This is it, Week 1. Yesterday I officially started training for my second marathon, which is going to be on December 12. I had been running 4/6 times a week for the last month without giving much importance to my pace/distances, just trying to figure out where I was physically after a really lousy first half of the year. Turns out I’m better than I expected, I’m not as slow as I thought I would be and I didn’t loose all my endurance. So I’m happy about that (Although I’m far from my best shape).

Now it’s time to set up a goal for this marathon, which is going to be: Getting to the finish line. Back in January my goal for the year was to get in great shape during the first 6 months and then train to run a sub-4 marathon. But life got in the way and that didn’t happen. So instead of forcing myself and risking an injury (again) to try to accomplish a time goal, I just want to finish this marathon uninjured and in great shape, so I can start 2011 ready to face any challenge.

I’ll be posting more frequently from now on to keep everyone up to date, my first long run (if you can call it that) is this Sunday and I should be writing a week report, so until then.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I had surgery (umbilical hernia) the day after my last post, and honestly, I don’t think it could have gone better. Surgery started at 8:30am, I was awake at 9:30, although still under the effects of the anesthesia (which was quite fun to be honest) and I was at home at 1:30pm eating lunch. One week after surgery the doc told me I could start doing cardio as long as I took it easy. So I started following the doc’s orders immediately!

I am far from what I’d consider good shape, I didn’t run at all since I got diagnosed the hernia (which was in April) and I kept eating as if I was still training, so I gained some wait. But I’m feeling great, been doing at least 1 hour of cardio (between running and the elliptical) 6 times a week for the last 3 weeks. I’m really motivated and I know I’ll get back in shape quickly. Right now the plan is to keep ‘playing it by ear’ for the next 3 weeks and then I’ll start with a serious training plan for the Caracas Marathon, which is on December.

Also, during this last month my dog past away. He was an 11 year old Weimeranner called Goku (That’s his huge nose on the pic). When he was a puppy he ate poisoned food from purina (that was a disaster that happened a few years ago, when purina sold poisoned food and 700+ dogs died), his liver was affected because of this and he had to take a lot of pills everyday. But thanks to the best Vet in the world (Seriously, if you ever need a Vet for your dog come here, the trip to South America will be totally worth it) he was really happy and cheerful all the time. And although I really miss him, it was something I knew was coming and it didn’t happen in any sudden way. So I’ve handled it pretty well.

Besides all this, I took a summer course at the university, which is really intense. 3 Hours of classes every day and then I have to study for at least 2 more hours, with all that being only 1 course I get really burned out. When I’m done studying I start working, and because I can’t dedicate enough time during the week to work I’ve been working on weekends too, so I’m extremely tired 24/7, can’t wait for the summer course to end (2 more weeks).

So that’s what’s been going for the last month, I’ll start posting more often now that I’m working out more regularly and am cleared by the doc to do more efforts (I took the dust off my bike today, going for a ride tomorrow – first time in 4 months, I’m so excited!)

Anyone still reading this?? That’d be awesome!

I know I haven’t posted in a while but I have a good excuse this time: I have an umbilical hernia, but it didn’t bother me much until about two months ago when it got bad again. So I went to the doc and he said I needed surgery this time and that I couldn’t exercise in the meantime. When he gave me the news I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run he race I was training for, but I was also in the middle of the semester and I didn’t want to miss a lot of classes because of the surgery, so I decided to wait for the semester to end.

Well, the semester is over and I’m having the surgery tomorrow morning (in about 9 hours so I’m a bit nervous :S ). It’s a simple procedure and I should be back home by noon.

I probably won’t be posting much either in the next 3 weeks, but after that my recovery time will be done and I plan to start training for a marathon in December, so I’ll start posting again.

If there is something I can usually brag about is the perfect weather around here. Caracas is near the Caribbean coast but located at 1Km above sea level, which means sunny days at temps a bit cooler than those found on the beaches. Rarely rains, winds aren’t something to worry about, and it’s like that during the whole year. Yeah, I’m spoiled when it comes to weather. To make it better we have a mountain called ‘El Avila’ to the north of the city, which makes the city look really green and is a great escape if you wanna go hiking or biking. Honestly, It’s the perfect place to live if you only consider the weather. The picture above is how the city looks, every day.

That is until this year when between El Niño and Global Warming we’ve reached record high temps and we’re going through a long period without rain. To make things worst El Niño brought a huge cloud of ‘Calima’, which is like a huge smog cloud covering the whole country that is making the temps go even higher. What’s the consequence of all this? Fire!!!

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El Avila has been burning for the last 2 weeks!!! Caracas is now covered with smoke to the point where you can’t see the sky. The city went from looking like in the picture above to this (those are not clouds, that’s smoke!):

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Because of this I’ve barely been able to get any training done for the last week, going out for a run feels awful for my lungs and throat and after a few minutes outside even my eyes start itching. I was able to go swimming and do some indoor training on the gym, but nothing outside. The worst thing is that we’re not expecting rain in the next 2 weeks, so I’m gonna have to spend a long time on the gym this week.