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
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