Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Original plan was to travel to the Lake District yesterday but I was having trouble finding accommodation there on a Saturday night, so instead headed for Penrith on its eastern edge. This run was a chance to check out Ullswater, within range on a long run. It was an earlier run than I would have liked, driven by bus and hotel breakfast times, but that may not have been a bad thing as some of the back roads I ran on would have been uncomfortable with any more traffic.

The run was pretty dismal for the first 20 minutes and only gradually improved, with climbing always a bit of a struggle, but developed into something reasonable from about 45 minutes onwards. The views of Ullswater weren't as imposing as I'd hoped, partly because of trees, partly because of cloud (which was to turn into rain for much of the rest of the day). This shore was also lined by campgrounds, most of which I wouldn't have been welcome at because they were signposted 'families and couples only', which was slightly jarring even though I had no intention of staying there; middle-class white males don't have a lot of experience of being on the receiving end of discrimination.

After spending a damp day, largely on buses, I felt somewhat inadequate at the Ambleside YHA, because many of the others there are coming off a 24-peaks-in-24-hours challenge. It's getting harder to find crappy food in Britain than it once was, but the (otherwise excellent) Ambleside YHA has managed it; I think I'll self-cater tomorrow.

Finally got around to taking on Arthurs Seat proper on my last day in Edinburgh, now that its summit is actually below the cloud base. As one might expect this involves some reasonably steep climbing (especially as I went up both major summits), which seemed to go OK. Lacked confidence, however, descending on damp grass, and the flat last 20 minutes were rather lacking in inspiration. I'm still not 100% well, although getting a little closer to it each day (and did manage to get through my talk without my voice giving out, just).

As noted earlier there have been a few throwbacks on this trip to my last visit to these parts in 1989 (in particular one of the conference rooms could have been a classroom at Winchester), so it was fitting that the place I went for dinner last night was playing what was fairly obviously a best-of-1989 CD (most of it songs that never got to the Southern Hemisphere). Some things have changed since then, though, because one of the forthcoming events of the (Protestant) church next to where I've been staying is afternoon tea with their 'friends' from a local Catholic church - in 1989 the big news story was that one of the Scottish churches had expelled one of its senior elders (also, if I recall correctly, either a judge or a government minister) for going to a Catholic funeral - or maybe those attitudes only exist in Glasgow. (I've heard it said that Rangers supporters are not going to stop shouting 'F**k the Pope' at Celtic matches just because they no longer believe in God).

And geographically clueless tourist of the day goes to the person at Edinburgh Castle who thought the small island in the Firth of Forth off Leith was the Isle of Skye. I leave guessing the nationality as an exercise for the reader.

Was hoping to get out into the lower part of the Pentlands but they were a bit too far away, and in the end I decided it wasn't worth crossing the main bypass road for the sake of a kilometre or two, instead looping through the suburbs (must have come very close to the Godders residence) to get the distance I wanted. At its nicest in a 10-minute stretch along a forested valley south of the Royal Observatory (and a European evergreen forest on a grey day can be a very dark place indeed). It rained for quite a lot of this run (on top of 35mm in the last 48 hours) and mud was much in evidence on the unsurfaced patches.

The run itself was a bit more consistent with what I would have expected with post-illness recovery, lacking a bit of energy, especially on uphill sections in the last 30 minutes. At least I've got a voice back now though (just in time for my talk).

Very Edinburgh: standing on one of the bridges yesterday evening waiting for a bus, with the sound of an open-air Rod Stewart concert drifting across from outside Edinburgh Castle.

And I found out the reason why I saw so many police near Holyrood Palace on my run yesterday: the Queen's in town. I didn't see her, but some of the other conference attendees did, and so did Lilian (who's in town too).

C • Bombers 7

I've got a bit more of a voice today (although by no means a full one) and was feeling a bit better otherwise so decided to venture out on a scenic exploration of Edinburgh, which would have been a more scenic exploration of Edinburgh had the city not been swathed in dense fog - into town initially from where I'm staying (about 3km south of the city), down the Royal Mile, then a circuit of Arthurs Seat (or rather where I was guessing Arthurs Seat was). Pleasantly surprised with how well the run went - it was rather slow but felt quite strong, especially on the solid climb around the back of Arthurs Seat (I didn't go to the top - will save that for a day when I can actually see something once I get there - but still got a bit of uphill).

Quite a bit of extracurricular excitement at the conference yesterday afternoon - in the space of 90 minutes we had two fire alarms (in different buildings) and an epileptic seizure.

Having a Rod Stewart concert on the embankment outside Edinburgh Castle was a nice idea but the elements didn't exactly cooperate ('Do Ya Think I'm Soaking?' was the 'Scotsman's take on it).

Still not feeling great today so decided to bring my weekly rest day forward and hope things are better tomorrow (the steady rain encouraged me a bit in this decision).

I was hoping before the start of the week that it might have been a weekly swim rather than a weekly rest day, when I discovered that the conference was next door to the Commonwealth Games pool, but (perhaps inevitably) it is closed for renovations. In Melbourne the nearest equivalent facility would be a couple of kilometres away at worst. In Edinburgh the nearest equivalent facility is probably in England. (It's probably improved a bit since then, but at the time of the 2000 Olympics there were seven 50-metre pools in the entire UK).

I'm at the stage now of sounding very croaky (just as well my talk's on Friday) but feeling better than I did yesterday. Wasn't quite sure how this would work but it wasn't too bad, not the sharpest interval session I'll ever do in my life but quite acceptable. This was a fairly standard travelling workout, 10x 1 min with 1 min recovery, in the Meadows (a park south of Edinburgh). Very pleasant morning for it, cool with a cloudless sky (the forecast for tomorrow is not so pleasant).

A bit of soreness was noticeable at the front of my right ankle when pushing off. I first noticed this on Sunday and attributed it to its usual cause, too much time on the accelerator, but it's taking a bit longer to ease off than it usually does.

Last time I did this session was on the beach at Jervis Bay in August; a few months later the rock I used as a distance marker was used by a friend as a place to get married. I imagine the Edinburgh Meadows get used a bit for this purpose, too, but probably not anyone I know.

Going to/from the Meadows. Definitely grinding the gears in the first couple of minutes.

A pre-conference morning session, a lot of which was devoted to exploring the neighbourhood and discovering what was where (and getting onto the hills as far as the Royal Observatory). That mission was accomplished, but as a run this was pretty poor; I've had a hint of a cold for several days now and it seems a little worse today than it has been.

Conference random thought 1: is a potential non-football application of the vuvuzela to draw the attention of conference speakers to the fact that they have run over time?
Conference random thought 2: given the problems caused by lack of ship observations in the northwest Indian Ocean, is there potential for offering Somali pirates a chance to make an honest living by taking ocean observations rather than nicking other people's boats? (Given how lucrative nicking other people's boats is, probably not).