As Aussie distance runner Rose Davies set herself for a race in China that was sure to be blisteringly quick, her mind flashed back to the many times she's belted herself on a Falls Creek hill.
Looking to settle nerves ahead of the women's 5000m at the Shanghai Diamond League at the weekend, the 24-year-old reminded herself and a couple of her training partners, Izzi Batt-Doyle and Sarah Billings, of a notorious session in the Victorian high country.
The gun was fired, and 12.5 laps later, Davies had run a huge personal best and cracked the extremely difficult Paris 2024 entry standard.
READ MORE: Why Demetriou can buck infamous Bennett 'curse'
READ MORE: Former Wallabies coach emerges as shock Rabbitohs contender
READ MORE: Why Aussie selectors snubbed freakish young star
"I always say before the race to my training partners … 'If we can do 6x800m hills at Falls Creek we can get through this five-kilometre race'," Davies tells Wide World of Sports.
"It's one of those sessions where you get nervous two days out and in the warm-up everyone's quiet."
Davies stopped the clock at 14:47.86 in the Diamond League 5000m, dipping under the 14:52.00 qualification time to all but certainly secure her ticket to a second Olympic Games.
World Athletics had slashed the 5000m Olympic entry standard from 15:10.00 to 14:52.00 after the Tokyo Games in 2021. Largely as a result of the explosion of the super shoe market, runners were running increasingly quicker times, so World Athletics acted.
When the governing body revealed the entry standards for the Paris Games in December 2022, Davies was stunned.
"I was like, 'Woah, that is really fast', because the time previous to that [for the Tokyo Games] was 15:10.00 and I had only just snuck under that time," says Davies, whose 5000m personal best at the time was 15:07.49.
"I was like, 'It's going to be a massive jump for me to do that' … I knew I had to do a lot of work to achieve that time."
The gritty runner from Newcastle says piling up 145km weeks, which she's done consistently for the past two years, was key to her progress.
At the national athletics championships in Adelaide last month, she won the 5000m title in a tactical race, taking victory in 15:21.62.
The aforementioned session at Falls Creek, consisting of 6x800m hills on a rocky dirt road at roughly 1800m above sea level, has made up a small but crucial percentage of her mileage.
The hill is steep and exposed to the elements, meaning she and her training partners, including Batt-Doyle, Billings, Genevieve Gregson and Eloise Wellings, are often fighting a blustery wind as they do the gruelling work.
Among the many other top Australian runners who've tackled the session are Brett Robinson, Jack Rayner, Ryan Gregson and Stewart McSweyn, hammering along under the watchful eyes of Nic Bideau and Collis Birmingham, a couple of leading Australian athletics coaches and agents.
They grind up the hill, jog back down and grind back up, gasping for oxygen in the thin Falls Creek air, their legs growing heavy and burning.
"That's a really tough session physically and mentally," says Davies, who's coached by Australian Rio 2016 marathon runner Scott Westcott.
"You get to that fourth rep and you just think, 'Oh my God, I can't do two more reps', and I think that really helps for the five [kilometres] because it's pretty much mimicking the feeling that you feel at three [kilometres], when you're so tired and you realise you have two kilometres to go. You can do it; it's more telling you're body you can do it.
"I am pretty proud [of running the 5000m Paris Games qualifier]," Davies says.
"I haven't really had time to sit back and reflect on my progress yet … but I am proud of myself."
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.