Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

In 1974-75 (when I was three, turning four), we lived for a year in London while my father was doing a postgrad course at LSE. I have some fragmented memories of that time and had the bright idea, given that I didn't really want to be doing a long run in central London (even on a Sunday morning), of making our old house a long-run target.

This proved to be a bit more challenging than I'd thought. We lived in Sunbury-upon-Thames, about 30km from the centre (just as well I checked this - although I remembered the address I'd misremembered the suburb), so it was going to need making use of public transport to get to the region. The nearest railway line didn't start up early enough on a Sunday morning (and, as it turned out, was in any case shut down for trackwork), so I went looking for somewhere within a radius of 10km or so which had a train by 7.30 on a Sunday morning - not so much a case of Last Train to London as First Train out of London. (The 7.30 start was governed by meeting a friend back in the city at 11, although that was hotel check-out time anyway).

Those of you who know me know that I enjoy this sort of logistical challenge, and I eventually found Surbiton - on a main line to the southwest from Waterloo with a 7.34 arrival, and about 10km from Sunbury (on the wrong side of the Thames, but there was a bridge more or less where needed) - the last piece in the puzzle was getting to Waterloo (the Underground doesn't start early enough) but there was a bus. The plan eventually became Surbiton-Sunbury, then back to either Twickenham or Richmond depending on time (Richmond's about 2km further but has more transport options).

I got exposure to one of the less attractive bits of suburban British weekend culture by almost stepping in a pavement pizza within 50 metres of exiting Surbiton station, but settled nicely after that, through pleasant suburbs for about 4km, then crossing the river to Hampton and going along it - taking in various signs of poshness like the stables and the royal parks (inevitably reading Hogarths Way leading into the latter as 'Hogwarts'), as well as a not-too-smelly sewage treatment plant. Reached the old house at the far end, the street and house looking more or less as I'd remembered; couldn't find the pre-school where I apparently created various forms of havoc. (I think it can safely assumed that one other feature of the next street, the Thames Coffee Company, was not there in 1975).

I'd been a bit apprehensive about the trip back; the aforementioned sewage works and a racecourse occupy the land to the east of Sunbury and without doubling back, the only way around it seemed to be a major road which fed directly off the M3. It turned out it was mostly elevated and there was a bike path underneath it which wasn't too bad, and I found other ways after a couple of kilometres - mostly on what was supposed to be a main road into Twickenham but was quiet on a Sunday morning (and didn't have many cross-streets). The run itself had been OK-but-not-brilliant for much of the way but I picked up the pace in the last 20 minutes (don't know exactly how much as I'd left the Garmin behind), thinking I was running behind the timetable I wanted. Ended up making the place I wanted to be at 11 at 11.00.30.

A bit tired in the afternoon in remaining London sightseeing, but not too bad. Returned to Geneva in the evening.

The schedule for the rest of the day meant that my only available option was early morning from the airport hotel - one could tell oneself that a 6.40 start was actually 7.40 Swiss time, but then operating on Swiss time would mean having got to bed at 12.30am so you can't have it both ways.

I didn't expect anything particularly inspiring from such a location but it wasn't too bad - one of the things about running in unknown cities is that you get to see things you'd never see as a normal tourist. Sometimes this is because they're not worth seeing (the Tesco superstore and associated developments at the far end of this run fall into that category), and there was some reasonably mundane suburbia, but there was also a niceish country park (albeit with the drone of the nearby M4 ramping up the serenity) on the way back once it was a bit lighter. The suburb names Hayes and Harlington seemed vaguely familiar (it turns out it's the name of both a railway station and a parliamentary constituency, decided in 1992 by 53 votes although it's a safe Labour seat these days; definitely too far out of town to be in Monopoly).

Unsurprisingly, there were numerous signs in support of the Stop Heathrow Expansion campaign. (Said expansion, if you believe the various billboards around the place, is going to create about eleventy billion jobs or something like that).

The main purpose of the day (and the weekend) was, after a quarter-century of supporting them (I adopted them when I spent a year in Winchester in 1989), to see Norwich City on their home turf for the first time - it's the first time since then that I've been in the UK on a weekend during the season. (The only time I've seen them play was in 1989, away at Southampton, in a game with a very atypical atmosphere because it was the first to be played in England after the Hillsborough disaster). Certainly enjoyed the day (it helped that the team came away with the three points after a scrappy 1-0 win), and Norwich seems a pleasant enough place at an initial glance (and not as flat as I expected), which is relevant because it's not utterly impossible that I might find myself living here at some point in the future (the university has an active research unit in my field). Was tired enough to sleep a fair bit of the way on the train back to London, though.

Oh - a dewpoint of 15.5 in London in November (as it was during the run) is fairly ridiculous. (Norwich seemed to miss most of the rain though, with none of any consequence falling during the match).

Swim in the Varembe pool. Seemed to go quite a bit faster than last time, and also somewhat more relaxed in terms of the surrounding crowd - perhaps the first time I've actually enjoyed a swim in this location.

It's slowly dawning on me that being responsible for a 2011-15 five-year climate assessment that is going to be released the week before the Paris conference means that I probably have more of a platform than any scientist has previously to tell the world about what's happening to the climate right now, ahead of a big UN climate conference. It's a significant responsibility...

C • Something about the right man for the job? 2

I'm over in the UK for the weekend. The flight across was on time and with no dramas, but the 90 minutes after landing weren't a wonderful advertisement for Britain (despite the niceness of the immigration official), the highlight being almost refused entry onto the shuttle to the airport hotel because I only had a 20-pound note for the 5-pound fee (in most of the world this would be a free service anyway) and the driver didn't have change - another passenger came to the rescue. We then spent 40 minutes doing an extended lap of Heathrow (by the end of this, the thought was crossing my mind that I could have just about got into central London by now), whereupon the hotel couldn't find my booking (it turned out they'd filed it under Blair rather than Trewin - not the first time this has happened and undoubtedly not the last). Other annoyances were that both Oyster card machines at Terminal 5 were broken (I was hoping to get one tonight to give me the option of getting a bus out tomorrow if that turned out to be the most efficient way of doing things), as was one of the hotel lifts.

Wikipedia possibly jumping the gun slightly - it says of the elections whose posters I mentioned a couple of days ago:

"On 8 November 2015, in the federal election Councilor [[]], member of the Social Democratic Party (PS/SP), was re-elected in the second round as Conseillère des Etats of the canton of Geneva with an absolute majority of xxx votes. She is part of the Council of States (French: Conseil des Etats) since 2007. Councilor [[]], member of the Green Party (PES/GPS) (PES/GPS), was re-elected in the second round with an absolute majority of xxx votes. He is part of the Council of States since 2007".

Heading out into some of my more favoured ground in this part of the world - through the old town, across to and along the River Arve, then back (partly) through some of Geneva's posher suburbs before dropping down to the lake.

Had a bit of a false start because I'd slightly misremembered the route up into the old town and hit a few dead-ends and flights of stairs. Settled after that but still pretty slow, only really picking up in the last few kilometres. Plugging away reasonably, though, on my longest run for a while. Achilles a bit sore early and late. Did find a new way down the hill (didn't quite come down to the lake where I intended), down the Rue de 31 Decembre. Normally, streets that are named after dates in the calendar are an indication of a place that hasn't always been especially stable politically, but I don't think that applies in Geneva's case.

Lots of fog again, although today it broke up into a nice afternoon.

10x1 minute (actually 59-64) on the Geneva lakefront. A virtual carbon copy of the equivalent session in April, right down to the Achilles soreness in the warm-up and feeling as if I was fading a little in the last couple of reps (without any effect on performance). A decent session on the whole.

Warm-up and down. A few spots of rain coming back, which wasn't really expected either by me or by the official forecasts (both of us expected that Geneva would be beyond the eastern edge of the moisture).

Didn't feel too bad - having slept until a reasonable time - but inexplicably slow, given that this run didn't involve any significant roughness (apart from a couple of flights of stairs) and only minor hills - out west into the Le Lignon/Aire area without going all the way down to the river. Perhaps got going a little better in the last 2-3km. Don't think the slowness can be accounted for by being perturbed by seeing the local tabloid headline "Confession: Swiss hunter ate a cat" (they concentrate on the big issues here, too).

A candidate for elections coming up this Sunday (not sure what for, given that the Swiss national elections were only a couple of weeks ago) is promising "un nouveau souffle". Souffles have a fine tradition in Australian political discourse but I'm not sure what's been referred to in this context.

And I notice that you're now allowed to put bottles in recycling bins in Geneva on Sundays (although not in St. Gallen, where you can't even do it at lunchtimes). I wonder if this was the result of a referendum since last time I was here?

I can't completely leave home behind on these trips, but definitely would have preferred not to have had a 4am phone hookup on my first day in Geneva (hopefully this won't put me back to square one in the jet lag department).

That went on for the best part of two hours, whereupon I eventually headed out into the morning darkness. Lacking somewhat in imagination this morning, I simply headed for an out and back along the lake shore, never feeling particularly inspired (and sometimes a bit sleepy).

Doubled up with a swim, also in the morning (given that I had enough time to do so before work) - Geneva's pools now actually open at 7. (Just like at home, the serious crowd seem to hit the pool the moment it's open - it's noticeably less crowded after 8). Felt as if I was floundering a bit but enjoyed myself more in the second half as the people thinned out (there's a slow lane now so there aren't people blasting past me every second lap).

Second toe on my left foot a bit sore (maybe bruised?) today for no obvious reason (noticeable if pushing off from the wall too hard). Seems to have settled a little tonight.