).

South Wharf intervals. Somewhat unexpectedly, this was the best session of its type I've run in a long time - certainly the first time for a long time (a couple of years?) that I've had rep times with a 5 in front of them, with consistent 58s and 59s in the second half. Working hard, and just starting to get a little lactic on the last couple. Nice to stress the body and have it respond positively - something which has been all too rare of late.

Warm-up and down. Was already feeling promising in the warm-up; the calf tightness from the last couple of days had eased significantly (and the heel is getting close to being right again, too).

Left calf extremely tight when I got up and for the early stages of this run, but it gradually loosened up and by about 3k this was a reasonably normal run. Felt confident enough to take on a reasonable number of hills today, including the Bulleen pipeline track which is definitely a proper rollercoaster. Coming back up the hill was a bit easier than it had been two days earlier....

Have ticked off another couple of pre-trip jobs at lunchtime - getting 5x5cm photos for visas and some US$ in small denominations. Working in the CBD definitely has its advantage when it comes to this sort of thing.

Pool run at Fitzroy - a swap of typical sessions because Friday logistics will fit a swim better. The main objective here was to loosen up some muscles which were decidedly tight when I got up this morning; not sure how effectively this mission was achieved but the session itself felt OK.

There is supposedly a police blitz on this week on offences involving cyclists (both by cyclists themselves and by motorists involving cyclists or facilities for them). Among those not booked this morning include the truck driver who stopped across the bike/pedestrian crossing outside the pool, and three separate drivers in different places who thought bike lanes were good places to double park. (For all that gets said on the airwaves, it's pretty rare to see a cyclist going through a red light in Melbourne - possibly a result of the near-extinction of the CBD bicycle courier).

Return, for the first time in a long time, of the MFR Monday night run, from the bike shop. Just the four of us running (mostly recovering from various things) on a slow trot around Clifton Hill and Studley Park. Calf very tight at the start but got through the run more or less OK.

I'd earmarked this weekend for something long, wanting to get at least one proper long run in before Kooyoora (after the aborted attempt to do so two weeks ago). The signs earlier this week weren't always totally encouraging but I decided to give it a go anyway (knowing that my planned route was one that could easily be cut off into about a 16k if things went pear-shaped).

Things didn't go pear-shaped; most of the way this was a reasonably solid run, with a few niggles from time to time but not anything that seemed like any great drama (and no serious leg muscle tightness of the sort experienced during the week). Moderately undulating for most of the way without too many really serious hills. In the later stages, though, I was definitely hanging on, especially in the last 10 minutes. I'll probably need to find another hour in two weeks' time, although in that race I'll presumably have eaten something, unlike today (the absence of gels today being a consequence of the fact that the ultra-long sponsors use couriers who don't seem to offer any real alternative to delivering to an address where someone is present during business hours - how do other people solve this problem? At least only $40 has gone down the tube in this process and not hundreds). Pretty tired through the rest of the day.

I did this a bit later in the morning than would be the case during the summer, which meant plenty of people out and about, and quite a bit of traffic in places (Rosanna Road was as clogged as it is on a weekday morning, although at that point - 1k from home - this was a good thing because it meant I could cross between the stopped cars). I also spotted some blatant law-breaking, in the form of a couple of girls of about 12 engaging in some healthy outdoor activity on roller blades - it was revealed in this morning's paper that, in what won't go down as a triumph of legislative drafting, in the process of putting through well-intentioned laws to stop people leaving toddlers in hot cars, the Victorian government has managed to make it technically illegal to leave anyone under 16 unsupervised at any time.

One of the standout features of today's run, though, was the greatest progress yet in a single run in the collection of streets: no fewer than seven. The scorecard reads Amiet St, Greensborough; Aminya Cres, Yallambie; Aminya Pl, Briar Hill; Anaba Ct and Anama St, at the top and bottom of Greensborough respectively; Ananda Ct, Watsonia; and Anderson St, on the Banyule side of Heidelberg (which, like its better-known namesake, has a hill).

I'm setting the Victorian Relays on the north end of Crocodile Reservoir - not really the terrain one would choose for relays (not much detail), picked after our first choice fell through. Still, there's a fair bit of potential for route choice and hopefully that's been realised (on the two longer courses, anyway). If there are any complaints on the day I won't be that easy to find - by the time the event happens I'll be on the other side of the world (not sure exactly where on the day, but West Virginia is a reasonable working estimate).

Decided to kill a couple of birds with one stone and went for a run which took in the more distant controls; haven't been in terrain for three weeks so thought this would do me some good. Didn't sparkle on hills but got up all of them (and there are a few here). No injury issues on the run, although I was to do a bit more damage to my heel later in the day in the process of celebrating the goal which put Essendon in front (not the first time I've done myself an injury in such circumstances).

Feeling somewhat better today - sufficient to go out at lunchtime, at any rate. Didn't feel all that lively (despite the nice weather), and a little bit of tightness in the left calf but not as bad as earlier in the week. Lots of pedestrian traffic around, including a lot of kids for a school day (was it a student-free day for a lot of schools?); almost enough for pedestrian traffic jams in some of those places where footpaths are constrained by building work.

One landmark of the commute, the Stokers pancake restaurant near Darebin station, closed a few weeks ago (I was surprised to read this in the paper - I thought it had been closed for years, having never seen anyone go in or out of it) and has already become impressively derelict with considerable assistance from the local vandals. (It's apparently soon to be demolished and turned into apartments).

It hasn't been the most uplifting of weeks - it's rather disturbing to realise that people as deluded as Maurice Newman have the ear of the most senior levels of this government. At least other developments perhaps make it more likely that we only have to put up with this lot for another two years.

Calves had improved but heel hadn't (if anything it was worse), so decided to go out on the bike instead - an out-and-back to St. Kilda before the process of being once again separated from a large amount of money by a car repair workshop. Fishermens Bend has its advantages for a training ride (not many traffic lights) and its disadvantages (big trucks, some of whom operate on the basis that the largest vehicle has right of way whatever the road rules say). Reasonable ride without being anything too exciting; a little bit of wind but nothing compared to what my southern-dwelling collegues sometimes have to deal with.

I'm assuming this is now the theme song of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption?

Doing this in the early morning meant I hadn't yet seen the day's major outbreaks of stupid, whether it was Maurice Newman once again indulging his climatic fantasies in the pages of the Australian (not on the front page - that was devoted to trying to make the case that the Essendon scandal was all Labor's fault), or some less than stellar budget salesmanship on the part of the Treasurer (as it happens, I broadly support the particular policy he was trying to sell, subject to its regressive impacts being compensated by other means, but that didn't mean I didn't enjoy his putting his foot in it). It is indeed true that on average high-income households spend more on petrol than low-income households do, but I suspect the relationship would be a lot weaker if old-age pensioners (who generally don't have much income and don't drive much) were taken out of the averages.

C • You had a good airing on AB... 1

C • more theme songs 4

Tightness had moved down my leg to the calf today - I think the main driver for this is still not walking properly because of the heel (which was even less comfortable this morning than it was yesterday). The original plan for lunchtime was intervals; decided to go out and see if it loosened up. It didn't really loosen up, and while it was at a level that could have been pushed through if it mattered, I decided it would be better to play it safe - running with altered form on an injury can be an invitation to further trouble. Hopefully sorts itself out fairly soon but have some plans B for the next couple of days.

Some googling revealed that the most common solutions to cracked heels involve skin moisturiser (this may or may not be through search engine optimisation by people who are in the business of selling it). Might have to try this one at the risk of forfeiting some blokedom points.

Spotted on the way into work this morning: a poster for an upcoming national tour by a band. Either they like flying or their knowledge of Australian geography isn't very good because they have gigs on successive nights in Adelaide, Melbourne, Karratha and Fremantle.

And an occasional series on the misfortunes of petty offenders: from our local paper this week following a prang in Mernda:

"Police booked an 18-year-old Macleod man for driving without a licence, issued a defect notice for the car which he did not own, and asked him to arrange for someone to pick him up from the scene. Sen-Constable Coulson said the man's sister came to pick him up, however police found she was driving on a suspended licence. He said a short time later two men came to pick the siblings up. Sen-Constable Coulson said police discovered one of the men was the registered owner of the non-roadworthy car the 18-year-old man had initially crashed. He said the other man who had driven the pair was driving on a suspended licence and his car was unregistered and not roadworthy".

C • Blokedom 7

C • Domino theory strikes. 1

Didn't sleep that well thanks to a trivial-seeming-but-annoying problem - some cracked/split skin on my heel which was painful enough to wake me up when I rolled onto the wrong spot. (I've had this on the soles of my feet before, but not there). This was a non-issue as soon as warmed up, but the run was then lacking energy throughout, and much in the way of strength on such hills as there were.

It was then an eventful ride in; I pulled up suddenly at an intersection to let an ambulance pass, thus potentially creating more need for said ambulance as it triggered a pile-up of about eight bikes behind me. No serious damage to bikes or bodies as far as I know.

There may yet be more significant injury issues to worry about than the cracked skin; while I didn't notice anything on the run, I've pulled up afterwards with dull soreness in the left leg below the knee, which doesn't feel too painful in itself but has the sense of being a precursor of something more substantial. Will see what it's like in the morning before making a decision on how (if at all) to amend training plans.

Taking the plunge on a somewhat chilly morning (which became watery on the ride in to work). Not as slow as some of my recent swims (though still not that fast), possibly a result of having cause to make a certain number of overtaking manouevres (yes, there were people at Fitzroy this morning who are even slower than I am).

Lunchtime around the Tan (stopping briefly to talk with Bruce). Felt quite reasonable coming off a long run, and hopefully the most recent injury issues are behind me (for now). One sharp but short-lived shower.

Spent quite a bit of time thinking about Essendon, partly about what's going on in the court case and partly about scenarios for them to make the finals. In the former case, as I understand it, what's going on is that the AFL effectively has the power (through its ability to suspend/deregister people) to compel witnesses to give evidence, whereas ASADA didn't have the power at the time (it does now) to compel people to self-incriminate, and Essendon are arguing that ASADA shouldn't be able to use evidence obtained via the AFL that they couldn't legally get themselves. This sounds like a technicality but it's the sort of thing that the legal system takes seriously and it wouldn't surprise me if Essendon win the case (whereupon ASADA will presumably open another investigation, this time under the new law). Needless to say all of this sheds exactly no light on who took what, whether it was banned, and the ethics of whatever happened whether it involved any banned substances or not.

I was much happier thinking about finals scenarios - which boil down to almost certain if they win their last three, highly probable if they win two as long as the West Coast game is one of the two, possible to unlikely for anything else.

2-hour event at Berwick which I took as an opportunity to do a long(ish) run somewhere different. Some heavy showers in the 30 minutes before the start but it stopped just before we headed out and we did OK with water coming out of the sky (just one brief sharp shower). Different story on the ground, though, with almost every grassed area which wasn't on top of a hill sodden and much either slippery or muddy - a reminder that the relatively dry last few weeks in inner Melbourne haven't been matched in the outer east.

Unusually for one of these events, it was obvious fairly early on that there was no chance of getting the lot. That did take a few controls out of play (40, on the top of a big hill in the middle of nowhere, and a couple on the western edge), but did make for some more interesting strategic decisions than might otherwise have been the case. Had a bad patch through the middle of the run but much improved in the final half-hour (whether this will extend for the further 1-2 hours which will be needed in three weeks' time is an open question). Decided at the end that I was going to chance an out-and-back to one extra control and managed to find a sprint finish in the dash for home, but didn't make it.

I assume that the signs for Ernst Wanke Road are regularly augmented by local graffitists.

Made the mistake of visiting Fountain Gate (a shopping centre the size of a small suburb) on the way home (in search of a USB charging cable from Dick Smith). I think I may have expressed the wish previously that there is a special place in hell reserved for those responsible for shopping malls that have got rid of their maps and want you to install their app to be able to find where anything is, and Fountain Gate is even worse than Doncaster in that respect.

C • You were brave! 5

It was a pretty late night last night thanks to the less than efficient rail system coming back from the football (no trains for more than 20 minutes, meaning that the crowd was spilling back well into Wellington Parade; don't think the Napthine government was winning too many votes on the platform of Jolimont station). Didn't sleep that well either and had a reasonably busy day ahead, but still managed to fit a run in the window that was available for it - on a classic Saturday route (at least when I'm not chasing streets), the Yarra Flats path to Wilson Reserve and then onwards from there. Reasonable run but not terribly special; still, seem to be through the worst of the back/hamstring issues (though tomorrow will tell me a bit more about that).

Winning votes was also the theme of the afternoon - my first stint of doorknocking in an election campaign for more than 20 years. (The first time I did it, in Canberra in the early 1990s, it was an eye-opening experience for non-political reasons - my "patch" included a retirement village and it was fairly obvious that for some of those there I was their first human contact for weeks). Not a lot of people at home, but the response was almost entirely positive from those who were. Unsurprisingly, for those on Rosanna Road the most commonly mentioned issue was trucks on Rosanna Road.

Noticed at Preston Market today that pig's heads were on sale for $1 each, although I'm not sure what you use a pig's head for other than to send a message to people you don't like - something which is done by other means in some parts of town.

C • Despite being vegetarian... 1

Pool running at Ivanhoe, a little later in the morning than usual, to fit in with the rest of the morning's logistics (which involved being at the post office on the stroke of 9am to pick up what indeed turned out to be my passport back from the Brazilian embassy). It was a reasonably relaxing session; seem to have come up OK from yesterday.

This was an unusual point of origin, if not totally unexpored territory - I had something on at Lalor at 6pm and so used Reservoir station (whose car park was already fairly full at 6.15am, probably because it's the last zone 1 station on that line) as my launch pad.

Definitely felt like I'd rather be somewhere else for the first 20 minutes, but this then became one of those reasonably typical Thursday runs which progressively built up; the third quarter was pretty good, and while I felt I was tiring towards the end, got a nice second wind in the last 10 minutes, doing an extra loop past Preston Reservoir (which is actually in Reservoir, but I guess calling it the Reservoir Reservoir would be a bit silly - especially as the first word would be pronounced "war" and the second "wah"). No injury issues though the flatness may be relevant to that.

Coming in from a slightly unconventional direction, two more streets were ticked off: Ambrose Treacy Drive in Bundoora and Amethyst Walk in a new development where the Mont Park asylum used to be. The former is next to Parade College and is presumably named after someone from the Christian Brothers (and fittingly, one of the early houses in the street had a statue of the Virgin Mary out the front). Without making any suggestions about the individual concerned, the thought did cross my mind at this point as to whether I would consider it necessary to do a street again in the event of its being renamed by virtue of the present incumbent falling into disgrace. (I've mused here previously as to what might have happened to all the things named after Russ Hinze had he lived long enough to be convicted of receiving the bribe that someone else was convicted of paying).

First street-O for a while, at Camberwell, treating it as an intervals session (alternate legs) after warming up on the first four - something which always confuses those around (not that there were many of those tonight).

Unusually for a winter Wednesday night, getting all the controls inside 60 minutes was not a formality. It was fairly obvious that 12, on the western edge of the map, was only worth getting if you thought you could get them all, but I wasn't prepared to make the call that early in the course that I couldn't. Knew I was struggling, though, and even though the course got a bit less convoluted later on I had to drop a couple. Route was a bit suboptimal, I suspect. Felt reasonably good when running hard though pace doesn't seem great - difficult footing on a dark, damp night might have contributed to that, as might slow punching in an ultimately vain attempt to stop my card from falling apart. (Don't know if they're using a lighter grade of card these days - I've never had my card reduced to pulp before, and even before the days when wet-weather events usually have waterproof cards, I've run in much worse conditions than tonight's).

Various things are being checked off my to-do list: got the necessary injections for South America this morning, which meant slightly sore shoulders tonight (also got the good news that malaria isn't a risk anywhere that I'm going, although dengue fever is - but then it can be in north Queensland, too), and have a card for registered mail to be collected from the post office which I presume is the Brazilian visa.

Through West Heidelberg and west Ivanhoe, partly in pursuit of a couple more streets (Ambon Ct and Ambrose St) that I would have gone to last Saturday had I lasted the distance. Made use of this for delivering a different set of political newsletters (I normally mail this cluster), one of the drop-off points being a little concerning because the mailbox of one of our more elderly members was overflowing. (I've dropped a note to the local MPs office asking if they can check that she's OK).

Had a few twinges but nothing on the scale of the weekend, and after the inevitable-these-days slow start, felt pretty reasonable through most of the second half. It was a warmer morning than the last few.

Whilst on the political theme, I'd noticed last night on the way home that the mobile billboard of the local Liberal candidate was parked by the roadside next to a reserve in one of the dodgier bits of West Heidelberg (it's the same reserve where we turned up for a late 1990s Summer Series event to be greeted by a burnt-out car in the car park). Went past again this morning and it was gone, but whether it was moved by its rightful owners, stolen, or impounded by the local council for not having whatever permits it needed, is unknown.

C • Own party? 1

Decided to have a break from running today in the hope of settling my back down a bit. Still did the regular Monday morning swim, but at Northcote rather than Fitzroy - as noted in last week's entry, we'd been warned that the heating at Fitzroy was going to be under repair today, and with its being the second in Melbourne's coldest pair of nights since 1997 I wimped out. Northcote is the other extreme - very warm (probably too warm, at 32 degrees). Didn't feel too bad swimming, but very slow, especially for a 25-metre pool.

Probably the most notable stats from the weekend were that Sunday was, in area-averaged terms, Victoria's coldest August night since 1944, and also saw the equal-lowest on record for August for any site in SA (-6.0 at Yunta - definitely wouldn't have been a good night for camping in the Flinders). There were all-time record lows at Hay, Hillston and Hawker, though at all three of those locations the observing site has moved from in town to a colder location out of town (Hay and Hillston in the mid-1990s, Hawker in 2005) so it's not quite as impressive as it looks. Of my set of 112 long-term sites, the score is one outright August record (Marree) and two equal ones (Mildura and Adelaide).

C • in Hay, Hillston and Hawker 2

Melbourne Bush-O at Eaglemont Flats. Didn't feel as if I was horrendously tired but the stopwatch doesn't lie (and the back wasn't really playing ball again); was a good 3-4 minutes below par when comparing against the rest of the field (and doing close to 6s on straight legs in open country is also indicative). One trivial but careless slip (looking on the wrong side of a track) which only cost me a few seconds.

Great turnout again today: 172 entries, which with a lot of groups probably translates to over 200 people, many of them juniors and family groups. Shows what can be done when you can put worthwhile events on close to where people are. Wouldn't have hurt that it was such a nice day (after a very cold start, at least by Melbourne standards).

Started out with thoughts of 2.30 (after a somewhat later start than usual for a Saturday because I was waiting to take possession of a new washing machine; removal of its defunct predecessor revealed the whereabouts of two of my many missing socks, matching in colour - mouldy black - after an indeterminate number of years under the old one, but definitely not a pair).

The late start did mean I missed the last clearing showers on what turned into a reasonable, if cold, day, and it was a decent run through the first half-hour. It was OK through the next section too, a hilly section through Lower Plenty, in pursuit of Amberley Way, a part of town which features mansions as grand as what you'll find in Toorak and large semi-rural blocks, some of them behind formidable fences (presumably Mick Gatto's place is one of those). By the top of the Bonds Road hill, though, my back was starting to give trouble, along with related places like hamstrings. I pressed on for a while but it was gradually deteriorating, and when it failed to loosen up on the downhill section into Macleod I decided to make discretion the better part of valour and came more or less straight in (via the Cape Street route so that I could get as close as possible to home before hitting a significant hill, in case I found myself unable to run significant hills - an unnecessary contingency as it happened). Wouldn't have wanted to be going much further.

I'm keen to get at least one run in the 2.30 range behind me before the Ultra-Long. Today wasn't it, but hopefully I'll be able to manage it on one of the next two weekends.

One of those "nice once you're in" mornings at Fitzroy. (Perhaps it's as well that it's not next Monday and Tuesday, when the heating system is being replaced and signs warned the pool temperature will be "colder than normal"). Working reasonably solidly this morning and worked any stiffness from yesterday out nicely. Even managed to miss most of the rain riding, both to and from work.