Eric McCurdy , who ’ s also on the FactoryONE team , lives about five minutes away from us . He ’ d come over , and we would all go ride together . It was awesome to have two other guys to be able to ride with .
HOW IS YOUR TRAINING LEADING UP TO THE OPENING ROUND OF THE NATIONALS ?
ALEX : I definitely took a different approach ; a lot of people may have taken some time off and try to refocus . I did the same thing ; there was a period of time where I was kind of waiting [ COVID ] out , and then got back into the swing of things . I changed the way I ' ve been training . COVID and beginning to study at Penn State University have really changed the way I ' m riding .
It used to be I would be riding every day ; now it ' s more of a structured program where I balance in mountain biking , cross training and actual physical gym work . It ' s been working out really well ; I feel great and results should be coming in pretty good this year . I usually balance a lot of cardio ; I ' ll use mountain biking as a good source of cardio . Training on the bike is good as well for keeping fit . I do a little bit of lifting in the gym just to keep the muscle mass there during the winter when it ' s cold . Also when there ’ s snow , I use a Turbo Trainer on my bicycle and I ’ ll just spin inside the house for a couple hours every day . It really helps to stay fit and keep that cardio .
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 146