Fraser Darcy

Well here we are folks, back into the game of training only two weeks after Kosci. I thought it might take this amount of time but I was also anticipating it to take a little longer. A change of environment, a change in work/holiday mode and the classic ‘ok nah, I’m curious to see what I’ve got‘ attitude crept in.

At the start of the week, Monday, I’d just come off my first decent run since Kosci of 2hrs on the day before. Pulled up fine. Snuck out for an easy run before working all day, except for a run break at lunchtime, in Hawker by the pool in 35 degree heat. Sitting by the pool all day and getting straight into lifeguarding work after the school year was finished was an excellent way to shift my paradigm. I’m no longer a school teacher. I no longer have a dependable payslip every fortnight. I am now in the world of casual work and running life. The world I dreamed of for most of the school year so I better suck it up and get on with the training.

Lucky I thought about that all day at Hawker on Monday because Tuesday morning before working at Quorn all day the best version of myself was meant to be doing a harder effort in my morning run. Before work. In the wind. While trying to make sure everything was organised to drive back to Adelaide after the work. I rolled out for the day, headphones in and got the job done with pretty good success. Pushed myself to run 6km’s around 3:10-3:30/km pace which left me feeling a little bit cooked. Just like my Sunday long run being the first decent one back since Kosci, this was the first decent fast run and I felt it.

Another day by the pool followed. Glad I hung around for a few extra days in Quorn for these two days of work. I got to see a few friendly faces before disappearing for the Christmas break but this did come at the expense of missing a family Christmas picnic a few days prior. Oh well, there has to be compromises in life. After the Quorn pool shift ended I ticked another run, tidied up and then hit the road for full on holiday mode.

It’s always very exciting returning to Adelaide after a long stint away. Yes, I know I was technically there for less than 24 hours a week and a bit ago. Knowing I was driving down for almost a week in Adelaide the sentiment is different. I can relax into my room at Mum and Dad’s, get my stuff organised, check out a few areas I hadn’t been to and catch up with mates. All elements that over the rest of the week were high priorities. Running was kind of second.

From starting the week in Quorn with quite a good work/running focus I relaxed into a more social/holiday/run mode for a few days. I’ve worked hard all year. Now’s the time to take a few days, see a few people, get the mileage in for sure, but don’t stress too much as you’re only two weeks out from a 50km race. It’s all very exciting catching up with people you haven’t seen in a long time. The km’s I covered while doing this went by extra quick. The equal highlight was probably the run on Wednesday arvo with Dylan (who was on the bike) which I covered at a very moderate pace of 4:00/km for most of it, and the following run on Thursday morning with Elise Beacom (another employee of FTK, former contributor to The Blue Line). Catching up with Elise was great because there’s not too many people I can chat about The Blue Line and other internal goings on related to that, plus, the last time we caught up in person was 12 months ago and a lot had changed in that time.

For a non running highlight to my week I went sailing for the first time in 12 months. Caught up with members of the Scotch outdoor ed crew and snagged myself a new hoody (from Home Timber and Hardware as a prize for line honours), free beers and free sausages. Doesn’t get better than that on a Friday night in Goolwa.

That took me to Saturday morning. Which is a fair few days after Tuesday’s hard run of the week. The ideal week would’ve had me running hard on Thursday or Friday instead but social catch-ups were prioritised instead. That’s fine for this week. It’s the only week of the year I allow that behaviour. So Saturday morning. parkrun morning. At Belair! 3rd event ever there and an opportunity to test myself against some pretty stout times recorded in events 1 and 2.

It’s a hilly course and it was kind of warm Saturday morning, I felt fresh rah rah rah… no-one cares about the sob story, just the facts please. I ran 16:21 officially. Hit my baseline goal of a sub 16:30 time for my first 5km hit-out since May. Would’ve been nice to get a course record (16:03) on my home turf but realistically, and maybe from my pacing, that wasn’t possible.

I went out with a very fast first km, held it pretty steady to halfway and was tracking well for a 16 minute finish and then blew up a bit in the second half. Good to know I can drag myself to hit the wall though. Was pretty motivated to do well and it showed when I finished because I was cooked. The interesting thing for future Fraser to work on is whether the way I ran the 5km was the most effective use of my potential. If I eased off a bit at the start would I have run quicker? Did I maximise my current potential? Or did I waste some? Hard to know, and will never know too.

My training over the next month will both increase my potential in the 5km and also maximise my effectiveness and efficiency. I’ll be trying to make sure I commit to one 400m repeats style session a week and maybe either a time trial or threshold every other week. Purchasing my first ever pair of spikes this week will help with being motivated to run fast. Better bloody use them considering they cost $220. Overall though, for Saturday’s performance to be just over two weeks after a hard 50km effort on the back of all marathon style 50km training, it’s not a bad baseline. It’s a result that kind of scares me trying to match it again to be honest which is another indicator or how deep I was able to push in the first few km’s to get that time. Give it a few weeks of holidays though without much life stress and I reckon I’ll be yearning for that same stress again.

Following Saturday’s parkrun I didn’t do much for the rest of the day after a busy few days of socialising. Well, busy for me. Sunday’s next on the agenda and for that, I joined in a long run down the beach with a group of people I have various connections to. Clicked over 2hrs again for 29km’s which gave me a weekly total of 155km’s. Again, not bad for the second week back from Kosci but once I string a few of these together again I’ll be feeling a lot better about my training.

It’s always tough to get the first week back into training. You’re doing the first hard run, the first real long run, the first real week of runs with strides etc. Anytime I was returning to Quorn over the past two years I’ve always felt a similar feeling with getting back into my Quorn routine. Takes a good week to get settled. Same with the running. Now with this first week under my belt I can build off this.

This week also marked the first full week I’ve spent at Mum and Dad’s since July and then before that, last Christmas. While it’s great to live at Mum and Dad’s for the week, and they’re big supporters of the blog so I have to be careful here, there’s obviously some negatives like there is in any living situation. And anyone who tells you there’s not always negatives and reckon they live in world full of rainbows and fairytales is either lying or delusional. The negatives of living at Mum and Dad’s that I have to adapt to is that there’s a lot more distractions within a house when there’s more than one person. Ok, minor inconvenience. More importantly there’s the fact that I don’t have a job to attend to with all my free time. At Quorn with my free time I can go clean something, do some watering or fixate myself on an idea, without being distracted, that ends up ‘wasting’ 2 hrs of my time. There’s a lot less motivation to do that when you’re staying at ‘someone’ else’s house. Hence, after a week of being at Mum and Dad’s and ticking off most of the social things I wanted to do (not all considering some friends are not around) I’m excited to be heading to Port Vic today (Boxing Day).

I’ve been travelling to Port Victoria on Boxing Day by myself for a few years now and have always had a good time for the week between Boxing Day and New Years just hanging out. Cousins are there, there’s wide open spaces to run, walk, swim, kayak, do whatever. And there’s no pressure to do anything or catch up with people. Plus the cricket’s great background music. It also symbolises the flicking of the switch from holiday/social mode around Christmas to let’s get on with the fucking show mode. Yep, a week at Adelaide presents enough opportunities to reflect on life and go, you know what, it’s time to get serious again.

Getting serious over the next week is basically code for I’m re-entering ‘pre-season’ mode (far out I’ve got a lot of modes but you get the point by now). During this time in 2022 and 2023 I’ve used January as my preseason (worth reading those past blogs, click on each year for the link) and reflecting on that gives me confidence and hope about what’s to come next. I’ve never been this fit at Christmas time and so if this is the level I’m starting at, hopefully I can build on top of it. I know I can. I just have to do it. Looking forward to reporting back in a month or so of how it’s gone overall with of course some snapshots in between. Thanks for reading. Good luck with your own pre-seasons/new year’s resolution of getting fit etc. If that’s your thing. Just do it like Shia LaBeouf says…