Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A business-as-usual Sunday long run, and it's a long time since I've been able to say that; apart from Wilsons Prom which was a special case (and had numerous stops), this was the longest I've done in eleven months, at a moderately decent pace on a moderately hilly course.

Started out through North Balwyn and Mont Albert on what historically is a reasonably well-trodden path for my longer runs, taking in one of the longer hills in that part of Melbourne (past Clemmie's old house), before coming back through Ruffeys Creek and Templestowe; rarely especially steep, but the only flat sections of any length were near the two Yarra crossings.

The definition of "dawn" for dawn services must have been reasonably elastic because a couple of times the sounds of buglers drifted across the suburbs (this being the leafy eastern suburbs, somebody probably complained to the council about the noise). Another sight of the day was a boy wearing a Richmond jumper and a Melbourne beanie; a few weeks ago this combination would have been prima facie evidence of child abuse. (The red and blue was more in evidence on the street this morning than I've seen for years; I wonder why?).

I tired a bit in the last 20 minutes, but not by enough to be of any real concern, and was generally pretty happy with the way this one went.

Taking on a few more hills this time as I headed out through Bulleen and Templestowe. Started out by being greeted by an electronic sign that said the road would be closed on the 22nd of April (and it was doubly useless because it was a couple of hundred metres past where the road was closed). That wasn't the only thing to be overtaken by events - the ABC radio community notices included advice that the Melbourne Storm premiership cup was on display today at Portland. At least the NRL now knows where to find it.

The first 15 minutes were nothing special, highlighted only by an exchange of unpleasantries after I suggested a dog owner might care to control his animals a bit more effectively, and the first couple of hills were hard going, but got progressively better and was climbing with some confidence by the end. On the whole a pretty solid effort. Later on it looked like I might be getting very wet in the later part of this run, but the storm cell passed to the south and it stayed dry. (I suspect 'Storm Cell' is too jargonish to be used as a Herald-Sun headline in the event that someone ends up in prison as a result of the current rugby league shenanigans, but I'm willing to be proven wrong).

You don't often get an opportunity to spend a 21-degree morning in the water in Melbourne as late as 23 April - in fact no-one in recorded history has had the opportunity to do so (it is the latest date on record in autumn for a minimum over 20). The conditions were well suited to the water, and it was a reasonable session in the water too.

And now, one for anyone who wants to know why you need to pay attention when ASADA do their drug education sessions:

"Olympic 400 metres champ LaShawn Merritt of the United States has been suspended after testing positive for an anabolic steroid contained in an over-the-counter penis enlargement product".

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/olympic-champion-me...

This, in turn, reminds me of a report some years ago of a scam in which someone was selling something they called a "penis enlarger" by mail order - "be as big as you want to be without surgery or drugs". Anyone who was silly enough to send the requisite sum to the post office box was sent - a magnifying glass. As a spokesman from Consumer Affairs put it, they didn't know how many victims the scam had because they thought that most people who had fallen for it would be too embarrassed to complain.

C • Just what 5

It's probably the right time to dig this one out, which dates from 2002:

Canberra Cockatoos in Salary Cap Scandal

Scandal engulfed the Australian orienteering world today as it was revealed that the Canberra Cockatoos had been in breach of the National Orienteering League salary cap for the last five years. Their fate will be considered at an urgent meeting of the Orienteering Australia board tomorrow.

Documents obtained by the ‘Australian Orienteer’ reveal that the Cockatoos exceeded the salary cap by $950,000 in 2002, and that they were committed to breaching the cap by at least $1 million in 2003 and 2004. The scandal has been linked to irregularities in the planning of the new Cockatoos clubhouse, a 1.2 hectare complex featuring an Olympic swimming pool, a 3000-seat indoor-O arena and 700 poker machines, proposed for a site in Wybalena Grove, Cook. The documents reveal, among other things, that an unnamed team member’s mother had been paid $200,000 in 2002 to tape the team’s ankles prior to events.

Other teams were outraged by the revelations and demanded that the Cockatoos be thrown out of this year’s National League, which they lead comfortably with three rounds remaining. ‘We’ve been losing our talent to Canberra for years, and all we got in return was one plodder and some dud draft picks’, said a Victorian Nuggets spokesperson.

Cockatoos officials hit back, claiming that the Victorians had only themselves to blame for their poor recruiting. ‘In the last few years, they’ve had the top draft pick twice and blown it on Nick Hain and Shura Jones, neither of whom ever ran a race for them’, said Cockatoos coach Jason McCrae. ‘Other teams are just jealous of our success and don’t want to do the hard work of rebuilding a team’. He also suggested that Victoria’s salary cap copybook was hardly clean, pointing out that several members of their team were ‘employed’ by team sponsor Melbourne Bicycle Centre. Victorian official Blair Trewin, currently facing an ASIC investigation for allegedly allowing the Eureka cake stall to trade while insolvent, was unavailable for comment in response to McCrae’s allegations.

The scandal threatens to break up the Cockatoos team that looked set for a ninth successive premiership. No state was willing to openly announce its intentions yesterday, although NSW supremo Dave Lotty angrily denied reports that his state had entered into an arrangement whereby surplus Cockatoos could repeat year 12 at Kings and qualify for the NSW schools team. A cloud also hangs over the Cockatoos’ building plans, with ACT planning minister Simon Corbell unwilling to commit himself yesterday over whether they would get the nod from the ACT government.

The Cockatoos squad trained as normal last night, unfazed by the media frenzy enveloping them. ‘We’ll come out of this stronger than ever’, said McCrae.

A flat 1.43 at 7am isn't quite a hilly 2.10 at 6, but it's a closer approximation to it than anything I've done midweek for a while (except for the Prom). Generally happy with the way this one went. The car was getting serviced this morning at Docklands so I headed from there down the coast as far as Elwood Beach. Again a slow start - I take a bit of warming up these days - but then reasonably smooth and a better pace than recent days. Tired a bit towards the end, but a hint as to the reason why came when I sank a litre of wate rin about 10 seconds flat after finishing; with a weak sun it's easy to underestimate a warm day (and today, the second-latest autumn 30-degree day in Melbourne's history, was certainly warm).

Encountered a rather surprised work colleague riding in the opposite direction near Elwood.

And my fame must be spreading; I've received my first international abusive e-mail (previously the furthest afield had been from rural WA). I don't get anywhere near the volume that some in my field do so it's only mildly annoying. If there are any particularly entertaining (or entertainingly illiterate) example I'll post them here.

Another not-especially-inspiring run, feeling particularly ponderous on the hills of Kew. A bit less sore than the last couple of days. Will be interesting to see how tomorrow's longer (although flat) session goes.

Booked my tickets to Europe today - getting in (according to Troy) just before fares go up faster than a volcanic ash cloud (at least in the short term). If you're thinking of going to Europe and haven't booked yet it might well be in your interests to move very quickly (like tomorrow).

I was somewhat bemused by a quote this morning from the secretary of the Police Association to the effect that he had no idea why the Office of Police Integrity was running the investigation into the Carl Williams murder. I'm not sure what sort of policeman he was before holding office in the association, but he obviously wasn't a detective; whoever (in effect) leaked the information to the Herald-Sun that Carl Williams was an informer would have done so either with reckless indifference as to the likely outcome or deliberate intent to cause the likely outcome, and if it's the latter, that could be either because the leaker thought Carl Williams was scum who was better off dead, or because the leaker stood to lose out from whatever evidence Carl Williams might give. No, I can't work out why the OPI might be interested either.

Fartlek session from home. You need to be up for this and I wasn't, although I got going a bit later on. Achilles again a little touchy although not too serious.

The morning didn't get a great deal better; my plan was to get the train because of a late night at work tonight, but that fell through when our line ceased to function. At least the reason was original - the train in front of us caught fire. Also, at least I was at my station of origin and had an available plan B, taking to the bike (albeit 40 minutes later than hoped). Others weren't so fortunate.

This was a morning for things going right - felt good on the bike, got just about all the lights coming in, and then the person on the counter at Fitzroy Pool didn't have change for my $50 and let me in for nothing. The swim was pretty good too; like my running, seem to be improving gradually from a pretty low low point, especially in the last couple of laps.

Monday night was supposed to be from my place this week, but a late notice and the remote location meant very few takers (something I wasn't too upset about because of a clash with an election campaing meeting called at short notice), so we cancelled, and I went for a run myself just before heading to the meeting. I did this more or less straight off the bike which felt a bit odd initially (the triathletes must get used to it); pretty sluggish early but got going better after about 10 minutes. A rather humid night for this time of year. A little bit more Achilles soreness at the end than has been typical of late, but I'll only worry if it stays like this.

I've had to do some fairly rapid learning to be able to make intelligent comments about volcanoes (although I haven't advanced far enough to be confident of being able to pronounce the name of the mountain). I'm obviously not the only person who's had a bit to learn because in an interview today with the ABC Country Hour in SA I started talking about the short-term local climate effects of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption and the interviewer made a comment about it producing ash a kilometre deep. I thought 'WTF?' and then realised (hopefully fast enough for not too much dead air) that she was thinking of the Yellowstone eruption several hundred thousand years ago.

(She sounded rather disappointed when I said that the volcano was unlikely to have any significant climatic effects and was therefore not going to wipe out Europe's crops. The best Australia's farmers can hope for out of this - not that I said this on air - is that European governments will have to spend so much bailing out airlines that they won't have any left for farm subsidies, although recent experience suggests that just because they've spent all their money on A doesn't stop various European governments from spending money they don't have on B).

C • Running after biking 1