Fraser Darcy

This week marked the first week in three weeks I have strung together what I would call a normal training week. Given the marathon tapers and subsequent recovery weeks are always a bit lighter on volume and quality, putting together a normal training week means I get to do more running which is great. It also means I am back trying to change my fitness into something else that is not marathon specific or I am simply just trying to get more fitness. This time it’s the first option. I have another two weeks of training after this one until the Launceston Half Marathon and given this week of normal training, I am excited to see how I’ll go there.

The normal training week started like many of my other normal training weeks, with a 14km run on Monday at Belair utilising a more hilly loop. I’d shied away from this loop while I freshened up for marathon season so it was good to get back to it. I was very tired though following the Sunday long run the day before which I know sounds odd given I should be very long run fit coming off two marathons but that’s just the way it was. Luckily I didn’t have too much on during Monday and I was able to get what I needed done plus do plenty of relaxing. I fit in some mobility, went for an arvo easy run along the Sturt River to incite some more energy into myself (changing the location of a double run can easily help motivate you) and then jumped in the sauna. Yes, I was bringing the sauna back all week this week, as a last little effort to boost my fitness even higher. I only managed 20mins on the top step and then another 10 or so minutes on the bottom step.

Tuesday. Session day and my first proper session on a Tuesday in three weeks. I was fortunate it was something easily comparable, 8*1km, so I could easily gauge where my body was at, was I still tired? was I still fit post marathon?

On the first rep, I tucked in behind Jacob and Adam and ducked in just under 3:00. The second rep I was a bit quicker and even got a slight lead on the others. Ok, that’s a bit strange. The third rep was the same and I started to realise, hey I’m pretty fit if I’m leading some of these reps I don’t normally lead. Adam asked me if I was doing all eight the same or doing any reps in particular faster. Uh-oh, if he’s asking me that, that means they’re taking it easy and are doing a couple of reps hard…no wonder I was leading. Oh well, I still just tried to run them all pretty even (while the others ran 2:45 or quicker for reps 5 and 7) and in the end averaged probably my equivalent best for that session but pleasingly felt like I wasn’t too gassed at the end.

So it was a good session in the end. I didn’t have too much time to reflect on it but at least I could carry that positive start to the day through to my next task; picking up a fridge from Woodville for Alice. Yes, Removalist Fraser was back this week and having learned from my past removalist jobs, I had a better attitude for this one. The rest of the day was pretty cruisey, did some work from Mum and Dads on my computer and then went for an afternoon run. This arvo run was similar to Saturday’s arvo run from last week in that it turned into a steady progression. I was half doing an experiment to see if I could handle two sessions in a day off the back of an intense morning session. I of course did manage this, doing two marathon specific sessions in one day in the special block, but coming off 8*1km is slightly different. On this occasion, the arvo run at 3:30-3:40/km was a good little test which I passed, I felt fine, but more importantly it was again very fun to run that fast. Did it actually help my fitness though? Or just hinder it? Hard to know but I did pull up fine and sometimes gaining fitness isn’t the only reason I run!

Wednesday. Mid-week long run day and a good one in that with Jess and Jacob. I ran just 90 minutes and felt alright. I also had enough energy after the run to get some work done at The RunHouse, do some gym and then go for a good arvo run later in the day. Plus another sauna session. Yep, normal training was ticking along nicely.

Thursday. Second session of the week and for the first time in a long time, a pretty standard session of 2*9mins, 1min jog with 5*300m repeats at the end. This is the type of session that is a staple for most 10k/Half Marathon runners and can be run in a variety of ways (20-30mins continuous or broken up into 8,10,12 or some other number). I haven’t actually done too many of these style sessions because I am usually trying to get more volume at a slower more marathon specific pace in my second session for the week. Aiming at this threshold/half marathon effort for a few weeks is by design though because I have a half marathon approaching!

During the first 9 minute rep I felt after about 3 minutes in that yep, this is definitely my weakness. It’s the first time I’ve held this type of pace for longer than 3 minutes in almost four or five weeks. Maybe since the 2k reps session a month ago. It was good to recognise it was my weakness though because theoretically it means I have the most room to improve on it. I was doing this session with Adam and Riley and all I had to think about was keeping the effort around half marathon effort whilst sticking with them both. After the first rep I recovered a little bit on the 1 minute jog and then found the second one a lot more comfortable. Perhaps it was the gym DOMS holding me back on the first one or perhaps I wasn’t just warmed up. By the end of the second one I was pushing the pace a bit and was glad to call it there whilst still feeling positive about it. Some fast 300’s to finish were a nice icing on the cake as I gave myself the freedom to run as fast as I could to try and generate a little bit of lactic acid. Always a nice feeling I think.

That was only Thursday morning though. The rest of the day I was busy doing things for RAO, picking up the keys to Alice’s new house, putting together The Blue Line and of course going for an arvo run. There’s a lot to do in a day even when it only involves mostly running related things.

Friday. Last day of the ‘working week’ and I was on the bike for the RAO session. It meant my own easy run afterwards was solo but it was a good morning to just cruise around. I didn’t feel that flash on my legs and maybe thought the double marathon fatigue had finally caught up to me. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to rest on Friday though, Removalist Fraser was back on the job shifting furniture for Alice. Several hours later and I was cooked it’s fair to say. I scraped a few minutes of rest in the late afternoon together by opting to skip a short double run and then doubled up on the relaxation method by having a beer to celebrate moving Alice’s stuff (and some of my stuff too I must add) into her new unit. We could’ve spent the night unpacking clothes etc. but instead, went out to watch Jimeoin with some tickets I was gifted for Christmas! And, side-note here, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done I reckon. Big call I know, but I was so happy walking out that anything negative that had ever happened to me or anyone else in the world just didn’t exist for the 2hrs of the show or the 30 minutes that followed as we drove home. Great experience.

Saturday. The only negative thing about the Jimeoin show was that it was the night before the Ekiden Relay. It’s not ideal prep but neither was moving furniture but the worlds not perfect… Last year I ran sub 24 minutes for my 8k leg and my team won the race in a Course Record time. This year, I also ran sub 24 minutes for my 8k leg and my team came second by only a handful of seconds. Everyone improved on their result from last year but we were just beaten by a better team on the day. At first I was hoping to run a bit quicker than I did, running the same time I did last year makes me feel like I haven’t improved at all, but upon reflection it was still a good time. Last year when I ran that time I was right in the middle of a good training block and was primed for a half marathon (Sunshine Coast was the following week). This year, coming off the disjointed taper and recovery weeks I was unsure, especially given how cooked I felt on Friday, how my body would go trying to hold 3:00/km pace. Turns out it just managed to scrape through. Perhaps if I was a bit fresher I could run ten-fifteen seconds quicker but I wasn’t so I didn’t.

Being a Saturday I usually have a bit of time up my sleeve but this time around that was absorbed in shifting more of my stuff to Alice’s house which meant by the time my arvo run came around I was only able to just scrape one in (along with a sauna). It was nice to run my first double run from Alice’s house even though I have run in this area and along the beach many times. It was just nice to not have to drive to it to do so. Now, somewhere in the blog over the weekend I usually make reference to the Bombers and how they went but this weekend we can skip that segment. I had it on in the background as I set up a TV cabinet and it was good it was only on in the background.

Sunday. The final day of this first normal training week in a while and what better way to end it than with a good 32km long run. It felt a lot better than last week given I brought two gels with me this time and I had blown out the cobwebs last week. Discussing the weekend’s Ekiden Relay results, football results and who would be selected in a 100 person v 1 gorilla battle helped pass the time.

And then that was that. 175km’s or so, several sauna sessions, two gym sessions and I feel pretty good which is important too. I’m also a big fan of this progression over the last four weeks.

From here, next week promises to be another normal training week and then a slight taper into Launceston Half. There’s really not too much to it apart from that. Write some programs and keep settling into Alice’s house I guess. One part of me is approaching living in Alice’s house as the next coming of my aspirations to be the best runner I can be (AKA full-time training camp mode) like how I chose to move to Quorn to be the best outdoors person I can be. The other part of me is approaching living in Alice’s house as it’s a good thing to do and just part of the next step in life. We’ll see if the two approaches can co-exist or which part wins out over the next few months I guess…