Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

SA Long Championships at Mount Dutton - one big granite mountain (there are a few of them) rising out of the plains of lower Eyre Peninsula, and with one of the better views (out to Coffin Bay and the ocean) of any walk to the start I've had this side of Switzerland. Spent much of the course going around the upper slopes before dropping down late; as expected, the most challenging controls were going downhill into detail, and I didn't always have a lot of confidence doing that, but generally hit the controls OK.

One mistake of any size - 5, where I didn't read the vegetation properly and went too low, losing perhaps a minute. Caught up to John, who'd missed it by more, there; he led me through the next few but I got through him when he made a mistake at 9. Went wider than I needed to to stay in the yellow on the long leg 12-13 and probably lost a bit of time doing that, then got through the last bit without ever feeling technically comfortable doing so. Reasonably happy with the uphill side of things, especially the hill strength - didn't have to walk anything. Was my standard-these-days 35% or so behind Simon, and a similar distance ahead of John (I don't think that trifecta would have paid very much on the TAB).

Trot around Coffin Bay with Jenny early on before a day of exploring, first up a bit of a hill/lookout to the east of town for a decent view, then along the foreshore to the other side of town. Didn't feel totally inspired but then it was fairly soon after I got up. Watch was doing strange things today (unless you think that I really had a kilometre split of 8.30 followed by one of 53 seconds); not sure whether or not this could be explained by proximity to the local mobile phone tower.

Exploring involved going down to Memory Cove (rough track, good scenery, nice weather), and finding out the limitations of the new vehicle in handling sand dunes (somewhat to George's, occasionally vocal, disappointment).

Ecmo may be interested to know that his picture occupies pride of place in the front window of the Port Lincoln tourist office.

First time since I've moved here that I've checked out my new local - Northcote. It's within long walking distance (15-20 minutes) on mornings when I don't have a plane to catch, and has a good long deep end in the outside pool, although I think Fitzroy will still be my preferred option. The one negative is the showers, which appear to operate on a drip irrigation system.

This was a pretty early session due to aforementioned plane (to Adelaide and then Port Lincoln), coming off a late night because I was in an IOF teleconference from 5.30 until midnight (with a bit of a break for their lunch/my dinner). Didn't feel as bad as I thought I might, and didn't feel as sleepy during the day as I thought I might, either. (Not being at work probably helped, although it would have been an interesting day at work after the publication of a new data set and associated paper overnight in the US establishing that global warming didn't stop, or even slow down that much, in 1998).

The other news of the day is that we've got the word from the Sports Commission on funding, and it's reasonably good news on balance - the total amount we'll be getting is actually slightly up on this year (and that doesn't include the extra funding round mentioned in the earlier comments thread). However, it will all be directed at participation in some form or other, and we almost certainly won't be allowed to use it to fund national teams, so we will need to do some rearrangement of what we spend our "own" money on if we want to be able to support those at something close to the existing level.

One of the hazards of running from a new place is that occasionally you'll find yourself going further than intended, realising when you're 30 minutes from your planned finish time that you're still 40 minutes from home by the shortest practical route. Such was the case this morning - I'd planned on 2 hours or maybe a bit shorter, but ended up being at the long end of midweek runs. This ended up working out fine - while I'm not fast at the moment (and, despite feeling more awake at the start than is usual at this time, the start was just as slow as other recent Thursdays), I'm in a nice spot with respect to endurance - rarely in the last two or three years has something in excess of 2 hours felt so easy.

Finishing late put me behind schedule, but I was a lot further behind schedule after dropping my bike off for a service and making the mistake of getting the Smith Street tram in peak(ish) hour - would have been better off walking to Clifton Hill station and getting the train. That wasn't to be my last transport issue of the day - one of the downsides of Fairfield is that expresses don't stop there, so it only gets a train every 20 minutes or so in the evening peak, which makes for a big gap when one of those trains is cancelled.

Maybe the fartlek loop I picked out last week wasn't such a good one; it turns out that parts of it turn into a mudbath in the wet, and now that it's wet it will probably stay wet for the rest of the winter (El Nino notwithstanding). Mudbaths aren't great for trying to run fast on - not that I was really in the right frame of mind to run fast this morning anyway. Decided there were better options after the first loop and kept running sprints up the bike path towards Thornbury, but in a fairly uninspired way.

Headed out early for a practical purpose, namely that of hopefully being able to get the bins at my old place out in time. Achieved 50% of this goal (the normal bins had been emptied but not the recycling ones), so will need to delegate someone to do the rest of the job next Monday night (I'll still be in SA myself). Didn't achieve the goal of having a decent run - this one felt sluggish all the way, even on the downhill stretches through the parks of west Ivanhoe later on (normally a good section).

Starting to get a feel for how long it is home from various reference points; last night showed it was 7 1/2 minutes from Victoria and Mitchell (good running intersection name, that) and today 8 minutes from the Darebin Creek footbridge.

Today's update in the talentless local talent department: an alleged car thief appeared yesterday in the Dandenong Magistrates Court. He was readily identified because of some documents he left behind in the dumped, allegedly stolen car - namely his bail paperwork for another offence which had his name and address on it.

A classic cold outbreak morning which fell squarely into the "nice once you're in" category. This was a reasonably nondescript swim although picked up a bit in the last couple of laps.

Today's nomination for least successful criminal of the day goes to the person who attempted to hold up a petrol station in Bundoora at knifepoint. The attendant told him to go outside and collect his money from the ATM, locked the doors and called the police. At this point one might have expected the (alleged) offender to have scarpered, but instead he apparently believed that the ATM was going to start spitting out money, because he was still standing next to it when the police turned up to arrest him.

Not quite as per the original plan for this evening - I'd dropped my car in to get something fixed this morning and was planning to do a run from there once I picked the car up (in the name of avoiding some traffic by going home later), but the car wasn't finished today, and in any case I realised that what I was planning to cook tonight needed 50 minutes in the oven, so I went home, put said cooking in oven, waited for a heavy shower to pass (which was only a temporary help - I got collected by the next one 25 minutes later) and headed out the door. Felt better than I thought I might have after yesterday (with the help of some spring from a pair of new shoes), but still nothing special.

I realised on seeing a few people around the streets with torches and maps that there was a park/street event on in these parts tonight. Didn't see any controls (I don't think the Monday night events use them?).

Heard the news of Joan Kirner's passing just before setting out. I came to know her a bit in post-political life, partly through ending up on her table at a few quiz nights through a mutual friend (this also ended up in a weekend at Hotham which was the prize the year we won; she, and everyone else in the group, declined to join me in running from Hotham to Feathertop and back).