Volvo

It has been a complete culture shock since getting home from Miami on Monday.
 
What with the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Perth, a holiday in Bali and then Key West Week followed by the Rolex Miami OCR, I have only spent one night in my house in Weymouth since 17 November and it was absolutely freezing when we got back! The heating has been on full blast from the minute we walked through the door but it took absolutely ages for it to feel warm!
 
We definitely seemed to have timed it badly coming back from super warm Florida, where there was a perfect 8-15 knots of sailing breeze every day, just as the weather has turned really cold. But it is ok because I’m off to Tenerife for a week’s training with the Spanish Laser boys next Thursday (9 February), so I’ve not got to freeze for too long!
 
Winning the Rolex Miami OCR was a great start to the Olympic year for me. Although the Worlds in Perth were always intended to be a process regatta, to have been in second all week and then mess it up on the last day to finish fifth was very frustrating.
 
I wasn’t originally going to do Miami but I was in Florida for Key West Week, and there were a few things we had identified to work on after the Worlds that heading up to the Miami Regatta from Key West ended up making sense. I only had a few hours’ training before the event started and felt a bit rusty because I hadn’t been in a Laser since the Worlds but it felt really good to be back in the boat again.
 
Although there were specific things I was focussing on during the regatta, especially around gaining increased consistency and confidence in some of my starts, it was important that I stamped my authority back down in the Laser and actually won an event. I sailed really well in qualifying and then it was about consolidating the lead after that. The Brazilian, Bruno Fontes, came back strongly however, and we ended up tied on points going into the medal race so it was very pleasing to gain control of the medal race early on and build from there.
 
Key West Week proved to be a really worthwhile event for heaps of reasons. Not only did we win the Farr 400 class but with it being a new boat to me and the rest of the guys, it was super nice to have a new challenge while still practice the tactical elements out of a Laser environment. I only have three more Laser events on the calendar before the Olympics – the Princess Sofia Regatta, Palma, the Laser Worlds in Germany and Skandia Sail for Gold, Weymouth – and as the Olympics gets closer the events become less and less about processes and more about results so it was great to get some good race practice in.
 
After I get back from Tenerife, the 2012 selected British team sailors are going to the Olympic Park Velodrome in London for two days for the Olympic Cycling Test Event, which will be pretty cool. I’ve not seen any of the other Olympic venues outside of Weymouth yet, and I know a few of the cyclists from having won gold at Beijing 2008, so it will be really interesting to see them race and just being there will be pretty inspiration and exciting.
 
This week I have been unloading the container from Perth and BBC Radio Five Live's Colin Murray joined me - to help out while interviewing! I’m also having a fitness test and a few sports science meetings.
 
I have also been hitting the gym and Orange mountain bikes have loaned me a prototype, it looks wicked and it was great to take it out on Tuesday - it was however blowing 30 knots and it's freezing so I may need to order some warm cycling kit!!!!!

Paul

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