VOLUME 59 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 4, 2022 P55
in centers around intensity
versus volume. "If you just
trail ride without a stopwatch
or whatever, you tend to get
slow because you're not
pushing that limit," he said.
"Whereas, if you go out
and do, say, five 10-minute
sprints, that's 50 minutes of
intensity as hard as you can
race. In my opinion—and I
think in a lot of other profes-
sional racers' opinions—that's
the way to build your speed
is putting in timed, interval
sprints: 10-minute sprint, five-
minute rest, 10-minute sprint,
five-minute rest or whatever
the case may be. It's pretty
basic; just putting in the time
is all there is to it."
That and his injuries have
reshaped the way he attacks
a race nowadays. Before,
Wasson was the quintes-
sential example of a hold-
her-wide-all-the-time rider.
Now, he agrees, "When I
first started out, I was the kid
from Idaho willing to go fast.
I didn't really know how to go
fast. I just knew I was willing
to do it.
"I've changed my approach
a lot. I'm definitely a lot more
cautious, but there's still part
of me that's willing to hang it
out if I need to.
"I'm trying to get away from
that just for the consistency
part because it seems like as
soon as you start hanging it
out, that's when things get a
little sketchy."
Though only 28, Wasson
"I think when I get
too focused on what
I'm going to do next,
it takes away from
what I'm doing now.
I keep reminding
myself, 'Just focus
on what you're
doing right now.
What'll come next
will come next.'"
is well aware of how difficult
it will be hanging on to that
coveted number-one plate:
"I've got a couple years left
in the tank. It's hard staying
on top like that. There's a
bunch of young kids coming
after me—all my competition's
basically 21, 22. Now, I just
have to ride with a little more
smarts versus speed and just
make sure the consistency
stays there. It seems like the
younger guys still make a lot
more mistakes. I kind of know
where they make mistakes
and how to race them, so I've
been working on my game
plan going into the '22 sea-
son: how to race them, where
to push hard, where to back it
down a little bit.
"I've still got it, I think.
"Now, I have the number-
one plate and I've got to try
to not let that get in my head
and keep the same consis-
tency going and try to defend
it another year."
CN
ing to do a lot of things that
most people aren't willing to
do, but if you do them, it'll
separate you from the rest of
the people and build up that
mental strength. How hard
can you suffer? I figured out I
can suffer a lot harder than the
next person."
More than that, Wasson
feels, is that training in the Ari-
zona desert makes him a more
precise rider. "Idaho, you can
brush through the bushes and
stuff. Not in Arizona! You don't
miss your corners. You don't
blow through bushes because
everything down there [cac-
tus] will poke you!"
Another bit of training phi-
losophy that Wasson believes
