Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Not up to yesterday's standard and was wondering early in if much of a run was going to happen at all, but managed to get something done, even if it felt like my body would seize up with the slightest incline (so a run mostly along the Metung waterfront was good for that).

It was Clean Up Australia day and there were a few people out doing their bit. They would presumably have encountered the efforts of the person who put their dog's droppings in a plastic bag (good) and then left the bag by the side of the road (not good).

Made my way back to Melbourne via a somewhat meandering route, taking in two national parks (Mitchell River and Morwell) and the western end of the Grand Ridge Road, now all bitumen (despite what the tourist info and both the Melway and Vicroads map says; some googling suggests that it was done in 2016). Some nice scenery to be had, particularly going down to the Mitchell River, although the river itself is very brown (presumably post-bushfire runoff), and an unexpected surprise at Briagalong - hitting there at lunchtime, I expected the options to be the pub or a general store pie, but it turns out they also play host to a greenie cafe (of the vegetarian rather than vegan variety, although vegan is definitely there if you want it) and an art gallery.

And I'm somewhat sceptical of the claims on Glengarry's sign that it was founded in 1830. (For those playing at home, apart from a couple of short-lived coastal settlements, the first European settlement in Victoria was in 1834, whilst the Aborginal people have been around for a lot more than 190 years). Wikipedia says 1883 which seems more like it.

C • dog poo 2

Hills have not been especially kind to me of late, but it would be hard to find a flatter route than the one I took this morning - exploring the Mitchell River silt jetties (8km long silt banks where the river runs into the Gippsland Lakes), which are apparently the second longest in the world after the Mississippi's. There's a dirt road out along the south bank so did an out and back along that (feeling a bit out of place because I didn't have a boat or a fishing rod).

Felt a bit creaky at times and it always seemed like hard work, but reasonably happy with the output. Significantly less slow than most of my training runs this year, sitting around 5.30s for most of it (this often seems to happen on rural roads, which may or may not indicate not getting full value from the GPS in the city?).

Spent much of the rest of the day exploring. Paynesville, where I'd originally planned to stay but couldn't find anything affordable (turned out there was a classic boat festival in town), is pretty suburban, but Raymond Island, just across the water, was worth going to, not least for its koala population (I think the last time I saw one in the wild was when doing WMOC 2002 preparations at Glenluce). Also went through a corner of the fire area northeast of Bairnsdale, where there's already a fair bit of new growth (mostly bracken); most of the houses near the road seem to have survived.

Dinner at the Metung pub, which must have one of the best views of any such establishment in the state.

C • Koala 2

At Fitzroy. Nothing much to say about this session, really.

Heading to Gippsland for the weekend (for no particular reason other than that it seemed a good idea, and it's the last orienteering-free weekend for a while). So far so good, once I was through the how-do-people-do-this-every-day freeway traffic out of the city.

C • How do people do this every day? 2

Uncertain start, but some stretching at a traffic stop a few minutes in was enough to get things going, and while I was never exactly flowing it was a distinct improvement from my last few runs (or attempts thereof). A morning with a definite first-day-of-autumn sense about it.

Perhaps it was as well for my mood in this run that I didn't know until after it happened that an MP had got stuck into my work (not naming names, which is a small mercy) under parliamentary privilege yesterday. Said MP, and definitely a lot of the people who inhabit his Facebook page, would probably do well to take note of Pope Francis, who has called on people to give up social media trolling for Lent. (Personally, I would have thought that social media trolling was a sin at any time of year, but renouncing it for 40 days is a start).

C • Social media 5

A day riddled with minor annoyances, starting with things going slightly pear-shaped with my plan to drive over in the morning to near tonight's venue at Scotch - first the garage door opener stopped working and, by the time I gave up on trying to get it working (something I was able to do in a few minutes this evening once I'd actually downloaded and read the instructions) and opened it manually, I'd lost enough time to put myself into the worst of the traffic (and you really don't want to be driving anywhere near Melbourne's private school belt at anything resembling drop-off time).

The minor annoyances continued into the evening, with a cancelled train, a crush load on the next one, and then the first time for a while that a Wednesday night has been a lost cause inside the first couple of minutes, although I continued for a few more before convincing myself it wasn't going to get any better. (Possibly standing in an awkward position on the train may have contributed to this). This was particularly annoying because I'd identified what I think was a really good (and non-obvious) route on a map where the good routes are often non-obvious.

I did, however, manage to successfully negotiate the Scotch car park without getting squashed, and managed to restrain myself from making any comments to the person in the next parking spot who was (a) parked well over the line and (b) idling their engine continuously for the whole time I was there. (It was also a very productive day at work in between these misadventures).

Felt rather strange on attempting to run so switched to the pool. That wasn't super-energetic either, but at least got through it without too much drama.

Noticed in the course of looking for Easter accommodation at Orange that there's a house on AirBNB for which the owners somewhat optimistically want $31,000 (and a companion property which is a steal at $20,000). I would speculate that they don't actually want to rent the places out but are pretending they do for tax reasons.

First proper session with the new program. Seemed easier the second time round, as I thought it might.

Headed out after the Pilates session. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, and the small bumps in and out of the creek (or back up through Clifton Hill) seemed like mountains, but probably an improvement on the last couple of runs. Even started to feel reasonably good after a traffic stop, but by then there were only a few minutes to go.

Felt a bit tired on the ride in, but at least I was tired because I'd done a reasonable amount (at least by recent standards, if not the standards of a past life).