Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Pre-running the senior girls course for the relay (plus a few extra controls to ensure all splits were covered). Something of an improvement on yesterday - still slow up hills (especially the first one), but not feeling as if I was going to be sick every time I went up one. A good night's sleep seems to have helped (it won't be repeated tonight, given that I'm writing this at 11pm having just got back from Ballarat after the presentation dinner....).

Noticed when checking some water at the start of the day that the main track through the map was the Tom Jones Track. Naturally this meant some pertinent music was running through my head for much of the run (although, unsurprisingly, no-one was owning up to having any Tom Jones on their device to play over the PA system).

Even by the usual standards of the Schools relays this was a great day to follow. I was particularly pleased that it all came down to a sprint finish for fifth in the senior girls, between two who were more accustomed to being in the bottom half of the field - demonstrating that in this competition the whole team matters. As it turned out, Bo Davie (a first-year WA orienteer from a rogaining background of whom more will be heard), probably wondering why she was being wildly cheered by every member of the large Tasmanian contingent, just held off Emily Alder, which meant Tasmania got the ACT by a single point. (Joseph Dickinson managing - just - to defend a two-minute lead on Patrick Jaffe to take second in the senior boys was just as crucial).

Also impressed with Steve Moneghetti's talk at the presentation dinner, particularly the bit where he talked about going for late night runs after landing at airports to make sure he didn't miss a day. Those who remember what I was up to 20 years ago will know that this isn't entirely unfamiliar territory.

Let's start by focusing on the positives here. The Schools individual was an excellent morning out and well worth watching (although, perhaps unsurprisingly, our communication with the outside world was not what we'd hoped for), and I found all of the controls without any significant time loss.

That, though, was as far as the positives got for me, because something is clearly not right - felt like throwing up every time I went up a hill. I continue to feel somewhat indifferent tonight and can only assume that I'm in the process of getting sick; hopefully something a decent night's sleep will settle. Not as bad on the flat, but even that was slow. It's a long time since I was a serious chance to beat all the Schools runners (the last time I did it was so long ago that the senior boys' winner I beat was Jules), but today I wouldn't have made the top 20, and quite a few people in the public race claimed my scalp for the first time in a forest event too (such as Ted and Ruhi).

A bit of history: Sandon features highly on the list of Australia's most deadly tornadoes, a 1976 storm which threw a car off the Newstead road. (If I recall correctly, this was the same day that a thunderstorm swamped the Melbourne Cup to the great benefit of Van Der Hum and the great discomfort of the crowd). Whether it ranks at the top depends on whether you attribute a 1961 plane crash in Botany Bay to the storm or to the stupidity of the pilot who flew into it.

C • Milawa 1

Jog around the controls for the Schools Sprint to turn on the control units, make sure everything was in the right place and check for any other last-minute dramas (none, really). Felt very ordinary.

This set the scene for a highly successful event - although having four classes going at once was perhaps a bit too frantic. Also good to get such a great turnout for Run for Hannah - don't know yet how much we raised but I imagine it will have been well into four figures.

Australian Middle. Not the big mistake of yesterday but rather scrappy, often not feeling very confident in reading the detail - time losses were in 15-30 second increments but never really felt on top of things. Also felt like I was getting bad lines across the green gullies, but then I'm not sure if there was any such thing as a good line across the green gullies (though the splits on legs like 12 and 15 suggested I fared worse than most). Faded away at the end and generally not feeling as good running as yesterday, and ended up with a fairly similar result to yesterday.

I'll be acting my age next weekend, but so will Bruce and Andy, and on the evidence of today's run I'll need a major improvement to get within cooee of either of them.

Event: 2015 Australian Orienteering Carnival
 

Victorian Middle Championships at Creswick. One disastrous control which turned this into a poor result - came into the general vicinity of 5, didn't see the control, couldn't quite make sense of the features around, bobbled around for a bit, found 6, went in backwards from 6, pulled up short, went back to 6, and finally found it on the third attempt, probably about 5 minutes to the poorer. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that it was the third time I'd been there, 6 was one of my faster splits).

The pity was that apart from this it was a fairly reasonable run; a bit hesitant on 12 but fine on everything else. Also running better than I have at any time in the last two or three weeks, which at least gives me some encouragement for tomorrow if I can put things together there. Without 5, I would have been in the (large) bunch at 51-52 minutes which is a result I would have been happy with.

A horrible day for the Nuggets (surprising on home ground) - three of the women mispunched and Tash walked because of flu (and wasn't a scoring runner anyway because she wasn't in team uniform), leaving them to get 2 points while Queensland got 9, and the men were well off the pace too.

In the pool at Fitzroy, on one of those morning when the air is cold but the sun is warm - something I've grown up with in Canberra but doesn't happen so often in Melbourne. Going pretty smoothly this morning. I can only assume that the woman who normally gets in just after 8 is away somewhere, depriving us of the chance to mutually rejoice over recent political events.

The metalwork has finally been taken off the wall at the far end of the pool after the best part of two years, so I assume whatever reinforcing work has to be done has been done, complicated somewhat by the fact that the (incorrectly spelt) Italian sign painted on it is heritage-listed. (Everyone got nervous about freestanding brick walls after the collapse on Swanston Street at Easter 2013).

Now comes the Australian Championships week - doesn't seem quite the same build-up when you're not travelling (much) there, though news was coming through the day of other people's travel, such as the seven-hours-delayed flight from Perth that Boltboi was on. Looking forward to the week, and also looking forward to new benchmarks in live coverage in Australia (although it may be something of a challenge to be appropriately diplomatic on Schools day the first time someone displays a GPS track which indicates that they're a long way from where they're supposed to be).

Woke up this morning to the news that the (former) Prime Minister was taking a personal interest in my work - the implications of which I spent a certain amount of this run digesting. In some ways there wasn't anything in the report which was particularly surprising, but I'd still have been much less relaxed about it had it come out two weeks ago....(Will still be waiting with bated breath on the Australian's response tomorrow, especially as their much-loved ABC is also involved).

The run was, like yesterday, one of small incremental improvements, though still well below strength on such hills as there were (which, given that Merri Creek was the target, wasn't very many). Under no illusions as to my likely performance this weekend.

C • With friends like this . . . 5

Felt a bit better running than I have on most other days for the last week and a half, but still rather slow, especially on the climb out of the east side of Darebin Parklands (at least my back wasn't giving me any trouble). Chilly but fine morning.

Again feeling as if I'm struggling to run well, although my pace isn't really down on the usual for runs of this type (in as much as I can tell because my watch lost satellites part way through). A nice route for it, based largely around the river (including the single track off Walmer Street, one of my favourite tracks in the region).

Got a bit of a wake-up call with a hail shower about 15 minutes from home, although it was short-lived in the traditional cold outbreak style.

Around the Tan at lunchtime (having had a false start in the morning when a planned swim was scuttled by forgetting to pack my swimmers). A bit creaky in the first kilometre, reasonable after that but still hardly suggesting I'm in great racing shape. Saw Bruce (going considerably faster than I was) twice, going in the opposite direction with the Midday Milers.

I was wondering what was going on when it appeared that there were three motionless bodies on the ground in front of the rowing sheds, until they suddenly jumped up and swapped places with the people standing next to them. Still couldn't quite work out whether this was performance art or first-aid training.

My historical wanderings today took me to 1978. There's been a bit of talk online about the good old days but there are at least two areas of Australian life where things have improved a great deal since 1978 - road safety and industrial relations. Since 1978, the number of deaths on Australian roads has dropped by about 70%, and the number of working days lost to industrial action has dropped by 96%.

(One report in that paper which proved to be spectacularly wrong was a McDonald's spokesman saying that the company was leaving Canberra and not coming back - if only :-). You won't be surprised to hear that the (short-lived) exit was a legal manouevre in the name of a cause close to the heart of any fast-food franchise - paying their workers less).

C • The road toll 3

Probably the best that could be said for this run is that nothing hurt (too much) and I completed more or less what I'd set out to do - past my old place and then along the Yarra flats - but felt rather sneezy beforehand and the run had a somewhat out-of-sorts feel to it. 86 minutes definitely felt as if it was plenty.

In the absence of any AFL games, ABC radio yesterday afternoon was bringing reports from football just about anywhere (it was grand final day in a lot of country and suburban leagues, and in Tasmania). Quite a few teams that had gone through the season unbeaten failed to perform on the day that counted - most spectacularly Keith, who hadn't lost all year but were last heard of 73 points down on Padthaway during the third quarter.

C • They got it back to 69 points by the final siren! 1

Objective number one was achieved today - getting through without any significant injury issues. The back didn't give any major problems, though I could hardly describe this as a sparkling physical effort - felt very plodding at times (especially the more open cross-slope bits), but did run most of the hills which is more than I could manage last weekend. Better technically than I often have been here too, although 30 seconds apiece dropped at 10 (in the excavations) and 12 (which I initially thought in the wrong place, but I'd found a gully buried under the circle). Despite slow pace, placed a bit better than I usually have at Bendigo events this season - the likes of Craig and Simon presumably made some largish errors. Bruce did 46.

Nice course, starting on top of the hill and thus not as physical as it sometimes is here, and generally an enjoyable day - helps when you don't have to do any of the driving (thanks Bruce). My mood was perhaps helped further by waking up to the words on the radio "former Prime Minister Tony Abbott", and further by my first visit to the Fairfield farmers market (at the primary school around the corner from my place once a month, but this is the first time I've been around when it's been on).

Fairly similar to Wednesday (albeit on a much flatter course) - definitely not 100%, but did improve a bit as it went on, and tightness didn't seem to be greatly affecting my performance after the first couple of kilometres. Starting to feel quite reasonable by the end. Still won't want to be racing hard in this condition, but at least there are signs of going in the right direction.

Continuing to play things cautiously in the hope of being OK for Korong on Saturday (always worth going to even if my record there is pretty ordinary). A rather later morning than usual thanks to a middle-of-the-night teleconference (discussing lots of exciting ideas which made me wish that I could clone myself several times over). Reasonably smooth, and felt better generally through today than I have earlier this week.

Noticed there was another run yesterday for the argument that Australia shouldn't do anything about climate change because we only make up 1.2-1.5% of global emissions (depending on how you count them). Strangely these people never seem to apply similar logic to Australian participation in wars.

Ventured out to North Balwyn for street-O tonight, but wasn't really ready for it, particularly the hills (which exist in some abundance on this map). Struggling through the first half, loosened up a bit in the second half, but even then well short of where I'd like to be. Knew from fairly early on in the piece that it was going to be hard to get all the controls; as it turned out I dropped one, which could have been got with a 400-metre out and back, but I didn't think I had the two minutes needed to get it (as it turned out I had only 15 seconds in hand).

It may not have been quite on the scale of Deer Park 2004, but the allegedly genteel streets of North Balwyn had their share of ungenteelness tonight, starting with someone who advised me to "get f***ed" out of their car window for no good reason early on, and culminating with the vigorous verbal altercation which was taking place in a side street on the way between 6 and 20. I couldn't quite work out what was causing the high-volume exchange of unpleasantries although it appeared a dog might have had something to do with it. I blame Tony Abbott.

Tried heading out for a bit of a run but wasn't quite ready to do so - so kept it to a short and (mostly) flat loop around my place. Should be right in another 36 hours (at least that's the plan). Also had a bit of foot soreness overnight but that didn't seem an issue overnight.

There certainly seemed to be a lot of joy this morning in my workplace, and also in my Facebook feed. The latter prompted me to reflect on the political realignments which have happened in Australia in the last 25 years - on the one hand, the traditional working class has moved away from Labor towards the Liberals, on the other hand, the educated/professional middle class has moved away from the Liberals and towards Labor (or the Greens). The group I went through school with was overwhelmingly conservative at the time, but most of them were as gleeful at Tony Abbott's downfall as I was (although some will find Malcolm Turnbull to their taste).

C • election 5

Felt a bit improved in the morning (if not necessarily in the afternoon after a lot of sitting down), but thought it best to save the running for another day, so headed for the pool. A warm morning but not too many people out. Didn't always feel that comfortable in the water either, but got through more or less OK.

Ended up getting to 26.7 today. Had this happened 15 years ago it would have equalled the record for Melbourne's highest temperature in the first half of September, but that bar's a lot higher now (thanks to a 29.9 in 2009, on a day that South Australians will remember for the duststorm on the way to the SA Champs). For records today you had to go to Tasmania.

And I'm enjoying watching the spectacle tonight (even if I don't have any popcorn).

State Series at Glenlyon - a classic steep, open central Victorian gully-spur area with a definite old-school feel (although this would have been complete had the scale been 1:15000 rather than the slightly oddball 1:12500). Didn't feel promising in the warm-up and didn't feel right on the first leg, mostly level or downhill - so I wasn't at all surprised when things seized up on the first significant hill, if anything worse than it did during WMOC. There was nothing at stake here compared with WMOC so I felt there was no real value in continuing beyond the first loop, but after not having had troubles with the back since Europe, it's frustrating to have another flare-up. At least I got all of my issues out of the way at once - notwithstanding my teetotal status, coming up from a big night was still a challenge, and I also rolled my ankle a bit (not enough to be an issue while running, but has pulled up a little sore afterwards).

It was distinctly warm today, even at higher elevations, and the ground in the forest is already dry; it will only need one decent spring heatwave, and given it's an El Nino year we'll probably get at least one, to dry things off generally in a big way. (Each of the last four El Nino events has seen Melbourne break one or more records for the earliest-ever day over X degrees in spring for one or more values of X).

Out fairly early ahead of a full day (mostly occupied by a work colleague's wedding and associated festivities), down to the river at Chandler Highway then along it to the golf course - a nice section that I expect will become a regular haunt (even if the compliance rate with dog-on-leash rules was 0 from 3). Slow start but was functioning reasonably well by the end.

It was a good day, although I was wondering if I was going to get to the wedding on time when the drivers of two cars in front of me decided to have a little altercation (I'm not sure what the casus belli was as the vehicles didn't seem to have collided).

Road rage was a bit of a theme of the day, because it was reported in today's news that Toby Mitchell (variously described as a "colourful Melbourne identity" and "Bandidos enforcer") had appeared in court yesterday, and been remanded in custody, on grievous-bodily-harm charges over an assault on a cyclist on Harbour Esplanade in Docklands - one of my regular routes (it's just around the corner from our office). One might expect a bikie to have some respect for other vulnerable road users, although I'm led to believe that being able to ride a motorcycle is by no means a prerequisite for being a member of an outlaw bikie gang these days.

Out into Eaglemont. Encouraging at times but didn't really go on with it; was a bit down on enthusiasm in the last 15 minutes.

Clearing up some outstanding weather-related issues from during my absence today, I noted (along with the better-publicised earliest-ever-30-in-spring in Perth) a daily temperature range of 30.9 (-0.5 to 30.4) at York on Tuesday. I was wondering if this was a September record for southwest WA but in fact York holds that record too, of 31.3 (2.4 to 33.7) on 29 September 2006. It's perhaps as well that wasn't a week later, or even a couple of days later (the long day of the 2006 WA Championships, a long slog through lots of green (insert excremental noun of choice here) at Darkin River, was tough enough as it was).

C • Darkin River 1

Session at Fitzroy, fairly routine. Hasn't really warmed up yet but it will do so soon, much to the pleasure of one of my colleagues who's getting married this weekend. (It's a big month for weddings in climate - three in four weeks, although this is the only one I'll be going to; the two Sydney-based ones know well which month offers the best chance of good weather in Sydney, especially the one whose scientific specialty is east coast lows, the frequency of which is lowest in September and October).

On the subject of science, orienteers in places like Finland, northwest Russia and the Baltic countries are probably hoping that Ray Leuning (a CSIRO scientist and Northside Navigators/Bushflyers regular of the 1980s and early 1990s) was right. One of the talks we heard yesterday was looking at the significance of an apparently minor component of global climate models, the model for the transpiration of moisture from evaporation - when two models for this were compared (of which one was the one he led), the impact of the model difference on the highest extreme temperatures recorded in these regions was in the order of 4-5 degrees by 2040 (the Leuning model being the less hot of the two). Serves to illustrate some of the things we still don't know (and perhaps the potential for nasty surprises, of which the 2010 Russian heatwave may have been a foretaste).

Shifted my long(ish) run to today, partly because tomorrow will be awkward with other commitments early in the day, partly because it gave me the chance to do a bit more exploring of eastern Sydney - in a couple of previous trips out this way I've never quite made it as far as Bondi on a run. Started out by heading north and north-east through Queens Park and then roughly along the ridgeline, encountering first a neighbourhood with a lot of orthodox Jews (a familiar sight from my days in Albert Park doing runs into East St.Kilda), then a surprisingly suburban patch (albeit with a certain amount of parking alla Romana) north of Bondi. Dropped down to run the longest kilometre in Sydney running, that along the Bondi beachfront, and then along the coastal path to Coogee and a bit beyond. This has a lot of stairs and other ups and downs and is consequently slow going. Finished up with a solid climb out of South Coogee, being briefly slightly disoriented as the streets didn't quite point in the direction I was expecting, but made it in more or less on my target time.

No sparkle this morning, but pretty reasonable at grinding when I needed to be (and again no sign of any back issues on the climbs).

Useless information item for the day is that, under a law from 1324, all whales, dolphins and sturgeon in British waters are legally the property of the Queen. This reminded me that there was a time when all offal and viscera produced at abattoirs in the ACT was legally the property of the federal Minister for Health; what they're supposed to do with it is a bit of a mystery. (There used to be an abattoir, or at least a signpost to one, just before you crossed the border into Queanbeyan, but I suspect that it ceased to function many years ago).

Heading back to Melbourne tonight.

C • Offal 1

Intervals along Coogee Beach, mostly along the flat this time (unlike one previous occasion when I ventured this way). Nice morning, but didn't feel like I had a lot of pace. Probably the best part about it was heading back - it's a decent climb out of Coogee back towards UNSW but I handled it without any real difficulty (especially compared with some recent runs).

Going to/from Coogee.

The Lane Cove river valley is definitely a lovely place to run, especially on a cool, still morning with just a hint of mist like this one was. I've been here a few times, the first time when we stayed at the camp just above the weir on a Year 9 school trip (in hindsight, I'm rather surprised the teachers let me go for an early-morning run up the river by myself). It's mornings like this when Sydney seems a very nice place to be, although I'm aware that should I ever move to Sydney, I'll probably be working on the other side of town so living in this area means an ugly commute (and that's before you start on North Shore real estate prices).

The track down from Tracy and Paul's is pretty rough and slow, but faster once on the flats (most of the time). Felt pretty reasonable, probably a result of the relatively easy weekend. Had to make an early start because we had a 9am start at UNSW and I was second speaker so had to be there on time (navigating peak-hour buses with all my gear was easier than I thought it would be, but then I guess I've done the same on the Sao Paulo metro).

There was quite a range of interesting talks on offer today, but one in particular has potential interest to many readers of this log - Mike Kearney at the University of Melbourne is looking at combining known species climate responses with weather forecast model data to produce daily and hourly forecasts of expected snake activity.

Spit to Manly with Tracy and Paul - one of those iconic Sydney coastal runs which I haven't previously experienced. You do these for the views, definitely not for speed - lots of ups and downs (including a decent number of stairs). Coped OK with the climbing - definitely no back issues today.

There were a few excursions into local history. These included Clontarf Park, scene of the 1868 attempted assassination of Prince Alfred (the criminal justice system was a bit more efficient in those days, because the incident occurred on 12 March and the culprit was hanged on 21 April). Also included was Forty Baskets Beach, which is named for a delivery of fish to a contingent of Sudanese troops stuck at the North Head quarantine station in 1885; presumably they were involved in fighting on our side in what still ranks as one of the more ill-advised adventures that our military has been involved in (it will move down one place in the ranking list if we start bombing Syria), and had to scarper or face the wrath of the Mahdi. (We weren't quite so generous in providing refuge to locals who fought on our side in Iraq and Afghanistan).

We finished up by going past the house of Jeff of the Wiggles. There was no sign that anyone was awake.

C • my local, and favourite run 1

I've got a workshop in Sydney from Monday-Wednesday and decided to do something a bit different, travelling by (non-airborne) public transport. It's the first time for a long time I've got an interstate train in Australia (2007 to Adelaide), and the first time I've done Melbourne-Sydney (have done Melbourne-Yass a few times).

Working backwards from an 8.30 departure meant a 6am start for this, and it wasn't pretty - a bit like the first half of my more ordinary Thursday long runs without the second half. If anything, felt even sleepier in the last couple of kilometres than the first couple. Came across Nicola and her running group ready to start about halfway round, but given my tight timetable couldn't link up with them.

We were reminded that this isn't exactly the Deutsche Bahn when we were 30 minutes behind schedule by the time we got to Seymour (thanks to signal problems around Kilmore), but they must put a fair bit of fat into the timetables because we reached Sydney a few minutes ahead of schedule. Quite a pleasant trip and I'd do it again if the stars lined up appropriately.

Going past it reminded me - what's happened to Gardiners Lookout (where we last were for a NOL race in 2000)? Have we lost access, has it got too overgrown to be usable, or has it just gone out of fashion? If it's the last of these, wonder if it's worth bringing it back for 2017? (With Oceania at Easter in NZ, QB3 will become the "main" Australian 3-Day in 2017). Information from our Wagga correspondents would be welcome. (Also spotted a semi-cleared granite hill with some communications towers on top next to the line between Harden and Yass, which might be worth ACT having a look at?).

Of course, one of the aspects of public transport is exposure to the public. Exhibit (a) was the old man wearing a terry-towelling hat of the sort last sighted on the head of someone chanting "Lillee, Lillee" in the outer of the WACA circa 1982 (I'm pretty sure they'd gone out of fashion by the time the outer had switched to "Hadlee's A Wanker"). Exhibit (b) was the late teens/early 20s couple in the seats behind me where the bloke mentioned something about calling his father for Father's Day and his girlfriend reminded him "remember, you're a father too".

C • Gardiners Lookout 1

Reasonably standard session at the end of a reasonably hard week. Some tightness in the groin area this morning but didn't get in the way of this session (not sure if it would have been a different story had I been trying to run).

Definitely not on the level of yesterday; perhaps I shouldn't have expected it to. Still, it was the first time for a couple of months that I've got out for this much midweek (and the first time for longer that I've done it this early in the morning). A few hills through the middle in North Balwyn and surrounds, and handled those without pain or tightness (if not especially quickly). As with a couple of weekends ago, felt as if I was tiring in the final half-hour but was going somewhat faster then than I had been earlier on (being more awake helps).

A couple of items of political news this morning caused me a certain amount of amusement. One was the revelation in the Australian that two WA businesspeople had paid $20,000 not to have a private dinner with Tony Abbott (the Liberals were trying to get 10 takers but only four signed up, and two of those four said they'd fork out the money but didn't want to come to the dinner). The other was the claim that Labor are running dead in Canning because they don't want a result so bad as to see Tony Abbott given the flick; I must have been imagining the e-mails soliciting donations for the campaign or calling for volunteers to do phone canvassing. (What probably is true is that Labor are concentrating their efforts on the parts of Canning that are going to be split off into a new, more marginal seat before next year's election).

While on the subject of alleged tanking, I would be highly amused if North Melbourne's sneakiness blew up in their faces by virtue of an (unlikely) Sydney loss to Gold Coast. For those who haven't been following, North are planning to rest half their first team this week and it has not gone unnoticed that a loss guarantees that they won't have to go to Adelaide in the first week of the finals - but if Gold Coast do win then they might have to go to Sydney instead....

And, as an indication that other sports do live in a totally different financial world to orienteering, I was reading today of one Gary Hooper, who is in Norwich City's squad but can't get a game at the moment (a planned loan deal to Sheffield Wednesday fell through, allegedly because they turned down a request for a VIP box for family and friends at every match, although he's denied that). His salary: a lazy A$3.5 million per year (not too far short of ten times Orienteering Australia's annual budget).

For the first few minutes I thought this was going to be another grind, but early tightness didn't take long to work out. By 3k this run was settling into a nice rhythm, and by 5k it was clear this was going to be a very good run by recent standards. Continued at a decent level the rest of the way; a bit longer than planned (still learning what's how far from where in the new neighbourhood) but I definitely wasn't complaining today. Not quite sure where that one came from.

This was one of the more frantic days I've had in the office for a while - the first day of a season is often busy but this one was more busy than most. I think my score for the day included, among other things:

- preparing an urgent brief for the Minister on why winter wasn't as cold as everyone thought it was. (In Melbourne it was a massive 0.1 degrees below normal, although that was the first below-normal winter for 26 years).
- several media interviews (a more eclectic range than usual, because our Victorian and Tasmanian state reps are away)
- writing another article on the winter
- putting together a presentation for a workshop in Sydney next week
- drafting some stuff relating to plans for forthcoming WMO statements
- keeping track of various interesting things happening today (Ballarat, with -4.6, was one of a few places which had their coldest September morning on record)
- writing a new bit of code for some updating of the long-term temperature data set

In amongst this, it was good to get out at lunchtime (the run having being rescheduled from the morning because of the need for an early start at work), on a nice sunny lunchtime. Did the 250 on/250 off session at the Tan, not feeling as if I was particularly "on" on the ons (it didn't help that a couple of people who seemed to be cruising were keeping pace with me in those sections), and hints of tightness, but got through it more or less OK. Saw Bruce, who has more excuse to be slow this week than I do, leaving as I was getting back to the finish.

Going to/from the Tan.

Entries have now closed for the Australian Championships week. We're up to 860 for the Long (and the other individual championships are almost as high); off the top of my head I think the only times we've been higher have been when there has been a major international event (WOC or WMOC) in conjunction. In the last decade 700-800 has been more typical when it's been in a southeastern state.

Other news of the day is that the Australian Communications and Media Authority have ruled that Kyle Sandilands calling Barnaby Joyce a "wanker" (among other things) was not in breach of the broadcasting code of practice. This decision was made on the grounds that the statement was true it was ruled to be part of "robust political debate".

C • Entries 5