I love this place, but I could definitely live without the cold. JD and I are in Kiel, training with Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski. We have our coaches Rodney Hagebols and Hans Wallen, along with Anthony Kotoun with us.

For anybody who has not been to Kiel before, here are some things about the city you should know before your trip:

1) It’s cold bring ALL your warm foul weather gear, if you think you brought enough, pack more
2) It never gets dark, so to sleep bring your sunglasses
3) Don’t forget rule number 1

My favorite comment from a German local was, “You’re cold? It’s warm today.” We arrived last Saturday after a 14 hour flight. We made it but, JD’s bags didn’t. We lent him some sailing clothes and a clean shirt, and he was good to go. Although after two days in the same gear it was getting a bit funky. Luckily his bags finally arrived day three of the
trip. Mark Pickel organized a taxi from Hamburg up to Kiel, we slept in the taxi because we knew work was on the horizon. Lots and lots of work. We went straight to Pickel’s boatyard and began preparing the two boats for the following day of tuning and testing.

Sailing in Europe is huge! Much much bigger than in North America! The Pinta racing team (Marc and Ingo’s sponsor) has their own press team and they organized a media day. Well, I expected there might be a few reporters asking us a few questions here and there. However, there were more than 25 media reporters on hand; we spent about 2 hours with the TV, newspaper and other invited journalists. After the questions, three tenders full of press followed the two boats out on the water to film us in action.

We will get some of the footage up on the site when it comes in. Also be sure to check in at www.austinsperry.com there are lots of new photos up and videos.

Looking ahead, I will be in San Diego at the end of the month for a 5 day testing session then heading to China on June 13th.

It’s all happening, is a serious understatement!

Austin

JD and I just returned from a fantastic 24 hours in Chicago! First off, I love that city! I have been there a handful of times and somehow I seem to always have an awesome time. This past weekend was no different. Although, I was not exactly fired up about flying there and back for a 24 hour meeting, actually I was a bit grumpy about this.

JD and I arrived in Chicago around noon on Friday, May 9th. We caught a taxi and made it to the Hilton Palmer Hotel around 13.00, just in time for lunch and the meetings began at 14.00. JD and I checked in and he looked at me and asked, “What room are you in?” I replied, “10-110. What about you?”

JD said, “10-110”. Hmmm looks like my father in law and I will be spending some more quality time together. The hotel was amazing! One with lots of history, the old school Chicago. The rooms were great and the bed was comfortable.

The purpose of this weekend was to learn to be an ambassador at the Olympics, as we represent our great country. There were about 100 other Olympic athletes, plus about ten Sports Ambassadors (ex Olympians, all medalists but attending as coaches). One of my favorite ambassadors was Brandy Chastine. Brandy won a few gold medals in soccer and at least one World Cup, if I remember correctly.

Brandy was really nice and hung out with JD and I along with the rest of our crew. It was really cool meeting other athletes who have the same passion for competion. I met some really interesting people, some of my personal favorites were the wrestlers and the water polo team, the latter of which were all from Orange County California (Newport Beach, etc as am I). We had some really intelligent conversations that started and ended with the word dude. Ahh, it was great reminded me of growing up in Newport, surfing and spending summers at the beach.

After the meetings ended, JD and I held a mandatory meeting at the bar in the lobby of this impressive hotel. I also had a mandatory sign in sheet. As the night wore on, my new wrestling buddy and one of my best friends from boarding school (Mike Sturman) and I decided we were hungry. So we headed out to find the first place open at that hour. Lucky for us we found a bar/restaurant and the wrestler (who will remain nameless) ordered a 32oz steak and a few appetizers and I order a couple racks of ribs.

I think I ate 2 ribs, not 2 racks, only 2 ribs before Mr. Wrestler powered down the 32oz T-Bone and then proceeded eating my meal. I didnt want to say anything, he iss a lot bigger than I am so I just sat and watched with awe. Very impressive. I asked what weight class he wrestles in and he said 211 pounds…. I said ok what are you weighing now (pre meal) he answered 247 lbs but that he needs to get down to weight by June 11th. I spoke with him yesterday and he just got back from a 4 mile “hill” run and was going to wrestle all afternoon.

It was interesting to learn that many of the 100 other athletes still have not even had their trials yet, most of which will take place over the next month. I also met athletes in Track & Field, Fencing and Badminton (is this in the Olympics?). One woman did something called the race walk! Shooting, field hockey. I haven’t met Kobe Bryant or LaBron James yet but I think they have a bit on with the NBA playoffs going on.

The gist of the weekend was to become a good ambassador for the USA and to learn about mental prep. The main focus was on “being comfortable in uncomfortable situations”. We did all sorts of exercises in smaller groups that were very different and took each one of us out of our comfort zones. We all made complete fools of ourselves, but again this was the point of becoming comfortable. I took away tons of important information and cherished the experience.

We got home Saturday night and I was wrecked! Then I woke up Sunday and realized it was Mothers Day and my 30th birthday…. man, it’s going by too fast.

As my good buddy Paul Cayard says, “The richest people in the world are the people with the greatest life experiences.” How true my friend, I still learn the value of this lesson on a daily basis.

Later

Austin

Hello from San Diego (actually, Chula Vista), California. I am out training here at the US Olympic Training Center.

Well, I guess you figured out that the Star Worlds did not go as planned. We were in 13th place going into the last race and with a decent finish we would have had a top ten overall. Long story short is that we had a decent start and an average first beat. At the top of the first beat we gybed onto port for the run and were pointing at the leeward marks on port gybe. Things were looking very good but wouldn’t you know that the boats on our right looking downwind and on starboard gybe still beat us to the leeward gates. This was a very strange run and was a first in my career. Chalk it up to experience. Lesson learned. We are keeping our eye on the big prize in August.

Overall, the Miami season was a good one. We won the Commodores Cup, placed 4th at the Bob Levin Regatta, 3rd at Bacardi Cup and JD had a 5th at the Star Masters with his son, while I had a 10th with my old man at the same regatta. We made great progress on our road to Beijing.

After the Worlds, Rodney and I stayed in Miami to move out of the team house and load two containers with our boats for China. It’s amazing how much stuff we collected living in the team house for the past five months! With the weak dollar and a booming export business here in the States, there was a serious shortage of containers. Rodney and I had to wait around a week until two containers became available. We finally loaded all of our gear. Two Star boats, one RIB, one US Sailing team RIB and 8 masts and 4 booms.

This took about 4 hours to complete but was a huge weight off our shoulders once we finished this ordeal. After that we got a good night’s sleep and Rodney and I drove back to Mississippi the following day with the team van and suburban, towing home the other Star boat and two Finns. It was a 13 hour drive, but it was good to finally be home. I was away on this trip for 35 days… too long.. Rodney was away for the same amount. I want to thank all of our wives and better halves for supporting us during these final months leading up to the Games.

Did I mention it was great to sleep in my own bed and lay on my own couch… It was nice. But I couldn’t get to used to it because although I was home on Saturday, I was off on Thursday to the US Olympic Training Facility in San Diego.

As soon as I arrived at Orange County Airport, I collected my bike and bag, then headed straight to Andy MacDonald’s. When I arrived at his great house in Laguna Beach I immediately noticed that his road bike was ready to go! Andy rides a lot so I knew it was going to be a hard afternoon. We shot the breeze for a few minutes then I put my bike together and off we went on a little ride. Andy Mac is in his mid fifties and is really fit. It was fun trying to hang on his back wheel for the afternoon. We made it safely back to his house and got ready for a little party that evening. Colin (Andy’s son and fantastic guy) along with John Virtue (one of my other life long friends) started playing liars dice on his kitchen table, we started at 5pm with the dice and a few beverages, we were still sitting at the table come 2am with the same dice and fewer drinks! An epic evening with old friends.

Friday morning I woke up and headed to San Diego to check into the US Training Facility. This place is awesome! It’s over 150 acres and has everything you can think of! Track, pole vault, state of the art weight room, BMX track (yes, BMX bikes are now an Olympic Sport) – everything.

On Friday evening, I picked up my personal strength and conditioning coach Chris Herrera from the San Diego airport. Needless to say we came home and crashed. On Saturday, we woke up at 7am went to the on campus restaurant (which has great food that is healthy) had a big breakfast and headed to the gym. This is not an ordinary gym! It is state of the art – not your local health club! What I found to be the coolest thing in the gym was all the 60” plasma TVs around the weight room. They are used for play back and run on 30 second delayed loop. This means, I could do a power clean and power snatch, then watch myself on the big screen to make sure my form was in line and that I did not hurt myself.

It’s cool walking around this place. There are real athletes here, fit and focused its really motivating. When you’re here all you want to do is train. We live in a dorm type apartment, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, no kitchen but a small fridge next to a small desk near the front door.

I have been riding my road bike a bit, yesterday we were in the gym lifting for more than 4 hours over two sessions. After the last session, I put my bike costume on and Coach Herrera got in my rental car and followed me while I hit the road. Basically, I thought Chris was there in case I crashed or got a flat tire. Nope, he had other ideas. Ideas called intervals!

So Chris pulls up next to me in the car while I was riding to say that when he honks the horn he wants me to basically get out of the saddle and grind the pedals into the payment for 30 seconds at a time… sounds fun, huh! Well, after a while I thought his horn was broken because it kept honking! Finally, my legs said no more and we called it a day around 6pm. This went on for a few days. Needless to say I am so sore it hurts to laugh, cough, walk well I can hardly walk and the truth of the matter is, this is how I judge a good workout, if it hurts to move I knew I gave it 110%...

I just returned from taking Chris to the airport and I am laying on the couch trying to prepare my body for one more workout in the morning before I get on a flight headed home.
It’s been really great here, a great place to clear my mind and focus on my body. It has been very productive.

Looking ahead next Friday, I leave for Chicago for a two day event on how to be a ambassador at the Olympics. Then Sunday is my birthday… turning 30 years old.. I am on the fence on this one not sure if I should embrace this of be depressed….. from there I head to Germany.

That’s all for now, be sure to check out my website www.austinsperry.com for the latest pictures, clips and updates. I will also be posting some video and pictures from my trip to San Diego and a few other random shots….

Later…
Austin