Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Fairly easy run on Rottnest around the south coast from the main settlement, with a bit of sand-dune climbing but mostly not too hard. Not too much rust to get out of the system after yesterday.

Highlight of the day was a boat trip around the coast of the island, which would have been worthwhile in its own right but became much more so when several whales surfaced nearby.

Now back based in York for the rest of the week.

Australian Sprint Championships at Curtin University, a decent venue for the occasion (spending pretty well all of the course in recently complex buildings). Enjoyed myself with only one minor hesitation where I wasn't totally sure how to get down a level. Not fast enough to be competitive but I knew that before I started; my stated objective was to defend 4 minutes on Tim Robertson, which realistically I thought was a chance if it was a 12-minute course but not if it was a 15-minute one (as it turned out he went through me at #14).

It was a good course and a nice arena (complete with beanbag couches supplied by the student union for the occasion, although the juniors snaffled those before I got one; guess I could have invoked presidential privileges but decided not to).

Our gathering place was outside the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library (whose existence I already knew of - we'd been in touch with them last year to get permission to use a picture of John Curtin throwing a snowball in 1929 in a presentation on notable Canberra weather events). Such institutions are standard for former U.S. Presidents, George W. Bush included (cue gratuituous jokes about how he hasn't finished colouring in all the books in it yet), but as far as I know this is the only one of its type in Australia.

Finished the day on Rottnest, with a tour of the island in the fire truck (one of my cousins lives there and her husband is the fire chief).

C • thor on the last leg? 6

M21E - Splits

Once again, a decent run apart from one control, where I didn't read a gap in a line of cliffs properly at 16, pulled up short and wasted 90 seconds. In a middle 90 seconds will inevitably be quite a few places and so it proved today, not that I would really have been competitive without it - nothing that has happened so far this week has made me reconsider the idea that this will probably be my last national championships at elite level (in the longer races, anyway).

Over the rest of the course it was a steady progression of people past me, including eventual winner Ian Lawford at 16 (at least I took a split off him on the next leg). Felt sluggish warming up, OK on the course though not a lot of strength on the hills (something that was heavily tested on the second-last leg).

The terrain was well-used - when you looked at the map afterwards, only a small fraction of the map has interesting detail but it certainly didn't seem that way on the course.

Aust MDC, Course M21E - Splits

Event: Karrak Karnival - Oz Champs
 

WA Long Championships at Spice Brook, a gully-spur area of the western variety (i.e. eroded small escarpments and lots of blandness in between, where you had to keep your wits about you to avoid coming unstuck). Had I noticed before entering that this was (a) the day before the middle and (b) not a National League race, I'd probably have run M40 instead, but the run did me good and will be useful for my confidence for next week after a couple of recent long-distance failures.

This was a wet race with rain for most of the day (although it was much more pleasant in the forest than it was in the windswept assembly area, which was consequently devoid of much of a crowd) - still preferable running conditions to the 35 degrees that it would have been this time last week. For the most part it was a reasonably smooth run. Started OK, apart from a stop to remove a number that didn't last 10 minutes; Bruce (2 minutes) and Mark (4) both went through me, Mark looking particularly strong, but nothing unexpected there. Quite a lot of track options in the second half of the course - wouldn't have used all of them on a different day (keeping a bit in reserve was part of the objective today, as it was for most of the field), but it may not have been such a bad thing, as on 15 David Brownridge (who'd just gone through me 6 minutes) left the track before I did and was behind me to the control. The one error of any size was 11, a hard-to-see rock in regrowth - was close to it but not confident enough of my position to pinpoint it, and dropped a couple of minutes.

Still running OK at the end, which I was happy with, although no more competitive time-wise than I've been at any other time this season (Simon was just under 80).

There was a somewhat unnerving reminder of some of the forces which have been unleashed in this country of late on Saturday night in Northam, when we emerged from a pub (Jenny, Shannon, Cathy and Al being with me) to encounter two young men, presumably drunk, racially abusing a harmless kebab shop owner across the street - they seemed particularly disturbed by the fact that he was selling halal meat - and trying to drag us into it. We weren't interested in doing so; part of me thinks I should have done more to intervene, another part of me thinks that having done so would have meant a fairly good chance of being introduced to the expression "grievous bodily harm".

Trying to hose these sorts of emotions down is going to take better leadership than we have at the moment, at least on the national level (to give credit where credit is due, some good things are being done in Victoria at the state level, including from people like Matthew Guy whom I wouldn't have seen as likely peacemakers).

WA Long Champs, Course M21A - Splits

Got my packing done in time to get out for an early-morning run, up to Macleod and back down the valley. It won't go down as one of my greatest runs - pretty tight through the first couple of kilometres, though eventually got going a bit in the second half. Not super-sharp for tomorrow (where, given the ordering of the races, I'm starting to regret entering M21 for the WA long - probably won't do me any favours for the two following days).

Ended up crossing all the important things off my to-do list at work with half an hour still to go before I had to get on the bus for the airport - plenty of time. The bag's heavier than it usually is (even if I've gone mostly electronic for books this time) thanks to the very diverse range of temperatures I need to be prepared for - could be anything from near 40 to snow.

And the concentration of fluoro tops at Perth Airport is as high as ever. Two nice bonuses of the flight were having an empty seat next to me and having the first bag off, though the advantage of the latter was lessened by the fact that my fellow travellers are on a later flight. (The number of empty seats was well short of that the last time I did this trip on Grand Final Friday - that was in 2006, with the Eagles playing and 15 747s crossing the Nullarbor on the Friday - which meant 15 747s going back. Mine had about 30 people on it).

Seemed to be working OK today. Lots of rain overnight but only a bit of drizzle about in the morning; swapped this for a run tomorrow because the logistics of tomorrow would have been challenging.

I'm just about to embark on the task of packing properly. Will be an interesting challenge this time round as the range of conditions I could experience goes all the way from tropical wet-season build-up (humid mid-upper 30s) in interior southern Brazil through to sub-Antarctic on Tierra del Fuego and the higher elevations in southern Patagonia. Have decided to go mostly electronic on the book supply though. I'm also whittling away at the to-do list, although not at a fast enough rate to reduce it to zero before departure. (Incidentally, it has been decided that the first person to send me one of the e-mails that I mentioned in Tuesday's entry will be required to bring a cake to the first morning tea after I return - two cakes if it pertains to dealing with correspondence from a climate change sceptic).

Laugh of the day was reading an account of a court case where an injured taxi driver was seeking compensation for lost income. The judge noticed that the driver's annual income according to his last tax return was $5700, and asked him if he wished to maintain this position and thus have only nominal compensation, or adjourn the case until such time as he had filed an alternative return to the ATO. (The driver decided at this point that fessing up to the taxman was the best option).

And, thanks to not clearing a field I thought I'd cleared before checking out the logistics of getting from JFK to where I'm staying on my first night in New York, I can tell you that Google Maps is not (yet) up to the task of telling you the best way to travel from the WA Championships assembly area to a Tribeca apartment by public transport.

C • NY 4

I think this might be the first time this year I've done what was previously my regular fartlek circuit from home in the morning. However long it's been, the rustiness definitely showed - don't think I've been quite as slow as this before, although it would be fair to say that my heart wasn't really in pushing myself flat out.

Starting to get a few more things cleared before I go away. Haven't started packing yet, of course - although have done a few bits of pre-packing, like making sure all the fuel in my Trangia is burned out before attempting to put it on a plane. (On the subject of things which might be questionable things to take on a plane, it would be hard to go past the jars labelled "explosive mixture" which I spotted in the spices section of the supermarket this evening).

Last one of any significant length before departure. Feeling a bit sleepy at the start and never really felt that strong, but a decent run none the less, given that it took on some reasonably hilly country in the first half (as far as North Balwyn) before flattening out later on. The sleepiness followed an especially vivid dream which involved trying to find a way of tracking down the 2016 federal election results while in the middle of doing the Australian Championships presentations on the same day.

Still not totally convinced that I'm going to get everything I want to get done before I leave, but did manage to get a few decks cleared today (no thanks to the continued correspondence coming into our area from climate change denialists). I'm thinking I should perhaps run a book on the date of the first "sorry to e-mail you on your holiday, but..." e-mail. I will be very surprised if that date gets beyond the end of the first week, and won't be totally shocked if it happens on Monday.

Combining climate extremes (or the effect thereof) with dumb criminals was the subject of a case reported in today's press. It involved someone who successfully claimed $1000 in disaster relief funding after saying he had been affected by the Moree floods in early 2012. This was a bit of a stretch because he was a fair way from Moree at the time - to be precise, in Cessnock Jail. He got caught after trying to pull the same trick with the 2013 Warrumbungles fires when it was discovered that the farm he said had been burnt out didn't exist. For his trouble, he got three extra months added to the sentence he's currently serving (in Cooma this time).

And I now have a note with a six-digit number on it in my wallet, as a result of acquiring the surplus Paraguayan guarani of a colleague recently returned from a meeting there. (It's worth about $25).

Starting to count down the "last before leaving" - today was the last (planned) swim, on a very bright if cool morning at Fitzroy. Started slowly but got going pretty well in the second half.

Resurrection of the MFR Monday nights, with a pleasingly large crowd from the Jaffe residence (ostensibly as a welcome for our three new Danish visitors), including a few members of the next generation. Flattish first half but some reasonably solid hills coming back across Eaglemont, which I didn't handle as well as some.

On our return, we introduced our international guests to some genuine Australian culture, in the form of the Brownlow red carpet arrivals.

Ended up as a run which didn't live up to its initial promise, drifting out of it a bit and lacking energy on the hills (except for the biggest one, strangely enough). Like a few of my longer runs lately, this was out towards Greensborough and Montmorency, though came back through an area of the Streeton Views estate that I haven't been through before (including a nice pocket in a bushy gully); quite hilly for much of the way.

I was wondering if I would find a few people with sore heads still dragging themselves away from the Greensborough football clubrooms (they won the local grand final yesterday). I didn't, but there were still plenty of cars in the car park, most of them presumably belonging to people who decided (or had decided for them) that they were in no fit state to drive home last night.

Odd spot of the closing stages was seeing a real estate sign which, even by the usual standards of elastic interpretation of the English language in that industry, was bizarre: I'm struggling to think of any plausible interpretation of the word under which a property on Rosanna Road, Heidelberg could be described as "serene". (For those not from Melbourne, Rosanna Road is probably one of the busiest roads in the whole city that people actually live on, and - probably ineffectual - promises to do something about it have come from both sides in the election campaign).

Ticked off a few more streets today: Ann Ct, Montmorency, Anne Ct, Yallambie and Anthony Ct, Banyule. That will be it now until December because the next one on my list is too far away to be in range on anything I have planned this week.

Part of the rest of the day was spent at the pleasingly well-attended climate march in the city (why is it that Melbourne always draws by far the best crowd for these? - somewhere around 20,000 today). As is often the way at such gatherings, there were also some other causes being espoused on the fringes, some of them of questionable relevance to climate change, such as ending the persecution of Falun Gong in China and independence for the Western Sahara.

Took to the hills of Eaglemont early on without feeling too brilliant in the process of doing so, and didn't really have much of a spark through the flatter second half either. Didn't see any sign of the fire earlier in the week (the second fatal house fire on Cape Street since I've been living in the area - I assume it was in a unit some way back from the street). Various other people out running on the Yarra flats, some going a lot faster, some a lot slower and some at a fairly similar speed.

It's as well that the Australian Championships carnival is starting next Saturday and not this Saturday; September temperature records in the Perth area have not been so much broken as obliterated, with Perth Airport (34.5) 2.9 above its previous record, and Rottnest 3.8 above. We've been lucky to avoid any serious heat in previous national championship years in WA (although the Easters of 2003 and 2011 both had hot days); hopefully that remains the case this time.

C • Early Easters in WA 10

Pool running at Fitzroy. Working fairly solidly for most of the session.

My to-do list before departure (now almost exactly a week away) had quite a few things ticked off it today but is still formidably long; it's going to be a busy seven days (hopefully nothing else blows up in the interim).

This was at the better end of my Thursday runs this year (which isn't saying an awful lot), and I don't think it was just because it was shorter than most of them (although the fact that it started later than most of them may have helped). Settled down within the first couple of kilometres and fairly smooth most of the rest of the way, just drifting off a little in the last few minutes.

There's been a bit of a cluster of runs in the inner north lately as a result of arrangements for other parts of the day. Today started with seeing what this year's euphemism is for the facility with high walls on the north side of Royal Park (your answer, for 10 points, is the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct). Crime was perhaps a theme of other parts of the run too, since its far point was Cross Keys Reserve, scene of perhaps the most notorious of the early 2000s Melbourne underworld murders. (Depending on your viewpoint with respect to the Essendon drug scandal, you might consider Windy Hill to slot into a similar category).

C • facility with high walls 2

Tan fartlek session. Felt OK but never seemed to be going that fast; had a moving-against-the-current feel to it.

Going to/from the Tan.

This was another slightly unconventionally-timed and located run - this time because I was doing a webinar in late afternoon from the Mathematical Association of Victoria's premises in Brunswick (an atmospheric heritage-listed house). Headed for a run directly from there (partly because I expected 7pm traffic would be easier to deal with driving home than 6pm traffic), going north to Coburg Lake through the old Pentridge site, then back more or less along Merri Creek (in the process visiting the bridge mentioned last week for the second time in five days - if it really is going to be above the 100-year flood level it is either going to be about 200 metres long or is going to be somewhere else).

Quite a nice run once I got going, though not especially fast (and slowed noticeably once it got dark, especially in those places where it was a bit muddy).

The How To Win Friends and Influence People award for the day goes to Metro Trains, who (as they occasionally do, though not on my line) turned a stopping train into an express. By doing so, they caused the Age's transport reporter to miss an announcement by the Minister for Transport of a new station development.

With a midnight return last night and an early departure from work due to a body corporate meeting (much less fraught than last year's equivalent, which might have something to do with one of the parties to last year's "issues" having sold up), I decided not to try to get out early but instead do something post-meeting. I'd rather have done something in the water, but that wasn't really practical (Ivanhoe is closed for three weeks for renovations, and Olympic Village only has three lanes, two of which were booked for lessons according to the council website), so instead went for a run which, somewhat contrary to expectations, was more or less OK - yesterday afternoon's fluid replacement must have done its job. (My other thought yesterday was that I was getting sick but no sign of that).

Oh dear. Having had a decent run (apart from one dubious control) and a decent result yesterday, today went pear-shaped in spectacular style as my body did its best to shut down inside an hour. First started feeling ordinary on the (interesting) long leg, and through 9 and 10 quickly got to the stage of struggling to run one-contour hills. Knew I was in trouble at 11 (the drinks) when I was feeling dizzy on bending down for the water container; hoped that getting some water into me there would help, but things got no better (if anything they got worse), indicated by Bruce (who'd caught me at 11) putting probably close to a full minute into me on the 600-metre leg to 12, and when the (small) hill in the early part of 13 felt just as bad I decided this was more than just a bad patch and called it a day. The way things continued to feel in the process of jogging in did nothing to suggest I would have suddenly revitalised myself for another 35-40 minutes.

I'm assuming this was primarily a question of getting my hydration badly wrong; first warm day of spring syndrome (and with hindsight, the main problem was probably one of going into the day depleted after an afternoon yesterday which took out more than seemed to be the case at the time) - an indicator of this was that it was well into the evening before any replaced fluids came out the other end (just as well I didn't have to do a drug test). Better to (re-) learn this this weekend than in something more important, but it's still disappointing to come out of today with no result. It could be warm in Perth (hopefully not as warm as this coming weekend, which is currently expected to have near-record temperatures for this time of year, around 30), and it certainly will be warm in Brazil (although probably not Canada).

The trip home was long, but I wasn't doing much of the driving (in contrast to the equivalent trip on the same weekend in 2007, which I did solo), just 250km or so between Renmark and Ouyen. There was a certain amount of history repeating itself on this one - Bruce drove a fair proportion of the first 2000km of one of my earlier new cars (the one I drowned in Kalumburu), and I returned the favour this time. Not sure how the quantity of dust the new car has acquired in its first week will go down.

SA Middle Championships at Twigham. A decent run for quite a lot of it but, like most of the rest of the field, lost significant time on 7 (about 3 1/2 minutes in my case) - thought something was going on when I saw Bruce (2 minutes ahead) there. Initially we thought it was a misplaced control but I think it was actually a map issue on the spur above and potential attack points (people on other courses who were coming from different directions didn't have problems). Lost a bit of edge after that but managed to hold it together through to the end.

Ended up 4th behind Simon, Bruce and Matt, but closer to the lead than I would have expected - don't think Simon was well. (Might be a decent ranking score). Saw quite a bit of Matt out there as he lost time a few times and then passed me again.

Slightly different venue today, in the outdoor pool at Northcote because that best suited the morning logistics - not a bad spot for it actually (lots of greenery) but never really got going. Hit the road to South Australia this afternoon (in the company of Bruce, Mason and Torren),

A bit of a nothing session, drifting out of it later on and constrained in time by a massage appointment. Also lost a bit of time early on, but that was my decision - having seen via the radar that the downpour which accompanied my planned start time was only going to last for a few minutes. It rained somewhat less seriously for most of the first half before fining up, never enough to cause any real trouble.

Spotted en route was a sign on one of the Merri Creek path bridges was a sign saying the council was going to replace it with a new bridge above the 1:100 year flood level. Under normal circumstances I'd consider this a highly laudable aim, but it does seem slightly pointless in this case because if you actually did get a 1:100 year flood the Merri Creek path would probably be flooded in at least 50 other places. Also spotted en route was a classic old-style corner shop with a (fading) Streets sign out the front which reminded me of the video for Moving Pictures' What About Me (also featuring images of a dole queue, a commodity not in short supply in 1982, with some classic early 80s moustaches).

(This is not to be confused with the video for the Shannon Noll version, which looks like a Telstra ad).

C • New Bridge 1

Street-O at Bellfield, which sounds like home ground - and is for a lot of training runs - but I think I have to go back to 1999 for the last time I did an event here. On that occasion, we were greeted by a burnt-out car in the car park. Had we been a day earlier there might have been a quasi-repeat performance (the car of a certain APer was found somewhere in these parts after being stolen and used as a mobile drug lab), but tonight the locals were friendly and the running was good.

I don't normally take a light on these; tonight the circles were a bit hard to read in street lights and it took me a while to be confident of a route; still not sure I got it totally right but didn't hear of anyone with a greatly different distance. A bit slow in the first half but cruising nicely later on.

My car was being fixed today - again - it's never a good sign when your mechanic recognises your voice (and once again it's a highly exotic problem, a failure of the small motor which drives the boot release - though at least it's only a $300 problem and not a $2000 problem like the last one). The original plan was to do this session after picking up the car (on the basis that the traffic getting home would then be nicer at 6.30 than it would be at 5.30), but the part wasn't going to make it until tomorrow, so I decided to do this session anyway after work and get the train home (a less fraught exercise than it was for many in this afternoon's storms).

The warm-up was awful and I seriously contemplated pulling the plug on the session and having another go tomorrow. It was a bit less awful once I actually started doing reps, but whereas last time in this session I was getting excited about getting into the 50s for the first time in ages, today 65 was as good as it got. Never felt like I had much strength and not really finishing reps off.

Warm-up and down. Finally started to feel vaguely reasonable during the latter.

There was a lot of meteorological excitement around Melbourne today, in the form of long-lived lines of severe thunderstorms. We missed most of the action in the central city, but it was a different story in some other parts of town with hail falling in imposing quantities. There were still hail drifts waiting for me when I got home, though there doesn't seem to be any obvious damage other than stripped vegetation.

First time swimming for a couple of weeks. Nothing to get excited about - not a huge amount of energy - but nothing went wrong either. Seem to have come up OK from yesterday, despite feeling very tired last night.

Lunchtime session on the Tan, on quite a warm lunchtime by recent standards - good practice for warmer races ahead (possible in WA, probable in Brazil). Didn't feel too bad though not terribly fast.

Spotted en route: the campaign car of Tim Smith, Liberal candidate for Kew and formerly of the Institute of Public Affairs. I did have a good line in preparation about the IPA's disdain for government regulation but can't use it because as far as I can tell the vehicle was parked legally.

Nothing in the Australian over the weekend (though there were brief pieces in a couple of the News Limited tabloids). Not sure if that means things are blowing over or whether they're just lying low for a few days because they'd heard that Media Watch were sniffing around (though it turned out Media Watch had a better offer - getting stuck into fabricating stories about Australian military planes coming under fire is a bit of an advance on getting stuck into fabricating stories about people fabricating temperature data).

Felt pretty tired riding home tonight - I don't often ride all the way on Monday (normally I leave the car at the pool and ride from there), so combining all modes of exercise I was at it for about 3 1/4 hours today (the last 30 minutes into a pretty stiff headwind).

Was feeling a bit apprehensive about this beforehand because my back was feeling a bit stiff walking down to the shops early in the morning, but it turned out to be basically OK and the run ended up as a reasonable one. Certainly worked well mentally as a long run, in the sense of going past the hour mark and it seeming only a staging post (notwithstanding being in the middle of some big hills at the time). Took a gel at 18k, something I haven't usually been in the habit of doing on training runs (got to make some use of all the ones I didn't use last weekend), which may or may not have had something to do with how the last part went - on the one hand feeling a bit tired and sore in various places, on the other hand picking up a bit in actual performance and seeming to have a bit left in the legs. A sunny morning with a bit of warmth in the air; similar to the conditions I'm expecting next week in SA (and WA could be reasonably warm, too), and with four long races in the next five weeks (SA, WA, Australian, North American) it's good to get this one under my belt.

Ticked off the most distant place yet on my list - Angela Close, St. Helena, in almost the furthest corner of the municipality (just down from the Glen Katherine school). Fortunately the next one after that (Angus Close) was 200 metres down the road, and Anley Mews, Montmorency was on the way back. (Could have got one more if I'd felt like another 15-20 minutes but I didn't).

Bendigo Saturday event at Mandurang. Felt a bit sluggish and listless at times, especially in the first half, but got around (and as with last week it was good to get out into the bush after a challenging week). Lost 30 seconds at 2 after not seeing the flag on the far side of a tree and 15 at the last through not noticing there were two parallel watercourses, but otherwise a decent technical run (albeit on a course at the lower end of the difficulty spectrum). Craig caught me fairly early on; I more or less stayed in touch with him when it was hilly but he was much faster on the flat and downhill.

Later start than usual after a late-night teleconference last night. Sluggish start, improved a bit later but this was definitely a run which felt like it was doing the bare minimum.

Lip still a bit swollen. Might be putting in my Movember bid a couple of months early because it will probably be a few days before I'm shaving there.

So ends another challenging week (although it didn't get to me personally quite as much as it did last week). Still fairly all-consuming; it took until nearly 5 this afternoon before I got started on what I was really supposed to be doing at work today. Suspect we might be dealing with this for a while yet as our opponents probably won't be satisfied with anything less than a Royal Commission. (Whilst there would be a certain badge-of-honour aspect in a Royal Commission being called into one's activities, it certainly wouldn't be a pleasant experience).

C • Talk to Prue about the experience 4

Came out of this morning looking rather the worse for wear after sorting things out with Graham Lloyd behind the News Corp dunnies doing a faceplant on a Hawthorn footpath after stumbling on something innocuous (so innocuous that I couldn't work out what I'd tripped over). Having ascertained (with the assistance of a passer-by) that there wasn't too much blood coming out of my lip, I pressed on to complete the rest of the planned run.

The fall, which came about 8k in, actually did a pretty reasonable job of waking me up and the run became significantly better from that point - seem to be on a little bit of an upswing (despite last Sunday). Quite a few traffic interruptions through the middle of the run through Hawthorn, before a clear stretch along the river. Didn't really tire much, and didn't feel as tired through the rest of the day as I often do on Thursdays (even noting that this one was at the shorter end of a normal Thursday).

I now have one swollen lip which looks uglier than it feels. Should hopefully settle down before too much longer.

C • Hmmm... 2

I left home to the news that a certain section of the media was once again on the case, and that this time they'd gone much more personal than had been the case for the last week and a half. There isn't really a lot that can be done about a campaign like this other than wait for it to burn itself out and hope that there is still something standing when that happens.

The run itself was in an unusual location - I was doing a talk to Rotary in Berwick this evening (probably wouldn't have chosen the day of being mauled in the Oz as optimal to do a talk to a fairly conservatively-inclined group, but it worked out OK), and decided the best way to do this was to park near the Monash-Toorak interchange (also next to the main bike path) and ride from there. My run was also done from there, along the bike track initially, then up into Ashburton (the end of the shops no longer being marked by a picture of Jeff Kennett smirking into a telephone, as they once were). Was unsurprisingly in a foul mood at the beginning, but started to enjoy myself fairly quickly, and this had become quite a good session by the end.

First run since the weekend, not great but not the back issues of Sunday. Started out on the flat and left any hill-climbing to the second half, by which time I was warmed up (more or less).

Crime featured as large in the newspapers of 1909 as it does now (those who have been following my media tribulations will know why I was taking an interest in January 1909 newspapers). The seriousness with which some offences was taken was a bit different, though; a seaman and a ship's Chinese cook appeared before the Sydney Water Police Court on charges of importing opium into Australia and were fined 50 and 30 pounds respectively. (That's probably several thousand in today's money, but still a substantial improvement on the 5-10 years in Long Bay that a similar offence would attract these days).

Decided the pool would be more back-friendly than running (although it improved significantly overnight, not unexpected given this injury's history), and unusually for me went in the evening, quite a wet one - I'd made good use of the radar to get most of the ride from work done in between lines of showers but it was a different story once actually in the water. Quite a good session.

Excitement of the session came in the form of three police who entered the pool area. Last time this happened they were just in search of a loo but this time they seemed to have other business, spending quite a time in deep and meaningful conversation with someone on the far side. I briefly had visions of that person being hauled away in handcuffs and bathers, which would be a reasonably humiliating way to be arrested (albeit not quite on the scale of Captain Melville of Kooyoora fame, who was caught with his pants down in a Geelong house of ill repute), but the constabulary departed without him.

Meanwhile, a horse in similar condition to the one my money was attached to in last year's Cup continues to be flogged.

The You Learn Something New Every Day department - I wasn't previously aware that we sold any weapons to the Russians, but apparently whatever it was we were selling them we're going to stop doing it. Presumably the next move will be a vodka embargo.