Make Good Use of Your Off-Season by Preparing Yourself, Your Bike, and Your Body for Next Season

December 13th, 2008 • Comments Motocross Tips
Tags: 2008, 2009, motocross, Motocross Tips, training, winter

Motocross is a fair weather sport, and unfortunately, this limits it to a little more than half the year for us northerners. Most riders take the off-season off, but I strongly believe that the offseason is a great time to improve your performance for the upcoming year. I’ve posted before on what I plan to do this winter, but this is meant to be a guide more specific improving your motocross performance over the off-season.

Train, Train, and Train Some More

-Photo by mrflip on Flickr.

Fitness is extremely important to your performance in motocross. Both strength and aerobic training off the track can be the difference between a stellar and a subpar season on the track. Contrary to popular belief, the off-season is not a good time to make huge gains in your physical fitness. Rather, the off-season is your chance to lay down a solid physical base for which you can build upon during pre-season training. During race season, most riders focus on riding and recovering based on motocross, forcing them to neglect their training. this is one of the reasons why off-season training is so important. Unfortunately, according to Aldon Baker, most riders underestimate the benefits of off-season training.

Unfortunately, many MX athletes short change their off-season training by jumping ahead and making it sort of a mini-Pre Season period by doing anaerobic intervals and generally race-type workouts. What a shame.

I totally agree with Aldon on this subject. The off-season is an incredibly crucial time of the season, and training correctly during this time period can have huge benefits come race time.

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Mike Martin Interviews Talented and Hardworking Amateur Motocross Racer Daniel Corbin

December 9th, 2008 • Comments Interview
Tags: amateur, Corbin, Interview, Loretta Lynn's, Racer X, Yamaha

Amateur Motocross is full of talented, hard working riders. Even so, every once in a while a rider comes around who is a clear standout in the large motocross community. Daniel Corbin is one of these riders. He has recently begun working with Coach Seiji and Tim Cryster in order to improve his performance in motocross. In addition, he has a steady job, a good education and looks to have a bright future ahead of him. I first heard about him on the Racer X Trainer Talk Blog. His story sounded interesting, so I caught up with him recently to bring more of his story to the Mikemartinracing.com readers, enjoy!

MikeMartinRacing.com: Tell us a little background information about yourself.

Daniel Corbin: I live in Frederick MD, on top of a mountain, to pay the bills I work for a small company called Harta Instruments building electronic devices, I like playing paintball, and above all that, motocross.

When did you start riding motocross?

I started riding when I was three on a little DS 80, and started racing when I was five.

When did you start doing the larger amateur nationals?

My first amateur national was Loretta Lynn’s when I was fifteen. It was a late start, but I guess it’s better late than never. That’s when I realized how much work it would take to accomplish my goals.

As a younger amateur, what type of support did you receive?

My parents didn’t let me become sponsored until I was almost fifteen because they didn’t want me to have a lot of pressure and think that I had to do well, and have that take all the fun out of riding. They saw a lot of my friends pick up sponsors and feel really pressured and get burned out.

As a teenager, were you homeschooled, or did you remain in public school as you worked your way up the mx ladder?

I have been homeschooled for most of my life.

Was that your choice or your parents?

It was kind of both of our decisions. I wanted to have more time to ride and they didn’t want me in the public school system. My mom was a teacher before, and a little after I was born, and she didn’t like the way the school system worked and decided that it would be better to teach us herself.

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New England motocross track review: Hemond’s Motocross Park (HMXP)

December 9th, 2008 • Comments Review
Tags: Hemond's, HMXP, motocross, NESC, New England Classic, Review, Track Review

Note: This is the second in a series of posts where I will be reviewing the motocross tracks of New England from my perspective. Remember, I am not an expert racer, but a newly promoted Amateur. These posts are my opinion, just because I like/dislike certain characteristics of a track does not mean riders of other abilities/preferences will like/dislike them.

-Photo by Paul Buckley.

Even though Hemonds Motocross park is one of the newest tracks in New England, it has already gained itself a reputation as one of the elite motocross parks in the area. Located in Minot, Maine, the track is quite a haul for me and most other New England riders, however, it is worth it. The park features two full sized motocross tracks. The original is a little smaller, tighter, and features a supercross-esque layout. The newer track is wide open, featuring big jumps, fast corners, and long straightaways. Because the newer track is used much more often, it is the one I will concentrate on for the remainder of this post.

Dirt

-Photo by Paul Buckley.

Hemond’s motocross park has several different types of dirt throughout its layout. For the most part however, the track is fairly hard packed. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of hard packed dirt. I love deep sandy berms, so the dirt at Hemond’s is certainly not my favorite. However, many riders like the dirt, and I feel that it suits the layout well. I know that the crew over at Hemond’s has been doing a lot lately to make the dirt softer, and their efforts have paid off. The track has improved light years from its original dirt which was absolutely rock hard, unforgiving, and not fun to ride on.

Hemond’s has been working hard to expand the track, and in their efforts, they have introduced some new types of dirt into the layout. One of my favorite on the track, the rolling whoops before the finish line, features very soft and sandy dirt. This dirt is perfect for this type of section and gives the whoops a Southwick feel. Unfortunately, because the track cannot afford to water the more hard packed sections without making them unsafely slippery, the sandy section often does not get enough water throughout the day and becomes very dusty by the second half of the day. Nevertheless, this added variety of the dirt makes the track much more interesting, fun, and enhances the racing experience.

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Suzuki to Cut Amateur Racing Support Team

December 6th, 2008 • Comments Motocross News, My Thoughts
Tags: amateur, Anderson, depression, Dungey, economy, Motocross News, My Thoughts, Suzuki

A few weeks ago, I posted about the current state of the motocross economy. In the post, I talked about how I felt the motocross economy would crumble from the bottom up. However, it appears as if I may have been incorrect in this thought.

Recently, Suzuki decided to cut their amateur racing support team. In other words, the factory Suzuki team ran by Cole Gress in years past is now debunk. According to AmateurMX on Vital Mx

…Suzuki has dropped their amateur program. In the current economic climate they just couldn’t justify the expense of continuing with their current business model. Basically, no more free or discounted bike deals and no more factory trackside support in the fashion they were providing it. And no more factory amateur team.

Suzuki is clearly being strongly affected by the current economy situation throughout the world, and is starting to cut expenses to survive, however, I believe that they are cutting the wrong expenses.

Amateur Riders are the Backbone of the Motocross Community

-Photo by Paul Buckley.

What Suzuki is failing to realize with this move is that the amateur riders are the backbone of the motocross community, and of their motocross business as a whole. Granted, the amateur racing team only supported a small number of elite amateur racers, the results of this decision will have a ripple effect throughout the industry. There is no denying that Ryan Villopoto has greatly affected Kawasaki’s popularity, even before he turned pro. Similarly, Suzuki’s upcoming amateur riders, such as Eli Tolmac, Nico Izzi, and the Trettle brothers could have potentially made Suzuki “cool” again. By completely cutting out their amateur team, these riders will almost certainly be forced to another amateur team (Kawasaki’s prospering Team Green program, for example), in order to continue racing at the elite level. This, in return, will bring their present and future publicity and fan base to another manufacturer.

The transition from amateur to pro is difficult for even the most talented 16 year old amateur stars. Kawasaki Team Green has managed to make this transition easier by supporting their riders throughout the transition, so they are free of worrying about what team they will ride for. This method has worked really well for Kawasaki as it provides them with a steady stream of talented incoming riders and it benefits their riders by providing them with a solid ride in one of the biggest transitions of their career. Because Suzuki has canceled their amateur racing team, they will be void of this luxury, and will have an extremely difficult time convincing amateur riders to switch from a bike they know and personnel they are friends with, to a new team with a new bike and a new group of people around them. This decision by Suzuki could potentially cost them thousands of dollars, and hundreds of wins by cutting off their steady supply of fresh pro riders.

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Apple iPod Touch, the Ultimate Gadget for Excercise?

December 3rd, 2008 • Comments Cycling/Fitness, Review
Tags: Apple, cycling, iPod Touch, Review, technology, training

While many people view exercise as a dull, monotonous task, the truth is, that with the right entertainment, it can be quite fun. For most of my cycling and other work-outs, I listen to a 1st generation 8gb Apple iPod Touch. While riding my bike at the end of an 80 minute session on the rollers, I began thinking how perfect the iPod Touch is as an exercise tool.

Music

Good music can make or break a workout. The iPod is the perfect tool for providing you with great music for long, intense workouts. Current iPods have more than enough memory to hold sufficient music for days of exercise without replaying a song. My 8gb Touch model can hold 1,750 songs, more than I, and most other people, have in their entire music library. In addition, the playlist features in the newest versions on iTunes make designing a workout playlist easier than ever.

• Manual Playlists: Obviously the oldest and simplest form of playlist available in iTunes, they offer you the most control over which music occurs in your playlist. However, they require that you design the playlist ahead of time in iTunes (unless you use the On-The-Go feature).
• Smart Playlists: These are slightly more complex than manual playlists, but have been a part of iTunes for almost as long. Smart playlists allow you to set up a set of conditions that dictate which music will appear in your playlist. Because they can be based on play count, rating, last play date, etc., etc., the playlist is dynamic and changes every time you sync with iTunes.
• Genius Playlists: The newest type of playlist in iTunes, genius playlists are perhaps my favorite of the three choices. They allow you to choose a song in your library and it automatically designs a playlists with songs similar to that playlist. For exercise, I like to choose an intense, fast paced song, and then design a playlist around it.

The music features of the iPod Touch are its main feature, and its most used on mine, and many other devices. In addition, music is one of the biggest reasons why the iPod Touch may be the perfect gadget for exercise.

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