Mountain Bikes, Bass Guitar, and other stuff I like

The photo to the right is before a mountain bike race. Photos after that same race about 8 hours later and after covering nearly 61 miles on bicycle: Yes, that would be exhaustion friends. Extreme satisfaction too. Also,a 3rd place medal for my toils.

Another good ride at White today. Lisa Randall was kind enough to give me another tour, this time of the 45-mile route. I was worried about my left knee which had tendinitis all last week from a poor bike fit and probably too much mileage too soon on the new road bike.  I finally had the bike fit a few days ago and wow did it make a difference today!  No knee pain, shoulder tightness, neck tightness.  Only a little bit of lower back stiffness toward the end of the ride. Had a banana, peanut butter, and peppermint mocha for breakfast then rolled in to White around 9:45 with a pretty high stoke level. I think this road riding is just what I need to break up the rough and tumble of trail riding.  Geared up and rolled out at 10am. It was about 50 degrees, overcast. I didn't need my jacket though packed it in my rear pocket anyway. Had my booties on and heavy duty gloves. Felt comfortable. Wind began to cut through me some so I was wishing I had my jacket on in a few spo...

These laws are not meant to put myself on a pedestal or demean the reader in any way. They are simply meant to help the would-be fitness and health enthusiast with insight gleaned from my own observations and experiences from the past 4 years. If you are using a smartphone or are otherwise distracted by a smartphone during your workout, you  aren't getting the most from your workout and are wasting your time. Anyone that is walking on a treadmill in a gym is wasting their time and limiting themselves. Get outdoors and see some new scenery and take in some fresh air. Rain and cold only matter in the first 15 minutes of an outdoor workout. After that, you are in the moment and forget about the elements or at least, don't mind them. Signs that proclaim " Lose 10 lbs. for your reunion, wedding, New Year's etc ." are a lie.  This is to imply that you will temporarily lose the weight and then gain that same weight, or more, back . This not only wrecks your metabo...

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...