Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Bit of a struggle to get myself going this morning, but got into it, eventually. Not too upset not to be running this morning (on both weather and state-of-body grounds).

Took a long time to get into the swimming part of the day, too. Back was quite tight this morning and took a long time to loosen up even in the water (where it isn't normally an issue). Finally got going to some extent in the last few laps.

This was another month of consolidating at a decent level: the fourth successive month above 28 hours, although I haven't managed to crack 30 yet. (I suspect next month, starting with a handicap, is not going to be the month which changes this).

I doubt that it will come as any surprise to anyone in Melbourne that, at least on the indicators I was looking at, it was the most humid January on record. It was also a record for Canberra (of the other places I looked at, Wagga was second, Adelaide third).

There are good days and there are bad days. Yesterday was good, today was not - wasn't really a back issue, I was just feeling flat (and although the humidity was making its presence felt, I was feeling flat before I was far enough into the run for that to be apparent).

I based this on last weekend's Capel Sound street event. It's quite a small map and I assumed that I'd be able to clear the course easily inside 60 minutes, then go on to do a bit extra. As it turned out, it was more convoluted than I expected, I didn't get particularly close to getting them all in time (which in turn means my route was somewhat suboptimal, because I'd been to a couple of controls you'd only go to if you were going to get them all), and an hour was plenty.

Capel Sound is a relatively new addition to the list of Victorian placenames, being renamed from Rosebud West in a probably forlorn hope of improving its reputation. (Renaming in the name of marketing isn't unprecedented in these parts - what was once Shark Bay is now Safety Beach). It's not the most affluent slice of the Peninsula, though I think a lot of the less affluent residents are pensioners.

One of the more impressive cricket matches I've seen this afternoon.

C • Good days and bad days 1

The spin of the virtual wheel is taking me to the outer east a bit lately; this time the number was 51, and it took me to east Croydon/west Kilsyth. This is a bit of an in between area - bits of suburbs (though no complete park/street maps, just the south end of Mooroolbark), some light industrial, and open space of various kinds (some of it probably flood-prone) - I thought the "flood prone" part might have been problematic after yesterday's rain but it wasn't. Started with a stretch on a path which ran around the outside of the Dorset golf course, then weaving through the suburbs and bits on a track which runs through a pipeline easement; flatter than most of the areas around. (The first bit had parkrun signs; I guess Ricky's done this one given it's close to his home turf).

There might not have been too many standout features of the places I was doing this run in, but this was made up for by the run itself, definitely the best I've felt on a run so far this year. There are three potential contributors to this, but the scientist in me doesn't consider there to be enough evidence to determine which specific ones were more important: (a) it was significantly cooler (although still quite humid, 20/17), (b) it was longer after getting out of bed (partly because it was a cooler day) and hence I was looser and (c) I had a somewhat overdue physio session yesterday.

There was a bingo hall near where I started. The hall looked some decades past its best (possibly because many of its customers are likewise).

Headed down to the Peninsula for the rest of the weekend. Dad was going to the Mornington races so I went along (first time I've been to the races for years). Like my last couple of outings, I left the track with (slightly) more money than I started with. Being sober helps.

C • Dorset etc parkrun 1

The concept of a "large boulder the size of a small boulder" probably doesn't seem quite as strange to orienteers (particularly those familiar with the size, or lack thereof, of some of the things that get mapped as boulders in central Europe) as it does to others.

C • X'D 1

Still struggling with the back this morning - unusual for it to be troublesome two days in a row (obviously overdue for some physio work which it got in the afternoon). Pushed through while cutting back my ambitions somewhat on a day when the conditions were tough anyway, but this was never easy. Definitely feeling the humidity by the end (waking up to 27 degrees at 6am is never a sign of an easy run). Cleared up a few loose ends in the Willsmere area.

One of the things I was doing today was adding details of sites that don't report in real time (a lot of sites, especially farms, still send in their reports by mail each month) to our list of record rainfalls last November. Was thinking when I saw the name Rock Forest with a NSW Central Tablelands site number that it must have been in pagoda country, but it's actually northwest of Bathurst (Google suggests there are granite boulders there but not much forest; I assume we would have been there by now if it had significant orienteering potential). One name on the records list which will be familiar to 1990s/2000s orienteers is this one.

Waited it out this morning for the morning's rain/storms to go through (the really heavy stuff which I was worried about ended up missing us to the northeast), but then it turned out my back was no good for running today anyway. Switched to a lunchtime session in the water, with a somewhat different crowd to the mornings, but we didn't get in each others' way too much, there was enough cloud around not to get too sunburnt, and the session was OK.

C • Cloud 6

All Nations intervals. Back a bit iffy on the uphill ones so didn't push it beyond 6, but not too bad on the whole. Pace reasonable (58-62). More shade on this route than I realised, which I appreciated today.

Warm-up and down. Felt reasonable going there, but on another warm humid morning (25/19), was definitely starting to run out of steam (perhaps not quite the right expression in the circumstances?) towards the end. Will be trying to push it further tomorrow in probably slightly tougher conditions, which will be a significant test.

The public holiday excursion was to the Wombelano Falls near Kinglake, which turned out to be slightly underwhelming at this time of year (I suspect they were more impressive in November). My thoughts of a lunch at a mountain cafe were also scuppered by the fact that nothing was open.

Early morning Pilates, Tuesday rather than Monday this week. Felt half-asleep when I walked in but snapped out of that fairly quickly, and this was a pretty good session.

Followed up with a run, with a more-westward-than-usual start location opening up a new bit of terrain to tackle, the strip between Nicholson and Lygon (on this occasion, a slice of Brunswick East). A bit of a mixed bag as a run - felt as if I was moving fairly well after the first 10 minutes, but finding the conditions somewhat challenging (definitely appreciated a couple of water stops). Still, humid mid-20s (or a bit higher) is probably what we'll be dealing with in Queensland at Easter so we might as well get used to it.

I've previously commented on the possibly-soon-to-be-former City of Moreland's signs explaining their street names, but at least one of them needs to be updated - Victoria has not been the world's longest-reigning female monarch since at least 2016.

C • Victoria 1

Some more walking pursuit of waterfalls in the morning before setting out on the way home. Broke the trip up with a lap swim (as opposed to the non-lap swims in Lake Catani, not as cold as I expected).

This was one of my occasional excursions to a small town's War Memorial Pool, or alternatively (insert name of local war hero) Memorial Pool (Myrtleford's is of the latter variety). Small-town pools on a hot day always feel like a nice place for this, although this one was fairly quiet (probably in part due to the availability of a nearby free option, the river). Took me a while to get going but felt OK in the second half.

Being up in the mountains for a couple of days was nice (and I probably picked a good day not to be at work, having apparently received some unwanted media attention in the last couple of days). Returning home to the heat was not so nice, and it's not going to end properly in a hurry (although the models I'm seeing are not quite as hot early next week as the current forecast).

Up at Mount Buffalo. Headed west from the Lake Catani campground with a vague intention of heading towards Macs Point, depending on the state of the tracks. Some of these were decent if a little slow (a nice gentle climb to start up Long Plain), but a map which I suspect was probably pre-2006 hadn't caught up with post-fire regrowth and a track I was aiming for looked largely overgrown, so instead I headed north over the Mount Dunn saddle and looped back via Reservoir Road. Walked the steepest hills but otherwise OK until a descent on bitumen with about 2km to go, which set my back off enough to be a bit of a struggle at the end.

It didn't feel excessively hot, but I think I lost a decent amount of fluid, and had a few issues with cramps later in the day (a couple of reasonably hilly walks probably contributed to that). Still felt like quite a relaxing day when I wasn't exercising (the company, friends from work who've been coming up here for years, helps).

Heading up for an extended weekend at Mount Buffalo but started the day with some exploration closer to home. 65 was today's lucky number which took me to The Basin, at the foot of the Dandenongs (with a steady stream of cyclists heading for the 1 in 20). Last time I was out this way was the 2015 Harvey Heights park-street event, (in)famous for being probably the steepest such event this century. This time I stayed on the lower part of the area, below the steep stuff but still rolling hills, some of which I handled better than others, but ultimately got through it OK. A nice easterly breeze too (being at the base of the hills had its advantages in that respect). Picked up lots of low-hanging fruit in the streets department, including a junction of a pairing that doesn't go so well together, Norman and Augusta (even if there wasn't a Nicklaus, Mize or Faldo in sight).

At this time of year the balance can be one between getting out late enough so as not to be too stiff after getting up (something which I need more time for than I once did) and early enough so that it isn't too hot. For the first 20 minutes I felt as if I'd got this wrong, needing a couple of stops to get relevant parts of my body mobile, and I was seriously doubtful that I'd be able to get anywhere near doing what I'd planned, but things clicked at that point and from there it was a reasonably conventional run - just hit a bit of a flat spot at about 45 minutes but finished off well. (I was thinking coming back across the Chandler freeway and river bridges would be hot, but it's really only the bridges themselves which are exposed - in particular, it was early enough to get decent shade from the construction hoardings once north of the river). Cleared a slice of Kew as well - getting closer to filling in the last of the 3km circle, although I think it will still take four or five further outings (at least one of which will be steeper than anything I've done recently).

The left foot issue has just about cleared (there's still a red spot which is tender to touch, but there is no discomfort either walking or running). A bit of right Achilles soreness later in the day though.

There have been a few food-related transport misadventures on Melbourne's roads of late, the latest being the truckload of chickens spilled on a Ring Road exit ramp this afternoon, which will no doubt smell lovely after a few hours in the sun being cleaned up. (As if there isn't enough of a shortage already - although it must be said that all three butchers in my shopping strip have plenty, it's mostly the big supermarkets which are running short). At least they didn't have the problem experienced on a Minnesota freeway yesterday where a truck crash spilled a load of potatoes, which then froze to the road, it being about -25C at the time.

C • Transport misadventures 1

Not quite up to running this morning (although closer than I was at the equivalent stage two weeks ago), but a good session in the water - definitely felt looser after I'd done this. Does seem a pity not to use the best running conditions we've seen in the last three weeks (or will see in the next week and a bit, at least in Melbourne). Should be OK for tomorrow, though (touch wood).

Foot continuing to improve, though still not quite right.

C • Melbourne running conditions 1

Glen Iris street-O. Back not quite as bad as recent evening attempts, probably at least in part due to the fact that I spent some of the afternoon standing up recording a couple of videos for conference presentations (because the organisers wanted a plain background and the only good one in my house is above the gas fireplace, I do this by using a wheelie bin as a laptop stand). Still not great though, and walked most hills of consequence, but did manage to string some decent sections together otherwise, and happy with my route on a night when the best route wasn't obvious.

The sore spot on the left foot is still tender to touch, but has improved on yesterday - only mild discomfort when walking, and barely noticeable when running.

It's been obvious in the neighbourhood that 17 January is a common return-to-work date in the building industry, although some people may have found it more helpful if the builders who had closed down street A had coordinated things with the other builders who had closed down nearby street B. Fortunately I wasn't trying to get out of the suburb in that direction.

C • Return to work 1

Foot soreness still there this morning and I was far from certain I'd be able to get out. I wasn't up to intervals (though that was more my back than anything else), but it turned out that my foot was better walking than standing, and better running than walking - only mild discomfort on the run, which hopefully means that there's nothing structurally wrong with it. Felt a lot better after my abortive attempt at something fast, and managed to turn the session into something vaguely respectable.

Monday morning Pilates. Back certainly felt stiff and the instructor agreed so it must have been reasonably obvious. Got going a bit better during the session, though. Starting to get darker in the mornings.

On to the pool. Didn't feel too bad after some initial stiffness, but let myself drift a bit at times; didn't have that much pace even when I started to push a bit harder though. Will take it as a recovery session.

There was a bit of soreness on top of my left foot walking across (it wasn't there before Pilates so I wonder if I did something to myself there?), which persisted through the day. Feels runnable but you're never quite sure until you try - tomorrow will tell us more.

You don't know where your limits are if you don't test them. Got closer to managing six proper days in a row than my previous attempts, without doing what I wanted to (if I had managed to do it it would have been my biggest week in four years). Joined Jenny, Steve and Zara for the Bridgewater run, but knew within a few minutes that my back was in a state where at best I'd have to stop to loosen it every few minutes, so let them go and went back to do my own thing. Felt more up to it after a few minutes of walking and headed in the opposite direction, but this was still hard going - one of those days when you stop to have a look at every information board - and 40 minutes was plenty (I doubt I would have got anywhere near the 85-90 that the others did). Will count this as progress even if it didn't quite feel like it at the time (and the preceding days were definitely worth doing).

Headed home tonight after a good few days. The flight back went smoothly, the same cannot be said for the trip home from the airport which took two hours (thanks in part to the City Loop being closed for works) - taking a taxi seems a bit risky at the moment.

Rocky Paddock, doing courses from an old SA relays (two loops). For those who don't know this map, the area close to the start/finish is open mature pine forest with no ground cover/thinnings, and lots of rock. It's not all as nice as that - in particular there's a block in the southwest which has been felled and replanted, and is every bit as pleasant as you'd expect for a recently felled area in a good season for long grass-growing - but still a good place for a hitout. Not such a good day for my running, though - back was intermittently troublesome and ended up having to walk a lot of the hills, although it didn't blow up as I thought it might (and my post-IOF meeting sleepiness didn't manifest until after lunch). Quite warm by the end.

Short course at Cantara after camping there overnight - redoing a bush sprint course from 2008 (which I think was probably the last time I finished within a minute of Simon). Naturally the changes in the vegetation were the only reason I took nearly twice as long this morning as I did then :-). (They did, however, account for some of it - more gaps have closed up over time and part of the fun here is accepting that you're going to run into dead ends every so often). Not always easy to pinpoint the control sites either. Didn't feel too bad.

Adelaide Friday evening street-O at Burnside (after a morning making our way back from Cantara with the odd side trip). This was a bit of a culture shock for those of us who have got used to Melbourne events (and not just because the maps are in colour) - you actually have to find and punch controls, not just run within 10 metres and get a beep. Some of those features weren't totally easy to find either, notably an oddly mapped track near a reedy creek at #11 where I think I probably dropped a couple of minutes. A nice sprint section within the Burnside Primary grounds, even if it did once again demonstrate that life's three great certainties are death, taxes, and unmapped construction on a sprint map.

Back felt a bit tight in the afternoon; can't say I was completely comfortable running, but it was definitely better than my recent attempts at Melbourne evening events (or my vaguely recent attempts to run twice in a day). Perhaps putting the washing out before leaving for the event helped.

My streets run tally since February 2020 ticked past 1500 tonight (with the first SA entries).

First step of the road trip, doing a course from a March Bendigo event at Mount Korong. Definitely didn't feel like I was flowing in the terrain and not totally convinced that I pinpointed a couple of controls, but reasonably happy with the way I was running (and handled the gentler climbs OK). Didn't even feel excessively sleepy after a 1.15am finish last night. Humid again.

Spent the rest of the day making our way across to Cantara, via Naracoorte Caves (which I haven't previously been to) and a few other stops of assorted degrees of randomness. Does feel a bit strange to be casually crossing a state border again. (The quirkiness of this particular crossing is that the road takes a big S-bend at the border - I would speculate because the Victorian and South Australian surveyors came out in different places). The flurry of phone notifications every time we passed within range of a tower was an indication that Australian meteorological history was being made (slightly unexpectedly) while I was on the road. (One of my colleagues commented that watching places race each other to 50 degrees was like watching horse racing - it's exciting to watch but they felt sorry for the participants).

C • Naracoorte 1

When I cut my losses last night it was with the objective of being in a position to do something proper this morning, so was happy to get this one under my belt. Thought I might have pushed it out to a set of 8 if things went well but was starting to tighten a bit in the hip flexors so left it at 6 this week. A little faster than last week (58-64). Warm morning - definitely glad for the areas of shade.

Warm-up and down. Not the most sparkling I'll ever be but achieved the necessary.

Now off for a bit of a trip - got the train up to Castlemaine tonight to link up with Jenny, who's been across running on some of the notable local maps. We'll run on a couple more in the next two days on the way to ending up in Adelaide over the weekend.

Part of a street-O at Brunswick. Got myself too absorbed in what I was working on this afternoon (and therefore not getting up and walking around enough) and paid for it. Also remembered that I have plans for the rest of this week and I don't want to derail them by pushing through like I did when feeling similarly last week...

Did accomplish something useful today in the rat-finding department, at least.

Back to the early Monday timeslot. Obviously not everyone's back to that, since there was only one other person there (which at least meant not having to reshuffle the order of my program according to what equipment was available at any given time). Went reasonably well.

Onwards to Fitzroy on a bright summer morning which was better in the water than on land (although sunglare was an issue when facing east). Got going nicely, though, and loosened up a lot of the stiffness which was there when I woke up, which was the objective (a recovery session now that there was actually something worthwhile to recover from).

Did manage to stretch it out further today - longest I've been (in distance) since August. Conditions definitely at the better end of what you can expect at this time of year (cloudy, 18/11), and I was keen to take advantage of it, on a loop which went out through East Ivanhoe, across the Burke Road bridge (once a very regular thing for me in my Heidelberg days) and back through Kew. Had its better moments; back was occasionally an issue but it seemed to be the downhills that troubled it today (it may have been that this has been the case for a while but today was the first I've done for a while where the downhills were big enough for this to be noticeable) - the steady climb up to Harp Junction wasn't any real problem. Hard work for a while later but got a real second wind in the last few minutes.

I'd like to think that this lays a foundation for doing longer stuff more consistently this year than last year (or the year before that, or the year before that), but I've thought this before.

99 was the number which came out today, which is probably the most distant map of the 100 in terms of distance (though relatively easy to access via freeway; some of the western suburbs ones will take longer to get to). This took me to Seaford, which I think I've been to twice in the last 20 years - once running north in the opening stages of the Melbourne Marathon, once riding south the year I rode from Christmas lunch at Albert Park to Christmas dinner at Blairgowrie.

Seaford is far enough south that there's a narrow strip of bush between the road and the beach. This has a track through it which I started out on, which was a nice way to begin - sandy but firm enough to be comfortable. Headed inland after that and zig-zagged off a track which runs along the wetlands, taking me through bits of suburb which I suspect will be in a spot of bother at the upper end of 2100 sea level rise projections. Settled into a decent run after the first 10 minutes - one of the better ones I've had for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to stretch it out a bit more tomorrow (on a route which will be considerably hillier than today, not that that would be hard).

C • Seaford 3

Paid for going out yesterday evening - back came up tight again, not quite as bad as Thursday morning but still not runnable. Went for a ride instead, which was reasonable, fading a little bit later on. Roads very quiet, with the combination of minimal commuting and standard first week of January. Missed the numerous thunderstorms later in the day.

Spotting a couple of examples in recent weeks led me to investigate and discover that all of the 22 Short Streets in metropolitan Melbourne are short (the longest is about 300 metres). However, most of the Long Streets aren't, and most of the Bent Streets are straight. My map doesn't show whether any of the latter contain dubiously rezoned land, but it would be fitting if they did because most of them are probably named after an ethically challenged former Premier who would have kept an Independent Commission Against Corruption very busy had such a creature existed in the late 19th/early 20th century.

C • Well named 1

To my less than overwhelming surprise after last night, back was tight this morning so took to the water instead. Felt like a routine session (and loosened myself up reasonably well), but had the plus of catching up with one of the regulars I hadn't seen for a couple of years - not sure if it's just that our times haven't crossed. Got sufficiently engrossed in conversation that I lost track of the time. Quite busy, probably through the closure of Collingwood's indoor pool from staff shortages due to you-know-what.

Improved enough during the day that I thought I'd take a shot at improving my heat tolerance and clear the new bits of the paper mill estate at Alphington. It was indeed warm, a bit more than yesterday (about 30), the back was a bit better than yesterday, but this was still hard work. Slow early on, which was in part due to some ins and outs, dead-ends and a few stairs, but wasn't going much under 6s even once on straight streets, and was pleased to see this one done with.

The biggest disappointment of today's events (assuming they aren't overturned in the courts) is that we will not get the chance to witness the Melbourne crowd broadening the audience's knowledge of Australian English (in particular a certain word which sounds a bit like "anchor" and which Novak is more deserving of than Richard Hadlee ever was).

C • Get the popcorn ready... 15

I haven't previously done a street-O on a map that I've lived on (Heidelberg and Westgarth have usually been in series I haven't run in much). I still haven't, because tonight's map had Station Street as its eastern boundary, but it was still close enough to home to walk there (and certainly closer to home than Wellington, which is where I was supposed to be today).

With the forecast thunderstorms being elsewhere, it was still pretty warm (28) so I held off as long as I could before starting, but once under way it was clear that the heat was going to be the least of my problems tonight - as often the case, the back was a problem for an evening run, and getting progressively worse which is unusual. Eventually took an extended walk about 5k in after shorter stops (no level crossing stops tonight - the line is shut down for works) had failed to settle it down, and that settled it enough to jog the last 2k in, but hardly convincingly. The Maprun and Garmin distance were unusually widely separated tonight (500m), but I don't think I was even close to 6s tonight.

"Elsewhere", in case you were wondering, was west of Melbourne in general, and the Ballarat-Creswick-Daylesford area in particular. The radar suggests areas with more than 100mm in a couple of hours and one private station (whose accuracy I am not totally convinced of) near Dean is reporting 202 (there's also a 160 on Bun's old home turf). I suspect some of the erosion gullies are more eroded than they were this time yesterday.

C • Widely separated 1

After a few false starts in previous weeks, managed to get through my first intervals session since September - a little bit of discomfort in the glute but not deal-breaking (and seems to have come up OK afterwards). As expected, felt like hard work at times, and a bit more difference between up and down than I'm used to, but not as slow as I expected (58-60 down, 63-65 up). Not a bad first step to build on.

Observance of leash requirements for dogs today was about as minimal as observance of the fireworks ban in Naples on New Year's Eve.

C • Intervals 3

Warm-up and down. Not as many traffic breaks as there usually are on this route - definitely the first week of January. The local test site also seems to be one of the ones which has given up the ghost for now because they've run out of processing capacity, which removes another source of traffic.

Rearranged session given the holiday yesterday. Felt reasonable, although a little tighter than I usually feel in the mornings (not especially surprising).

Fitzroy session on a holiday Monday (a bit busier than I expected for a cool day, perhaps because the 8am opening meant the usual early-morning crowd was all in at the same time). A bit of an up and down session, going well at times, but some issues with a foot cramp (perhaps another indicator that I was trying yesterday) and tailed off a bit at the end.

The day's target was Werribee Gorge State Park, revisiting some unfinished business from 38 years ago (in 1984 Dad and I failed to find the trailhead for the track that I used today - probably would have helped if there had been a Parks Victoria website in 1984 to look for a map on, and did help that Werribee Gorge is one of the relatively few parks for which the 2022 Parks Victoria website actually has useful information). Did the walk to Falcons Lookout off the road which runs next to the railway line - relatively short (3k) and not too demanding but a good view. Definitely drier out here than on the other side of Melbourne. I didn't take the side trip to the Ingliston Granites and it seems like I didn't miss much (although the 'Up Yours Tree' sounds interesting).

The road is bitumen now, which it wasn't when I last came this way (on a bike in 2004), but is still narrow, so I had a slow trip into Ballan looking at the back of a large piece of agricultural machinery (bearing the name "Krystal the Stripper", although whether that's the name of the machine or its operator was unclear). Dropped into the main part of the gorge later and discovered I definitely wasn't the only person with the same idea. (Also very popular were the pick-your-own farms on the way into Bacchus Marsh; the few people working on the farm next door who were being paid (probably less than they should be) to do it must be slightly bemused by the number of people doing it next door for free).

The Fitzroy pool intermediate point also meant I did Ballarat Road for the first time in a few years, seeing various defunct factories which have become warehouse apartments (at the Footscray end) or shopping centres (further out). Didn't get far enough out on this road to see if the Deer Park pub still has a sign saying 'Last Pokies Before Melton' (presumably the development of Caroline Springs rendered the sign outdated some time ago). Also discovered that the City of Moonee Valley runs a library in the Newmarket shopping strip which isn't in the City of Moonee Valley, probably a legacy of 1990s council boundary realignments (the current boundary runs through the middle of the shopping strip, which seems slightly illogical and probably prompts lots of complaints from businesses on whichever side of the road has the higher rates).

C • Ingliston Granites 6

Fairly hard work this morning. The conditions weren't as tough as yesterday (26 and cloudy), but still warm, and although I was able to maintain a reasonable pace it always felt as if it could fall apart at any moment. Was originally hoping to stretch the Sunday distance out a bit but next week's conditions will be more favourable for that. Didn't help that the water point I thought there was on the Darebin Creek trail didn't exist (will have to plan runs a bit more around water point availability on future warm days).

This one took me out to West Heidelberg and the east bit of Preston, clearing some streets in an industrial area (New Year weekend isn't a bad time for this). Saw a bit of road rage on display passing the Repat Covid test site, though I guess it's a minor blessing that it involved only horn-blowing and a few rude words rather than anything more drastic. (The problem here is that on a day like today, the queue stretches around the corner into Bell Street but you don't see this until too late if you're turning right into Waterdale).

(Speaking of matters Covid, a familiar name was in the news today - Nigel Crawford, whose back I saw a lot of in ACT junior cross-country races back in the day, is taking over as co-chair of the immunisation advisory group ATAGI).

This week was at the short end of what's been normal in recent times, but I've negotiated the first significant heatwave of the summer so not too concerned.

Off the mark for 2022, having retired early last night with a view to getting out early this morning on a hot day. When I did the same a decade ago the reward was one of my best runs of the year. I doubt that will be the case this year - 8am was too late to set out to beat the heat (it was 29 by the time I was out). The run started reasonably well but by the 25-minute mark I knew I was fading quickly (as was the case for the last warm-weather run) and it was definitely hard work to finish off, although the pace did hold up OK (even the uphill kilometres were sub-6) which might augur well for the next run I do in easier conditions.

Today's number was 20, which took me back to once-familiar terrain in Rosanna and Macleod; in particular, the closing bit of this run, through Rosanna Parklands, was the T-14 to T-7 stage of many a run from Heidelberg (usually feeling a lot easier than it did today). Had hoped to get as far north as the Gresswell Forest but that was a bit out of range today.