by Jason Thomas
450 Words: The December Dilemma
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PrintFor most people, December is a month long holiday extravaganza of office parties, egg nog and gingerbread. For supercross riders, it is the last month before the circus starts up again. Everyone has a different opinion on how to prepare for a task as grueling as a 17 week supercross season, but most “experts” I have seen work from a similar template. Before we can discuss December, let’s start from the beginning.
At the end of the outdoor season, every single healthy rider is looking for a break. After nine months of racing sprinkled with a few off weekends, “burnt out” is a popular phrase. Bodies, minds, and motivation are all in need of R&R and most of September is dedicated to getting that in order. This is also the time of change, whether it be bikes, teams, or mechanics. By October, you hope to be situated with your new look, and can then start to wrap your head around an off-season program. With the Monster Energy Cup (or the US Open in the old days) a fixture in mid-October, being at least lukewarm in your supercross practice is usually a good idea.
Two-time defending Monster Energy Supercross Champion Ryan Villopoto has elected to train at his home in Florida after an suffering an ACL injury in supercross.
Simon Cudby photo
Then, testing kicks off for everyone and depending on your team or situation, this can be a grueling process or simply updating a few settings. Normally during this time, the riders are doing long bicycle rides (2-3 hours) and starting to log long days at the test tracks (50-90 laps). If you ever hear a rider say they are “building a base”, this is what they are referring to. Lower heart rate/long duration exercises are used here to build a fitness platform for the coming season. Once the season starts, you have to be careful about where you spend your energy, so this fitness base is key to sustaining months upon months of exertion. This pattern will continue for 6-8 weeks consistently through the end of November or the first week of December. The massive amount of effort, soreness and boredom wear on everyone. The only real upside is that you get to almost lead a normal life of being home every night and avoiding airports (unless you’re me and you decide to torture yourself every weekend racing in a third world country for $72 and a trophy). This preparation may be necessary, but it drags on for most and everyone can't wait for it to end.
By now, you should have two months of hard work in your rear view mirror and Anaheim 1 is becoming a reality. Your bike should be getting close to race trim and testing is down to the fine tuning. It becomes a speed game now. Days are spent now trying to find every ounce of sprint intensity you can muster. Where as November was long bicycle rides and endless 20-25 lap motos, December is filled with high intensity running and rowing and 2-8 lap sprints until you drop. Although its easier effort wise, some of the sprint laps can get a little dicey as everyone is pushing the envelope trying to find that next step in the pecking order. Coming into the last week or two before Anaheim, most riders will back it way down. Riding is still prevalent but allowing the body to rest is crucial before the season starts. All of the work is wasted if you wake up the morning of A1 and are exhausted. The work has been done and that extra speed has been found, now it’s time to shine! At least that was always my approach until about lap 15 or so when the leaders lapped me. Then it was back to the drawing board!
Meanwhile, Chad Reed elected to race three rounds of the Australian Supercross Championship to help get back into race form.
Shayne Rice photo
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A taste of the insight we're going to enjoy by having JT$ around, keep those details coming!
What a fantastic article! This is one of the best things I have read on this site in a long time! Love the "behind the scenes" information! Great write up JT$!
PS my brother and I cheered like hell for you at the Elsinore National in your final race! Glad you found a home at racer X and are still around!
Good job JT! DC was wise in adding you to the talented RacerX team!!
Loved it, great read JT$!!
Love your ability and humility, to laugh at yourself. I guess racing with the best racers in the world will do that to you.
Lest we mere mortals forget that you would lap us well before lap 15!!
GREAT JOB/Article JT$!! Keep it coming!
One thing you should know JT, there's always someone who knows, or thinks they know, more than you. 323mx is a fine example of that.
*thumbsup* Great article, thank you!
Good read.
.I ride bicycle's a lot and i have always wonderd how good a RD, RV, JS ect would be on a bike. 2-3 hrs is not a really a long time so maybe they are pushing it. I know RD did a 100 mile ride last year the day after a Nat but it was not a race.I would think these guys would be very strong riders and i would love to know what there Avg speed is over a 100 mi ride and what amount of climbing was in it.
New guy is putting out some good work already. Whether or not you agree with his training methods it's a good little read. How about an Ask JT as well. One could be sarcastic the other serious.
This made article me think that there will be a lot of doping testing going on this year. Just because any advantage this year is crucial. Not saying anybody is doing wrong.
#Misoheye - I like the idea of an "Ask JT" segment. Having just "hung up his boots" he would be in a unique position to answer some of those questions that many riders wonder about.
Haiti , 72 bucks and a trophy ...i'm so there.......lol.....great article . more.
Good stuff JT$
@Misoheye, the testing that is done is just for show, just so they can say that they test; until they do blood tests we can't know the truth. EPO, HGH and TRT are the most helpful PEDS (and the ones the cycling trainers are familiar with) and since we don't test for those it's free range for all riders to use.
@jesus....As long as no rider starts a charity to help people they should be all right. I come from the train of thought that these guys (all sports stars) should be able to take ANY thing they deem fit. I guess a 450 pound football player could be seen as dangerous to others but, oh well.
Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So disappear. Come back under the name of
Larry "Bud" Melman
hey 323mx your a simpleton and have never seriously trained for anything(high) level. i am sure jt$ is refering to mental rest&mental; deversion. i used to go on a small vacation after 8-10 weeks of training with a week left to ease back in to the competative routine hungry and fresh (mentally).
Great first write up JT$.Missed you on pulp the other night.Looking forward to more good things to come.
welcome to racerx jason - racers are always welcome
@ 323mx 6% really !!! Unless you are an exercise physiology person with a PHD: in that field.... I dought that you could even see 6%.. Dont go out clubbing or drinking alcohol and take an extra shit and get laid before you race.. Hey it worked for Dr. J in the day !!!!!
RV was tested last year. I don't know what all was tested. Jesus is truely all knowing...
Or the Joel Robert routine; Belgium Waffles before practice, and cigarettes between motos. Of course it helped that his bike had way more power and was 20% lighter than the competition.
Nice read JT$ keep them coming...sorry i didn't get to a race during your final season...but the article is excellent...
Nice read JT$ keep them coming...sorry i didn't get to a race during your final season...but the article is excellent...
When a borderline illiterate claims that you wrote a great article, is it a compliment or an insult?
BillC - These guys are very, VERY good on road and mountain bikes. This is coming from Coach Seiji (Short's trainer) who has put in 100's and 100's of miles with some of the sports best. According to him on a MTB they are willing to huck ANYTHING and on the road bikes they are fierce competitors and crazy fit. He has actually told me Andrew could probably go pro at some level in cycling.
@RXVT - Thx for the feedback on the top riders and cycling fitness. I was wondering the same thing as Bill C.
Can you shed any light on what JT$ may have meant by "Coming into the last week or two before Anaheim, most riders will back it way down."? Is it a matter of backing it down on the high intensity sprint training, or does that include backing it down on workouts, bike ride duration, and practicing too?
I think the answer you are going to hear varies depending on the rider and if the rider is working with a trainer. But generally speaking, the week prior to race should contain a taper. Training volume should be much less: A good place to start is 50% of your usual weekly and daily training volume. The extra available energy drives the recovery processes. Training intensity should go from low to high as you get closer to the start of the race. Conversely, training duration goes from high to low as the race week progresses. The most intense but shortest training day will be the last day of your race week.
There is an article over on Virtual Trainer that sums it all up (Written by Coach Seiji). http://www.racerxvt.com/article/race-weeks-and-warm-ups
I have solicited responses from Aldon, Seiji, Charles Dao, Peter Park and a few others to join in and share what they do with their riders. They are all out in Cali testing with their riders so hopefully they will respond soon.
Great article JT!
JT$!!! Good job man, great write up, will miss you at the races but glad you found a home in your industry.
Soooo many individual factors goes into how a training program is executed, including ongoing changes based on things such as rate of adaptations, outside stresses, etc that an article isn't going to present the magic formula. JT is just giving you a viable example of what could be a schedule and I agree with him. This isn't some way out there, totally unrealistic representation, this could be a great program for someone. It sounds so cliche but in my experience, every athlete is different physiologically, how they respond to training stress/life stress, other numerous variables and IMO what separates good training from great training is the ability to correctly account/predict for these personal responses/stresses.
Good job again JT, I understand you write this stuff for little to no money, probably as a favor to the fans that have supported you.
I'd take JT's view of training. How many guys used to run both classes of SX in the same night?
@RXVT & coachseiji - thanks for the additional comments and the link to the coach Seiji article.
I wasn't after specific training advice - completely understand that training programs must be specific to the athlete's body and circumstances.
I was more interested in gaining insight into JT$'s comment about making the transition from building stamina, strength, and specific riding skills in the off season to getting ready to perform at a peak level over a very long series and a very long year.
Thanks Virtual Trainer. I figured they would be pretty damn good. See if you can get some specifics IE: Avg speed's over a long ride including elevation gain to give me a good idea where they are at, heart rates, cadence they like to run at on a hard ride ect.. I would love to see how they stack up and any info you could get would be really cool to see.
OK now I just saw that coachseiji also posted. Can you give me some info On Shorty or any other top guys #'s?
.Thanks to you and Virtual Trainer. Love to read anything about training and you guys rule at that.
Just thouight of another question about Shorty. I have read many times that he is one of the fitest guys out there but he does seem to have issues late in the moto sometimes and I read that he went to the redBull compound to work on his head some because they said it might be on the mental side. I could see that for sure cuz to focus at that speed for 35min's is NUT's. What are your thoughts on that or any insite you could let us in on? Thanks
I'm sure some of them are competent on a bicycle but that doesn't mean they are ready to ride the Tour de France. The term "pro" is subjective. A local MX pro could smoke me but would get equally smoked at a national. Eli even admitted his dad could still beat him on a bike.
Only on the down hills Texag
BillC - I don't think I am giving anything away but Andrew does have some "mental" issues. If you can even call it that. From what I understand he is pretty particular in everything he does (on and off the track) to the point of it almost being a fault. So when someone passes him or he makes a mistake, he can't let it go and it gets to him mentally. Again, this is from what I understand and could be 100% wrong. I'm sure Andrew would say it is a variation of something in the middle. But if you read the little section in the 2012 Motocross Fitness Handbook (Page 20), Coach Seiji eludes to this very point. I can assure you it is not fitness, but then again mental fitness is part of the equation.
http://www.racerxvt.com/article/the-racer-x-2012-motocross-fitness-handbook
SX/MX and cycling trainers and racers sure do have a lot in common, the more I hear the more I wonder.
Thanks, Good read.
Yes a very good article by JT$ keep them coming! Since he is simi retired JT can keep in shape on the keyboard.