Fraser Darcy

This week started on the back foot. A high 30 degree celsius Sunday arvo spent at the RunAsOne Christmas Party led to a late Sunday night. I didn’t push the limits of my ability to consume alcohol, responsibly managing my intake in order to stay on the line of having a good time whilst being professional. I am a coach after all.

On Monday morning I wished the temperature had respected that same attitude. Instead, it was still pretty bloody warm at 8am by the time I started running in the city. I wasn’t in Belair due to some logistical arrangements from the night before but enjoyed the change of scenery. Whenever I don’t sleep that well I tend to find running the next morning at a steady pace a bit easier (but just can’t get going to a fast pace). It was the case this Monday as I rolled around the parklands at just under 4:00/km pace, only slowing down when I bumped into Riley and Izzi. The temperature wasn’t too bad for my actual run but when I finished at my car on Sturt St, that’s when it hit me. I had no cold water to cool myself down and only a little bit of shade. Tired, hot and having run 18km’s I was a bit cooked.

So I went to the physio. Ok no, I didn’t go to the physio because I was cooked. I went to the physio because Emma had booked this appointment for me the last time I visited a month ago. She was interested in staying on top of my niggle and trying to get me to build strength. I was less interested in the appointment because: a) I had no pain in my leg and was running fine and b) I was tired. We did a few tests and some treatment on my tight hips and I think Emma hoped I would be a little bit more stronger and a lot fresher. A specific example is in my ability to drop into a squat which I have never had great technique for. Emma can do this skill easily however I don’t think she could do it as easy if she had run 18km’s in the morning before or 220km’s in the preceding 7 days. At least she didn’t fully scold me for not being the most dynamic, picture perfect squatter out there, instead just staring at me going ‘is that it?‘. Yes it was.

After surviving the physio, I made it to the RunHouse hoping to get in the gym like I do every other Monday but a series of events and being tired meant I got there and then left straight away to go home instead. It was a good decision in the end. I had a few hours at home trying to recalibrate my body before venturing down to Port Noarlunga for a catch-up with mates. It was nice to see some mates I hadn’t seen for a couple of months but not nice enough to preclude me from missing my easy afternoon run. This is the tricky part about being a runner during a social time that is Christmas. Everyone wants a piece of your afternoon and evening. By the time I got home to my house it was just before 7:30pm and I quickly got out the door for 10km’s worth of running. Better late than never and a good idea to fit it in even though I was a little tired.

Luckily, I had a good sleep on Monday night and was a bit more refreshed for Tuesday morning. The bike work at the 6:30 RAO session went fine and following that, just to make sure I was fresh for my own session at 9:30 with Connor I pulled the trigger on having a second coffee before 9:30. It’s a risky move personally to have that many coffee’s and especially so close to a run but I felt like it was a good day to experiment. Connor and I were doing 4km tempo, 2*1km, 4*500m with varying rests between for our session. I didn’t really care what the session was, just the fact I was running it with someone was good enough for me, but running it with Connor made it even better (god, he’s going to love that shout out isn’t he?). If I ran faster than 3:00/km for any of the reps and no slower than 3:20/km than I would be happy. Out the gates, Connor pushed the tempo a little bit and probably averaged 3:06’s to my 3:08’s. We regrouped for the 1km’s and where I had struggled to hit 3:00/km this time last week I was hitting 2:53/km fairly comfortably this week. That progression continued into the 500m reps where we ran them at 2:40ish/km pace. Very fast and very good coming off a big Sunday and a long and hot Monday. We cooled down, then both hit the gym all before lunch time. One part of me thinks my ability to run pretty fast on a Tuesday was because this was the first Tuesday in over two months that I hadn’t done gym on a Monday beforehand so I had no DOMS. It felt great running without gym DOMS but then having a day involving; cycling, running, gym, afternoon run and a bonus hit of tennis meant I was pretty tired again by Tuesday evening.

That tiredness continued into my Wednesday mid week long run. I ran with Jacob as per usual and Jess Stenson joined us for the first thirty minutes. This was definitely a run where I was rolling with the punches early and only managed to make it to 30km’s out of sheer stubbornness. When I realised it was the first 2hr pure easy run I’d done in a couple of weeks I did appreciate it a bit more. Not every long run can have some quality in there so it was nice to tick one off again where I didn’t get carried away in the end. Of course, not all I do is running and Wednesday’s side quest was to collect a fridge and washing machine in the trusty Triton. I feel like I am a removalist after all the equipment I’ve shifted over the last two months. I finished off the day with an easy afternoon run where I kept it easy too. The cumulative effect of multiple 200km weeks and socialising was starting to catch up a bit.

Recognising that, I took Thursday’s morning run in Belair pretty easy. I was a little hesitant starting off but then someone I coach ran past me and that helped get me started. From there I ticked off 10 miles in Belair, went to the RunHouse, got held up a bit in my day, finally got around to gym and made it home to have lunch. I was chasing my tail/rolling with the punches to fit some jobs in by the end of the day, including the bulk of my christmas shopping, but made it there. The only thing I missed was some strides and drills having also skipped these on Monday afternoon because I was tired. I can definitely feel the effects of not having done them but also suspected at the time, I might get them in on Friday at the RunAsOne Christmas TT.

Wheeeerreee, I did think I was going to be the 15:00 pacer until Jacob kindly offered to do that job for me and I was able to run the 17:00 (3:24/km) slot. Doing this slot meant I could fit in a good quality marathon specific session as opposed to having to compromise my training just to be a 15:00 pacer. It wasn’t the most fluid session I’ve ever done but seeing as it was a bonus I was getting in some extra volume at marathon effort I was happy with whatever I was going to do. I felt good throughout the first 17 minutes, took a little jog break to yell some encouragement and then got back into it for another ten minutes. I then realised I had promised someone I coach to take a photo with them so stepped off quickly, got the photo and then got back into things.

This time last week I ran a 70 minute half marathon at 3:20’s while this week I was probably averaging the same pace given the GPS issues around a track but wasn’t interested in just repeating what I did last week. Instead I aimed for 1hr of effort and picked it up a bit in the last ten minutes. This felt pretty good and at the end I wasn’t sure if it was the fact I didn’t plan to run 1hr at marathon pace or whether it was the 2 pizza’s and Cooper’s Pale Ale longneck the night before but I felt like I hadn’t even run 1hr at marathon pace. I felt that good. I liked to believe it was the training kicking in, the carbs from the night before and the lack of overthinking things with the session. *Cue reference to the title*. It felt a bit like going for the onsight with my training!

For those who aren’t climbers, an ‘onsight’ is where you basically walk up to a climb you’ve never seen before and nail it first go. It involves a fair amount of figuring out as you go but when you’re making unexpected good progress on an onsight attempt you get a real rush of adrenaline. I’m actually going to do this thing first shot, that’s fucking awesome, I’m such a badass is what comes to mind. That’s kind of been my modus operandi in my overall training philosophy and some of my individual sessions lately. Especially this 1hr effort around the track. I essentially ‘got onto one’ and ran away with it, stealing a bonus marathon training session.

Having had a different start to the day with my onsight of an hour at the track, I was a bit rattled for the rest of the day. The change of scenery by being at the track on a Friday morning also probably contributed to it. I didn’t have much else on for the rest of the day besides another hit of tennis and an afternoon run so started to pull the trigger on locking in Cadbury Marathon. I had enquired about a free entry on Thursday and received confirmation on Friday that yes I had earnt one so booked my flight over. The code didn’t work for my entry but that’ll get sorted out soon enough hopefully. The big news is that mentally I’m locked in to racing the Cadbury Marathon on January 11th. I am excited to see how this 200+km training block without any real pressure on myself will translate to a marathon, albeit one I haven’t done before and one that is a bit lumpy and does not have the same depth as Sydney did for a big pacing group towards 2:21. Anything can happen on race day though and being as prepared as I plan to be will be a good start.

Of course being prepared for a marathon means getting in a Distance Medley Relay right??? Huh? You know, a 1200m followed by a 400m-800m-1600m as part of a team of 4? Actually, the specifics of it aren’t that important but what was is that I was able to jog an easy 40 minutes in the morning in Belair on Saturday, get down to the track around midday, do a short warm up, do some strides and speed work, jump in a team for Flinders, run 1200m pretty flat out, do a cool down and receive one big helping of speed stimulus to jerk my body back into fast Fraser. It was actually really fun too which is also a good part of training with a high volume approach, there has to be some fun elements to it. In terms of my actual 1200m leg; I let Robbie Killmier (past Adelaide Marathon & Hills to Henley combatant) go off with a former student and Paralympian I taught, Angus Hincksman, and a third unknown kid in the first lap. I ran 64 seconds for the first lap and by halfway on the second lap could sense this third unknown soldier was fading already. I kicked past him on the third lap, handed the baton over in third and was pretty happy with my ability to remain uninjured. It even excited me enough for an attempt at a 1500m later in the year perhaps. It’s only an extra 300m after all.

By getting my second run of the day done by 1:30pm it meant I took the rest of the afternoon off to relax and waste away the day with Alice before she went to Europe. Hello, to all of you giggling at home that Alice gets a mention in the blog and hello to anyone who has no idea who Alice is. Perhaps you can put two and two together…Anyway, this is fraserdarcy.com not whoisfraserdarcyspendingsaturdayafternoonswith.com.

On Sunday morning, long run day, it was much nicer weather than last week’s 40 degree day. The group went on a new-ish loop around North Adelaide and the track and back to the RunHouse. I ran with them for the first 90 minutes and missed the extras group peeling off beforehand so I ended up back at The RunHouse at 90 minutes on the dot. It was actually probably a sub conscious thing from me as I stashed a drink bottle with staminade in it there ready for me to collect. I also opted to change into my Alphafly’s and hopped straight into an unstructured progression run. The first few km’s were at 3:30-3:40’s with an interruption to re-tie my shoelaces and use the toilet. After a few km’s I was warmed up into this progression and got onto the Botanic Park loop of course. I did 4 laps and was hovering around 3:20’s which was nice as that’s my marathon pace. A part of me was thinking ‘if I have trained to run 3:20’s for an hour from the start of a session the past two Friday’s, by running 3:20’s for a bit at the end of a session in a long run is like the other bit of bread of the sandwich. I just have to put them together on race day and I will have a good marathon sandwich’. Of course that’s easier said then done and I was just happy to have a long run that felt a lot easier than last Sunday’s experience.

After the long run I got changed, had some breakfast, hung around a bit, returned home, found my family had left me behind, realised that’s what happens in Home Alone, worked out they were already at Belair for a family Christmas and so I joined them. A little side note here is that I saved $13 on paying park entry by parking my car on Sheoak Rd and walking 500m into the picnic area to see them all. This was of course the second Sunday in a row I was having a social event after my long run but this time I was determined to not let it interrupt my arvo run. I made it home only a few hours later, had a nap and then got going as the picture above already gives away. I had been sort of worried about my hip the last few days ever since seeing Emma about it but this run it actually felt better. Editor’s note: It actually feels a lot better too as I write this on Monday evening. Having ticked my Sunday arvo run it meant I ran 225km’s for the week which is my most ever. I did miss doing some strides work however the 1200m and doing strides before my sessions was probably an acceptable stimulus anyway.

The plan for this week now that I have locked in Cadbury Marathon is I will be fitting in one more big 200+km week around Christmas festivities and including some marathon specific work on Tuesday and Friday. Once Christmas is done I’ll be over at Port Victoria for my annual hibernation for a few days and it’ll also be a nice refreshing change up in my daily running routine, which, will keep it fun! Which is important!

Thanks for reading this blog. Merry Christmas you filthy animal.