High Five

Waking up for our second day of training was quite slow! My body was full of lactate acid (A waste product that builds up in your muscles after training anaerobic, which means without oxygen in the muscles). My major muscle groups ached intensely.

The beginning of the day was a repeat of the morning before, run first, gym second. This helped remove a little lactic, however, it still left me feeling sleepy, tired. At the track we had a warm up session followed by one moto. Bliss, just one moto!

After ‘getting through’ the moto, I spoke with my friend, Petur about the setup of the bike. We decided that we should make some alterations and after a few laps of testing, the bike was a lot better and some much easier to ride, faster and with less effort. It will be great to improve my lap times now.

Now, if I was stiff this morning, it’s hard to comprehend how I feel after today’s training, and, how about this, my friend Andy (who is joining us on Sunday) has spoken with the guys at High Five (a high quality sports drink supplement company) and they would like me to test there products and that their protein drink (which Andy had packed in our van) would help get rid of the stiffness. After following Andy’s instruction on preparing the drinks, I have woken up this morning feeling so much better, it is incredible. This makes me very happy to continue to test their products.

To really make sure we remove the stiffness, we have cycled for 1 hour this morning in the very wet, rain! The rest of the day will be preparing for riding in mud tomorrow!

Test of resolve.

Today, I have completed my first days training on the Stefan Everts School. We had a great days riding, although, I found it very hard. New boots, grips, newly serviced suspension and two days of solid driving in the van has left me feeling very tired.

My lap times were 15 seconds a lap slower than Tyla Rattray (A factory KTM rider in the MX2 class). Whilst I know this is great feedback, I also feel a little cheesed off because I would have hoped the gap would be a smaller at this point.

I am, however, very pleased with how I have been able to respond to this feedback. In the past I would have felt very despondent and have the feeling of wanting to ‘give in’. With this experience, I did have this feeling for a very short time and then I was able to consider reasons for a lack of performance from myself and also, that, I just simply have a lot of work to do. I know how to do work, so really, I will be able to get what I want.

Motivation

Below, I have blogged about setting goals and creating a poster to represent them.

This is my poster.

A few things for me to remember: Short term - 10th overall in first British Championship round & 10th overall in 3rd round of MX3 championship.

Medium term - Build a great team and support for next seasons racing. Finish 3rd overall at the last MX3 grand prix at Roggenburg. Doncaster Moto Parc to be a multipurpose facility.

Long term - MX3 World Champion and The best family holiday in Florida.

Motivation: To have number 1 on my bike. To fly the Union Jack. Big trophies. Self satisfaction. Proof that it is possible to change your mental map and create your own life to how you want it, however that may be!!

Feedback

Last Saturday, I had a great day practicing at Thorseway Moto Parc. My fitness and bike speed is picking up great and I am really pleased with how quick these areas are developing.

One thing, Ashley Scott told me early on, was that 'feedback is everything'. So far, I have had very little feedback, regarding my speed. I am able to measure my fitness, however, because all my training so far this year has been on my own or with slower riders, I am unsure of how much quicker I need to be, so that, I am competitive in my races.

I will find this out next week as I go to Spain to train along side grand prix riders.
This is going to be so much fun and a time when I can really concentrate on my speed.

I am expecting to return from Spain on a new level (up from where I am now) and with even more knowledge to make sure that I am training properly and getting racing results that I have been dreaming of.

On my return I will have four weeks before my first British Championship race!

Another new sponsor!

Once again, I am very pleased to be able to say 'I have another sponsor'. This time, for the bike.
DEP exhaust pipes have been producing high quality, high performance exhaust pipes for a long time and I have received help from Craig, with pipes, when I was riding for Team Green Kawasaki back in 1994, the year when I started racing in Grand Prix.
This is a big help, especially using the 490cc engine.

Looking Forward

I am really enjoying carrying out my training programme. On the bike, both, my fitness and speed is improving. It is important to me that I am in good shape for the end of the month as I am going to attend a Stefan Everts training school with two friends, Andy Kyffin, who runs NWMTB and Petur Smárason from Iceland.
My plan is to have good bike fitness for when I arrive in Spain, when I return, I plan to spend time working on, out right speed, so that, I will be ready for my first races.
I am looking forward to racing.

New Sponsor

I am very proud to announce that I will be receiving sponsorship from Harbon Electrical Engineers.
A Doncaster based firm that started over 50 years ago, that are committed to producing, consistently high standards for their customers.
If you require any work in this field, click the link and use the contact details to get in touch with them.

Training plan

Before Christmas, I talked about creating a training program, of which, I have now put in place and I will review it in 3 weeks time.
A week is as follows:

Monday: Motocross practice.
Gym work.
Tuesday: Swim.
Wednesday: Motocross practice.
Gym work.
Thursday: Motocross practice.
Friday: Swim/Cycle.
Gym work.
Saturday:Motocross practice.
Sunday: Rest.

My Monday, motocross training session went really well. Whilst concentrating on technique and keeping a low heart rate, I noticed that my speed is improving, compared to the last session I did with the same heart rate average the week before.
It is great to be able to measure performance.

Goal

I have been busy recently with riding, training, working and I also had the opportunity to join the A.C.U Acdamies coaching seminar with Mindracings, Ashley Scott.
This was a great seminar which covered goal setting.

Setting congruent goals is really important and for me, along with my medium and long term goals, I have realised that I need to keep setting lots of short term goals, this I will keep practicing.

An exercise we did was to make a large poster. We started of with a large piece of white card and cut out pictures from a handfull of old motocross magazines to represent our goals and then produce a poster with pictures and words so that we can create a clear, life like picture in our mind, of the future outcome of our goals, that we want.

This was great fun and also quite easy as I already know how I want my goals to be achieved.

Too much fun Vs heart rate!

I have enjoyed, another training session on the bike today. Practicing specific techniques and keeping my heart rate in the correct area is quite a challenge. Practicing technique is easy, keeping my heart rate down, low enough, is tough with other riders on the track. I found myself getting into a rhythm on the bike, and then, having so much fun riding, forgetting to keep my H.R. around 165.

My motocross fitness will come with perseverance and discipline and I will be required to do, a little riding, often.

With the Suunto T6 monitor, I am finding that it is really easy to overreach when practicing.
I am currently experimenting different styles of training sessions, at different times in the day to see if I can be really effective with my training. I will blog about my findings in due course.