Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Reacquainting myself with the pleasures of running on the Mornington Peninsula (and existing more generally on the Mornington Peninsula), starting with a section along the ocean beach to start which is always attractive, especially on a clear morning like this. Managed to run the steep sandy climb out of the beach for the first time in a couple of years, too, indicating that I've gained some fitness since I was last here, even if it didn't always feel like it - none of the hills apart from the first are more than a couple of contours, but it's almost never flat and I'm still finding an accumulation of hills rather draining. Even got slightly confused in a pocket of streets I hadn't been to before because my map memory hadn't taken in that Adelaide Street's southern end has a different name (another one for tRicky's list).

As you would expect, the area is well-populated this weekend.

As in August, fell a little short of a stretch goal of 30 hours, but still the most running (just) I've done in a month since early 2018, which is a result I'll take given that I was rarely injury-free during it.

Deepdene street-O. Felt as if I was going uphill for most of the way, which in some ways I was (the route I used lost most of its height at the end). Didn't feel like the most lively of runs but found something when it was needed, and back and glutes basically OK today. Seemed slow but I suspect the GPS might have been a bit astray (Maprun was 350m longer instead of the usual 150-200). Thought my route was OK - the Outer Circle cutting can be a trap here - but others found better ones.

This is more upmarket territory than I normally inhabit: dropped in at the shops on the way home and found myself parked next to an Aston Martin. One might have thought I had taken another excursion into poshness later in the day on going with my parents for a drink at the Portsea Golf Club (where Dad's a member), but it's actually Sorrento that's the posh/snobbish one by all reports. I did note that Portsea has taken one step into the 21st century this year by virtue of the fact that the 2021 women's club champion doesn't have their marital status in front of their name on the honour boards (whether this has anything to do with the appearance of one K.Marx as a recent winner is unknown).

My afternoon travels did provide abundant opportunity to see that the trip would have been considerably more difficult 30 hours earlier - lots of tree damage, particularly around Mount Eliza and Portsea (saw one root mound the size of a shed), although for the most part the trees seem to have missed houses. Perhaps unluckiest was the house which got flooded after a tree severed a water main while in the process of being uprooted.

Another step towards some sort of normality (and it took a further step towards normality during the course of the session, as the clock struck six and the changerooms opened).

With meetings scheduled from 5-7.30am, I was tossing up between a later morning session and one at the end of the day. I'd gone for the end of the day, and it was as well that I did, as I spent quite a bit of said meetings watching trees swaying in the gale out the window and wondering how many of them would still be there by lunchtime. (The answer in Fairfield was nearly all of them, but there was still ample evidence in my evening trip that Balwyn was not so lucky, particularly the row of horizontal trees at Macleay Park). Not sure I would have even been game to try to run early in the day had that featured in my plans.

There was a fair bit of rust to shake out in the water, but it ended up being a reasonable session. Seemed to loosen up my back, which was a bit tight during the day today, as well.

Definitely did not go anywhere near a shopping centre this evening (I do have a few things on my shopping list, but will save most of it for when things have settled down a bit, although a bookshop does feature in my plans for tomorrow).

Held off a bit later than usual to wait out a line of storms (which turned out not to be especially stormy by the time they got to us). Almost didn't get past the first couple of minutes, but did manage to shake myself into motion - this was never a great run, but from about 3k onwards it was at least a reasonably standard one. Started making some inroads into the Eglinton block of Kew (with some hills as part of it). Descending Willsmere did stir my glutes up a bit but the next traffic stop settled them down again. Turned out to be my longest midweek session since 2018, I think (and certainly pleased to come up at all on the Thursday morning after a Wednesday night, something I often haven't been able to do in recent times).

Feeling slightly ripped-off because I thought I'd completed nine streets, but three of them have names which are replicated elsewhere in the City of Boroondara (and I haven't done their twins yet), so I only get credit for six.

An organised run! With other people! MFR training is back. I wasn't especially confident about this, having got rather too absorbed in something I was doing this afternoon (and consequently spending far too long without standing up, never a good thing for the back). It was indeed a bit of a struggle and I fairly quickly took up the arriere du peloton position (before falling off the back altogether), but did loosen up later on, and there was some good conversation afterwards to make up for what I missed out on by being off the back of the run. Seemed to pass pretty quickly along the river. Quite a warm day, which we'll need to get used to. (Depending on which model run you believe, this time next week could either be quite hot or very wet).

After a couple of failed attempts at intervals the last two weeks (and still a hint of glute soreness) I thought I'd leave it a week, and instead went out to finish off a block in Heidelberg Heights. This was a better run than anything last week, although still a bit short of where I'd like to be. A little stirred up on the downhills but no great dramas; it always feels hillier here than the climb stats indicate (probably because none of the hills are steep, but there's not a lot which is flat). Finished what I'd planned to do at about 35 minutes so went on to go into what turned out to be a target-rich environment (in the streets sense) on the north side of Southern Road to finish off. Have now done everything south of Southern Road in West Heidelberg/Heidelberg Heights.

Banyule's road and footpath repair crews seemed to be particularly busy this morning.

Not sure what difference it would have made, if any, if I'd known before heading out about the Nationals MP who got their anti-renewables talking points mixed up and said that wind power didn't work when it was dark.

Pilates, back to classes rather than one-on-one this week. Still getting the hang of some of the new exercises but went OK as a session. Pretty stiff this morning; think running would have been a struggle.

Back to the water for the first time in a while. Fitzroy isn't open yet so I went to Balwyn instead (thanks Aislinn for the tip) - a new place for me. I might be back there a bit as it has 90-minute timeslots rather than (effectively) 45 at Fitzroy (although hopefully that will loosen up next week). It's a nice enough spot with a decent amount of grass around, and the clear late afternoon sky was almost enough to make you forget that it was 13 degrees (OK once you're in, though).

I did remember how to do this, more or less, but it was a pretty slow session. I was wondering why I kept getting passed but it turned out that my lane had been redesignated from slow to medium shortly after I started. Even saw a return of an old enemy, the foot cramp, on the last lap. My somewhat unruly post-lockdown hair certainly wasn't made any more ruly by spending time in a pool.

Australia isn't the only place that can do the droughts-to-flooding-rains thing: Sacramento today had its wettest day on record, 138mm, having only finished a 217-day stretch with no measurable rain whatsoever a few days ago.

My physio thinks my intermittent glute soreness issue is a nerve issue. Today certainly did nothing to disabuse me of that notion - it decidedly didn't like bending over to wash dishes this morning (enough that running this morning was a non-starter), but seemed settled again by lunchtime so I decided to have another go in the late afternoon (though in a flatter area than my original plan). Didn't have high expectations, kept plugging away for a while, but back got progressively tighter after 30 minutes (which is unusual) and I pulled up short of the hour I'd hoped for. Still, getting anything on the board is something I would have taken this morning (and getting a distance in a generally poor week which would still have been my second-longest running week of the year in either 2019 or 2020 shows I've come some way).

Cleared a bit more of the area west of the Harvey Norman in Preston; I should definitely be able to finish south-of-Bell off in one more run now.

Went out to run a course at Woodlands (had planned this while I thought this weekend's magic number was going to be 25 but decided to stick with it anyway). Always nice to be in terrain, even if it's relatively straightforward terrain for the most part; holding lines reasonably well and definitely an improvement on my run here this time last year (not a high bar to clear). Tired a bit in the last 10 minutes. In general just felt good to be running freely across country (although the open bits would have felt better still had it been dry). About 6 minutes slower than when I ran the event this course was from (2013?) which I'll take at this point.

Not as much Paterson's Curse as there was last year.

Two things which have changed since I was last out this way is that the car wash on Bell Street near the Pascoe Vale South Macca's is no more, and that a reasonably substantial solar farm has appeared in a paddock next to the planespotters' car park (it is a conventionally arranged solar panel array, unlike one underneath one of the other airport flight paths).

Did some exploring in the afternoon out to the northeast - not as wild as you can get in "greater Melbourne" (after all, the Shire of Yarra Ranges extends almost to Woods Point), but still sufficiently rural that I bought some apples from a roadside stall next to an orchard where you paid by putting $5 in the tin. Would be some nice riding out this way if you don't mind the odd short sharp climb (and I gather that one of our number was doing exactly that earlier in the day).

C • Odd short sharp climb 2

Perhaps I shouldn't have expected a lot after a 1am finish (after which I went for a walk around the block just because I legally could), but this was a real struggle. Headed out to East Ivanhoe in the hope of marking the end of lockdown by finishing off the last of a 3km circle north of the river (still quite a bit to do in Kew), but you needed to be up for it on some of the steeper bits here and I definitely wasn't. Improved a bit in the last 15 minutes after a lengthy level crossing stop, but not enough to tempt me into doing an extra lap somewhere to take it out to the hour I'd originally intended. Quite warm.

I entered an event (and it's even in another state).

C • An event in another state 15

Lunchtime ride on the Koonung trail, mostly because it was a bit more sheltered than other options with some wind about. Felt fairly reasonable in a week when I've often been a bit sluggish. Not as many people out as you'd see on the paths during the weekend (maybe that will be different this weekend given the expanded range of alternative options).

The river is still high, and there's evidence (of the visual, and occasionally olfactory, kind) of some of the flooding from earlier in the week in various places.

Darebin Parklands park/street event, with more park (and sometimes rougher park) than these sometimes had. A bit of a struggle on the running front for most of the way, but also had the dreaded scatter course experience of realising late in the piece that I was a control short - there were options close enough that this wasn't completely catastrophic, but it still meant that I was probably 500 metres or so longer than the optimal route. I did have a bit of an advantage because most of the controls in the park were on the permanent course markers, which I was a regular visitor to around this time last year (not so much this year).

Felt a bit closer to being ready to do faster things than last week, but still not quite there (and pulled up a bit sore in the afternoon, with the soreness perhaps a bit lower than it has been - hopefully will wear off overnight).

Switched instead to something at standardish pace (although probably at the slow end of it) after the intervals attempt failed. Felt more or less OK after a rather sleepy start.

Spotted a poster (which I guess was a union one although I didn't stop to read the small print) "Don't Scab, Get The Jab". (Speaking of which, saw today that Turkmenistan claims to have had no Covid cases; they might have had a slightly better chance, although still slight, of being believed had the British ambassador not caught it).

C • Get the jab 13

Monday morning Pilates. A few new exercises into the mix and getting the hang of them always takes a bit of doing, but otherwise this session went reasonably well.

And the ride which is the second half of the current Monday morning combination - thought this might be the last time I do this but it looks like the pools (Fitzroy, at least) aren't going to reopen until mid-next week even though the legally can from Friday. This one was also a fairly familiar story, gradually building into it as it went on after feeling fairly sluggish at the start. Managed to stay out of the way of a shattered plate of glass on the road (I hope).

Early on, I saw a new development advertised as "creek side houses", which definitely had a "what could possibly go wrong?" feel to it - hopefully the council knows what they're doing with regard to flood heights, even if really significant Merri Creek floods aren't in most people's memory.

C • Pools 7

The Plans mentioned yesterday involved trying to go further than I've managed so far in this training cycle, and after some up and down moments, that mission was accomplished to a pass-mark level (although I'd hoped it might have been a bit more than that). Headed north in the name of making some inroads into the block south of Bell between High and Victoria, including doing the remaining bit of Bell itself (a lockdown Sunday, hopefully the last such, is probably the best time for that) - got far enough into that that I should be able to finish it (and with it, all of Darebin south of Bell) with one long run or two shorter ones. Not too many hills but probably felt better on them than elsewhere; as with Friday, hit a bad patch around 45-50 minutes but got a second wind. Back a little iffy later, glutes fine.

The run's moment of misadventure was making a mess of a fence crossing about 3k in and ending up rolling inelegantly onto my back (no damage done as far as I know). It wasn't the day's last misadventure as my finger later altercated with a vicious cutting implement (it seems to have settled enough not to need stitches, something I wasn't entirely confident of for the first few minutes afterwards).

C • Was it a musical instrument? 1

MapRun course at Travancore. Not one of my better days so happy that the course was on the short side (the setting seemed a bit strange - 17 out of 25 for B but the 7 western ones were obvious drops so out of play). Glutes came up sore after yesterday and I don't think the body generally appreciated getting the steepest climbs early (think I would have been better off going in the reverse direction). At least the crossing of Mount Alexander Road, which I'd been warned about, was no problem in either direction. Might have gone on a bit longer but I have Plans tomorrow, and didn't want to put them at any more risk than they already were.

More heavy rain overnight (though more or less gone by the morning). It certainly wouldn't have been a day for either Banksia Park or Eaglemont Flats - I checked them out in the afternoon and there was significant flooding at both, including the bike path going under both on the Eaglemont and Kew sides, though the latter was passable if you didn't mind getting your feet wet (a couple of girls out running were rather tentative about this). The Eaglemont side also provided abundant evidence of the magnetic attraction between small children and mud.

C • One of your extremely rare typos! 4

Over into Kew, finishing the remaining bits of a block (now have everything north of Earl Street and its extensions and west of Harp Junction). As with last week, felt at its best going up the hills which isn't a bad way to be, and glutes have settled to minor nuisance levels (although a bit sorer post-run). Hit a bit of a flat spot about 45 minutes in but came good again and finished off pretty well in the last 10 minutes.

A nearby house has disappeared over the last couple of days, but a more substantial demolition happened yesterday on the old paper mill site, getting rid of the last of the unrestored old factory buildings near the bridge - it had stayed present and derelict for so long that I'd assumed that it must have had some kind of heritage protection (although it was difficult to see why). The river is flowing strongly and could produce quite a substantial flood if the forecast rains in the catchment happen over the next 24 hours.

Decided on the bike this morning, partly because past experience is that if my back isn't much good in the evening it isn't much good the following morning either, and partly because the Friday forecast was foul and I'd rather run in rain than ride in rain (it's become a bit less foul since, particularly for the morning).

On a morning which had that clarity you get when it's sunny after overnight rain, it was a fairly standard start, which was to say not at my sharpest. Built into it over time and started to hit my straps after getting out of Reservoir and down to the Darebin Creek path.

The Northcote pool is well and truly a construction site now (although nothing's been visibly demolished yet). The other noteworthy sight of this ride was spotting just about every type of Australia Post vehicle in existence in the space of a couple of minutes (probably something to do with the proximity of a depot); ended up having a chat with the driver/rider of one of their three-wheelers while waiting for two trains to pass through the soon-to-be-former Oakover Road level crossing. (Didn't see any obvious evidence of the fire nearby on Tuesday morning).

C • I see pools are open next w... 4

Had hoped to do intervals today. Wasn't awake enough for it in the morning, and with an insufficient time gap available at lunchtime it was the evening instead. Warm-up was OK but glutes not up to going fast yet (as I found out fairly quickly) so instead continued on from the warm-up, in a very unconvincing session as my back got steadily tighter (not the way it usually happens). At least I got something in the (virtual) book on a day when things weren't going that well.

Started a new area today - between Nicholson Street and Merri Creek, mostly in the name of a target of filling all of a Melway map (partly as a product of living more or less on the boundary of two maps, I haven't managed this, although I'm probably 85-90% complete on both maps 30 and 31). Today's outing was the area around Ceres and west of the Northcote golf course. Struggling for the first 15 minutes, settled after that but never a particularly good run, despite the good running conditions (perhaps the last proper cold clear morning for the year). Glute soreness continuing to ease, though.

Slight shakeup to the (recently) usual Monday morning routine - Fairfield found itself underneath a train of showers which dropped 6mm in 40 minutes while blue sky was visible to both the east and the west, and I didn't think they'd appreciate my arriving for Pilates dripping wet, so saved the riding part for later. Was a reasonable session once I got there (with the usual awkwardness whenever I start trying something new), and seem to have come up better on the Monday than I did last weekend.

Headed out in the evening, after a day of collating 2021's global extreme climate events, which took me from Czech tornadoes to Paraguayan river flows (or the absence thereof) to Iranian snow (or the absence thereof), to drought and flood in Afghanistan (haven't they suffered enough already?), to shortages of pasta due to drought in Canada, to shortages of coffee due to frost in Brazil (the last two will be particularly disturbing to some readers).

It was a day with a chilly southwest wind. For the La Trobe loop, this means an easier than usual time going up the Heidelberg hill; the flipside is that doing down Oriel Road wasn't as cruisy as it usually is. A reasonable session without being spectacular.

Found myself at some lights next to an oversized man in an oversized ute with an Infowars "The Media Is The Virus" sticker. Thought it prudent to stay well out of his way.

Another small step forward in the distance/degree of difficult stakes, heading out into some moderately hilly areas in East Ivanhoe. At the moment I'm at the stage where going uphill feels better than going downhill which is a slightly odd space to be in (the glute, which is improving gradually, is at its most painful on and after downhills). Felt reasonably strong for a lot of the way but started to struggle in the last 15 minutes as the quads fatigued, and slowed down noticeably; still happy to put three reasonably sizeable days (by modern standards) together and get back into mid-40s territory for a weekly distance.

Headed out to another new piece of ground (Currawong Bush Park, just on the other side of Mullum Mullum Creek) this afternoon in the name of exploring such bits of forest as exist within 15km of home (hopefully only a couple of weeks before there are more options). Nice enough area walking above the creek; I do wonder how many of the several restaurants I saw on the way there (in this part of the world, restaurants are often in standalone buildings rather than in shopping strips) with long grass growing up in their grounds are going to resurface come November.

As was the case yesterday, not too many masks were to be seen amongst people walking in the bush, which is in breach of the law as it currently stands but not exactly likely to harm anyone. Then again, some of the more paranoid callers to ABC radio yesterday left me wondering if we'd moved on terribly far since the days when people thought you could catch AIDS from a toilet seat that a gay person had recently been on (for that matter, the events of the last week in Mount Gambier left me wondering if we'd moved on terribly far since the days that alleged witches were burned at the stake).

C • Mask wearing 1

Headed out to Plenty Gorge to get into some proper bush (or at least as close an approximation of it as is possible within 15km of home) for the first time in a while, running a course from 2019 that I hadn't got very far into the first time (and cutting off a couple of controls because I didn't want to be over an hour at this stage). This was enjoyable; the course wasn't particularly technically demanding, but I'd forgotten how nice it is to run through open forest. Moving a bit better in the terrain than I expected, and running the gentle hills (not the steep ones, but I probably haven't been up to running those for the best part of a decade).

I'd wondered if I was going to be in a fit state to do this when I woke up in pain during the night after evidently coming to rest on a bit of my right hip which didn't appreciate being under my not-quite-as-much-as-it-was-in-February bodyweight, but things didn't work out too badly - glutes a bit painful at times (most prominently down hills) but not feeling as if they were impeding me. It's one of those odd injuries which feels better running than it does walking or sitting.

I definitely wasn't the only one here: most of the parking spots at both the park entrance and Yellow Gum were taken, and the tracks were being well used by mountain bikers (whose other options are probably illegally distant) - single tracks weren't as good a route choice today as they usually are here, unless you kept your wits about you. Left well before the day's local excitement (not sure exactly what happened, but the Vic Emergency website showed 12 vehicles responding to "persons trapped" - maybe there was a rockfall in the quarry, although I've seen nothing in the news yet).

Was wondering how the fire a couple of summers ago would have affected the area. There are a few parts where bracken has grown up, but generally there isn't the scrappy regrowth that you often get in post-fire areas - the map could use a bit of refieldworking (and to update the mountain bike tracks too), but the area's still perfectly usable. (I think the most intense parts of the fire were on the other side of the river).

C • Update 4

C • Vic emergency 1

After a couple of false starts in the last fortnight I finally finished Ivanhoe off today. A bit of a struggle in the first 15 minutes and I thought climbing the Banksia Street hill (which I would once have done without too much drama, but its long straight nature is a little intimidating when you're not used to it) - as it turned out it was probably the best I felt on the whole run. That gave me confidence to finish the rest of it. My glutes were rather sore coming off the descent, but a traffic stop settled them down, more or less (starting to hurt a bit more at the end). Reasonably satisfied to get this under the belt and seem to be on a bit of an upswing.

Not up to running three days in a row this time (although the glute seems to have settled significantly during the day), so instead headed out for an evening ride - a more pleasant proposition how that there's enough light to do it without lamps. (October can be that sweet spot while the evenings are light but still cool - perhaps a bit too chilly for some tonight). Headed into territory I haven't been to for a while, along the Koonung trail (not as much construction yet as I thought there might have been, although no doubt that's coming). Never really felt like it got going as a ride, though.

Spotted in the news today: "A teen has been banned from Engadine Maccas after kicking a man involved in a brawl with her boyfriend so violent the pair smashed through the restaurant window. “Engadine McDonalds is a huge source of work for lawyers in the Shire,” a magistrate said.". I'm not sure if that extends to defamation lawyers (if you're unaware of said establishment's other reason for infamy, Google is your friend).

C • Google was my freind 4

Glute was feeling a bit sorer this morning but physio thinks it's a nerve issue and should be OK to run in if I can tolerate it. I really wasn't sure about running today, but once I started it was basically OK (back was having a good day, which helped). A decent run, probably my best of the last week or so, and cleared some more bits of the West Heidelberg/Heidelberg Heights block south of Southern Road (can probably finish this off in one more so). Very nice morning to be out. Remains to be seen how the body will respond to something longer and hillier, but I'll find out soon enough.

First of the Summer Anytime Series - courses have been set up for a week on each of four maps (in the hope that most people will have at least 1 or 2 in their radius). One of the first week's was Boulder Dash (centred at All Nations Park) so I thought it was worth doing early on. Got a bit of a rushed start when I hit the 'go to start' button on Maprun and it turned out I was already at the start and my time was running, and a couple of the control placements were a little imprecise, but otherwise worked well. Glutes still not 100% but probably a little better than the weekend, back tight early but improved, so made it round. Think my route was pretty good (and shorter than expected) but we'll find out at the end of the week whether it was or not.

Today was the first day of reopening for the construction industry. I think it would be fair to say that mask-wearing compliance on the construction sites I passed on the way to All Nations was on a par with dog-on-leash compliance once I got there.

C • Please can I borrow map whe... 5

My going through the old DVD collection has taken me to Frontline; there are things about this which I appreciate better now than I did in 1994, now that I have a certain amount of experience. I particularly appreciated their depicting editing words out of a sentence to completely reverse the meaning of something which was said, given my experience of having 'Today Tonight' editing the word 'not' out of a statement 'The Bureau is not predicting the hottest summer on record'. (As it turned out, it was indeed the hottest summer on record over a decent slice of inland NSW and Queensland, although those records have been broken several times since).

One thing Frontline didn't depict was getting the interviewee's name, title and institution wrong. (Several months later, I found out from someone at CSIRO that their communications people had been running around trying to find out who on earth this Professor Truman was of theirs who'd been talking to Today Tonight without telling them about it).

Standard Monday session. Right glute a bit more sore this morning - I think I might have struggled to run on it - but it was OK for this.

And the next step. Slow going through the first half, not helped by a northerly wind (not as wild as it got in some squalls later in the day) and numerous traffic stops, but improved later on. A little sore at times.

One of those days where the best I could say is that I got through it. Decided on something flat, namely clearing a few more bits of the south end of Fitzroy North. Soreness in the glutes but didn't seem to be referring pain anywhere else, so decided to push through it, but it certainly wasn't convincing - perhaps a few good patches towards the end.

I'm never quite sure in this area which lanes count as "streets" and which ones don't. I also discovered that none of the street-O map (which I took with me), OpenStreetMap and the Melway are entirely reliable when it comes to which lanes connect to which other lanes (but their unreliability is in different places).

Perhaps part of the reason I was struggling was that it was an early-season run in the middle of the day in relative warmth (22, let's not get too excited here). Good to build up experience of this for when it's needed later in the year. I haven't entirely given up hope of (a) the NSW Championships taking place and (b) being able to get there and come home again, and that could certainly be warm. (The possibility of running this comes only because it got postponed by a (further) two weeks to avoid what turned out to be a non-existent clash with the (further postponed) Bathurst 1000; I think it's unlikely state borders will be open by the first weekend of November, but they could be by the third).

Did some exploring after lunch on the north side of the Yarra; 15km gets you into some more forested country on the south side of Eltham (and the river was up significantly, although below flood level). Found a track along the north side of the river which I didn't know existed, which is always a plus.

Another of Pat's training courses, this time in Royal Park - surprisingly difficult when the vegetation is mapped in detail and the controls are on it (I'm not totally convinced I hit all of them). Was definitely glad I'd remembered to bring my compass this time, particularly on the corridor section. Was still a bit sore beforehand and not totally convinced I'd be up to running, but it was OK once under way (though the test will be what it's like in the morning). Humid.

Back to where I was parked after the courses, doing a bit of incrementing of my City of Melbourne streets tally for the first time in some months.

Felt like I was close to running but a morning attempt showed I wasn't quite there, so instead headed out for a late afternoon ride - my plans were to head northeast and seeing a storm to the northwest (which was to drop 48mm on Fawkner) did not discourage this route choice, which involved not having to turn left at Southern Road for the first time in a while. Didn't miss the rain altogether - was quite damp in the last 15 minutes, although I think we still probably fell about 47 short of Fawkner - and it was getting quite dark by the end. My front light's battery is getting low, but it will probably be six months before it's needed again. Felt quite good on the bike, although a little sore afterwards (more so on the side of the leg now).

First two months of the current lockdown down. Planning for two more although hoping for one.