Fraser Darcy

Excerpt from last week’s blog:  I could see myself potentially hot footing it to Adelaide for the weekend for more training companions but we’ll see how that plays out. If I do, it’ll potentially mean I’m on that schedule of Thursday night – Tuesday day in Adelaide, Tuesday day – Thursday night in Quorn for the next three weekends around race commitments. It sounds like a lot but really, it’s only 4 hrs sitting in a car instead of on a couch. Plus if I have a long term view on my road to nowhere, it’s only three weekends, it’s not like I’m doing it for three years…

Well guess what, I did end up going to Adelaide this past weekend. It was a rewarding decision and reflecting on it now, on a Sunday afternoon, it feels like I’m on some sort of climbing trip to Adelaide which is very cool. But before I get too stuck into the reflection of it all I have to get the first part of the week out of the way first right?

Of course.

On Monday I ran an easy hour around the roads of Quorn no I f***** didn’t. I changed it up and ran an easy hour along the Melrose/Wilmington rail trail. Pretty nice and a good change of scenery. Body felt good post my first 30km long run in a while from the day before. Apart from that excitement there wasn’t much else on Monday, bit of a rest day to start the week plus an easy arvo run around town.

Tuesday’s faster session I had toyed with the idea of trying to do some real fast reps but instead went for 2km reps at a pace that’s around my ideal goal half marathon pace. 3:06/km. With the North Quorn Parklands loop being 2.12km’s it was perfect to use this as a loop and rest for 2 minutes at the end of each rep. I was happy I kept each of the four reps I did in the end to 3:06/km. The loop isn’t the fastest course known to man, there’s a few up’s and down’s in and out of creek lines so I’m never really running at 3:06/km pace at all, but just trying to hold that effort. Good ‘train to feel’ practice. The rest of Tuesday was very similar to Monday, not much else to report on and was kind of getting a bit bored of having all my loose ends tied up in Quorn. Hence, the idea of a trip to Adelaide over the weekend became not only a possibility but as a reason for something to do. I’d sat around for enough afternoons just relaxing it Quorn, it was probably about time I put a bit more stress/activity in my days.

Before I went to Adelaide though I had the main reason of why I was in Quorn anyway on Wednesday and Thursday. A good day of climbing out at Moonarie was on the menu for Wednesday and another day top-roping with Quorn Area School on the Thursday. Both days I went for an hour run in the afternoon and felt OK. It didn’t really bother me though as to how I felt, I was just glad to have the ‘run’ part of my day not be the most stressful thing and was able to use it to relax.

On the climbing side of things, out at Moonarie I had an enjoyable moment of getting a little outside of my comfort zone leading a relatively easy Grade 15 (a level that I would’ve dawdled up in my prime). It may appear to be ‘sad’ that I got a bit pumped and had to work hard on a Grade 15 however that’s kind of the feeling I like with climbing so to only have to jump on a Grade 15 to get it is kind of nice and way more manageable than doing it on a grade 20+. I pulled through the hard bit of course and was proud of my efforts in the immediate aftermath as well as happy to receive a reminder of how insignificant trying hard in running is compared to trying hard in climbing. If you don’t try hard enough in climbing, you may fall and hurt yourself if you haven’t adequately protected the climb. If you don’t try hard in running you just get a slower time/result and it doesn’t really matter. Because it doesn’t really matter, it’s a good reason to try hard and give things a go. What’s the worst that happens?

On the Quorn Area School climbing side of things it was another successful day out at Warren Gorge with the group. Next session I think the group is ready to start having a few concepts from the ‘New School Method’ thrown at them. Will report back next week to see if they sink or swim. Hopes are high for them to be good swimmers/climbers.

Then of course we reach the stage of the weekly recap where things become a little bit more exciting. I obviously went to Adelaide at some point, but when? After a Friday tempo at home in the North Quorn Parklands? Or did I travel down to be in Adelaide for a RunAsOne tempo on Friday morning? Or maybe I drove down for Friday night pizza night at the Darcy Boarding House?

Well if you’d answered (b) I drove down to Adelaide for the RunAsOne tempo on Friday morning you would’ve been correct. Post climbing with Quorn on Thursday afternoon I returned home at 3:30pm, dumped the gear in my shed, got changed and then headed out the door for an easy 70 minutes where as mentioned already, the body felt OK. A mid-run poo was the only lowlight. Finishing just after 5pm I had an hour to have a shower, have dinner, pack the car, lock the house and get on the road by 6pm so I could be asleep before 10:30pm in order to have enough sleep to be up again at 5:30am for the tempo. A good little game to see if I could fit it in.

I could’ve made things easier by eating dinner at a servo or preparing it the night before but I did not. Preparing dinner would’ve meant being locked into to what I wanted for dinner in advance (negative) while buying dinner at a servo was also not a fancied option (expensive). Cooking dinner fresh though, put me under the pump to have the dishes all done and the food actually eaten before 6pm. I managed though. Probably got indigestion but sacrifices have to be made. Anyway, the dinner recap part is taking longer than it actually took to make and eat (it was tuna pesto pasta by the way). Basically I made it to Adelaide and my bed before 10:30pm.

Which meant… I made it to the RunAsOne tempo the next morning. Another good opportunity to chat to the people I coach and another good opportunity for me to tempo with company. As a result I ran 10km’s at 3:10/km ish pace which was pretty good. I’d been in Adelaide for less than 12 hrs and my trip down was already worth it. And like I said at the beginning, this is where the ‘climbing’ nature of the trip started to kick in. It’s as if I’d just ticked the first route of the trip and could now take the rest of the day easy to pysche up for the second day.

Taking the day easy looked like spending 2 hrs hunting for a small replacement part for my oven. I was unsuccessful in the end though which was a slight disappointment but at least I tried to find the right part that may or may not actually exist. Still TBC on that matter. I jogged an easy 7km’s in the arvo at Belair to get a win back on the board after the oven disappointment.

Or maybe my easy 7km’s was an early scope of the second day’s project on my running/climbing trip for Day 2 was a RunAsOne trail session at Belair. What? Two sessions in two days, that’s a no-no isn’t it in terms of normal training loads? Well yes in the running world but no in the climbing world mostly. I took the downhill/uphill reps at about 80% to keep it controlled but I was glad to be involved in the session for two reasons: (1) to keep my trail legs in check and not let myself become as weak as I was in February and (2) to role-model for other RunAsOne athletes. I ticked off that session pretty happily in the end, got the amount of km’s I was after and then spent a couple of hours relaxing/doing some mobility before attending a 30th party for longtime fan of the blog Emily Frahn! *everyone who’s reading now I hope you’re saying a collective ‘Happy Birthday Emily’ in your internal monologue*.

A social event on a Saturday night is a risk though to the quality of the Sunday long run. By staying out till 9pm and with a belly full of mexican food and scrolls had I jeopardised the quality of Day 3 of the climbing/running trip to Adelaide? No. It’s important to have balance in life so learning to manage my rare social events with my not so rare running commitments is a skill I should practice more. It turned out in the end that this Sunday long run was my best long run of the past 3 months. I clocked 30km’s for 2hrs with RunAsOne of course and once again re-affirmed to myself that I’m going well with my running again.

So that’s three days down of the climbing/running trip to Adelaide that doesn’t actually involved any climbing at all. With two more days left until I return to Quorn on Tuesday tomorrow, Day 4/Monday, will be a cruiser rest day before a final short and sharp session on Tuesday morning. It’s nice being able to focus on a little spontaneous training block like this down in Adelaide for a few days. I wonder if I lived in Adelaide would I be as committed to making such regular appearances with RunAsOne or would I be a bit blasé about it because there would always be another opportunity to attend?

I know from some of my climbing trips to Tasmania that having a deadline to a trip can always be a great motivator to get something done. The best example of this is when I was attempting a grade 26 at a little sport crag in between Launceston and Devonport on one trip in particular. Early on in the itinerary I was very close to ticking the route however ran out of energy before we (Brodie and I) had to move on to other fish to fry. On our return back to Devonport I convinced Brodie if we got up early enough in Fortescue Bay (which is on the other side of Tasmania I might add) we’d have enough time, a couple of hours at least, for one final go before having to catch the Ferry that night.

It wasn’t a complete fairytale from the moment we arrived back at the climb but after a few go’s, a quick nap in the dirt and with the Ferry boarding time getting ever closer I was finally able to climb one of the hardest climbs of my life, and certainly hardest climb I’ve done on a trip away. The second best part of that day was celebrating with a VB longneck in the Ferry waiting area.

But anyway, back to the meaning of that story, having a reason and solid timeframe to be in a particular area is a very cheap way to get some motivation. Something of course that has, so far, helped get some high quality running out of me. The only downside of such a plan is that it is possible to feel as if I am never really settled in the one environment for too long. Here in Adelaide for 5 days, back to Quorn on Tuesday for 3-4 days, back to Adelaide again, back to Quorn again and so on. The ‘work-around’ for that I am holding on to is the belief that although I may be shifting around, my values and hobbies, and even food I like to eat or music I like to listen stays the same. I’m doing the same things just in a different place 4hrs down the road. If I am settled within myself then I can be settled no matter how much I move around. This was something I learnt while working in the outdoors where sometimes the only consistency I would have in my day would be what I would eat for breakfast every day (oats and peanut butter). Everything else was ever-changing.

The next change in the immediate future therefore, once I return to Quorn, will be turning around and coming back for the Barossa half marathon. With under a week to go I will lighten the intensity a bit heading into the race so I can give it my best effort. Depending on how it goes, my next race will either be a week or several weeks after that. All may be revealed in the next blog of course. In the meantime though, I have some resting to do so I can send the final couple of days of this trip! Thanks for reading!