Met up with Steve Whittier at Chicopee. It was nice to ride some different trails for a change. Nutrition and hydration were good. Ate a few hundred calories about every hour. Feet were really hot today even with adding 2nd pair of socks. Right knee began to get sharp pain after about 30 miles. Chain came off the singlespeed about 5 times. Overall an exhausting but satisfying ride.
It's been a long year of hard training and racing, both on the bike and trail running. Mentally I feel like a need a break at this point although I trained 39 hours in November, my 2nd highest total of the year and most of those hours were of high quality. Physically, I feel pretty fresh still. I feel as though I could just train year around but know that I need some sort of rest period for next year's race season. My training has remained fresh in part because I attained a road bike, which I've ridden about 12 hours so far. It's been a huge boon to my training although I still need to get a proper bike fit done to alleviate neck and knee pain. The training book I'm reading recommends to take a 2-4 week Transition period to let my body and mind recover before moving on to next year's Base phase. Question I'm pondering is when do I begin my Transition period...I feel like I'm in a great groove right now and I'd like to build up my Lactate thresh...