Wow! I was so excited for the long weekend! I had a whole plan of a ton of riding. Yeah, not so much. We endured 5 days at 105+ heat! Two days we hit over 110! I have mad respect for those who competed at the 24 Hour World Championships this last weekend. Some friends had some great finishes. Josh Smith from Team Sho-Air pulled an amazing 2nd place in his age group! Bernice also from Sho-Air battled through what she says was her hardest race ever, to pull off 6th place in the womens ELITE field which was stacked with the worlds best! Tinker Juarez who won the mens elite put down a 1:02 minute lap on his 18th of 19 laps! That was the second fastest lap of the race! Unbelievable! Congrats to all those who competed! Mad respect!
I started my weekend by deciding I was ready for an epic. I had no one to ride with so I took off on my road bike at about 615am and it was around 75 degrees! I climbed Rock Store and headed down Encinal towards Zuma Beach. When I hit the coast the weather was so nice I decided to ride up and down Pacific Coast Highway for a bit. I stopped at Starbucks to refill my bottles and headed towards Yerba Buena. When I started up the canyon I was pleasantly surprised with how cool it was. I made it up about 6 miles before I hit the exposed sun and that's when I rode into the pain locker. The next 6 miles of climbing was done in about 112 degree heat. I was at about 52 miles when I got back into town and still had to climb another 8 miles to get home. With about 3 miles left I seriously considered calling someone for a ride! I couldn't take the shame of that thought and pushed my overheated self all the way home. I finished the day with 61 miles and 5500 feet of climbing in just under 4 hours.
Sunday I did a short recovery ride on the mountain bike early in the morning. We headed out to the beach and I surfed for a couple hours after that. Monday morning came very quickly as we went out Sunday night and I ended up with only about 3 hours of sleep. I hit the road again with Kim from the shop and we later met up with some of the guys from the team. We rode up and over Decker Canyon to the beach and then turned up Mulholland. We were 1/4 of the way up when these two guys passed Kim at a good pace. I had slowed to let her catch up and when she did she was all pissed that these guys had blown by her than slowed considerably. She stated that if you are going to pass someone you better make sure that you can keep your pace. She told me that I should chase them down and put the hurt on and if I did, she would follow. I took that as a friendly challenge and my legs were feeling pretty good so I hit it. I blew by them as if they were standing still and never looked back for the next 5 miles. About 2 miles from the top I decided to turn and look and when I did no one was behind me! I waited about three minutes until Kim came around the corner. As she got closer she said, "GO"! I quickly got up to speed and she was bent on keeping her pace to the top! She held it really nice until we reached the top and when all was said and done, Kim put about 2 minutes on them! I think I could have had 6 or so on them if I kept going! Feels great!
I took a rest day on tuesday which was much needed. Wed. I hit Chesebro on the mountain bike and did a race ride. 2 laps at race pace! I actually dropped over a minute off my 2nd lap! That stoked me because I have n=been working on my endurance and the ability to pick up the pace as the ride progresses. I followed up that ride with a climb up Dead Cow this morning and a fast pace down Chesebro and up Palo Comado.
I will do the Fast Friday road ride in the morning and then I am off to the ASR show in San Diego. Saturday will be a short spin in the morning to shake the legs and Sunday I have the Ca. State Finals in Big Bear! I hope to finish strong!
Peace
Lucas
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