Ailments, Olympic Test Event and Peppa the Pig!
Written by Nick Dempsey | 15 July 2011
Last week I launched into a big, hard week of training after being laid low by illness for around 10 days. I’d trained for a few days after Skandia Sail for Gold but then my glands came up and there is nothing you can do in that situation but have complete rest and try to get rid of it, which is THE most frustrating thing ever when all you want to do is be out on the water training!
We had a good week down at Weymouth and Portland last week, and had a massive day on Thursday with a really hard training session, followed by me, my coach Barrie (Edgington) and a mate doing a local bike race for the first time. It was flat out for an hour and at the end we all exploded! After a couple of weeks of doing next to nothing I suffered a bit.
All thoughts have now turned towards the Olympic Test Event at Weymouth and Portland in August. It’s still another three-and-half weeks away and although you’re never happy when your preparations are disrupted by things like illness, there is enough time for me to hopefully get myself fully back on the ball. As long as I can hold a boom, and I’m in reasonable shape I know I can do well.
Winning Skandia Sail for Gold was really important because it was the first of the two events I want to do really well at this year and you always want to do well in the Olympic venue. The Test Event will be a bit different because there will be fewer sailors but in terms of what I expect from my competitors, Sail for Gold and training gives you a really good idea of who’s sailing fast and who you need to keep an eye on. Everyone will be going for it though.
The Test Event will be a chance for the British sailors to be all together as a whole team in the build up to the event, which is good for me because as a dad of a two-year-old it means I can switch into a bubble where all I have to think about is performance and sailing.
Thomas was two a couple of weeks ago and we had a brilliant day at Peppa Pig World at Paulton’s Park. Pingu is actually his favourite but Pingu is a really naughty penguin and Thomas tries to speak like Pingu, which probably isn’t the ideal role model! Peppa Pig actually talks properly!
As a Team Volvo for Life sailor I also got to take part in my first ever J.P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race last month. I was really excited about getting the chance to do it and I loved it! It was a shame we didn’t beat Goody (Paul Goodison) because we had him on toast at one point. He nailed the start, while we were too conservative, but we caught him up before we had a bit of a problem with our spinnaker. I was on the helm for the whole race, I can’t really sail and I’ve never really done any big boat sailing but the basics are all the same as windsurfing. The wind’s the same, the waves are the same, race tactics are the same, and anyone can steer a boat in a straight line!
Our big focus for this week is light wind stuff so it’s going to be another tough week out on the water getting to know the venue better and better every day. You can never know everything that’s going to happen, and the weather at Weymouth and Portland can do very funny things, but experiencing as much of it as possible as often as possible will become more and more critical as 2012 gets closer.