A Day in the Life EP3 - The man they call meatball

They say paradise on earth doesn't exist. We've proved that wrong. Welcome to Club MX, the world's premier moto training facility. Located in Chesterfield, South Carolina, the 260 plus acre lot is not only the home of the amateur riders from the ages 8 through 45 plus. Welcome to a day in the life. A typical day consists of in the life of Meatball. I wake up at 7 30 in the morning and let my dog out. Then we have gym at 8, go up there, get warmed up, and then I go to breakfast at 8 30. Then we ride at 9 30 and normally around like 2 or 3 we go to gym and lift or run. And then after that you get on the game with the boys and play some Fortnite. How long have you been here at Total? I came last year before Minios and now I stayed probably two months before Loretta's this year and now I'm here I've probably been a month so I've probably been here four or five months in total. All my time added up together but I'm gonna probably sign for a year here next year and lock in. Do you feel like being a club has like helped you you know like before what were you doing or where were you training? Oh yeah it's definitely it's definitely helped me a lot. I was at SOB for a while and I've just kind of been all over the place. I went to SOB, Sandbox, and that's about that's about it and I just was kind of riding at home and doing GCCs and stuff. I wasn't really training much but now I've been here and it's helped me a lot. I've noticed a lot becoming a more mature rider and just a better person. And then how long did you race GNCC for? I've been I raced GNCC since I was on 85s and 65s. All my life and I'm just now switching over to moto this year and it's definitely hard trying to hang with all the kids that have been racing it all their lives but it's it's I'm starting to get there and starting to feel better get everything dialed. Your start time is roughly in seven minutes and you show up just to put a helmet pads in and that's it. Bike's already ready? Yeah bike's ready. Do you do like the maintenance that I go for? Yeah I get I get done riding the night before and I just get it all done the night before. So you literally just show up go right out to the track? Yep get everything done in advance. Being from Ohio do you like not really like the cold weather doesn't bother you down here? No I like it best season's the best and hoodie so much more fun to ride. So what are you guys doing today? I think they said a short warm-up and then we're doing sprints and then a moto so that'll be fun. And are you going to Mineos? Yeah yeah. Okay so you've got this week and then you'll leave? I'll leave uh Friday morning and I'm gonna ride Thursday and then I'm leaving so be good. What classes are you racing there? 250b, 450b, 250b limited, 450b limited so be good. You're just going by yourself or is anybody going with you? No me and my dad are gonna go mom has to stay home and uh she doesn't really like that race that much just because of all the pit riding but it's fun me and dad will go get her done. Today we got a high speed flat fast track okay different conditions uh the track definitely will change uh as yesterday's track did but today is more about you know carrying momentum and carrying speed looking ahead moving around the track. Show of hands who's racing Mineos? All right no no warm-ups at Mineos right so today we're gonna get a sight lap we're gonna come right back when you guys come back we're gonna line up in front of the gate we're going right into a moto okay get up get up to speed make good choices make good decisions a short moto we're just gonna go 15 minutes but you know getting that heart rate up get the intensity up and kind of simulating those morning motos then when we come back we'll work some starts and then we're going to get some two lap sprints in as well when we come back so that's the plan of the track for today. I could see it happening too I was like oh I just went over the rut and I just slid dude did not stop good way to start the day yeah oh buddy you back down at 10 30 and like so we'll get a couple couple starts in then we're going to get some sprints today as well so the goal today is just getting up to speed and uh dotting the i's and crossing the t's for you guys going racing just feeling good on our bike and ending the day with a good solid feeling and after the sprints if anybody wants to come out and play around a little bit and just kind of get that good feeling on the bike before you guys go racing that's that's totally okay like I said the goal today is just finish on a good note have a little speed under our belt have some fun and feel confident in our bike and confident in our abilities yeah we did our first moto I uh it was good I slid out kind of in the mud Ripper got on video though oh yeah yeah my wheel just went over the rut and I slid out yeah but uh Ben said I need to shift it I'm used to 350 kind of yeah yeah but it'll be fine they're cranking the crap out of that thing yeah the suspension's not that great but it's fine yeah I got to thinking I might have that spring stuff in the barn yeah I'm gonna look tonight when I get home and then text Christian and see all right yeah it'll be good yeah so we gotta go back out 10 30 and do uh starts and sprints okay so all right yeah sounds good all right good I'll check in with you all right bye the way the track is I'd like to keep keep the speed up and keep at it right now the way it is rather than do starts and have to come back and the track's different okay let's let's just keep the ball rolling so sprints today we're going to do three lappers okay I'm going to point you out in order that's the order we'll stick with and we'll finish our three laps pull right back in you guys line right back up again we reset small breather and right back into it okay that's the plan of attack uh let's keep in mind we know there's slick spots on the track right we know there's maybe some shadows coming down this hill uh whatever you learned in that first moto like now we're putting it to use and it's only three laps right so for a lot of us trying to reach that next little window right three laps is not that many laps so it's uh after 11 we ran a little bit long let's come back at uh 11 40 okay 30 minute break back at 11 40 I'll come from like where when did this originate uh at a GNCC like four years ago one of my friends we actually we were going swimming at a place called Camp Coker and I took my shirt off to go swimming and they're like you look like a meatball I was like all right ever since then I've been grinding it's just been a little slow process but I'm really really working at it now but we'll get better each day we're going down so that that name just stuck and then everybody just called you meatball yeah kind of and then you put it on like your front number plate yeah kind of everybody knows me for that and it made a name for myself and I'm just going with it at serious now it's serious now no dude I'm just getting my gait right now just following our procedure nailing our launch and what I was telling meatball a second ago like you guys all have to trust that as long as my head is here I do not have to touch this clutchless lever once I cross that gate as long as your head is here it does not matter what happens that front wheel if it feels like it's coming up guess what it's only going to come up this far maybe even this far but it's not going to come up dangerously where I got to let off the gas as long as we're here okay a lot of us have that habit of we cross the gate our head reaction comes back a bit and then we instantly grab the clutch because we feel like it's coming up if your head is here there ain't no way that thing's coming up so you just hammer that thing down and if it rises a little no big deal but we eliminate that little extra tap of the clutch here good start becomes a really great start we've got a good feeling on our bike we've got some good starts in confidence should be up ready to go racing all right cool we'll get out of here those you guys are still be here thursday we'll still be training thursday like normal who do you like uh like of all the guys that are training here who do you feel like you kind of either latch on to or you are always kind of around from like a speed and riding ability standpoint no it's just it's just been kind of off different people i've gotten a lot faster a lot recently and uh it's just kind of been varying between different people like when i first came here i was honestly riding with like kellen and jeremiah and them and then uh i kind of started moving up the the list and i'm kind of just like a one of the top top four riders here in the amateur group for sure like tanner caden and mason are faster than me but i'm not not too far off them and then just been riding good so the meatball that came here after minios or before minios last year is this a very different meatball from a physical fitness standpoint now definitely yeah and like what do you think is like the biggest change he's just here more often that's number one but he's just been he's just locked in he's in group two now it's a good guy locked if you just stop crashing and getting hurt so you can't train but like you do feel like he's gotten more fit absolutely yeah what did you just run in the stop sign 1539 for two miles what was your like previous my very first time ever running it was and then what i just did yesterday was a 1539 so like a sub eight mile pretty good i'm happy with it and now um a lot of the guys have started calling you well they slim slim jim slim jim no longer meatball what are you going to do without your nickname people are going to start spaghetti