My journey as a marathoner...

Feb 17 Monday - 5 miles + weights Feb 18 Tuesday- AM: 5 miles PM: 10 miles w/ 5x3min Uphill + ART Feb 19 Wednesday- AM: 5 miles + weights PM: 10 miles Feb 20 Thursday- 12 miles w/ 5 mile tempo (25:48) Feb 21 Friday- AM: 5 miles + weights PM: 10 miles + ART Feb 22 Saturday- 10 miles Feb 23 Sunday 15 miles w/ Jones 10 mile race (2nd 50:51) Total 87 miles Three weeks ago I told myself that if I could run sub 52 minutes at Jones, it would be a good start to marathon training. Even though I lost by 8 seconds (to Eric Ashe who just ran 65:01 Houston Half), I was very pleased with my effort. The course is very hilly and it was longest race I've done in 2 years! Overall this was a great week of training with a solid mix of workouts, weights and doubles. I'm looking forward to continuing to increase my mileage and put in the strength work that I need in order to get back to the marathon. I'm feeling the healthiest I've been in several months thanks to Dr. John Donovan,

Feb 10 Monday - AM: 5 miles + weights PM: 10 miles+ART Feb 11 Tuesday- 10 miles with 5x3min uphill Feb 12 Wednesday - 12 miles + weights Feb 13 Thursday - AM: 10 miles (uptempo) PM: 5 miles Feb 14 Friday - AM: 5 miles PM: 10 miles + weights Feb 15 Saturday - AM: 5 miles PM: 10 miles (progression) Feb 16 Sunday - 15 miles Total 97 miles

Although I haven't posted much, a lot has happened since my last post in August of 2013.  I got a new PR in the 10km (29:54), won a national championship (11k, 33:19) and won an international medal at the Lusophone Games (5k, Gold). Now that we're at the beginning of the year in 2014, it's time to start making some new plans towards the long term plan - Rio 2016! Following my knee surgery in May 2013, it's been a rocky road back to recovery. Scar tissue is nothing to be messed around with. I was told post surgery that effects can still last up to 2 years! With my goal of running in Rio 2016 Olympic Marathon, scar tissue is a no-no for marathon training. Luckily, I'm now starting to understand my body better in terms of what treatment I really need to fix this problem. For now my short term goal is to get back to "Marathon type" training. The only way this will possible is to increase my training load capacity progressively while getting rid of scar tissue.