Miami has become a second home over the past couple months, and while it’s a great spot it’s getting pretty busy with all this travel! Between the Olympic training and the mobile home development business I’m completely booked. Sometimes I head to Miami on Wednesday, race until Sunday, jet back that night and try to squeeze a week’s worth of work into the office in just a few days, after which I head right on back to go sailing. Amid all this stress and hard work I just keep my eyes on the prize- Gold at the Olympics in China in August.
To get ready for China, we’re doing the usual Miami winter Star circuit. One nice part about that schedule is the Star Masters. That regatta is always full of legends, and one of the best parts is just getting back in a Star with my dad. Some people thought that sailing with him at Star Masters might be a break for me, but I’m a very competitive guy so it’s hard to just turn that off. I’m always looking for ways to get better and faster. My dad and I ended up doing pretty well, finishing 10th overall and 2nd in the Grand Masters division at the same time showing serious downwind speed in the last race in 25kts of breeze! That last race we hung in there and had our best finish of the regatta, finishing 4th overall and swapping tacks with the likes of Rod Davis and Augie Diaz all the way around the track. This made me really proud of my dad and I as a team. He got me started sailing in Stars, so it’s great to go back to where all of this began as I count down the months and days to the Olympics.
My next big event is the Bacardi Cup in Miami in March 2-7. That’s one of the best Star regattas out there. JD and I won it in 2006 and would love to see a repeat this year. We’re keeping in mind that we are pacing ourselves for the Olympics, though, so it’s not going to be high-pressure to win. At this point we have around five months until China, so our main goal is to peak at the end of those five months. That means always learning, always pushing ourselves physically and mentally, and working on our equipment. Again though, another Bacardi win would be nice!
It’s 6 am here in Mississippi and I am sitting in my office typing away but all I can think about is my new bike. I have to share this with all of you guys: My good friend and training partner, “Tiny,” from New Zealand is an avid bike racer and loves to train. I have mentioned him in previous updates, and Tiny isn’t so tiny and is one of the fittest people I know, especially at 6’5” and 255lbs. He talked me into stepping up my program and buying another road bicycle. I am taking delivery of my new Cervelo SLC-SL this Sunday! It will be interesting to see how long I can hang with Tiny… I love new challenges so this should be a good one.
Other than that tings are great and gym training is going really well! My coach Chris Herrera of Jaguar Professional Training has shifted my weight lifting program into overdrive. Today was a day off (thank God) cause after the past two days with squats one day and hang snatches another I can hardly walk. The plan after JD and I won the Olympic Trials last fall was for me to gain about 15 pounds, and JD was going to lose as much. After the trials I was weighing 216 lbs and today I am 231 lbs… I think it might be time to tone it down in the gym a bit.
We’ll head to Miami a week early to train for Bacardi Cup, then we have 2 weeks off before heading off to train again for worlds in April in Miami. May has a lighter schedule because we will be loading the China Containers with our boats on May 1st. However, after that I will be heading to Chula Vista, California with my coach Chris Herrera to train at the United States Olympic Training Facility. I am really looking forward to that. Sort of makes it feel like I am a real Olympian training in the Olympic center. It’s all starting to become very real…
I have to get back to work, trying to squeeze in 2 weeks in 3 days gets a bit rough sometimes.
Austin