Major apologies for the severe lack of blogging and wow has the time flown by! So this will be a long post! Where to begin!?
I guess our postings left off as soon as i finished surgery. The following Wednesday i found myself in the gym already at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Chula Vista. I was in a cast and on crutches but that didnt seem to stop me whatsoever. I ended up spending 3 days a week down at the OTC for weights, rehab, lunch, and friends. I made a ton of new friends from all different sports and it was truly a inspiring experience to be able to train there. The level of dedication by all the other athletes is truly amazing and helped me get through all my rehab and well on my way to sailing again. Rehab went extremely well and all of the trainers there were very shocked at how quickly my scar healed and at how fast i gained my range of motion back. Im still missing a few degrees in each direction but ive been cleared!
Ive gotten out sailing a few times since then. 2 days on a moth and a full on practice race in the 29er XX in Garda have shown that im good to go! Ive spent the last few weeks at the 49er/29er worlds as a coach for Team USA in the 29ers. My teams didnt finish quite as well as they may have expected but above all i think it was a very big eye opening experience for them and for sure they all have a lot to take back home with them. The highlight of the event would have to be the 29er worlds practice race. The RC decided to run a 1 start, 160+ boat race! The experience was incredible and i cant wait to see some aerial photos! The entire north end of the lake was covered in 29ers!
While ive been hitting the gym and doing a little coaching Stu was plenty busy as well. We found a step in crew Willie McBride from Santa Barbara and he went to 3 events with Stu. First up was Holland which turned out to be an extremely windy event! They struggled a little but managed, but werent able to catch us any WC points. Next up they traveled to Austria for the Euros which turned out to be a pretty bad event with a lot of races lost to no wind. 3rd the headed north to Kiel where they sailed great to come away just shy of the medal race but caught us 10 more valuable WC points! As it stands now with one event remaining we hold a 18 point lead over the Spanish in the WC standings!
Next up are our World Champs in Denmark, just north of Copenhagen. We will begin training there August 1 (Stu’s birthday) and we really both cant wait to get back at it!
Check back for regular posting about campaign life now that we’re back on track.