Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Down the Peninsula to see how the new house is progressing (supposedly only a few weeks from completion). The best that can be said for this run is that it happened; back was fairly ordinary but did manage to get through it. I can blame the sandy bit past Bridgewater Bay for some of the slowness, but not very much of it.

Spent rather more of the day than I'm used to in support of gardening efforts (don't think I'll record these on AP, although I'm reasonably confident that these mega gardening efforts were not in breach of any federal or state environmental laws). Not sure my back really appreciated this - felt OK while I was doing it but not so much this evening.

A return to the land of the running at Sprint into Spring at Caulfield Grammar Wheelers Hill. The best that can be said for this run is that I went to all the correct controls this time (unlike my last outing here) and none of my various injuries seemed too bad - I just felt slow (the splits on the running legs out around the oval and tennis courts will definitely not be a thing of beauty). Only minor time loss was not quite reading the route into the playground at 13 through not seeing the fences under the circle (although not as bad as in the same part of the map last year). About where I expected to be relative to the leaders but behind quite a few people I wouldn't have expected to be behind.

Switched plans from the morning to the evening after a late night in front of the cricket last night. Ended up as a fairly listless session at the end of a tiring day. Felt stiff in the neck/shoulders area early on, although that eased as it continued. Can't be too many squads on a Friday evening at Northcote because it's nowhere near as crowded as it is on, say, a Monday.

Up in Bendigo today for a meeting about what sounds like an interesting project, being led by the council with RMIT and La Trobe University. They're looking at deploying a very large number of temperature and humidity sensors (potentially up to 100) through Bendigo for an urban heat mapping study - their main interest is in determining how much of a cooling influence vegetation has on hot days (and which areas would benefit most from more of it), but Bendigo's topography is just complex enough that I think some very interesting things would be happening with minimum temperatures, too.

They're looking to do quite a bit of community engagements, including looking for people willing to host sites on their property - I might well be making use of my Bendigo contacts list for this. An already impressive bit of community engagement is that the amateur radio community are setting up a communications network for them (also cool is that the reception areas for these communications points are being checked, street by street, by putting instruments on the council's garbage trucks).

C • Bendigo heat island 1

As noted, having a (working) week off running post-nationals - plan next to do something at Sprint Into Spring this weekend. Did give some thought to going out to Summer Series tonight (starting a couple of weeks early) but decided not to - looks like I missed a pretty interesting course.

I did do the ride into work (often into a fairly stiff headwind) and noticed that the works on the Clifton Hill athletics track look as if they're almost, but not quite, finished. They were supposed to be done by April. Hopefully nobody burns the place down.

Another fairly relaxed session. Caught up with one of the Fitzroy regulars again for the first time in a long time. A bit of light rain around but not enough to scare too many people off.

How does projecting a control flag onto the Opera House sound as a promotion for the Sydney Summer Series?

One minus of the time change is that when the alarm went off at 6.15, it felt like 4.45. Also woke up with a very stiff back (although it hadn't been too bad in the car), all of which made me glad that no running was on the agenda today (and probably not much this week).

The exercises did do me some good, at least in the loosening-up department, if not the wakefulness department - it wasn't my most productive day at work, although I did eventually come good in the late afternoon.