Fraser Darcy

Before we get stuck into this week’s blog recap I’d like to share an update on something I wrote about several weeks ago. In Three Years of the Blog I said I would aim to share my blog every week from now on and have successfully done that so far. In this week just gone I got the most reaction to a share on my Instagram story and most views on a blog in a while, probably also due to the fact it was linking to a blog on my 1500m PB. But still, it was nice to know the effort I’m making at consistently sharing my blog has started to reap some benefits. Speaking of reaping benefits, I am the segue king, this week’s training has gotten me to a point where in the next fortnight I hope to reap some benefits. So what was this week’s training like? Read on to find out!

Monday, after my 37km long run the day before and the 1500m the day before that, was a bit rough to start with. I gave myself a head start on the week by getting out nice and early at 8am for my run in Cleland which has been a Monday staple for three weeks now. The alternative to an early start would’ve been to sleep in, do some work on the computer and hit the run at 9:30am. That strategy runs the risk though that 9:30am slowly becomes 10am and suddenly the uphill effort I’d planned to include becomes just an easy hour run. Hence, getting into at 8am before I could decide against taking it easy was a better strategy for this tired Monday morning. Helping me in my fight against lethargy I also brought out my Asics MetaFuji’s (fast trail shoes) and ran in them!

I was using mostly the same loop as I did last Monday, aiming to include an uphill tempo effort on the Bartrill Spur section of the Mountain Champs course. By parking at Chambers Gully Carpark this week I saved myself a few km’s and was able to get straight into the ‘session’ part of the run after only 15mins of w/u. I wanted to attack the Strava segments along Bartrill Spur and set new PR’s and CR’s. A few minutes in I was feeling pretty good and already knew I was moving faster than last week’s efforts. By 7 minutes in I had a good gauge that I would break the first CR I was after so used that momentum to finish off the climb stronger than I did last week. If I’m moving that fast in a fortnight’s time in the race (seeing as it will be at the back end of the race) I will be impressed so this was my best opportunity to set a CR. If anyone in the race breaks these CR’s well then that’s cool and maybe I should attack it again on a Tuesday or Friday when I’m a bit fresher. Sounds like you’ve given yourself a bit of wiggle room there. Well yeah, what do you expect, it was on a Monday after all…

After this uphill effort I continued along to the top of the Wildlife park and then finished off the back half of the Mountain Champs course to get a bit more familiarity with it all. I think I have a good handle on the course now so adding in a few more runs will just be a bonus! For the rest of the day, there was gym, some program writing and an easy afternoon run. I gave up on doing strides this afternoon like I normally do on a Monday because I was tired and also because I wanted to save the mental effort of doing strides for heading into the sauna! Yes, long time blog readers will remember the sauna days of July/August/September from last year in the build up to Sydney Marathon and I’m pleased to announce a special return of Sauna Chat. The idea with the sauna this time around is to leverage off the heat gains I made over summer and just top them up in the one-two weeks before the State Champs/Mountain Champs races. I only need 7-8 exposures to get any adaptations from the sauna and have enough time to do this now that program writing for the month is coming to an end and I will be tapering as well, so, why not bring back the sauna I say?! Monday afternoon’s first sauna visit was a bit tough as I went in straight from a 9km run in the arvo and there was no actual Sauna Chat either. I still made it thirty minutes cumulatively though so it was all good.

Tuesday. RunAsOne session day and for the ‘I’ve lost count of how many weeks it is‘ in a row I was out with the group at 6:30. With Riley injured at the moment he has been willing to ‘run’ the session allowing me to train which has been great. This session was 400 on, 200 jog, 200 on, 200 jog around the grass track at the uni loop. Kind of like a modified Deeks Quarters but a bit faster. I ran the session with Tom and Connor and we rolled through the reps at paces that a month ago I would’ve been frightened of on paper and to be honest, I was still impressed I was even running 64/63 seconds per 400m for my 4th day of ‘intense mental effort’ in a row. I ran 6 sets with Tom and Connor before we started to split off and I kept the speed in my reps whilst Tom kept the jogs faster and the speed and Connor backed off the speed. Overall, good session, happy Fraser.

I was even more happy by the end of the day on Tuesday because I managed to write all of my programs bar some new additions to my ‘roster’, fit in a good afternoon trail run and then went out to have Japanese with Alice to celebrate her new job. For those looking for a quiet, small (7-8 tables of 2-3 people) place specialising in Ramen and other Japanese goodies try Black Dog Gallery on Greenhill Rd. If you’re not from Adelaide bad luck, I’m sure you have your own Japanese places to try. This dinner also constitutes the Fraser’s Cooking segment of the week.

Wednesday. Mid-week long run day. Jacob, Izzi and Chad were all along for the ride and instead of pushing it out to 1hr 45 min this week I kept it at 1hr 30 min. It felt mostly pretty good and I was able to be productive afterwards with my work and my gym so that’s always a good sign I didn’t push the run too hard. I almost was productive enough to hit a second run and a sauna session in the afternoon but by the time I had to leave to make that all work I was just a bit pooped and couldn’t be bothered. Perhaps the heat of Monday’s sauna had scared me off the sauna a bit or maybe the allure of it being such a nice day outside was too strong. Either way, I ran in the afternoon again when I hadn’t planned to because I couldn’t resist the fact that it was a nice day and I am training to be a runner, not a competitive sauna user so making running the priority is a good decision. I finished off the day/evening by watching a bit of myself in a YouTube video that Izzi uploaded from late last year. If you haven’t seen it, please watch it below!

Thursday. Bowker Day. Possibly my favourite day of the week running wise. I get to do my own thing and I get to do it around a nice track on my own schedule. I must’ve been tired yesterday as on Thursday I slept in till 7:30am! I debated with myself for about 30 seconds whether I should: (a) smash a coffee and try and start my run by 8am so I can be driving there before traffic and the day gets too far away from me or (b) drive home, have a leisurely breakfast and push my session back to 11am like I used to sometimes in the pre-blog era of my running. I chose Option (a) and just got on with it.

The fact I was a bit behind the 8-ball with my timings meant in my warm up I was a bit sleepy/not as activated as I normally am. To add to this I had also been unsure about what workout to aim for as I was 9 days out from the State 5000m and wanted this to be specific to that, whilst also touching on some 1500m work which was 11 days away. Again, I debated with myself about options: (1) A longer tempo (6km+) into 6*200m, (2) A shorter effort on the track (3km) into 600m reps, (3) Deek’s Quarters or (4) something else entirely like 4*800m reps. I eventually settled on Option 2 as I wanted to lock into 5km race pace for multiple laps in a row (unlike what I did on Tuesday with jog recoveries every 400m) whilst also prioritising some 1500m speed at the end unlike starting with that like I did last week.

Even though I chose to do a 3km into some 600m reps and knew that I was doing it for 5km race confidence I still didn’t have a time in mind. I wanted to prioritise running to feel, locking into even laps and ensuring that when I finished the 3km I felt good enough to continue for 2km’s more whilst also getting some anaerobic stimulus. If I ran 70s a lap that would be great and put me on pace for 8:45 through 3km or on track for just over my 5km PB of 14:35.

With all that in mind, I eased into the first lap. 70s. Nice. The next lap felt the same and came out at 69s a lap. That’s good. I started to feel the normal feeling I have when I’m on the track in 3km-5km races where I am not quite settled yet and still have a few laps to go and a bit of doubt comes through my mind. Yes, this is good to have this feeling now, embrace it and practice being ok with it! I rolled through a few more laps at 68/69s and was now settled. There was only 3.5 laps to go so I started to focus on not slipping off the times I was now running. I enjoyed pushing through to the line confidently and stopped my watch to run 8:40. I was surprised with how good it felt and how fast I did go. 8:45 was my aim so to be a few seconds in front of that without over reaching was good.

But the session wasn’t done.

I wanted to top up my speed and try and get the same hurt I experienced last week through doing 600m reps. A week ago I ran 600m in 1:33 and then 1:36 and felt like I was dying. This week, I ran 1:37 to start with and didn’t feel too bad having learnt to pace myself a bit better on the first rep. The next rep I ran 1:35 and again, didn’t feel too bad but also didn’t feel I had the leg turnover to hit any faster. So I ran a 400m rep and hit 60s but still couldn’t quite get the lactic feeling I had everywhere in my body from last week. I gave it one more 400m rep at 61s and then called it there. That was 5000m worth of session and I obviously didn’t have the ability to get as lactic as I wanted this week due to the fact I had a 3km in my legs before doing the speed reps. Good learning for the future I guess and good to know that one week on from that Thursday session, I can still hit the same paces with a 3km in my legs.

The rest of the day was pretty straightforward, sending out programs, replying to messages and preparing The Blue Line. I was productive enough on this day and did have enough energy for both an afternoon run and a sauna so went down for the second time in a week to get my heat exposure. Again, there was no Sauna Chat so it was pretty tough but I hung in there.

Friday. I ‘ran’ the session at 6:30 for the first time in a couple of weeks and had a few people run a 5km PB which was nice as well as getting to talk running/coaching specifics to a few people. It actually makes me feel like I’m doing a good job when I get the opportunity to do that. The plan after the RAO session was to continue straight into Izzi’s session on the bike, however, when I got back to The RunHouse Izzi suggested I get my run in for the day with her in the first part of her session. So I did. A nice 45 minutes on a humid morning was a real treat. I went straight from that run to Izzi’s actual session on the bike (her first hour of her session was just an easy run) and rolled around for another 75 minutes yelling encouragement and trying to not cause too much disruption for other road users at Botanic Park. This week it was a bit more difficult than it sounds as Womad is being set up so there’s trucks and utes and golf carts worth of tradie/festival people. We got it done, well Izzi got it done, I just ride a bike so how hard can it really be.

The rest of the day on Friday was a real treat though, no programs to send or write, I could relax a bit. I even gave myself the afternoon off running like I tend to do at least once per mid-week. So what did I do with my spare afternoon time? Sauna of course! This time there was Sauna Chat too so I was engaged a bit longer in the sauna listening to people talk about surfing and shark attacks and how the impact of the ban on snapper fishing has led there to be more sharks down near the bottom of the Gulf whereas if they filled up the actual gulf with more food (more fish through releasing more fingerlings from breeding programs that SARDI runs) then the sharks wouldn’t be as big a problem in certain places but also if they started tagging them there’d be less attacks too according to the brains trust in the sauna.

Saturday. RAO trail day. I went out to Chambers Gully on this day for a session of 3 minute hills for the group but had decided to just ‘coach’ for this session instead of actually doing it myself. I felt like I wanted one more longer tempo effort before the State 5km and my only chance of doing it was probably this day. Hence, I enjoyed a nice easy 45 minutes of running around the session watching the others hurt themselves up a nice hill.

With that ticked off in the morning I had the afternoon free for my session and this was all part of the plan. I often wonder how relatable training in the morning is to the evening track races I do and so by choosing to train in the afternoon on a Saturday I was hoping to get some last minute mental adaptations to forcing myself to run fast on a Saturday arvo where I usually like to relax. The session I chose to do was Option 1 from earlier in the week, a 6km tempo into 6*200m. I figured if on Thursday I ran less than 5km’s on the track then on Saturday I could balance it out by running slower than 5km pace but for longer. After my normal w/u I got into the 6km tempo and felt pretty terrible to be honest. It was windy and perhaps the session from Thursday and the sauna was still hitting me. As long as I ran 3:10-3:15/km I was going to be happy.

When the first kilometre came in closer to 3:20/km I was a bit worried (note: the GPS isn’t accurate around a track, I was going off my lap times to calculate my pace). I picked it up a bit and tried to focus on keeping the effort controlled and even. With over 10 laps to go, and only one ear bud working, it was definitely a mental test to keep running when I knew it would’ve been much easier to get this same tempo done on the road. But that’s why I was doing it on the track, for that extra mental stimulus.

When I came through 5km’s I was a bit happier and relieved and knew I’d make it to 6km’s on target pace. I thought about continuing to 7 or 8km’s now I’d found my rhythm but instead gladly called it there after 15 laps. I had a two-three minute rest and then got into the first of some 200 reps. I didn’t change into spikes, hoping to keep that excitement until race day so was again having to fang it ’round on the grass in just my session shoes. The first 200 came in at 30s and felt terrible so I was surprised to see it was still fast. The next one felt better and was faster than 30s. Ok, maybe I’m just tired and the wind and grass made the tempo feel worse. These first 200m efforts felt just like any other 200m rep I’d done at Bowker. I did three more and progressively got quicker. The fifth one felt really tight and hard so instead of pushing onto a 6th I called it there. A tough session mentally but a good one physically. I reasoned with myself afterwards that if I’d run that fast in a XC race for 6km’s I’d have been happy, so to do it solo, on a windy day was pretty good actually. Of course it was never going to feel as easy as a tempo on the road and I should never have expected it too!

Despite being a bit cooked after the session I still opted to stop in on my way home via the sauna and managed to cook myself a little more. All I had to do on Saturday evening was eat dinner with my parents (steak) and watch my training partner Adam race in the 1500m at Perth (where he ran 3:41 for 1500m, becoming the third fastest SA of all time and running a 5 second PB). Following that result of his, the mood was high for Sunday morning’s long run.

I only ran 90 minutes for the first time in a long time and felt nice to just call it there. I added in a sauna session just before lunch to continue my streak in the sauna for four days in a row (5 sessions in a toal) meaning I am on track to get 7-8 before Thursday which will give me 1-2 days off the sauna before the 5000m race. There’s still plenty of time between now and the State 5000m and State 1500m and of course the National Mountain Champs. At some points late last week, especially after having a good session on Thursday, I wanted the race to hurry up and be here now! Over these same past few days though I have learnt to drop that approach and instead am trying to focus on making sure each day throughout this freshening period is done well. I’m not someone who tapers very often as I like to run and train hard all the time so learning to freshen up is something I can always get better at (like anything of course). One aspect I don’t like about tapering is how it invites this ‘end of season’ pinnacle to the races I am doing where they become the be-all-and-end-all. That creates pressure on me to do well but I am the one putting that pressure on myself. And if I don’t like that pressure, then why the heck am I putting it on myself?! So treating this freshening up exercise as an exercise in itself, removing the pressure and expectation on my upcoming races and considering what I have to gain from this period for the future races I want to do is what I would like to focus on this week. Whether that happens or not, you’ll be able to read about it in next week’s blog*. Thanks for reading!

Due to the State 1500m being on a Monday, next week’s blog may come out on a Tuesday or Wednesday… we’ll see. Also, on Sunday afternoon, another one of my running friends, Jess Stenson set a new PB of 2:22:56 at Tokyo Marathon. Very cool!