A typical training day at Coach Seiji’s Ranch. Starring Hunter Hewitt, Rusty Potter, Andrew Short and Greer Marshall.

This is one of my favorite videos. Lance Mackey is an unsung hero of mine. I watch this when the odds seem insurmountable and it helps…LIVESTRONG Lance Mackey…

Well, it has been a full quarter on the self prescribed, pre-agricultural revolution “Caveman Diet” for yours truly. Here are my observations this past month:

-Weight went down to a low of 164.5 (13.5 pounds of total loss) but slowly came back up to 167 (11 pounds total loss). I truly believe this is from the change in intensity in my bicycle specific training which has added muscle mass to my legs. The gain from the low to current weight exactly followed my added intensity on the bike. So, no real loss in body mass but I strongly believe that I still lost fat mass and replaced it with muscle mass.

- Subjectively feeling great! Very, very few moments of a lack of energy and DEFINITELY less sensitive to time gaps between meals or the frequency of meals a day.

-Subjectively I look WAY leaner, especially in my low back area which for me has historically been the last place fat leaves but the first place it returns. Almost have to go down another size in motocross pant; can’t adjust them down any further!

-As stated in the last follow up post, had to add some carbohydrates in the form of potatoes around periods of higher intensity cardiovascular work. I have been limiting this to the day of the activity, one meal ahead and one meal behind the exercise session. So far, so good on that approach to my now obvious need for additional carbohydrates.

-Most important meal of the day in terms of how I feel is certainly breakfast. How I feel and perform for the rest of the day seems very dependent on the total calorie and fat content of this first meal. I have to eat a large amount on purpose on active days and I purposely eat what I would consider a large amount of fat, in excess of 30% of the total calories of this meal. The more fat I eat in the morning, the more sustained my energy level is through the afternoon. It seems like breakfast is the primary fuel source for my active day with lunch and small snacks just being supplemental boosts. These boosts definitely help but without the calorie and fat intake of the breakfast, they don’t really help that much.

-Cravings for carbohydrate dense foods like breads and pasta are almost totally gone. Last one was for sourdough bread which I used to love and well, if I smell pizza I want that but again, almost non existent cravings. Still on the 95/5 rule (if you follow something 95% of the time, the 5% won’t hurt overall) so a few times I had a desert item with zero guilt.

So far the personal experiment has absolutely produced fat loss. I still feel great and with the addition of the potatoes last month, I am performing great even at higher intensities of exercise. I am happy with the results and will continue now for at least another three months to see how I perform with even higher levels of activity. I am completely satisfied (no, totally stoked!) with my current body weight as I am just 3 pounds over my full time bicycle racing weight with a much more muscular upper body.

I will have my physical sometime next week so I will know the effects on my blood work, etc. but it will be difficult in my mind to deem some of the results as positive or negative since some of the philosophies of the diet challenge what is currently though of as healthy/unhealthy changes (cholesterol, blood triglycerides, etc.). Might just be a comparison of numbers with no conclusions drawn as to whether the change is good or bad for my health.

Wish me luck as the self imposed experiment marches on! Thanks for reading!

An example of an easier day of “work” for Coach Seiji as he trains Hunter Hewitt in SoCal.

A lap around the new 2010 Coach Seiji woods training loop on board with yours truly. Don’t laugh! This loop is very much a work in progress and conditions change insanely with rain. The dips become full on creeks. Can’t wait to add to this and someday link it to the outdoor tracks! Enjoy!

Well I am two months into my personal version of the Caveman, Paleo or Primal diet. Basically the pre-agricultural revolution diet. Eating this way has become easier and easier and the cravings for carbohydrate dense items almost entirely disappeared. First the bare numbers:

-8 weeks in with a starting weight of 178

-Weight today was 167

-11 pounds absolute weight loss, about 1.4 pounds per week of loss

Some performance observations:

-All strength training loads for upper body have stayed the same and the phase has been the same so no change/loss of strength there. No gain either but wasn’t really trying there.

-Relative loads for lower body strength training have risen dramatically (for me). Have been in a maintenance phase myself so haven’t really tried post gains, just sort of happened on it’s own for the first time in about 8 years.

-All cardiovascular efforts have felt great, up to zone 3.

-Anaerobic threshold/power efforts have felt fine while doing them but the recovery from those efforts has been subjectively twice as long and I have felt pretty drained the remainder of that training day, sometimes into the next day.

In an effort to stave off the last listed effects, I have added potatoes and legumes in the time period directly preceding or following any cardiovascular effort that involves zone 3 and higher this past week. So far the results of adding these foods has taken care of the negative recovery issue. Training in these higher zones has been on the shorter side and only once or twice per week so I will post in the future how much intensity/duration/volume I can recover from on the current modified diet in a few weeks.

I know that potatoes and legumes are on the no-no list on some versions of the diet I have been experimenting with, but as I stated earlier, I am making up a diet that works best for me based on the principles behind such diets which is mainly pre-agricultural. I understand that potatoes and legumes could be a product of the agricultural revolution but using my simple and not deeply researched reasoning, I felt that if I was a hunter-gatherer wandering around, I would eventually find a legume or potato and give it a try! Coach Seiji Caveman logic haha.

Another interesting note: Up until now, I have hated going to the grocery store. Totally despised it. Now I like going because it makes me feel like a modern hunter gatherer: I go to the store and think like a “caveman” while I am there. What animal do I want to hunt and what fruits and veggies do I find? I am even being sort of seasonal about the fruits and veggies because I try to buy what is locally grown meaning it’s locally in season. I have also been a grilling fiend. Every day, sometimes I fire it up even for lunch. Modern cooking by campfire. Yup, I’m a total dork.

I’ll keep this one short and sweet. Just the facts ma’am.

5 weeks in, 6.5 solid pounds of weight loss. That’s 1.3 pounds per week.

In a heavy stage of strength training that I have done for a long time. I have progressed faster than in the past. Could be due to the higher protein intake.

Started some higher intensity aerobic work on the road bike. Long Tempo intervals are no problem. Still in the aerobic work rates though, should be interesting when I start doing anaerobic work. Will the lower carbohydrate intake hamper me?

Still able to go longer without eating. A new thing is I don’t wake up starving anymore. That’s what has woken me up for two decades, hunger.

Carb cravings are down and I would estimate my “Caveman” calorie intake is way over 90% of my total intake. I’ve been pretty good about sticking to it. Traveling for work is the hard part.

So, bottom line is I am experiencing moderate, steady weight loss with no decrement in training performance or subjective feeling. Still in aerobic only work rates but high intensity strength training. So far, so good!

Well it’s been about two weeks now that I have been on my caveman diet and it’s definitely getting easier. The carb cravings are still there every once in awhile but only when I see someone else eating bread or pasta….mmmmm. But, I’m sticking with it in the name of research for myself and the ones I care about. Here are the most poignant observations thus far:

1) Fat as fuel. At the one week mark, I noticed that I have started viewing fat as fuel. Really. Some of the things used to disgust me (like skin on animal meats) but now I see the fat and see it as fuel. Ugh. When I know I need fuel, I first look for “good” fats (I pretty much eat avocados now every morning with eggs) but I will eat any fat source that is natural because, well, I need it and it seems to be working.

2) I can go a lot longer between meals. I used to get starving, irritable, shaky and useless in that order if I didn’t eat every four hours at least. If I get busy working around the ranch, I can go way longer, I mean like double the time, before any of those symptoms start up. It’s not nearly as bad a crash either. Must be the fat. That’s what I’m saying anyways.

3) My total food volume is down. By a lot. Doesn’t really make sense to me as I would think I would need to replace the calorie dense items like bread and pasta with the not so calorie dense but high volume sources like veggies, etc.

4) I feel fine with low intensity exercise so far and I feel good strength training. I have not yet tried high intensity work yet but I plan to this coming week. Just hasn’t been in my program yet. I did do a relatively large amount of moto this past week and felt good and didn’t have to snack so much during the sessions but again, still relatively low intensity.

I have not weighed myself so I don’t know if I have lost weight and if I did, I can’t be 100% sure if it’s fat loss yet. I didn’t really need to lose weight but if I lost about 5 lbs. of fat without changing my training that would be a bonus as long as performance didn’t suffer.

I will admit that it’s hard to figure out what to eat at times (breakfast especially) and it requires a lot more trips to the store and a lot more prep time (meats). I will again admit that at times, I really want to eat some bread or pasta, drink some juice, etc. but I am doing good so far sticking to the plan. I have been caught out traveling and had to eat a sandwich once and I just had my first cookie in two weeks but other than that, I’ve been a good boy. I would say I am 95% caveman.

I want to reiterate that I am doing this because the whole lack of evolutionary time in response to the agricultural revolution makes total sense to me.

OK, I will check in later with more info, possibly a weigh in and for sure the results of some harder training. Thanks for reading.

For a few years I have been researching a dietary philosophy known as the “Paleo Diet” or “Primal Diet” or what I call the Caveman Diet. The rough theory is that our bodies could not have evolved in the relatively short time period between the agricultural revolution and now, meaning that we should still be eating similar to Paleolithic man or Caveman. Evolution theoretically takes a very long time and since the advent of farming, grains, bread, pasta, dairy and all the other food marvels of the current times, the mindset I am trying is that we are just not equipped to process those foods just yet and our bodies have a negative reaction to eating them. Heart disease, diabetes, etc. could really be caused by insulin resistance and other negative effects that are directly related to the high carbohydrate diet comprised of these “modern” foods and possibly going back to the ways of our ancestors could improve not only health but athletic performance.

This has been pretty difficult for me to fathom as both in my athletic career and my college studies have almost preached the opposite: low fat, high carbohydrate, careful consideration of meat intake, low cholesterol, etc. You know the drill. The Caveman diet is almost the opposite. Eat like a hunter-gatherer: meats, fish, veggies, fruit and nuts. Really high protein, moderate carbohydrate and by today’s standards, high fat (animal sources at that!). Depending on what version of the Caveman diet you study, sometimes there is no distinction between saturated and unsaturated fats and cholesterol may be ignored altogether. You can see why this dietary theory goes against so much that has been taught and pounded into our heads in the last 25 years. If you start to really scrutinize all the government recommendations and the food/agriculture industries, it gets kind of scary. Like there is some sort of dietary-industrial food complex or something. At least I would have thoughts about it.  Again, this dietary philosophy has been very difficult for me to accept let alone do and preach.

Well instead of just researching to no end (I am still studying it daily), I am just going to give it the good ‘ole college try. I have put myself on a modified Caveman Diet of my own making. It’s basically 80% Cavemen Diet with some concessions towards today’s athletic training and modern life. I am adding in some more carbohydrate (although the whole diet is still pretty low in carbs) but still avoiding grains, breads, pasta, etc. Mostly fruits and veggies plus maybe potatoes and legumes (not on some Caveman Diets because they came with farming). I am also timing the carbohydrate to match the timing of training and recovery.  I am doing this because it’s my thought that the training that I do with my clients exceeds the duration/intensity of Mr. Cavemen walking around and hunting/gathering. I am also allowing myself to “fall off the wagon” when necessary during travel for work as I would rather eat off the diet than nothing at all; I will still attempt to stay as close to it as I can even during those times. I am currently not paying attention to saturated/unsaturated fats and cholesterol even though every brain cell is screaming to avoid the “bad” stuff.  Oh, yeah, I am still going to have my one cup of black coffee a day. I think some very productive and alert caveman figured that out and kept it a secret haha.

I am three days in right now. I am not going to lie, the first two days were almost unbearable as I felt pretty bad when I exercised at an intensity any higher than low aerobic. I also craved carbohydrates bad from grain sources. I had a dream the first night about breakfast; rowing through a lake of oatmeal on my giant Clif Bar raft.  I can also feel my innards having to adjust. Just feel sort of bloated/slow inside at times. Even my gaming is suffering I think. Call of Duty hasn’t been the same since going to what seems  low carbohydrate. But, in the name of research and my clients, I press on! Today is better already. Time to go fire up the grill for some good old charred animal protein. Stay tuned for more results of my one man study!

It was a bad crash but fortunately he wasn’t injured. Crazy season in the SX class so far!

Lance Armstrong demonstrates how to stand your ground and still remain professional. Lance is at a press conference rebutting some harsh remarks made by a British journalist. Bravo! Sometimes even the most professional and gracious people have to fight back.

A few laps of the 2009 winter version of the coachseiji.com SX track. Courtesy of the insanely polite Kevin Johnson of Team Faith aboard his brand new 2010 Yamaha YZF450. Enjoy!

Yodie came with the Coach Seiji Ranch. The old ranchers took him with them when they moved away and we moved in but Yodie trotted his way back. They took him away a few more times but he always managed to come back to HIS home. We took him in of course because we were really guests on his pasture. The old owners joked that I took a perfectly good ranch dog and ruined him by letting him sleep indoors and eat dog food that was a tad better than Ole Roy. That’s because Yodie was more than a ranch dog, he was a member of our family (with three other dogs) and he was actually a good role model on how to behave indoors for our “city” dogs.

Yodie was the only dog to be allowed to wonder off without a leash. He never left the ranch property. He would scout the perimeter, bury his treats out on the track somewhere and keep an eye on the cows. He would guard the house while I was gone to the gym and always come trotting up the dirt road to meet me as I made the last turn to the house.

He greeted all visitors with strong wags of his stubby tail and he was as gentle as could be with visiting dogs. He would watch me ride from the porch and meet me in the shop when I came in from a moto. When I had to mow the pasture he would go out with me but was smart enough to assess the situation and lay down away from me and always higher than me to stay safe.

When Randy Poulter came to build the tracks, Yodie would go out with him and watch from the top of a knoll or mound of dirt that would later be a jump. He watched Randy build the ponds and seemed to wonder what was happening to HIS pasture but he was all good with it when it was done. I spent countless hours in rain, cold or intense heat working on the irrigation system and Yodie was right there with me.

If we were inside or on the porch and there wasn’t enough going on for Yodie, he would paw at me incessantly until I got up to do something so he could go or I would have to pet him non stop until I did get up and go. He was very patient with his dinner. I could put it in front of him and he wouldn’t touch it until I told him it was OK.

Yodie passed away in the summer of 2009. 2009 was a great year for me, my wife and my clients but the passing of Yodie was a very dark spot in an otherwise bright period. In the end, he told me he wanted to be let go of and he wanted to die in his pasture. He got his wish and I would not have had it any other way. He is still in his pasture, watching over the cows, watching us ride and meeting us back at the shop. Sometimes I can still see him coming down the dirt road in the dark to meet me after a long day at the gym and a long drive home. He was with us for a very short while but I will never forget.

RIP Yodie and thanks for letting us live and have fun on YOUR pasture.

It’s an inside joke amongst my riders about how slow I really am on even my own motocross track. To combat this, I decided to take it to the woods where I think I could be a superhero given my mountain biking background. Well, this is a video of my return to the woods I’m no superhero haha! I am going to say that the wide angle lens makes it look way, way slower. I swear it felt much faster than the video shows haha!

Check out this beast that got yanked from my pond on Christmas Day by my brother in law Adam. Man, don’t crash into the pond!!! 33 inches, 20+ pounds! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Rider Eating Beast

To be a successful athlete in any venue requires a dedicated and selfless support crew. Motorsport athletes have even larger support crews than athletes in other sports just due to the equipment side of racing. I view myself as holding a position in the support staff. If I stop and think about what my job entails in the bigger picture, I am assisting a rider and their family in pursuing a dream, usually a childhood dream. This dream may have started on Christmas day as a 5 year old or watching dad race at the track as a toddler.

Being a part of the support crew allows one to share in the victories but also in the defeats. It can elevate you to the highest of highs and drag you to the absolute bottom, following the ebb and flow of results, injuries, athlete moods and just the tension produced by the pressure cooker that is racing on any level. At times it can be seemingly hopeless as all the time, energy, money and emotional input may not currently be producing the expected results. But, life goes on and the next race is just around the corner.

I have to do this sometimes if I get down: I have to actively remind myself that chasing and achieving a dream is accomplished by very few and if it was easy, well it wouldn’t really be chasing a dream. Chasing a dream is not a short term project or something that can be done by simply throwing money at it. Chasing a dream takes courage and an unrelenting desire to achieve a goal that transcends income, popularity or other trivial pursuits that occupy much of society. It’s attempting to give yourself or someone you care about something that will define their lives. It is rare and it is the most precious of commodities.

AND…

You and I are part of this along with all the others in the support team. You and I have the BEST job in the world..imagine filling out an application and when it says “occupation” your response can be “chasing dreams.” What a great thing to do…for all of us in this three ring circus that is racing!

One of my old buddies told me today that I needed to get a straw hat because I have officially morphed into a redneck. I didn’t think it was possible for a Japanese guy to become a real redneck but the supporting facts are pretty substantial:

-I have a John Deere tractor. It is one of my most prized possessions. When I see a John Deere lot on the side of the highway, I have to slow down and rubberneck at all the beautiful green and yellow machinery.

-I wear work boots. With shorts.

-I talk to the cows. They listen.

-I am obsessed with the weather; specifically the rain. Not only because it’s good for my tracks, it’s good for my hay!

-I can put up my own barbed or woven wire fencing. I’m not kidding. A solid H brace is a great thing and I admire mine and others’ all the time. I will stop on a dirt road to look at a really good one.

-I have considered selling all my cars…except my 3/4 ton pickup. Her name is Betsy.

-Nothing can ruin my day like seeing weeds popping up in the pasture.

-They know me by first name (and mine’s hard to say) at the local Tractor Supply store.

-I think Carhartt stuff actually looks good. Haha. That is really funny to me.

-I have started to enjoy bass fishing. This is shocking because I was a fly fisherman. Bass fishing was a lowly bastardization of fishing for simpletons who drink beer while fishing.

My neck IS red. Damn!

I had an interview this week with Brent Stallo of vurbmoto.com fame. It was for a feature called “Industry Insider.” When I got into motocross I was definitely and outsider..coming from other sports, coming from college and NOT being an ex pro, etc. It was a pretty big hurdle to get accepted into unique circles that make up motocross but I guess now I am here. I couldn’t  have done it without the willingness of others to listen to me preach my often different ways and now consider these people some of my best friends and co-workers in the always exciting sport of motocross.

Check out the interview at Vurbmoto.com Industry Insider.

Well I did my first gig as a “regular” this week on live radio at Pit Pass Radio. I know it’s a syndicated show but I don’t understand what that really means…I would guess that it means a fairly large audience of listeners tune in. I was a bit nervous this time because now I am the “official fitness consultant” to the show and wasn’t sure of what to expect; whether or not the other guys on the show would try to throw me a curveball, heckle me, etc. but it went pretty well. I am stoked to do it every month now that I got the first one out of the way. I reminded myself not to say “uhh” or “dude” and I didn’t want to cuss at all. I think I did well on that front.

If you guys have an idea for a training or health related subject let me know! I want it to be informative and useful and I hope the listeners get something out of it!

Pit Pass Radio can be heard live online at www.pitpassradio.com every Tuesday at 8 pm Eastern time. Again, I will be a guest once per month.

If you want to catch the first LIVE show, you can listen to it here: Coach Seiji Live 6/9/2009. Just look down the list and find “Coach Seiji.”

Today was a good day in the life and times of Coach Seiji. Certain hallmarks shine in everyone’s life…graduating college, getting married, getting your first dirt bike. Today marked an event surely to go down as one of my life’s highlights.

Out from the ground rose water, spraying traction into the sandy surface of my track. I heard the rhythmic sounds of impact sprinkler heads as they do the joy giving task of putting moisture into my dirt. Across my eyes danced water droplets as they fell on to my eargerly awaiting track lanes. I thought I would never experience the day when I would no longer be bound by weather patterns. We now possess the technology to ride whenever we please! Unreal!

None of this would even be remotely possible without the generous help of Nick Morris and his ACM Services crew out of Taylor, TX. I would not even have attempted such a project without their help, guidance and support. Heck, they pretty much did it all. My input was microscopic in comparison to the hard work and ingenuity they have provided. I almost can’t sleep because I don’t want to miss the sounds of the sprinkler cycle starting at 3 a.m.! Wake up and see a watered track out the bedroom window….does it get much better than that? Well, I guess I could sleep on the track….

Over the past few years I have been lucky enough to be involved with the training of some pretty stellar amateur riders. All of these dedicated athletes had incredible amateur careers, especially their last two seasons. They also all successfully graduated into the pro ranks to officially become professional athletes and adult contributors to the Gross National Product.

It has been super interesting and fulfilling to contribute to their development as athletes but also to witness and hopefully be a small part of their development into adults. In my unique position of being part of but still being outside of this process has allowed me to view a wide variety of parenting/race program styles. In an often single minded pursuit of racing goals many times the process of becoming an independent adult is thrown on a back burner. I have heard several reasons and have deduced opinions about why and how this happens. I am not a parent yet so this is all based on my view from outside the fence.

Some parents want the rider to only worry about riding. They take care of all other matters so that the young rider can focus all of their attention on the riding and racing task at hand. Some feel that motocross forces their children to grow up too fast and take on the pressures of elite amateur motocross racing so they absorb as much of that as possible to spare the young racer. Some parents I feel don’t want to give up their position or investment in reaching the dream; taking care of the rider keeps them in the mix and thus part of the program. Some simply live vicariously through their children and don’t want to give up an ounce of that joy so the more involved they are the more entrenched they become in the program. I am not at all against parenting; I am just stating some personal opinions. The rider is always or should always be grateful for all this parenting no matter what.

Again, all the riders I have worked with at this level have reached the ultimate goal of a pro career. The result justifies the path. All of this is great until the rider actually starts to live as a professional. Usually this involves moving, getting their first house or apartment, going grocery shopping all the necessary tasks of independent living. Here is where the path becomes apparent. The rider is transitioning to racing in the pro ranks; does he or she also have to take on all the added errands, pressures, time management, etc of adult living in addition or has that rider already experienced these things as an amateur? Will this new added stress and foreign pressure interfere with their performance as a pro rider? The parents can keep coddling them at this stage but at what point will the adult rider want to be treated as the professional, adult motorcycle racer and possibly rebel at attempts to continue parenting?

Yes, maybe the way high level amateur racing is conducted does throw some very adult oriented pressures on the rider but this is the path that everyone involved chose. In my opinion it is better to start letting the rider absorb, handle and learn from these adult pressures and demands. This way when they do reach their ultimate goal of racing as a career they are more equipped with the tools to smoothly transition into a true adult professional. It may seem harsh or go against your very sincere and genetically programmed efforts to protect, provide and obtain the best for your children but consider the ultimate goal and what the end result may be. I realize that telling someone how to be a parent is a super no-no and that is not what I am trying to do at all. I am just verbalizing my observations and personal opinions. Nothing more than food for thought. Every parent of a child realizing any athletic or life goal at all is to be applauded for those successes. I just slowly came to these personal conclusions and am only stating them to possibly help another rider and parent team realize their ultimate goals and dreams.

Of course, I could totally change my mind when I have children of my own! I will probably be the worst of them all!

As you blog readers know, I have been enveloped over the past few months in building tracks at my new Coachseiji.com Motosports Training Ranch (yes I need name suggestions). I was really excited at first; all my energy was directed at the dream of riding and working out my back door. I eagerly saw my pasture change from hay to a killer SX track then slowly transform into an epic, 3 minute pro lap time, Southwick rough motocross track.

I knew going into the project that I would be all in….not only moving out of Austin but also the massive equipment rental charges and diesel bills would completely exhuast my retirement funds and my credit would get maxed out. I knew it but I was willing to gamble it because the rewards would be huge. All this calculating and risk assessment was done including a sponsor’s very gererous contribution to the project. I was nervous but confident that all this fiscal dice rolling would pay off…..until the sponsor pulled out, leaving me with a huge bill to pay and very little time to pay it. I went into panic mode, got depressed but found a way to pay the bill.

The depression grew deeper along with the tension and feeling of failure. I had risked it all and I would lose it all. I honestly thought I would have to give up the dream and go back to working as usual, in a building, out of the sport that I have grown to love. I even prepared to lose my ranch. I was in the deepest, saddest hole I had ever been in. It was BAD. I didn’t even want to ride the track that was just outside my door. I didn’t kick my bike over for two months. I hated it.

Then it rained. It rained for days. My track looked really, really good. Team Xtreme Green riders Hunter Hewitt and Dean Wilson came down for the week along with my associate coach Jordan Patik and his client Rusty Potter. We trained at my place….the track got really, really rough……lines formed everywhere…..I even rode but I got way more pleasure watching them ride MY track….we cycled the country roads around my ranch and lifted weights at my gym…..I was smiling for the first time in months and I got the same butterflies in my stomach like I used to before I did a gnarly rock climb…..the guys were riding my track and I was working in my yard…they loved it and I loved it. And just like that it was worth it. All the stress, financial strain and emotional turmoil seemed miles away. For one brief week in July all the world was right. The risk and sacrifice I and my wife made to move out of the city, buy property and build these tracks became worth it. I am not out of the woods yet but now I am fighting with more purpose and more smiling. Man was the track sweet. Those guys were flying. Hunter went triple, triple, triple, single. I even made it through the chicanes and cleared a few jumps. We walked out my door and rode and trained at my house. I was doing EXACTLY what I wanted to be doing. REDEMPTION. I won’t forget it. Risk still has rewards and the the journey still matters. Wish me luck!

The MX Coachseiji.com Training Ranch MX track is finally in working order! Thundering exhausts and riders flying over the hay fields stop locals in their tracks. Property values plummet. Cows run amok. Sheriff contacted. Check the first pictures ever here:

Check back for track improvements and changes. This is only the beginning! This track would not be possible without the contributions and help of some very generous people: Xtreme Amateur and Pro Lites, Empire Countertops, Randy Poulter, Extreme Dirt, Russell Potter, Turf Specialties, Nick Morris, ACM Services, Matthew Tallon, Red Rock MX Park, Da Fuzz, Will Hardeman, Rick Mull, Brad O’Neal and Pinnacle Elite Fitness. I consider myself very lucky and blessed to have these people and companies helping me out with my dream project.

Well the track project is hitting some major snags and the result is some SERIOUS cost overruns. I mean huge. To the point where I had to consider shelving the whole deal. I would be left with a supercross pad with dirt piles on it and a
totally jacked up pasture.

“If you build it they will come…”

I talked to everyone involved and everyone is amazingly generous and cooperative. The track builder will hump it double time. I have very generous angel donations. Everyone working and wanting the same thing. The kind of camaraderie that makes me love sports. We are all wanting it to happen so I am going to figure it out and push on with the project, personal finances be damned.

“If you build it they will come….”

Every cent I have will be gone….expenses will continue to pour in….but I will be able to stay home more since the riders I work with can ride at my place at least some of the time instead of me being gone all of the time. That is all part of the dream…work from home.

“If you build it they will come…”

Well, somehow, I will build it. Just like the movie Field of Dreams I will do it no matter what happens to my bank account. Maybe
the bank will come out just like the movie and warn me about losing my place. Maybe Joel Robert’s ghost will come visit. Maybe some old school GP guys on Maicos or Huskys will jump out of my woods and blitz my sand whoops. They will roll up to me, pull thier aviator goggles off and ask me with a bewildered look, “is this heaven??” I will look around at my track, grin ear to ear and reply “no, it’s Harwood, Texas.”

After stressing, worrying and scraping to get into my new house on 50 acres in Harwood, TX, I have decided that I just couldn’t wait…….I have been in my new home for just a month but I am looking for change in the couch and under the truck seats as well as receiving generous support from interested parties, and I am having tracks built to complete the dream!! I thought maybe in a couple of years…..but it’s happening now!

Today was the first day that Randy Poulter of Extreme Dirt (www.extremedirtinc.com) put a blade to my harrowed hay and sandy loam and started creating my dream MX and SX tracks. I am nervous (financially) and excited (everything else) at the same time!! It is 11 pm and Randy is still out there on the D6 dozer cutting the pad for the SX track. In 8 hours 4 dump trucks with drivers will show up and the track excavator that got here this morning will start hogging dirt for obstacles. That track excavator is HUGE! It looked like a dinosaur coming down my driveway!

I can’t wait to get home tomorrow from the office to see what Randy has done. I can just picture huge mounds of clay and dirt in the rhythm section. Maybe I will be able to make out what the track layout will be. I am stoked for sure! Check back for updates. Yup that’s all my money out there…..which I will forget about the first time I throw a leg over my bike and head out to my own tracks. I can’t wait to ride out there with all my friends and clients!

I and two trail and desert riding buddies Stpehen Beal and Mike Brecher left Austin, TX the day after Christmas for our annual pilgrimage to Baja. This would be our first year without our fearless and very experienced Baja leader Bill Kasson of Kasson Yamaha. Bill was suffering from the after effects of an old Baja injury to his shoulder and would have to sit this one out. This means we couldn’t mindlessly follow his memory through the remoteness that is Baja. What do guys do when knowledge is not present? They rely on machismo and technology of course. We loaded some maps into a GPS and pumped ourselves up on the drive west about how smart we were and that our manliness could overcome anything Baja could throw up at us. We home based out of Rancho Santa Veronica and planned to head to San Felipe on the Sea of Cortez side, up and down the mountains stopping for a night at Mike’s Sky Ranch, ride the Pacific coast to The Old Mill and back to the Rancho throuh Ojos Negros. Seemed pretty straight up and we had our rugged manliness and technology on our side.

It was colder than usual at the Ranch where I accidentally let our OSHA approved fire inside our “hotel” room go out and the temperature overnight inside was just shy of freezing the toilet water. Woke up cold, started out riding cold. The GPS seemed to beam our intergalactic coordinates correctly. After some killer riding around Laguna Hansen and some casual fence jumping our excitement turned into fear when a Mexican rancher pulled up in a camoflauged Bronco with his amigos in tow. We played the dumb non Spanish speaking gringo card until he blurted out in perfect English “there is a sign in English that says absolutely no trespassing, what happened?” I kept babbling in Spanish, pointing in every direction, looking confused and asking where the National Park went. Eventually we turned around and I have never seen Stepehen ride so hard. I think the recent stories of riding groups being raided, raped, and beaten by locals were making his imagination run amok which in turn caused James Stewart like speed.

After high tailing it back to the fence and perfect english warning sign, we were essentially off the route we had planned and downloaded into the GPS. Lost. After some angry riding being completley lost, we found Ojos Negros three days early. Mike cruised through town in the lead as night fell. He went right on through, seemingly on a mission to ride the highway at night to I guessed Ensenada. I was freezing, shivering, slobbering and couldn’t see squat. I just gritted my teeth and gathered up as much grrr as I could for the long haul through the dark, cold night squinting as hard as I could to see. Mike stopped about 10 minutes up the highway wondering where Ojos was. He must have been unconscious when we went through town. We turned around, I dodged a semi by jumping off the road into a ditch but we eventually got to town and a hotel, which again was freezing inside. Crisis averted. Day one. NOT at Mike’s. At Ojos.

New plan. We headed to the Old Mill the next day, what a great day. Seeing the Pacific at the end of a long day in the saddle is pretty awesome. We had a great time there, good food, and good conversation with some great folks. The Old Mill is my favorite spot in Baja so far. We headed up to Mike’s Sky Ranch the next day, taking a new route completley via GPS up and over the mountains. It worked perfectly and the trails were some of the best I have been lucky enough to ride. Somewhere Mikey lost all his tools. He and Stephen were on Spanish Gas Gas two strokes and my tool kit was for my Yamaha WR. If something went wrong with either of their bikes for the rest of the trip we would pretty much be hosed but we marched on. Satellites and GPS got us cleanly to Mike’s Sky Ranch where we had our usual excellent time and food.

The next day we headed down the mountain and back to Rancho Santa Veronica. It was a shorter day of riding, on some great dirt and I felt awesome. We were maybe 5 miles from then end of our ride and Stephen shot off onto a side trail. I stopped with Mikey to wait for him but he never showed up. Great. Stephen was on some trail, by himself, probably wadded up under his bike with temperatures dropping and winds picking up. We waited and waited where we thought we had the best chance of running into him. We then went back to where we last saw him and took off on gnarly single track looking for what surely now was his dead body being chewed on by buzzards and the chupecabra. We followed the freshest tracks we could see but no Stephen. We gave up and would go to the Rancho and call the authorities. On the road to the Rancho my truck was headed up toward us. Stephen. @#$%^ Stepehen had been at the Rancho the whole time. Mikey was pissed. I was miffed I had ridden those gnarly trails with visions of Stephen’s bike in the bushes with no body in sight.After getting warm and having some drinks at the Rancho, all was right with the world again.

When I get home from Baja I am grateful that there were no serious injuries and everyone involved is fine. I daydream about riding remote mountain trails and buzzing the beach on the Pacific. I mentally make plans for next year and look at pictures from the trip wanting to return as soon as possible. Reality eventually creeps into my life and I get back to the work that makes trips like this possible but when I need a lift, I just think of Baja. The riding, the scenery, my friends and the experiences in Baja carry me on until the next time. Hasta Luego Baja.

You hear this all the time. Is it true? I have been working in motocross for about 5 years; I have trained competitive athletes for twelve years; I have been personally involved in competitive sports almost all of my life. In my opinion this cliche statement is at least partially true in most competitive sports. You have to carry a certain amount of aggression, cockiness and selfishness to the line if you are actually racing for the win. I am not saying you have to raise the aggression level to the point of taking riders out on purpose but you have to fight for the start, fight for the lines, fight for every position out there and sometimes you can’t be nice about it. The traits that a rider must have out on the track to be successful are not necessarily the traits that make that rider a desirable member of society or a good friend. Aggressiveness, extreme self confidence to the point of cockiness, self centered focus and selfishness are all traits that are required to be a winner in racing. Take those traits outside of the track and you can end up a lonely cowboy. Think about it; do you want to be friends with someone that acts those traits out in your presence? Those traits pretty much describe a person that most people would not want to hang out with. It also is a list of traits that a sponsor would not appreciate.

Racers must live a dual life. You must be aggressive, cocky and self centered on the track but then be passive, humble and generous off the track to be not only successful but also to co-exist with everyone else and have friends. I have seen younger racers that are anywhere near each other in their respective classes unable to be genuine friends outside of the racing scene. As these riders grow older they must develop the ability to turn off the traits of the winning racer not only to attract and keep sponsors but more importantly have a high quality of life.

Some of today’s motocross stars have it all: They line up at the gate knowing they are going to win and tell you so; they launch into the first turn with aggression and they take lines with selfish abandon. Within minutes of winning they are smiling at the top of the podium, surrounded by their abundant friends. They give a pleasant and courteous interview and genuinely thank their sponsors. They wave to their thousands of fans as they exit the arena. They successfully exercise their dual personality and not only won the race but their sponsors are happy, the fans are ecstatic and they lead a high quality life full of friends and family. So nice guys can finish first!

My best friend Cody just passed away a few weeks ago. He was absolutely the best part of my “second childhood.” I miss him all the time but I am so grateful that I had the chance to spend my entire “adult” life with him. Not a day goes by that I don’t have thoughts about him and all we did.

Right after Christmas every year I make my yearly pilgrimage to the beaches, mountains and deserts of Baja to enjoy riding simply for the sake of riding. The usual cast of suspects includes Bill Kasson (www.kassonmotorcycles.com) – an old school motocrosser and Baja rider with more experience in dirt biking than anyone I know; Sean Ahmadi, a fellow trainer and friend from my cycling and climbing past, and two other trail riding buddies named Mike Brecher and Stephen Beal. Each trip dissolves into a streaming flow of experiences that only adds to what I consider the fortunate texture of my life. A smile effortlessly spans my face whenever I reminisce about the riding, the camaraderie and the happenstance that always occurs in the sand, wind and dust that is Baja. Baja 2007 was no different.

We started this year’s journey in San Felipe, a quaint beach town on the Sea of Cortez. On day one we scouted the trails around this town for future route planning. Awesome trails, awesome riding. Nothing but space and time. It was the perfect start to say hello to our friend Baja again. The next day we planned on leaving San Felipe and making it up to a very unique tavern/hostel in the mountains called Mike’s Sky Ranch. We always exit San Felipe with a warm up of a four mile stretch of sand whoops followed by a high speed blast across a dry lake bed. I and Sean took the sweeper role through the dry lake bed and we inadvertently ripped right past the rest of the group whom had all stopped at a shack that serves as a watering hole in the middle of the dry lake bed (Who expects a store operating out of a tiny shack in the middle of a dry lake bed? Only in Baja.) Stephen had to pin it wide open on Mike’s 450 to finally catch us and the tranny on Mike’s bike promptly locked up.n40 miles from nowhere (well except the store in the dry lake bed). We eventually towed him out the end of the dry lake bed to a dirt road where two of us took the highway back to San Felipe to retrieve a truck to get the bike back. A very long day, one bike down, one rider out and we still had not made it out of San Felipe. But, we were in Baja and life was good.

On day three we headed back out of San Felipe for another shot at tipping a beer back at Mike’s Sky Ranch. I and Sean were roommates and we had discussed at length a personal rule I have in Baja. I call it my 60% rule: I don’t ride past 60% of my ability or my engine’s ability. I leave hanging it out and twisting the throttle back to tracks that are in a one county radius of my home and the nearest hospital. Sean seemed to agree in retrospect of the yearly big crashes he has had in Baja in which he has luckily escaped uninjured. No scars and big stories to tell but he knew the laws of probability could soon get mean on him. After much head nodding and uh huhing he quipped when we get to the whoops %$#@& you and your 60% rule! Well, Sean stuck to his word and toyed with probability in a sand whoop section leading up to the same dry lake bed that had claimed Mike’s transmission the day before. This whoop section probably had a thousand whoops and Sean made it to the last three. Those last three threw him into an embankment where Sean’s Baja 2007 came to an abrupt and violent end. After an extended session of uncontrollable moaning and the customary limb/blood/bike check Sean had to bear what must have been an impossibly painful ride to the aforementioned store in the middle of the dry lake bed where Mike was meeting us with his truck since his bike had been claimed by Baja the day before. That was a VERY fortunate series of unfortunate circumstances considering we were at least 40 miles from anywhere. Mike hauled Sean’s carcass to the hospital in San Felipe where the score was read: broken collarbone, two broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder. Day three of Baja 07 and we had a broken tranny and a broken Iranian (Sean) and we were STILL in San Felipe. Outside forces were telling us that Mike’s Sky Ranch was not to be but we were still in Baja and life was good.

We took the cosmic hint and everyone except Sean spent day four of Baja 07 sticking to the trails around San Felipe again. Mike got to ride since Sean’s bike was OK so that was cool. We had an awesome day exploring new trails; you can literally ride for a week just around San Felipe and not ever hit the same trail twice. We actually rode a lot that day and it was the most memorable ride day of the trip for me. Until you experience it yourself you have not felt what has to be one of the best feelings you can have on a motorcycle: to be pulling into your last stop of a Baja trip, bike still purring underneath you and your body all in one piece. Sean had a relaxing day back at the El Cortez hotel where we base in San Felipe, no doubt reviewing the 60% rule. Ah, we were in Baja and life was VERY good!

Baja isn’t just a place to ride. It’s an opportunity to live in the moment, the exact moment that is happening. The consequences of not paying attention are extreme so you ride only in that moment. There is not enough mental capacity left over to worry about work, money, task lists. An entire day of riding becomes nothing other than reactions and corrections on the bike. No thoughts, no planning, no worrying. Just being and riding. Maybe that is why you ride motocross. Baja also gives you an opportunity to be a better person, a better friend. Really. Mike’s transmission seized up while Stephen was riding it. Mike could have been mad but he wasn’t; he understood that it was Baja. We all could have been mad at Sean when his date with the dirt caused a group to change plans but we understood it was Baja. You have to trust the person riding right next to you in the whoops. You have to trust the others to get you out should you get hurt or you have a mechanical failure. You have to forgive things and allow for differences in beliefs since you are constantly together and relying on each other. You will help each other no matter what. Our group has a very diverse background: ethnically, religiously, economically and in different stages of life. But, for that one glorious week every year in the magical place that is Baja, none of that matters and we are just friends, just riding, just being in Baja.