Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

The whole week has been summery but this was ridiculous - 19 degrees at 5.30 a.m. (Wilsons Prom, as only Wilsons Prom can - as those on the 2004 Victorian junior trip may recall - managed to set an August record of 24.4 at 2.15 this morning).

I didn't feel especially awake for most of this run, and feel like I may be in the process of fighting off a cold, but was happy with the way I lasted the distance. Started through Lower Plenty, then crossed the river and up into Ruffeys Creek before coming back. Some reasonable hills, particularly in the Doncaster section.

The change (such as it was) went through in the middle of the run, with about 12 drops of rain and some very strong squalls (fortunately it was a tail wind at that stage, but dodging a few flying branches still kept me on my toes). Worked hard into the wind in the later stages; it wasn't entirely coincidental that 'North Wind' was running through my head. For the vast majority of you that won't have heard of this, it was an 'Australian Christmas carol' which was a product of one of the Anglican Church's periodic attempts to make itself more locally relevant, and was one of the bits of the Christmas carols CD (available in all good record stores*) that our school recorded in Goulburn cathedral in 1988. I have it on good authority that one of the takes was dumped wholly because my voice could be heard too clearly on it, but I do score an appearance on the cover, alongside John Asker and a few others. If I recall correctly feet was a bit too young to be part of this glorious occasion, but I'm prepared to stand corrected if necessary.

(* = 'might possibly be found in the bargain bin at Abels in Manuka if you rummage deep enough').

C • Nice work with the carols Blair 7

Shuffled sessions this week because my usual Friday morning massage was today instead (the masseur will be otherwise engaged tomorrow on the way to the Australian XC championships in Perth - by the way, who was the genius in Athletics Australia who scheduled a national championship against the Worlds?). The start time derived by taking a finish time of 7.30 and subtracting 2.10 from it didn't sound especially appealing - will go long tomorrow instead.

Not the fastest swim I've ever done, although fairly steady. The Richmond pool was a decent venue but the showers were rather lacking in hot water, much to everyone's annoyance.

An e-mail went around at work yesterday advising that this week is Privacy Awareness Week. I wonder if anyone's told Channel 7?

C • scheduling 2

Ran from near work on another morning which belonged in December rather than August, doing the first half along the bay foreshore as far as Luna Park, then much of the rest through Albert Park. Not a sparkling run but better than the last two days. Parts of this run were a regular haunt in my Albert Park days and a few familiar landmarks were still there (like Greasy Joe's cafe - yes it's really called that).

Had a brief political interlude when I encountered the Labor candidate for the Albert Park by-election handing out leaflets whilst I was waiting at traffic lights in St. Kilda. This followed on from killing two birds with one stone last night when I took the opportunity to watch the lunar eclipse whilst walking the streets of Eaglemont stuffing letterboxes in the name of democracy (something that will probably happen on a fairly regular basis over the next week or two).

C • I don't think 'the ALP' and 'd... 8

20 secs on/20 secs off around the Tan. Took a while to get going but a good second half. A bit faster than the last time I did this session.

As you'd expect for a sunny lunchtime the Tan was well-populated. Most unexpected sight was someone wearing a red T-shirt, its back covered with the words to what I presume is the Swiss national anthem in all four official languages. Might be a useful thing to have available at WOC given the number of opportunities WOC normally provides to sing it. I passed him too quickly to ask whether Simone really is a legend in Switzerland or what he thought of Rothlin's run in the World Champs marathon.

Jog to/from the Tan.

Not a great run - never really got going and felt a bit light-headed at times. Fastest loop 9.20. First sighting since May of the even-number garden waterers, on another morning which made me wonder if I'd overslept and woken up in December.

C • A reflection of politcal sensitivities 5

Swim at Fitzroy. Felt a bit less loose than usual, probably something to do with a challenging weekend, but got through OK.

If you want to see what our office looks like, it features on 'City Homicide', starting tonight, purporting to be the 'State Police Centre'. Not sure why they picked us when there's a real live State Police Centre 300 metres down the road, although the latter's status (since the demise of the Gas and Fuel towers) as one of the ugliest buildings in central Melbourne might have something to do with it.

C • Security reasons 1

Ran at lunchtime because I've got a meeting tonight which clashes with the MFR run. The major novelty of this run was its weather - experiencing one of the warmest August days on record (which may well become the warmest on record by the time the day's out). 25 degrees was definitely enough to be noticeable. Not a great run, but good to get out after being stuck in a meeting all morning. A bit faster (or less slow) than usual Monday runs of late.

C • Super fast 2

Ballarat Series at Mount Doran. This (as well as two weeks ago) was largely about training the scenario of having to come up and race the day after a very long session, something I've struggled with in recent years at Australian Relays or final days of Easter.

Felt very ordinary in the warm-up with quads very tight, but once out on the course loosened up pretty well and ran about as well as I could realistically have expected, helped by a relatively easy course physically - went around most of the hills. An almost perfect run technically, only blemish being 5-10 seconds of hesitation coming into 7. Would have been interesting to see how this time would have stood up in a stronger field.

There were a few trailbikes out there, which brought back memories of the last time I was out here in 2001, when a trailbike rider lost control and crashed in front of me as I was driving out (a few seconds later and it might have been a lot worse). Hopefully another bit of history will repeat itself later today as that 2001 day also saw one of Essendon's greatest wins, although I'd appreciate it if they didn't give the opposition a 69-point start this time.

C • History 2

A very un-winter like day, although you usually start to see the odd one like this popping up as we get close to or into September - sunny and 23 degrees. If last year repeats itself (which it probably won't since both were records) we're only three weeks from the first 30, and six from the first 35. At any rate, it was warm enough that it had to be thought about on a long run, particularly as I went out late (for me) at around 10.30 after watching the World Champs marathon (run in conditions which make low 20s with low humidity look very, very tame).

The run started very promisingly in the first 30 minutes, but didn't quite live up to its potential, rarely feeling as if it was flowing smoothly - although, like other runs this week, the pace was distinctly faster than most of my longer runs in the last 12 months. Not sure why as I don't feel like I'm consciously pushing harder. A reasonable number of small rolling hills (I headed south as far as Wattle Park), but nothing as heavy as some of what I took on two weeks ago - and I'm not sure I would have been in the mood to do anything like that in any case. The final climb back home was quite enough. Did get a bit of a second wind about 6k from home, which was nice because it was in a stretch (the bike path between Doncaster and Bulleen Roads) which I often find hard going, particularly on warm days (there isn't much shade).

Peak heart rate on this run didn't have anything to do with the run - it occurred when I saw a stroller rolling backwards out of a cafe towards a main road. I was too far away to do anything about it (other than think about the incident in Adelaide a couple of years back), and was therefore relieved to see that it was unoccupied (something probably given away in any case by the lack of screaming from either baby or parents).

With no horses to bet on I guess there's always potential for Australia's punters to turn attention to the World Champs, but they almost certainly won't. The head-to-head betting mentioned on Runo's log sounds particularly interesting, especially if it extends to midfield battles (or even less-than-midfield battles like USA versus Canada). Might have to think about some anti-corruption rules though.

C • I collect bread tags. 2

A morning session at Fitzroy which was a bit up and down - in a good rhythm at times, less so at other times. Nice morning for it. Achilles a bit sore pushing off the walls (interesting given that I've had no hint of soreness running on it - yet). Felt very tight in the calves waking up but that was fine once I'd been in the water for a bit - one of the reasons why I do this session. Glad I'm not trying to run an 18km course on a 36-degree day.

I might be a morning person, but the 5.10 alarm is just a little bit too early...

This was a run which had quite a promising first half but was a bit of a struggle in the second half. Some tightness in back for some of that period but I think that was only a side issue - worked pretty hard yesterday and suspect I felt that a bit. Didn't have a lot left for the climb at the end (there's no way of doing a run from my place which doesn't have a climb somewhere near the end).

Slightly warmer than the last few mornings, thanks to a bit of high cloud from a system with even less substance than the Strippergate scandal.

A pretty solid effort over some of the hillier bits of North Balwyn and Bulleen. Starting to get lighter now in the early mornings (although still not enough to stop me from going out in the dark tomorrow). A little weak up some of the steeper hills but generally pretty good.

First go at the Tan for the season and a pretty encouraging start - my fastest time for a year or two (will need to check the records). Perfect conditions which helped, but still enough things that weren't perfect (hint of stitch in second half, and being on my own in the last 1500 metres) to give encouragement that there might be potential to go close to 13 later on in the season - perhaps in late September when I'll (hopefully) have peaked for Oceania. Definitely felt as if I'd done some pretty hard work by the end.

A fairly even pace: km splits 3.28, 3.36 (uphill), 3.28, 3.26.

Warm-up and warm-down going to and from the Tan.

Not quite as good as it initially promised to be but still managed my quickest for a few weeks (9.15) despite not feeling that brilliant. Must be the new shoes effect.

Most people think that you must be slightly unhinged to go swimming in outdoor pools in winter, particularly on 3-degree mornings like today, but it's actually very nice once you're in (just have to cope with crossing the cold concrete on the way in and out - Fitzroy has plenty of it). A pretty good swim, particularly in the second half.

MFR Monday night from Stuart's place in Parkville, up around the zoo and Princes Park (resisting the temptation to burst into a chorus of 'See The Bombers Fly Up' on going past the football ground). Numbers still a bit depleted. Slower than was really comfortable but felt OK.

ACT event at Ratall Creek. One of the things which prompted me to stay on for the weekend was a potentially interesting event at Rendezvous Creek; it got switched to Ratall at the last minute (land access issues, apparently) and by then I'd already booked my flights. Still a fun event, returning to classic ACT gully-spur of the sort I grew up on.

Didn't always feel sparkling but a steady run and strong enough on the hills when they came later on, particularly into 15. Was hoping to get closer to 6 min/km but there's enough stuff on the ground (and tea-tree in places) to slow things down a bit (plus hanging punches probably add up to a minute or so over a full course). Was reminded that the ground and timber in this part of the world are pretty unforgiving if you fall over on it, but what's the point in worrying about a bit of spilt blood? Very clean run technically until losing it a little not being able to quite make sense of which gullies were going where in the flat stuff at 13, but only lost about 20 seconds. Very long last control-to-finish run (970m).

Not much of a field, as you'd expect given that the guns are otherwise engaged in the Ukraine. Muzza's expected winning time was 65 and I managed to crack that (just), but a Julian or a Shep would have been well into the 50s.

C • winning times 1

ACT Cross-Country Club race at Dunrossil Drive, going up and down the side of the Governor-General's driveway. The course is actually a good deal better than that sounds - mostly on grass and often a little soft underfoot. It also has a gently downhill first kilometre - a definite trap for young players - and a gently climbing finish to take the spring out of other people's sprints, which probably explains why I had a reasonable record here on a course that shouldn't, at face value, have suited me very much. Most memorable was a scrap with David Osmond on the last day of the 1990 season - we'd been within a few seconds of each other in every race that year and were competing for a pointscore place (fourth, I think). That season (my last as a junior in x-c) was a lot of fun - my own year was very weak but there was a good group 2-3 years younger who were of a similar standard. Dave, and Paul Crake, both went on to be exceptional mountain runners, and I spotted Andy Kringas at a Corporate Cup race in Melbourne a couple of years ago. No idea what happened to the rest.

Knowing the terrain, and that my starting speed, which wasn't that brilliant in 1990, was a lot worse now, I wasn't surprised to (a) get dropped by a lot of people in the first 500 and (b) go through some of them between 500 and 1500. On the whole it was a pretty reasonable run, given the load of training I've been doing (not least yesterday); particularly satisfied with the uphill last kilometre.

It was a good field - Martin Dent won in a course record (although there was some discussion about the exact position of the start and finish).

Warm-up and warm-down for race.

When I'm in Canberra I usually take advantage of the opportunity to get into the terrain - something I didn't fully appreciate when I actually lived here. This morning was no exception - my semi-usual route on Black Mountain and Aranda Hill. Started with Jase (who happened to be coming past as I was ready to go) on the track for the first 10 minutes, then headed for the bush. Generally pretty smooth, even in the thicker stuff on the northeast ridge of Black Mountain. Also seemed to have dried out a bit after the morning rain, although said rain had the useful side-effect that I didn't have to remember Mum's highly complicated instructions about how to work the watering system (they're overseas at present but I'm staying in the house).

Spent much of the day visiting Scotty and his colleagues at the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, so naturally this meant a lunchtime run with Scott (I thought it might have been a bigger bunch because Trevor Jacobs is Scotty's boss, but Trevor obviously had other plans). Started from the MDBC building in Civic and went around Mount Ainslie. A solid run at a comfortable pace on a pleasant day for it.

Sighting the Civic Pool dome reminded me indirectly of some of the antics of the inaugural ACT Legislative Assembly (mainly because the roof over the pool was, and may still be, known as the 'Dubydome' after the Minister responsible for commissioning it). One wonders what became of some of its more colourful figures, like the aforementioned Craig Duby (who acquainted himself well with his portfolio responsibilities of Minister for Transport and Police by getting done for drink-driving twice during his two years in office), Dennis Stevenson (serial extreme-right nutter who got elected on an anti-self government protest vote), David Prowse (the Speaker, who, 15 years before Troy, had a well-publicised run-in with a monkey on an Asian trip), whoever was responsible for the Sun-Ripened Warm Tomato Party, and the Assembly Committee on HIV, Illegal Drugs and Prostitution (who took themselves off on a fact-finding tour around a wide selection of Europe and Asia's finest red-light districts).

First time at Ivanhoe for a couple of years - it's the closest pool to my place but isn't on the way to work. It was also closed for a while because the council panicked after a couple of swimming pool roofs collapsed in Europe (it didn't seem to occur to the Banyule Council that the reason for said collapses, accumulated heavy snow, is not an especially likely scenario in Ivanhoe).

Reasonably routine session once I loosened up. I'd forgotten how much chlorine they use here, although the water's cooler than it usually is at indoor pools (a plus from my point of view).

My schedule is slightly reshuffled this week because of my travels later on in the week, which meant the midweek long run was today instead of the more usual Thursday. I planned it to be a particularly long one (as the weekend will be shorter than usual), and it was - the longest I've done midweek this century.

Perfect conditions for it, clear, no wind and around 2-6 degrees depending on where you were. Started from Clifton Hill, then zig-zagged south-east as far as the top end of Glen Iris, coming back through Toorak, along the Yarra and past the MCG. A solid effort which threatened to become better than that at times but never quite did; a little weak on some of the hills (although coped well with the biggest hill of the lot, over the top of Malvern) but smooth otherwise. Had enough energy at the end to do an extra lap of the block rather than wait two minutes for the lights to change at the Alexandra Parade crossing (and admire the 'Romans Go Home' graffiti in the meantime).

Automotive highlight on the way to work: someone driving with a mobile phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other. (He was stopped at traffic lights so I didn't get the chance to see what appendage he was using to steer). Also spotted someone illegally occupying a bike lane who looked like Paris Hilton and was driving as badly as Paris Hilton.

I'm in Canberra from tomorrow afternoon through to Sunday night. If anyone's interested in joining me for an hour or so in the terrain on Friday morning let me know. Would also be interested to know if there are any gatherings planned to "watch" the WOC races.

C • So you miss the Ironman again. 4

Usual fartlek loop on a frosty morning (cold enough that there was frost on car roofs at lower elevations). My limbs must have frozen up too because this was a pretty poor effort - never felt like I had any real speed. Fastest loop 9.26.

There is a banner next to Yarra Bend Park advertising a sale at the golf shop 'This Week Only'. Only trouble is that the same banner was there last week. It could be worse - a Westpac branch I went to yesterday still had a poster up saying that now was a good time to see a financial planner to decide what to do with your super before 30 June 2007.

Swim at Northcote, where fast people swim in fast lanes and slow people in slow ones. I was wondering if there might be a last-minute change of venue after hearing on the radio that a car had altercated with a nearby power pole overnight and that large parts of the suburb were consequently powerless, but either the pool wasn't in that part of the suburb or the problem had been fixed.

Quite a stiff back early on after a big weekend of training, but loosened up well and a nice second half. One of those days where the recovery benefits from swimming were definitely evident.

Monday night from Nicola's place with a bigger turnout than last week. Started off by admiring the handiwork of the driver that had an argument with a power pole (and a brick wall) this morning, then continued through some industrial bits to the high side of Darebin Parklands. This is a reasonably regular haunt for me but I don't think I've been there at night before (especially a clear night). The view of the CBD was stunning. Had a slow patch for a while from there picking our way through Darebin (no moon, so pretty dark despite clear skies), but good after that. A decent run on the whole.

Some things have changed a lot in a bit over half a century. I was looking at some old papers today to get background material for a piece I'm writing on some floods in NSW in June 1950. Among the items to feature were the shop assistants' union pushing for Australia to follow the example of other progressive nations like New Zealand and ban Saturday trading, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' describing flood evacuees in a Maitland hall as living like Chinese coolies (no quotation marks), and the police being called in to break up a brawl involving 800 spectators at a Port Melbourne football game. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find 800 spectators at a Port Melbourne football game these days.

Melbourne Series event at Dale Creek. This is a good area for this type of event, if one accepts the limitations of the map (contours OK, vegetation undermapped and heavily generalised) and the area (mostly rather bland, and some parts steep or thick or both). It has the advantage of not being too far from Melbourne. I wouldn't be rushing to use it for anything more significant, though.

It was a longer run than I'd planned on after yesterday - indeed I'm not sure I would have run A if I'd known it was going to be 70 minutes. Didn't feel outrageously stiff but did rather lack energy on some of the climbs in the second half. The middle of the course went through some very steep, and often thick, country which was heavy going and really blew the km rates out. Navigation good for the first three-quarters of the course, but lost it a bit towards the end - some bingoish controls (pits in green) but still should have done better. Lost 2 minutes at 15, partly through being led astray by some streamers (not sure what they were marking but it certainly wasn't the route to my control).

C • Control 15 7

Was a bit apprehensive in the early stages of this run; I wasn't feeling brilliant last night (probably tiredness as much as anything), and the first half-hour wasn't really sparkling, but it gradually built into a very solid effort. I hadn't planned to go quite this long, but once I got into Eltham became confident enough to take on two of the big challenges in this part of the world: the powerline track on the east side of Eltham, then the crossing of Eltham North and St Helena from east to west. It's a few years since I last did the powerline track but seemed to handle it OK (and then had a very good spell on the flatter ground before moving into St Helena). The last 30 minutes was a grind but most of the hills were gone by then: Rosanna Parklands is one of the easier ways to finish a long run. It was slippery underfoot at times after morning rain, but nothing fell during the run itself.

I went out a little later in the morning than I often do - why spend half the run in a slow-moving rainband when you can instead spend half the run looking east towards a slow-moving rainband? - and got to see the suburbs coming to life on a Saturday morning. If it had been January the sight of a convoy of CFA trucks passing through Eltham, the names on them a roll-call of Melbourne's outer eastern fringe, would have been alarming. Later on there was a Vietnam veterans march in Greensborough - I guess it must be a significant anniversary (will have to check tonight's news to see what it was) - and to finish off the constabulary had collared an alleged malefactor at the Rosanna shops. Having sighted the police, fire brigade, army, navy and air force during the course of the run I only needed the ambos for a full set, but was a bit tired to increase my chances of that by doing an extra loop around the Austin Hospital.

Memo to writers of political bumper stickers: if you get too personal you run the risk that your sticker may be overtaken by events. 'Don't Bugger The Bay Bracks' (produced by the campaign against dredging Port Phillip) looks a bit dated now, although it's not that many years ago that I last sighted an 'Export Fraser Not Uranium'. (A lot of the people who sported those stickers in the 1970s and 1980s probably now regard Malcolm Fraser as the nation's conscience).

Obviously that run took a bit out of me. I turned on the football on the radio this afternoon, settled back on the bed with some reading - and woke up at three-quarter time.

A swim at Kew on the way to a massage in Richmond. The pool has recently been renovated. Unfortunately the clientele remains unrenovated, particularly in its complete disregard for lane speed signs or keeping the lane ends clear. The message you're usually left with here is that This Is Our Territory and if you don't have a six-figure income and a seven-figure house you can **** off back to Broadmeadows where you belong. The local councillors in this bit of town have been fighting tooth and nail against the construction of a bike path bridge across the Yarra for the last 10 years, ostensibly because it would cut across 'a park popular with dog-walkers' (you'd think it was an eight-lane freeway being proposed), but more accurately to keep the hoi polloi out because all right-thinking people know that the only reason why people would ever come from north of the river to here is to rob their houses or violate their daughters.

After getting through the session, changing lanes in the middle because I was getting sick of my 45-second laps being blocked by people doing 70-second laps in the 35-second lane (I'd applied what I thought was the standard discount factor), I left everyone else to continue plotting sacking half their workforce and putting the rest on AWAs, and resolved next time to go the extra 10 minutes and swim at Richmond instead. Maybe they were just in a foul mood because they'd realised how many thousand dollars was about to be wiped off the value of their share portfolios.

C • Tumbles? 11

Obviously the log entries that gave me error messages when I posted them still got through (deleted now...).

Spent most of this run in the hills of Ivanhoe and Eaglemont with periodic stops at letterboxes, then headed out onto the Banyule Flats once that part was done (surprised how dry the Banyule Flats were underfoot). Lacked energy on some of the hills but otherwise a decent run, particularly coming off a tough run today. A couple of awkward road crossings at the end because roadworks had sent heavy traffic into my street.

Hyperbole award for the week goes to the Geelong policeman who likened central Geelong to Baghdad in yesterday's Herald-Sun. I must congratulate my boss (who lives there) for successfully negotiating the roadside bombs in Moorabool Street, the Kardinia Park snipers and the rocket-propelled grenades being fired from the Barwon River rowing boats and making it in to work this morning. (I think the remarks were prompted by the sort of early-hours-Sunday-morning-brawl-outside-nightclub which can be found in just about every city in the known universe if you know where to look).

Slightly different territory today - started from Camberwell as my car was getting fixed there (after getting through 8,500 km with only trivial incident, the main headlights failed two days after I got back). Got out as far as Wattle Park. Felt somewhat ho-hum on this run, although better towards the end. A little longer than I'd intended.

A bus outside Strathcona girls' school had the destination sign 'Smile!', so I did. Not sure if anyone noticed.

Wednesday night street-O at Doncaster Heights. A little below full intensity but definitely a step up on usual training speed. The map is quite a small one so there was absolutely no doubt that we were going to get all the controls well inside the 60 minutes (I'd originally thought sub-40 was on, but strategic use of some cul-de-sacs meant the course was about as long as possible for this area). It's also a long, narrow map so there weren't many route choice options.

Felt OK but wasn't quite matching Bryan and Adam for speed, although I pulled a little ground back on them towards the end. Ended up about 1.30 behind.

Back on the old circuit for the first time in a few weeks. Felt reasonably sharp but the time was fairly slow - 9.21 for the fastest loop. A really nice morning for it, experiencing the pleasures of shallow cold-air layers on a clear morning (probably 5 degrees colder on the Yarra Flats than it was a few metres higher). Suspect it won't be so pleasant for my ride home tonight.

A session at Fitzroy. A bit tight early on but going quite smoothly (at least by my standards) in the second half. As usual only the hard core were out on a winter's morning (also as usual the one-legged man was there and going considerably faster than I was).

It was the first Monday morning commute since I got home, with about the usual level of cluelessness. (Scoreboard - driver going wrong way up one-way street 1, driver entering blocked intersection on yellow and therefore stopping traffic for the entire next cycle 1).

Spotted by the 'Age' at a demo on Saturday: a sign reading 'Reckless with a SIM? Arrest Shane Warne!'

A Monday night run from my place. Now that I'm the most remote member of the circuit the turnout usually isn't terribly large from here, but it was particularly dismal last night - Nicola, Suse and that's it. Obviously Darebin Creek is proving an increasingly formidable obstacle (must be that map which shows on the eastern bank, 'Here Be Bogans').

The run wasn't particularly quick but was pleasant enough. Nicola kept apologising for her illness-induced slow pace up the hills but it didn't seem too exceptional to me.

Suse and I showed off our trip photos to the assembled multitude (or lack thereof) afterwards.

Event: Victorian Badge Event, State Series, Mia Mia
 

Went out early because I wanted to get back for the football (shouldn't have bothered as it turned out). Ran as if my mind was elsewhere, although it wasn't until the later part of the course that this actually cost me any time. Drifted on the vague 11th leg, then didn't have the necessary concentration on the short legs at the end. Didn't really have the speed today that this area demands, either. Haven't seen all the times but Liggo was 4 minutes ahead, which doesn't surprise me.

Victorian orienteers (at least Melbourne-based ones) are very used to the Calder Highway corridor. After 13 years of travelling it I noticed that the Jacksons Creek estate at Gisborne has finally sold all its land (or given up) as the 'LAND SALE' sign has gone.

Good in the first half, a bit less so in the second. Went a bit longer than I normally would on a pre-State Series Saturday because tomorrow's going to be relatively short (and physically easy). Came across Warren for a bit around halfway near his place.

Thought of the day: is there anyone ever in the recorded history of the universe who has ever paid full price for a Persian or Turkish rug?

C • cracker 1

Return to swimming. Shoulders got a bit of a shock at being asked to do a bit more work than they'd become accustomed to, but apart from that it was fine.

Returning after a month away gives one the chance to see what's changed in the neighbourhood. Not a lot of progress seems to have been made on various Docklands buildings (must be all the rain that fell in my absence). The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group's flagship, the Robert Hunter (presumably not named after the cyclist), is still at the wharf at the end of Latrobe Street (rumour has it they've run out of money). The Eastern Freeway traffic jam still starts at much the same place and it still feels good to ride past them all on the adjacent bike path (it will get worse when the Scoresby freeway opens next year and feeds more traffic into it). The flowers have gone from the intersection of William Street and Flinders Lane.

Mentioned my post-driving ankle soreness to my doctor yesterday when I saw her and she didn't sound in the least surprised. No signs of trouble on that front since Saturday.

C • Splits 3

Starting in the dark again was a bit of a culture shock, but on the whole this was a pretty good run, flowing nicely, especially in the middle stages. Getting a good run with the traffic helped. Started to tire a little in the last 20 minutes but nothing to worry about. Definitely a positive from the first proper midweek long run of this training phase. (The timing of races makes things a bit different this year; my plan is to have a reasonably heavy August in preparation for races in early October).

One thing I noticed going past Warren and Tash's old place is that it's become a hotspot of redevelopment - their old house is one of the few in that block which is still standing. Also saw a poster in the Clifton Hill underpass advertising 'Connex for Cancer Day'. I presume Connex is actually against cancer, although given the perversity with which they run some of their trains maybe it's hard to be sure.

C • Connex 3

Back home. A morning jaunt based from Clifton Hill. Nothing particularly special, although a nice morning for it.

Noticed while crossing the Heidelberg Road bridge across Merri Creek a plaque 'CRB 1936'. I know Melbourne was smaller in 1936 than it is now, but I'm still surprised an installation in Clifton Hill was the responsibility of the (now defunct) Country Roads Board.

C • CRB 2

Lunchtime session around the Tan. Pleasant despite the wind. Not a huge amount has changed there since I've been away.