CHINA

It has been a busy few days before Im finally here in China!

I took delivery of my new Volvo on Monday, not only does it look nice and clean but it has some fancy new extras ive not seen before. On Tuesday i had to give blood, I don't usually enjoy this at the best of times. Nathan the nutritionalist was delayed so i had to meet him half way. I sat in the reclined passenger seat of his car in a Tescos car park while he took several samples of blood, we looked pretty dodgy and got some funny looks. The blood was then rushed off for analyses at the Lab.

I also managed to squeeze a fitness test in before I flew out on Wednesday. This involves a few tests at the University of Chichester. I started on a stationary SRM bike that is controlled by a computer to determine the exercise intensity. The first test was a 4 stage aerobic test that lead into a max test where you finish when you cant go any longer, this isn't nice and you don't feel too good at the end. Heart rates are reordered through out the test and samples of blood are taken at different stages. A mask is also worn to collect the air that’s exhaled at certain key stages. After this there was a short brake before a few strength tests and then a sprint test on the rowing machine. The initial reaction from the Physiologist Pete Cunningham was good. I now wait for the data to be processed for the more detailed results before i get my new training program. (Cant wait!!!!!!)

After the test i managed a sneaky 9 holes of golf before the evening Virgin flight out to Hong Kong. I met up with Nick in Hong Kong and we took the train into the city for dinner to have a look round. The best way to get around was on elevated walk ways, we cruised around on the these always taking the route upwards it seemed as this was usually on an escalator. It was a lively evening with lots going on. We managed to see quite a lot of different places before getting completely lost so we took a taxi to the ferry port. We caught the ferry back over to Hong Kong it was pretty cool to see the city from the water. It was quite late so we got a train back to the airport hotel for some rest before the morning flight up to Qingdao.

We have finally made it to the team house in Qingdao, which is right by the Olympic Marina. We had a bit of luck with the taxi driver who understood the Chinese written address cards and took us straight to the house.

The weather here is surprisingly cool and overcast so I might need to head down the market to buy some extra thermals for sailing, the upside is I wont be needing to drink 10 liters a day and change my t shirt every five minutes.

We have just met up with Chris and made some plans for getting the boats out of containers and the training ahead, with a bit of luck we'll make it on the water tomorrow, fingers crossed!!!!