Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I haven't had much to say. Here's a quick status of things going on:
1. Bicycle Commuting: This has been great. I've really been enjoying the ride and the extra workout. I've been able to ride three days a week so far, although this week I will only ride one day due to my travel schedule and visits to customer sites. Next week I probably won't ride at all because I'm tapering for Rocky Raccoon.
I found a slightly different route that crosses I-635 at a different place and is much safer and more pleasant. It's also slightly shorter. The Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association (DORBA) has a Bike Commuter forum and an online tool to track everyone's commuting mileage to use for advocacy purposes. So far I am the #2 commuter, although since I can't bike much this week or next I will probably drop in the rankings. So far since January 1 I've biked about 237 miles; 224 of those miles were commuting.
To help with commuting I took a week's worth of clothes up to my office so I didn't have to carry a backpack every day. That made the ride a little more pleasant and less effort; I will continue to do that when it makes sense.
2. Ultra Training: My training has been a little spotty this month. I went through a period where I was having trouble getting up in the morning to train. I rode my bike most of those days so I still got a good workout, but I would have preferred to walk and ride.
I did a 27 mile trail walk on January 8th, and a 24 mile paved trail walk on January 21st. I tried to do a long trail walk the next day (January 22nd) but it was raining and cold and the trails were so muddy and slick, and I was so wet and cold, that I couldn't complete my planned mileage; I only did seven miles. For the month I've only walked 93 miles.
My next race is less than two weeks away: Rocky Raccoon 100. This will be my first 100 mile trail race and I'm very excited. Even though my training has been slow this month, I feel ready for the race. I've developed a very conservative race plan that gives me plenty of time to finish under the cutoffs (30 hours) and I feel confident that if I don't have any injuries (and the weather is not wet) I will be able to finish.
That's all for now. I don't know when I'll have something worthwhile to post so my updates will be infrequent. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their training/racing/resting/whatever.
