Falls Creek Village is at 1600 m elevation in Victoria's High Country, about 5 hours drive from Melbourne. Each year many of Australia's elite endurance athletes (distance runners in particular) head to 'Falls' from Boxing Day for anywhere from one to eight weeks of altitude training.
The simplest explanation of why people train at altitude is that at high elevations there is less oxygen in the air, so the body adapts accordingly by increasing the amount of red blood cells and haemoglobin in the body. The theory is that when you return to sea level, increased levels of these factors leads to a competitive advantage.
Adding to the mystique of Falls is that none of the sessions are coached, or even programmed, but rather have evolved through years of athletes training there with names such as Moneghetti and Bideau guiding the sessions. By 2010 groups of up to 100 athletes now congregate each day at 0930 in the morning and 1730 at night for the same sessions each year. A full week at Falls is about 130-160 km of running, and is not for the feint hearted.
Being a multi-sport athlete I didn't want to only run for a week so, taking a typical multi-sport program, I replaced recovery runs with sessions in different disciplines. My week in Falls was as follows:
Day 1:
1800 - Run 'Recovery' (Village Aqueduct - Roper's) ~ 9km
45min @ 70% MHR.
Moneghetti's National Altitude Training Centre (NATC) Run 1b
A quick recovery run with Soph after the car trip, didn't feel too flash. I'd forgotten how amazing the landscape is up here. It's going to be a great week.
Day 2:
0930 - Run 'Kilos' (Langfords Gap - Wallace Hut) ~ 16km
25min WU, 6x 1km @ LT2 w 90sec recov, 25min WD
Moneghetti's NATC Run 3a
My first group session. The warm-up along the west aqueduct track was pretty quick (~4:30 min/ks) and I wondered a little what I'd gotten myself into. Everyone assembled at a ski pole out on the aqueduct and the session started itself. I felt OK but the legs just got heavier and heavier each rep. Mona gave me a "great work" halfway through my fourth rep. Running at altitude is hard work.
1700 - Paddle 'Easy Fartlek' (Rocky Valley Storage) ~ 15km
15min WU, 90min un-structured fartlek, 15min WD
Set out on the lake looking to do an easy session with some moderate efforts. Paddled a full lap of the lake, hard into the wind, easy with it. It was quiet out on the lake, just me and a few fisherman :-)
Day 3:
0930 - Run 'Tempo' (Langfords Gap - Fitzy's) ~ 20km
1:45hrs @ 80-85% MHR
Moneghetti's NATC Run 4c
The group split at the start and we ended up in the bunch doing another session so we had to play catch up for the first km or so to get back onto the other group. I doubt I'll ever run down Collis Birmingham ever again. It was a really windy morning but the views from top were fantastic.
1730 - Bike 'Neg-Split' (Mt Beauty - Falls Creek) ~ 65km
2:30hrs @ 70-80% MHR on descent, 85-92% MHR on ascent
http://cycle2max.com.au/bike-hill-climb/Falls-Creek-(Full).aspx?id=178
Rolled down the mountain into Mt Beauty then turned and rode threshold the whole way back up. Felt really good through the first 25 km of the climb but really started to work once the gradient picks up at the Park Gates. Starting to feel like I'm getting my climbing legs back!
Day 4:
0930 - Run 'Quarters' (Langfords West Aqueduct) ~ 13km
25min WU, 6x 400m @ LT2 / 200m float recov, 25min WD
S-T-Ruggled to get out of bed but glad that I made the effort. Mona organised everyone into groups after the warm-up with the fast boys off first. Felt OK for the first two, but felt the ks in the legs after that. The really fast boys started to come through after about 5 efforts. Probably my worst session for the week. Soph was on fire though and did 8x 400m then 6x 200m. Madness.
1700 - Paddle 'Pyramid FtLk' (Rocky Valley Storage) ~ 10km
12min WU, 12, 8, 4, 1 w next interval recov, 5min WD
Simple descending pyramid across the lake. Paddled easy downwind, then turned and did an effort into the wind. Felt pretty good given the weeks volume, starting to feel like I'm adapting to the altitude. Two other's were putting in racing ski's as I left.
Day 5:
0800 - Bike 'Easy Halves' (Bogong - Falls) ~ 90km
3x aerobic climb of 15km @ 80% MHR, recover on descent.
http://cycle2max.com.au/bike-hill-climb/Falls-creek.aspx?id=150
Sammy Rix and I headed out for three repeats of the Bogong - Falls Creek section of the climb to finish the week. It was a fantastic mild morning, with the sun glistening through the trees. We climbed steadily chatting most of the way up. A great way to finish off the week.
So, what did we take away from the week?
Falls was fantastic; it's a great place to train and there's plenty of coffee to be drunk when you're not training. However, training at altitude is much harder than it is at sea level in Melbourne and Soph's coaches' advice was right; "you don't go to Falls to get fit, you go to get fitter." If you want to join in the sessions with the elite boys you'd want to be able to run say a sub 37-38 min 10k at sea level.
Also, after trying to train hard at altitude I strongly reccommend anyone going up for the Falls Creek Long-Course Triathlon gets up to Falls as early as possible if they want to do well. It takes a good few days to even start to adapt, and almost two weeks to fully adapt, to the conditions.
Finally, about those training secrets of Olympic athletes. Unfortunately, they do the same sessions as you or I.
We'll be back next year!
