Training for the Olympics is a full time commitment which means we have to sail all winter to achieve our goals. Miami is the best location for winter training when it comes to Olympic Sailing.
After sailing for a little over a week in Cleveland, Ohio and the fresh warm waters of Lake Erie we headed to Newport, Rhode Island to finish off our fall training program with our training partners. Now that the weather has turned and the number of days and the amount of sunlight available are both less than before we have arrived in Miami for our winter training program. Miami is practically tropical, it provides great breeze and it is the home of the US Sailing Team Training Center located at Jaguar Therapeutics in Coconut Grove, Florida. Over the next three months, the entire US Team and many athletes from around the globe will arrive in Miami and base their winter training programs in the warm coastal waters of South Florida.
After only one day in Miami we are back in the swing of our winter program. With Jaguar Therapeutics being around the corner from our house, we are in the gym working out every day…twice a day actually. Their staff understand sailing, the demands on our bodies and the need for a combination of strength and flexibility to be at our best when competing in the varied conditions and heavy competition of the ISAF World Cup series of regattas around the globe. Our workouts are individualized and include us reaching and maintaining our optimal weight for the boat, so diet is a big part of our program as well. Needless to say, living in Miami gives us access to great weather, a variety of locations to sail in and the best sailing fitness experts in the world. It is amazing to have such tremendous resources available to us here.
So our days start pretty early, we get up at 6:30 to hit the gym for our morning workouts and any physical therapy that we might need. Then we head up to Miami Yacht Club to rig and get out on the water…today we will be sailing on Biscayne Bay but we can just as easily get out to the Atlantic Ocean and sail in the Gulfstream when we need strong current and heavy breeze to train in. We sail until about 4 pm, derig and get dinner while we have a brief debrief of the day on the water and make a plan for what we need to focus on the next day. Then it is time for a little homework (remember David is a senior in high school), back to Jaguar for the evening workout, another dinner and then back home to finish the school day and some sleep.
Our days are pretty busy, we have a lot to fit into each day and that means that some of the things we want to do get neglected because we have to be 100% focused on catching up to the rest of the fleet (some of whom have been sailing together for two years now) and then passing them so we can win the US Olympic Trials in 2016. Because we are the only US Team in the NACRA 17 class to be training full-time, we have the advantage of time so we can get up to speed and be competitive against those teams that have been together longer. It is amazing how much we are improving from one day to the next and now that we are under the supervision of Chris Herrera and his staff at Jaguar and our coaches in Miami, we are sure to see much more growth leading into the winter season.
We will be joined on and off by training partners from the USA and from other countries throughout the winter which will give us the opportunity to compare our speed, tactics and boathandling against the competition and compare our observations, boat setup and thought process with some of the best athletes in this sport. At the conclusion of our Winter training, we will then head to Europe with those training partners for the spring to continue our development and make sure that we can surpass the other US boats on the racecourse.
Miami is the home of Olympic Sailing in the USA and it is amazing that we have the opportunity to train with the best of the best in this wonderful city. Our goal is to win Olympic Gold and we are committed to not letting anything get in the way of us making that happen. The support of companies and individuals that contribute to our campaign is vital to our success and we appreciate everyone who continues to support us. Will you help us with $25 or more today?
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