Our down time at home is over.  We didn't see much of each other for the first 10 days, then we did 2 weeks of fitness together, but it was just working off all of the delicious, but heavy food that our families were pumping into us.  Everytime my mom made cookies, I would eat two and then bring 30 into my friends, and cupcakes too!  We both spent at least a week fighting a flu that was going around, and I've been taking something to repair my stomach from all of the damn ibuprofen I took when I busted my tailbone right before the Miami Olympic Regatta. 

Something new to us, that seems quite helpful so far, is all of the time and work we've been doing with a great sport psychologist over the past few weeks.  To be honest, I wasn't that into it at first, but as we got to know each other and he got to know about our sport and 49er racing, we both really warmed up to it, and in the past two weeks, Dan and I both felt as if we made some headway.  We worked mostly on imagery.  Dan and I would think of some very specific situations in a race that we've been in, and we basically picked them apart, down to the second, and towards the end of each one, it was so fresh in our minds it was as if we were just racing, but really we haven't been in the boat in a month.  To make a long story short, we feel it was productive and we will continue to be in contact with him on skype.  In the meantime, we have a "playbook" to write in order to keep the juices flowing when we're not in battle.

Right now we are in Toronto airport, and we have been all afternoon, but we board for Paris in an hour.  We arrive there at 0940, then we get the car, drive north to the ferry to England, and then we will hopefully be in northern England by tomorrow night sometime.  Tuesday we get the hitch put on our car, and put together our boat and equipment at the factory there.  Wednesday afternoon we are hoping to leave and drive to Weymouth (south England), where we have to work on the boat.  It takes around 100 hours to setup a new boat, but we will try to do it in 2 long days with 3 people.  Saturday we're getting the ferry back to france, and then driving to Barcelona, where we get a night ferry to Mallorca, where our training camp and the next event will be.  We will have about 5 days to sail before the camp starts, but even after 100 hours of boat work, we know that as soon as we sail it for the first time, we are going to have to change a lot of small things, so really that 5 days will turn into 3, but we'll be ready to rock then. 

It has been a busy couple of days, but now our boat and hardware are packed up and in storage, and our equipment has been sent to England where we'll pick it up next month.  We just packed last night and today, but yesterday we had great training on the water.  The breeze was about 10 knots, and we did some starting drills and short courses for 2 hours, then we switched for 2 hours.  Switching was really good because seeing and feeling, and being in rhythm is so important, and we need to be able to know what the other is thinking without saying, so knowing the others job, and to understand better how it affects the others' is key to staying in the groove and looking around during the race. 

Monday was a little harsh because there was no wind in the morning, and under 5 knots in the afternoon.  We decided to stay inside the causeway and not enter into the bay because there was no breeze, and huge black clouds off to the east, in a northerly wind.  Not  north for long.  It went from 5 knots to 30  from the east in about 3 minutes.  We decided to put the boat on her side and wait it out, but after 20 minutes it didn't die and we could see heavy rain about 5 minutes away.  We definitely did not put up our chute, but we were locked in the footstraps and made it in in just a couple of minutes, and the squall came with zero visibility, it's a good thing we weren't outside, and some people were happy to see us on shore.

Now that we have no boat or gear, this evening we just finished the last 2 months accounting, and we're off to the 24 hour fitness in a bit, for our last workout there for a year.  Still no situps or biking, butt soon,

We should be pleased with the last day of MOCR because we put up another top ten on the score board.  It goes to show that top 15 finishes in races will get you places overall, and it only takes one bad day (a black flag dsq, and a bad race) to gather a lot of unwanted points.  Although big up and down finishes are hurting our overall results, it does say that when we are dialed in to the boat and race, we are finishing in 7th, 11th, 3rd, 16th, and 7th which are great reuslts because they will put you in the top 5 overall.  Getting an OCS or Black Flag should never happen, and those plus a couple of bad races after them is what kept us from the front overall.  The fact that we are in the front of the pack when we are focused shows that our speed and strategy are strong points, but because of the black flag, ocs and refocus right after them, the next 3 days we will be  working on:

1. the last 1:30 of the start.  During this time we should be stopped about 2 boat lengths from the line, no reversing, double tacking, or slipping sideways, just still and stable.  Dan pulls on the controls, then we switch sheets, clip ourselves in and the goal is to go full power between 8-5 seconds before the gun and hitting the line with speed and confidence that we are clear.  So we are going to use a mark on the bay as a reference point for a start line.

2. Focus and distractions.  It is so important for us to be in sync with our movements, and we really need to be able to predict the others movements and know what the other is thinking in order really keep the boat going as fast as possible on autopilot, so we can have our heads out of the boat and work on the race.  We are going to switch jobs to expand our awareness of the feel for the boat from the other side. 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday:  7-9am (run, workout, eat and get to the boat park) 930-12, starting drills and short windward/leeward’s.  130-4pm 2 lap courses while switched jobs.  5-7 go to the gym and get our moneys worth because we haven't been there all week!  Thursday we have to ship some equipment overseas and fly home at 1330!