Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Set out with a target of visiting another point (close to) my boundary, where the Eastern Freeway path crosses Bulleen Road (a regular riding route of mind in earlier times). Started quite early by my recent standards and took a while to get going; winds again occasionally made their presence felt. Looped back later on down Heidelberg Road and through Westgarth. The Heidelberg Road part was definitely not as I'd previously seen it; in the days when it was my standard commute and the morning traffic was banked back from Chandler Highway for a kilometre on a good day, two kilometres on a bad one, I wouldn't have imagined it possible that at 8.15 on a Tuesday morning I'd have to wait for a car to turn up to trigger the lights (unless the Tuesday in question was Cup Day or Christmas).

(I suspect the 'normal' traffic jams shrank quite a bit after the new bridge was installed, but not that much).

On the final loop I saw Bill Posters in action near Westgarth Station (without any sign of anyone around to prosecute him). As I saw later in the day on a trip to the physio, this particular bill was being posted in support of a cause which I'm also doing some work for, electing Emily Dimitriadis to the Darebin council; had I known this I might have stopped and suggested that the poster might more usefully have been deployed in the part of the City of Darebin for which Emily is actually a candidate (the boundary, depending on where you are, is Rathmines St or Victoria Rd). Name recognition counts for a lot in council elections (as evidenced by the pair of ratbags who kept getting re-elected in my Banyule days), and with many of the usual forms of campaigning off-limits this year and suburban papers all but extinct, it's hard for new candidates to build a profile; I expect this will be very incumbent-friendly, but our ward doesn't have an incumbent.

And the physio is sufficiently happy with my hamstring that she's given me the OK to start running on it.

C • Council election posters 2

Headed out after an early ABC TV interview - done, as is the way of 2020, in my dining room on Skype using a phone propped up against a couple of books. (Absent were any endearing small children to provide random interruptions, although I'm sure the people across the road would have lent me some if I'd asked nicely). Took a while to get going heading northwards but moving along nicely in the second half (wind directions may have had a bit to do with that). Hamstring feeling not quite right at times without actually hurting.

C • Books 4

Taking more than token advantage of the extra time today, going into parts of my circle that I haven't previously been to in this period, first southwest into Collingwood and then east into Kew (the traffic school is fairly close to the outer edge here), before ending up going up through Eaglemont. A certain number of ups and downs on this route (although nothing especially long), and on some of these the hamstring didn't feel quite right without actually hurting. Quite windy at times.

The roads were quiet: too quiet at times, because on multiple occasions I had to wait extended periods of time for the lights to get triggered. It's particularly bizarre that on Wellington Street, where they've gone to the trouble of building a separated bike lane (under construction the last time I was here but finished now), they still haven't put sensors in it that are capable of detecting bikes at the lights.

C • Traffic sensors 2

Again exploring corners of the zone (I was going to say corners of the circle, but that doesn't really make sense), this time the northwest one up into Preston, discovering at the start that Grange Road has a magpie too (if not as vicious as its Fulham Road near-neighbour). Somewhat hard work early on but a headwind probably had a bit to do with that; settling down later on. Quite a warm day, even relatively early.

Exercise today was a substantial walk, but one which served an important social function, with a friend/work colleague, taking advantage of the currently-open-to-the-public Northcote golf course which is in the overlap between our zones (surprised how hilly it is). It's the first in-person conversation longer than a minute that I've had with anyone other than my physio in more than two months.

Hamstring seems to be settling down, in as much as I can tell when walking, but I'm not going to do anything to stir it up before a week expires (life in general is a bit of a waiting game at the moment).

Perhaps I'm missing some things more than I thought because it was a bit of a trigger this morning seeing a music video which was (largely) filmed from a train running along Lake Geneva (along with a street I run on quite frequently) - perhaps I've adopted it as a second home more than I'd realised. (Speaking of music videos, am I the only person who sees the scene in David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' where a mushroom cloud rises behind the Warrumbungles and thinks "but why would anyone want to nuke Coonamble?").

Lunchtime ride, having woken up too late (after a 2-4am meeting) to go out before starting work. Still staying away from hills so decided to venture to the west edge of my zone, initially through Clifton Hill on my standard commute route which I haven't touched for six months, then up through Brunswick East before crossing the creek at Normanby Road. A steady enough ride without anything too exciting on the physical front.

When you go into familiar territory for the first time in a while, what's changed in the interim is always of interest. Not a lot has visibly happened on the Fitzroy Gasworks site but new was news of what is being built - a new campus for Fitzroy High and Collingwood College. I'm not sure whether this was always part of the plan, or whether it was plan B after a developer dummy spit over local opposition to the monolith they were considering building there. (Redevelopments and potential redevelopments were a bit of a theme of this ride, although some of them don't seem to be to the liking of the locals).

An easy and largely flat session to the north, using the Darebin Creek trail early on (one advantage of the rough surface north of Bell Street is that the bumps ring your bell for you - this bit isn't scheduled for upgrading until 2022-23). Trying not to ride in too high a gear on the physio's advice. Bit of a headwind early on, but that did make for a nice finish. Think my tyres could use a bit more air before I go out again.