Blog Roll - Andrew Lemoncello

Thursday – It was another early morning on Thursday so that I could get down to Sedona before it got really hot. I managed to get there for 8.30am but it was already hot so I ended up sweating quite a bit when I was doing my stretching as the fake turf was getting up to cooking point. The warm up wasn’t too bad as the warm up trail was under the shadow of a big hill. I wasn’t feeling too perky when I was getting on with the first rep but as I was going to be on the track for a while, I knew I would start to feel better. The session was 8*800 with 400m rec (in about 3 mins), starting at 10km pace and working down to 5km pace. I ran the first rep in an easy 2.14 but the legs just weren’t used to it yet so the next one in 2.10 helped me to get my body into a good rhythm for the hard efforts. From here on out the workout got pretty hard and I had to use a lot of mental tricks to get me through it. I ran 2.08s for the remaining reps and it was surprising how tough it got towards the end. There was no problem with breathing but my legs were getting tired very quickly. All in all, it was a good workout and I had a really nice sit in the creek afterwards before I headed back up the road to Flagstaff.

I missed my evening run as we were at Home Depot for close to 3 hours picking out lights and fans for the house. This process was a lot tougher than I imagined with all the choices and budget restrictions. We came away with some nice stuff so I just hope it looks good in the house.

Friday – I only had a couple of easy runs on the cards today so I could recover well from yesterday and run well on tomorrows long run.

Every first Friday of the month, there is a downtown art walk and tonight was the busiest I had ever seen. It was simply packed so we let Julie’s parents walk around while we caught up with some friends and had some drinks out on the patio of one of the central restaurant patios. The weather was gorgeous so it made the evening really nice. We had dinner at Mountain Oasis and it was amazing. I got a Prime Rib that was fantastic (I always order this whenever I see it on a menu) and everyone else was really happy with their choices. With the amount of wine we had that night, we simply passed out once we got back to the house!

Saturday – We met out a A1 mountain road at 8am for the long run and the temperature was already creeping up. Luckily, no one was going super long so we wouldn’t suffer too much. I ran with the guys for first 9 miles and then picked the pace up for the last 7 miles. The first 9 miles were in around 61 mins and I ran the last 7 miles in 37 mins. It felt good to be running quickly on this run and I was really able to open my stride up in a few sections.

We all headed to out breakfast afterwards which did a great job of filling me up and then I headed back home while everyone else went down to the creek for the day. I can’t actually remember what I did for the rest of the day but I do know it was a hot day.

In the evening, Julie, me and her parents went to a wine tasting and then had dinner at a Greek restaurant. It was a really nice evening and a good way to finish off the weekend with Julie’s parents (they were leaving early the next morning).

Sunday – I woke up pretty early on Sunday and drove out to Country Club and met Lee Troop and Craig Mottram for their long run. We headed into the trail system out there and just ran easily. I was finishing after 60 mins so we went back by their apartment to drop me off and so that they could grab a drink before heading off for the rest of the run.

Julie and I went back out to the furniture store to try and haggle the price of a sectional down but weren’t too successful in getting the guy to budge on the price so we are going to try again later on in the week.

Monday – We met at one of the high school tracks so we could all do our workouts. It was quite strange that all of had workouts to do but only 2 people had the same one to do so we were pretty spread out. Greg must have had quite the time trying to time everyone. I was just doing a short speed workout of 14*200m hard with 200m easy. I ran 30, 30, 29, 29, 28, 28, 28, 28, 27, 27, 27, 27, 26, 27. It felt pretty easy and relaxed so hopefully that will set me up for a good workout on Thursday.

I didn’t do too much for the rest of the day apart from sleep and recover! Its been pretty tough to be in the house as we don’t have air conditioning and its been getting pretty warm during the day. This is the case even more at night and Julie and I are now sleeping with 2 fans on while we sleep! Its pretty noisy but we’re used to it now so it doesn’t bother us at all.

Tuesday – Today was a good and busy day. I was late to the run as I thought it was at 8.30am but I hadn’t realised that it had changed to 8am. I just ran alone on the Fort Tuthill trail and was feeling pretty good so ran at a decent pace. I went out for the first 5 miles in 32 mins and came back in 28 mins. We then headed over to the Pro Formance training facility so we could do some core and strength training. For some reason I couldn’t sleep after this so just got on with a lot of chores around town before I headed out to Greg’s house for a meeting with him. I was really tired for the second run so I just ran very easily from the apartment up to Buffalo park, one lap of it and back.