On The Pegs October 2019 -Volume 4 - Issue 10 | Page 79

On The Pegs
Vol. 4 Issue 10 - October 2019
79
ing. [During]the first couple laps, I can tell when the race is really hard for me and
things aren’t going good it’s probably super high and it’s not going to be a pretty
end of the race. If you use that much energy at the beginning, it’s usually a bad
sign for the end. But it’s nice when you can hover around 160-ish to 170 for the first
hour of the race. Then usually when I can do that, if I’m in that meat of the zone
right there for the first hour, I’m going to be pretty good at the end of the race. If
I’m around 170 or 175 for the first hour, I’ve noticed a trend where the end of the
race isn’t so good for me.
You’ve worked with Charlie Mullins and Aldon Baker. Can you give me a
quick overview of how each one of those guys has influenced your program?
Yes, it’s been really good. It’s just brought some structure and knowledge to how
I kind of train and how I see things now. It’s a good thing and it’s kind of a bad
thing, because now you know more about your body and a whole bunch of other
stuff where before when I first turned pro I just kind of went out on a limb and did
everything on my own and didn’t really know and didn’t really care too much. Now
that you know, I think you start caring too much and mentally that weighs on you
too when you know you’re not quite race ready. So back in the day, I never knew
what race ready was or looking at numbers and figuring stuff out, I never knew
where I was so I never really cared. I just went as hard as I could the whole time,
and now it’s like broken down, more structured. Now it’s like, ‘Man, if I’m not kind
of in this realm of capabilities before this race, it’s going to be tough.’
Are you faster today than you ever were?
I would think so. Personally, I do. I don’t think I’m as good as I once was at the be-
ginning of the race, but I think that’s everybody else stepping up their game too.
So maybe I am as good as I used to be at the beginning, but I think everybody’s
gotten better and stepped it up as well. There are a lot of guys that have really
upped their pace and their intensity the last three or four years now. The competi-
tion is getting greater, which is really nice to see, but it just makes things tougher.
Everybody’s pushing each other to the next level, it seems like now.
I have a question about Sprint Enduro. You won the first season in 2015 and
then you won it this season. What changes have you seen in that series and
the competition in that series?
It’s hard to say because it has been such a long time since the first year… It’s so
long of a gap from ’15 to this year that I did them, that I don’t really remember too