Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Back troublesome this morning and pulled up after an initial attempt. Can't claim the smoke as an excuse because it didn't come in until later in the morning. Will be watching tomorrow with a certain level of apprehension.

C • Nothing to see here... 5

Didn't feel great for running but was OK in the pool - which seemed fairly empty from the outside but was still quite busy once there (Northcote this time). Definitely not busy on the trains, though.

My computer was working pretty hard today, with a number of multi-gigabyte data sets to get through.

After a pleasant just-making-it-past-midnight evening with the family (thereby depriving me of any temptation to call the hotline that Pauline Hanson ran for people lonely on New Year's Eve), surfaced a bit later than usual this morning and headed out to the coast on a pleasant day to get off the mark for 2020. A reasonable start but quad was starting to feel not quite right from about 25 minutes onwards, so pulled it up a bit earlier than I was planning on.

C • An opportunity missed 1

So, 27 December wasn't my last run of the decade after all; my quad had recovered enough for me to feel that it was worth testing out today, and it came through it OK - wasn't much of a run, but at least there was no pain. Discovered in the process that Brindabella (a past Sydney-Hobart winner for the slightly incongruously-located Canberra Ocean Racing Club) now lives at South Wharf; surprising how small it is, and it was also looking a bit the worse for wear.

I spent most of the day trying to get a paper finished (to be used in the next IPCC report, papers need to be submitted by 31 December - I'm aware of at least one colleague who is still working on one as of 10.30pm) whilst not getting distracted too much by news of events in Mallacoota, Batemans Bay and points in between. While I didn't spend as much time around Batemans Bay as a lot of Canberrans did, I still know the area reasonably well (our family used to have a share in a place at Denhams Beach which may or may not still be standing), whilst the bulk of my experience of Mallacoota was waiting around for the winds to drop enough to fly to Gabo Island (the log entry from then is possibly pertinent with hindsight).

Headed down after work to spend tonight and tomorrow back down at Blairgowrie, although in a moment of lapsed concentration I missed the exit onto Peninsula Link and therefore went through the back of Frankston for the first time in the few years, seeing in the process the signs to Lawson Avenue and Blaxland Avenue (you won't be surprised to learn that Wentworth isn't far away.). Road signs also pointed to the 'Tour Of Frankston', presumably not this one.

C • Tour de Frankston 1

This won't go down as one of my great years of running (or orienteering), although the Oceania Long was at least one decent result to show for the year. (Whilst I can't really claim it as my best event given that it included a significant mistake, the one I enjoyed most was probably the limestone at Coffin Bay in June).

I travelled overseas seven times this year but didn't do any orienteering events on any of the trips; the closest I got was test-running various World Cup things in China and doing a course from an earlier training session in Singapore. (Don't think I'll be forgetting the China experience in a hurry).

Most enjoyable run of the year was probably the circuit of Uluru in May; the most oddball one came from the same trip, the one up and down the runways of Forrest Airport.

An earlier start than would normally be the case at this time of year - had a Pilates session at 8 and thought trying to do a swimming session in the evening on a 40+ day would be asking for trouble (even if Jayne managed it last time). Clearly others had the same idea as the pool at 7.15 was still as crowded as I can remember it. The traffic in the water was occasionally bothersome but the session was my best for a while.

Moved on to Pilates, which went pretty smoothly. Doesn't feel like the sort of session where you should get a sweat up, but I still did (a bit).

As noted earlier, I was working today, and watching things pretty closely (most of the action was in eastern Victoria and Tasmania this time). Also watching fires, including a couple in familiar areas - one at Plenty Gorge (so far on the south/west side of the river, but I suspect it will cross to the east side with the wind change), and a big one at Badja - the last time I looked at the RFS map, the west edge of the fire was basically the east edge of the orienteering map, but I doubt that will remain the case.

Out to the Point Nepean entrance and back. Didn't feel as sharp as I had yesterday, but quads again held up reasonably well. Lots of people out but it was early enough in the morning that most of them were either on two legs or two (unmotorised) wheels - it's not until later in the day that the traffic gets a bit feral.

It was 27 today down here and 42 in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, which wasn't exactly an incentive to head back to town early in the day. (We're not officially working this week but I need to do IPCC things tomorrow and Tuesday, plus I've made myself available to deal with queries which come into the forecasting office about exactly which heat records have been broken; the tradeoff for working those days is that I won't need to use leave to go to NZ for the sprint weekend in late January).

C • "The" sprint weekend 3

C • Feral 1

Quad felt considerably better this morning - possibly it's just a remote reaction to something happening in my back, as calf issues occasionally have been? I won't risk running on it for a couple of days at least, but thought it was worth seeing if it would function on the bike, which it more or less did; just fatigued a bit going up the (limited) hills. Not a bad ride, either, rolling along at a pace a couple of km/h faster than I usually manage, and the traffic wasn't even too bad except in the Sorrento shops. (The two main roads both have decent verges; a lot of the roads further east on the Peninsula would be good ones to ride if there was no traffic, but since there is they're probably best avoided, Australian drivers not being the world's most patient when it comes to encountering cyclists on two-lane roads with limited passing places).

Had a cross-cultural moment this afternoon when a mention of it in commentary meant I had cause to explain to my nephew what the underarm incident was.

And those who've been around for a long time may remember something almost as far back in the midst of time as the underarm incident, namely the attempt (narrowly failed, if I recall correctly) by a relay team of orienteers to outrun the lead yacht in the Sydney-Hobart (something I played a very small part in, running a 1km leg out the back of Bungendore as an 11-year-old). A repeat would be impossible now - the yachts are probably a day faster now than they were then - but some people have been trying to do it on bikes.

Probably would have preferred not to have seen Badja Forest Road as a new addition to the NSW fire list. (Leaving aside any impact on the mapped area, you don't have to go too far east of the map before you get into what we used to refer to as "tiger country", and with the forecast for the next three days, and again for next weekend, it's quite possible that a fire in that location could run much of the way down to the coast).

C • Fire maps 8