Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A somewhat unusual Sunday long run, starting from Holmesglen because of something I had on there later that morning (and earlier than usual too). Oddly enough, I ran in this part of the world more when I was living in Albert Park - partly because I'd sometimes go east in search of hills, sometimes because my usual Wednesday Summer Series day strategy was to drive first thing to a station suitably positioned for that evening's event and do a morning run from there before going into work. (There were also more Wednesday events in that general area in the 1990s; these days most areas south of High Street are now in the Monday series).

The first part of the run was poor at best, really grinding on the climbs (much of this section was gently uphill) and not much good anywhere else either. A toilet stop at 40 minutes was the circuit-breaker it needed; improved a fair bit from that point onwards. Got as far east as the Jells Park entrance and handled the climb out of there reasonably, and finished off well - the last 20 minutes were probably the best of the run, although the net downhill on that sector helped. A fair bit of hard work over the last three days and handled it at least passably; hopefully this will do me good (and getting through this after an unpromising start will give me some confidence for long races on the next two Sundays).

Not a fast run but a reasonably hilly one through Eaglemont. Came up better from yesterday than I thought I might have done. One of those reasonably rare weekends (at least during the cooler months) when I have no plans to leave metropolitan Melbourne.

The slightly curious state of the political scene at the moment was illustrated by a comment from Tony Burke yesterday, who noted that since the new ministry has not yet been sworn in he is both the acting minister and the acting shadow minister. I don't know whether he has issued any media releases attacking himself as yet.

Taking advantage of the aforementioned furniture delivery to go out a bit later than usual, although I'd still been awake since 5.30 thanks to either a possum fight or a possum orgy (I don't speak possum well enough to be able to tell the difference in the dark). Headed southeast for the first time in a while - am still waiting for the right opportunity to get the far-end-of-St.Helena street which is next on my Banyule list.

This one went along smoothly for the most part; not especially strong across the Balwyn hills, and leg muscles definitely fatigued in the last 15 minutes, but it was still at the better end of my long runs this year (that said, there is a time when I would barely have classified 1.44 as a long run). Pretty tired through the second half of the day though.

C • Possums 2

Swapped to go long tomorrow instead as I'm getting some furniture delivered then so won't have to get up as early to get a decent length in. Instead headed to the pool for a session which was reasonable, although probably not much more. Rained quite heavily for the last 15 minutes - finding enough of a dry patch on the towel after wards to sort-of dry off was a bit of a challenge.

Struggling at the start (when it's in the first kilometre, the small climb at the west end of Darebin Street feels like a mountain). Fairly reasonable for the last two-thirds but never especially comfortable; did find something a bit faster when called on for a gap in the traffic.

We're currently finalising various things for the Sprint and were discussing this afternoon whether we needed water containers in the finish area. Not sure if I should be pleased or worried that after 25 years I can still remember the location of the bubblers accurately enough to know that they were too close to the last control for general public use.

Better than last week, i.e. I actually completed the session without any significant pain, but still nothing you would describe as speed in any meaningful quantity.

Heidelberg football ground looks like it's about to have another incarnation as a film set (long-term readers of these pages will know that it featured as a fairground in Charlotte's Web; I never did find out whether the scoreboard, Heidelberg West 18.16.124 Visitors 9.9.63, made a cameo appearance). Not sure what it's for.

The F5 key again got a decent workout today, this time on the Sydney temperatures as well as the Indi election results.

C • Sydney weather 3

Headlines don't come much better than this:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-ele...

A fairly sluggish swim on a warm morning, thinking of Indi and Fairfax and various potential Senators.

Monday night run from Todd's place, at which I was the only non-Neve present, following an afternoon when I wasted far too much time pressing F5 on the Indi results page. Possibly a record short Monday run (both in time and distance) - no-one wanted to do too much after the race yesterday. Spent some time explaining the finer points of how it's possible to convert 0.22% into a Senate seat.

Starting to do a bit more of what I do best with the election, crunch numbers. Contrary to expectations, western Sydney barely swung at all (if you define western Sydney as starting at Parramatta as I do; I'm aware that there are some who define it as starting at Glebe), about 0.3% on average. The one seat lost, Lindsay, was one the Liberals should have won last time had they selected a better candidate (as Greenway demonstrated, if you want to win a marginal seat, it's a good idea to find a candidate with an IQ higher than the percentage margin of the seat you're trying to win). There were much larger swings in general in middle-ring suburbs then outer ones, both in Sydney and Melbourne (western Melbourne was a bit of an exception, but some of that was the loss of the personal votes of Julia Gillard and Nicola Roxon).