Paul Goodison

New Blog Site

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:53:53 GMT

Due to the Olympic Rules I am no longer aloud to write blogs on this site. I will be putting things up on my Blogspot.

www.paulgoodison.blogspot.com

Thanks
Paul

Next stop Qingdao

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:34:49 GMT

I write this yawning as i sit and wait for my next flight from Beijing to Quingdao. I didn’t catch much sleep on the flight so im fueling myself with caffeine to try and stay awake. It all feels very real having just validated my accreditation. Walking around in my team kit everybody seems interested in what im doing here and what sport im competing in, even getting my photo taken with Chinese ground staff at the airport.

I have just had a good weak at home with a mix of cycling, sailing and sitting at home waiting for the post man to arrive with a whole variety of packages of new ropes, tillers, wetsuits etc….

On Thursday I had one of the nicest sails in Weymouth ive ever had, the wind increased to over 20 knots from the South East as i sailed out of the harbour into the bay. The sun was shining as i was out heading up towards Lullworth with only a few mored tankers for company. I enjoyed some great rides home on the building swell before heading home for lunch.

I pulled out of doing a time Trial on my bike on Tuesday night as still felt a little tired from the Europeans but this left me all rested up for my first ever road race on Thursday night after a great days sailing.

I headed off with Alex Hopson the new local triathlon star!!! part time 49er crew, with both bikes in the back of the car out to Morton. After registering and paying for a temporary racing license we had enough time for a quick warm up. There were over 50 cyclists signed on and several of the elite group where warming up on turbo trainers which was a bit dawnting!!!

We started just after 7 about 2 minutes after the Elite group for 10 laps of the 4km course. It wasn’t the gentle started that id anticipated as we raced off with my heart rate pounding away.

After a few laps i was getting the hang of things and find myself leading out of one of the corners, the guy next to me said lets go as we put the pedal to the metal and tried to brake away. After a minute we managed to gain a bit of a lead on the pack, I looked at my heart rate to see it over 95% I put my head down and drove on, the next time i looked back everybody was right there behind us, GUTTED!!!!!!!!

I took a while to recover as i clung on to the back of the group for a lap. Having not learned from my mistake i tried again with another rider before being caught and getting a bit of an earful from one of the locals, I just smiled and pedaled on.

The pace increased as we entered the last 2 laps as several people tried break aways, with 2 corners to go 4 of the elite riders that had broken away came past, Alex and i managed to stay with them as we stretched out into the last corner for the last mile to home. Alex kicked hard as i clung onto the back and then sling shotted past for the sprint to the finish (the work horse, taking one for the team cheers mate). Two riders from the Elite group pulled away and I was just passed with 20 meters to go to take 2nd on the line!!!!! Alex sorted me out a treat but was swallowed up by the group just before the finish, I made sure i bought him a beer after….

It was a great experience to take part in my first road race and a great work out reaching heart rate intensities that are really hard to achieve with out the adrenaline pumping in a race situation. I had a great time and im sure ill be back for some more after China.

European Champion

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:45:05 GMT

After a really tough week in Belgium I came away as European Champion again, 4 in a row….
Back in January when we were planning my run in to the games I was unsure whether to compete in the Europeans. The conditions are very tidal even stronger than China which could be great practice but, if there was to be a low pressure system it could be very strong south westerly winds and sailing into nearly 2 knots of tide it could just be a hike off with predominantly upwind sailing, not ideal when you are trying to be small for the Olympics.
We decided it would be a good regatta to go to to practice racing having missed a few regattas this year to spend time training in china.
The South Westerly winds blew and blew making it a very physically challenging regatta with some of the first beats lasting over 30 minutes.
I rose to the challenge well even though i was way too light, i battled hard having surprisingly reasonable speed upwind allowing me to hang in there. I sailed really well all week, starting well and consolidating my positions and taking the opportunities when they came.
To become European Champion for the fourth year running in such challenging conditions gives me great confidence going in to the Olympics.
I now have a few days at home before flying out to China at the weekend.

The results can be seen below http://events.laserinternational.org/en/events/results/100z19

A Change of Tack

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:43:22 GMT

I’ve had a pretty good week at home training although the persistent wind has made it difficult to get out Laser sailing. I feel a bit sorry for the Moth sailors that are in weymouth who have sat in the club house as racing has been cancelled for the last three days and it doesn’t look so good today either.
I have managed to get a bit of windsurfing in each day followed by some cycling. Last night I was persuaded by one of the up and coming RSX sailors Richard Hamilton to go and have a go at a local time trial on my bike.
We turned up late after getting lost to register and receive our numbers and start order. I have never done one before so it was all a bit new and i felt well out of my depth. There where a lot of nice time trial bikes with Disc wheels and i seemed to be the only one with out tri bars!!!!
I sat on the start line waiting to leave a minute after Rich and i calmly asked the marshall what the course was!!! He smiled and gave me a quick run down of the 10 mile loop.
I started off hammer down and it wasn’t long before my legs where crying out for me to ease off, I slowly got into a rhythm but i still couldn’t see any body on the horizon so i kicked harder. In the distance I caught sight of a cyclist as i pushed on. I was so hoping it was Rich as i ground them down, I was gutted as i drew closer to see it wasn’t, I pressed on and went past concentrating hard to find the tight left hander as i didn’t want to miss the turn.
As we turned is was in to the wind for the last 4 miles. I passed another rider before getting Rich in my sites, I closed the distance but didn’t manage to catch him as I crossed the line in 24 minutes 45 seconds.
It was a great experience and Im pretty keen to have a go at some more.
Im sat on the ferry yawning as i head over to the Belgium for the Europeans, lets hope the rain stops and the wind allows some sailing!!!

Check out the cycling results below http://www.ccweymouth.co.uk/results/results.html

Olympic Clothing and a new Boat

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:56:27 GMT

Its been a busy few days.
On Wednesday I made the trip up to Northampton to collect a new boat ready for the Europeans. After swapping boats over it was off to the NEC to collect my Olympic Kit.
The whole process took nearly two hours as I was escorted from room to room trying each piece of kit on and getting sized up. I than sat in a waiting area with a few other sailors while our sizes where picked from stock before being packed into our nice new suitcases. The amount of stuff is amazing, two big bags one small bag and a suiter each, I struggled to squeeze both mine and Saskias kit in the car!
It was then off to Heathrow to Drop Saskia off before driving to Southampton to pick a box of sailing kit and then off home to Weymouth, getting home just after 12 quite a long day.
It was pretty exciting to pick up my Olympic clothing as it all starts to become very real, its nearly time and i cant wait!!!
I have had a few good days training in weymouth both on my bike and on the water. After 90km on the bike yesterday it was nice to go sailing today and take a closer look at the foiling moths in action as they prepare for there worlds next week. The wind increased and we had a great sail in the bay with some really nice waves before we reached home and i managed to get a sneaky windsurf in this evening!!!!

Round the Island and Back in Time for Lunch

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:16:00 GMT

After another good week of training in China I returned home on Friday for the JPMorgan Round the Island Race.
I taxied from the airport straight to Cowes for some Volvo corporate and media racing in J80’s before a Volvo bbq in the evening. Fighting off the jet lag I made it through to about 10pm before I passed out.
The morning of race day, was an early start with a wake up call at 4am!!! Thanks to the jet lag I was wide awake and ready for some racing.

I headed down to the boat I was skippering – a TP52 called ‘Team Volvo for life 1’ – to meet the rest of the crew. I was sailing with some of the Volvo Keelboat squad, 3 Journalists, a TV reporter Tanya Arnold from BBC North and her cameraman, I also had a special guest Kevin Blackwell the mighty Sheffield United manager.

We left the dock and headed out to sea at just after 5am on ‘Team Volvo for life 1’. We started in a building breeze and headed upwind to the needles, after turning the corner and popping the kite we were off at pace topping out at 22.5 knots boat speed. It was a great ride down the back of the Island with a few good broaches, the most exciting of which we charged down a wave flat out and piled into the back of the next wave as the spinnaker exploded and the boat broached out leaving most of the crew dangling from the guard rails.

It took a while to get sorted but the crew did an excellent job of retrieving the broken kite and getting another one ready. While just under mainsail we still managed to hit 19knots down the back of one wave. We set a new spinnaker and we were off again rounding the forts off Portsmouth before beating home to Cowes.

We finished the race at 11:10:53 in a time of 05:10:53, this left us 5th in class 0 and 29th overall not bad out of 1875 boats.

It was a great days or should i say morning of sailing thanks to the team work of all on board, thanks guys….. and thanks to Volvo for making it all happen.

China Camp

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:15:18 GMT

Im back out in China training again. Its quite nice this trip as most of the sailing team are here staying in the same hotel. The atmosphere is great and the competition is pretty high, pool, table tennis, tennis you name it theres always a challenge going on!!!
We have just had a really good week of training in quite a mixed range of conditions, it was pretty foggy again yesterday giving us a few navigational challenges to keep us on our toes. There is also quite a bit of weed in the water to avoid, despite the efforts of an armarder of fishing boats that go out everyday to pull it out of the water.
Today is a bit of a rest day so we are going to go and explore a bit this morning and play some more tennis this afternoon, it is quite a treat to have ball boys at the hotel but you soon get used to it.

A Royal Send Off

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:37:41 GMT

On Wednesday night we had the sail for gold ball at The Hilton Park Lane, London.
Over 800 guests attended including HRH The Princess Royal for an evening of fun and fundraising hosted by Davina McCall. I had a great evening seeing many old friends and a good party afterwards.
Its time now to head back to China for some more training I cant wait….

A Rude Awakening

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:35:14 GMT

Its nice to be home for a few days although I had a rude awakening this morning. At six am I had a knock on the door from the drug testers so had to wander downstairs still half asleep to produce a sample before staggering back to bed, I’m still suffering a touch from jet lag.
After weights this morning It was time to get back out on the water. I was joined today by a BBC film crew, to get some shots from a head cam and at one point another person on board filming which was pretty interesting.
It was so nice to get out on my bike again tonight joined by a few friends who are deep into their triathlon training but they didn’t manage to talk me into a sprint triathlon this weekend. I would love to have a go but my swimming and running are not so flash!!!!
Maybe next year…...

Home Time

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:06:14 GMT

We had a great last day of sailing in Qingdao, one of the best Ive had there. It was a rare day where the sky’s where clear, the sun was bright and the wind blew. There was all of a sudden a mountainous back drop and a row of ships on the horizon that over the past week have only been heard and not seen due to the mist. After a great days sailing the boats where packed back in to containers before we headed out for dinner with the Finn boys.
Its been a good trip getting lots of sailing in and staying healthy which is pretty important, its now time to fly home for a few weeks before heading back out to China after the Sail for Gold Ball for some more training. I cant wait to see if the Finn boys have their Gold DJ’s made up??