Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Fairly reasonable flight to Geneva via Dubai, the most unusual feature of which was that it was raining (lightly) in Dubai (the back side of this storm had dumped enough snow to give western Iran a somewhat unusual look, although Iran and, even more so, eastern Turkey, have much colder winters than most people think they do). Had a dilemma on the first leg in that my seat wasn't reclining properly, but I had an empty seat next to me, and decided that the extra space was worth it and that asking to move wasn't. Took my time getting to sleep but managed it eventually.

My temporary digs are in a different place this time - right in the core of the old town - a nice spot but a longer commute than I usually have here (probably 30 minutes walk or 15-20 on the bus). The commercial parts of town were as dead as they always are on Sunday, but the parks and cafes had a first-day-of-spring feel to them, with lots of people enjoying the 10-degree sunshine after a fairly dismal couple of months. (There were two separate stretches, one in December and the other in January, of a couple of weeks of near-unbroken freezing fog).

On the first day of arrival I tend to go in waves. As it turned out, the run was definitely done in a trough rather than a peak and felt dismal from a running perspective (almost felt like I was falling asleep on my feet at times). The good news was that there wasn't really a hint of trouble from the 'main' injury, although some other parts of my body were tight (not surprising after the long trip). 3/1 was a step up so this was encouraging.

After the ride I was talking with Jo while being waiting to be picked up, and Lewie (who is still sufficiently excited about having started pre-school that he was wearing his uniform on a Saturday morning) asked us what we were talking about. I thought that explaining how the National Electricity Market works (or more accurately, doesn't work) to a four-year-old was beyond my capabilities.

C • 4 year olds 3

Nice ride from Aranda out to Uriarra Crossing via Coppins, then back to Shep and Jo's place to drop the bike off. Went out early to miss the worst of the heat but still seemed to be towards the later end of the cyclists, who were out in abundance, in numbers ranging from ones and twos to a 30-strong, identically-dressed peloton. Saw Shep and Ian Prosser on the way. Still didn't have the confidence on this bike to let myself go on the downhills, but pretty solid for the rest of it, including the climbing.

This used to be familiar territory but not for a long time - I think the last time I was down at Uriarra Crossing was for a school camp at the old Camp Sturt (which wasn't rebuilt after the 2003 fires). Also not rebuilt after the 2003 fires was the western side of the Stromlo forest, where I spent a lot of time mapping in the early 1990s (before deciding that mapping wasn't really my thing) - this forest had quite low visibility and was a lot of fun. Slightly odd was the appearance of signs for 1-hour parking and a bus stop kilometres from the nearest bus route, opposite the old Bluetts Pines - my guess is that that's where some shops are going to be built and they decided to put the signs up early.

Left Canberra this afternoon, stepping onto the tarmac at almost the precise moment that Canberra reached its equal second highest temperature (41.6). I then went home for more or less long enough to swap summer clothes for winter ones and am now on my way to Geneva for a couple of weeks.

C • Geneva 4

Stepped it up a little to 2 on/1 off, getting out before it got too hot and heading into Cook and around the base of Mount Painter. Probably didn't feel quite as good as Wednesday, but managed OK, including a couple of reasonably sharp short climbs.

This run took me past the residence of one of our regular antagonists (whose address I know through his abundant correspondence and FOI applications). I resisted any temptation to moon the premises or throw any eggs at any motor vehicles parked in the vicinity (disappointingly from a stereotyping perspective, none of said vehicles were gas-guzzling 4WDs or bore any redneck bumper stickers).

It was probably appropriate that we were talking about heatwaves this afternoon. (The last speaker, in the spot that nobody wants - unless you had laryngitis for the middle days of the conference like I did in Edinburgh in 2010 - embraced her situation by putting a 'X minutes until weekend' countdown on each of her slides). Lots of exciting climate science work being done at the moment, although a bit less of it will be done soon because three of the main players are about to go on maternity leave. There was also a good session on renewable energy, and the occasional opening of the doors may just possibly have allowed some facts on the subject to have escaped into the wider world, where they have been in severely short supply of late.

C • Nah. 1

Circuit of the lake in the morning. Took a few kilometres to get the feel of the borrowed bike (in particular it's got drop bars which I'm not used to), but once I was comfortable with it this went quite well. Evidence of how much better this bike was than the last one I did this loop on is that I was 11 minutes faster this time round. Starting to feel warm by the end, although nothing compared to what we have to look forward to on the next two days.

Another busy day at the conference, although my main talk is still to come tomorrow.

C • Warm 3

Around the flatter parts of Aranda. Definitely an improvement on Monday - a bit of discomfort but much less than two days ago (and more diffuse, which is interesting), and even managed to handle a couple of small climbs with no noticeable difference. I'm starting to wonder if the different chairs at the conference might be a contributing factor? (in which case I'll be looking for a new one once back in Melbourne).

Another point from yesterday's health talk I didn't mention was that one of the case studies they cited was one which looked at rates of gastro in Gothenburg, classified by the number of consecutive wet or dry days. I presume the "5 or more consecutive dry days" statistics were drawn from a very small sample of events.

C • Chairs 1

Down at CISAC, which had become a 25-metre pool this morning. Didn't feel like a particularly good swim but less slow than I thought it would be (unless their measurement of 25 metres was imprecise, which is entirely possible).

First conference day today: not having to do anything except listen was more relaxed than most recent days. (I'm speaking on each of the next three days, although only Friday's is a full-scale talk - the other two are brief introductions to posters). One slide which grabbed my attention was in the keynote on climate change and health, featuring the potential for climate change to affect the occurrences of various diseases in Europe. High on the list were two which will be of interest to many readers: Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.

First attempt to head out for a couple of weeks (1 on/1 off). Can't say I was terribly happy with the results - I can run (at least on the flat - didn't try anything more ambitious), but it didn't feel a great deal better than it did a couple of weeks ago. Looking increasingly like it will be a slow road back.

I took the opportunity to check out the assembly area for the Victorian Relays at Darebin Parklands to see how it coped with the heavy overnight rain, the answer being well. (I'm controller for these, with Aston Key and Max Dalheim as setters).

Now up in Canberra for a conference for the rest of the week. Any Canberra readers (especially nearby ones) have a bike I could borrow for a couple of sessions later in the week? (Dad's old one is in the cellar, but from past experience it struggles to cope with Black Mountain Peninsula, let alone Black Mountain).

C • What sort... 5