144.8 Miles

I'm gonna run again in 5 days.

With that said, all the time I've been spending on the bike will hopefully be a thing of the past. This month I spent 35 hours exercising, one of which was running, the rest were in the saddle.

For the month of January, I started riding my bike to work as often as possible, and for the month it totaled 144.8 miles. I didn't get to ride everyday, but when the weather cooperated I did.

Commuting to work on my bike has been an incredible experience and something I don't plan on quitting once I start running again. What I'll really have to see is how much the cycling effects my running workouts during the day. I know that when I get back to logging big miles I won't have the time anymore to ride the bike to and from work, but that probably won't be till later in the year.

This weekend is Rocky Raccoon, and I cannot tell you how excited I am to volunteer for this thing. I know it's going to be unbelievably tough and tiring, but I can't imagine how good it will feel to help these people out. I've got all my camping gear packed up, and all I've got now is to make a few final adjustments tomorrow and Thursday before we leave Friday morning.

I'm also looking forward to writing my first "Volunteer Report" from the inside of the race... as a spectator...

All in all, it should be a great weekend full of good friends, good running, and great times.

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update and wish you all the best at Rocky this weekend!

_Jacob_

Mountain Biking and Bike Commuting...

With my lack of trail running (or running in general the past few weeks), I've lost some motivation to blog, because my favorite aspect of blogging is getting to talk about my trail running and racing experiences.

As most everyone knows by now, I've decided to take the entire month of January off from running to let some Extensor Tendinitis clear up in my left foot. I've only run ONCE in the past 31 days and that was THREE weeks ago today.

Despite my lack of running, I actually have had a fairly decent month workout wise. I've managed a minimum of seven hours of cardio with a fair amount of CORE work. This last week, I had a good friend talk me into meeting him for a mountain bike ride, and man, am I happy I met up with him. While it wasn't a very successful ride for me (a stupid flat due to a lack of Stans), I was now motivated to find someway to get back out on the trails I love, even if that was on two tires instead of my two feet.

I decided to head out to the Northshore trail of Lake Grapevine (one of my favorites) and planned on getting around 22 miles in, or the entire trail. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day, and a great ride. Unfortunately around mile 16 I went bombing down a pretty rocky section just flying over everything when my rear tire slammed down into a rock and I ended up with Stans flying everywhere and air just flying out of my tire. I quickly pulled off the trail and started spinning the tire like a mad man trying to make sure the Stans would seal it.

Sure enough after a little more air and enough spinning the Stans sealed it! Couldn't believe it. That hole was way too large... or at least I thought it was. I thought about continuing on, but decided to turn around early and ride the section of trail closer to the car in case the Stans didn't hold everything. Turns out the Stans did hold, but I didn't want to take any stupid chances and end up walking my bike back 3-5 miles on some sandy/rocky terrain.

I'm still commuting to work on my fixed gear bike as much as possible. Last week that was 3 out of 5 days, and this week it's looking like it's gonna be another 3 out of 5 due to some pretty solid rain in the north Texas area. I've already logged around 85 commuting miles since I started riding the bike to work a few weeks ago. 

So now that I've bought two new pairs of running shoes while recovering from this stupid tendinitis, what's the next thing to do!?

Well of course I had to register for a race! Haha. I've decided to race the Cross Timbers Trail Marathon on February 18th. I'm gonna be volunteering at Rocky Raccoon next weekend, then I'll have two weeks to do any training in hopes of having a nice little run at Cross Timbers. While I know my running legs won't be totally ready, I'm hoping that I'll be fresh and my cardio will be solid enough to finish fairly well. Regardless, it will be a nice comeback after an unexpected month off. 

I am SO ready to run, but at the same time I'm unbelievably afraid that the pain will come back as soon as I take that first running step. Only time will tell, but for now I'm praying for a successful recovery and a quick comeback to the sport I love. 

Lastly, I want to share something with all of you that found your way here. Last Saturday night, I was deeply impacted by the sermon at our Church service. I can't recommend or encourage you enough to listen to it. It's about 45 minutes, but well worth your time. It's very relevant to the happenings of the time we live in. If you have any questions about it, please don't hesitate to ask me. While I may not have all the answers, I can definitely direct you in the right direction. CLICK HERE to check it out. 

I hope everyone has a great week and all of you that are tapering off for the Rocky Raccoon 100 I wish you the best next weekend!!

-El Jacob

The bicycle to nowhere...

I've run once in the past 22 days.

Difficult for me to say the least, but I'm getting there. The end of January is less than 14 days away, and Rocky Raccoon is just around the corner.

I've been working out an average at least an hour a day. Since the only thing I can do right now (and want to do) is cycle, I've been riding the trainer in the garage every afternoon for an hour, plus working on my CORE exercises.

I've also been riding my bike to and from work every night, and that's been unbelievably enjoyable. The trainer (or the bicycle to nowhere as I like to call it) is often times as horrible to me as running on a treadmill, but alas, here I am.

It's odd, but after a few days it almost becomes comforting and something I look forward to. The trainer is an odd beast for multiple reasons.

1) it doesn't move. These means a few things, but one is that since it doesn't move you don't actually go anywhere, and two is that there is no wind relief. When cycling outdoors we can sweat, and the wind will cool us down, but indoors the air is stagnant, which for me, means a GREAT workout with LOTS of sweating.

2) since it doesn't move I actually set up my laptop and watch movies and TV shows. I've actually watched all three seasons of Parks and Rec since I've been injured and not running!

3) the trainer is a lot like a fixed gear in terms of "coasting" or "free-wheeling". This means that you're spinning the entire time. An hour or non-stop spinning is a great workout no matter how you look at it. Outdoor cycling allows a LOT more coasting and "down" time when sitting at stoplights, coasting downhill, etc.

While the bicycle to nowhere has been better than I originally planned on it being, I'm still missing the running trails more than ever. Starting off a new year with no running mileage is difficult, but I know that soon enough the miles will be adding up.

In other news I finally went and saw a doctor on Monday just to rule out any major problems like a stress fracture, etc. My suspicions were confirmed when he told me it was "Extensor Tendinitis". Just more icing, relaxing, and ibuprofen were ordered. I've had no pain in over a week!

I'm also currently working really hard on getting a 50 mile run organized for the Northshore trail of Lake Grapevine here in North Texas. I've got the website pretty much complete and will be posting that up here soon. The ultimate goal of the 50 miler is to get a feel for how people receive the race and hopefully turn it into a 100 miler. Something North Texas lacks is a 100 mile trail run.

I guess the main part I need to figure out is a good start/finish area. I have something in mind, but it's pretty off limits unless it's reserved etc. Will post up when I have more details!

My volunteering duties for the Rocky Raccoon 100 are just around the corner and I can't believe how excited I am! Not only do I get to camp for two nights, but I get to help people complete a 100 mile run.   This should be a great weekend with good friends.

I found this video today. Describes Whole Foods pretty well :)

-El Jacob

New Balance MT110 Photos!!!

I honestly don't know when it happened but I have seriously become a running shoe nerd.

Ok ok, let me be a little more specific. I'm "nerdy" about the shoes I love. That pretty much narrows it down to any shoe made by Newton, any of the New Balance MT100+ line, and the occasional random lightweight trail racer made by other brands. (ie. the Brooks Pure Grit)

Unfortunately, I ordered my NB MT110s before I started dealing with my current "extensor tendonitis" problem, so here I am with a brand new pair of 110s that I can't run it!!!! No... it doesn't get much worse.

So I am currently stuck wearing these shoes to work, because I just can't stand watching them sit there all alone, waiting for the moment that we take our first running step together!

I have to be brutally honest here, walking in these shoes is TOUGH. All they want to do is run.

So, since I can't run them just yet, I of course took plenty of photos instead of going out for a run. Please enjoy the shoe porn. :)

Good thing they match my scrubs for work...

_EL Jacob_

Making adjustments...

Since most of us are pretty stubborn hard headed ultra runners, making adjustments to our running plans is normally not an easy decision to make.

Unfortunately, when I went out for my run today I still experienced a small amount of pain/discomfort. It was much better than before, but was still there. I told myself that if I felt ANY pain at all when I ran today that I would not run the Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon this weekend.

Of course when I got back from the run I had already decided I was going to try and run Athens this weekend.

All it took to change my mind was a few texts from a good friend, and reading back through a post from Larry.

So, with that said, I went ahead and sent the email to Joe to pull me out of the Rocky Raccoon 100, and sent another email to Lynn to put me on the volunteer list for the DamNation aid station.

To cut straight to chase here, I'm going to take the month of January off completely, and not run until the weekend of Rocky Raccoon or the week after. I seriously doubt that I'll have any time to run while working Rocky, but if I get a chance to run Friday night after helping set up I will.

Volunteering at Rocky is something I am really looking forward to. I've volunteered in plenty of short distance triathlons, but nothing like a 100 mile aid station that gets hit about 10X by EACH runner! Not to mention the 50 mile traffic. Having done a few ultras myself now, including a 100 and a double Iron, I'm hoping that I'll be able to really help in those late hours of the race. I know I'm gonna get worked hard out there, and expect nothing less! (Yes, that's a challenge Lynn!)

The last time this issue with my foot came about I took 42 straight days off from running and was good to go when I returned. This time I'll take 32 days completely off, plus the 9 days before today. That's only one day of running in 42 days.

While taking time off is always difficult, I can't help but remember there are bigger fish to fry later this year including running a Hardrock qualifier, and the Leona Divide 50M which I've already signed up for out in Cali. My favorite running all year is in the heat of our glorious Texas summers. While we don't have mountains out here, we have heat that will seriously mess you up if you don't know how to run in it.

I want to thank all of you that sent encouraging message, facebook comments, emails, etc. It's been very uplifting and motivating. It's helped me see the positive and to remember to look ahead.

I will do my best to update my status as the month progresses, but for now I'm going to get back on my cycling trainer in the garage and get my cardio fitness in the best shape I can before Rocky. This month will be all about staying fit and strong, so that when I get back on the trails I'll be ready to go.

I've also decided that another great way to take my mind off of the injury is to start commuting to work on my fixed gear bike! I've been thinking about this for awhile, but always knew it would mess with my running schedule.

Today I took it up to the bike shop and put all the finishing touches on it, and it's now ready to go. Below I've posted a few photos:

"Custom" brake lever

I also finally got a chance to run in the Brooks Pure Grit trail shoe and cannot wait to review this bad boy! I bought it a few days ago, and only got todays run in it, which was a mix 5 mile mix of rocks, grass, road, mud, and of course plenty of dirt. While I'm no expert on the shoe, I do plan on doing a quick preliminary review for anyone that is interested!

Clean out of the box!

Check out that outsole action!! Grip-tastic.

Unfortunately (just because I'm not gonna be running for a month) I'm getting my New Balance MT110s in the mail tomorrow!!! This saddens me and excites me all at the same time. I've been waiting to run in these since Hardrock, and now it looks like I'll have to wait an extra month. On the upside, I guess they'll be so clean I can wear them to work for the month of January!! Even though I won't be able to run in those yet, I'll be posting a "Shoe Porn XXX" photo shoot with all my spare time not running.

Just like I said in my post a few days ago, I know I'm gonna come out of this stronger than I went in, I've just got to sit back, look at the big picture, and know that I'll back to doing what I love in a month.

So with that, let the countdown begin.

_El Jacobo_

Trail Reviews!!

For quite sometime now I have been wanting to start reviewing local trails in hopes of sharing different trails that I run and discover with friends.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth area along we have around 30 different trails within an hour or two.

Last week after Christmas I had the chance to run two great little trails in Austin (which I will soon be reviewing!), but before I ran them, I had a bit of trouble getting any solid reliable information on them. Information like, where to park? How long is the trail? Any elevation? Terrain?

All very useful topics that I would have liked more information on. I of course did lots of "Google" searching but came up fairly empty handed.

I finally decided that I would start reviewing trails this week. So with that said, before I post my first review, I'd like to get some input from you guys. What would you like to have covered/reviewed?

A few ideas I've thought up are:
-Location (Parking areas, directions, etc)
-Length (loops? O&B?)
-Terrain (Rocky? Sandy? Roots?)
-Elevation (Climbing, etc)
-Overall Impression
-Possible Map
-Pictures

If there's anything you'd specifically like for me to review please let me know! I'm currently working on the first two reviews and should have the first one up sometime this week.

Also, I have updated my tabs at the top of the page. I have added a "Trail Review" tab that will take you directly to all of my soon to be posted trail reviews.

**Injury Update**

While I'm posting, I wanted to update everyone on the possible "extensor tendonitis" in my left foot. 

Today will be my 8th day off in a row from running. Like I said last time, I've been taking plenty of Ibuprofen, ice'ing it 2-3 timex a day for 20 minutes at a time, and wearing an icy hot patch on it to work. I've been riding the trainer in the garage for an hour a day with some easy CORE work, but that's it. 

The pain in my foot is completely gone now, and has been gone since around Saturday. I'm taking today off and tomorrow, then I'm going to try an easy 4-5 miles on the trails Thursday to test everything out and see if running the Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon this weekend is a good idea or not. If I experience any pain at all on Thursday, I will NOT be running Athens, and I'll most likely pull out of running the Rocky Raccoon 100. For now, I'm staying optimistic and planning on running a trail marathon this weekend...

I'll update Thursday night with the results of the run. 

I'd also like to give a big congratulations to my friend Brian for finishing his first free standing marathon last weekend. To stick it out and run a marathon with the amount of training he had was impressive. I know it was painful, but he pushed through and finished with a smile on his face. Congrats Brian!

I hope everyone has a great week! Don't forget to let me know if there is anything specific you'd like for me to mention when reviewing any trails!

PS- As always, listen to the videos I post with headphones... or at least really good speakers. You're missing half the music with crappy computer speakers :)

-Jacob