Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Ended up as a run which didn't live up to its initial promise, drifting out of it a bit and lacking energy on the hills (except for the biggest one, strangely enough). Like a few of my longer runs lately, this was out towards Greensborough and Montmorency, though came back through an area of the Streeton Views estate that I haven't been through before (including a nice pocket in a bushy gully); quite hilly for much of the way.

I was wondering if I would find a few people with sore heads still dragging themselves away from the Greensborough football clubrooms (they won the local grand final yesterday). I didn't, but there were still plenty of cars in the car park, most of them presumably belonging to people who decided (or had decided for them) that they were in no fit state to drive home last night.

Odd spot of the closing stages was seeing a real estate sign which, even by the usual standards of elastic interpretation of the English language in that industry, was bizarre: I'm struggling to think of any plausible interpretation of the word under which a property on Rosanna Road, Heidelberg could be described as "serene". (For those not from Melbourne, Rosanna Road is probably one of the busiest roads in the whole city that people actually live on, and - probably ineffectual - promises to do something about it have come from both sides in the election campaign).

Ticked off a few more streets today: Ann Ct, Montmorency, Anne Ct, Yallambie and Anthony Ct, Banyule. That will be it now until December because the next one on my list is too far away to be in range on anything I have planned this week.

Part of the rest of the day was spent at the pleasingly well-attended climate march in the city (why is it that Melbourne always draws by far the best crowd for these? - somewhere around 20,000 today). As is often the way at such gatherings, there were also some other causes being espoused on the fringes, some of them of questionable relevance to climate change, such as ending the persecution of Falun Gong in China and independence for the Western Sahara.

Took to the hills of Eaglemont early on without feeling too brilliant in the process of doing so, and didn't really have much of a spark through the flatter second half either. Didn't see any sign of the fire earlier in the week (the second fatal house fire on Cape Street since I've been living in the area - I assume it was in a unit some way back from the street). Various other people out running on the Yarra flats, some going a lot faster, some a lot slower and some at a fairly similar speed.

It's as well that the Australian Championships carnival is starting next Saturday and not this Saturday; September temperature records in the Perth area have not been so much broken as obliterated, with Perth Airport (34.5) 2.9 above its previous record, and Rottnest 3.8 above. We've been lucky to avoid any serious heat in previous national championship years in WA (although the Easters of 2003 and 2011 both had hot days); hopefully that remains the case this time.

C • Early Easters in WA 10

Pool running at Fitzroy. Working fairly solidly for most of the session.

My to-do list before departure (now almost exactly a week away) had quite a few things ticked off it today but is still formidably long; it's going to be a busy seven days (hopefully nothing else blows up in the interim).

This was at the better end of my Thursday runs this year (which isn't saying an awful lot), and I don't think it was just because it was shorter than most of them (although the fact that it started later than most of them may have helped). Settled down within the first couple of kilometres and fairly smooth most of the rest of the way, just drifting off a little in the last few minutes.

There's been a bit of a cluster of runs in the inner north lately as a result of arrangements for other parts of the day. Today started with seeing what this year's euphemism is for the facility with high walls on the north side of Royal Park (your answer, for 10 points, is the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct). Crime was perhaps a theme of other parts of the run too, since its far point was Cross Keys Reserve, scene of perhaps the most notorious of the early 2000s Melbourne underworld murders. (Depending on your viewpoint with respect to the Essendon drug scandal, you might consider Windy Hill to slot into a similar category).

C • facility with high walls 2

Tan fartlek session. Felt OK but never seemed to be going that fast; had a moving-against-the-current feel to it.

Going to/from the Tan.

This was another slightly unconventionally-timed and located run - this time because I was doing a webinar in late afternoon from the Mathematical Association of Victoria's premises in Brunswick (an atmospheric heritage-listed house). Headed for a run directly from there (partly because I expected 7pm traffic would be easier to deal with driving home than 6pm traffic), going north to Coburg Lake through the old Pentridge site, then back more or less along Merri Creek (in the process visiting the bridge mentioned last week for the second time in five days - if it really is going to be above the 100-year flood level it is either going to be about 200 metres long or is going to be somewhere else).

Quite a nice run once I got going, though not especially fast (and slowed noticeably once it got dark, especially in those places where it was a bit muddy).

The How To Win Friends and Influence People award for the day goes to Metro Trains, who (as they occasionally do, though not on my line) turned a stopping train into an express. By doing so, they caused the Age's transport reporter to miss an announcement by the Minister for Transport of a new station development.

With a midnight return last night and an early departure from work due to a body corporate meeting (much less fraught than last year's equivalent, which might have something to do with one of the parties to last year's "issues" having sold up), I decided not to try to get out early but instead do something post-meeting. I'd rather have done something in the water, but that wasn't really practical (Ivanhoe is closed for three weeks for renovations, and Olympic Village only has three lanes, two of which were booked for lessons according to the council website), so instead went for a run which, somewhat contrary to expectations, was more or less OK - yesterday afternoon's fluid replacement must have done its job. (My other thought yesterday was that I was getting sick but no sign of that).