We’ve been out training in Long Beach, California, for the last two months. Lots of improvements with great coaching by Sally Barkow, Jay Glaser, and Phil Muller. 3 hours or more a day in the consistent conditions of Long Beach has been champagne sailing.
After Euros ended we were excited to get out to the west coast and start training with the other US teams. Luckily this foil case and these sails made it all the way there safe and sound!
Once we landed we got to work setting up the boat and settling in to Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. ABYC and their membership welcomed us and made it easy to be away from home and training in such a great venue all summer.
The first part of our training camp we had Phil Muller come work with us. We focused on building team culture, communication, and identifying what each team needed to work on to get to the next level. We had great breeze every day and made fast progress.
Next, Jay Glaser spent a few weeks with us working on technical and performance details. Finally, Sally Barkow stepped in as our new squad coach and brought years of racing and campaigning expertise to the team.
Olympix Fitness turned into our gym home away from home, and we found everything we needed to keep getting stronger. Thanks to Mike at SPT Fitness for keeping us supplied with awesome workouts all summer!
Lisa Meier, Howie Hamlin, and Jay and Pease Glaser provided us beds to sleep in and all the support of a family. We had countless team dinners and meetings at their homes. Because of their hospitality we were able to focus on getting the work done!
We focused on skill building in seastate, breeze, and foiling up and downwind. A basic schedule for a training day in Long Beach looked like this:
7:00 AM - Wake up, breakfast (Dave makes the best breakfast)
8:30-10:00 - Gym at Olympix Fitness
10:15 - If we have time I grab an acai bowl or protein shake at Portfolio Fit, which is a cafe attached to the gym.
10:35 - Arrive at the boat park or do office work from the cafe
11:30 - Meet with the whole Nacra team and coach and review video
12:30 - Rig and eat lunch
1:00 - Launch and head out on the water (inside or outside the breakwall depending on the day)
5:00 PM - Arrive back at the dock
5:45 - Debrief by the fire pit at ABYC and eat second or leftover lunch to refuel
7:00 - Debrief over, head back to the closest house (usually Lisa’s!) to review on-board camera footage (just Dave and Sarah)
8:00 - Dinner while we video review
9:30-10:00 - Head home, talk to our hosts, and shower and get in bed!
Repeat!
It’s been a great summer and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far and feel lucky to be sailing in such a fantastic venue. Stay tuned for more!