For the Love of Team Green

So at the beginning of the race year I noticed that some of the endurance riders that I look up too started riding with these crazy green grips! They were like a platform and some had bar-ends and some not. I asked about them and they were in love. I took a spin with them, and instantly fell in love myself. When I went looking for them I came across a super dedicated endurance rider named Jeff Kerkove. This insane guy works for Ergon and keeps a great blog that posts to Ride424 almost daily. A Super dedicated rider that stands tall behind his product! I was really stoked to here that he was going to be at Outdoor Retailer and sent him an email looking to meet up.
At the show, I found their sweet booth where they were featuring their amazing new pack. That's when Jeff made my day and hooked me up with a pair of Team Issue Green grips with Carbon Bar-ends. I instantly slapped these things on my bike and reaped the benefits. I climbed 2500 feet that day and loved every minute of it.
I now have over 20 hours on these new grips and have not one complaint! After you set up the bar-ends to the right rise and make sure that the grip is level, you are set to ride for hours on end. I can say with no hesitation that I have not had one issue with numbness or pain in my hands since putting them on!
What makes this even so much better is that when I met everyone from Ergon, they were so freaking nice and knowledgeable! Starting with the guys from the base camp in Germany, to Jeff and his fellow reps. Thank you for believing in your ideas and sharing them with us! I can not wait to put these guys to a more ultimate test when I participate in the 24 Hours of Hurkey Creek next month. I have decided to take the plunge and sign up for the Solo 8 hour race. That puts me in ultimate training mode for the next 4-5 weeks.
Tomorrow morning I will be seeing Andrew Gonzales at Stevenson Fitness for a power test and VO2 test. We will find out where I am at as far as strength and power and Andrew will devise a plan to improve my training, strength, VO2, physique, and power on the bike! I am really excited and will make sure to let you all know how it goes.
Make sure that you check out the Ergon grips, they will change the way and length that you ride! Promise.
Live Free,
Lucas

In the Home Stretch

Future Gramicci Buyers


Handling the Masses


Ready to Be Done


Laying Out The Plan

Well, as I sit here with swollen feet, I can only imagine how those who hit the Industry Parties last night feel! As I walked the floor this morning the pain on the faces of the guys and gals was apparent! As I strolled past a kayak booth I heard girl ask a co-worker, "So, was she still as cute this morning as she was last night?"
I almost stumbled as I was laughing so hard! I looked back and the guy just had his head in his hands!

We watched the Bouldering Championships last night on top of the Shilo Inn, and it was amazing. We watched the women compete and I must say that I have never seen anything like it. Afterwards our VP of Sales took a couple of us to dinner at Cocina Tuscano. Mighty fine! My favorite food though has been the breakfast every morning at the Armstrong Mansion where I have been staying. They make a different flavor of cobbler every morning. Yesterday I asked if they would make me blueberry for my last day and the amazing staff had it hot and ready for me this morning! The service at this Bed and Breakfast has been amazing! If you ever find your self in Salt Lake, I recommend this lovely place!

Well, I can't wait to get home and see my lovely and my four pups! I am sure they miss their papa!
Peace

O.R. Day One in the Books!

Well, now that I am finishing this post, day two is actually in the books as well! It's been a little crazy but my feet are hanging in! We had a great time Wed. night. We went out as a group to the Red Iguana. There were about 20 of us so it was cool! Afterwards the group split and a few of us went to a place called Monk's. Kind of crazy when Raphael walked us into a hallway that led to a staircase that went underneath a 24 hour Kinkos? When we walked in everyone in the bar had a tattoo and looked like they were straight out of LA. It made me a little less homesick as most of the people at street level were pretty country bumpkin looking!
It was Kareoke night and their were a few in our group that were raring to sing. They ended up singing Bon Jovi? They somewhat forced me onto stage and I sang a 30 Seconds To Mars song. It was bad, but everyone kept screaming and clapping so I acted like a rock star and belted it out something awful!
Thursday morning came way to soon and we hit the ground running! Everything has gone very smoothly and I am having a blast. I have met some really cool people and seen some really sweet stuff. I am looking forward to Saturday and Sunday as I will have a larger amount of free time and will be able to check out a lot more! The big world championship climbing competition is Saturday night and I am looking really forward to that! I'll keep you updated!
Peace!

Off to Outdoor Retailer

Just a quick note that I am off to the big Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt lake City! I am sitting in the airport now waiting to take off and I will be there until next Monday. I have sent the Homewrecker out there and plan on doing some riding every morning! I can use the altitude training for the finals in Big Bear next month.
My friend Scott Davis who is an Iron Man athlete is training there right now and invited to take me for a ride or two! He is a freaking machine though! I have never ridden with him so I am a little worried about keeping up. He just got back last week from riding in, Italy, France, Switzerland, and anywhere else in Europe that has huge mountains! He caught a couple stages of the Tour while he was there and rode some of the mountain stages in the Pyranes. Tough life huh? The guy is crazy gifted though, he places top five in Iron Man events. Crazy!
Well, I will send pictures during the week and keep you all updated!
Peace,

32:35

Thirty-two minutes and thirty five seconds! That is the time I completed my first road race in! It was a time trial and I entered the 28+ public class on my new Madone 5.2! My friend Bill told me last night to shoot for 40 minutes so you can see my joy in the finish time I posted. 32:35 was good enough for second place in my class! I have to say, I am hooked. The course was on a country road out near Filmore. Just a little over 12 miles.
With the work week I had which included way to much Taco Bell and pizza, I did not expect to do all that great. The start was rough like most of my mountain bike races. No matter how much I warm up, I always start a little cold and it takes me a minute to warm up. Once I got going I felt pretty strong. The course rolled up and down for six miles and then you turned around and went back. When I hit the 10 mile mark I hit the wall! I was still traveling about 16 mph, but it felt like I was going 5 mph. When I saw the marker for 1km left I found the reserve tank and hit it hard!
The crew at the shop are have been instrumental in my progress so I just wanted to give a shout out to Westlake Cyclery and Team Fast Friday! Thanks guys!
Peace

Train, Work, Train, Train

I know it's been a few weeks but it has been so crazy at work, the last thing I want to do after 5 is turn on my computer! I even missed a race report( I DNF'd so there is not much to talk about! I'm still a little disappointed!) So sorry for the lapse of excitement! J/K.
I have been trying to put in the miles and the hours to get ready for September, October, and November. Unless something fun comes up, I will not be racing until September. A little premature fireworks....I believe I managed to win the Southern California points series! I will celebrate when the jersey is in my hands! I am really excited though!
I have been doing some really fun riding! On July 4th I went on a group road ride with Westlake Cyclery and some of the Fast Friday's race team! It was a really fun but very tough ride. We started at the shop at 7am to beat the heat. We left the shop and headed down Agoura Road towards the valley. We went out Las Virgenes and then headed up Topanga to old Topanga! We then dropped down into the canyon and made the turn up Fernwood. This is where it got tough! It was about 9 miles straight up at an average of 9% grade! It was really tough but we grinded up the hill and the descent made it all worth it! It was about 50 miles with 4800 feet of climbing. By the time we got back to Las Virgenes the temp was 103! The sad part was that we had another 30 minutes to get back to the shop. It was really fun riding with the race team and watching them! Those guys can accelerate like a ferrari on the open highway!
I have been riding a lot on the road! It has been really fun because the opportunity to ride with others on the road presents itself more often than on the dirt. It's also easier to get in more miles and more time on the bike as I can leave directly from work and head straight out on a ride. It has also helped that I finally got a new road bike! I had been saving since I purchased my mountain bike and a great deal presented itself! Being that Trek redesigned their Madone line for 2008 they were blowing out the rest of their 2007 line. I was able to get a Madone 5.2 fr a quarter of its retail price! This bike is freaking sweet! First, it's the right size for me! It's also a complete carbon frame and fork with the Bontrager race light wheels, stem, seatpost, and bars! It has a Shimano Ultegra set-up with a Dura-Ace rear derailler. This bike is almost 8 pounds lighter than the one I was riding! That tends to get me up the hill a little faster! I will try to post a picture this weekend!
September will bring the So-Cal series final in Big Bear. With the week I will be spending in Salt Lake City I hope to get some higher altitude training in! Then at the end of September I hope to be doing a two man 24 hour race with Rory. The very thought scares me to death but I would really like to make this happen. It also looks like the opportunity has arose to do another 24 hour race in October with a team of either 3 or 4 guys. These are guys that are out to win so it would be a blast to give it a shot! November will bring the fall classic at Southridge and the last 12 hours of Temecula. My goal is to do the 12 hour solo! That's right race fans, SOLO! These are my goals for the end of the year.
I think that next I will change up my racing completely. As it stands now, I want to do the Southridge winter series. Then instead of doing the Southern California XC series, I would like to concentrate on the endurance races. I would like to also participate in some road races. I want to do a couple century races as well as a couple stage races. We will see what happens.
Let me finsh this post by stating that DOPERS SUCK! I understand why, (money and fame) I just think it's lame!
Peace
Lucas

Scary Day on the Mountain

I went into the weekend a little freaked out about racing at altitude, I wish I could say that was the extent of my fear after the race was over! The fifth stop on the Southern California Race Series was in Big Bear California. Big Bear resigns about 8500-9000 feet above sea level. This was my first experience any where near that high and there was definately a learning curve. I had recieved tons of great advice from friends that had raced there before and after a very tough week I headed up the morning of.
After the 2+ hour drive I had enough time to relax and register. After registration they told us that we need to pedal "up" to the start line which is about 10-15 minutes(by bike)away. My legs felt really good pedaling for 20 minutes plus up the hill towards the funky start. I met up with some friends along the way and chatted about what the race may hold? When we arrived to the psuedo start line everyone seemed a little confused about how we were supposed to stage and Team Big Bear seemed the same way! Usaully they run things well, but this time there was not a lot of direction. Some racers even missed thier start times.
As soon as we took off we started to climb. The dirt was loose and the temps had hit high 80's maybe even 90's. I started well but quickly started to feel very fatigued in my legs. I was a little upset that I couldn't force anymore out of my lower body. Any flat areas that we hit I was able to take off like a roadie and pass those who sailed by me on the climbs. We finally hit a cool singletrack and I quickly caught up to some slow descenders. One goofball hit some sand and swerved right at me pushing me into some tree branches. I yelled out an expletive and he turned to apologize. I got back on course and tried to make up the lost few seconds. About 8-9 miles into the race we were flying down a fire road when the unexpected happened. A rider about 20 seconds ahead of me went down and went down hard!
Jim Garwood of the Platinum Racing Team out of Santa Barbara had pile drove himself over his bars and straight onto his head. The next 30 minutes was really scary. His head was bleeding and he was unconciouss. He had horrifically labored breathing and only came to maybe twice during that first 30 minutes. Finally a doctor who was racing stopped along with a local firefighter and an EMT. They took control of the situation much to our relief. When the race medic finally showed they were able to administer oxygen. That really started to help as the paramedics did not arrive for another 15 minutes. Once the medics arrived the 12-15 of us that were there decided to pedal out. They airlifted him out about 10 minutes later. When we finally came through the finish we were told that he was finally responsive as they flew him to the hospital. The only information that I have been able to find is that he had multiple facial fractures and had been in ICU for 2 days. It also said that he would recover but that it would be a long road. Please keep Jim and his family in your prayers in the coming weeks.
At the awards ceremony I found out that I was once again the only rider in my class and that I had won?! I am definatley looking forward to the end of the season and moving towards the next stage in my racing. As my desire for endurance racing continues to grow, it also reminds me how I am at the beginning.
I recieved some great advice from the Stephenson brothers of Team Sho-Air. They shared with me that the road to dominance is a long one. They warned me of over training and burnout, and shared stories to go along with that. All that they said made perfect sense and inspired me to be careful in the way that I train. There are days that I wish to do nothing but ride and days I get mad at myself for not getting out of bed early enough to train.
Well it's Friday and time for a ride so have a great weekend and watch for my post about our July fourth road ride!
Peace
Lucas