Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

State Series at Glenlyon - a classic steep, open central Victorian gully-spur area with a definite old-school feel (although this would have been complete had the scale been 1:15000 rather than the slightly oddball 1:12500). Didn't feel promising in the warm-up and didn't feel right on the first leg, mostly level or downhill - so I wasn't at all surprised when things seized up on the first significant hill, if anything worse than it did during WMOC. There was nothing at stake here compared with WMOC so I felt there was no real value in continuing beyond the first loop, but after not having had troubles with the back since Europe, it's frustrating to have another flare-up. At least I got all of my issues out of the way at once - notwithstanding my teetotal status, coming up from a big night was still a challenge, and I also rolled my ankle a bit (not enough to be an issue while running, but has pulled up a little sore afterwards).

It was distinctly warm today, even at higher elevations, and the ground in the forest is already dry; it will only need one decent spring heatwave, and given it's an El Nino year we'll probably get at least one, to dry things off generally in a big way. (Each of the last four El Nino events has seen Melbourne break one or more records for the earliest-ever day over X degrees in spring for one or more values of X).

Out fairly early ahead of a full day (mostly occupied by a work colleague's wedding and associated festivities), down to the river at Chandler Highway then along it to the golf course - a nice section that I expect will become a regular haunt (even if the compliance rate with dog-on-leash rules was 0 from 3). Slow start but was functioning reasonably well by the end.

It was a good day, although I was wondering if I was going to get to the wedding on time when the drivers of two cars in front of me decided to have a little altercation (I'm not sure what the casus belli was as the vehicles didn't seem to have collided).

Road rage was a bit of a theme of the day, because it was reported in today's news that Toby Mitchell (variously described as a "colourful Melbourne identity" and "Bandidos enforcer") had appeared in court yesterday, and been remanded in custody, on grievous-bodily-harm charges over an assault on a cyclist on Harbour Esplanade in Docklands - one of my regular routes (it's just around the corner from our office). One might expect a bikie to have some respect for other vulnerable road users, although I'm led to believe that being able to ride a motorcycle is by no means a prerequisite for being a member of an outlaw bikie gang these days.

Out into Eaglemont. Encouraging at times but didn't really go on with it; was a bit down on enthusiasm in the last 15 minutes.

Clearing up some outstanding weather-related issues from during my absence today, I noted (along with the better-publicised earliest-ever-30-in-spring in Perth) a daily temperature range of 30.9 (-0.5 to 30.4) at York on Tuesday. I was wondering if this was a September record for southwest WA but in fact York holds that record too, of 31.3 (2.4 to 33.7) on 29 September 2006. It's perhaps as well that wasn't a week later, or even a couple of days later (the long day of the 2006 WA Championships, a long slog through lots of green (insert excremental noun of choice here) at Darkin River, was tough enough as it was).

C • Darkin River 1

Session at Fitzroy, fairly routine. Hasn't really warmed up yet but it will do so soon, much to the pleasure of one of my colleagues who's getting married this weekend. (It's a big month for weddings in climate - three in four weeks, although this is the only one I'll be going to; the two Sydney-based ones know well which month offers the best chance of good weather in Sydney, especially the one whose scientific specialty is east coast lows, the frequency of which is lowest in September and October).

On the subject of science, orienteers in places like Finland, northwest Russia and the Baltic countries are probably hoping that Ray Leuning (a CSIRO scientist and Northside Navigators/Bushflyers regular of the 1980s and early 1990s) was right. One of the talks we heard yesterday was looking at the significance of an apparently minor component of global climate models, the model for the transpiration of moisture from evaporation - when two models for this were compared (of which one was the one he led), the impact of the model difference on the highest extreme temperatures recorded in these regions was in the order of 4-5 degrees by 2040 (the Leuning model being the less hot of the two). Serves to illustrate some of the things we still don't know (and perhaps the potential for nasty surprises, of which the 2010 Russian heatwave may have been a foretaste).

Shifted my long(ish) run to today, partly because tomorrow will be awkward with other commitments early in the day, partly because it gave me the chance to do a bit more exploring of eastern Sydney - in a couple of previous trips out this way I've never quite made it as far as Bondi on a run. Started out by heading north and north-east through Queens Park and then roughly along the ridgeline, encountering first a neighbourhood with a lot of orthodox Jews (a familiar sight from my days in Albert Park doing runs into East St.Kilda), then a surprisingly suburban patch (albeit with a certain amount of parking alla Romana) north of Bondi. Dropped down to run the longest kilometre in Sydney running, that along the Bondi beachfront, and then along the coastal path to Coogee and a bit beyond. This has a lot of stairs and other ups and downs and is consequently slow going. Finished up with a solid climb out of South Coogee, being briefly slightly disoriented as the streets didn't quite point in the direction I was expecting, but made it in more or less on my target time.

No sparkle this morning, but pretty reasonable at grinding when I needed to be (and again no sign of any back issues on the climbs).

Useless information item for the day is that, under a law from 1324, all whales, dolphins and sturgeon in British waters are legally the property of the Queen. This reminded me that there was a time when all offal and viscera produced at abattoirs in the ACT was legally the property of the federal Minister for Health; what they're supposed to do with it is a bit of a mystery. (There used to be an abattoir, or at least a signpost to one, just before you crossed the border into Queanbeyan, but I suspect that it ceased to function many years ago).

Heading back to Melbourne tonight.

C • Offal 1

Intervals along Coogee Beach, mostly along the flat this time (unlike one previous occasion when I ventured this way). Nice morning, but didn't feel like I had a lot of pace. Probably the best part about it was heading back - it's a decent climb out of Coogee back towards UNSW but I handled it without any real difficulty (especially compared with some recent runs).

Going to/from Coogee.

The Lane Cove river valley is definitely a lovely place to run, especially on a cool, still morning with just a hint of mist like this one was. I've been here a few times, the first time when we stayed at the camp just above the weir on a Year 9 school trip (in hindsight, I'm rather surprised the teachers let me go for an early-morning run up the river by myself). It's mornings like this when Sydney seems a very nice place to be, although I'm aware that should I ever move to Sydney, I'll probably be working on the other side of town so living in this area means an ugly commute (and that's before you start on North Shore real estate prices).

The track down from Tracy and Paul's is pretty rough and slow, but faster once on the flats (most of the time). Felt pretty reasonable, probably a result of the relatively easy weekend. Had to make an early start because we had a 9am start at UNSW and I was second speaker so had to be there on time (navigating peak-hour buses with all my gear was easier than I thought it would be, but then I guess I've done the same on the Sao Paulo metro).

There was quite a range of interesting talks on offer today, but one in particular has potential interest to many readers of this log - Mike Kearney at the University of Melbourne is looking at combining known species climate responses with weather forecast model data to produce daily and hourly forecasts of expected snake activity.