Rebuild Version 2.0

There is a reality that you face after being off of the bike for a period of time due to illness. Especially if you have to put your body through a bout of antibiotics. That reality is that your first few rides are powerless with a heart rate of a bazillion and the endurance to match a 4 year old an hour after eating a cupcake! The psychological aspect of this can hurt. My last few months on the bike I had gotten stronger, faster, and leaner. I felt as if I had really improved my training. Now I am just scared about how much of that I have lost. Today was day one of what I will call Rebuild Version 2.0. It felt so good to be in the saddle (except for the pain of actually being in the saddle!) I got in an hour at an easy pace and look very forward to another ride!

North Americans Fall Short at Olympics

The men's XC race at the olympics happened late last night as most of
us were sleeping and the North Americans fell horrifically short. I
have personally seen our racers in action and am amazed by their
speed, talent, and endurance. I understand not having a good day. It's
as simple as sometimes you have it and sometimes you just don't. I
would love to hear from anyone via the comments button below, why they
think the Europeans are that much more dominant? Like I said, I have
seen these guys race and they are fast. I have even seen them beat the
euros on USA soil. What is it about racing overseas?

Lucas Crawford
http://riding-to-live.blogspot.com

Can't Seem To Shake It

We arrived home last Friday night after a great two days ok the
island! I felt relaxed and was ready to get out ok my bike Saturday.
I had taken the whole week easy as I was not feeling so hot at the end
of the previous week. I woke Saturday feeling a little lazy and
unmotivated to ride so I waited until about 11am to take off. I wanted
to shoot for a three hour climbing session in Chesebro so I stocked up
on cold water and food and hit the trail. The first hour was
good, a little hot but exactly what I expected from my body. Entering
hour two I started feeling pretty powerless. I pushed on at a lower
cadence hoping that I could push through it but never seemed to
recover. I was about a quarter of the way up Powerline when I decided
that I as going to need to turn around. That still put me with about a
1000 ft. To climb and 45 minutes from home.
When I got home I drank some Recoverite and jumped into the pool. By
the time I got out I could tell I was I'm some trouble. I woke up
Sunday feeling like I had been beaten with a very large stick.
Wouldn't you know I seem to have another infection. This has not been
my year health wise. Tuesday night I had a temperature of 100 degrees.
Off to the doctor I went on Wednesday and a round of antibiotics was
the result. I am done with these health issues! I think it may be
time to talk to a sports physician and figure out where my threshold
for overtraining is. It seems that these weeks that I lay down huge
numbers, I end up over taxes. Hang I'm with me I'll be back on the
bike soon.

Lucas Crawford
http://riding-to-live.blogspot.com

Back Home to the Kids

On Our Way Home

Boo-Hoo!

Where did Hannah Go?

Someones A Sleepy Head!

View From The Room

Looks like another beautiful day in Catalina.

Lounging!

Great friends, amazing weather, wish it would never end!

Tracks of a different kind!

We saw a blue whale and it's calf on the way to the island! The boat
driver slowed and stopped so all could get a good look! It was pretty
amazing!

On The Boat With The Youngins!

Hannah and Edan

No stress express!

The girls getting ready to jump aboard the no stress express to
Catalina! Fun pictures to come over the next two days!

Get ready!

So I figured out how to post pictures and text from my phone! Get
ready for post galore!

Lucas Crawford
http://riding-to-live.blogspot.com

Why I ride!

>
>

> If I didn't ride and had to sit in this EVERYDAY....I would be a
> little suicidal! Do yourself a favor...get out and ride!
>

Check this out!

Bony Pony Ranch

Mission: 4+ Hour ride in considerable heat at an endurance pace. Make it through without blowing up or getting cramps.

Variables encountered: 15-20 mph headwinds. No breeze on exposed mountain roads. Closed road in the middle of ride due to a large murder investigation.

Left the house around noon and headed out towards Moorpark. Once I dropped down Pleasant Valley the headwinds hit like a truck! No matter what gear I put it in I couldn't seem to get my heart rate below 150. I slowed way down with my end goal in mind and tried to push through. Once I made it through Camarillo and was heading towards the beach I started to encounter police galore. Once I got to the road I was to turn on I realized that it was closed and there were news vans everywhere. With not many other options I rolled up to an officer and asked if i could go through. He said that they were just finishing up and let me ride on!
Once to the beach I was hoping that the wind would be at my back and it kind of was! I was feeling pretty good as I hit the 2 hour 40 mile mark. So good in fact, I made the call to climb Yeurba Buena! Probably not the brightest decision that I had ever made, but I thought I could keep a manageable pace. Soon I turned away from the ocean and started the climb. Yeurba is a 8.5 mile climb with about 2600 ft of elevation gain. What makes it worth it is the 2.5 mile descent down Little Sycamore! It is bar far one of my top three road descents.
A little more climbing before dropping down Decker Canyon into Thousand Oaks. Once back into town the heat was high again and I was feeling some pain in my foot. I took my shoe off and shook it out. I was at the 60 mile mark at about 4 hours and was feeling the effects of the ride. No cramps and not blown up, I pushed my way home!
Ride Stats:
Distance: 65.79
Time: 4 Hours 24 minutes
Average Speed: 14.9 MPH
Max Speed: 47.2 MPH!!!
Average Heart Rate: 151 BPM
Max HR: 179 BPM
Ascent: 4279 ft.

Mission: ACCOMPLISHED

Ride Hard,
Lucas

Ride, Work, Bee's, and a Lesson For and From My Moms

What a week! I did just as I had planned and rode to and from work Monday and Tuesday! 106 miles in 2 days! I started Monday morning with the idea of it being a "recovery" week. I rode pretty easy that morning and felt pretty good the whole ride. I headed home at about 6 PM and decided to try to hit it. As the weeks of this high gas price year roll on it seems that there are more and more commuters everyday! That meant one thing for me on the way home... rabbits to chase! I dropped about 5 minutes off of my fastest time! The best part was that I felt pretty consistent and in control. Tuesday I awoke and was pretty thrashed. I was having second thoughts about riding but dragged my lazy butt out of bed and took off! Once I got warmed up my legs seemed rather snappy and I decided to push it at about 95%. Once over the hill and into the valley I had one of my customers from the bike shop ride up on me. He was on his Gary Fisher Superfly outfitted for a daily road commute. He was running some narrow street tires and keeping a pretty good pace. We talked and rode at about 80% and I ended up about 30 seconds off my fastest time! I had a long day at work and ended up not leaving until about 6:40 PM and that sure did not leave me much time to get home! So I gave it my all and hammered at about 105% the whole way home! I didn't feel as strong as the day before but I felt pretty freaking good. I definitely feel as though I am riding at a quicker, stronger pace! I had to wake up at 3:45 AM Wed. morning for work and I will say that I was feeling pretty thrashed. I took the day off from riding and hit the sheets early! Another early day at work on Thursday and I was hurting from the 345 AM wake up call! I was excited about the Thursday night Fixie ride. We had talked about doing Hidden Valley so I was a little freaked with the lack of energy that I was feeling! We ended up not doing Hidden Valley but we rode about 20 miles through some pretty hilly parts of town. We ended the ride with a test run of the first half of the "Tour de T.O. Blvd" race course. After all the climbing I managed to get the lead but when we hit a yellow at Westlake Blvd...Sammy blew through it and that was it! I hung in for second and figured I could make a pretty good run at the actual race if I am feeling good!
Friday morning I hit the dirt and wanted to push pretty hard. I picked a climb heavy trail route and hit the gas! I felt pretty snappy and then I came across this sign:
ACTIVE BEES IN AREA!
Let's just say that I slowly pedaled through Sulfer Springs. This sign wasn't there last week! I pushed at about 90% for 1 hour and 15 minutes. THe heat took it's toll and I blew before hitting the top. I found a pace and then recovered a bit on the way home.
Saturday brought a ride with the parentals. We loaded up the new ride with the bikes and headed to the harbor. A little ride halfway to Santa Barbara was on tap!

Check our Pop's HUGE Hoops!

The fog was pretty socked in and it was cool. Mom took off like a Jack Rabbit and said that she needed to warm up a bit. It wasn't long until you could tell that my mom was feeling a bit of pain. She was having some cramping trouble and was trying to push through it. We made it to the turn-around point and she stopped to take a rest as I jumped on my Dad's new Gary Fisher Cobia to try it out! I am very envious of the big hoops and really, really, really starting to fein for a Siren Song!
We made it about 5 miles back before Mom had to make the very tough decision to call it a day! We decided that I would ride back to the car and bring it back so Mom could drive it home. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to do an 8 mile time trial! Legs were feeling good so I pushed it all the way back to the car at 105%. Once we got Moms bike on the car she high-tailed it back to the house and my dad and I pushed on.
The Ventura County Fair was going on and getting through Downtown was a little freaky even for me! We made it over to the Boardwalk and headed back towards Oxnard. When all was said and done we had done about 40 miles and got to spend some great time together! My Ma was pretty bummed and I tried to explain that sometimes your body just doesn't want to cooperate. I know that that doesn't really help to hear...it just pretty much sucks! Oh yeah...what I learned from my mom is that Eggplant is full of nutritional value! I had read in a book a couple of years ago that it has none and told her that. She quickly printed some stuff off to prove me way wrong! Thanks Ma.
Sunday morning brought another mountain bike ride with my buddy Mike. We had decided to hit up some trails that we don't really ride all that often. I rode from the house to the trailhead about 5 miles away and when Mike showed, we decided to do a trail that I had never ridden. It was straight up from the beginning and it was awesome! Killer trail I had never ridden in my own home trail system! Great ride..Great week..time to recover!
Peace,
Lucas