the commute

I think I should warn you...the general tone of this post changes dramatically at around 4:45pm and there could be a bit of colourful language. But before that, here is the write up for the run to work this morning

crane on a cliff, a photo by Auswomble on Flickr.

Vacation is over and it's back to work day. That means I didn't need to think about where to run. I've moved house since June(athon) and now live 3km further away from the my office if I take the (new) direct approach. My new commute is 10.5km, a nice social distance. There are few options to mix it up unless I feel like tackling more hills than I typically feel like tackling before breakfast. I will struggle to write about this run in any great detail after today, what with it being pretty much the same day in, day out. Anyway, today.

It was another fabulous night's sleep for me. I'd gone to bed a bit after 10:30pm and was woken by Harrie a little beofre midnight and at about 2am. Not to be left out, Alex woke me up at about 4am. Harrie was next at just after 5am. At 5:20 I got up to take Rowlf for a walk. The first day back in the office, my most productive of the year to date, will see me add next to fuck all value. Ho-hum. I don't think the boss reads this...I told the boss I was aiming to avoid any proper work until Monday; I hope he didn't think I was joking...I grabbed my new GPS, switched it on and it swiched itself off. Great. I switched it on again and it stayed on. Better. Rowlf and I headed up the hill to the park and at 2.5km the Garmin was still playing nice. I took it off my wrist and the screen went blank. Arse! I powered it on and hit start. It stayed on until I got home. It is an exccentric bastard of a thing and at this point looks as if it is going back.

Although there had been a southerly change in the weather it was still somewhat sticky, but I'l take 21C and 75% humidity. I got changed, kissed Sal and AJ bye-bye (Harrie was asleep, probabaly catching up. Oh to be able to...) and headed off, taking my chances with the new Garmin.

I expect heavy legs at this time of the year and was not disapointed. The first km of the run (1.13km to be a little more precise) takes me to and down the Gallipoli steps to Spit Bridge and sea level. Once over the bridge I loop back under the southern side - that's the sea level buit - instead of crossing the road. The road is normally ram-jam-packed, but today, half way through the school holidays, it was remarkably clear, hence the remark. I looked for and failed to find the four pelicans I often see perched on the piers out front of the yacht club. And then there is the slog up Parriwi Road. It's actually not to bad. It is steep, but not outrageously so, and it is long, but not horrifically long. I much prefer running up it than down it because my lungs are in better shape than my knees. You can distract yourself looking at the mansions hanging off the east side of the hill and between them out to the ocean. Every so often I race the slower cyclists to the top. Most of them don't realise they're racing (because usually it is only me who is.) It helps keep me from plodding every day. I think it is safe to assume I'll not be attacking the hill this month.

At the top of the street I get to Spit Road and continue to climb, albeit at a gentler gradient. By Mosman things flatten out as Military Road follows a ridgeline. Usually I will take a left at Neutral Bay, heading back down to sea level before up to the Bridge, that being the direct route. Today I didn't fancy it so decided to take avoid a sharpish descent/ascent in exchange for an extra kilometre. With far less traffic than usual on Military Road it was nothing like the lung-busting fume-fest I am used to.So I carried on along Military Road and then cut across St Leonards Park on my way to North Sydney. I stopped at a couple of bubblers in the park, but the water pressure on both was so pathetic that I shouldn't have bothered.

I ran along the side of the Bridge and passed Classic Throttle, drooling over the old Aston Martins in the window and wondering if the uber-rich would buy them on a whim after watching an old Bond movie. At Milson's Point I stopped at a far better bubbler and then it was up the steps to the deck level of the Bridge. I hit the lap button on my still-playing-nice Garmin. There was a southerly headwind as I went across the Bridge that was reasonably cooling. It was still humid and I was still sweating, but at least it was a cooler sweat.

The Bridge's 1.5km came and went in almost exactly 7min. Slow, but tolerably so. I'll need to discipline myself to not get involved in the "Commuter Olympics" this month; my best times on the way to work are usually when I've raced a bike up Parriwi and then decided to either pick off runners ahead of me or defend a lead.

And then I was at work in 11.5km and about an hour.

I've just re-read that, and although descriptive it is a bit of a dull read. Buggered if I know what I'll write if I decide to run home...

...that was written this morning...this afternoon, a little before 4:45pm, I got up from my desk and got changed into my running gear.

I stepped out of the office and switched on the Garmin. Well, I pressed the power button. Nothing happened. Zippety-squat. Shit it! I tried again. And again. Bollocks, dead again. Somewhat pissed off I put the Garmin in my backpack and got my Blackberry out. I went to the location options and told it to update my location. "Location update failed" it told me. I tried again. Same. I rebooted it. Same. I turned on location aiding. Same. Oh for fucks sake, this is just getting silly. I am endlessly frustrated with the Blackberry's "maybe I will, maybe I won't" GPS which today was firmly set to won't. I was around 850km south of where it said I was. I put that back in my backpack and got out my own mobile, a Garmin-Asus Nuvifone that rarely lets me down.

I went to the maps and hit "where am I?" and it correctly located me. Now we're cooking! I cleared the trip log and headed for the Bridge, somewhat annoyed that I had to carry my phone in my hand. But I consoled myself by deciding to run exactly the same course home so I could compare the results from the two Garmin devices. I kept an eye on the screen to make sure it was logging and was happy to see the metres climbing as I made my way home.

When I got to the north side of the Bridge the trip log read 800m. The deck of the Bridge is 1.5km. It seems the trip computer stops logging when the handset locks, something that doesn't happen when in the cradle in the car...but does when in my hand. Great. I mean really, just fucking great. Three - THREE useless GPS devices in my backpack. THREE!

So, dear reader, to the run. Apart from starting about 15minutes later than I'd hoped it was OK. It was overcast but not too hot or humid. The Bridge was a crowded tourist-dodge, but I made reasonably good progress and retraced my morning commute route as close as to-the-step as I could. No cutting corners that had been uncut earlier, plenty of crossing roads at the same spots, running on the same footpaths. There was one minor deviation at Spit Bridge; a little over 10km into the commute home I ran the 3m to a bubbler and then back to the path. If there is a US election style recount at the end of the month I would like that to be taken into account (hehehe!)

Once home I found I had no internet access and was about to go mental with this latest electronic absence until I realised that the desk was neat...I suspected Sal of tidying so checked the wires and popped the ethernet cable back into the modem. And we're back.

It took me a little while to find out how to save a map from a GPS upload on runningfree. Find it I did and that is how I logged the run home. It looks like I'll be doing the same commute each day for the remainder of January's working days, which is kinda cool because I don't need to think about it, but kinda sucks because it will be exactly the same. And it is all or nothing; either I do the whole and log it...or I don't. No getting 5km in and then quitting with 5km in the bag...and no sneaking in a few extra km. I know I could, but I won't because I'm a bit lazy like that. I still need to work out what to do at weekends after my brother and his working Garmin go back to the UK. Let's hope the Blackberry works out the difference between Queensland and New South Wales before he leaves.

Five days and the metric ton-up.

One last thing...I assume it is due to rounding, but the run to work was summarised as 7.3miles and the map created from that very run as 7.4miles. But hey, this is the site that allowed carrirmccoll27 to log  89hours in under two and a half days! I work with data and things like that irk me; not carrie, but the site not lending a hand. Grrrrrrr....

Seeya tomorrow janathoners!