How’s the big news been treating you, any major changes to your season or 2020 schedule?
The big news has thrown a massive wrench in pretty much all aspects of life. It’s a crazy time that we are living in at the moment and everyone is going through the sort of wonder and question as to what we do to fill up our daily lives at the moment. The schedule as of right now is set up for what would’ve been round five, being the first round for this year. It’s pretty devastating to see what this virus is doing to the world, and hopefully humanity can get a grip on it here shortly. I think it’s important to just stick together and be there to support the ones that mean the most to us, as this virus is really taking a toll on everyone across the globe.
What does plan B look like for the next couple of months?
Plan B as of right now is just to take what is going to be the concrete schedule for the year, hopefully, and restructure our training for the new start of the season. I’ve been training since November with the plan of racing the first round in March, so the need to go back and reschedule the training for the new schedule is definitely a very important task at hand right now. Myself, my coach, and my team are using this downtime to do a sort of reset and enjoy life with my family and use this as a refresher to get motivated for the new build up for the season.
How are you training at home or in an isolated setting?
Luckily, I kind of got the idea in my head that I needed to start taking gym equipment into my own hands due to the prevalent fact that the gyms were most likely going to be closing. So with this inclination over the last two weeks I’ve been gathering stuff to set up a functional home gym that has everything that I need to get all my necessary training done. I’ve always wanted a really cool home gym, but it’s been unnecessary due to the fact that I have an awesome gym extremely close to home. So one of the silver linings of this whole pandemic that we are experiencing is that I finally get my home gym for the time being. Organizing this gym has been so gnarly though, it’s insane how many people have the exact same idea due to all the gyms being closed. All of the gym equipment is pretty much sold as soon as it gets posted so it’s been an interesting game trying to find the correct equipment for sale and get on top of it before someone buys it out from underneath me. I’ve been spending copious amounts of time on Facebook Marketplace, Offer Up, Let Go, and other sorts of websites like that looking for the necessary equipment.
When you’re not training what are you doing with the down time?
When I’m not training, the first thing I’m doing is surfing. It’s actually a running joke with my coach because on what is meant to be my “rest days”, I’m usually surfing for hours on end which doesn’t leave me feeling very rested LOL. I’ve also recently gotten into overlanding, which I’ve greatly been enjoying. It’s been great taking on a new hobby and learning how to properly partake in off-road adventures. It’s been really cool being able to go out with my friends and just explore the beautiful land that we have so close to home. I always take a very strong emphasis on having hobbies that I’m extremely passionate about outside of racing. I think that it is crucial in life to have things that you’re passionate about that distract you from whatever it is that you spend the most amount of your time, effort, and energy working towards.
What’s the go to snack you’ve stocked up on?
The most important thing I’ve been stocking up on has been my coffee for sure. Got to make sure you hoard the stuff that’s most important to you ha ha. I also have an extremely adequate stock pile of nut butter saved up which is pretty essential to my overall life quality haha.
Be honest, what’s in the Netflix queue…binging any bad tv or movies?
Honestly, my girlfriend and I have been watching the show Dexter for a while now and it’s been pretty dang good. It was recommended to me from a friend and I had been going through a bit of a dry spell with good Netflix shows to watch, so I was pretty thankful to find this. The second season of the formula one “Drive to Survive” series is really good too.
Any advice for people struggling to stay focused on training right now?
That’s a tough one for sure as I am experiencing, just like everyone else, the struggle to find motivation to train for a season that we know is unpredictable and uncertain. With that being said though, everyone is going through the exact same thing, and I think all athletes alike can take comfort in that. Personally, I’ve just been trying to make the most out of the situation and maximize it for everything that it can be. Beyond that though, I think everyone can use this time to really explore the simple things in life that they enjoy, including being outside in the beautiful scenery that is Southern California or wherever they live, maybe find a good book to read, and most importantly, take the time to spend quality time with your family.
What are some other productive things you can work on at home? (cleaning your room, yoga, etc.)
Some of the other things that you can do at home as far as my life goes include staying on top of emails ( which I am not very great at haha), use the time to plan for the coming months, and just take care of things in general that you’ve probably been putting off due to the fact that it is very easy for life to get in the way of things that you may have been wanting to get done. I think one of the most important things for athletes is to know that you really can get good training no matter the circumstances, just need a little bit of creativity and a bit of extra motivation to not get stuck into the rut!
