VOL. 52 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 15, 2015 P151
and slammed his face into the handlebar).
I think that the injury that I had over the summer
was one of just asking too much of myself, physi-
cally and mentally. As far as the training load, it
was a little much. It was a culmination of a lot of
different things that kind of came together at that
one moment for me to just lose a little bit of focus
and over-jump a jump that I definitely should not
have over-jumped. I just grenaded my face and
also hurt my ankle from the impact.
Earlier this year you mentioned that it was
the heat, but now you say you over-trained.
I overtrained into the weekend, basically. I'd
had a great start to the year and I was on a roll
with the results and I was just riding that wave. I
was using the summer to keep building
and keep growing and keep improving and
keep pushing myself because I thought, I
can only go up from here.
So I do feel that in retrospect I was
overtraining from the fact that I trained all
the way into the weekend. And
even though it was just a local
race for fun, I also asked too
much of myself on the weekend
doing three different classes—
one of the classes being a full
30-plus-two and then two other
15-minute motos, back to back
to back. On top of that with it
being around 100 degrees, it
all just culminated in me losing
a little bit of focus and the bike
overheating, and then when I
snapped back to where I was on
the course, I just thought I was in
a place that I wasn't and thought
I was hitting a jump that I wasn't.
How did that injury affect
you in WORCS?
I didn't have time to heal up
before Washington (the only
double-header round of the
season) but I was healed enough
to make it through and get some points. It was
only two weeks after. I didn't want to take any risks
in Washington and luckily I didn't have to. I had
such a good opening stretch in the series I could
just go there and focus on getting top-10. And that
would have been a good weekend. And so to get
a seventh and an eighth over the weekend made
it a victory for me in its own right. From there I was
able to recover a little bit. At the next round at Glen
Helen I got back to second and then at the finale
in Primm I felt like I really got back to about where I
was before the injury. I was able to finish the series
with a win, which was, for me personally, just a
huge statement, not so much to get the win against
the competition, but just for myself. To come back
from an injury that was so emotionally chal-
lenging and perform to the level I wanted to
was a huge accomplishment in itself.
You commented at the time that it
wasn't your worst injury, but it was
your most noticeable. Is that why it was
Bell nearly
lost it all by
pushing him-
self too hard
in 2015.
