This February looks like quite a good month compared to past years. Except for 2001, I tend to get about 24 hours of training per February. This year I got 31.5 hours in February (which is a bit like getting an extra week of training). That's got to be good.
As I was looking back over my past training, I noticed that I tend to travel in February. I went skiing in Yellowstone in 2004 and 2005. I went to the Olympics in 2002.
The only weak spot for this February would seem to be the amount of orienteering. But, that was actually planned. I tried two experiments this year. One involved participating in a couple of trail races. Had I not done those races, I would probably have done another 2-4 hours of O' technique. Another experiment involved some armchair map study. Without going into details, I tested a tried and true approach that has worked well in the past and seemed to work well this time.
There was a stretch this year where I trained quite easily. In one 9 day period, I had 6 days with nothing more than 30 minutes/day riding the bike trainer; one day off; and one day of just 40 minutes of running (the other day was a 3.5+ hour trail race). I think that period gave my legs (and mind) a bunch of rest.
