Well the rain has stopped, and I’ve been back into riding. I’ve been learning a few cool things.

One is body position in corners. I’m starting to be able to feel the bike react differently as I shift my upper body forward, back and side to side in the corners. Even just slight head movements make a difference.

Yes, we all know this, but I’m starting to be able to understand it and apply the principles to improve my riding.

For example, on a hard pack turn that has a soft sandy exit. I come in and put my chin near the outside hand grip. But as the dirt softens, I need to move my head back and up to avoid the wheel wanting to tuck.

Also, I’ve been learning how to seat bounce. I’m only doing it in first gear off little 3 metre jumps, but I feel like the technique is coming.

One thing though… I still spend a lot of my riding time just idling around, sitting down and doing nothing. I’m thinking about setting specific time limits on my riding to make sure I do what needs to be done. For example, work on one drill for 10 minutes, then another drill for 10 minutes etc.

Hopefully that should work better than just cruising around, pop a wheelie, cruise some more, hit a jump cruise some more etc.

As for this weekend, it’s been a dud. I dropped the ball and did nothing but surf the net and play xbox. There was practice at the local track too, but I missed it.

Last week I watched a mini-documentary online about an elite CrossFit athlete Miko Salo and his training schedule.

He wakes up, trains, goes to work, comes home and trains, then sleeps. Every single day.

He manages his time well and listens to how much rest or exercise his body needs, but no matter what, he does some sort of training every day.

I’d like to develop this level of dedication and commitment.

Time for another update. I keep putting them off… it’s much easier to browse youtube than write.

Anyway, for the past week it has been raining non-stop, so I haven’t been doing any riding. It looks like the rain is going to continue for at least another week too. I want to take this time to organise a few non-moto things in my life.

Also, I want to practice balancing on my bike while it’s stationary. The coach running the course I went to said if you can’t balance on a stationary bike for at least 7 seconds, you’re not even at stage 1 of riding fast.

When it was dry, I had an awesome routine going. I would ride 3-4 days a week. I’m just practicing the drills I learnt at that school.

One thing that has helped a lot is riding circles. Just turning in one big circle, trying to get faster and lean the bike over more while still staying within the circle.

It’s teaching me a lot about my body position. It’s amazing how just small changes can totally affect the way the tyres grip. I’m starting to be able to feel when the tyres are beginning to slip, and make adjustments to avoid it.

I’m also practicing on different types of terrain, because your body position changes depending on the amount of traction.

One thing I still suck at is braking into turns. I lose 90% of my time there. But first I’m working on being able to ride a turn fast… than braking. Otherwise I’ll be practicing slowing down but with no idea of how fast I really need to be going.

Also, last weekend I went riding at a beach. It had some pretty cool dunes, like a really miniature Glamis. It was like a skatepark for motobikes. The only problem is that the dunes are very remote, and you can’t get a car to them. So if your bike breaks down, then you’re going to have a hard time getting it back home.

I just practiced jumps on really steep takeoffs with sharp trannys. It’s good ‘cause they are hard, but still safe. And the sand just makes it even harder, so when I jump at a track things should come easy… I hope. But still, jumps are another thing I suck at. Unless it is a small tabletop, I can’t jump it.

Finally, I’ve been really into my fitness training now. It’s funny, I used to workout here and there… and wasn’t really getting anywhere. I would just maintain my current level of fitness.

But now that I’ve been training consistently, my fitness has really stepped up a notch in just a few weeks.

I’ve just spent this past weekend at a 2-day motocross school.

It was really good, absolutely blew me away. It was basically just explaining every detail about riding a bike fast. The guy taking the school really knew his stuff. Both his sons are racing American supercross this year after dominating in Australia.

He explained everything from wearing different gloves in supercross and motocross, to the exact training regime his sons do, and so far as noticing improvements of just a tire width that are needed in some guys lines.

I’ve got 2 full pages of dot-point notes, and learned so many drills. Every area of my riding was picked apart, and I know exactly what I need to do to get better. That’s good, but it also showed me how far I still have to go. (The direction of my diet and workouts was spot on, I just need to increase the intensity of them).

A few big points I got out of it (non-drill based):

• He’s seen lots of the best juniors not make it, and guys that are useless become pro. It is about networking and building a team that can see what the faster guys are doing that you’re not.

• It would take over a 100 years of practice to truly become a perfect motorcycle rider. So nobody has time to be lazy on the bike. Even when riding to the gate, be practicing your transitions from sitting to standing.

• The only time you should ride laps is if you have a set time defined (minimum of 1 moto) and are doing it for fitness (mental and physical).

• If you can’t control your bike as easily as you can on the PlayStation, you need more practice.

Anyway, I’m just very keen to train right now. I have my first race in 2 months, and want to leave nothing on the table for that. Then I’ll see how I went and re-evaluate.

Also, I feel like I’m starting to refine my daily schedule. I’m knowing when I need to rest, and what causes me to lose the plot. I’m trying to make all my bad habits difficult to do. For e.g. I’m shutting down and packing away my computer when I’m finished. Now I don’t just sit down and browse the internet as much, because I have to wait setup the computer first. Now I’m looking at ways I can make my good habits easy to follow.

It’s funny how when you start trying to optimise yourself to achieve something, you become better at life all around. It still feels like I have 30 hours of work to fit into a day though.

So, I’m back into training. I’ve got a good schedule setup and am on the bike 3-4 times a week for the last two weeks.

But wow, I’ve been super busy lately. No different to anybody else I guess, it just seems like there’s too much to do. It’s getting to the point where if I watch TV for just half an hour, my whole day is set back.

This week I’m getting ready to travel to a motocross school run by Greg Moss. He’s the father of Matt and Jake Moss who have dominated in Australia and are both off to America this year.

In my practice rides, I’ve been trying to experiment with suspension settings… but I just can’t get it. I understand the theories, but then when I make the changes to the bike I can’t really tell the difference. Or there’s a slight difference in feel, but the bike seems to behave the same anyway.

Oh, but the other day I went to a beach and rode. That’s one place where I really noticed the suspension. Any changes seem to be magnified in the sand. I stiffened the front compression all the way and softened the rear a bit, and the bike rode well. Much better than when I first arrived there. So at least I’m starting to understand suspension setup a little.

Also on my practice rides – I’ve just been idling around not really doing much. Like when you see a beginner rider just ride around in circles. That’s kind of what I’ve been doing.

But yesterday I decided to quickly practice a few drills for 5 minutes. Things like full-lock turns and figure-8s. Immediately I started riding better. I got the hint, and am now going to seriously do up a schedule of drills to practice each ride.

That’s my plan, until next update…

Just a quick update about what I’ve been up to and my plans for this year…

Haven’t been on the bike much at all since my last post. Maybe once or twice.

Oh well, I needed a little break. I’m traveling down to see my family tomorrow and enjoy Christmas/New Year.

Then it’s time to get back into things…

I haven’t rode my bike since my last post. Only during work… which I guess is still time on a bike… but not optimal.

I’m doing a course to get qualified as a personal trainer, and that is taking up most of my time. It will be finished around early December.

But I’m trying to make the best of it and use this time to rest and regenerate. I’ve just got over a pretty bad flu, and am sorting out my diet and rest. The plan is to get through this next month, and be 100% ready for training.