Lycra, Food and Weights...........How the Finn Boys Roll
Written by Matt Howard | 26 March 2010
Day one
Early start today with the finn team. Due to excessive weight training, and training in general this week we have decided to do morning yoga! Now for clarity there was absolutely no lycra allowed, but it was quite amusing watching a bunch of big guys assuming quite delicate positions!
This session was closely followed by breakfast . Now, some say breakfast is the most important meal of the day; not so in the finn class where all meals hold equal importance - that is to say, equal to other meals but definitely more important than anything else that goes on! Infact intake of food seem to form the main structure to our day.............
After feeding time at the zoo the lads did a couple of hours on the bikes with Mills preferring a vomit enducing beach sprint workout- yes he did know what he was in for! After more food we set out to do some racing with some of the foreign teams in a 8-10 knot SW that was pretty shifty and not behaving as normal, favouring the left but instead opening the course. Pretty good first day, some learning and all happy with set ups etc. After a couple of hours racing and looking at a few bits of new equipment and it was once again time to eat... debrief and then you guessed it dinner New sails are arriving for the lads tomorrow so should be interesting to see if the luff curves are correct and the individual specs. Not to mention whether they are fast!
Day two
Sails arrived and all good! The guys ar looking fast so hoping for a good week. Plenty of good eating today- as usual. Unfortunately despite wanting to do beach weights, strength and conditioning coach Steve Gent sent us back to the gym. Gyms in spain are an interesting affair with lycra and cutoff denims.
Day three
Light sea breeze day and we went racing against the foreign teams, this is pretty useful both for some racing practice and for checking speed. The only downside is that without the jury and no risk of punishment like penalty turns for pumping to much the race inevitably descends into a pump off downwind with the frequency escalating the closer they get to the bottom mark. So it's not such a good indication of downwind pace but useful for upwind all the same!
Day four
Last day of the camp. Preparations have gone to plan and the final bimbles are done, boat polish, wash and pre event checks on everything and the inevitable half panic search for insurance documents and measurements certificates! All were found eventually, rest assure! The evening was started with a team briefing and some insights from Morgan Reeser 470 coach the token American), and was finished with a support staff dinner we enjoy annually in Palma. Not too late to bed for the team though as thoughts turn to day one of the first European World Cup Event of the year.
Matt