After Pre-Olympics, I came home to some well deserved rest.
A bit of biking, running and yoga kept me sane as well as lots of catching up with friends, getting my body fixed and then of course there is the usual work associated with organizing campaign stuff.
At the end of August I headed down to the Gorge (Hood River, Oregon) for 5 days.
I haven’t been there for 3 years and it’s just as great as I remember it. Absolutely beautiful scenery, sunny but somewhat windy. I went there to do some “fun” training… getting back into sailing on the RSX after about 2 weeks off the water.
It was a fantastic trip, I had wind everyday and sailed the RSX mostly, but on one day I was overpowered on a 4.0 and a wave board, then I sailed powered up on a 5.4 and a slalom board.
Definitely feels different to a big board and the 8.5 sail that I am used to!!!
Seeing my old racer friends and sailing with Gorge’s own 14year old superstar Fiona Wylde (who kept me on my toes the whole time) at the Gorge was so great, the windsurfing scene is still alive and well down there and it gave me renewed energy for the upcoming months of hard training and competition that’ll require my 100% focus.
Once back at home, the next thing I had to look forward to was riding from Downtown Vancouver to Whistler in the GranFondo.
Over 7200 bikers participated in the 122km ride along the Sea to Sky highway, with a total vertical of 2400m or 7500+feet. I competed and completed the race/ride in 4hr43mins.
It was an absolutely amazing ride, warm at the start at 7am…to a blazing 30+ degrees closer to Whistler.
A super relaxing afternoon and next day followed, which was great as that was the end of my down time and my real training started back up two days later.
My time at home is almost up again, next stop is a training camp in Tarifa, Spain with my training group.
I’ll be there for a bit over two weeks, before heading back home for a quick turn around, then the Pan American Games in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Lots of excitement to come in the coming months:
October 17-23,
Pan Am Games, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
December 3-11,
World Championships/Olympic Qualifier, Perth, Australia
I’ll keep you posted!
Nikola