Fraser Darcy

The Port Vic holiday had to come to an end at some point. It was getting to the point I was almost ready to start talking to the neighbours. That’s an alarm bell for getting too comfortable in one’s environment and almost crossing the threshold to becoming a ‘local’. Or just needing more stimulation than what exercising three times a day and heading to the beach can give.

Either way, I finished off my Port Vic holiday on Friday last week. It was nice to call it quits on a Friday; I got my hard ‘training’ sessions done for the week, published the latest issue of The Blue Line and finished off a couple of other little side projects involving my laptop. Once all that productivity had been used I gave myself a little holiday within a holiday and went back down to Innes to complete my sightseeing activities from last week.

The only major sights I didn’t tick off in last week’s long run, going off what I’ve done in the past down there for work and pleasure, was the section between Gym’s and Browns beach. I always find it nice to go and revisit areas that I have worked without students. I enjoy the places differently with and without students. This time though, bit of a SE was blowing through and I reckoned, as I jumped in the Triton, that maybe, just maybe, the trail between Gym’s and Browns would be protected enough by the vegetation and the small limestone cliffs above Gym’s would provide enough shelter for a good swim afterwards. I’d been running in the wind for 11 days at Port Vic and felt like I earned a non-windy run by this point so was hoping my suspicions were right. This whole escapade involved a bit of driving but I was probably going to be doing that much sitting on the couch anyway so I decided it was worth it, even if it was windy.

Long story short, it was blowing a gale at the carpark and I was a bit tired after being in the car for 1.5hrs (detoured via Corny Point and Daly Head for more sightseeing). When times are tough though the tough turn up the volume on their old favourite playlists and get going. Turned out to be a great run, hardly any wind, a great swim and a great way to finish off the Port Vic holiday. I reflected on how much I had achieved in my 11 days at Port Vic later as I drove back and later that night on the deck as the sun went down and thought I have certainly progressed a lot in the last few years of coming here on Boxing Day and a lot more when even a larger sample size is taken into account.

Enough Port Vic reflecting though, back into Quorn life. Which actually felt a bit harsh coming home. Usually I’m returning to Quorn after being in the hustle and bustle. On returning from Port Vic though it felt like I was restarting a new training camp vibe all over after just finishing a training camp in Port Vic. That was a tiring thought.

The flatness of that thought set in for a bit. I had to get the endorphins flowing to get creative though and gee myself up for another training block. It’s pre-season after all and January’s only come around once a year so I can’t be wasting it having some flat whites of a thought. By the end of the quick bike ride I took I was somewhat back in the game. The other contributing factor to the flatness of returning to Quorn was that I had planned to take the arvo off running so I could freshen up for a time trial at parkrun on Saturday morning. Breaking my routine is never easy but doing it on the first day being back in Quorn made it harder. I survived though of course so it wasn’t that bloody hard.

The aim of this little Quorn stint before I have to return to Adelaide for another race was to tick off a parkrun time trial (to give me an impression of where I should aim for in my track 5km in two and a half weeks), put in a solid long run on Sunday, get my car serviced, get my haircut, have a crack at a job in the Airbnb room I’ve been putting off for ages, water the garden and check on the house, and maybe, if I’m lucky, sneak out to Moonarie for a look. I know what you’re thinking, if getting a haircut is one of the more exciting things on my to do list I must really have not that much going on. Well, the more time I invest into running, the less time (and money) I unfortunately have to spend going on holidays and doing other fun stuff so a haircut becomes a highlight of the day. Is this lifestyle worth it? Keep reading I guess…

Anyway, so far into this little Quorn block we’ve ticked off 2.5 goals. The first one being the parkrun time trial. In the past when I aim for a hard parkrun I spend a fair amount of time working myself up into a frenzy to run hard and fast. That overcooks me usually, case in point being my run at Belair the other week. This time my aim was to run smart the whole way and improve how controlled my effort felt. I listened to some pretty mundane music on the drive over and throughout my warm up. I was pretty relaxed. The presence of doing faster sessions over the previous two weeks had left me feeling confident I could roll off the start in 3:00/kms. That used to be a terrifying prospect (hence the whole getting worked up into a frenzy). Having now done a few reps at the required pace I was relaxed at the start line. I always run better relaxed but it’s very hard to be truly relaxed (which is why it’s so special when you are).

Off the start I went out at just below 3:00/kms. It felt easy though, like I was running but not sprinting. Hey, no matter what happens now, this is already a progression on where I used to be. The last flat 5km time trial I did was back in May when I set the parkrun course record and my PB of 14:58. That day felt hard. So far, this parkrun didn’t.

I had some tunes playing but was pretty content just going along at 3:00/kms, trying to relax and trying to visualise what this will be like in a few weeks time going around the track. My second km was another 3:00/km which meant by the turnaround, at exactly halfway, I was sitting at 7:25. Double that and I get 14:50, a new PB. We’re on here.

The fourth km things started to get pretty hard but that’s to be expected. I wasn’t dipping into the reserves yet to get me home, still trying to run controlled. I enjoyed going past some familiar Port Augusta Secondary School faces who cheered me on. With a km to go I knew I was still on PB pace and just had to ensure I finished as strong as I usually do. The last km I was able to dip under 3:00/km’s again and squeaked home for 14:55. A three second improvement on last years time and not bad for my first flat effort since May. Pleasingly, it only took me about five minutes to recover. That shows the progression in my fitness from Belair where I felt cooked for the whole rest of the day. This parkrun result meant goal number one was ticked. It’s also nice early validation for committing to working less and running more. So yes, an early answer but I do think it is worth it to have somewhat of a boring life because I’d rather have a boring life and be achieving my goals than have a hectic life and not be progressing anywhere (there are times for that though, it’s just January isn’t one of those in my view).

Goal two, the Sunday long run. Here I was a lot more confident of getting this done. Everything but the humidity and weather was in my favour. Yeah it made life a little more difficult but having not enjoyed a long run in Quorn for over a fortnight my motivation carried me through fine. I progressively got faster towards the end to ensure I got a little more training out of the weekend (a fifteen minute high intensity effort from parkrun the day prior is good, but it’s about five-ten minutes too short for my liking for overall marathon fitness goals I have). This last little fast bit also replicated what it may feel like at next weekend’s Summer Series race in Belair.

Ok so more than two days into Quorn life and that’s two goals ticked. I have started my little DIY project fixing up some gaps and paint issues in the Airbnb room. It’s going alright. One of those things though where when you start fixing one area you begin to notice all the other areas that are almost just as bad. Kind of have more jobs now as a result. And more cleaning to do. But hey, 2.5 days in, 2.5 jobs done. Moonarie visit, haircut, car service and finish DIY job to go (unlikely though). I could count watering the garden and checking the house as a seperate goal but that’s no different to any other visit to Quorn so I’m not.

That last paragraph gives you a fair indication of what’s coming up next week in the world of Fraser. In addition to that is the Belair race I’m travelling back to Adelaide for and maybe, just maybe, an outing to a training group who specialise in shorter, faster races than me. If I can jump in one of their sessions that’ll hopefully add the icing on the cake to my training towards this 5km on the track.

Overall though, this has been a good week of progressing. Hence the title of this post. On my Sunday arvo walk after putting most of this blog together I thought I needed to go deeper into the whole progression theme though. (Walking always helps me think better about what I’ve just written and how shit or good it is). Yeah it’s nice to progress in the quality of my Port Vic training from year to year, it’s also nice to progress in the speed of my fast running sessions. It’s also nice to progress three seconds in my 5km PB. Mostly though, it’s nice to know that I’m progressing in my structure and attitude to training. I remember writing it quite frequently throughout the life of this blog that the training I wish to be doing is the 160km’s, two-three hard sessions with two good long runs each week. I have progressed to managing that training well now and it doesn’t feel like a mountain to climb each week. That’s a tick.

The thing with progression though, and this is something I picked up on especially in my walk, is once you start patting yourself on the back for having progressed to a new level, you need to drop a brick on your foot and remind yourself to change it up again. If I sat back now, or continued doing what I have done for the past three weeks and running the same sessions in order to achieve a 15:00 5km time, I will likely still progress to maybe a 14:50 time. Ticking the goal of matching or bettering my 5km PB shows that I can get back to the level of fitness I had in May, but it doesn’t show or tell me if I can get fitter than that. Having reached the benchmark I set for myself the bar needs to go higher now. Instead of just ticking off my fast sessions thinking life is all sunshine and rainbows with my new fast spikes and fast shoes, hitting the times and splits I think I should be able to hit to achieve 15:00, I need to progress to trying faster times and splits to aim for 14:40 something and potentially failing them.

That’s where real progression comes from right? Having a go at something, like running 2:50/km for 1km repeats, not making it and then having to work out why I didn’t make it. Do my legs not move fast enough? Is it a cardiovascular thing? Am I too tired and just trying too hard? Do I need something to chase? Those are the questions that I should be asking myself for the next couple of weeks. I look forward to reporting back with whether I had the balls to risk failure in a few of my sessions and whether I have found what I need to continue progressing with my 5km speed. Thanks for reading.

P.S Shoutout to the separate friends of the blog who either took care of my bins one week or stayed at my house, watered the garden and left some peanut butter and funds to sponsor my next event, very much appreciated!