Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A wet morning (as anticipated), although had eased to a few spots by the time I headed out - still good to feel the freshness. Headed up initially past my old place in the name of checking out whether it's possible to build a rail tunnel underneath it without flattening it (verdict: probably yes, but wouldn't be a lot of fun living there while the construction was happening), then down to the Yarra Flats and back along the river. Not as good a run as yesterday, either on the performance or the injury front, but not too bad and a significant extension of the amount that I've been able to handle, so I'm happy.

If I were in South Australia I would presumably currently be engaged in the scramble to snaffle as many bits of good power-pole real estate for posters as possible, but I'm not so I'm not. (This form of campaigning seems specific to South Australia - in theory they're not supposed to do it before 6pm on the day the election is called, but I gather there has been a certain amount of gun-jumping).

Headed out a little later this morning, partly because I'd decided I wanted to take in a route which took in the Studley suspension bridge and didn't want to be competing with the parkrun crowds (must be quite interesting to be on it at the same time as numerous other runners). Ended up as my best run for a while - felt pretty good, handled a couple of sharp climbs fine, and only a very slight twinge from the hamstring. Thinking that I've probably just about put this injury behind me, although I'll want to do something in terrain to be sure.

This was also a warm-weather run, the last one for a while, although 'a while' for me won't be as long as it might be for some - I'll have some heat, and some serious humidity, to deal with when I head to Guangzhou for a few days in a couple of weeks.

A bit on the slow side but probably the best run since returning in terms of how the hamstring felt - more like 90% than 80% today, and didn't feel impeded at all, even with more climbing today (mostly the Waterdale Road hill). Not sure I'm prepared to call myself absolutely right until I get through something longer, something faster and something in terrain (not necessarily at the same time), but some decent progress.

I'm indebted to the member for Gellibrand for advising us that, thanks to a $12,000 community development grant, the Altona Miniature Railway has received more funds from the Federal Government than any actual urban passenger railway has in the last three years.

And, while on the subject of politics (which you'll be hearing a lot of in the next few weeks), just to prove that some in the game have a sense of humour, on seeing an early draft of a proposed update to the state ALP environment policy, someone had slipped a reference to "factional hacks" into the section of the policy dealing with pests and weeds. As far as I know the State Government has no plans for an eradication program.

Longest run of the week so far. Felt only about 80% right again, but didn't get any worse as the run went on which is a good sign. Also ventured onto some small hills (don't get too excited - we're talking the climb onto and along the Studley Park Road bridge) for the first time this week, without too many dramas. Still feel as if I'll need to play things cautiously, but feeling reasonably positive.

Had been planning to take to the water this morning but in any case felt a little tight when I got up, so maybe a day away from running wasn't such a bad thing - will be back tomorrow (I hope). All fairly smooth once in the water.

Spent last night with the local comrades playing Budget bingo - I had no chance because "jobs and growth" wasn't on my card (and "climate change" was).

Whilst on the subject of the Budget, there don't seem to have been any radical changes in sports funding - it was reported in some quarters that Sporting Schools was being axed, but in fact what's happening is that it's currently not funded beyond 30 June next year, but it's anticipated that an expanded program will be announced sometime between now and then. On the high performance side, I was never expecting any radical changes until after Rio (and whether there are radical changes will probably depend on whether the strategy of putting most of the high performance eggs in a few baskets is seen to have worked or not).

C • Tipping rules 1

Taking things carefully, stretching the distance out a bit further, and feeling much as I did last night 10 minutes further along - which suggests that a strategy of incrementing distance slowly is working OK (so far). Not too wild outside - and, as is sometimes the case on days like this, we northerners were the envy of those trying to ride in from the south because we had tailwinds (of sorts) both to and from work.

In what seems a slightly odd exercise, the CIA yesterday "live" tweeted the Osama bin Laden raid to mark its 5th anniversary. As some pointed out, we now look forward to similar recognition of some of the CIA's less glorious efforts, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1973 Chilean coup or the various exotic assassination plots against Fidel Castro (especially the exploding cigar).

C • Not too wild 2

C • Fort MAC 5

First swim for a bit. Felt reasonably energetic this morning but it didn't really flow through into my time in the water, except for finishing it off pretty well - for once I wasn't feeling as if I wanted to get a swim over and done with.

Most amusing part of the morning's police reports was the account of the person who nicked a ute from a roadworks site at the corner of Spencer and Bourke Streets. Clearly remaining inconspicuous was not a high priority for this particular thief because the ute in question had a big flashing arrow on top of it.

After doing the first of the revived MFR Monday night runs a couple of weeks ago, today was my first go at hosting the revived one, with a small crowd which included a couple of members of the next generation in the form of Mason (preparing for an upcoming school cross-country) and Torren. Pretty short although the others went even shorter. Hamstring again fatiguing a bit in the later stages without pain; clearly still not quite right so will follow a more cautious trajectory this week than I had previously thought possible.

Busy media day today, partly because it was a public holiday in Queensland and a lot was happening in Queensland (averaged over the state, yesterday was the hottest May day on record by 1.3 degrees). The ABC asked me if there would be more cyclones in Queensland next summer. I responded that that wouldn't be hard. (There have been only three cyclones in the Australian region this season - a record low assuming nothing happens at the last minute - and only one of them has got anywhere near the coast, Stan in WA in late January).

Spotted some strange logic in an Andrew Bolt article today. He's very upset that the French and not the Japanese are building the submarines (I think one can reasonably assume that he is acting as a mouthpiece for a certain former Prime Minister in this respect), on the grounds that the Japanese are supposedly more reliable allies than the French. He appears to base this position on the fact that the French wouldn't supply spares for Mirage fighters which might otherwise have been used in the Vietnam War 50 years ago. If he's going to go back 50 years, then I seem to recall that if you go back another couple of decades Japan may have acted in ways not entirely consistent with Australian national defence priorities.