What inspires you to compete?
I guess it`s my personality to test myself and be my best at whatever activity I get interested in. It doesn`t matter if it`s motocross, snowboarding, mountain biking, weightlifting, or academics, I enjoy finding my limits and trying to exceed them. From there it just seems natural to want to know where my ability stacks up against others.
Why do you like this sport?
I like the fact that motocross challenges me in so many ways; to be successful you have to have endurance, strength, guts, balance/timing, and experience. I like all the great people we meet through racing. I love to battle like crazy on the track, then pull off, shake hands, introduce myself to my competitors and talk about how much fun we had out there. I find this to be especially true in the Vet classes. The older guys race just as hard as the kids but have a better appreciation for the complete expererience; how lucky we are just to be out there having a good time. I like what a great opportunity it gives me to teach my son about sportsmanship, perseverence and how good it feels to achieve a goal you`ve worked hard for. And just like when I was his age, some of his most significant friendships seem to be arising out of our time at the track.
Some Personal Information About Me:
I`ve been married for 18 years to a wonderful woman who`s currently going to school to become an RN. We have a 12 year old son who loves books, music, science, video games and, of course, motocross. I started racing motocross as a kid, then quit at 17, a year or so before going to college. More than 20 years later I found my way back into the sport when I tried to get my son into mountain biking and BMX (which he "liked except for all the pedaling"). After a year or so of trail riding we started to do more and more track riding, which I prefer, and now, here we are packing up the camper and heading to the races 3 or 4 times a month.
Describe your style...
My goal is to be smooth like Kevin Windham or Chad Reed. I hate crashing or getting sloppy so I tend to ride a bit more conservatively than most. In the long run this seems to pay off, both with fewer injuries and more consistent results. To some extent I`m still finding my style since I was out of the sport for 23 years and have only been back riding/racing again for a couple years. Part of my plan for this coming year is practice as much as possible and take more classes with local Pro Scott Davis to improve my technique so I can ride faster but with the same level of control and consistency.
Do you train? What does your schedule look like?
My primary form of endurance training is Spinning Fitness, but I also love mountain biking. Weather permiting, this is something I usually do once or twice a week during lunchtime. I try to hit at least 2 or 3 Spinning classes a week, more or less depending on how much I`m riding my mountain bike. Every weekend that we aren`t racing we go to one of the local tracks to practice and I usually ride pretty hard and stay on the track long enough to get a good workout in addition to working on riding technique and helping my son with his riding.