For the first half of 2016 I spent it off the bike, due to a shoulder reconstruction, then another 3 months doing rehabilitation to get back strong enough to train hard on the bike again.
During the time off the bike, I did a massive amount of research to design myself a training plan with the support of my strength and conditioning trainer James Sheely in USA. I wanted to make sure that I would not only maintain my speed but be faster by the team I get back on the bike. After 6 months, off the bike, all my times were equal or not faster from what I recorded in December 2015. By August I was cleared to start pushing hard on the track in a “controlled environment”.
I got a good 2 months of 100% training on the track in New Zealand before I headed to China to do 3 weeks of coaching and training with the team, then I headed to Denver, Colorado for 4 weeks of intense training to try and get myself back up to the Elite level and not embarrass myself over there.
By the time the USABMX Grand Nationals came around, I was as ready as I possibly could be at that point and for the week before the race, for the first time since I was a kid, my nerves were gone and replaced with excitement. The Friday race at the Grands “Race of Champions” is fairly brutal, with a 5:30am wake up, practice at 7am then rst moto at 7:30 AM. I managed to go 4-4-2 in motos which put me a position in the Quarter finals. For the past 2 years of racing AA Pro in USA I had never made it out of a quarter or semi nal, which I went to stomp my gate and pull a 3rd and book a spot in the semi nal for the rst time in my Elite career. I went on the crash super hard in the semi final on the rst straight, but ticking off a lot of achievement for my rst race of 2016.
