Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A nice morning but still rather lacking in energy, especially on the hills (such as they were). Found a few pockets of Ivanhoe and Eaglemont I haven't previously been into, which isn't bad going considering I've been living in the area for close to a decade.

Also managed to miss the taxi drivers' topless protest on the way in to work. One imagines there are other professions who might generate a bit more public reaction with a similar form of industrial action.

Lunchtime around Fishermans Bend, industrial but reasonably traffic-free. Again felt less than sparkling - this cold is lingering for a long time although the symptoms are gradually becoming less noticeable.

The Sea Shepherd crew are back - the Steve Irwin is currently moored at the Melbourne docks. It looks a good deal more seaworthy than the Panama-registered rustbucket at the next berth.

A bit of a token effort but my first attempt at speedwork since the marathon. Still in very gradual recovery mode from the cold. Unsurprisingly sluggish in the early stages, feeling a bit better in the second half. Fastest loop 9.34.

Got to see the debris of a night in the big city on the way into work - rode past the scene of the stabbing in Clifton Hill overnight (lots of police tape and TV cameras, no visible body). Went uncomfortably close to becoming part of the debris of a morning in the big city when someone decided it would be a good idea to try to turn left out of the right lane in heavy traffic, leading to much horn-blowing and a certain number of largely inaudible obscenities from most parties concerned.

Best swim I've had for a while despite still feeling a bit clogged-up. A classic cold-outbreak morning which makes for an interesting time getting in and out of the water, but nice once in.

Oddest sight on the road yesterday - a 4WD with the number place 'MUDTAX'. Maybe the owners think there is a tax on mud because the 4WD looked like it had never been contaminated by any contact with the substance concerned.

From work at lunchtime around the Tan. A fair to middling run, still didn't feel brilliant, but not particularly weak uphill. A nice lunchtime for running, but the Tan is even worse than it was last week - the builders have taken over all but about a quarter of the width (as well as using the track for freelance rock and sand dumping). Wednesday could be chaotic.

ACT Long Championships at Boboyan Divide. One of these days I'll run on this area when healthy, but today wasn't it - didn't seem to affect my endurance (I felt better in the last 10 minutes than at any other time during the race), but no strength on hills or for the large amount of log-jumping. There's a lot of interesting rock in the area, although it's also a frustrating area with the fallen timber and tussock grass - you always feel as if you should be going a lot faster than this on a map which is mostly fairly flat, and has about 40% yellow and not much green.

Worst time loss of the day was at 7, through trying to crash the green on the near side of the control - would have been much better off going around. Apart from that, a 20-second overshoot at 11 and a few wobbles was just about it. Strangely, the one split I won all day was 16, a downhill leg mostly through yellow - did everyone else try to go through the green on the straight-line exit from 15.

Impressive run by Ben, who did 84, just behind Grant. Dave squeezed me out of a place.

The weather held during the day, more or less. I was expecting some excitement on the way home and got some excitement, although the bag containing sleeping bag, Trangia and emergency supplies proved surplus to requirements. It was snowing quite heavily for a lot of the way from Cabramurra to Corryong, although it was only in the last bit that any was settling on the ground (or the road), as the ground was still relatively warm (it being the first snow of the season). This made for some interesting sights because metal cools down much more quickly, so there was a car park with quite heavy snow on the parked cars and road signs but none visible on the ground. I suspect it would have been a much more challenging trip had I left two hours later.

Event: Victorian State Series #2 & #3
 

ACT Middle Championships at Honeysuckle Creek. It's thickened up significantly since the ACT Championships in 2006, and was now pretty tough going almost throughout, with visibility often quite poor. This mattered because a large part of the course was in the vague, essentially gully-spur, terrain immediately west of the assembly area.

I never felt comfortable in this terrain - didn't feel as if I was running with any real aggression, but everybody else found it testing too. Several legs where I was hesitant and wobbly, but not much in the way of meaningful errors - at least not until the last control where I ran for the end of the streamers, which was 50 metres left of the actual control. That cost me a place as Ben Rattray was 12 seconds ahead of me for third (although Grant was well clear of the lot of us).

Event: ACT Championships
 

ACT Sprint Championships - the first forest sprint I've done for a while, in generally low-visibility pine forest without a lot of features other than root mounds/stumps. Only one mistake of any size but it was a whopper - lost direction coming down a vague spur into 13 and ended up near 14, losing about 2.20. You certainly can't recover from that in a sprint race. The positive was that I was running better than I was expecting to, given that it was my first attempt to run hard (and that I was still feeling sniffly today); had I got down into the upper 17s (Kerrin won with a time in the high 15s) I'd have been reasonably happy.

Rushed home to watch the football, but I shouldn't have bothered. Rushed home from the 1990 Australian Championships to watch an Essendon-Collingwood game and I shouldn't have bothered that time either (but at least that time I had my best-ever run as a consolation).

Morning session at Fitzroy before I head up to Canberra this afternoon. Autumn is well-established - a cool clear morning with plenty of mist coming off the pool (nice once you're in). The swim seemed to pass quite quickly, even though I didn't have much of a rhythm at the start.

Many of us will be experiencing foreign public transport systems in the next few months, and if we make a mistake in understanding the finer points of the local ticketing system I hope we get a more sympathetic hearing than the young Chinese with very little English who I saw yesterday being booked on a tram for a technicality (changning trams on the only type of ticket in Melbourne that you can't do this on). Then again, not many cities have a ticketing system as user-hostile as Melbourne's.

C • At least 2

The original plan was that this would be the first proper long run of this training cycle but backed off a little on that. Another run similar to yesterday, lacking in inspiration and spark but able to grind away the kilometres without exceesive difficult, although the hills (of which there were a reasonable number at the Balwyn end) were a challenge. Didn't take the straight line across the hilly end of Bulleen this time.

The forecast for ACT Long Champs day is looking increasingly interesting. I don't think it will snow during the event (although it is quite likely to fall at the event site on Sunday night), but the drive home through the mountains could be a challenge. At least my workplace should be sympathetic if I fail to make it in on Monday because of extreme weather. The official alpine forecast for Sunday is 'blizzards developing'.

I'm not sure exactly how many minutes elapsed last night between walking in the front door and falling asleep, but I suspect you wouldn't have needed to take your shoes off to count them. Unsurprisingly much better for a decent night's sleep and up to a slowish run this morning, based from near work and going up the Maribyrnong past Flemington racecourse. Somewhat clogged up and wouldn't have wanted to have been doing anything intense, but coped with this OK.

I suppose the only thing that should surprise me about getting sick after what I've been doing is that it's taken this long.

Morning session at MSAC. Definitely not 100% well but didn't seem to affect this session too much, and quads definitely much better than in recent days (they weren't hurting in the pool, whereas they were on Saturday).

Finished up just as the crowds were arriving for the Victorian Primary Schools Championships, thereby avoiding being shown up by 8-year-olds who can go twice (or three times) as fast as I can. (In my last couple of years of school I found excuses to do my trials on the same day as the year 7s so I wouldn't come last by such an embarrassing margin, but I don't think that would help in this company).

Noted that a fair bit of newspaper space was given on the weekend to the pronouncements on climate change of that well-known climate scientist, Archbishop George Pell. I trust that in the interests of fairness and balance the 'Australian' will give me an equal amount of space to comment on whether the Catholic Church is doing enough to weed paedophiles out of its priesthood.

Hit the wall in a big way this afternoon - a combination of being unwell, not very much sleep last night (partly illness, partly dwelling more than I should - still - on matters JWOC) and trying to do too much. Probably should have given this a miss but thought the low intensity of a Monday night might be OK. It was - just - but felt weak throughout the run, and even weaker afterwards. By the end of the evening was even contemplating the possibility of an unscheduled sick day from work, something which I'm even more reluctant to take than unscheduled sick days from running (I haven't had one in a quarter-century).

This was all done from Susannah's soon-to-be-former premises in Prahran - they've bought a new place in Glen Iris which will give us new grounds to explore (although it's almost as deep into the outer-suburban wilderness as my place is).

C • Unscheduled sick day.... 5

Doing my best to get back to normal but not quite ready to get there as yet. Quads improving to the point that they were only a minor nuisance, and therefore failed to provide a distraction from overall sluggishness in the way they had for the last few days. I've got a bit of a sniffle which may explain that. Not a disastrous run (and a little bit longer than planned on), but I'd just about had enough by the end of it. A couple of days behind where I'd like to be in the post-marathon process, but then I tend to be pretty unforgiving on myself (as is apparent in another orienteering context at present).

The first half was the Capital City Trail loop from the Fairfield end, partly to pick up something (small) which I thought I'd left in the changerooms at work and hadn't (subsequently found it in the bottom of my bag, which will teach me that 11.30 on a Friday night isn't a great time to check one's bag for things). Came back through the CBD and the inner north-east suburbs without too many traffic interruptions. A very pleasant day for all sorts of outdoor activities (and less smoky than yesterday), and plenty of people were taking advantage - although it was a little on the warm side for a run in the middle of the day.

The 2020 summit has had one positive impact already - Andrew Bolt is threatening to emigrate. (I didn't nominate for the summit, partly because my travel schedule at present is already heavy, but in any case David Karoly and Amanda Lynch are representing the world of climate science more eminently than I could have).

Thanks to everyone for their AP logs - I'm currently writing my Easter report for the AO and your comments have saved me from having to ring everyone up and find out where the decisive breaks were made in the chasing start, and why.

C • Perhaps we could all chip in 7

Still plenty of soreness but running with much more strength and freedom than I was yesterday, on a significantly hillier course (around Eaglemont) than anything I've done in the last three days. Didn't see too many local swelled heads (or wallets) from the glowing review the suburb got in this morning's 'Age' real estate section (that said, when was the last time a newspaper real estate section said of a place 'this place is a dump and no-one with any brains would even think about buying real estate here'?). A sunny morning but with heavy smoke haze, presumably from burning off. We might be stuck with this for a while as there doesn't look to be any significant wind in the forecast until late next week.

The Essendon and St. Kilda supporters last night could agree on one thing - they booed Connex en masse when it was announced 'Connex have advised of lengthy delays...'. It was allegedly due to a 'police operation', but there's been no report in today's news of any significant crimes anywhere near the City Loop so I'm still at a loss as to what was going on (and even if it was a suicide you wouldn't expect it to take all evening to sort the situation out).

Saturday morning at Ivanhoe, which was a pretty regular session for me back in 2002 and early 2003 when I wasn't running much. Doing laps here in this timeslot one feels rather out of place, mainly because the demographics of the crowd are those one more normally associated with a Wiggles concert. The instructors do a pretty good job of keeping them in the bits of the pool they're supposed to be in so it doesn't usually cause any trouble.

Still not the easiest of sessions - not kicking especially freely - but being in the water will do me good. Making progress, very slowly.

This was hard work - probably a bit more flexible than yesterday but no less painful. Definitely progressing more slowly than I was in 2005. A long stop at a railway crossing wasn't hugely helpful in the circumstances, but did handle the hills OK when they came.

As mooted yesterday, going through a massage this morning was challenging.

Noticed on the ranking list yesterday that four of my five scoring events at present are state long distance championships (ACT, NSW, SA and Vic). The fifth, strangely, is the Oceania long - which was probably my worst race of 2007 (although everyone else stuffed it up too, which is why I got reasonable points out of it).

C • act champs weekend 7

Gradually building back into things. Still sore and without much maneouvrability from side to side - I suspect I've got the turning circle of a Mack truck at the moment - but able to run reasonably normally without short-striding as I was yesterday. (I had a bit of knee soreness after yesterday's run, probably through running with an unnatural stride, but no sign of a recurrence today). Coped better than I thought I would with the descent through the west side of Macleod (a prerequisite to the very nice gentle downhill finish through the Rosanna Parklands).

Still no real power in the quads, which makes hill-climbing on a bike challenging. I haven't tried to do the full ride home (with a reasonably solid climb out of Darebin Creek) yet - the La Trobe Street bridge past the PhoneDome is enough of a challenge at present.

The masseur will earn his money tomorrow morning - two marathoners to deal with in successive timeslots. (Lisa Jane Weightman, who narrowly missed Olympic qualifying in London on the weekend, usually fills the slot before me).

C • My speed 1

C • Lisa JW 4

First attempt to run - very slowly. As expected the first kilometre was highly unpleasant; after that it was still hard and rather painful going, but gradually loosening up (slightly). Not exactly the most enjoyable half-hour I've ever spent in my life, but on the evidence of past post-marathon weeks it will do me a lot of good.

Further progress was that I can now go down stairs forwards and get up from chairs without needing to use my arms :-)

Swim at Fitzroy. Hard work initially, given that I wasn't generating much power in my legs, but got better the further it went on. Good to get some exercise into the system (and then rode from Fitzroy to work which will also have helped).

Considered taking some Harden Up (some would say I don't need any extra supplies of Harden Up) and going out for a token run, but it was apparent from the first couple of steps (as well as from my near-total lack of uphill power on the bike) that I'm not yet ready to do so. Hopefully tomorrow. I feel about one day behind where I was last time; can (sort of) handle stairs now.

Expecting to ride past a media scrum tonight - my route home takes me past the front of the building in which the AFL Tribunal sits.

Couldn't even think about running today - walking to and from the station (normally 6 minutes, more like 9 today) was enough of an effort. Having a fair idea ahead of time that I would be like this today, I cooked for the MFR crowd instead.

I'd be interested to know what's going on physiologically with my quads, and whether there is something I can do about it or whether it's an inevitable consequence of a long road race - I doubt the latter as plenty of people with no more training background than I have handle races longer than 42.2km (about 15% of yesterday's field went on to do 50).

Will attempt to swim tomorrow (and if that doesn't work out, at least spend some time walking in the pool) - might attempt a short run or might not. Last time I "ran" on Tuesday - it was agony for the first kilometre but did my recovery good - but I'm not sure I can face it at the moment.

I did get the chance to match shuffles with one of the others at work (sprained ankle playing soccer in her case).

C • Quads 8

Event: Canberra Marathon
 

I'd have taken this time if it was offered to me before the start this morning, but after a day which promised for long stretches to be something really special, it was a bit disappointing to drift back to something only marginally beyond expectations.

The start was a little faster than I really wanted to be (3.53 for each of the first two kilometres) and I was torn between trying to hold a pack and doing a sustainable pace. In the end I chose the latter, which meant that I had the strange experience in a decent-sized race (about 900) of being on my own for almost the entire run - I was never with someone for more than 10 seconds.

The first 13km was reasonably routine, although it was a bit of a surprise to be cruising so easily at a pace only a few seconds per km slower than my last two 10ks (although today there was no gale and no election celebration). I then settled into a really good stretch, especially from 13-18, and was still going very nicely at 25, picking off runners one by one, and tiring a bit at 30 but still reasonably comfortable. At this stage I was still under 4 min/km and thought a 2.47 or 2.48 might be a possibility.

That was ended when my quads packed up around 34k, and from there it was survival mode as my kilometres dropped into the 4.10s and 4.20s. Started to lose places in the last 5k and by the end I was prepared to settle for beating my 2005 time from Melbourne (I did this with 19 seconds to spare, having been up to 2 minutes ahead of pace at times). Two people passed me in the last 200 but I had nothing left to give by then.

Quads are predictably horrible - ask Jase what I looked like trying to manouevre myself into the car. A satisfying result but one which could have been so much better; still probably my best running performance for several years.

5k splits: 19.46, 19.51, 19.59, 19.49, 20.02, 20.13, 21.08, 22.02.

We had steady rain for the first 25km, which was actually pretty good to run in (and saved me from too many drink stops in an event where maintaining rhythm is crucial, especially later on). Wouldn't have been fun for the final stragglers when a hailstorm unloaded after about 6 hours.

C • Top run 17

Event: Bendigo Ironman 2008
 

A nice pre-marathon hitout, with the first half through the flatter bits of Black Mountain and the second half through the suburbs. Somewhat mundane in the first half but flowed nicely after halfway. Took in the soon-to-be acejase residence, which is well-positioned for 2013 or 2014 - directly opposite Aranda Primary. (I look forward to Abby or Zoe welcoming all of us as school captain when it comes to the 50th anniversary celebrations in 2019).

Also went past the Wests rugby club, an establishment which I suspect has been reasonably well patronised over the years by the substantial local orienteering fraternity, which went into administration yesterday. Hopefully it doesn't meet the same fate as the old Finnish-Australian Club just up the street, which went into administration some years ago and burnt down a few days later, with numerous empty cans of petrol found on the premises. (The AFP arson squad must have some reasonably bright detectives because a spokesman was quoted as saying "Police believe the fire may be suspicious").

Encountered a certain Mr Bazorak on the way up the Cook hill. I was also reacquainted with a name from somewhat further back yesterday - saw Peter Lowndes at Melbourne Airport. He's more into yachting these days.

Swim at Richmond. Fairly routine but a bit slower than recent sessions. Time seemed to go a bit faster than it sometimes does in the pool.

Had a massage afterwards. Last week I passed on a hot tip (that Tasmania was grossly over the odds in Centrebet's 'state with most rain in April' book); he's got on it and so have all his mates. Suspect I'll be popular in those quarters if Tasmania gets up (and it's currently leading with 33mm, with WA second with 9).

Heading up to Canberra this afternoon for the marathon on Sunday.

C • And you presumably will be ... 2

Easing back compared to a usual Thursday in preparation for the weekend. A pretty solid run on a nice morning, starting along the Yarra flats for the first half-hour and then taking some more challenging hilly country through Templestowe and Bulleen. Handling the steeper hills well and no sign of trouble from the cracked skin of the sole of my foot that's given me a bit of grief in the last day or two.

Some late-day excitement yesterday with a fire alarm which apparently started in the car park (probably Melbourne Victory supporters testing their flares). No real hassle for me as I was about to duck out to get something to eat in advance of said Victory match and by the time I'd finished the fire brigade had packed up and gone home. The game itself wasn't quite such a happy result although certainly not lacking in action (a 4-3 is rarely lacking in action).

C • Sunday 5

A slightly politically inspried run this morning - I was at a meeting last night where one of the items under discussion was a proposal to merge all the schools in the West Heidelberg and Macleod areas into one mega-school on a site next to La Trobe Uni, and one of the questions raised was the travel that this would entail, so I set about testing how long it takes me to run from Bellfield Primary to the La Trobe site. The answer is 23 minutes; I don't think too many of the Preps will be walking this (assuming the proposal gets off the ground).

The run itself started slowly and never really got beyond mediocre. Still a bit too contemplative for my own good. I think I get too much exposure to the tabloid media culture where any error is unacceptable and condemnation is forever.

A comment attributed to Arthur C. Clarke in an obituary I saw: that reports of UFO sightings said nothing about the existence of intelligent life on other planets, but did say something about how rare it is on Earth.

Felt promising at the start (on another very nice morning for running) but didn't quite deliver - not that lack of speed is really going to matter on Sunday. Fastest loop 9.23.

C • Speed 3

Swim at Northcote. With nothing other than a black line to look at, swimming means there aren't a lot of distractions from thinking, which at present is probably a minus rather than a plus as it means one's mind turns to things like whether I've got a spare few thousand around if needed for legal costs. The physical aspects of the swim were fine, though.

My mood this morning wasn't helped by the friendly motorcyclist who thought I wasn't far enough forward at the traffic lights for his liking and gave me a little push from behind to give himself a gap to squeeze through.

Spotted a car whose owner is obviously in favour of having more countries in the world than we currently do, as it sported bumper stickers 'Free Tibet', 'Free West Papua', 'Free East Timor' and 'Free Aceh' (at least number 3 is done and number 4 is sort-of-done). I had no argument with the other cause advocated, that of the Essendon Football Club (very Melbourne). I find it difficult to see 'Free (insert cause here' without thinking of the mid-1980s episode when the late and unlamented leader of the now-defunct Builders Labourers Federation, Norm Gallagher, was jailed for taking bribes from developers in exchange for industrial peace on their sites. Just about every building site sprouted 'Free Norm' written on their fences, whereupon somebody in Canberra took it upon themselves to start writing underneath 'with any Big Mac purchase'.

C • Free 8

MFR Monday night from a new starting point - Clara's place in Brunswick. A somewhat convoluted figure-of-eight centred on the Merri Creek. Felt a bit iffy at the start but good in the second half, with plenty of scope to surge when I felt like shuttling between packs. A bit of a change to be doing this in the dark.

There was a new entry to the annals of legendary Monday night catering - the dessert of small pieces of fruit and melted chocolate to dip them in (those of us who were alive in the 70s could draw the comparisons with fondue).

Jas got caught out by Nicholson Street's quirky numbering - the numbers restart on the west side but not on the east, so if you go to 201 Nicholson, North Fitzroy when you were intending to go to 201 Nicholson, Brunswick, you're about 3km from where you thought you were. It also means that 69 is opposite 892. I assume that it was a council boundary in pre-amalgamation days.

C • Chocolate fondue 1

Melbourne metro event at Woodlands Park. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to show my face at an orienteering event today in light of last night's developments, but fronted up anyway (as did plenty of others - it was the best turnout I can remember for a Melbourne metro Sunday event).

As would be expected after a long run yesterday, felt pretty sluggish for a lot of it, although better in the second half. Sometimes had trouble pinpointing controls as sometimes happens in flattish terrain, but no significant time losses.

It's a good area to have close to Melbourne - a decent amount of bush mixed with semi-open - and will be a great resource for events of this type. There were also a few small granite features around. The SE corner of the map (which we didn't go to) has rather more of them and, if it isn't too constrained by fences, might make a decent sprint area.

Doing a long run on a Saturday is a little unusual for me - this time it was mainly because the otherwise minor metro event tomorrow is on an area I haven't run on before so I thought it would be nice to run it. The timing does have the advantage of getting the hardest work for the weekend out of the way early on the weekend - a little bit like what happens when your football team wins on Friday night.

The first 40 minutes were pretty slow, but hit an increasingly good rhythm after that, traversing leafy eastern suburbs which are somewhat less leafy than they were this time last week. Enough hills to keep me honest without ever being extreme; had the confidence to finish across the steep bits at the west end of Bulleen. Quads fatigued a little bit which is a slight concern for next week as they've given me trouble in the later stages of my two previous marathons, but nothing too serious, and I finished feeling as if I had plenty left for the extra 35 or 40 minutes I'll be doing next Sunday. Did 4.3 minutes/km over the second half, which is only a little slower than my likely marathon pace, without ever feeling stressed. A good confidence-booster on the whole.

I'm starting to get a bit annoyed by the talk of an "unprecedented" wind event. Wednesday's peak gusts ranked 14th in 25 years at Moorabbin and 27th in 38 years at Tullamarine (the Melbourne CBD wind observations are useless), although severe wind events have been conspicuous by their absence in the last 10 years. As far as I can tell the only thing unprecedented about this event is the extent to which it has exposed the impact of maintenance and emergency-response cost-cutting in a privatised electricity industry.

There was a party last night hosted by the 'Age's environment reporter (to celebrate her getting a publisher for a book she's writing) - mostly journos but a few of us climate types were there. Our host was worried that she'd over-ordered on the pizza. I replied that she obviously didn't know me as well as she thought she did :-)

Felt really good this morning and was able to put it into a solid session - got into a nice rhythm quickly. Pity a day like this was wasted on a recovery session. The end of daylight saving must be nigh - still pitch-black when I went into Richmond pool at 7.10.

The travel issue I mentioned has been resolved, at a saving to the world's taxpayers of $900 or thereabouts. I'm also relieved that I'll only have been travelling for 30 hours by the time I get to the Tasmanian NOL races instead of 34 :-)

Our building has screens which display some news headlines. Today's was that Paris Hilton had lost some brain cells after a fall in Prague. I didn't realise that there were any there to lose (and I'm mystified as to why this constitutes "news").

Longest run I've done for a few weeks - this and Saturday are mainly about giving me some more confidence for the marathon. Doing the local ALP newsletter drop for a lot of it. A run which often threatened to become very good but never quite did, still quite nice at times, and handled the numerous hills reasonably well. Also managed to do a pretty long run without ever being more than about 4km from home.

Plenty of evidence of yesterday's carnage around, with many trees down (and one lot of power lines). Compared to many the effects on me were pretty minimal - I actually got home earlier than planned (I was aiming for the 7.02 train, and actually got the 6.43 running 17 minutes late), and only one power outage longer than a few minutes (and that was after I'd already gone to bed, so its only impact was that I used my watch alarm rather than my radio one, having set it as a back-up in anticipation).

I'm also wondering just how many thousand dollars I could have saved various taxpayers if the procedure for booking overseas trips was 'do it yourself and send us the bill'. I'm sorting out flights for my trip to Holland in May and our travel agents are wanting to send me from Singapore to Amsterdam via Heathrow at a cost $1300 greater than that which you can get the direct option for via the KLM website. Would you pay $1300 extra for the privilege of (a) several hours extra in the air and (b) having an excellent chance of having your luggage disappear into the Heathrow black hole? I've asked them to have another look (and get the impression they're not used to people asking questions). The trip is funded by the World Meteorological Organization so at least it's (mostly) some other country's taxes which are being wasted in this case.

Main highlight of this run was a stunning red sky at sunrise. I don't think there are too many shepherds left in Melbourne these days, but if there are any they can consider themselves warned (that's if they hadn't already read the sheep weather alert posted on our website yesterday).

The run itself was pretty ho-hum, although picked up a bit towards the end.

C • Clouds 4

Going to/from the Tan. Knew that it was going to be interesting when I saw a building worker chasing his helmet down the street outside our building.

First hit-out on the Tan this year. Didn't have high expectations and was expecting something in the 13.30-13.40 range. Started a bit slowly as everyone else gunned the start in a big way, but ran the hill well and a good last kilometre. Almost managed the rare feat of outsprinting someone but he got me back on the line.

It was pretty wild and woolly out there (peak gusts on the Bay at last report 117 km/h, although lower than that in sheltered areas). There was a lot of small debris on the track and a couple of fallen trees (which the runners coped with better than I thought they might), and quite a bit of stuff was still coming down - one large tree across the road as we were going past the Shrine. I think the effect on times was quite modest, as the section between 2.5 and 3.3 k where we were going directly into the wind is quite sheltered, but the crosswinds in the more open areas were fierce. Might have been close to or just under 13.30 on a calmer day, but the 13.15 I'd be happy with is still some distance away.

Km splits: 3.35, 3.39 (uphill), 3.36 (into wind), 3.31.

First speed session after the Easter week of racing. Didn't expect it to be a particularly quick session and it wasn't - fastest loop 9.22 - but felt quite reasonable. A bit of Achilles soreness early on, but that eased quickly. A pretty crisp morning on the Yarra flats - autumn is definitely with us (if tomorrow's forecast is correct one could be forgiven for thinking winter will be with us).

There was a film shoot setting up at the Heidelberg Oval - don't know what is being filmed. A couple of years ago the oval was used to set up a replica of an American county fair for "Charlotte's Web", apparently authentic in all respects except that they neglected to clear the scoreboard which said 'West Heidelberg 18 16 124 Visitors 9 9 63'. Not having seen the movie I don't know if the scoreboard put in an appearance in it.

C • toyota footy ad? 2