Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

With the length of my Thursday long runs gradually creeping upwards the start time is gradually creeping forwards (and sunrise is going in the reverse direction), so this was the first taste this 'autumn' of starting in proper darkness - something I'll experience plenty of in the next six months (except for April after daylight saving ends).

This was a rather plodding run through Viewbank initially, then along the Plenty River - flowing very strongly this morning (it must have rained more in the catchment than at home) and back through Watsonia. Slowish even by recent standards although it was hillier than most of my recent long runs have been. Didn't feel excessively tired for the most part but quads started to go in the last few minutes (and more so afterwards) - also felt very tired through much of the rest of the day.

It hasn't been an edifying few years for political debate in Australia, but we seem to have sunk to new lows this week with the latest skirmishes over asylum seekers - enough to make you wonder if the Liberals are getting their ideas on campaign issues from Eric Abetz's great-uncle.

Street-O at Bellbird Dell. This was the scene of one of my first forays into Melbourne street-O (20 years ago next week), and I've had some very good runs here in the past, partly through exploiting this map's propensity for 'you can't get there from here' legs (thanks to a long park through the middle of the map with very few western exits) - not too many of those tonight though, with only one missable control on the west side of the park.

The run was one of incremental improvement, taking another few seconds off my kilometre rate (which is better than going backwards). Still lacking sharpness but a reasonably steady run, and not too bad uphill. Kept expecting to have a tough uphill leg but it never quite happened. Was around Simon Rouse a fair bit, but only because he kept coming back to me with mistakes; was in a couple of other scraps en route too. Did enough to qualify for the first 'Street O Championship' next week, except that I won't be here to run in it.

Decent conditions tonight (if a bit slippery underfoot), cool with afternoon rain cleared by the time we started.

There's quite a bit keeping me occupied at work this week, but one distraction today was getting a paper to review which claimed that no warming was taking place in Victoria. It didn't take long to discover that what the author had actually found, in effect, was that (a) thermometers give lower readings when you don't put them in the sun and (b) spring is cooler than summer, neither of which I considered to be publishable results. Like a lot of work of this ilk, it comes from someone operating well outside their area of expertise - his online CV says, among other things, that he was involved in designing Ferrari F1 engines in the 1980s. Those who remember the reliability (or lack thereof) of 1980s Ferrari F1 cars may not think that this is something you'd necessarily want to be advertising.

The usual Tuesday fartlek session was the plan this morning, but the elements threw a spanner in the works. It was raining steadily at the start and then opened up in a big way about 5 minutes in, to the heaviest rain I've been out in since the 60mm-in-6-hours morning in April 2011. That wouldn't have been so much a problem, but getting to the Main Yarra Trail (which makes up half the loop) and finding it awash and ankle-deep was. Thought about pressing on with the session, but I'm already racing (of sorts) three times this week and the results would have been pretty meaningless, so switched to a regular run and went somewhere else. Once that decision was made, the run was quite a bit better than yesterday, especially uphill (although whether this was because I had other things to think about is an open question).

Early morning run with a meeting this evening (the alternative, lunchtime, wasn't terribly appealing given the forecast humidity). Struggling through the first 10 minutes but improved somewhat after that, not terribly happy with the way I was handling the short climbs out of the creek valley though.

Followed up the run with a swim which was not really anything to get excited about - at least it allowed me to collect my thoughts about the many things to be done this week.

Had to be back in Melbourne for something at 10.30 so couldn't stay around for the Sunday morning run on Baw Baw (which I'm sure would have been nice). Instead I decided to break up the trip back and did something which is a classic road trip style run for me, stopping somewhere en route and doing a run up a side road or track. In this case the start point was Noojee, and the side route was a road going up a side valley north from there.

One thing I discovered immediately is that Noojee is the start point for a lot of people aiming to ride up Baw Baw, and 8 is the start time for a big bunch - probably at least 50. (I'd seen earlier starters on my way down, although judging by the way some were struggling on such relatively minor climbs as those out of Noojee or into Tanjil Bren, I'm not confident all of them were going to get to Baw Baw). I suspect they were quite surprised to see someone get out of a car and strip off an outer layer to reveal running gear rather than bike gear.

The first 15 minutes were a bit nondescript running-wise, although in a nice setting with rolling gentle hills and a mostly shady valley with a small river below (the only jarring note being that classic rural feature, a piece of reasonably fresh roadkill). It was about at this point that I was starting to question the wisdom of my route, not because of anything which was happening with the run, but instead because I'd just been passed by two police vehicles (I didn't know Noojee had two police vehicles), followed closely by the local CFA. I assumed that if there was a reason not to continue they would have told me so, and from that point it picked up through the turnaround point, and more so in the last 20 minutes which were definitely the best I've felt on a run this year. I'll refrain from getting too excited until it happens again in a less congenial setting and on a section that isn't 70% downhill, but it's a positive to take from the weekend.

State Series at Mount Baw Baw, orienteering but not as we know it - designated as a middle distance course but on a 1:5000 map, and if it reminded me of anything it was the 2008 World Cup sprint in Salen around the ski resort (first half of that was on the slopes, second half was around the lodges). I've only been to Baw Baw once before (in 2009, when it was a lot more lifeless in summer than it is now), and was wondering how we would run through the forest. The answer was that, by and large, we didn't - for the most part the navigation technique was to go along a ski run or a small track and duck a few metres into the control. Not quite orienteering as we know it, but it was still fun (and would have been more fun if I was actually fit).

One of these days I'll learn how to run up hills again, but it hasn't happened yet, and that made today a real struggle - only occasionally did I feel comfortable, and some of the steeper hills had to be walked, particularly into 21. A bit scrappy on the navigation, particularly in the first half when I made several 10-15 seconders in the circle - after that I worked out better how the rock was mapped. Excellent run of Brodie to do 35 - Bryan and Bruce were 38.

One for the life's little mysteries department: why do bushfire warnings always say that the fire is moving in a southwesterly direction, and not that it is moving southwest.

C • SWerly 2

First time swimming for the best part of three weeks, for assorted reasons. Started out OK but drifted out of it a bit in the later part. Back a bit tight at times.

There was a certain amount of changeroom discussion about the shenanigans associated with the Olympic team, the media coverage of which seems to me to be somewhat out of proportion to the seriousness of the crime (except that the real crime was failing to take away any gold medals - one can safely assume that all would have been forgiven if they had won some).

And, in other news, the state of Georgia is trying to fast-track a number of executions before the drugs they use for the purpose expire on 1 March. Presumably they're worried that if the drugs are used after their expiry date they might kill someone.

A longish morning run from near the bike shop (where I was picking up some new pedals to replace the one that broke on Tuesday night), basically along the river for the first half and then back through Kew. Quite promising in the first half but then faded away, feeling rather drained in the final half-hour - the humidity may have contributed a bit to that. As usual of late, finding hills challenging, the gentle ones more so (relative to normal) than the big ones. Stretched out the midweek run distance a slight increment further.

The other news of the day is that I have a second nephew, a few days earlier than expected. The news came from proud but sleep-fogged grandparents (it was 6am in Oslo by then) and I don't have any other details yet (such as name or vital statistics).

C • German economists tackle weather forecasting 5

I was feeling a bit more relaxed this evening after the Senate hearing went off pretty smoothly; it didn't hurt that of the three Coalition standing members of the committee, one didn't turn up, one left part way through and the third declined to ask a question. (Meanwhile, Cory Bernardi was otherwise engaged spruiking the Geert Wilders tour).

The event was at Scotch and surrounds. Having been burnt before, this time I remembered to check the train timetables, ascertain that no trains were due through Kooyong between 6.59 and 7.12, and therefore that going that way first was a good strategy. (Trains take even longer to clear the Kooyong crossing than a normal one because Glenferrie Road has tram tracks). This didn't exactly give me a jump on the field, though, because most of the others went the same way (whether they had checked the timetables or not is an open question). The run itself was a pretty similar one to last week, although a whole second per kilometre faster (at least the change is in the right direction); major negative, again, was lacking any power or aggression on the climb up the hill behind Scotch late in the course. Route choice was pretty straightforward tonight.

Out a little later than usual because my day was starting with a meeting at Melbourne Uni (which also gave me an excuse to check out Kez's new cafe in transit between the university and work at lunchtime). Didn't feel especially energetic but did make a bit more progress, 10 seconds faster than last time (10.27), which takes me into the bottom end of last year's frequency distribution (and didn't fade out on the second loop later, unlike last week). Managed to get across Rosanna Road despite the lights going into flash mode just as I got there, and enjoyed the novelty of a bit of light rain in the first part of the run.

Tomorrow I front up, in my role as President of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, to a Senate inquiry on extreme weather events in Australia. This isn't actually a first for me - back in the early 1990s I fronted as Orienteering ACT secretary to an inquiry the parliamentary committee responsible for the ACT was doing on forest management. (The main thing I remember about this is that one of my uni lecturers must have been impressed with the originality of my reason for requesting an extension for an assignment which was due on hearing day, because I asked for 24 hours and he gave me a month). Depending on the committee's inclination, I may need to make some use of the straight bat as deployed in making not many runs in a great many overs for the Canberra Grammar Third XI back in the day - this could be the equivalent of fronting at Sabina Park to face up to Marshall, Garner, Ambrose and Walsh (although I suspect it's more likely to be the equivalent of Roger Harper and Larry Gomes). I am taking the occasion seriously enough to get a haircut and pull out the suit last used (I think) for Cassie's wedding.

C • Pictures 2

A fairly standard Monday morning grind for the Monday mornings when there isn't a Monday night run. This one was most memorable for the graffiti on the back of a sign on the Merri Creek bike path, "behead climate change deniers". Unless the graffitist actually wants the Andrew Bolts of this world to have an excuse to conflate climate science and Al-Qaeda, this sort of thing is not helpful to the cause.

C • spelling mistake? 3

I was supposed to be hosting the MFR run tonight but didn't think I'd get many takers to make the trip out to Heidelberg in 37 degrees, so suggested the Fitzroy pool instead, a challenge taken up by Ezy and Reuben. Normally on a Monday I'd swim but the lap lanes were predictably packed, so thought it might be more productive to do a pool running session instead, manouevring around people as necessary. Lacked intensity but otherwise pleasant. Not too much smoke from the Epping fire despite being more or less directly downwind of it.

One of the books I've been reading lately is a travelogue of the worst features of Britain, involving locations such as the place designated by the Ordnance Survey as the most boring place in Britain because there's only one feature in a 1x1km grid box (I wonder what they'd make of the 1:250000 sheets in places like outback WA or the central NT which have 10x10km grid squares with no features at all?), but also a lot of industrial places which have seen better days. Perhaps saddest of all was the small town in Fife where the largest employer was the factory which made leather straps used for disciplinary purposes; the bottom rather fell out of the local economy, so to speak, in 1987 when corporal punishment was abolished in Scottish schools (although a small number continue to be made for what the author coyly describes as "a specialist market").

Mass start race at Kangaroo Gully. A bit more encouraging than yesterday, although it wasn't looking that way early on when first I had a back spasm a couple of minutes before the start (this disappeared within the first leg), then after spending Friday night watching February football I spent the first loop practising February orienteering, with small time losses on three of the first five. At that point I was being both outrun and out-navigated by Lanita Steer (which says a bit about me and a bit about her present form).

Settled down early on the second loop and hit pretty much everything thereafter. On my own for the first half of the final loop, steady, still not great uphill but much better than yesterday. From 9 onwards a pack started to gather - initially James Robertson and Simon Rouse, then Aislinn caught us at 12 and Geoff Lawford was also getting in contact without ever quite getting onto the front of the pack. James pulled away from us from 14 onwards, and I got a little bit of a jump on the others coming into the second-last, but it was only 10 metres and that was never going to be defensible. Ended up only beating Geoff. 67 (against a leading 53) is about where I am at the moment, but it's not totally out of touch and gives me at least a hint of progress.

The Australian must have used up its weekly quota of sensible with Rebecca Minty's article - the weekend edition was a shocker (although I suspect the expression 'Education hijacked by PC Left' is programmed into a hot key in the editorial office).

Bendigo sprint. First bush race hit-out of the season, and underlined that I'm starting this year coming from a long way back - a reasonably clean run but no strength uphill and got blown away by various people in the process (notably Bruce on two occasions - the fact that it was two doesn't mean he made a mistake, rather it was due to the configuration of butterfly loops). Another hot night but that's almost routine now.

Nice piece in the "Australian" by someone who will be a familiar name to many of you at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/world-comm... (google the headline if you need to get around the Australian's paywall). Good to see that the "Australian" is against torture even if I disagree with them on just about everything else.

A fairly standard session at Fitzroy. Felt a lot better for having slept well (if not for long enough).

Most entertainment of the day was scanning a publication on climate change by one Malcolm Roberts, which contained all the usual wingnut conspiracy hot buttons (Agenda 21? Check. Fabian Society? Check. Rothschild? Check. Trilateral Commission? Check). It ran to 700 pages and has apparently been sent to every MP in Australia. As you'd expect, it's highly defamatory towards at least a dozen of my scientific colleagues, a fate I missed out on myself only because he misattributed some comments of mine to the ABC journalist who was interviewing me.

Better still was a link contained therein to a website where someone (who clearly has too much time on their hands), in an apparent attempt to establish the existence of a tight-knit incestuous scientific cabal, has been trawling publication lists, IPCC reports, the Climategate e-mail database and who knows what else to develop, for a list of thousands of people, things like the Maurice Strong degrees of separation factor (Maurice Strong being a former head of the UN Environment Program who occupies much the same place in Agenda 21 conspiracy mythology as Prince Philip does for the CEC crowd). I'm slightly disappointed to only manage a 3, although their search was less than thorough since they failed to notice the one step between myself and my father, who scores a mention because he reviewed a chapter of an IPCC report in 2007 (Cassie must be disappointed to have missed out).

And people like this will probably have a serious influence on the people running the country in seven months' time....

Continuing the slightly incremental improvement from last week's equivalent; still slow but slightly less slow, and no injury issues once loosened up over the first few minutes. Some reasonable stretches, more so in the last third, and decent on the last hill after struggling a bit on earlier ones (not that there are too many of those on a loop which went along Darebin Creek and then across to Bundoora and Macleod).

There were a few balloons up, presumably on flights associated with February 14. Not sure I'd have been keen to go up in a balloon with this morning's level of atmospheric instability (there were storms on the central ranges, although none reached Melbourne).

Didn't sleep well last night, but it took until late afternoon (especially the train home) for it to catch up with me.

And I notice that Mark Heikoop (a perennial Dutch WOC representative who must be in his 50s by now, and is usually pretty close to the bottom of the table) has finally won something - a Trail-O race in Portugal.

Street-O at Kerrimuir on another warm night. This was my best Wednesday night performance for three weeks, which isn't saying much - all it means is that I finished. Still, I'm finally getting a sense that things are heading in the right direction, although at an agonisingly slow pace. No strength up the hills, but none of the bits which have been hurting intermittently of late did so tonight, and having a kilometre rate which starts with a 4 fits into the "a long journey begins with a single step" department. Didn't make a great job of the route - someone went 550 metres shorter than me, and most of the A course leaders (who I wouldn't have threatened tonight anyway) were close to 9.

It's been three pretty full on days with the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society conference (the other half of my organisation presidential responsibilities at the moment). It was the biggest conference we've had and seemed to go pretty smoothly (even if I did forget to announce that next year's Hobart).

Starting the process of learning to run fast(er) again. Certainly slower than last year but not as catastrophically so as I thought might have been the case (fastest loop 10.37), especially as I didn't feel terribly awake at the start (after the first of what will be two conference-related late nights). Faded out a bit in the second half which was a bit disappointing.

It's a conference week, on home ground but still an early start (especially as I was giving the opening address), so in the interests of not having to get up totally ridiculously early, I got the train into work (only 10 minutes walk from the conference venue) and did a run from there - standard Tan stuff. Starting to feel a bit more normal on these (and quite happy about it because of (a) a longish run yesterday and (b) no loosening-up swim - no time for it). Saw the Hoggster (also at this conference) at one point, but he was just finishing and I was just starting so we only stayed together for a couple of hundred metres.

The nicest running day we'll see for a while - even a few puddles in evidence - and used it to do my longest run for a while. As with last weekend, it was slower than I would like, and lacking strength up hills, but not seriously troubled by any of the various injury issues I've had problems with - which is good as it means the back issue is probably manageable without too much drama. Hard work in the hilly first half through Balwyn, but feeling quite smooth at times in the flatter second half. Also reasonably happy on the endurance side; didn't feel as if I would have had inordinate trouble adding another 30 or 40 minutes to this.

Feared the worst on this one when the back tightened on the initial climb out of my place, but it sorted itself out within a few minutes and gave no further trouble. After that it was a reasonable run, certainly not at the level I'd like to be, but at least feeling like one step (or perhaps a little bit of shuffling) forward. Fairly warm, something we'll have plenty of opportunities to get used from midweek onwards (looks like mid-30s for both days of the Bendigo weekend).

The RiotACT website has long kept me entertained with, among other things, tales of the misadventures of Canberra's petty criminals (like the person who did a burnout out the front of the Belconnen Police Station during the week), but there was a particularly good one today - someone was arrested outside a Civic nightclub in the early hours of the morning for allegedly assaulting a security guard and then assaulting the police who arrived on the scene for good measure, which doesn't sound too remarkable for a Friday night in the big city, except that the alleged perpetator is 90.

Around Ivanhoe on a newsletter-delivery run, and then finishing off with a loop in the Banyule Flats. No repetition of the dramas from Wednesday - there were a few lower back twinges early on uphill, but nothing remotely close to that scale - but still have the feeling that I'm only just keeping my head above water. The one positive was not seeming to tire.

Pool running at Fitzroy. Back felt OK doing this but wasn't great standing up for extended periods of time, which doesn't fill me with confidence, but I'll at least see how it feels tomorrow.

I spent a bit of time during this reflecting on the extent to which the buck stops with the person at the top if something goes wrong in a sporting (or any other) organisation, not knowing that a couple of hours later it would become apparent that Essendon is potentially only the tip of a very large iceberg, and would I expect to find out about it in the event that someone (or lots of people) were doing something dodgy in our sport? Probably the best protection there is that drugs cost money, and the spending of organisational money on things it shouldn't be should raise red flags pretty quickly. (In fact, I suspect that's how the Essendon probe got started - the ostensible reason why their sports science person was sacked late last year was unauthorised spending). The capacity to follow money trails (and tap telephones, and so on) also gives the Crime Commission a better chance of being able to get to the bottom of things than sports can themselves.

C • I think the difference 5

Street-O at Greythorn on a 36-degree night. I expected this to be a struggle but as it turned out it was over quickly - the lower back tightness that's been an intermittent nuisance in recent weeks became more than a nuisance on the first hill, to the extent of not being able to generate any power at all. On a nicer night I might have tried to push through and see if it improved on the level/downhills. Hopefully it isn't anything too serious, but I'll still swap pool and running sessions in the next two days.

Looked like an interesting (if longish) course - I hadn't finalised my plan when I pulled the pin.

After two street-O DNFs in nearly two decades, I've now scored two in successive weeks.

Street-O at Kensington - went out because it was a reasonably convenient venue and because the conditions would be less unfriendly to trying to run hard than tomorrow's will be (unless the change, currently expected around 8, is a bit early). Had a go at something I sometimes do on Tuesday night, running alternate legs hard/easy, but didn't seem to be making much of an impression on the hard legs. Achilles already improved significantly after a massage this morning, though a bit sore afterwards. Seemed to make a good job of the route.

This would make an excellent sprint area, but I don't think the locals would appreciate it. As it was we had one control disappear and another one was vandalised.

Morning swim at Fitzroy. Promising start (despite not feeling that awake beforehand) but drifted out of it a bit in the second half.

First MFR session of the year, from Kirsten's, in one of several bunches, this one involving Ezy (running OK despite arm in plaster) and Clare. Struggled a bit at times with Achilles again troublesome (hopefully it will ease after a massage tomorrow) - not generally a run which I had a lot of enthusiasm about, despite the nice conditions and good company.

Squeezed a terrain run at Nerrina in in between sessions of a controllers' workshop I was helping with - first time running in the terrain in Australia for about three months. Had some good patches, but Achilles again troublesome and lower back tight at times too - certainly didn't feel in the mood to attack the terrain, although the (relatively) long session yesterday may have had a bit to do with that.

I may not have done as many media interviews yesterday as I thought I was going to, but one of the ones I did do went as far afield as Fiji television (obviously what I said didn't incur the displeasure of Commodore Bananarama).

Went out long today because I'll be involved in a controlling workshop all day tomorrow; earlier than usual for a Saturday because of the cascading consequences of various media commitments (some of which ended up getting gazumped by ministerial reshuffles). Not going to be much time for relaxation this weekend...

Anyway, this was the longest I've done yet this year, and I felt a bit better about this than I did about Thursday - felt like quite a pleasant run at times (the conditions helped), although still far too slow. Also felt stronger on the hills (and there were a few, especially through Lower Plenty) than I have in the last few weeks. Let's not go overboard - I don't exactly feel in the shape to take on Feathertop (even if it wasn't currently on fire), but it's a step in the right direction. One thing which did hold me back on hills was my Achilles, which are definitely telling me that a calf massage is overdue.

This was the first time I've been out to Lower Plenty for ages (a couple of years?); some of the roads have been built up with gutters and some new mansions have sprouted - I barely recognised one street. This is the home ground of someone occasionally referred to in the press as a "colourful industrial relations consultant", and is also the only booth in Jagajaga which consistently votes Liberal (whether there is any connection between these two facts is unknown). The quiet, and reasonably hilly, roads are a magnet for cyclists, and the roller-skiers were also out on the bike path (including a couple of familiar faces).

Pool running at Fitzroy. Time is a bit of a guess because the clock has gone AWOL. Lots of rain overnight (and a spectacular rainbow on the way in this morning) but dry for the session itself. Company was good.

I was expecting a long day at work, and it was. Scoreboard for the day was one announcement on Australia's hottest month on record, one updated report on the heatwave, and another one on the floods (although the last won't see the light of day until Monday because no manager with the requisite level of seniority could be found to sign off on it). Next week should be a tad quieter.