Fraser Darcy

Well this week started off with another Cleland Monday morning run for the second week in a row. But I upgraded this week. Instead of starting from the Wildlife Park, I started from Hazelwood Park and ran up to Cleland. My idea was to get a 16km effort in with the last few km’s of the uphill part heading along Bartril Spur which is on the course for the National Mountain Champs event there on March 16th. I found the uphill slog to get there a bit of a slog really but once I got onto the part that’s actually in the race I found my rhythm and enjoyed pushing it to the top. Then, it was time to turn around and jog down. Uphill efforts like this are nice because I can get some threshold training in without having to run really really fast.

The rest of the day was very standard Monday, catch up on Strava from last week for all the people I coach, send out a few emails, do some gym, arvo run and strides and that was about it. Good start.

Tuesday was another good day with this being my third session in a row out with the group on a Tuesday morning. And it was 1km repeats which I hadn’t done for a while myself too. The first couple felt a bit slow, oh god, was the uphill tempo effort the day before too much, the next couple felt alright, oh nah, I just needed a few to get going, the next couple were pretty quick, oooh, this is alright but I think the next two will hurt, and then yes, the next two did hurt, survive Fraser, survive! I did of course, the warm down was a bit grim but I made it back to The RunHouse to get started on some programs for March and tidy up a few other loose ends. It was nice to record some fast times in the km reps but really, the highlight of Tuesday was getting the program writing process underway. It takes a while to write all my programs so starting off each month feels a bit like getting an immovable object to move. Once it’s moving though, it doesn’t stop and I get in a very productive program writing rhythm for a few days.

Other highlights from Tuesday were that I got a haircut, nice and short, and I had a Quorn Swim Club meeting for the first time in a while. It was good to catch up with a few people from Quorn, via video of course, and hear the update about the swim club but it was really just nice to see the back drop of the pool on a Tuesday evening and reminisce about Quorn memories. Life back in Quorn was very straightforward for me which is great and nice to reflect on but I do have to contend that with the fact I probably wouldn’t be running as well as I am now if I had continued living there full-time.

Wednesday and mid-week long run day. This time it wasn’t 30 degrees so it felt a bit more pleasant. Again, I had Jess and Izzi for company and we cruised along pretty comfortably for a good 1hr 45 mins. The fact that this run and my Sunday long run is feeling pretty easy to just knock out 26+ km’s is a great confidence booster in my running. Instead of having to psyche up for long runs, I can focus that extra bit of mental energy for my speed sessions. The rest of Wednesday was going along pretty stock standard when halfway through my gym routine, whilst staring at myself in the mirror I noticed a weird rash on one side of my body. I didn’t think anything of it at the time and continued looking at myself in the mirror of course.

Later in the afternoon though, whilst writing programs, I started itching uncontrollably on the same side as the rash but just couldn’t seem to get the itch under control. The last time I felt like this was when I got stung by a wasp whilst climbing and found out later I was allergic to wasps. I remember looking down at where I was itching that day whilst climbing and seeing hives all over my chest. This time, I looked underneath my shirt and it wasn’t hives, but the rash had definitely spread and was continuing to spread thanks to my itching. Oh jesus, what the hell is this all about. I really wanted to keep getting on with the program writing so I could get out for my afternoon run on time but decided no, this needs to be investigated. Is it shingles? It’s just one side of my body, I have been a bit stressed lately, maybe it’s shingles? Dr. Google Images certainly made it look like that. I went outside to see Dr.Dad and he thought it could be shingles too (but I did direct him with the question, ‘is this shingles’ so he might’ve been biased by that). I quickly booked an appointment at the actual Dr’s and then proceeded to sit around stressing about the fact that I had shingles because I was stressed. Not an afternoon well spent.

Once I made it into the Dr’s rooms I showed her the rash and was relieved to hear her say it wasn’t shingles! Woohoo! I won’t have to deal with shingles! Instead it was just some bacterial infection probably, I don’t know, as long as it wasn’t shingles and I didn’t have to reduce my training I didn’t really care what it was. I did have to miss my arvo run because of the time spent at the Dr’s and picking up some medication but it was a small price to pay in the big scheme of things. The whole saga did make me reflect that I probably just need to chill out a bit more, I have a pretty simple and stress free life really so I should try and relax a bit.

I started off my relaxing by heading to Bowker as is now customary for a Thursday morning session. This time, with my 1500m race only a couple of days away I wanted to do some top end speed work that wouldn’t have too much effect on my body. I had planned to do 5*600m with 3 minutes rest in between. Had planned indicates I obviously didn’t. Instead, I ran the first one in 1:33, which is pretty fast and ran the next one in 1:36 thinking I was close to dying from 400m in. I put on spikes for the next 600m rep thinking that might help me keep it at 1:33-1:36. At the start of that third rep I felt faster but coming into the 300m mark I again was dying. I stopped at 400m (62s, 1:33 pace) because I could just feel that I was losing speed and this session was all about practicing top speed. What I should have done is had a longer rest here and then run 600m again. Instead I kept the rest the same and then ran 61s for another 400m where I knew I was going to stop at 400m. But again, I was absolutely hurting for this effort. So I made the next one 300m (45s) and again, was in a world of pain. I didn’t want to finish the session like this so knocked out a 200m and that wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t long enough to get too deep into oxygen debt. I slowly recovered after the last rep and then recounted how I almost died both from that session and from my early diagnosis of shingles the day before to Luke who had joined me for my warm down. That Thursday session was one of the hardest I’ve ever done and made me excited for Saturday’s 1500m knowing it could be that amount of pain again, if not more.

To be specific, the pain was a different one to that of a big 30-40min session. It was more the pain I used to feel in my forearms when I got pumped from a hard climb. It also felt like the pain I used to get when I did parkrun without any training. It’s a good pain and I missed it. The fact it felt like a climbing type effort made me think how a 1500m race, which is over in 4 minutes, is very similar to a hard climb where the hard part only lasts for anywhere from 1-4minutes max before there’s a rest somewhere and some easier climbing. With that mindset in mind, I was excited to head to the track on Saturday for some ‘climbing’/1500m.

But first of course, I had to finish off Thursday, write some programs, write TBL and put together a Beef Stroganoff! Yes, ‘Fraser’s Cooking’ is back for a second week in a row. I had high hopes of making a proper stroganoff in a slow cooker but given how busy I was with programs I opted for a low-stress option. Mum had one of these Maggi mixes so I used that, chopped some onions up, badda bing badda boom, beef stroganoff was served not too long after. And it was good. The sour cream really makes it.

Fuelled by beef stroganoff I had a pretty good Friday. I was a bit sore from the speed session the day before but managed to jog in the morning, ride the bike with Izzi, write some programs and jog again in the evening. I had a pretty relaxing evening opting to have a quiet night at home before the race the next day. Usually I try and eat pretty simple going into a track race but this time I didn’t care, the 1500m is not my jam and I was just doing it for training and to see what it’s all about. Hence, I kept the stress low and just did my normal thing (pizza).

This was the same flavour for Saturday morning but I also gave myself a sleep in till 7:30 which was nice. I went for a small 5km jog, had my normal breakfast, wrote some programs, had a normal lunch, wrote some more programs, had a smaller coffee than usual, went to the track, met my mates and just felt like I was generally heading out for an afternoon of climbing. But instead it was an afternoon of 1500m running.

With lots of people around my estimated ability over 1500m there was enough depth for two races. I ended up being put in the second, slower heat which on one hand was a bit shit, but on the other hand, because it was a bit shit fired me up so it was a bit good. It was probably fair with this being my first 1500m to be in the second race and let others who have done it before all line up in the first race (I would’ve felt like an imposter in the first race). On top of being fired up to ‘prove people wrong’ not that anyone really put me in the second heat with an intention of screwing me over, I watched the first, faster heat with my mates go by and they ran well. Shit, now the pressure is on. But then again, this is a common theme on fraserdarcy.com, I realised that this is what happens in climbing. You see your mate tick a climb that you’re trying and then suddenly, the next shot you do it too!

Was that going to happen for me? I didn’t really know to be honest. I hoped to break 4 minutes and thought that on this day, if I ran 3:55 that was probably my maximum effort. On paper, going off my other PB’s, I should be able to hit 3:50ish but that’s not taking into account all the effort I put in to my 5k PB to specialise in that event and I’m here doing my first 1500. What those numbers do mean though is I should go through the first 300m in around 46/47s in the aim to run 3:55.

Off the start line I settled behind two teenagers who had PB’s of around 4 minutes and thought things were going pretty well. I was out in lane 2 but I didn’t want to take the lead too early. By 300m in I saw we were around 48s. Oh boy, this is a bit slow. I felt good and someone shouted to ‘get on the rail’ meaning to get from Lane 2 to Lane 1 and run the shortest way around. So I did and went straight to the front, putting in a little surge. I only had 3 laps to go now of course and this was the same distance I ran at the DMR in December. That effort several months ago now felt a lot easier in retrospect than what I did on Thursday at Bowker so I knew I had to push a bit harder than what I did that day. So I ran a bit faster from 1200m-800m to go.

Coming round with 2 laps/800m to go I had a big lead already. The others were not in contention. Someone shouted ‘make this a hard lap’ and I thought that sounded like good advice so I picked it up again. When I hit 600m to go I noticed the clock had me at 2:20. If I ran 1:30 I’d run my first ever national qualifer in any event (3:50) and be able to go to the National Championships. I picked it up again and came into the bell needing around 60s to do so.

I gave it one more kick into the back straight, got confused at the clock thinking I only had 30s to run 300m at the 200m to go mark, then realised with 100m to go that no, I only had 100m to go so I should just go for it! I fanged it hard and crossed the line in 3:52.91. A result, effort and approach to the race that I was very happy with. Keeping everything relaxed and being excited to race was great, whilst being strong enough to keep picking up the pace and running pretty much the whole thing solo, and winning the race, was a really good feeling. And then running 3:52.91 is not too far off a national qualifier. With a few more people to chase perhaps I could’ve run one but who knows! What I do know is that I really enjoyed running a new event. I did a 10 minute tempo afterwards and cooled down for another ten minutes to round off the day. Of course, I had a beer, pasta and garlic bread too to celebrate.

And then of course, it was up for Sunday long run again the next day. The group was in a good mood with several others also running big PB’s. I found the run pretty challenging because perhaps I had just unlocked my real potential in running. Maybe I’m a 1500m guy after all. The World Athletics point score for my 1500m result is better than my 5km, 10km, Half Marathon and Marathon PB’s. I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to just go nuts for three and a bit laps without worrying about a carb load or pacing myself correctly too.

So if I’m a 1500m guy, why do I need to bother with 2.5hrs on a Sunday I thought as I ran along. Compounding this mental lethargy was also the fact I felt in my lungs I had run a 1500m race so was a bit off. I almost thought about stopping at 2hrs but made it past that barrier only to have Izzi remind me that running 2.5hrs has worked for me to run 3:52 on debut so I shouldn’t stop now unless I’m deciding to peak in a week’s time. With that thought I did continue all the way to 2.5hrs, only stopping for a little gut issue about ten minutes later. I was very relieved to finish and not feel too bad after what is one of my best running weeks I’d have to say.

Where does it lead to? Well, now I’ll probably be able to run in the State final of the 1500m on Monday, two days after the State 5km which I’d been targeting. They’re of course two weeks to go from now so following the Lydiard model of training I loosely adhere to I’m entering into the sharpening/freshening up phase. What that means is less anaerobic work, short sharp sessions, a 2hr long run max and then some shorter easy runs in the week leading in. I am excited to be coming to a peak now with my track racing rather than peaking three-four weeks ago like I might’ve been if I hadn’t had the Cadbury Marathon on my program. I’ll aim to peak in a fortnight, race three times (including the National Mountain Champs a week after the State 5k) and use that period as a down period before ramping things up towards Ballarat. Yes, just because I have run one fast 1500m on debut doesn’t mean I’m giving up on my marathon goals. Over the course of putting together this blog I reasoned with myself that yes I might have more of a ceiling in other events than the marathon (which I am arguably most passionate about) but being a runner is all just about maximising what potential you do have in each event. The effort, and approach to racing should be the same no matter what distance you are running as that is the key transferable characteristic from running to other things in life. Become successful in that, enjoy your running and that’s all there is to it really. The good results will come in whatever event you have the most potential in if you just keep racing everything! And of course, have some targeted training towards those events! So for now, it’s more track training and mountain running. Thanks for reading!