Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Another morning session before hitting the road, this time in Laverton, a small town with quite a bit of mining around (and quite a few other deposits which proved to be less lucrative than their promoters hoped - this was the scene of the infamous Poseidon bubble). Not too much sign of the mining activity apart from an area of housing, but a few bits of evidence of the last outposts of farming - cattle were grazing right into town. This prompted a change to my initial route, which was occupied by a somewhat intimidating bull, but I eventually settled on a route west from town which worked out OK. A cool and windy morning; sluggish for the first 15 minutes but settled into a reasonable rhythm after that.

The rest of the day was spent on the Great Central Road; 560 kilometres of mostly dirt (although there were two bitumen sections, adding up to 70km or so, that we weren't expecting). As might be expected in the outback, the scenery changes were subtle but real, and evidence of fires was abundant (including a couple of new ones). The road was in pretty good condition which meant a faster trip than planned (could do 80 on most of it), which meant we got to our overnight stop in Warburton in time to visit the art centre before it closed. (I haven't made any new acquisitions, but I imagine my mother would have done had she been here).

Early-morning session in Cue, to the top of the hill which hosted the lookout and back. A very sluggish session where I was grateful for the opportunity of various photo stops, although improved a bit once going downhill. Also grateful I wasn't attempting to orienteer on the hill where the lookout was - the ground surface was almost 100% small loose rocks. A nice backdrop later with the green local oval and the red hills in the background (although I'm not sure who actually uses the oval since Cue's population, which if you take out FIFO miners would barely reach triple figures, is surely not capable of supporting a football team).

The day was to some extent a warm-up before the interesting stuff starts tomorrow: Cue-Meekatharra-Wiluna-Leinster-Leonora-Laverton. Meekatharra in daylight was nowhere near as dire as we'd been led to believe (although I suspect it's one of those places that turn into a werewolf after sunset), and I ticked off another site visit too. Wiluna, once home of WA's most productive police (it emerged at the time of the early 1990s Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody that the average annual number of arrests in the town was four times its population), was eerily quiet, as was Leinster, probably because the miners were on shift (or off shift and asleep) in the latter case. Saw lots of big mines (or at least the tailings piles thereof), not as many trucks as I expected, and managed the first section of dirt road on this trip, the Meekatharra-Wiluna section which was mostly comfortable at 80; I'll be pleased if tomorrow is similar.

Early session in the hotel pool before starting the trip northeast. The pool was of the sort that could be described as refreshing or even invigorating, and it took me a while to get used to it (I'd guess the water temperature was probably around 20), but settled down OK eventually. Longer than most hotel pools (20 metres) and even had a lane stripe, so not as disorienting as it sometimes can be. A bit slow but reasonable for a recovery session.

That was the prelude to the start of the next phase. My aunt's joined me for this (she flew in last night). Today was mostly covering ground I've been on before (in 2005), up as far as Cue, a destination chosen mainly because it has a good place to stay - an old gold-rush pub restored as a guesthouse - and other places in the vicinity don't. (Meekatharra, in particular, has got less than rave reviews). A fairly smooth drive with the main break being wandering around New Norcia, and only encountered one convoy of monstrous mining equipment, which isn't too bad by Great Northern Highway standards.

Australian Middle Championships. 5th, probably about a par performance for me at my current level of fitness - a bit disappointing to have Graham run over the top of me in the finish, but 4th would have been my upper limit today. A scrappy start with perhaps 30-45 seconds lost on 1 and 15 on 2, but settled well into the map after that (there wasn't actually that much rock on the map, a smallish patch of bush on the edge of Narrogin, but what there was was used well). Through mid-course my major function seemed to be to distract elites (Jarrah and Tash were both somewhat erratic in my presence), then I became erratic myself with a 1-minute miss on 14 - clearly a control which troubled others because it was one of my best split placings of the day. So-so physically but probably a bit better than yesterday. Bruce did 27.

I went into this week badly underdone and it showed in the results. The positive is that I've now been able to string together three weeks or so without much injury trouble; turn that into three months and I might be getting somewhere when it comes to getting results in September.

Back in Perth tonight, getting a last glimpse of the Indian Ocean before heading back inland tomorrow. Destination: the Alice.

C5 - Splits

Australian Sprint Championships at Narrogin, 7th. Didn't really have it together on the running side today (even by recent standards) and started to feel some left quad tightness later on which slowed me a bit, although nothing's come of it post-run. Reasonably clean technically; 5 (the first bush one) wasn't quite where I expected it to be but I think that's because the goalpost which was my attack point wasn't quite in the place the map said it was. Didn't lose any meaningful time there. Target for the day was to defend 4 minutes on Bruce but I didn't really expect to; he ended up blasting through on the way to 17. Teemu wasn't much slower but missed a control. Splits suggest I slowed a bit through the run, which is consistent with how I felt.

The event went well, but one disappointment was seeing quite a few people who are old enough to know better going through olive green and over forbidden walls. Perhaps there could have been more taping on the ground, but really it's up to the participants to do the right thing. Decided not to name names officially this time, but I may do in future.

C4 - Splits

Headed down to Bunbury after work last night with a view to spending most of the day in that general part of the world. One of the targets was Cape Naturaliste, which I think I last visited on the 1998 Victorian schools team trip. This was a tourist run, taking in most of the walking tracks in the area (the lighthouse itself is shrouded in scaffolding and tarpaulins and not very photogenic at present) - sometimes sandy or rocky but still nice to be out. Plenty of photo stops, as well as one to chat to Steve Craig and family who were walking in the opposite direction (not surprised I saw other orienteers there).

Other destinations on the day included Eagle Bay and Yallingup, before settling in for an afternoon at the Dunsborough pub in an ultimately frustrating football-watching session. Ended the day in Collie, a fast-declining coal-mining town: I felt as out of place having dinner in a pub here as I did as guest of honour at a Chinese pineapple harvest festival this time last year. (I avoided the pub which was advertising "skimpies", but the one I went to had them too).

Regional papers are normally pretty conservative, so I was a bit surprised to see the local Bunbury paper saying, in an article about the Busselton MP criticising the new(ish) WA government for failing to duplicate the road there yet, that she'd done sweet Fanny Adams about it during the eight years her lot were in charge (or words to that effect). Still, today was the day when, due to an unfortunate production error, some news was published in the Daily Telegraph.

C • Skimpies 1

Given I was staying just across the road from Kings Park (noted for future reference: decent place, within 10 minutes' walk of our Perth office and only about $100 a night), I could hardly do anything other than do a circuit of Kings Park (or an approximation thereof). Slow start but got into some sort of groove, and handled the long steady climb back from the bottom of the park without too many dramas - I haven't been doing many hills in training so this is a positive sign. Wouldn't have been wanting to do this tomorrow; the Anzac preparations are in full swing.

This was quite an interesting run for micrometeorology; there were still some quite pronounced cool air pockets in the gullies. I'd say it was probably below 10 in places, particularly around the bottom of May Drive, but in the mid- to high teens on the higher ground.

Working out of Perth for a couple of days and staying near Kings Park. I was always thinking that Claremont might be the most accessible pool for a session today; had initially been thinking after work before going to Freo for dinner, but changed my plans after discovering that it was going to cost me $40 to park near where I was staying for the day (instead I left the car near the pool and got the train in). Not a bad session, and a bit of additional interest provided at times by the aqua aerobics instructor who seemed as keen on running through her life story as her playlist.

Lunchtime reading was a couple-of-weeks-old copy of the local paper, the Subiaco Post. I wasn't surprised to find a fair bit of content devoted to NIMBY complaints (and the large number of local councils in the western suburbs means plenty of local council news to print), but was still impressed by the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Nedlands man who objected to the noise coming from the local Mr. Whippy van. (There is a website - British, but with Australian content from time to time - devoted to Angry People In Local Newspapers).

Day 3 of Easter at Umuna. A generally better run than yesterday but spoiled by a particularly brainless mistake on one of the course's easiest controls, the drinks control #10 on top of a hill. I even managed to run across a track without noticing it. 2 1/2 minutes were lost there; without that I would have been in the mix for third today (though it made no difference to my overall result, 6th). Somewhat to my surprise, the delay in the SI unit's response at #11 revealed that I'd gone through Matt Stocks and hadn't yet been caught by Jon, but both got onto me over the closing controls and eventually finished ahead of me on the ground (though not by much). The other wobble was 30 seconds or so in the circle at 2, but definitely felt stronger than yesterday (which isn't saying much). Bruce blew us all away again, with 28.

Overall I think I'm about where I expected to be after a poor six months of training, but it's still a bit disconcerting to have that proven to the world. At least I've managed to put together four days of running for the first time in a while, and am hoping that a reasonably trouble-free (injury-wise) couple of weeks might be a springboard to a winter that's better than the summer has been.

M45A - Splits

Not such a good day today. I shouldn't really be that surprised that after not having run more than 70 minutes all summer I wouldn't really be up to the job today, but in truth it was a struggle from the start, initially with the back causing trouble up hills in the first 20 minutes before settling down, then just not having very much strength on any of the hills (and not too much speed on the flat bits). Recognised early on that I should be looking to minimise climb and went wide on both long legs (which I think would have worked OK on 10 except that I then lost a minute or so climbing into the control from below, going up the wrong gully in rock as I did at Pewsey Vale last week). That was my only major mistake, although I was a bit hesitant on a few others.

A fair bit further back than I would have hoped for; low 70s would have been more like it. Dropped back to 6th and the gap to the placings is probably unbridgeable. Bruce blew through me at 5 on the way to a time of 55; Jon was somewhat less commanding in passing me on the way to 6 (we made a pretty unconvincing pair on the climb through the saddle there).

Not too upset I didn't have any meetings to go to this afternoon (we got them all out of the way yesterday). In the days when I was still running M21E, chairing the OA AGM after coming off an elite long-distance race was not really anyone's idea of fun.

For those who thought it was chilly this morning, York (2.0) had its coldest April night since 1960 (Beverley's 1.6 on Saturday was its coldest since 1971, and today wasn't much warmer). Nice running weather though.

C • Serious? 2

M45A - Splits

Unusual to open up Easter proper with a sprint but this is a slightly unconventional Easter. The word was out that it was a pretty technical sprint, and it certainly required concentration, although I always felt as if I was in control (possibly an indication that I wasn't running fast enough). Didn't feel quite as good running as yesterday with a bit of tightness after climbs, but didn't really put a foot wrong technically.

I'd been thinking 4 minutes behind Bruce would be a decent result. I knew when he went through me (3 minutes) at 18 that I probably wouldn't quite achieve this, and so it proved. Still within touch of the others, and with a sprint start (even more than a middle start) an apparently large margin after day 1 can very quickly become a modest one after the long day - you can't win Easter on Saturday but you can certainly lose it (particularly if you were one of the day's numerous mispunches or disqualifications).

OA meetings were relatively painless (and we got all of them out of the way today so tomorrow will be a rare Easter Sunday afternoon off). I don't intend to stand for re-election next year - eight years is plenty - but we haven't yet had any feelers about possible successors.

M45A - Splits

Easter sprint relay. My time was flattered a bit by Jim's generosity as my previous runner (he walked down the chute after tagging so my time didn't start until I was halfway to the first control, giving me a undeserved fastest split), but still a run I was happy with. Felt as if I was moving reasonably well by my standards of the last few months, and only technical issue was a slightly poorly executed exit from 1. The team was Abi George, Jim, myself and Jenny; we ended up much as expected. Even once you account for the timing quirk, I think I was still within 50% of Simon, a recent benchmark.

On the way to the last control I had to negotiate Hillsong people doing whatever Hillsong people do on Good Friday. As far as I know nobody said that I was going to go to Hell for running on such a day.

Resurrected for the Family Relays were some genuinely retro fabric numbers (sufficiently old that they bore the logo of Bunnings from an era before anyone from outside WA had ever heard of them).

Today didn't count for anything substantial, but gives me some confidence going into the weekend. Bruce and Jon will be hard to match for the top two, but at least I might be competitive with the likes of Tooms and Matthew Stocks for third if things go well.

C • Numbers 1

Would have preferred to do this in a country pool, but like the NT, country WA seems to regard any day below 30 as unacceptably cold for swimming and all the pools were closed for the season, so it had to wait for arrival in Perth. Ended up going to Victoria Park, this being the closest to East Perth where we're staying. Pleasant enough, although felt as if I took a long time to loosen up. Thought there might have been more people around given that it's school holidays.

The forecasts have been promising "winter is coming" with an ominousness more normally associated with Game of Thrones. It does look like a very significant cold outbreak for the time of year, perhaps even more so further south with a realistic chance of snow on the Stirlings (and an equally realistic chance of a sub-10 maximum somewhere, which would be a first for April in WA if it happens). Hoping, with some support from the models, that the heaviest rain will pass through before tomorrow's event starts.

I was wondering if I was going to get a sighting today of a critically endangered species, but it was only posters and an office of the Environment Minister in Merredin, not the Minister herself.

A classic road trip run for me from Cocklebiddy - pick a random side track and do an out-and-back on it. (As it happens, this track ends up at Eyre, scene of one of my more noteworthy Nullarbor runs, but it's 56km away, not 12km like it was that time, and described in the notice at the roadhouse as "extreme 4WD"). Was pretty early in the day and didn't feel terribly awake, but the good news is that foot soreness vanished after the first two or three minutes and has not re-appeared.

Spent most of the rest of the day on the road, a lot more relaxed than the previous two days, getting closer and closer to civilisation before breaking out into farmland just short of our overnight stop of Southern Cross. Norseman's population has dropped by 50% from 2001 to 2016 and it looks like it, but it was still good to get some fruit for the first time in a couple of days (you can't take it across the WA border).

As it happens, an e-mail lobbed into my in-box today advertising Run Forrest: "Think undulating hills, flowing rivers, dense fern gullies and the cool, fresh air of the Ranges.". I think it reasonable to assume that this is the Victorian Forrest and not the WA one.

Not sure whether I should be amused or alarmed by the fact that the Institute of Public Affairs has called for a royal commission into my activities (not naming me personally, but it's my work they're referring to) as part of its election manifesto, along with such crowd-pleasing measures as selling the ABC.

C • Speaking of the ABC 5

There's got to be something very 21st century about being woken up, when in one of the more remote places in the country, at 4am by a sound from my phone, which turned out to be a news alert about the Notre Dame fire (probably as well I didn't actually read it or I certainly wouldn't have got back to sleep).

Today's run was a novelty for more than its location. Forrest is a significant airport with two 1500-metre runways. Historically it was a refuelling stop in the days when planes didn't have the range to get across the Nullarbor, and still fills that role for light aircraft crossing Australia, but it's also big enough to be a viable emergency landing strip for anything up to 737s. (What would actually happen if a 737 did rock up is an open question; Forrest has no stairs to unload its passengers, and I suspect the fuel that gets brought in up the track on a road train every 3 months wouldn't be enough to refuel a 737, either). Presumably Airservices/CASA pay the airport a substantial retainer to be on standby as I can't see that it could possibly be a viable business otherwise.

The manager suggested I go for a run on the runways early in the morning (too early for any aircraft to put in an appearance). This seemed like a novelty worth taking up once (it would get pretty boring done regularly). The run was a bit sluggish but generally qualified as a fairly standard morning run. A little bit of right foot soreness (my standard outback driving overuse injury) wore off quickly; it's a bit worse tonight so will see how it feels tomorrow.

I didn't expect the drive out to be easy and it wasn't, although the first 5km were the worst of the lot (it wasn't just that I was getting tired and looking into the sun last night), and the last 40km into Eucla seemed a lot easier at the end than they did at the start. Car (and its tyres) held up fine. The remaining 280km of the day to Cocklebiddy seemed like the easiest thing we'd done in a long time - especially for me because I wasn't driving. (it was easier for Dad than it was last time he did it, in 1977, too - on that occasion we couldn't get accommodation at Madura and had to press on another 100km to Cocklebiddy at dusk, picking our way through the roos to do so).

C • Forrest 12

Didn't plan to go out today and wouldn't really have had time for it, as we were on the road for most of the daylight hours.

I'd gone to bed last night not really expecting to get into Forrest given the large cloudband approaching them, but they only got 2mm overnight so we thought it was a goer. We'd been warned not to expect to average much over 20 km/h on the Eucla-Forrest track, so needed to be out of Ceduna at first light to be reasonably confident of making Forrest by darkness.

The track was certainly slow going - rocky for much of the way (the occasional clay pans were a definite relief) - but probably no worse than some of the tracks we use to get into orienteering parking areas, it's just that there was 125km of it. Took us about 5 hours in from the highway in the end. Still got to get out tomorrow, and those who've been following me for a while will know that that has been known to be an issue for me in the past, but as far as I can tell everything on the car is still intact, which certainly wasn't the case at the equivalent point of the ill-fated Kalumburu expedition.

C • Contact 2

Orienteering at Pewsey Vale before a long day on the road. Both my body and my mind seemed to be elsewhere today - felt rather weak and couldn't run many of the hills, and also struggled for concentration, dropping time at 4, 5, 8 and 9 (2 minutes or so at 5 being the worst of them). Thought others might get well under my time but it looks like the kids also struggled with it (M16 were running the same course).

Headed off more or less as soon as I finished, with a target of Ceduna. That side of things went pretty smoothly; saw a lot of very dry country, and even some sand drifts left over from the duststorm a couple of weeks ago. Looking at the cloudband making its way across the south-east of Western Australia as I write makes me think that things might not be happening as planned tomorrow, though...

First full day of the road trip, mostly in familiar territory (although the climb to the summit of Mount Zero was something I'd only previously done in 2003, and it's probably almost as long since I diverted into the centre of Stawell - deserted at 8.45 on a Saturday morning, which it won't be next weekend - in search of a coffee).

The run was one excursion into unfamiliar territory - my first foray into the Little Desert National Park, in its extreme eastern tip near Dimboola - an out-and-back from the Horseshoe Bend campground along a riverside track. Quite a pleasing run once it was going - no back issues (clearly a couple of hours driving doesn't trigger it) and moving quite well in the second half with my first sub-5.30 kilometres for a whole. The Little Desert was actually the scene of one of the first major public environmental campaigns in Australia, being saved from clearing in the late 1960s by a Liberal environment minister - those were the days. (Admittedly he was "encouraged" by their losing a safe seat in a by-election fought largely over the issue).

After that it was onwards, to a day which ended in Adelaide. I would say that the drive was made to go quickly by listening in to my football team's glorious victory, but the ABC were broadcasting the Geelong-GWS game instead.

And there's definitely an election on - Boothby is the one genuinely marginal seat in SA and has accordingly been carpet-bombed with that distinctly SA form of campaigning, posters stuck to power poles. (It's not too hard to tell that Cross Road is a boundary, because all the posters on the left hand side are for someone and all the posters on the right hand side are for someone else - with the identity of the "someone else" changing part way as it becomes the Boothby-Adelaide boundary instead of the Boothby-Sturt one).

C • We use to be in Boothby whi... 6

Got the car loaded (there's a lot in it for a trip like this, starting with the second spare wheel) and got on the way in time to get a reasonable session in, on the first proper "nice once you're in" morning. Arrived at Fitzroy to find someone talking about the "f***ing machines". I know Fitzroy's a fairly liberal suburb but wouldn't have thought a f***ing machine was entirely appropriate for a public pool; perhaps it's discreetly hidden on the top floor.

("liberal suburb" not to be confused with "Liberal" - this is the place where some graffiti appeared a couple of elections ago "a fairy dies every time someone votes for Tony Abbott").

Under way in the evening, getting as far as Ararat tonight. Keeping a watchful eye on the Monday forecast, which is currently not especially promising.

Knew it couldn't last for ever - pretty tight this morning and didn't loosen up in the first few minutes. Felt confident enough to make a second attempt at lunchtime but it didn't work out then either.

Still feel as if I'm some way from getting myself properly organised for the trip which starts tomorrow, but I'll have to be organised whether I'm ready to be or not. At least the two key new items have turned up (the satellite phone and the second spare wheel).

One of my colleagues was supposed to be getting a new house today. Things didn't quite go to plan....

C • One for the lawyers? 3

Another one for the "go figure" file - slept badly (not helped by a stray 12.30 alarm) and still feeling less than 100%, but running was fine once warmed up - certainly didn't hurt that this was a very nice Canberra autumn morning. I'm slowly rebuilding confidence and was prepared to commit myself to something longer, and something which explored new ground - I've never done the loop around the east of the lake before (when I was living in Canberra it wouldn't have been possible without a detour through Fyshwick). Once on the north side of the river it was ground untrodden for a long time rather than ground untrodden full stop, but a lot has changed there since I took advantage of a Woden Zone mudbath 35 years ago to qualify for an ACT cross-country championships I hadn't expected to. Started to fade out a bit in the last 10 minutes, but when it's your longest run for a couple of months that isn't so surprising.

C • Very nice 2

Continued to show hints of a cold during a somewhat rough night and was in two minds as to whether I should go out at all. I was glad that I did, because after an uncertain first 15 minutes it settled down pretty well, and in fact probably the last 10-15 minutes were as good as I've felt on a run this year - definitely one of those mornings where I felt as if I could have kept going (even if my Garmin thinks it will take me three days to recover). Hope this keeps up.

There has been a lot of infighting amongst the local Greens of late and it seems to be spilling over into their campaign, or absence thereof - up until today I hadn't seen any of their posters. Today I did; unfortunately it was for someone who is not a candidate (Lidia Thorpe, their former State member who was defeated in November).

And I'll give the Spanish points for creativity in curses, including one I read of today which translates approximately as "I s**t on your prostitute mother". However, if you say it to a referee you stand an excellent chance of landing yourself a tarjeta roja, as an Atletico Madrid player found out on the weekend.

Off to Canberra tonight (just for the day).

C • tarjeta roja 1

Back into starting this in daylight (and the last session of its type for a while). Seemed to go OK; shifting to a partially new set of exercises.

At the point the submission deadline expired for the latest IPCC draft I was doing my opening lap of the Fitzroy pool, thinking at the time that it was appropriate that it bears the name of a meteorological pioneer (although the Melbourne suburb is actually named after his brother, a mid-19th century NSW governor). My own work was done yesterday evening but one still feels more relaxed once there's officially no more to be done (at least until you start wading into the pile of all the other things which have accumulated in the interim).

The swim was the first I've done for a while, and felt like I'd forgotten how to do it (to the extent that I've ever known). Hint of a sore throat later in the day; hope this doesn't develop into anything.

And is the Government really going to start running a culture-war campaign against electric cars?

C • Is the Government... 6

Victorian Relays at Mount Lofty - a moderately steep gully-spur area, most of it open but with an area of regrowth we went into on the last few controls.

I was running first in a team with Glen White and Ted - not usually my favoured position but worked OK in this team. Felt a bit more energetic than usual in the warm-up so had a certain level of optimism. As expected I got burnt off pretty early, but then settled into reasonable running form, which continued through most of the rest of the course. Not quite so happy with my navigation - went offline a bit on 4 and 9 (neither costing me much time), then dropped 45 seconds or so on 13 in the low-vis - but it was good to get a bit of rust out. Was in a good scrap with Clare for much of the course; she was starting to get the better of me for speed, but then lost time in the final control-picking section. As a team we were outgunned, and ended up last of the finishing teams on course 1, I think. Fastest leg times were around 30.

Main thing I was pleased with here was that I managed to run pretty much all of it, including some reasonably solid hills - certainly a step up from where I've been for much of the last few months. Not very fast but you've got to start somewhere. Stringing together a few days in a row is also encouraging.

Spotted on the way out of Kyneton was a sign "WE'LL BE FIXING THIS ROAD SOON". There was obviously a certain amount of local scepticism about this as graffitists had amended both signs (by adding quotation marks to the "SOON" on the northbound sign and the letters "ish" to the southbound one), but it does look like the relevant work has been done.

Wouldn't normally go to a Saturday park event but the attraction of an event within walking distance of home (Darebin Parklands) was too much to pass up - it was also about time for me to test out whether I can run three days in a row (this being the second of the plan). Plan was 30-35 minutes.

Not an especially convincing start and found the climb out of the parklands hard going, but not too bad after that, albeit a bit slow. Happy with the route within the parameters I had in mind (Bruce, Mason and Torren all got the 17 controls north of the river inside 45 minutes, which doesn't surprise me). Even got a stroke of luck with the misplaced control, 6 - came across it 100 metres earlier than I was expecting to, which then opened up a route choice option which gave me an extra control.

Having managed to get one run done without any significant back soreness on Wednesday, I managed another one today. I've had far too much experience with this issue to get excited yet, but it's at least vaguely positive to string a couple together. The run itself was pretty similar to Wednesday night - not fast, but reasonably steady. A bit of traffic around, which I guess I couldn't be too surprised by at this time of the morning (but as always the bit on the far side of Darebin Creek was nice).

A good solid session on a day when I was more awake than I sometimes have been in the mornings of late (notwithstanding that it was still semi-dark). Felt a little bit of stiffness in the quads early, but the post-fall bruising I was worried about after last night's fall failed to materialise.

A poll by the Australia Institute today addressed the burning question: Greens are no more or less likely to drink lattes than anyone else (contrary to the impression you may have been given by various media commentators). However, One Nation voters are somewhat over-represented amongst drinkers of spirits.

Left it until the last night of the season, but finally got through a Wednesday night without pain - it was slow but I didn't really care. (Probably the only comparable one was the Tim Dent memorial back in October). My main problem was a good one to have - I badly overestimated my route choice (score event) and ended up being 7 minutes late for C, which I'd entered anticipating that 30 minutes would be a struggle as it had been on recent evenings.. The organisers were happy enough to let me retrospectively upgrade to A :-).

Only mishap (other than not seeing a footpath passage as it got dark) was falling over about 3/4 of the way through - one of those falls which takes at least 10 metres from initial stumble to ending up on the ground. At least I had enough control to end up on the grass and not the concrete. (Shoulder feels a bit bruised; will be interesting to see how it comes up in the morning).

Had a go at heading out, but still pretty weak, and back wasn't great either (which is a bit of a surprise given how little I've done in the last week; it was fine on Sunday for the little I was doing). Hopefully gradually on the improve.

Oops moment of the day went to prominent Sky News identity and ABC obsessive Chris Kenny, who was outraged that an ABC program somewhere talked in light-hearted manner about killing conservatives. It was quickly pointed out that they'd actually said "conservators" and the context was a murder mystery set in an art museum. (Mr. Kenny has been one of the more strident media critics of my work of late, so I'm not too upset to see some metaphorical egg on his face).

Probably didn't need the early start today after getting home at 11.15 last night (and it's a bit disconcerting starting a 7am session in pitch darkness outside), but worked out OK. Also seem to be properly through the worst of the issues from the last few days. Will give running a go tomorrow.