Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Not as long as many recent Christmas sessions, partly because the logistics of Christmas change when you wake up in a house with a number of small people, and partly because today's conditions weren't going to be especially long-run friendly.

Headed out with Jim towards Eaglemont Flats as far as the tennis courts. Still pretty hard work - this is more than I'd usually do coming off a long(ish) run and the weather was reasonably hard going (26/17).

One of the beauties of being out at 8am on Christmas morning is that it's the one time of the year when you'll see more bikes and runners out than cars - my Facebook feed in the morning was a mixture of present-opening and Christmas morning exercise. Didn't see any new bikes or cricket bats in use yet in the neighbourhood.

Started today with the intent of going for two hours if I could, but it quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to be a day for pushing boundaries - possibly my tiredness yesterday (also evident this afternoon) was an indication that I'm not 100% well. Certainly every hint of a hill was hard going. Felt a bit better in the last 20 minutes (after a stop to talk to a friend I saw on the Darebin bike path), but was slowing by that stage (and Achilles was a bit sore) and thought 90 minutes would be enough for today.

Will have another go at going longer next week, hopefully once the change has gone through. (It wasn't particularly hot when I was out there - thanks to a thunderstorm which was enough to get parkrun called off but didn't produce more than a few spots of rain - but fairly humid).

C • parkrun called off? 2

At Northcote. A fairly reasonable morning's work - felt OK during this session, although then felt as if I'd hit the wall at the end of the working day this evening - not a lot of energy for the ride home. (I'd got myself into "get this finished before going home" mode, and was just about the last person left in the building other than the forecasters - and it's been a fairly draining three weeks, with not much time off and three interstate trips, which I try to pretend don't tire me out but I'm in denial).

Part of the workday was spent trying to hose down, without much success, the claim in certain parts of the media that Adelaide's going to be the world's hottest "capital city" on Christmas Day. (If you're counting state and provincial capitals, the current forecast for La Rioja, Argentina is 44).

Not quite a Proper Thursday Long Run yet, but getting closer to one, taking advantage of the last cool day for a while. Started out going up Darebin Creek (using the tracks rather than the bike path where I could), as far north as the north end of West Heidelberg, before coming back through Heidelberg Heights and past the Repat. (A sign that Heidelberg Heights is moving up in the world - there's now a cafe in the shopping strip where for many years the only functioning business appeared to be Vinnies). Still on the slow side, but felt like I had a bit in hand today - the flatter course probably helped there - and was still feeling reasonably comfortable at the end, which augurs well for trying to go longer on the weekend (probably on Saturday).

We're in the sprint to the finish line at work; I had a fairly long to-do list of my own which was supplemented by contributing to other people trying to clear their own to-do lists (and the variety of interesting weather expected in the next few days adds to the information we need to have in hand). Not expecting an early finish tomorrow. A few other government agencies have also been busy, as identified by those journalists who are in the business of keeping an eye out for reports which the government would prefer people not to notice hitting the streets this week (for the second year in a row, the annual report of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions fell into this category).

Event: Sydney Summer Series #12 - The Spit
 

Up in Sydney for the day for work, and organised a lat(ish) flight back in the hope of getting out for my first taste of a Sydney Summer Series event. This mission was accomplished - the transport logistics meant that I had about a 1 1/4 hour window to fit in a 45-minute score event, on the southern side of The Spit.

This was my first attempt at any serious hills since the injury and it was certainly a bit of a wake-up call - some very steep hills and plenty of stairs, which were pretty hard work. The scenery's a bit better than it is at Melbourne street-Os, though, and there were some (on-track) sections in Sydney bush which was a nice touch.

My route wasn't optimal for point-scoring, mainly because I went to the stranded-at-the-bottom-of-a-cliff 21 (thought there might have been a gap on the map near 23, but there wasn't), but nice for scenery, with the controls I dropped being mostly suburban ones at the south end. Found a bit at the end to get in in time, but it meant I couldn't get two controls on the oval.

Major differences from Melbourne: full SI, colour maps, and you can plan your route beforehand (some spend a lot of time doing so).

The reason I was in Sydney: to be involved in selecting a new observing site (the current site is going to be unacceptably compromised by planned building nearby). Looks like we've found a good one on the grounds of the old Observatory itself, about 100 metres away, so a good result.

Showing Jim the Yarra paths on a run centred on the two bridges and the tracks on the far side of the river. Started in a thunderstorm (albeit not a very menacing thunderstorm) but the rain quickly eased. Felt better than on some recent runs - the company probably helps. Not too much noise coming from the Batcave.

A bit up and down (in the metaphorical sense - Fitzroy Pool doesn't have any hills), but fairly reasonable in the end, once again under a brilliant sun.

As part of its modernisation program, the Saudi government has decided to adopt the Western calendar for administrative purposes. However, the judiciary, dominated by conservatives, has decided to retain the Islamic calendar. Since lunar months are a couple of days shorter than solar ones, this presumably means that local crims (at least those ones who aren't dealt with by means for which calendars are irrelevant) get slightly shorter sentences than might otherwise have been the case.

Going out on a Monday is another step up, but planned to be pretty conservative at a first attempt and was glad that I'd done so, as I felt pretty ordinary throughout - heading out along the south bank of the Yarra, with construction allowing me a bit further along than had previously been the case. Needed to get out, though, if only to collect my thoughts after a somewhat turbulent morning in the office.

It was quite warm by lunchtime (26-27), but it's going to be a lot warmer soon - it's looking increasingly like we're going to see a major heatwave at and after Christmas in lots of southeast Australia. Seabreezes might see Melbourne miss the worst of it (although that's looking less likely than it was this time yesterday), but further north it would be a surprise not to see at least a couple of 40s. I was rather surprised that the December record for consecutive 40-degree days in Mildura is only three, but some closer inspection uncovered a six-day event in 2002 with five 40s and a 39.9 in the middle.