Strength work

Unfortunately on Tuesday the piston broke on my bike (only a crack) which meant that I was unable to ride Tuesday and Wednesday this week. After riding today it became apparent that missing out on riding and gym work makes a noticeable difference (for me) in my strength.

Today has been long motos, tomorrow is short and fast. It will be interesting to find out if my strength has altered much for these types of sessions, regardless, it is important for me to keep doing my strength training, even when I come against bike problems. Lesson learned!

The track today was soft and rutted, awesome, I love riding when there are long ruts, whether they be on straights or corners, especially when doing the longer motos where speed is less important and therefore is easier to be smooth.

I am sooo looking forward to riding tomorrow, even more so if it rains over night!

Have fun :-)

Iceland '08

My first race this year is June 5th, racing with the Kawasaki team, competing in Iceland is loads of fun and a certain challenge to be fully bike fit and at a fast race pace, in a matter of approx 6 weeks.

As with healing my wrist (which feels fine when riding) I will continue to practice visualising racing in Iceland and getting the results I want.

Here's to look to the future :-)

KISS

Amazingly, riding is going really well (and I've only ridden twice!!).

As I have blogged about before, when setting goals, use the anagram of SMARTER. Here is another anagram KISS - Kept It Simply Simple, here, I am referring to eating whilst riding.

With help from the 'edmaster nutritionist my calorie intake is really simple. Also, my beliefs regarding carbohydrate loading and taking extra care to be hydrated the day before a race, are well and truely blown out of the water, becuase training takes place so often, it's required to be hydrated everyday (even if there is no physical exercise at all) and supplying the body with fuel (as in carbo loading) is something done on a daily basis rather than just for the weekend.

I have gained great benifits from this support.

The next thing I am keeping simple is my motocross bike training program. Using my heart rate monitor whilst I am riding is providing me with specific information whilst riding and afterwards for analysis as well.

I have been off the bike for 12 months and I have done 20 and 30 minute motos at a good pace already, I am really pleased with these results.

Riding is so much fun and I am totally loving it, I am so looking forward to riding next time.

Have fun.

'EDMASTER Performance Coaching

Damn! After blogging about the Law of attraction, I walked into an illness which has lasted just over a week. So I ask myself 'for what purpose have I given myself the illness? and what should I be concentrating on, of which, I am currently not?'

Now, our kids have had a bug and I'm usually the only person in the household who avoids been ill, only this time I picked it up. So what was the reason for me attracting the bug?

It turns out that after training extra hard during the week my immune system was running low and allowed the bug to enter my body and there is a reason for this.

The answer to my question 'what should I be concentrating on, of which, I am currently not?' is that I am over due to see my nutritionist. During the consultation she pointed out (the nutritionist) what was going on. I am now in a position to make adjustments to my food intake to keep my immune system up to it's highest level whilst training hard.

This is great news and I am so happy to be working with her, not only for myself but for all our customers who want to make the most of their bodies performance whilst competing.

Check out our website and make the most of our services 'EDMASTER Performance Coaching

Circuit training is held at the Keep Moat Stadium in Doncaster on their Athletic track. Contrary to what the website says the circuit training entails alot of running among other strength exercise. This will take place on Tuesday morning and Doncaster Moto Parc is open for practice from 11am.

I have created this training so that I can have the best days training possible as I am now in a rush to be ready for my first race in June. Please come along and train with me and we make improvements together.

Law of attraction

How about this......Last week I was beginning to feel happy with how my training is going and I began to think about how training would be even better if I had some people to train with so that, pushing myself to the next level of fitness is easy.

This mornings swimming session there were 3 swimmers who were a little faster than me and 3 or 4 who were slower (compared to the 1 or 2 swimmers in previous weeks). There was certainly no place to hide! The lane was like a conveyor belt and once I was on it, 100% effort was required until it was time for the recovery period.

Interval training today was intense and so much fun.

It is amazing how the law of attraction works, think about what you want, believe that it will happen and then be greatful when it does.

Here is the important thing, the law of attraction pays no attention to positive or negative thoughts, just your own thoughts what ever they may be, therefore, we attract everything into our own world through our thoughts, wheather we consider it as being good or bad!

Think about this, think about your thoughts. What are your thoughts saying, are they good or bad, productive or destructive.

Learning to control your thoughts is as easy as you want it to be and changing thought processes is possible.

If you can change destructive to productive, how much more can you achieve than you already are doing.

Think about it.

Time to beat!

On Wednesday, riders practicing at DMP had the chance to practice with KTM factory rider Tommy Searl.

The track was in great condition and as the ground was soft, there were lots of long ruts around the turns and quite good size breaking bumps. So next time your riding at DMP and the track is in this kind of condition, use your stop watch and see if you can get any where near 1:34 lap times :-)

This was Tommy's fastest time which was recorded.

Mixing it up.

Fantastic, I started swimming 3 weeks ago, after doing very little exercise since the middle of October (5 months). Today I swam with a girl who I consider fast, from the last time when I was swimming and today we were the same speed.

So, I'm back up to speed in a very short time (as long as the girl was swimming as quick as she was doing when I was swimming last time!!).

Interval sessions is what I started off with and these sessions have only being lasting 40 mins, including the warm up and cool down. I've noticed very quick results with this type of training, however, I have been aware of needing to do more of an aerobic workout to improve stamina. After doing a swimming session which lasted 1 hour 15 mins, including warm up and cool down, I am happy that I have found a routine that will satisfy stamina training.

Now it is possible to mix up these sessions and balance out my training routine. After this I plan on starting to ride my bike and hone in my training program for that, of which, I have a good idea of how it will go.

I am sooo looking forward to getting back on a bike :-)

Have fun.

Weired?

I have mentioned previously, how to set a goal in a way that is achievable and ecological.

Here's the best thing....when you have set it, let it go, completely. By letting go of it, paradoxically it will come back. Weired, yes. Effective, definitely :-)

Have fun.

Last week I saw the doctor regarding my progress with the scaphiod. All is healling well and the next stage of recovery is now in place.

Training has recommenced, which means I can start swimming again. I love swimming its a great part of my training routine. So that it's easier for me to get even better results in the pool I purchased a heart rate monitor which I can use in the water (a monitor which requires no watch). After downloading my first session, it is easy to realise the benefit of having such data.

My HR was running as high as 180 bpm (my max being 186) and dropping only as low as 160 bpm for the duration of a 40 mins training session!

So, there are two things to take into consideration: 1, My current fitness level is may be only average, and 2, Inactive recovery is required during the training sessions to help lower the HR training zone.

Only having this HR data is it possible to know how to alter my training to get the best improvements. The next thing to do is to organise a maximal fitness test to find out exactly where I'm at now and then develop a programme that will allow me to be in great shape by the 1st June this year.

Enjoy training :-)

New training programme

I have recently carried out a new training programme, which works with 12 riders, and got great results with it too.

I find coaching really enjoyable, espcially now as I can use a bit of magic, to get even better results than before. I even did a class of Auto riders, the first in a long time. Impressed with how quick some of the riders are and how quick the improvers can improve, I will probably have more training for auto riders in the future.

I have also carried out some 1:1 coaching with amazing and instant results, this is already very popular with the riders.

So, dare I say, the 'EDMASTER performance coaching' website is nearly ready to go live. I say dare because I've mentioned the new DMP website a number of times and it is still in the waiting.

Sprinting

Friends from Iceland visitd me last week and joined me training. It was great fun and really good to have someone else to train with. We had a day at the athletics track which worked out really and realised how much work I have to do to get to the level of fitness that I want.

I really enjoy doing 100m sprints and in the past was quick compared to the poeple in our training group. Orsse, from Iceland, ran me into the ground beating me easily.

Motivation supplied, more track work coming up!

X-ray

8 weeks after the operation on my scaphiod and I have had the first x-ray. The signs are good, the bone is healing well around the screw and the gaps are filling in nicely. Fortunately, I am using a small splint now for the next 4 weeks, however, I still need to be careful with the wrist so that full recovery can be achieved.

I am grateful that I still need to be careful as it means that I am still unable to ride my racer on the road, on the turbo is ok. This is great because I will now start using the new athletics running track at the Keep Moat stadium in Doncaster for training. I have kept away from running in the past and I am looking forward to creating some new work outs to get me in shape for the next 4-6weeks.

How do you improve your performance?

As a Motocross rider/racer, what do you need to do/to have, to improve your performance?

For me as a racer the are 3 main areas, as an athlete, that you need to concentrate on:
Fitness, Nutrition and Coaching (both on and off the bike) of course you need outstanding bike performance which is well maintained and a good team around you all working towards your goal (and that's the riders goal only!)

I have become really curious over the last couple of years about what I would need to be doing, if I was in a fight for a World Championship title? How could I make it possible to be in this situation?

Experiencing racing with World Champions, training with Multi National and World Champions is a great way of getting this information. Whilst I was racing I was lucky enough to be in that situation, however at that time, I was unable to make the most of it.

Now, I am in a position where, after a lot of studying and research I can use it for myself and give, racers of today, the key ingredients that make up the composition of being a champion.

Services that 'EDMASTER Coaching include: Bespoke Nutrition Plans, Fitness training Plans, Motocross Coaching, Personal Sports Psychology and Circuit training.

The 'EDMASTER Circuit training will be taking place on Tuesday mornings 9.30 until 10.30 and the track will be open from 11.30 for riders who will want to ride after training to make the most of a great day. I am really looking forward to doing this type of training as it really helped me when I was doing Grand Prix.

It will be starting mid February and I will advertise it more closer to the time.

Have fun.