{"id":389832,"date":"2024-05-01T23:49:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T23:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389832"},"modified":"2024-05-02T01:05:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T01:05:03","slug":"brutal-mountain-session-that-primed-aussie-for-sizzling-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389832","title":{"rendered":"Brutal mountain session that primed Aussie for sizzling run"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Aussie distance runner<\/a> Rose Davies\ufeff 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and Sarah Billings, of a notorious session in the Victorian high country.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Why Aussie selectors snubbed freakish young star\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"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.<\/p>\n

"It's one of those sessions where you get nervous two days out and in the warm-up everyone's quiet."<\/p>\n

\"Genevieve<\/p>\n

Davies stopped the clock at 14:\ufeff47.86 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.<\/p>\n

World Athletics had slashed the 5000m Olympic entry standard from\ufeff 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<\/a>, runners were running increasingly quicker times, so World Athletics acted.<\/p>\n

When the governing body revealed the entry standards for the Paris Games in December 2022, Davies was stunned.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I was like, 'Woah, that is really fast\ufeff', 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.<\/p>\n

"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."<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/p>\n

At the national athletics championships in Adelaide last month, she won the 5000m title in a tactical race, taking victory in 15:21.62.\ufeff<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The hill is steep and exposed to the elements, meaning she and her training partners, including Batt-Doyle, Billings, Genevieve Gregson<\/a> and Eloise Wellings, are often fighting a blustery wind as they do the gruelling work.<\/p>\n

Among the many other top Australian runners who've \ufefftackled the session are Brett Robinson, Jack Rayner<\/a>, Ryan Gregson<\/a> and Stewart McSweyn<\/a>, hammering along under the watchful eyes of Nic Bideau and Collis Birmingham, a couple of leading Australian athletics coaches and agents.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/p>\n

"T\ufeffhat's a really tough session physically and mentally," says Davies, who's coached by Australian Rio 2016 marathon runner Scott Westcott.<\/p>\n

"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.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI am pretty proud [of running the 5000m Paris Games qualifier]," Davies says.<\/p>\n

"I haven't really had time to sit back and reflect on my progress\ufeff yet … but I am proud of myself."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Aussie distance runner Rose Davies\ufeff set herself for a race in China that was sure to be blisteringly quick, her mind flashed back to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":389835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389839,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389832\/revisions\/389839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/389835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}