Fraser Darcy

Yes the sauna! Something different! Not that my usual training week is ever boring with the plethora of races and training sessions I complete. I don’t know, there is something repetitive about doing the same easy runs… hey, that’s enough out of you, the repetitive boring stuff is what get’s results.

That repetitive boring stuff is also where I started my week. I ran an easy 14km’s down on the Sturt River path in Marion for two reasons. 1) I wanted to run on the ‘flat’ after 2hrs of Mt.Misery the day before. 2) The soles of my feet were still a little sore and raw after Mt.Misery. Any slight downhill was going to aggravate the skin more than I wanted so by running on the ‘flats’ I was still able get an easy 14km’s in without adding too much damage or discomfort.

The rest of my Monday was pretty cruisey. I caught up on some coaching ‘admin’, did some stretching and tried to ‘freshen’ up as best I could for Tuesday’s session. I made it out for an easy double in the afternoon which was a bonus on top of last Monday’s efforts. It was all part of my plan to get my weekly mileage up to 180km’s for the next few weeks. I held 190-200km’s for three weeks in February and felt the fittest I’d ever been as a result (before I got injured) so the idea is that if I return to that load, or just below it, I might get the same adaptations. It’s also a good excuse to run more.

Which is what I did on Tuesday of course, run a little more. Having an easy session at RunAsOne was a treat because I was still a little mentally tired from Sunday’s race. The session was just a progression run on a 1.5km loop. I started at 3:30/km and quickened up to 3:00/km over 30 minutes. A good amount of volume at a manageable level of intensity. Another easy run in the afternoon followed and the Mt.Misery fatigue was beginning to disappear.

So much so that I increased my Wednesday run out to almost 2hrs. Albeit at a moderately cruisy pace of 4:38/km it was still nice to feel good after almost 2hrs. Staying down in Adelaide and with plenty of time up my sleeve it is a real treat to be able to run 24km’s along the Torrens and in Vic Park. All those times of running 1-2.5hrs on the backroads of Quorn has made me really appreciate what it’s like to run next to a creek with water in it or run past the Adelaide Oval.

That’s almost halfway through the week though and I still haven’t been to the sauna. I apologise if the sauna suspense has made you sweat a little. You won’t be sweating for much longer though… After my morning run I cracked into the latest issue of The Blue Line for a bit of productivity in my day. Some stretching, a nap, some lunch, geez, it’s a pretty nice week where I have all this time… what will I do to make use of the fact that I’m in Adelaide, with time up my sleeve and motivated to become better… hmmm… any guesses… yes, you, in the back there, with your hand up? What’s your guess? Sauna? Well, you’re exactly right you smart little reader.

Wednesday arvo I made my first foray to the sauna in about 7-8 years. Sheepishly I went with big sister Emma to chaperone me on my first visit as I didn’t want to make any obvious faux pas. Down to my boardies and with the intention to clock up 30 minutes I opened the door to what looked like a packed room of zombies. Jesus Christ, they look dead. I sat down, kept my eyes away from staring at anyone in particular and tried to relax. Oh fuck, that wood is hot. How is everyone else coping with their backs on the wood. Obviously I was keeping this all to myself, the sauna is a place some go to meditate. Wait, if I just give it a bit, the wood isn’t actually too bad. Yeah, that’s comfortable. Look at me now sauna weirdo’s, I’m one of you.

Well I wasn’t yet. I still felt like I had some life in me because I’d only been in there for five minutes. By ten minutes though I was cooking. The air was noticeably warm to breathe in and my sweat rate had significantly increased. This was the response I was looking for from my body. There’s a copious amount of research that advocates how sauna’s are good for you. Why else would people be torturing themselves in there? I was aiming to reap the benefits from an athletic point of view and the theory goes that 6-7 days in a row of having a sauna is a great start to becoming heat acclimated. If I could become more heat acclimated over the next two months I will improve my chances at Sydney Marathon (where it was warm last year), I will also have experimented with it before I may really need it one day or may need to coach someone on how to do it (personal experience always helps with a sauna just as word of mouth always helps with choosing a restaurant to eat at). Also, I know that in the summer, i.e. when I was running those 190-200km weeks, I felt fitter due to being able to survive those runs in 35+ degree heat. It being winter now, I wasn’t getting that same stimulus, hence by adding the sauna in perhaps I could cheat my body into gaining some of those same fitness benefits.

The downside or reason I haven’t sauna’ed in the past 7-8 years is due to the fact I haven’t lived near a sauna (no sauna in Port Augusta or Quorn to my knowledge) and I haven’t had the time to dedicate a special 6-7 day block in a row of getting to the sauna. But, just as I foreshadowed in the early part of this blog, I have plenty of time on my hands at the moment having not organised any work, so I can dedicate this free time to The Great Sauna Project of 2024.

Which, if you remember, I’m still in the sauna at about ten minutes in to a session now in the weekly recap timeline of this blog. I lasted until twelve minutes before I took my first break. There’s no one out the front giving you a little high five when you walk out but if one was offered I’d have slapped hands. I went back in for a 6 minute burst, back out for another break, in for another 6, out, in and then out. Thirty minutes in total for my first effort. I felt pretty relaxed but also a little on edge. You know, first time finishing a sauna, getting used to the aquatic centre/rabbit warren, looking for Emma etc. etc. When I got home later on and went for my arvo run I realised I was pretty relaxed from it still and ended up having a 10 hr sleep.

Which led me to Thursday. It was a little rainy but after three straight days of running on the ‘flats’ I opted for a bit of Belair trails action. Nice to keep the body guessing somewhat and nice to maintain the frequency of running in Belair at least once a week. After my run and some breakfast it was time for the second sauna session.

This time I knew where I was going, what my strategy was and what to expect. I lasted a full thirty minutes without a break but may have been aided by a cooler than normal sauna. That’s according to the sauna whispers though so it’s not exactly hard evidence. I had a little break and went back in for another ten minutes. A part of me thought I lasted so long the first time because when I went in I was pretty cold from my Belair run still. It’s cheating in my opinion if you go in cold, you need to wait until the sweat response kicks in before you actually start getting any benefits is what my scientific instincts told me. I listened of course.

Thursday’s arvo run was nothing much to report on apart from feeling relatively fresh with two easy days in a row. I hoped to get another 10 hr sleep in but a midday nap might have crushed that opportunity. Instead, I only fell asleep at midnight and was then up at 5am. Not a great lead in to the Friday RunAsOne session but it’s not like I wasn’t trying to go to sleep.

The session on Friday was 3 minutes on, 2 minutes off where I was hoping to run 30 minutes (6 sets) and average around or under 3:10/km like I did last week for 2 on/1 off. Out the gates, I ran the first three reps with Jacob and a young sub 30 minute for 10km runner named Adam. I was working pretty hard on the on’s trying to run below 3:00/km pace and then going alright in the off’s at 3:20/km or quicker. In the 4th rep they both put time into me and from there I lost contact. I didn’t slow down too much but I definitely felt weak compared to the other two’s efforts. On the final rep I did manage to make some ground on young Adam but it was all too late. I averaged 3:09/km for the 30 minutes which was great but if I want to be progressing in training I need to start holding on for a teeny bit longer. The sauna and sleep effect might have played a part but there’s not enough evidence yet.

For the rest of Friday I made another visit to the sauna, clocked up 40 minutes again and made a brief appearance in the sauna chat room but otherwise kept quiet. The lack of sleep caught up to me a bit in the afternoon but I still managed some productivity and went for an easy afternoon run at next week’s state XC course (looks good).

Saturday. Another run. No prizes for guessing that. Hey, there wasn’t even a prize for the sauna guess either. Well no, of course not, it’s not Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.com. Saturday’s run was at the Vic Park parkrun where I offered to help pace a friend from high school/someone I coach/my doctor A.K.A Georgie (but not too be confused with Georgia Darcy) to a 20 minute parkrun. The course was pretty muddy so it would be a battle to beat her 20:13 attempt from a month ago but I emphasised that what was more important was getting the most out of yourself no matter what the conditions or how tired you are as that’s something I think a lot of recreational runners struggle with.

Running 20 minutes for a parkrun means running 4:00/km for 5km’s. We started out just a little quicker than that which is always easy to do at the start and then maintained an average of just below 4:00/km pace for the majority of the first half. The muddy turns impacted our speed a bit but what was important was that Georgie was able to speed back up to 4:00/km pace pretty quick. With about 1.5km’s to go I could tell Georgie was pretty cooked which was great. It meant the last bit would be a great opportunity to make sure she knows how hard she needs to push in training every now and then and races. We still managed to wind it up on the slight downhill run in to the finish despite how cooked she was and were rewarded with a 1 second improvement on her efforts from last time. In her own words or something like it, Georgie definitely didn’t feel like that in the final km last time so it was a successful mission. A 19:59 time would’ve been the icing on top but perhaps that will come another time when the turns aren’t so slippery. It’s all good practice though in the long run.

It was to nice to warm down with Georgie for a few km’s as well, talk more about running etc. and help get my own weekly km’s up in search of the 180km’s week goal I’d set myself. Back home for breakfast afterwards and then my fourth sauna visit in a row. This time the sauna was packed and there was the most sauna chat I’ve ever eavesdropped on which was great entertainment. A couple of highlights… ‘they have those cold baths there, like that Phil Hoffman dude does, he’s so nuts’ (they mean Wim Hof, not the SA Travel Agency), ‘yeah he can swim like a km and a half underwater’, ‘wait, 1.7km’s underwater?’, ‘yeah!’ (since when was 1.7km’s a km and a half…1.5km’s??). This entertainment helped drag me out to just under 30 minutes again without a break. I only went in for another 7-8 minutes after that initial period before I started feeling a bit too cooked. It’s a fine line after all, go too long and cook myself and I may be too scared to return. Walking out of the aquatic centre after Saturday’s efforts though I definitely felt the most relaxed I had been after all four sessions. It was a very similar relaxation to having a Japanese Onsen. I can see how people get hooked on going to the sauna that aren’t doing it for the athletic benefits (which is everyone but me I’m pretty sure judging by the aesthetics…). It’s nice to feel some sort of progression with the sauna and not feel like the Great Sauna Project of 2024 has been a total waste of time.

I ran again on Saturday afternoon and felt pretty good in my legs after a fairly relaxing day. I was at 144km’s for the week by now and only had to crank out a solid long run on Sunday to be within touching distance of my 180km’s a week goal.

Come Sunday morning, just before 7am, I started out for an easy thirty minutes in Vic Park to bank some early km’s before running with the group. I knew most in the group would have somewhere between 1.5-2hrs and I wanted to run 2.5hrs so I hoped I could punch out all the extras I needed beforehand.

I kind of did. I ran 30 minutes and got to the Runhouse about ten minutes before the rest of the group started. When I joined in with the group we got rolling along a little quicker and ended up being back at the Runhouse after 1.5hrs meaning I was still only at 2hrs. Not to worry, I ran another 30 minutes with Jacob and another runner and managed to finish with 35km’s to bring my weekly total to 179.9km’s to be exact. Not that I knew it was that at the time. I sauntered off to the sauna after ample time relaxing post long run and to my delight the sauna was relatively empty. The prime suspects of sauna chat must have been busy elsewhere. I lasted 30 minutes again before I took a break and then resumed again for another 7 or so minutes as a little bonus. That’s 5 days in a row and as I mentioned after the fourth visit, I’m starting to progress a little with my sauna capabilities (I think).

That’s that for the week though. Yes, I’m on 179.9km’s which isn’t actually 180km’s but the goal of running a lot has still been achieved, I’ve hit all my key sessions and two good long runs and by taking this afternoon ‘off’ I am not increasing the chance a few niggles I have get any worse. I’m taking the smart option by resting for once. Well, at least, that’s my game plan at 3:17pm on a Sunday afternoon, there’s still another hour and a half before I go out for my usual double at 5pm so I may change my mind yet…

What I won’t be changing my mind about is the plan to try and hit around 180km’s next week and continue The Great Sauna Project for another two days at least. I am racing the State XC Championships on Saturday (10km) and will cancel the sauna for a couple of days beforehand and also miss my normal Friday session. With the mention of State XC though it does give you something to look forward to in next week’s recap for there will be another race recap! State XC is an exciting race as well because it doesn’t mean anything for trail running or road running. It’s just a pure race for racing fun! I enjoyed the one I wrote about a month or so ago and am approaching it with the same attitude, i.e. have a good race, and give it a crack. Until then, have a good week yourself and thanks for reading.