Paul Goodison

2 wins in 2 weeks in Florida

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:49:08 GMT

It has been a complete culture shock since getting home from Miami on Monday.

What with the Worlds in Perth, holiday in Bali and then Key West Week followed by the Miami Regatta, I have only spent one night in my house in Weymouth since 17 November and it was absolutely freezing when we got back! The heating was been on full blast from the minute we walked through the door but it took absolutely ages for it to feel warm!

We definitely seemed to have timed it badly coming back from super warm Florida, where there was a perfect 8-15 knots of sailing breeze every day, just as the weather has turned really cold. But it is ok because I’m off to Tenerife for a week’s training with the Spanish Laser boys next Thursday (9 February), so I’ve not got to freeze for too long!

Winning the Miami Regatta was a great start to the Olympic year for me. Although the Worlds were always intended to be a process regatta, to have been in second all week and then mess it up on the last day to finish fifth was very frustrating.

I wasn’t originally going to do Miami but I was in Florida for Key West Week, and there were a few things we had identified to work on after the Worlds that heading up to the Miami Regatta from Key West ended up making sense. I only had a few hours’ training before the event started and felt a bit rusty because I hadn’t been in a Laser since the Worlds but it felt really good to be back in the boat again.

Although there were specific things I was focussing on during the regatta, especially around gaining increased consistency and confidence in some of my starts, it was important that I stamped my authority back down in the Laser and actually won an event. I sailed really well in qualifying and then it was about consolidating the lead after that. The Brazilian, Bruno Fontes, came back strongly however, and we ended up tied on points going into the medal race so it was very pleasing to gain control of the medal race early on and build from there.

Key West Week proved to be a really worthwhile event for heaps of reasons. Not only did we win the Farr 400 class but with it being a new boat to me and the rest of the guys, it was super nice to have a new challenge while still practice the tactical elements out of a Laser environment. I only have three more Laser events on the calendar before the Olympics – Palma, the Worlds and Sail for Gold – and as the Olympics gets closer so the events become less and less about processes and more about results so it was great to get some good race practice in.

After I get back from Tenerife, the 2012 selected British team sailors are going to the Olympic Park Velodrome in London for two days for the Olympic Cycling Test Event, which will be pretty cool. I’ve not seen any of the other Olympic venues outside of Weymouth yet, and I know a few of the cyclists from having won gold at Beijing 2008, so it will be really interesting to see them race and just being there will be pretty inspiration and exciting.

Tomorrow I will be unloading the container from Perth, which Colin Murray is joining me for. He assures me he will be helping out while interviewing! I’m having a fitness test and a few sports science meetings.

After the gym this morning a new Orange mountain bike arrived. A super cool prototype that has been loaned to me, I had a fun ride this afternoon and the wind, mud and rain didn’t stop me from grinning most of the ride. I may need to order some warmer cycling kit though!

2012........

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:28:56 GMT

Happy new year! I hope that you have all had time to enjoy the festive period.
After the last few months its quite a shock to return to the cold but nice to spend a night in my own bed!

The training in Perth was good and the focus around technique change seemed to have brought some positive changes and I feel I have made progress here. The Worlds was not a key event but after sitting in second all week I was very frustrated to slip out of the medals on the last day of finals after a poor performance with my mind else where, mainly on planning for the games rather than the job in hand.

Going in to the medal race there was still a good chance of Silver with the points quite tight. After a good start at the starboard end I sailed towards the wall packed with spectators. After bouncing around off the wall tacking and ducking in the disrupted water, the boats that had tacked and ducked early headed right to make big gains. After rounding towards the back I pulled back through to finish 5th which was only good enough for 5th overall a bit of a disappointment.

After the Worlds in Perth I headed to Bali with friends for a surfing trip over Christmas on the way home. It was a great away to chill and rest up ready for the hard miles ahead.

It has been quite a year to look back on with several highs and a few lows. The main aim of the year was to secure selection for the 2012 Olympics which was going to be a tough job. Medaling in the Olympic venue at Sail for Gold and then the Test Event was enough to secure selection, and a step towards 2012. The other highlights include winning at the Princess sofia regatta and medaling in Miami.

I am super excited about 2012 and with the opportunity to work with a new coach over the next few months I feel super motivated with the Olympics closer than you realise There is still plenty of work to do but with the fresh ideas of a new coach and the help of one of the best training partners in the world in Nick Thompson I feel my program will be good enough to deliver in August.

I have had to make a few changes to my program. I am pretty disappointed that I am not heading to the sun and gorgeous sailing conditions of the Dominican Republic tomorrow, instead I fly to the Alps for boot camp on cross country skis! not the nicest way to start the new year but its what is needed and Im sure some bits will be fun.

Thanks to everybody for your ongoing support and I hope you can share and enjoy the journey to 2012 with me.

Australia here we come

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:10:51 GMT

Its been a long trip but quite an awesome day for my first day in oz. After getting to Perth at 3am I managed a bit of sleep before being wide awake…….
The only thing to do was head down the club to sort my boat out. After finding all the kit and a spot of lunch it was off out sailing. The Freemantle doctor was in with wind up to 25 knots and a steep chop. The sailing was great although I did capsize!
I was pretty quick to get back in the boat after all the chat of sharks in the area.
I came in pretty tired, a touch jet lagged but after hearing the lads were off to Perth to watch the Kings of Leon I thought it would be a great way to stay awake listening to one of my favourite bands.
We headed in to Perth for an amazing open air gig. Its days like today when you realise how lucky you are!
Looking forward to a proper sleep and back on the water tomorrow.

Off to the Sun!

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:35:27 GMT

I’m sitting here looking out of my office window at a 470 and a 49er out on the water in a cold, grey Weymouth and all I can say is I’m pleased that I’m off to Australia on Thursday for training before the ISAF Worlds at the end of next month.

I am really looking forward to the three weeks of training in warmer climates with a good training group prior to the Worlds. I’m sure a lot of guys will be really fired up as the Worlds is a key part to the there selection for the games, so it will be good to train against guys that are a little heavier and really optimising for the Perth conditions. It will be fascinating to observe how they perform under huge pressures.

The goal is still to do well in Perth but having already been selected for London 2012, I have to look at the big picture and use the event as a chance to test some of the techniques I’ve been working on in pressurised race situations, to see how automatic they have become.

I’ve been working really hard in the gym over the past month building up my strength, but by doing that I’ve had to compromise some of the cycling that is usually such a big part of my programme. I’m hoping we will start seeing the benefits of that strength work on the water in Perth and it will be interesting to see how the decreased level of bike work translates into a seven-day regatta.

That’s the beauty of being selected early. You are able to periodise your training into blocks, whereby you can concentrate on improvements in certain areas for specified periods of time before bringing everything together to hopefully peak when it matters most.

I’ve had plenty of encouragement on how my campaign is progressing over the past fortnight, not least when my kit failed to turn up on time to a training camp in Tenerife and I managed to still do ok using branches retrieved from a nearby tree as sail battens! I managed to borrow hiking shorts, boots, rudder and tiller and the only thing missing was sail battens so we went and got some twigs and job was a goodun! I’m not sure if it’s worrying or not that they didn’t seem to make much difference to how quickly I sailed!

By day two my kit had arrived so normal service was resumed and I enjoyed a great five days sailing with guys from all over the world in a group invited by the Spaniard Javier Hernández. It is always good to check in with other international sailors. It was a great venue with a couple of days of strong breeze and a bit more lighter, fickle stuff and I was encouraged by how I fared across the range. I definitely want to go back and train there in January.

I headed straight to Tenerife from the start of the Volvo Ocean Race, which was just incredible. Although I went to the stopover in Portsmouth last time, I’ve never been to the start and I just couldn’t get over how professionally everything was set up and run, and how it was all so much bigger than I expected. The biggest thing that struck me was all the teams had these massive Formula 1 style tents and trailers, very impressive.

The Volvo Ocean Race is something I’ve always said I fancied doing for about 24-48 surreal hours before I quickly change my mind and talk myself out of it! But chatting to some of the guys who were doing the race, the amazing challenge of it all, and how revved up they all were before setting off I think it’s definitely something I want to do in the future now. Well until I do another two days’ offshore sailing and convince myself otherwise again!

Wind in Weymouth

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:43:12 GMT

I have been based in Weymouth for the last few weeks getting stuck in to the training. The weather has been surprisingly warm and the training has been good. It was nice to have some foreign visitors over to freshen the training up and a brief trip to Hayling Island for a Qualifier. On the eve of the Qualifier I attended the BOA Gold ball in London for an amazing event including acts from Tom Jones and Tinchie Strider that in the end raised £700,000 for the BOA. Unfortunately this left me with a late night and an early train down to Hayling. Nck and I had some close racing in some glamour conditions 15 knots and large waves, I eventually went on to win, winning both races on Sunday.
I have been involved with a few other cool things including a filming day with Sperry Topsider and the launch of the Volvo Sailing App. The new App is pretty cool, check it out by searching for Volvo Sailing in the App store. Its Cool and its free…..
Today has been the annual World Class day for all sailors in the RYA Squad, lots of info but quite draining. I woke myself up after with a quick ride to the gym on my new Orange bike, the cold air definitely did the trick before nailing my legs in the gym. I hope they still work for racing tomorrow. As they say no pain no gain!

Melges 32 Worlds

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:05:00 GMT

I had a good two weeks in Palma doing the Melges 32 Worlds recently – I managed to do some cycling and gym work around the sailing which was good to keep things ticking along. As a team were a bit down on training time together with only four full days on the water before the worlds. We struggled a little with starting but had some great comebacks. It was a little disappointing not to get any racing in on the final day as it seemed we were getting better every day. We ended up eight in the end, which I guess was a fair result in a competitive fleet.

Its back Laser training again in Weymouth and this weekend we missed a day sailing through no wind, which is very rare! My cousin and his family came to visit this weekend with the aim of learning to Kite surf. The lack of wind didn’t help but we had a cool time paddle boarding, rock climbing and model boating. There wasn’t a huge amount of wind but we managed to get the kites in the air on land and the kids managed to get some serious air! It was nice to break up the training doing some cool stuff with the kids.

Last week G4S invited several of the team to an Olympic celebration in London, hosted by the broadcaster Claire Balding. Sparky, Stevie and Ben and I were interviewed along with legendary Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie – what a super cool guy, he was just so humble and interesting to listen to.

The morning after we were invited to run with him. A 6.30 pick up was a struggle but the sun rise as we ran around The Serpentine was pretty cool. I only just managed to keep up, but my calf muscles are still aching almost a week later! He runs about 200 kilometres a week, I’m lucky if I cycle that!? It was fascinating speaking to him about how he keeps himself focussed and what he thinks about while he is doing these training runs.

It is now back to Laser training in Weymouth with Nick Thompson and a couple of Canadian and American guys who are coming over to train with us. I haven’t really done much Laser sailing since the Olympic Test Event in August so I’m really looking forward to it.

At the beginning of next month Nick Dempsey and I are off to Alicante with Volvo guests for the start of the Volvo Ocean Race. I was lucky enough to see the boats leave Portsmouth last time, which was a great spectacle.

After that I’m off to Tenerife for a bit more Laser training, then on to Barcelona for another Melges event, before I leave for Perth for the ISAF Worlds so I’ve got a busy few weeks to look forward to!

Olympic Selection Sealed

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:39:47 GMT

It has been a difficult few days to try and keep it secret but I can finally say I’m qualified and will be on the start line next year.

I received the phone call while out cycling n Palma, I was expecting the call and heard my phone ringing halfway up a climb. I stopped quickly to recognise Sparkys voice, he asked me to get my breath back, I just wanted the news.
It felt great to be told that I had been selected. The rest of the ride I seemed to have a bit of a spring in my step and rode with a big smile on my face.
I feel like I have got over the first hurdle and can now focus fully on retaining my Olympic title, the longer the trials process goes on the more of a distraction it can become.
It has definitely been the toughest trials process since I missed out in 2000 to Ben. Nick has not made it easy and has pushed me hard. I hope that we can start to work together again as we did before Beijing.
Having selection complete allows me the best preparation for the games. I have a good idea of the things I need to change and develop to be in the best place to deliver at the Olympic games.
I will be going out to Perth at the end of the year for the worlds but will now primarily be using this trip for technique change and development before heading back to Europe for the winter.

One of the biggest challenges is going to be making the most of a home games. There are going to be plenty of distractions and staying focused is going to be key.

I would like to thank all my sponsors and people that have helped me to be in this position. With out my sponsors and the great support team the RYA provides I would not be able to achieve the tough goals I set myself on a daily basis. I had such an amazing experience in China becoming Olympic Champion I can not imagine what it would be like to repeat this on home waters in Weymouth and Portland. Exciting times ahead……

32 Worlds

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:51:48 GMT

I am currently out in Palma for the Melges 32 Worlds with team Red, Wow its smoking hot out here…..
After missing some training together as a team this year we have made good use of the 4 full days training with the race team. The training has been very similar each day with a light sea breeze developing and ranging between 8-12 knots. This has allowed for some nice cycling in the morning as the riding out here is amazing. Tomorrow will be our last day on the water before the Worlds kicks off and there is a change in the weather, a spot of rain and more wind. A bit of variety will be a nice change I suppose.
We are down on training time but will hopefully be able to challenge the top teams. Its going to be a tough regatta but if we can pull together we can do well.

Waiting time…..

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:42:56 GMT

After a really full on few weeks in Weymouth with Sail for Gold Regatta and then the Olympic test event it’s a time to look back and reflect.

Leaving with two medals is hopefully enough to show the selectors I am capable of medaling at the games next year, but I cant help feeling a little disappointed. In both regattas I went in to the medal race with a realistic chance of winning gold, and only came away with Bronze.

I have had a good look at myself and hopefully identified what needs to be done to make the difference for the games next year. It is a little difficult to plan for the next few months until the selectors make an announcement on what happens next in September.

I have medaled at every regatta this year except Hyere and been unbeaten by any of the other British boats this year in International competition. This has been a bit of a distraction as I feel that I have not achieved my full potential due to a bit of a break down in the squad system. It’s always going to be hard when two guys are competing for one spot. Hopefully we can start working together again in the build up to the games to give GBR the best possibility of winning.

I finally got out of Weymouth after what I think has been my longest stint there for a long, long time…… I joined Saskia for Mersea week but was unable to get a ride on a Winkle Brig (the class that Saskia was racing) apparently my CV was not up to scratch!

I did get the opportunity to go racing onboard and helm Kismet, (somebody obviously saw I had some potential) a beautiful classic built in 1893 and restored back to immaculate condition . She wasn’t quite as responsive as the Laser but was a joy to sail. Probably the high light of the week was Richard (the owner of Kismet) taking me for a round of golf after sailing in his helicopter. After getting over the initial anxiety of my first helicopter flight I was allowed to take the controls, Wow amazing…..

I headed back to Weymouth on Thursday for the RS100 sprint race challenge to help raise money for Cancer research. The boat looked pretty tricky to sail and I haven’t sailed a single handed asymmetric boat before. With only 10 minutes to practise, things didn’t look good! I capsized leaving the slipway, capsized attempting my first gybe and then again attempting my first gybe with the spinnaker up!

The growing crowd seemed to appreciate this as they jeered on.
The two minute gun went before I had completed a gybe with out getting wet not ideal. Luckily I was a quick learner and went on to win the heats and final, almost feeling like I knew what I was doing by the end.
After receiving my prize I decided to auction it off to the crowd and raised another £100 for a good cause.

Its back home to see my new niece for the first time and catch up with friends before its time to put my head back down with the next block of training, exciting times ahead…………..

Pre Olympic Test Event Bronze

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 09:43:00 GMT

After a tough week of racing in the bay, it all came down to the medal race. With all three medals still up for grabs it was everything to gain nothing to loose. I had a few points to make up but, was determined to give it my best shot. After an early lead up the first beat a few boats came round the top mark in front. After a solid run I took the lead up the second beat and, went on to win the race. The drama was unfolding behind as Tom (AUS) made a good come back to cross the line just in front of Rutger (NED). Unfortunately this left me with Bronze. A little bit disappointed but I guess I couldn’t have done much more. With plenty of things to work on over the next 12 months it is time for a brief break before knuckling down to get where I need to be in 2012…
I will be heading east for the premiere West Mersea Race week for a few days and then back to Weymouth for Thursday Evening at the RS games to help raise money for Cancer Research…

The medal race can be watched belowhttp://static.sportresult.com/federations/isaf/Sailing/raceviewer_0_9_14/index.php?dev=1&v=4a6&id=503c9387-66e7-4773-ac45-90867ca9a8dd&event=70