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1Km Hill Reps With A Difference

by Stephen Jackson

Grahame Murphy and Stephen Jackson are two Sydney Striders who are better known for their extreme training methods than their regular attendance at club runs.

Their most noticeable running achievement to date was in 1994 when they completed two circumnavigations of the world. This feat that took them all of four minutes and at the time set a new record for the most northerly STaR which is unlikely to be broken. They ran twice round the base of the flag at the Geographic North Pole in a brisk -40 degrees C. (Rumour has it they took the easy option with the six o'clock group but this can't be substantiated because (a) there were no other Striders present, (b) the 6:00am start couldn't be judged by daybreak because the sun never went down, and ( c) all the world's timezones meet at the North Pole so the actual time is whatever you want it to be!

Shortly after returning from this epic STaR they became aware of the fact that the Striders 10km course at Marsfield was proving to be a difficult one on which to set a P.B. - It was concluded that it was due to the fact that the Marsfield course is not a flat one. A secondary factor could also be the roughness of the ground at the side of the road up the Epping Highway stretch. Anyway, the boys tried to put more emphasis on 1km rep sessions to improve their Trafalgar run times - but to no avail. Race performances out of Waterloo Park refused to get any better. A systematic and structured approach was required. The first step was to establish the exact training requirements.

The most important aspect was felt to be hillwork. Our gallant (?) duo also reckoned more would be better and so decided to seek out the most severe 1km repeats imaginable. As steep an incline as possible was the order of the day. Added features of this vicious workout would be i) oxygen debt simulation to help with the final 1km sprint back down Vimiera Road, ii) immense endurance and leg strength for the difficult section round the back of the University, iii) a cooler environment to better prepare for colder days in the critical mid winter races of the 10km series and iv) ideally a nice view to make the session somewhat more bearable. Lastly it was considered desirable to try and locate the training a little above sea level to provide concurrent preparation for high altitude symptoms occasionally experienced at Brindabella.

Armed with these detailed needs the pair of sterling (?) Striders looked around for the most suitable venue. Could it be a mid-Winter run (naked?) over the hill at the tail end of the Berowra StaR with Elastoplast over the nose and mouth to restrict breathing and run in cement filled boots for added effect, with self-induced vertigo from injecting copious quantities of a suitable "medication"? Possibly.

But then again, no, the view is not good enough there (Sorry, Kev.)

Grahame and Stephen hunted high and low with no apparent success. Undeterred, they looked harder and further afield for their ultimate workout options. "More is better" - then they heard of a training ground where the reps were not just ridiculously steep, but actually vertical; where the air was so thin pilots that cannot fly there without oxygen, so rough ropes and crampons are recommended; so cold that drink bottles freeze in minutes; and such a great view that people put up with all of the above to gaze upon it. In fact, each rep finishes 1000 metres in height above the start point. Perfect. An additional appeal was the fact that 20Kg backpacks would be necessary to cover the course. This would help with overall weight training.

And so they were off. To where? To Cerro Aconcagua in South America, at 22,834ft (close to 7km) the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayan region. It really was a perfect solution with ideal timing because :

1) Qantas offered to let every frequent flyer point equal 16,750 pts on Lan Chile
2) Work was starting to get dangerously interesting and enjoyable
3) Credit cards were almost all paid off - kids were putting too much demand on father's time
4) Climbing mountains were high profile after the Everest disaster
5) Channel 7 wanted to do a documentary on the climb.

It was time for another expedition anyway !

After nearly 36 hours of economy flying the masochistic pair landed at Mendoza in Argentina and met the rest of the expedition - just their luck to get an Adelaide boy, Ed Darby, on board. Ed is a 32 minute 10k runner, so the boys were forced to defend Striders honour with a far too fast 15k training run around Mendoza (12 hours after landing and jet lagged to boot). No probs... Off to Aconcagua for the 5 day walk to the mountain - goat tracks, raging rivers, and 3,000 vertical metres to base camp. By this time altitude sickness had kicked in and Grahame was acting like he does after every marathon - having problems remembering his name and generally staggering about - lucky we were used to it..... but the reps were obviously working. Day by day we were getting stronger, and day by day we were becoming more confident of tackling Marsfield - however, more was needed.

As we climbed the mountain (base camp at 4,000 metres, camp 1 at 5,000 metres, high camp at 6,000 metres, and the summit at 6,980 metres) the 1000 vertical metre reps of climbing to the next camp with 20kg's of gear and then decending, climbing then descending, climbing then descending, was doing something to us.... Eventually, after frostbite, white outs, blizzards, and other training inhibiting events, we summited. However, as we descended, one of our party, Megan Glasby of Sydney, fell 200m - but was luckily stopped by rocks (lucky? Huh?) with only severe bruising and ligament damage - a Japanese climber had been killed at the same spot only two weeks before.... The strength training came in handy as the only way to get Megan off the mountain was to gently walk / carry her down, turning what should have been a 3 hour descent to Camp 1 into an 11 hour battle that saw her so impressed with the benefits of SVI (Striders Vertical Intervals) that on return to Sydney she joined Striders! Some people will never learn. Grahame regained his sanity (or what he passes off for sanity) as the altitude lessened, Stephen threw in a couple of extra vertical 1000m reps to retrieve gear that could not be carried down by injured or incapacitated members of our team.

Back in Sydney (via Easter Island and Disneyland) the intrepid Striders, now numbering three, put the training to the test! Stephen failed miserably at Shelley Beach (2 minutes slower than his best - guess he forgot the speedwork), Grahame survived brilliantly at Comrades (only two hours behind his target - guess he forgot about the affects of too much oxygen at sea level), and Megan ran her first race at Pitt Town (and she didn't fall down once!)....

All agree that it (climbing the mountain, not doing the training) was a worthwhile exercise. But the question must now be asked.... Where to from here? What next? Sigh, it all sounds too hard - but Comrades 97 followed by Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya has a certain ring to it.... Grin.