McMillanElite :: Andrew Lemoncello

Andrew Lemoncello

Birthdate: October 12, 1982 Resides: Flagstaff, Arizona USA Born: Tokyo, Japan School: Florida State University Citizenship: USA | UK (races internationally for UK) Coach: Greg McMillan   Agent: Jurrie van der Velden, Global Sports Communication Affiliation: adidas Personal Records 1500m - 3:45.68 Steeple - 8:22.95 5000m - 13:33.01 5k (road) - 13:59.4 8000m (road) - 23:12 10000m - 27:57.23 (#3 All-Time - Scotland) Half-Marathon - 1:01:51

::BLOG ARCHIVE::

Entry #176
Week of December 21, 2009
by Andrew Lemoncello

Winter isn't exactly my favourite time of year. I used to get sick every year at the same time, but after 3 years of living in Florida I thought I had rid myself of my annual illness. My first winter in Flagstaff I was sick three times but I was lucky enough to stay healthy all of last year. I'm now back fighting a nasty cold and I'm eager to get back to full health as there is only so much Dog the bounty hunter I can watch in a day. This is the part of the job that is the most frustrating for me because I can't do anything about it. If I'm injured at least I can cross train and still get that rush of endorphins that I look forward to when I wake up every morning. I am heading to the gym everyday to sit in the steam room and try and loosen up some of the gunk that is clogging me up. The only thing I can do is look at the positive side of this and know that my body is getting some recovery before I start to get back into hard training and getting ready for my first marathon.

The town is gorgeous right now with the second big dump of snow that we got yesterday and there are blue skies so the visiting skiers must be having a nice time up on the mountain.

I hope everyone out there has a wonderful Christmas and enjoys some quality time with there families.

Lemon

Entry #163
Week of November 2, 2009
by Andrew Lemoncello

On Monday of this week, we had what I would easily call the most painful workout that we've run. The workout takes you to the absolute edge of your physical capacities (and beyond it for some), and you end up having to walk downstairs backwards for the remaining days of the week because your quads and glutes simply refuse to hold you up after what you have just done to them. Now, any of us could decide not to show up, or end up stopping the workout early, but everyone in attendance got through the minimum amount of reps set to us. We were set six to eight hill circuits which, even as I write the words, makes me feel tired.

This workout hadn’t been run for a year now, and I had never run this with anyone else. We have been doing hill circuits over a different course on the other side of town, but they were longer, gentler inclines that didn’t turn us into useless lumps of putty. The whole circuit is around half a mile, and it involves one rep up the hill, some jogging, followed by around ten seconds of striding, a jog downhill and then another stride before you go straight into the next rep. That really doesn’t sound too bad and really, two thirds of it isn’t. It’s the first part of the loop where you suffer through forty seconds of lung bursting, leg deadening agony.

It's one of those hills that when you look at it, it really doesn’t convey the amount of punishment that it is going to hand to you. Starting out isn’t actually that bad. The incline is runnable, but and here’s the big but, when you get through almost a third of the hill your suddenly finding yourself looking at the hill face on as it gets a few degrees steeper. At this point, it’s getting pretty hard, but you’ve only been running fifteen seconds, so you can handle it. It's at the twenty-five second point when you start to realize that you may have chosen the wrong sport when you were younger and life was so easy. The only way I can describe the feeling I think most of us felt was pain. Excruciating, horrible, vomit inducing pain. The hill gets steeper yet, and your legs are obviously going into some sort of defense mechanism to stop your whole body from disintegrating. I know I hit the wall every single time at the exact same point on every rep, and the only thing that was going through my head was how on earth was I going to move my body another step, never mind the next ten meters. When you finally finish the hill, you have no choice other than to try and gather any oxygen that is present in the vicinity and as quick as you can. I have never breathed that hard before, and I don’t know if I could start this workout again knowing what is store for us all at the top.

Now the kicker here was that Greg stated that this workout was to be done at eighty percent. I don’t care if your going at one percent or a hundred, you are going to be using every ounce of energy to get to the crest of the hill. The best part of this particular workout was the quotes that were spewing out of everyone’s lactic flooded mouths:

“Does anyone else’s teeth hurt?!”

“My ears are tired!”

“Uuueeegghh huuuhuuuu…..there’s last nights dinner!”

Anyway, enough of the details about this workout, the less I think about it, the better! Today’s workout of four reps around Buffalo Park seemed infinitely easier, although I was hurting through this session also. Now I’m looking forward to enjoying the last days of gorgeous weather before the impending Flagstaff winter hits us.

I hope everyone is training well and are looking forward to the winter season.

Lemon

Entry #147
Week of September 7, 2009
by Andrew Lemoncello

The summer is now ending, and this means that after 3 months of some of the best training of my life, it is time to start racing again. I was hoping to kick off the season with a bang at last weekend's Rock ‘n’ Roll Virginia Beach half marathon, but this was not to be. I have been suffering badly the last couple of weeks with stomach pains that have kept me off of work, so I went to the doctors where it seemed like he extracted half of my blood supply for a battery of tests he wanted to conduct. I went into the race with a positive attitude and wasn’t thinking about any of things that had gone wrong in the week leading up to the race, but in the end, the race ended up being what I would normally consider tempo pace, so at least I got a good workout out of the weekend. I was luckily still selected for the World Half-Marathon Championships, which has been my aim since I started back training, so I have a month to get back into the groove that I have been riding the last 3 months.

I am still very confident I can do well, as I have hit higher mileage and faster times than I have in the past, so my race merely indicated to me that there was more something wrong with me rather than me not being fit. I will also be racing the road 5km in Providence next weekend as a sharpener for my legs before the championships. I don’t think I have ever run a 5km on the roads so I’m quite excited to see how I fair against America’s best.

A big congratulations goes out to my house mate Brett for his first USA championships. Hopefully this will be a springboard for a long and successful career for him and the first of many championship titles.

Entry #132
Week of July 20, 2009
by Andrew Lemoncello

So it’s the middle of another summer, but this year, instead of being in the thick of the track season, racing around Europe and chasing times, I am staying in Flagstaff and starting from square one.

My track season lasted all but a month this year with PBs in 1500m, 5km and 10km, but then I decided to go home to the UK and get a few races on the road which turned out to be somewhat exhausting.

The two road races I did in Manchester and London were pretty much a disaster because I was so jet lagged that even getting to the start line was hard work. Arizona and the UK are on the exact opposite schedules with sunlight and I suffered badly with the change. After nine days of being exhausted and not sleeping I spoke with Greg and we decided it was best for me just to take my yearly break and get ready for the next big championship, the World Half-Marathon Championships in Birmingham in October. This was a big relief because it meant for the first time in many years I could enjoy the summer weather and get a long, full endurance base. I am now 6 weeks deep into my training and I still haven’t hit the really hard, lung bursting workouts that characterize training at 7,000ft., but running lots of miles does make me happy though and it is so easy to do so in the mountains and trails up here.

My first race back isn’t until September 6th so I still have another two months of training but I have already had some promising runs that remind me why all the training is worth it. I am doing much of the same training that I did for much of last winter and all the hard work paid off with being able to progress in training in racing just how I wanted. Breaking 28 minutes for the 10km felt great, but again, it was always going to be a stepping stone towards my longer term goals of running the London Marathon next year.

I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am with my running right now and enjoying the summer weather.

Lemon

Entry #110
Week of March 30, 2009
by Andrew Lemoncello

The hardest part of running for me dealing with disappointment. Not the hundred plus miles of training a week, not the core and strength work, not the stretching, eating right or racing. It’s the bouncing back after something goes wrong. Last week I flew to Lisbon, Portugal to run a half marathon and hopefully come back with a big PR and confidence for the rest of the season. Everything in training had been going well and I was really looking forward to the opportunity to prove myself. Unfortunately I had to deal with something that would destroy all my hopes of performing well – Jetlag. I slept for one hour on the overnight flight and then two hours the night before the race! I prepared as normal and put the lack of sleep out of my head as there was nothing I could do about it. It was a very strange feeling once the gun went as I felt like I was running very hard but I wasn’t moving quickly and as the race progressed I was getting slower and slower. After hitting 10km and having run out of energy I stopped and jogged to the finished feeling very disappointed and upset about having to drop out.

Now comes the hard part to deal with – I know I am very fit, I know I am ready to produce some good results but it is my head that has to be trained now to get ready for the next events and to compete hard. I luckily have a few weeks before my next race so I can get my body back into its regular pattern and re-teach my brain how it feels to run comfortably at a fast pace. I also have a coach and teammates who are supportive of each other and we all positively reinforce how good our training has been and how ready we are to run fast. This is one of the great things about having a group to train with day in and day out – we see each other progress everyday and know that our bodies are progressing also. We all learn lessons from each other and get pumped up when we see our friends performing well like they did at Stanford this weekend. After watching Lindsey take 40 seconds off her 5km PR I can’t help but be excited to race again.

I hope training is going well for everyone and everything is gearing up well for your upcoming races.

Lemon

Entry #95
Week of February 2, 2009
by Andrew Lemoncello

Hello from sunny Texas! I decided to stay down in Houston for a couple of weeks after the half marathon in Austin and stay until my next race, a road 10km in Edinburg, near the border of Mexico. Its been a little hard to gauge how hard I’m running down here at seas level because down here I can be tired and still run a lot faster than I do at altitude. This meant that by Saturday this week I had a little bit of a crash after a good weeks training and ended up logging a 3 mile day! I started my run only to realise that my legs were screaming at me to stop. This wasn’t a good start to what was supposed to be my long run so I decided to stop after one lap of Memorial Park (it’s a 3 mile loop that is a popular running spot in the center of Houston). This actually turned out to be the best thing I could have done because when I woke up on Sunday after a 10 hour sleep, my legs felt great and I was ready to get a good long run in.

There are a number of things that I find happen to me when I am doing some sea level training. The first and most obvious one is that I can run a lot quicker. It feels great to run at a quicker pace day in day out and feel easy doing it. The down side to this is that I can get a bit carried away and maybe run a little quick some times. The second thing is that I sleep a lot more. I’m not sure why this is but a long sleep in Flagstaff for me is 8 hours (not including my afternoon nap) where as I can crank out 9-10 hours no problem down here at sea level. Thirdly my appetite changes. I am lot hungrier here but I think that may have more to do with boredom setting in more than anything else.

I’ve been having a good time staying with my sister in the good weather but it still doesn’t compare to living in Flagstaff. There is only so many times I can run the same 3 mile loop (I’ve run about 80% of my mileage on it this week) or hit the track on my own now that I have been training with a tight knit group for so long. I am already missing training in a group, running the trails or simply the altitude keeping me in check.

The next goal for me is the Lisbon half marathon in a couple of months so I am excited to get back into the hard, long workouts with the guys and take a break from racing for a little while.

The team had another set of pr’s this weekend which was exciting for the group as they were all indoor national’s qualifying times for Lindsay, Becky and Ian. It seems like it doesn’t matter what surface we are running on, someone is going to set a pr every time we go out and race.

I hope everyone is training well and getting closer to reaching your goals!

Lemon

Entry #83
Week of December 8, 2008
by Andrew Lemoncello

Things just keep going up and up and for the team right now. A couple of weeks ago we all had good results in our respective road races and this weekend the guys came back with what we hope is the first of many USA titles. The guys were really focused on doing well at the USA club cross country championships and they did just that. It is great to have such positive results from just training through our base phase. I’m really looking forward to moving on to our hill phase of training now as the intensity of our workouts will increase and hills are also my biggest weakness so although I won’t enjoy it, I will relish the task as I know how strong I will come out from the training.

We did have a little bad news from this weekend from Europe where Martin was competing in the European cross country championships. Whilst leading the race through 4.5km, Martin took a bad tumble on a typically muddy Brussels course and was unable to recover his position and ended up further down the field than he’d hoped. I got a running commentary of the race and it turns out that as soon as Martin had fallen, the other leaders decided that that was the perfect time to get rid of him so they accelerated right at that point! Cunning stunt huh?! Anyway, he’ll bounce back quicker than anyone I know but first he has got a nice two week rest to enjoy back home in Ireland.

As for me, I’m still just continuing to train well and my fitness is slowly starting to increase every week. It’s such a strange feeling having been so fit during the summer and then taking a break and then trying to regain all that fitness again. But I am enjoying the training more than ever right now because I can just go out and run lots of miles in the snow covered trails with the guys. I just confirmed my next races for me and they will actually be back home in Britain which will be great as I can see some friends and family while I am there. I am running the Belfast international cross country on the 3rd of January and then the Great Edinburgh cross country the week after. The only downside of this is that I fly out of Phoenix on the evening of December 31st, which means I will celebrate new years somewhere over the skies of Florida! At least that means I will stay out of trouble…maybe!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and an enjoyable new year!

Entry #65
Week of September 29, 2008
by Andrew Lemoncello

I have reached a new point in my running career. After running badly in Beijing it made me realize that I never want to feel like that again and I don't want to be in a situation where I don't perform my best. Being surrounded by the best athletes in the world made me take note to how much goes into being a professional athlete. I always thought I did everything right but I knew there was room for me to improve on with all the little one percents that are needed to take my running to another level. I came back to Flagstaff ready to start training again with a more relaxed attitude (I pushed too hard last year and ended being ill a few times) but more focussed than ever.

The best part is that I have an even bigger pool of athletes to train with from when I left. There is now a big group to meet with everyday and we all help push each other so we can achieve our goals whether it's a 5km in the summer or a fall marathon. The old adage of you only get what you put in has really sunk in and I am excited to get back into full training up here at 7,000 feet.

The best part about being back in Flagstaff is the routine. I have been away for the whole summer, travelling to lots of different races and it feels good to have taken a break now and come back here and get back into way of things with the team. Meeting at eight in the morning everyday sets the day up nicely to get enough rest, do circuits and core, a second run and then go to work. Don't get me wrong, I love being back in Scotland and running on the track circuit but I feel so much more at home now that I am back in Flagstaff.

We are getting into an exciting time for the team as everybody has been up here training for a while now and the racing season is starting to kick off. Almost the whole team is away racing this weekend leaving only a few of us to anxiously wait for the results to come in. This is the other great part of having a team dynamic, we motivate each other with our results. If one person does well, we all feed off of that and get excited to race again.

Good luck to all the team that are running this weekend and to any of you out there reading this who have races coming up.

Lemon

Entry #48
Week of July 28, 2008
by Andrew Lemoncello

Normally I’m not really a fan of roller coaster rides but these last few weeks has been the best ride I have ever been on. The summer started out very well with a good run at the NYRR Healthy Kidney 10km and a week later my fastest ever opening time in Hengelo, Netherlands. This helped to get my head into the right place for the heavy summer racing program I had lined up. After three weeks of great training I headed to Prague where it seemed like everything I had done was coming to pieces as I had the worst race I’ve had in a long while and finished fifteen seconds behind where I was hoping.

Fortunately the next weekend was the European Cup in Annecy, France where I knew a tactical affair would be on the cards. After a well-judged run I managed to pull a few places back on the last lap and get third with Great Britain winning the team title. That again got my head back into the right frame before I hit another two races over the next week, winning them both.

So...(breathe!).... after four races in sixteen days I had a couple of weeks to get my body ready for the Olympic Trials. Everything went very well with my confidence sky high and my legs feeling great. I traveled down to the trials knowing I was going to do well and felt very relaxed. As I was running I felt very easy and was ready to for a hard kick. Unfortunately visions of the previous years race came into my head where I kicked from 500m to go and winning by a good margin. I tried this again but after coming over the last water jump the dreaded lactic kicked in. I got over the last hurdle, still leading but I had just towed two of my rivals along with me and they took inspiration from my body slowing up and came flying by. Well, the leader did. With one meter to go my former team mate from FSU used a sprint type dip to beat me by 0.05 and push me out of the first two automatic qualifying places. It didn't hit me right away that I had just screwed myself out of the Olympics but once I was sitting in drug testing and fellow competitors were filling out their kit forms it sunk in....HARD. I was tearing up and I hardly said a word for the next two days.

The guys that beat me weren't going to the games because they hadn't achieved the A standard time but I had. The stipulations of selection were a top two placing in the trials and the achievement of at least two A standards. My only hope was to run fast enough before the next weekend and try to convince the selectors that I had just messed up. The only race available was the Paris Golden League which I assumed was almost impossible to get into. It turned out that this wasn’t the case as my agent called me on my way to spend some time at the Adidas headquarters in Germany that I would be running there three days later. I quickly realized that this was my opportunity to prove something to the selectors and prepared myself to run fast. Standing on the start line in Paris was a great feeling as I knew I could run fast and all the disappointment that I gone through the previous week had really helped focus my mind on what needed to be achieved. That was crucial as my race became more of a time trial than anything else as I was left to run on my own after the lead pack moved away on the third lap. I had got into a good rhythm and managed to run perfect splits and a one second PR but more importantly I was two seconds inside the qualifying time. I was happy but couldn’t celebrate as I still didn’t know if it was enough to secure my spot in Beijing. Luckily I got the call the next morning giving me the nod to run in the Olympics so I spent the next hour and about forty dollars calling friends and family.

So that brings us to the present day where I am in the holding camp in Macau, South China with the rest of the team before we head into the village three days before our individual events. Training has gone well and I really looking forward to competing in the Bird Cage stadium. My race on the sixteenth is going to be the biggest moment and opportunity of my life so be sure that I am not going to leave anything on the track. I am looking forward to catching up to my house mate and fellow Greg-coached athlete, Martin Fagan, once I get to the village and maybe taking in some other sports such as beach volleyball or synchronized swimming! As good as this summer has been traveling around Europe and racing a lot, I am looking forward to getting back home to Flagstaff and training with all the new team members who have joined since I left at the end of May. Sorry this was a long blog but its been quite a full summer!

Entry #30
Week of March 10, 2008
by Andrew Lemoncello

Half of my mission is now complete. Step 1 - Qualify for the World XC championships. Step 2 - Run well in the championships and make the Scots proud! It is good to be home and racing on the domestic scene in the UK again. Being in the states for the last 4 years has kept me away from appearing regularly in British results but luckily I have been doing well in enough in the US to not be completely forgotten about at home

I feel just like Martin did when he was back in Ireland - although im back in my home country and training where I grew up, Flagstaff is still definately my home now. I miss waking up to the sight of the snow capped peaks and breathing the mountain air. And of course I miss the family of friends I have in Flag and their constant support. Being back in Scotland where I only have my old coach to turn to about training really highlights how important everyone in McMillan Elite has become in my new life in Flag. Greg and Tracy have brought such a stability to all of our lives that it is so easy to live and train happily everyday.

The trials race itself was a strange experience for me as it was my first XC race in a year and a half and luckily for me nothing went badly wrong! On the days leading up to the race I was feeling terrible and not too confident about my fitness but luckily I felt a lot better the day before the race and that got me in the right frame of mind for competing for a place on the team. Training has been going well enough since I have been back at sea level but there has been something missing and it wasn't until after my race that I worked it out. During the race I felt as though I had no change of gear and was just plodding along. The moment I finished I knew that it was actually being in that race was what I needed as I just looked at it as more of a training run as I was confident of making the team. I now have the edge and drive that I have been looking for and have been missing I think mainly because of having such an inconsistant winter of training due to illnesses. I am truly looking forward to every single run now until the Olympics. I just needed to flip the switch.

The day after the race I actually took my first day off in a long while as I was exhausted from the race and from sitting in a bus for the next 8 hours to travel back to Scotland from England. This turned out to be the best thing I could have done as I felt really good for my long run the next day (a lot better than I did for the race). From here on out I will be just training hard and preparing to do my best in the World Champs. I am really excited for the event as its the first time Scotland has had the event for 30 years and they are expecting around 20,000 spectators. As the only Scot running the champs there is some pressure but I am looking forward to the challenge. As the commentators from the trials race said as we finished crossed the finish line, "Now these guys have to go from the toughest race in the UK to the toughest race in the world!"

Entry #23
Week of January 21, 2008
by Andrew Lemoncello

This week was a really good one for me on many levels. I finally finished my base period last week and was able to start doing some hard sessions and I also had a nice return to racing at the 3M Austin half-marathon.

    Since I arrived in Flagstaff all I have been doing in training is lots of base work which consisted of running lots of steady miles and a steady state every week. I was hoping to have a nice uninterrupted period of training through the whole of the winter (doesn't everyone?!) but unfortunately I got ill a couple of months ago and it felt like I was starting back at square one. But as ever with training last month I felt a click in my body which let me know that my body had adapted and I was ready to feel good in training again rather than the slogging that I had felt I was doing.

After a couple of weeks feeling decent we decided to start on my preparations for the World XC champs and started to get some specific workouts in to get me ready. I am happiest when I am working hard throughout the week and having that lethargic feeling at the end of the day knowing that I have put some good work in. With base work it is quite hard to get this feeling so I was really pleased to be passing out in the middle of the day for a couple of hours and then falling asleep just as fast when it came to bedtime. This week was a bit of a test for me as I had a hard hill session and track workout and then a race at the end of the week.

The hill workout with the team went really well for everyone with Hanlon showing us that he is capable of some serious hill speed, Brett was as consistent as ever and Middle seemed to have saved himself to kick our asses on the last rep! I wish I was as tiny as Middle as myself and Jordan (the 6 foot 2'ers on the team) found it hard to lug our bodies up possibly the steepest hill in Flag. But, we stuck it out and felt the burn just as much as the other guys. Steep hills have always been my worst workout so it was good to be surrounded by the guys and to all be pushing each other. The next day brought about some very tender rumps for everyone from the workout so a nice gentle bagel run was in order to ease the pain.

The next day I went to the Dome for the first time to do a fartlek on the track and was pleasantly surprised with how good I felt. The one minute reps I was running felt very easy and it didn't feel like I was running at 7000ft so I took that as a good sign for the weekend.

I arrived in Austin with no expectations about the race. I wasn't worried about times or who I beat, I just wanted to be competitive and get the instinct back as I hadn't raced since August. The race went out very slow for the first half and there was still a group of about 15 of us through 8 miles so I decided to try and push it on a bit. Arriving at 10 miles the group had reduced to 10 so I figured that it’s only the same distance as a warm down to the finish so I could really start to pick the pace up. Within half a mile there were only 3 of us left and I felt very comfortable leading so just stayed there. Arriving on the finishing straight the 3 of us stayed parallel for a while until the eventual winner took off in a huge burst and took the other African runner with him. I almost just settled for 3rd but I decided that that wasn't satisfactory so I kicked again at 150m to go and picked off the 2nd place runner and just about caught the winner. I finished and realized that I wasn't that tired and that I was never in any aerobic stress during the race.

I got a nice big hug from my sister who had driven up with her new husband to watch me race and went for a nice cool down. The race has really put my head in the right place now as I know I am ready to go and give it everything when I return home to try and make the world XC team. Although I initially got frustrated with the new training I now realize it all has a specific purpose and the race put that in perspective for me. Its hard when your heart and head are not in the right place but it is safe to say that I am full of enthusiasm for this next period of training and for the team to be pushing each other everyday again.

Now the other big thing that happened this week was that Tracy and Greg had their first child. We had all waited for a few days for the news that he had arrived but I guess he didn't want to leave Tracy right away. The amazing thing was that the day that Tracy went to the hospital was the same day that she was out filming us training so it just goes to show how amazing she is! And the best part about the birth for me was name that Greg and Tracy picked for their first born - Angus Scott McMillan. He sounds as though he has just come straight from the set of Braveheart! The first thing I buy when I get back to Scotland is a tiny McMillan kilt for the little fellow!

The biggest thing for me was starting back running after taking 2 weeks off with sinusitis. I picked up a cold when we went to New York, which was frustrating as I was really pumped up after watching the trials and also seeing Paula getting back to winning ways. It made me realise how it is only a little while until I move up to the marathon and why I am so excited about it. It helps that someone like Ryan Hall makes it look so easy! I had a sore throat after being in the Big Apple and I figured it would pass in a couple of days but I continually felt worse as the week went on and one thing I have learned from making mistakes in the past is that my body does not function well if I continue to train while I am ill. I prefer being injured because at least then I can continue to train in the pool or on the bike but with illness I am stuck on a bed or on the sofa all day. It really sucks when I can’t wake up in the morning and get a dose of endorphins by popping out for a run. At the very worst I thought I would have to take just a week off but right when I thought I was starting to feel better again I suddenly felt worse and decided I needed to go and get checked out. The doctor told me I got re-infected after the normal 5-6 days that you have a cold for and gave me a course of antibiotics. I actually started to get a bit down about it because I would go and watch the sessions that the rest of the team were doing and that would get me pumped up and itching to run.

This all coincided with the arrival of my uncle and my dad, who had arrived from Scotland. They had both driven from Texas to see me and take me down to meet a bunch of family in Phoenix. Once I got down to the warm oxygenated climate of Phoenix I started to feel a lot better and managed to get some steady running done for an hour a day. I decided to take the week easy as I took off the same amount of time I would at the end of a season and there is no rush to get fit as I am aiming to peak in March.  That quickly went out the window as my girlfriend told me she was running a local turkey trot on thanksgiving day so I decided to go along and run as I figured it would be a bit of fun and I could make it into a little workout for myself. It would also allow me to gauge how much fitness I had actually lost through my unplanned break and it would get the pistons firing again. I planned on running around 30 minutes and that’s exactly what I did. It felt good to be running without coughing every couple of strides and just getting my legs moving at a decent pace again. I won a nice big turkey for my efforts but I couldn’t get anyone to take it off my hands. I tried to give it to my girlfriend’s family but that was a no. I then tried my own family but nope because they already had 2 of them in the oven so it is sitting quietly in the freezer now waiting to devoured by the team at some point.

The other fantastic thing about this thanksgiving was being around family. I am usually on my own for most of the year as my family is either in Scotland or in Texas but now that I am out here in Flagstaff I have my aunt and cousins in Phoenix and it was the first time I had met some of them. I had such a good time with them all and learning the history of our family and hearing stories about my relatives through the generations. The other great part was of course the food. There is a long line of great cooks running through our family so I was really happy to sit back and watch them all at work and preparing to add the inches to the waist lines but at least now I am able to get back to the hard work and the pounds drop off in a day I’m sure.

I am now back in Flagstaff more ready than ever to get back to the business of running as I saw how quickly I got fit before I was ill and I’m just looking forward to being around the team more again. I tried to distance myself from them the last couple of weeks so no one else would get ill from me and that made me realise how we have our own little family up here. I look forward to seeing the guys everyday and having that camaraderie that running brings to so many people. And on the note about family, we are proud to announce that we have a future addition to our Flagstaff family some time soon with announcement of Middle’s engagement to his long time girlfriend, Casey. Congratulations guys………Wham ohhhhhh!

From the moment I arrived in Flagstaff I knew I had made the right decision. I was greeted by Greg, Tracy and Martin and got settled into the house right away and was introduced to the rest of the team properly. Pretty much all of us had raced each other before (Martin and I have been racing each other for almost 10 years now) but I had never really talked to most of the guys before. Everyone seemed to gel very well so that made the transition to a completely new place a lot easier. I am really happy to have a good team of runners around me as we can all rely on each other for support and help when we need it. The great thing about being in a post collegiate group is that it is a totally different dynamic than in university. There are no egos or team mates trying to out do each other, something that I found to be a very strange concept in Uni. Everyone is here for the same reason – to do as best they can and become successful runners.

            The first week of training was great because I just had to go out and run every day, gradually building up the time on my feet. The thing about doing this in Flagstaff is that it is so easy to log the miles as the trails are great and there are so many other people to run with whenever you want. Watching the other guys training hard from the sidelines has really motivated me and I am itching to get back into the hard sessions again. I have been quite impressed by the way the guys handle the training and how thorough they are in doing everything they can to be a complete athlete. Everyone knows there are no shortcuts to being successful in distance running and Greg is helping to fill any gap there may be that we need to fill. We can all see Greg’s vision and how hard he and Tracy have worked on this project so we all want to see it through and fulfil our potential.

            The Sunday long run has been the highlight of the week for me. Last week there was about 20 people who showed up to the ranch to pound the roads and get used to running on the tarmac. Although it was my first long run of the season, I felt pretty good until about 12 miles when I started to tire and backed off for the last few miles. The altitude really kicks you in the ass if you don’t treat it right! It was great to watch the others from behind working together and pushing each other throughout their session. This week we ran a new trail that climbed to about 7900ft for the first 11 miles and then you turn back (which was a great relief for everyone). I think I have gone through the first adjustment period to altitude as I felt good running with the guys but not good enough to start cranking the speed to marathon pace courtesy of Mr Peter Gilmore. I’ll leave that for another day!

Everyone has a big week coming up. Andrew is running his marathon debut in Chicago. Brett and the Mikes are running the ten mile champs in Minneapolis and Martin has the Boston half marathon. That just leaves Brianna, Ben and I to get on with training and twiddle our thumbs while we wait for everyone else’s results!