Fraser Darcy

Time goes by so slowly, time goes by so slowly… That’s how this week has felt at times. Like the opening lyrics to Madonna’s ‘Hung Up’ which I never thought I’d be quoting in a blog but here we are! I also never thought I’d be writing a blog about a week preparing for two races at the State Champs so it’s actually fitting. As a general introduction to anyone reading fraserdarcy.com for the first time, welcome, if you don’t like it, too bad, if you do like it, good, my life doesn’t change either way but maybe yours will. This blog is about the week leading into the State 5km and to give you some context:

• I raced Cadbury Marathon in mid January after prioritising a base phase of 200-220km weeks. That race went well (I won).
• Two weeks after Cadbury I ran a 3km PB of 8:19 as part of the early stages of a track focused block of training.
• For the last 7-8 weeks I have tried to stick to 160-180km’s a week including a Tuesday session with RunAsOne, a Thursday speed session on a grass track and a Saturday session on the trails or a track race. I also included a Monday morning uphill tempo twice.
• I have set PB’s in 1500m (3:52), 3k (8:19) and 5k (14:24) in that block without really tapering for any of them as I prioritised training through them.
• I have tapered for the State Champs (5k and 1500m) races this weekend though so the plan and theory is that I can PB again or do well in the races!

Starting off my taper on Monday I went to Belair for the first time in over a week. I was a bit tired on this run mentally I think. Physically, only running 90 minutes the day before meant I was a bit fresher but I just didn’t have the same pizzaz. All I put it down to is the balance between not actually having the benefits of being tapered and fresh yet, and also mentally wanting to back off the intensity to freshen up. Still, it was a good 75 minutes of running. I went home, couldn’t really concentrate on my admin that I wanted to do, did a gym session, met a new person who I will be coaching and then had a later than expected lunch. Given I was a bit tired all day today I decided to skip the sauna and just do an easy run and strides at home. This was a good decision as I felt the best I’ve ever felt on strides before.

On Tuesday, I ran in the RAO session at 6:30 again and we had a session of 800/200 jog (I chose to do 4 sets) and 400/200 jog/200/200 jog (I chose to do 2 sets). Off the start line I felt pretty good and was revelling in the great conditions. Ahead of me was the usual suspects in Jacob and Adam but behind me, and not next to me, was my usual training partners. I hesitated about leaving them behind me, was I going too hard too early, but instead decided, nah, fuck them, I’m feeling good and I’m only doing a shorter session. I ran the 800’s progressively quicker which was nice, kept the 200 jog pretty honest and then hit the 400’s and 200’s fast as well. I was pretty happy overall and didn’t feel like I had peaked too early in the week either. I relaxed a bit at The RunHouse afterwards and then jumped on the bike to help film Izzi’s session for another YouTube video. Then, in another exciting addition to my week, I went to Marion to purchase Alice’s birthday present. Pretty good day. All before lunch too. After lunch I did some work, went for a jog and then went back into the sauna with a mate, Fin, who helped me make it 32 minutes straight for the first time in a while. Having Fin in there was good for the levels of sauna chat, probably an all-time high in this block. So it was a pretty good day overall.

Wednesday. Usually a 90 minute plus run day but instead, with the taper, I only ran 67 minutes with Chad Ytsma and Jacob. It felt pretty good and I was being productive as well with some computer based work after the run for another good day. That’s when things took a slight turn, can’t have too many good days in a row it seems. I was recruited to shift a couch with my ute at 9:45 and had assumed I’d be able to follow on with my normal routine afterwards of a light gym sesh, another sauna session and then lunch sometime before 1pm. Instead, it turned out to be a 3hr job where for 2hrs of it I was constantly doing numbers in my head…what time does this mean I can get to the sauna later in the day, is this too much load on my legs to add in a light mobility session, does this mean I shouldn’t double in the afternoon, or should I skip the sauna instead, I do have the time really to be doing this, but do I want to be doing this, what’s in it for me…It didn’t help that I continually assumed I’d be done in the next thirty minutes of the job, not knowing when it would end. By 12pm, I gave up on the dream of a sauna or gym session before lunch. By 12:30pm I was beginning to give up on the job itself. When I did finish at 1pm and I was on the drive home I was then able to multi-task and both express my rage at the scenario I had let myself get into whilst also planing on what activities I was going to channel my rage into for the rest of my day and week. Never let rage go unused! I think that’s a famous Ghandi quote.

What I did end up doing was having lunch, resting and then going out for an afternoon jog. I couldn’t jog when I got home, too stressed and too hungry, and I couldn’t jog straight after lunch, nor just before dinner because I wanted to fit in a sauna (I’d scrapped the gym because the furniture lifting was enough of a workout). BUT, I was going to dinner with Rob Stillwell, the real Chad and a few others at 6pm at Belair so I only had a limited afternoon time frame. Cue using some of my rage. I ran pretty steadily in the afternoon at 4pm, got in the car, drove responsibly quickly to the sauna, walked briskly through to the sauna, sweated out my worries for another thirty minutes straight, rinsed off, changed in the carpark as using the changing rooms is too much of a detour, drove responsibly quickly to the Belair Hotel and walked in the same time with Rob Stillwell and his family. Five minutes later with a beer in hand I was comfortable and happy with the execution of my day. It was good to catch up with Rob, the real Chad and others who are out of my running bubble so by the end of the evening I was back to normal Fraser somewhat.

Thursday. Bowker day. Being a real taper I decided to not follow the method I’d gone for before the State 3km and other 5km race earlier in this block. On those occasions, I had chosen to do a mini session with about 4-5km’s of ‘work’ on the Thursday. This time, I did a long warm up and then used an idea from Lydiard to do some fast relaxed efforts. He prescribes 100m worth of effort but I felt like 5*200’s was good for me. With a jog recovery in between I kept them fairly sensible, not dipping below 30s and just visualising running well in two days time at the State 5km. After this little session I jogged a few minutes with Luke and then went home to relax.

It was a half relaxing day though, some of it I spent being productive and some of it I spent unsure about how my older sister was feeling. She had parked herself on the couch all day at our house and wasn’t well to say the least. Spoiler alert, she ended up being ok at the time of writing although it often sounded like that may not have been the case. Anyway, I went for an arvo jog again on Thursday, skipped the sauna and purchased some ingredients to make a fancy dinner. Yes, Fraser’s Cooking is back!

This week, inspired by the Black Dog Gallery outing last week, I opted to make Ramen. There are plenty of recipes of Ramen and no doubt several readers are thinking oooh, I have a GREAT Ramen recipe that Fraser will love, I will send it to him, mine is SOOOOO good. That’s great for you but I don’t care about your Ramen recipe. Not at this stage. I care instead about me choosing the best Ramen recipe that is a mixture of good ingredients, easy to make and easy to follow instructions. You can make Ramen using two minute noodles, a soft-boiled egg and probably some three day old ham. That’s really cheap. You can also make Ramen using fresh ingredients, boiling up your own broth, rah rah rah, expensive, time consuming, give me something that compromises those two. It was too hard to find a recipe on the internet that felt easy to make so instead I had a look in the fridge, sussed out the ingredients we already had and ventured to the world’s worst Woolworths to find some inspiration.

At the world’s worst Woolworths (Blackwood) I went looking for good Ramen noodles. Sadly, all I could find was the two minute noodle versions. Yes, I was in the Asian section too, I’m not an idiot. I thought, ok, I’ll just get these and add expensive things to it, that’s a good compromise. Then I went looking for salmon, not that it really goes with Ramen but I wanted salmon, so I went looking for some and decided to get canned salmon. That’s ok, I’ll get some good miso paste, that’s the thing I learnt from the internet that really makes it Ramen and not just two minute noodles. Once again then I was disappointed. No fucking miso paste either. Congratulations Blackwood, you’ve done it again and won yourself the title of World’s Worst Woolworths for the 1043rd week in a row.

I did not let the absence of miso paste defeat me. Like an intrepid explorer searching for a new island to put his name or that of their long lost Uncle’s name on for eternal relevance and fame, I ventured out across the ocean of uncertainty and into Foodland. There in the land of Food and the mighty South Aussie’s I had struck gold. Proper Ramen noodles. A proper Ramen recipe. Simple ingredients. Miso Paste. Bok Choy. This is what success feels like. I couldn’t wait to cook it and try and become the next Iron Chef.

With Alice joining me in the kitchen and Ramen being a slightly all-consuming, but quick, thing to make I tasked Alice with cooking the noodles. Simple enough but still a few questions were thrown my way like I was some all-knowing wizard. I referred her to the packet I was following instructions from and kept my head down and focused on the eggs (very difficult to cook), mince (miso paste and soy sauce actually makes this better than sliced bread) and vegetables (if you use bok choy in something I think that makes you a Level 3 qualified Chef). Twenty minutes later and we had produced two great bowls of Ramen that is meant to serve 4.

Fuelled by Ramen, the following day, Friday for those unacquainted with the weekly calendar and where we are up to this week, was a session at RAO on the bike for me and Alice’s birthday. She is getting a lot of mentions this week. I had a good session on the bike, said some funny things, spoke to some people I coached, didn’t fall off the bike, all the usual things. I then went for a little jog myself and felt a bit average to start with but eased into it thanks to an engaging tennis podcast for 40 minutes that was all about coaching…‘You think you have to share the feelings with the player and say different things to them when they are feeling good or bad, not saying certain things because you may hurt their feelings. No this is not the way. This is not the way to be a good coach’… An interesting discussion to say the least. After my run, I went home and relaxed on my bed for a good hour and a bit. I was ahead of all my work and didn’t need to train anymore considering the next day was race day. Getting the opportunity to relax and totally switch off for the day was great on a Friday because when I do this on a Saturday before an evening race I feel like I drop too much into a lethargic state and can’t get aroused later in the afternoon. I was free to be as tired as I wanted on Friday though and fully switch off! To me, that means having a swim, doing some stretching, watching YouTube, pondering life’s deepest problems, playing tennis with Alice and her new tennis racquet and making a good pasta dish for dinner.

Which finally brings us to Saturday. Hooray you say, we’re finally at the race report! Or if you’ve scrolled straight here, hooray, you can stop scrolling and actually have to pay attention now and absorb the words. See that’s the thing I like about writing, you actually have to make your brain follow each word and really read it to absorb what I’m saying. Just like running, there are no easy steps in a race, you actually have to run every one of them fast and that’s why you feel such a sense of accomplishment when you finish. You train hard, you prepare well and hopefully, you race well! For this race, I had trained hard, prepared well by jogging for 25 minutes at home in the morning before settling into another relaxing morning. It was time for the race.

Well not quite. The original plan was for the race to start at 6:30pm. Sometime in the afternoon though, just as I started watching Coming to America, the start time was pushed back 1 hr due to the heat. It was high 30’s so yeah, it was kind of hot, but still, you can’t pick and choose when you want to be a runner so I hadn’t really given it that much thought. I knew it might slow my race down but oh well, there’s not much I can do about it. Except watch the rest of Coming to America and relax a little bit longer than I had anticipated.

Around 5:45pm I arrived at the track ready to watch a few races beforehand involving people I coach and train with. I warmed up at 6:45, having to be in the call room at 7:15 before our 7:30pm start. Throughout the day and the warm up I felt good. My stomach was being a little bit iffy but not too bad. My legs felt good and mentally I felt like I was always going to run well no matter what. With that all in my favour I knew my best chance of a good race was going to be running at a pace that was on track for 14:15-14:25. If I had to run that pace on the front, so be it, I was ready. If someone else was going to run that pace for me, brilliant, I might be able to run even quicker.

The people who could be responsible for taking up the pace instead of me were Adrian Potter and Arron Nitschke. Potter is a 13:46 guy in his prime and Arron and I have beaten each other in the last few months. Unfortunately for me, Potter was the favourite and could probably beat me anyway I tried to run the race, fast or slow. Arron and I were also evenly matched so again, if I ran fast I had as much chance of beating him as if I ran slow. With that in mind, I had two options at the start of my race. Run fast and up the front, setting the pace if I had to, or run slow and make it a tactical race. With option one, the possibility of a PB and a podium spot was high. With option two, the possibility of a PB was low and a podium spot was high. Maximising my return on my investment then, option 1 was the logical choice. The only caveat is that the heat may kill my PB chances but I had to at least try.

Off the start line I got to the front without too much trouble and hesitated before moving right on the front. Potter and Arron aren’t idiots. They knew I wanted it fast and wanted to be on the front so they let me. Oh well, I said after last year’s State 3km I’d like to try and win a race running from the front so here’s my opportunity! I ran the first km to feel, conscious of not blowing up too early. This was about 2:53/km pace which is bang on my PB pace. And it felt good promisingly. A few laps more and I had started going from 70s per lap, to 68/69s per lap.

Given I was on the front setting the pace I had control of the race. Riley had suggested if I was in this position my best chance of beating Potter was to run the middle section hard, maybe 66s a lap. So I tried that after going through the 2k mark. Only 3k to go now, may as well run 3k PB pace. I felt good picking it up but so did Potter and Arron. They were still on me and we rolled through 3k in 8:35. Faster than I had done before in a 5k and all under my own steam which was cool. I had 5 laps to go at this point and thought maybe I could step out and let them come dictate the pace. But no, I was enjoying running on the front which is a big motivator for me so I stayed there. With 3 laps to go I did the maths and realised as long as I ran faster than 70/71s a lap I would break my PB. Great! I can do that!

That’s potentially where I faltered. By being happy enough with a PB I was also happy enough for Potter and Arron to pass me just before 2 laps to go. I didn’t slow down from this point but both Potter and Arron put a gap on me. Far out, this is pretty classic, set the pace and get passed with 2 laps to go. I kept the next 400m honest and still had Arron pretty close in my sights at the bell. Potter was too far up the road but maybe Arron was gettable. With 300m to go I closed in on him slightly. Oh yep, he’s gettable for sure. I got my fighting instinct back and picked up the pace to pass him with 150m to go. At times earlier in the race he had clipped the back of my heels, all accidental, but it still had fired me up. I’m setting a perfect pace for you and you have the audacity to clip my heels? Are you trying to fire me up? It obviously did because after passing him I really got my tail up and closed in the final 100m pretty fast. I wasn’t going lactic or anything but I was running fast. I ended up 2nd in 14:16, an 8 second PB and about as good as I could have hoped for given the way the race played out. Potter ran 14:09 to win another State title.

Straight after the race I was pretty cooked which is always nice. I wasn’t the worst I’ve ever felt but I was still pretty cooked. I was happy with my result as it was a time I’d set myself as a goal to run at some stage this summer so to actually hit close enough to 14:15 in a race I’d controlled, on a hot night was good. It was 13s faster than my PB this time 12 months ago. If I improve by that much again in another twelve months I will be very very close to sub 14. It would’ve been nice to see how fast I could’ve run if there was five or six more guys in front of me, dragging me around, or if it was ten degrees cooler but I had to make the most of the environment I was in. To run 14:16 is also good because it’s close enough to sub 14 minutes that I can now dream of running that in another 12 months maybe which is in the territory of a result that I never thought was possible. But, like the scene in the Matrix where Neo finally begins to believe, I am now beginning to believe that I am capable of running sub 14. Which is the first step to becoming a sub 14 runner.

I warmed down post race with a few other guys and enjoyed getting my medal in front of some mates that had come out. My stomach went to absolute crap on me at one point and I had to sit on the toilet for a bit to relieve myself. With that sorted I got in the car, had a phone call with Riley, and then came home to pasta and a VB. Running a PB, and entering the 14:teens, I was kind of keen to celebrate with a few more than just one VB but I was torn between that adventure and getting ready for the State 1500m on Monday. If I celebrated too early I’d both risk ruining my prospects in the 1500m and also subconsciously convince myself that I’m happy with 14:16 as a lifetime PB. I am if that’s the case but I’m also of the mindset that there’s more in me, so why bother with a big celebration when I may break that PB in a few weeks or even a year’s time? So one VB and some pasta it was before I tried to fall asleep at 10pm.

3hrs and a cold shower later at 1am I was still awake. Still half revelling in my PB, still thinking about the 1500m, still thinking I’d eaten too much pasta and of course stressing as to why I couldn’t get to sleep. This is the part of night time track racing that sucks. I eventually did fall asleep and woke up at 7am which wasn’t too bad. Maybe all the sleep I had banked on Friday and Saturday was the thing keeping my awake and I wasn’t actually sleep deprived at all.

I got out for a run around Glenelg North and enjoyed not having to front up for a 2hr long run like I had done after the last few track races. I ran at my own pace with my own music and podcasts on a Sunday for the first time in a long, long time and really enjoyed it. I even bumped into another runner Tom on my run and then another runner named Tom at the beach afterward when I went for a swim. It was a two-Tom morning. I pulled up the best I have from a 5km so perhaps I either tapered succesfully into the race or I didn’t push myself hard enough? Maybe if I had run the first km a bit harder and got to 3km’s at 8:25 that would’ve been enough to get me absolute cooked? Maybe, but we’ll never know. Hindsight in running is always a funny thing. If I could’ve run faster I would’ve I’m sure. I’ll take the fact that I felt good on Sunday morning as a bonus because that means I’m fresh for the State 1500m on Monday.

The game plan with the State 1500m is to see if my 3:52 from two weeks ago was a fluke or the real deal. If I can run 3:50 or quicker I’ll be happy. If I run really quick, 3:47/3:48 I’ll be ecstatic. If I run slower than 3:53/3:54, well that’s not so bad and it might convince me I’m a 5k or marathon runner after all. The one interesting thing about having the State 1500m on Monday is that it makes the build up to the Mountain Champs slightly different to a typical race week. And it also means I missed out on a proper long run this Sunday in the build up to Ballarat at the end of April. It’ll take a bit of fiddling around with my schedule post 1500m to get things right in the lead up to both events but running to feel and letting my body dictate my training is something I’ve been confident in over the last few months so I’m excited by it actually. You can tell by foreshadowing the Mountain Champs and Ballarat Marathon events that I’m wrapping up this week’s blog and will leave you on a cliffhanger with the 1500m to be included in next week’s blog! Part of that is so I keep my normal schedule and part of it is because I want the time to put together my thoughts after the 1500m and Mountain Champs to work out what I do between now and Ballarat…. race the National Championships in the 5000m and 1500m? Race another trail event in Victoria? Lock into Marathon training? Where is the best chance of a good PB and result by the end of April?? What am I most interested in? So many questions and no answers until next week! Thanks for reading!