"You're a D**m fool!"

Those are the words I was fortunate enough to hear while stopped at a light on Park Road while on my bike. Just waiting for the light to turn green I see the car in front of me roll down his window and motion to the side and I can hear something from the car so I pull up to right next to the window and he wants to enlighten me on what an idiot I am for riding my BIKE on the road for cars. This really made me think about what everyone thinks about cyclist on the roads around Charlotte.

This statement really made me think about my hatred for people on the roads who are so kind to cyclist. Maybe hatred is too strong of a word but that's the only thing that came to mind. It really upset me that someone was ballsy enough to motion me up to the car and tell me this to my face. My come back was "well, i do this a good bit, so keep an eye out for me, so far so good, thanks for the advice!". Riding my bike for 3 hours is not the battle for me, its fighting traffic and just counting the times that a big SUV just has to squeeze through to pass me while I am going 25mph in a 35mph zone.

Kudo's to the guys/gals who hit the roads every day with their bikes and put aside the dangers that lie ahead on the road, namely vehicles flying by at a high rate of speed. I realize that sometimes motorist see a bicycle coming and just assume that it will take forever to reach them but they don't realize that sometimes we are going pretty quick in fact. Life and times of a wanna be cyclists, I am trying to get there, hitting the trails for a run seems much easier at this point haha

Kuota vs Kestrel

Recently I purchased a new Triathlon/TT bike through Kuota called the "K-Factor Race which is on Dura-Ace. Last year I made a big step up in quality to an all carbon fiber road bike which was a "Kestrel Talon". It was a great bike I thought, it had a few slip ups with the gears slipping a bit but ignored it. I had heard a lot about Kestrel bikes being apart of Fuji as well as good "bang for your buck" so after working out a good deal I purchased it after I made duathlon worlds on a used bike I got the week of.

When I compare the 2 rides, there are some major differences, one being that the Kestrel was actually a "aero road bike" and the Kuota is an all out triathlon bike. The kuota is much more aggressive with its stance and positioning which I figured would effect my comfort level coming from a road bike last year. Kestrel's "Talon" got some good reviews as a great bike to throw some bars on and basically turn into a Tri specific bike because of its Geometry.



After worlds, I sold the bike because I needed the $ as well as I didn't have an interest in riding over the winter at all. After coming upon a great deal with the Kuota, I knew it was the right time to pull the trigger and step up. The kuota comes totally decked out with all Dura-Ace components and a better grade carbon fiver. I ordered some new lime green tires as well as double thick handle bar tape to make it more comfortable during the ride. So it's basically pimped out minus some race wheels and a surround sound stereo.
Upon my first test ride on my new Kuota, it felt so smooth and I thought maybe because I hadn't ridden in awhile, but that wasn't the case. I want to give a big shout out to Rob Morgan the bike guru at TrySports who fit me on the bike which I think made a huge difference. I seem to be able to generate more power more efficiently on this bike compared to the old kestrel. Even while in the aero position it feels like a Cadillac on the road in comparison. So to offer advice to anyone looking for an amazing bike, go with the Kuota for sure. It did cost a little more for the "race" version but its certainly worth it.

The only thing I would do if possible to the K-Factor is to add a carbon crank and a carbon aero bar system to help out with weight and aerodynamics. That being said the both of those are quite a bit of change, so I am going to have to stick with what I already have on there. any feedback from your road bikes in comparison to your tri bike? Kestrel vs kuota? Curious to see what people had to say in comparison to bikes and even if they thought certain things truly make a difference aside from the machine that is on top of the bike really pushing it.

t-minus 1 week before Rob M is going to put me into a more aggressive bike position, with the hopes that it won't effect my comfortability too much while assisting me with generating more power and becoming more aerodynamic.

Here is some info I found comparing the 2 types of bicycles:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/techctr/seatangle.html

"And finally, these tests only measured the physiological responses to the biomechanical change generated by a steeper seat angle. As this test was performed in a lab on stationary equipment, the aerodynamic benefit one derives from the ability to achieve a lower frontal profile with a steeper seat angle was not part of the equation.

Where in this 40km/10km exercise did the time savings occur? There were some time savings achieved during the bike leg. Average 40km times were 1:04:10 in the 73-degree configuration and 1:02:54 for the riders when at 81 degrees. But it was in the first half of the run that the big time savings occurred. It took riders 24:15 to complete the first 5km off the shallow set-up, and only 21:41 after riding the steep bike (and remember, these triathletes had never run off a steep set-up before)."

Bold moves down Under?

There has been something on my mind for a little while now and it has been picking at me. I wrote a blog prior about "taking chances" in life and pursuing dreams. For the most part I have been able to do something that I have wanted to do for awhile and I am so grateful of that. Recently I was presented with another opportunity that really twisted my mind and upon asking my close family members they seemed a bit skeptical especially concerning my career status at this point.

As many of you know, my best friend Cody Angell left town for Perth, Australia recently to move for a great position and unique experience. The reason for his move was essentially from one person whom asked him to make some more of himself upon a brief visit to the US. Raf Baughs is his name and he is a professional duathlete who was ranked #3 in the world 2009. Raf has a sports clinic that he runs as well as being co-owner of the new "running centre" in Perth where Cody works.


While hanging out with Raf while he was in town for the world championships last year, he presented cody and I with a new take on things. He said coming over to Australia could enhance your training abilities because simply put, people in Perth train like Pro's and truly enjoy pushing each other to the next level. Basically locally we seem to put out maybe 6 or 7 Kona World Championship Ironman Qualifiers where as Perth puts out about 40 a year in comparison. Raf's clinic employs new techniques with physiotherapy and this is something I would like to understand and learn from. Raf has said that he could take me to the next level of running as well as multi-sport athletics and can help improve my career in the personal training field by helping me grow with understanding the trade. As well it would be an incredible experience, BUT , as always there is certainly a hurdle.

After my job situation has been kind of sporadic of late, paying $2000 for a plane ticket and shipping over my brand new racing bike for $300 seems utterly impossible. It sucks that simple hurdles like this are faced in life but I am determined to figure out how to make this work in some manner. The goal would be to simply stay in Perth for a couple months, learn the tools of the trade and train better than I ever have to see what could happen with a career.

If any of you out there who may read this, have a suggestion as to how to make this work, shoot me an email!

chrislamperski@gmail.com

Working with some amazing physiotherapist as well as training and soaking up knowledge from some of the worlds most phenomenal athletes seems like an opportunity almost too good to pass up especially with advancing my own career and assisting those clients even greater than I already can. Any real tips would be greatly appreciated, I may be joining a website soon that has a donors page if interested<

Thanks for taking the time to read about my possible "Bold Move"

Boston 5k in 3 weeks!

Today I got to get online and finally see what all the fuss was about with my hotel room accommodations in Boston. For those of you who do not know, I will be traveling to Boston for 5 days with the purpose of racing the Boston 5K the day prior to the marathon and then pacing my friend Logan to a sub 3 marathon.

Check out these amazing pictures of our hotel!

Goals to Achieve in Life

Yesterday I met with a client whom is new to high school running and seeks guidance from me. After evaluating his goals with running, we began to speak about the possibilities in store for him. He seemed to limit himself with what he was possible of and was seemingly ok with being where he was mostly. This got my mind stirring a bit about a few things that have been going on with my life recently.

I remember back to college when I was running for Pfeiffer University, I was basically scared to step out of the box and do something amazing in a sense. My limitations to running stopped in my head, so I essentially limited my ability to succeed. Over the past 2 years I have pushed forward with some minor athletic goals that have just came along with a consistent fairly focused regimen. This past weekend while at the Cooper River Bridge run, I set a 4-mile and 5-mile PR in route to a 10k road PR. All of this was without any speed training over the past 2 months, which would have scared me normally from going out at a quick pace.

There are humps in the road, this is what I am building up to. I knew my fitness was top notch back at the end of January and after a bad sickness I had a month of basically no training which really set me back especially with my goals. I got to the line at Cooper River and said, "Chris, you are in shape, you can run well, the time was put in months ago, let's do this". I just decided that I didn't want to limit myself to what I was capable of within reasoning. I knew I could run a PR either way and the goal was just to stay relaxed. Things worked out well and it really was because I told my mind and body that it was time.

All of this basically runs parallel with life, why limit your self? Yes, many things take a lot of time to master but with hard work and experiences we all can succeed in so many different ways. Some of us have drastically different goals and the point is just to do it at your best effort thinking about the outcome. It might be to be the best wife or best father that you can be, just make sure you focus and keep that in mind while "living". While speaking with my new client I tried to explain that it all starts with convincing himself that he can be good. Having someone tell "you have potential" doesn't always translate, you HAVE TO BELIEVE.

With all of that said, I don't want to limit myself in what life has in store for me. I want to pursue some lofty goals of mine, both in the professional and athletic field. Hopefully along the way through this blog, I can receive some much appreciated tips and advice from many of you out there who have a wealth of knowledge in so many different facets. "Taking chances" seems like it may be getting closer and closer for me, life seems to get in the way sometimes of taking these chances but luckily I am fortunate to surround myself with some of the most incredible people life has to offer.

Thank you to everyone who is in my life, in whatever aspect it might be, from my closest family member to the running buddy I may see once a month, all of you are factors in my life that I don't take for granted!!!

OH yea check out the new Bike, his name is "Wayne"