| TRAINING!!! |
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Things started to bother me, like if I didn’t reach my goal over the weekend. If I were to win by less of a margin than expected (according to me) or lose a moto due to anything, i.e., falling, bike failure, vision problems, whatever the case I would punish myself Monday. There would be no rest days that week. I remember losing a moto and the overall to a local rider Jason Gaddis at a local racetrack called Mills Road. But no mercy on myself, I was so pissed off that when the van hit the driveway, I went for a six mile run with other exercises afterwards. I was just disgusted with myself but, hats off to Jason; he laid wood to me that day. Good race friend. Time passed…hard work paid off…I got the chance every 17 year old dreams of through Honda’s amateur program as an amateur expert. I still believe that I was training hard or hard enough but like we always hear RC say, “surround yourself with good people.” That’s where things went wrong! I eventually found myself with the wrong practicing partners, trainer, etc. Going to a friend’s ranch’s to train turned into sleeping in, no one else wanting to cross-train, only riding motos, and the list goes on. But good results turned into better results with teams keeping their eye on me, so…I thought that I was “ok.” At the time I wanted to be a member of the GEICO Powersports/Honda team (formerly AMSOIL, Chaparral). I eventually broke my collarbone at Mammoth that year. My trip downhill begins here… I went to Loretta’s with a poor showing from being injured the entire month prior. Luckily I was introduced to a wind trainer to keep up my cardio, although I used my full suspension mountain bike I only made things harder for myself! At this point I had no idea what a roadbike could do for me, heck; I didn’t even know what they were! Injury after injury, I changed trainers a bit but riding with the same group of people results were the only thing that changed…they worsened. In fact the only thing that changed was I got one more motorcycle in my contract. I believe I had three surgeries that year, both shoulders and a dislocated wrist while leading an arenacross. Sad story…I know… My best result that year was second at Ponca City in the “motocross” A stock class, only after dislocating my right shoulder at the start of my second moto of the week. So it’s not like I wasn’t pushing through injuries and gritting my teeth to make sure my butt was on that starting gate at each race possible. As the year reached its end, I was looking forward to racing supercross with my “graduating class” so to speak. I teamed up with Ryan Clark and his infamous Team Solitaire.com for the east coast “lites.” This was like stepping into the ring to box with Ali! All Ryan did was train, it blew me away! He taught me things that only life can teach you. We started with my diet and nutrition. This reminds me of someone off MTV’s MADE show that is some science geek wanting to be a triathlete! He told me about cycling, jogging, nutrition, etc. He tried explaining how heart rate training can really help you if used correctly. At the ripe age of 19, I did not understand anything about HR training, although I trained with a monitor anyway.  So Ryan and I made it through supercross then made my trek up north to race the Canadian nationals and got the perfect opportunity to work with Drew Robertson, owner and founder of EvolvedNutrition. With someone there willing to hold my hand and really help me go piece by piece to understand the human body and how to fuel it properly prior and post race, I began to learn. Since he sponsored the team I rode for, I took full advantage of Drew’s knowledge, plus I think he enjoyed working with me because if he said I needed to eat a certain amount of whatever the meal may be, I would and the same for training off the bike. There was a family who had a private track, the same track we did our photo shoot and bike testing who left the option of practicing during the week open for me. I believe this was the best thing for me! I didn’t know anyone, so I had no distractions! I trained and trained to prepare for the West Coast MX2 Canadian nationals. Thinking I would win and feeling fast enough, those cats showed me the quickest way around the west side of Canada! I continued to work and push very hard through my summer up north learning quite a bit. Drew and I continued our working relationship as I returned to the States. I finished the nationals in America then set my sites on supercross in ’05. The team I was set to race with the following season had us post up in Cairo, GA at MTF. After a few riding sessions with Davi and his mother Colleen, I was invited to stay on their land in the barn with Martin Davalos and Charles Ellis. Not only did we have more than the perfect training facility, there were three supercross tracks, we drove south into Tallahassee at 6:30 four times a week to weight train with Titus and also Colleen trained us from 1-4 or 5 each afternoon. Then after practice we would either ride road bikes or the concept rowing machine. We always took the weekends off from riding but we usually road roadbikes or did some sort of cardio. I remember leaving the driveway with Davi and Charles on roadbikes where we were instructed to ride to MTF and back (18 miles one way). As we were leaving I told Colleen I was gonna destroy ‘em (she hated that, but I was a punk)! I already had about a minute on them by the time we got to the stop sign which was maybe a half mile from the house. So I took off at my own pace and I probably got there in a little less than an hour. I went into the barn and told a few people hi while they played ping pong. Davi and Charles still hadn’t showed up yet and I’d been there maybe five minutes so I thought they may have gotten a flat or something else. So I headed back. I got about a mile away from MTF and they ride up. Charles instantly says jokingly, “You’re in the wrong sport!” I just laughed and suggested they just turn around and I would ride slow on the way back. They then said we’re not riding back. We’ll get a ride back. So I kept on going and had a nice relaxing ride back. There were a lot of hills and the sun was starting to come down leaving for a beautiful scenery. For some reason, I remember this particular training session like it was this morning. It took me around the same amount of time to get home but when I got there Colleen instantly wanted to know where the boys were at. I said they stayed there…eww, she was worked! So I went on to get cleaned up while she called to find her son. On other rides with Bryan Johnson and the crew, I remember them trying to draft so I would cruise a bit then cut either left or right and sprint. I would look back and I would have a gap! God, I loved to train! So Colleen, Davi and Bryan Sr. taught me to train for supercross and ride it. A lot of credit given for these few helping me! I went to Indy on a Bardwell YZ250F to finish 14th at the opening east round (Davi won). The following week preparing for Atlanta with the Millsap’s, my motor seized on the face of a triple so I ejected. When I hit the concrete feeling ground, I dislocated both shoulders, broke my wrist and had a raspberry on my face, neck and arms, etc. that was a wrap on supercross ’05.
My left shoulder needed rotator cuff repair and my wrist needed a pin. After both surgeries I would put all my gear on and do 45 minute motos on the wind trainer outside under the sun. Anything I could work on, I did. I wanted to make a strong return outdoors, but unfortunately that would never happen. I rode Glen Helen in the motocross class and finished 21st.
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Where do I begin? I guess it all started with push-ups and sit-ups in the back of the boxvan on the way home from practice each day. It just evolved from there to drinking only water to start jogging a few miles each day. I thought I was a young Lance Armstrong! How wrong I was! Again, my father kept a tight leash on me but showed me what hard work was all about. It started to progress from there to eventually with him working to support my racing I no longer had a training partner/mentor. Around the age of 12, I would jog 2-3 miles (I thought that was pretty far) a day,400 sit-ups, 400 push-ups, hit the gym 3-4 days a week and ride my bmx for 30 minutes to mix up the cardio during the summer! As time went on I began to realize how much jogging affected those long days of racing, plus I absolutely enjoyed it! I would converse with top riders my age like James Stewart to see how they would train, then mix the two together. Remember, I was young and really didn’t know exactly what I was doing but tons of heart and desire!
and help with the mental side as well. Our first session was obviously an assessment but we went for a 2.5 mile jog with some other evaluation exercises afterward. I thought I may have made a mistake by calling this guy! And I even told him this! Well, he sure made up for it on our second session. We trained for a few hours starting out jogging 11 miles with intervals (gnarly) then a few different exercises topped off with pilates (I know, I thought the same thing). Haha, that stuff was HARD! He started me on a different supplement line to keep my mind and body ready to race. I thought I would not do well considering we had a race that Sunday but Michael said, “If you listen and do as I say, you’ll do great!” So I did what my trainer said and he was right, I felt great. It was a 2 moto, thirty minute plus two format sponsored by BooKoo energy drink. I finished second and second winning the overall. Although not winning either moto, I knew things went well for me. I was lapping riders still charging forward with one thing on my mind the last lap…winning! For the first time during my professional racing career, I knew I was doing things correct. Had the best people around me, trainer, great mechanic, a few believers and one more chance to make this dream come true. I spent the rest of 2005 working religiously towards supercross starting in January at Anaheim.
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2012
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