Training. No, not that sort of training.
And the news from here is that there's no real change to the foot, certainly nothing negative. On waking up there was no pain worth speaking of, and through the day it never rose above more than a dull ache, even with a frantic 6km dash on foot across Sydney to work when the train system collapsed, stranding me four stations short of my destination. I don't like to speak ill of the Sydney train system (unlike many Sydney residents who bag it mercilessly and endlessly). In more than ten years of commuting, I can count on one hand* the number of times I've been late for work or returning home because of train delays. And compared to many parts of the world, the fares are indeed, quite 'fair'.
However, like many systems in the domesticated western world, they do rather fall apart when something goes wrong. Last Wednesday we had a day of wild storms, with more than a month's worth of rain falling inside an hour prior to the start of the morning rush. That was bad enough, but one solitary tree falling across the lines in the afternoon was enough to cause total chaos to the whole network. My usual 37 minute commute took nearly two hours, with the last 40 minutes of that being necessarily on foot.
Which isn't to say they aren't trying to improve things. Sydney Trains is very proud of its brand spanking new Control Centre in one of the inner suburbs, describing it as 'leading edge' and 'world's best practice' and so on. It has one of the largest control room video walls anywhere in the world, which all looks very impressive and makes for truly excellent promotional videos. It's of little use though, seemingly, when the signalling system at Central Station goes on the blink, as happened this evening, and which required my hot footing it across town and being 45 minutes late for work. Before taking to the streets I asked the train guard what was happening. He was more forthright than is usual among train staff, saying that with no signalling available, no train was allowed to move from each station until the previous train had cleared the line and station ahead, with train movements being confirmed only by two-way radio. This had reduced the network to a crawl, with the resultant chaos sending the level of uncertainty into the stratosphere. A quick phone call to work revealed that all was quiet there and my being late wouldn't matter much, so I left the station and took the opportunity to further test my foot with a very brisk walk.
The result was I reduced my PB for this walk from 52 minutes, a PB I thought would stand for many a year (my more usual very quick time for this route is 54 - 55 minutes). But even wearing jeans, the wrong shoes and a slightly heavy backpack, I made it in bang on 50 minutes. Importantly, the fleet-footwork even reduced the discomfort in my left foot**, so I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that now may well be the time to call this plantar fasciosis's bluff and try now to run it off.
So, training of a sort it was, after all.
Things are looking up. Well, maybe not so much for Sydney Trains.
*Well, maybe two hands.
**The discomfort returned after an hour or so, but no more than it had been earlier in the day.
Diddly December
