Let’s look at how you could follow an ideal day at a regatta - this is the same for a local 2 day event or 7 day National Championship and remains pretty standard across classes from dinghies to keel boats. Obviously, the more physical the class, then the more preparation and recovery you would do. Like wise, a windy day will be more physically demanding than a light wind day.

There are three main areas to focus on each day:
1. Prepare
2. Compete
3. Recover

Prepare
1. Wake up at a similar time each day. Even on lay days. This helps regulate the body’s internal clock. Have a glass of water soon after rising.
2. Have a substantial breakfast that includes some carbohydrates and protein. Examples could include eggs, toast, cereal, fruit, yogurt and juice.
3. Do some light activity before leaving home. Aim for about 15-20 minutes to get the body moving - walk, swim, cycle or a just light stretch.

Compete
1. Ensure you have some fluid during or as soon as possible after each race on a multiple race day.
2. After the final race aim to have something carbohydrate-based as a snack and more fluid within 45 minutes after finishing.
3. Have a light stretch at the venue if it has been a demanding race day. Do this before any social activities.

Recover
1. Once home have a shower and finish with cold water only to help recovery .
2. With dinner, aim for a balanced meal that includes some protein - chicken, fish or meat. A bowl of pasta and sauce is not the best option. Keep drinking non-alcoholic fluids to stay hydrated.
3. After dinner is a good time to stretch or to do some self massage or get some release work done on tight muscles.
4. To switch off mentally you could read, listen to some music, watch a DVD, play games or anything that helps you to wind down. Try to put the days’ racing to bed and get the brain ready to sleep and recuperate.
5. If you are hungry then a light snack is fine before bed. A yogurt or small smoothie would be ideal here.
6. Aim to get to bed at a consistent time each night that allows for 8+ hours of quality sleep.

Be sure to try this routine on club race days or at small events before your major event for the year. Like new sails or mast, a major event is not the time to introduce anything new. Be comfortable with how your body reacts to racing and what you need to do to prepare it for racing the next day. If you arrive at a venue early then slot into this routine in the days leading into event. The body loves consistency and you will feel remarkably fresh by the final race of the final day - when it all counts!

I feel the pangs of excitement whenever I sense a juicy competition, be it in sport or otherwise. And it should be that way because that’s a great reason to love sport - a chance to test yourself against others.

Anxiety is a normal human emotion in the face of a threat. It is a state of high arousal and a feeling of discomfort. Anxiety has its benefits. In sport it can help you to succeed by motivating you to beat your opponent - if you’re are afraid of failure you might push yourself harder. But too much anxiety can get in the way of your success. If you are too anxious you might get distracted, make mistakes or even give up.

One way to keep track of how anxiety may be affecting your performance is to monitor your self-talk. Self talk is the thoughts and beliefs that you have about yourself. It can bring you up or drag you down. It can be a distraction or it can help you focus on an aspect of your game plan or technique.

Consider the difference between feeling anxious and thinking “oh no, I’m nervous, I’m not sure if I can do this” and “I feel anxious, but that’s normal, it means my body and mind are ready”.

Let’s do a practical exercise - take a moment to try to recall in your mind a time when you felt really nervous and anxious.

Perhaps it was just before a big competition. Perhaps it was during a competition when the attention and pressure was on.

Recall how your body felt. Perhaps you noticed things like rapid heart rate, sweating, shaking, shallow fast breathing, racing thoughts, butterflies, nausea, or needing to go to the toilet. Some people become quiet, others talk a lot, some yawn and some get very restless. These are all normal signs of nerves or anxiety.

Now try to recall any thoughts or beliefs you had at the time. Often when we are anxious we think worried thoughts, negative or unhelpful thoughts or extreme thoughts. Perhaps you are thinking “Don’t stuff this up”, or “My competitors look so strong, how can I possibly beat them?”

Maybe you were thinking about an injury and worried you wouldn’t hold up. Maybe you were worried you wouldn’t be able to stand the pain. Maybe deep down you believed that you were not really good enough or that everything was riding on that one event, or that if you failed it’d prove you really are a loser.

These are all common beliefs held by athletes.

On that occasion how did you perform?

Did the anxiety affect your performance in some way?

Now try to absorb yourself in a different way of thinking and a new set of beliefs. Start by challenging some of those old thoughts.

Ask yourself:

Does my anxiety sometimes drag me down?
Do I worry that I’m not good enough?
Do I focus on the negative or blow things out of proportion sometimes?
Would a different way of thinking help me perform better?
What happened last time I worried about this?
Was it better than I thought it would be?
What is the evidence for and against my worried thoughts?
What is the likelihood that my fears will come true?

Focus in specifically on whatever you need to feel less anxious about and what specifically you need to say to yourself to achieve a positive frame of mind.

Here are some examples of helpful self-talk. Chose the ones that relate to you and spend some time repeating them in your mind:

I have trained hard.
I am strong.
All I can expect of myself is to do my best at this point in time.
I can only expect what is reasonable.
I am improving all the time.
There’s lots of evidence that I’m a highly skilled athlete.
My body is recovering well.
I can find the way to beat my competitors.
I have strengths they lack.
I can push through the pain.

Now, take a moment to bring to mind the memory of a time you performed well.

Picture how you looked. Recall how it felt in your body.

When things were going right for you what could you see, hear, smell, taste and feel? What went through your mind? As you imagine these things and think these thoughts, you might start to feel more confident and strong.

Now ask yourself: What are my technical goals right now? What do I need to focus on in my training and competition? Focusing on winning or success can make you more anxious and distract you from how you are going to get there.

Reduce your anxiety by thinking about a specific goal. Talk to yourself calmly and positively about what you need to do each moment with respect to your own performance.

This reinterpretation of feelings of anxiety and deliberate focus on the process of playing your sport can raise feelings of readiness, resolve and determination.

My favourite reminder - You’re not asking yourself to do anything you can’t do.

(You might like to try a MP3 tool on Managing Arousal and Anxiety in Sport or Self-Talk in Sport ).

It’s been about 7 years since I wrote a book on Sailing Fitness and Training . While I think the book is excellent resource on the topic (why wouldn’t I!), on many occasions, I wish I had included a few more things, or at least placed more emphasis on some points that are keys to Sailing Fitness.

So let me take you through a few of the key areas that need updating or that I have learnt more about since the book was published, in my list of 10 Things You Must Do for Your Sailing Fitness!

1. Be Adaptable. Set a general training plan, then adapt it constantly. Books on training for sport say to set a periodized training plan a few months or even a whole year in advance, then follow it. However, more and more now in Sailing and other sports , that’s just not good enough to get the best out of yourself at each and every session. And it’s particularly true of Sailing where wind strength has such a big impact on the physical intensity of training.

Sometimes, you might want to do a hard session, but the wind isn’t there - to compensate, you can add on a little fitness work post-sailing or do another gym session the next morning. Sometimes, you turn up to training in not-so-good condition (eg, lingering fatigue), so then you might reduce the volume and/or intensity of the session.

Have a good idea of what you want to achieve today and this week, check the weather forecast and be prepared to modify your Sailing training plans as needed.

2. Recover Well. Use ice and cold water recovery practices. Remember that you don’t get fitter from training until you get a chance to rest and let the body rebound. You can recover faster for your next training session using recovery strategies like via cold water immersion.

Some people recommend making the bath really cold - 12-15 deg C (54-59 F), but I like it straight out of the tap (about 18 deg C/64 F). I sit in the half-full bath, cooling my back and legs, for 5-8 mins. That usually has me shivering so it feels like it’s enough. While getting in is hard, afterwards you really feel a difference by way of reduced soreness and faster recovery. Here’s how a runner does it.

3. Develop Your Back. Take particular care of your back. Sailors suffer injuries to their backs more than any other part of the body. Try to include exercises for your lower back and deep abdominal muscles everyday. There are specific exercises in my book and here is a video series of lower back exercises and here is a good series of abdominal exercises .

4. Have Stable Shoulders. Take particular care of your shoulders. After backs, shoulders are sailors’ next most injured body part. Sailing often requires sudden, strong movements of the arms over a large range of motion and these can trouble the shoulder joints. Serious sailors should include shoulder stabilization exercises as part of their strength training routine.

5. Hip Flexors. Alongside working on your abdominal muscles, work on your hip flexors. Most of the time when you’re Sailing, the hip flexors are in a shortened position so you need to correct that at the end of the day with some stretches . Hip flexor stretches can help improve your posture, help the muscles recover and participate in reducing lower back issues.

6. Equipment. Think of ways your equipment can help enhance your Sailing endurance. The obvious item are battened hiking pants which spread the load and improve blood flow. Also consider whether your grip on the boat is good enough (gloves, boots, wetsuit). I glue pieces of rubber on my hiking pants where they touch the gunwale to improve grip and make it more efficient when I try to throw the boat around.

Make sure your ankles and body are well supported (boots and trapeze harness) and lastly, try to keep your muscles cool rather than hot when racing as overly hot muscles are less efficient.

7. Whey Protein. If you need to gain weight, supplement your diet with commercial whey protein powders combined with a quality size-building weight training program (it won’t work by itself). Here’s some more info on whey protein by a good company that sells the stuff. There’s weight training information for Sailing in my book.

8. Be Scientific. Keep quality records of your fitness. The aim here is to find out what works through trial and error (hopefully not so much error). Body weight is the first thing you should keep track of over the long term. After that, think of tests you can apply to yourself to measure your fitness for Sailing. (You might start with the home fitness tests in my book (but don’t do the wall sit - it can hurt the knees).

I have a master spreadsheet with 10 years of my results from time trials in cycling, rowing machine, pool running, and even surf ski paddling. It’s great to be able to look back and see the improvements.

9. Hike. Use a Swiss ball as a hiking bench to train the legs when the wind is light. If you should have done some hiking but there wasn’t enough wind, Swiss ball leg extensions can be a great substitute. Try 15-20 reps, rest for 5 sec, then do 15-20 reps and continue through to 100 reps in total.

10. Better Technique. Hike at 90% effort, rather than trying to sustain a more intense position that compromises your ability to steer, trim and decide tactics and strategy. You may not get as much righting moment, but you will gain more by trimming the boat accurately and being in a better mental state to decide which way to go. However, do go flat-out off the start.

- Good sailing, Michael Blackburn

Elite athletes naturally have a will to win, but by their actions many athletes also act to motivate and inspire others to achieve their best.

With this thought in mind, we’ve put together a list, albeit controversially, of the World’s 25 Most Motivational Athletes.

The ability of an athlete to inspire others isn’t purely about their performance. Criteria for inclusion included their ability to come back from adversity, their ability to win against quality competition again and again and their sportsmanship - how they handled themselves whether winning or loosing.

(Each entry has a link for more information and a YouTube link for video).

The World’s 25 Most Motivational Athletes

1. Lance Armstrong (USA) - did well at cycling, got cancer, then came back & conquered the cycling world with seven Tour de France wins . But what cements his No.1 position is that he has put his immense power as an athlete of the world to great use through his establishment of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and commitment to the cause to end cancer.
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

2. Muhammad Ali (USA) - Cassius Clay won an Olympic Gold (1960) and three heavy weight world titles. "I am the greatest" and "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" became his trademarks as he transcended sport in his retirement. According to Ali’s website "Ali has devoted himself to humanitarian endeavors around the globe. He is a devout Muslim, and travels the world over, lending his name and presence to hunger and poverty relief, supporting education efforts of all kinds, promoting adoption and encouraging people to respect and better understand one another. It is estimated that he has helped to provide more than 22 million meals to feed the hungry."
It’s not bragging if you can back it up.

3. Michael Jordan (USA) - Definitely the greatest basketball player of all time, Jordan was probably the most effectively marketed athlete of his generation. Through multiple comebacks and a stint in Baseball, His Airness proved his athleticism again and again, inspiring millions to be like Mike. For the record, he earned six NBA titles and two Olympic Golds. His charity work in his own name and through his Jordan Brand is ongoing and so far includes $5 million to Chicago’s Hales Franciscan High School, and donations to Habitat for Humanity and a Louisiana branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.

4. Michael Phelps (USA) - 14 Gold Medals in two Olympics at just 23 years old - a testament to his remarkable ability in one of the toughest sports as well as the number of opportunities to win medals in multiple events in swimming . Phelps was a 15 year old at the Sydney Olympics, finishing 5th in the 200m butterfly. Only Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina (born 1934) holds more total career Olympic medals with 18 (nine gold), compared to Phelps’s 16 (14 gold). Extra credit to Phelps for donating a $1 million bonus from the Beijing Olympics to start his own charity.
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.

5. Andre Agassi (USA) - Andre was the child prodigy who reinvented himself as a 30-something tennis player to win eight Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. His post-win gesture of blowing kisses to spectators on each side of the court was admired as a humble acknowledgment of the crowd’s support of him and tennis. Wikipedia says Agassi is regularly cited as the most charitable and socially involved player in professional tennis. It has also been surmised that he may be the most charitable athlete of his generation. He is the founder of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation (in 1994), which has raised over $60 million for at-risk children in Southern Nevada.
To the US open crowd at his last match: You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could have never reached without you. Over the last 21 years, I have found you. And I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.

6. Steve Redgrave (GBR) - one of the most enduring successful Olympians of all time - 5 gold medals in rowing at 5 Olympics , a feat shared by just four athletes. Sir Steve is now committed to providing a better deal for the Third World through both his FiveG clothing range and the Steve Redgrave Fund which raised £5 million in five years. His charity work addresses problems associated with lack of exercise, obesity, social inclusion and confidence among children and young people in Britain.
I’ve had it. If anyone sees me near a boat they can shoot me. (After winning his 4th gold).

7. Paavo Nurmi (FIN) - Considered the greatest Track & Field athlete of all time, Nurmi won a total of nine gold and three silver medals in the 12 events in which he competed at the Olympic Games from 1920 to 1928. Nurmi has won the most Olympic medals in Track & Field, 12 total. In 1932, Nurmi was unable to compete at the Olympics, as he had received money for his running and was thus considered a professional. (Born 1987, died 1973). Mind is everything. Muscle - pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.

8. Emil Zátopek (CZE) - was probably best known for his amazing feat of winning three gold medals in athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki . He won gold in the 5 km and 10 km runs, but his final medal came when he decided at the last minute to compete in the first marathon of his life. In total Zátopek won five gold and one silver medals at the Olympics. (Born 1922, died 2000).
Great is the victory, but the friendship is all the greater.

9. Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) - Jackie Joyner-Kersee has amassed 20 records in the heptathlon and long jump and has won three Olympic gold medals (2 silver, 1 bronze). Off the track, she is a business executive who runs her own sports-marketing firm. Her Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation sponsors programs for disadvantaged youth and has raised more than $12 million to build a safe haven for young people to come learn, play, and contribute back to their community.
The medals don’t mean anything and the glory doesn’t last. It’s all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.

10. Nadia Comaneci (ROM) - One of the world’s best known Gymnasts, Comaneci was the first gymnast to receive a perfect 10 in Olympic competition. At 14, this Romanian dynamo captured the hearts and minds of the world with her daring and perfection. More recently, as contributing editor of International Gymnast Magazine, she is still very involved in her sport. She speaks five languages and is a TV commentator at major gymnastics competitions. Nadia has spoken at the UN, is involved with the Special Olympics and Muscular Dystrophy Association. She has also personally funded the construction and operation of the Nadia Comaneci Children’s Clinic, a clinic in Bucharest that provides low-cost and free medical and social support to Romanian children. Currently she is Honorary Consul General of Romania to the United States to deal with bilateral relations between the two nations.
Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win.

11. Roger Bannister (GBR) - At the time, many well educated people strongly believed that it was not possible to run a mile in less than four minutes.  However, Banister’s determination and spirit resulted in him proving the doubters wrong, running 3:59.4 for the 1609 metres in 1954 . Since his success, thousands of others have followed in his footsteps. Sir Bannister doesn’t rate his famous run as his greatest achievement, instead he cites his "subsequent 40 years of practicing as neurologist and some of the new procedures he introduced as being more significant."
The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

12. Vitaly Scherbo (RUS) - Arguably the greatest or most successful male gymnast of all time, he is the only male gymnast ever to have won a world or Olympic title in all eight events: at the 1992 Olympics , he won 6 of 8 events (team, all-around, and 4 of 6 event finals - more golds at a single Olympics than any other gymnast in Olympic history); and at various World Championships throughout his competitive years, he collectively won every event. He now runs the Vitaly Scherbo School Of Gymnastics in Las Vegas.

13. Dan Jansen (USA) - Over the course of his career, Jansen skated eight world records over 500m and 1000m, however, his mid-race falls during 1988 and 1992 Olympic races gained him notoriety for failing despite being favorite. After years of heart break, Jansen finally won an Olympic gold in his final race in 1994 in a world record time. He set up the Dan Jansen Foundation in memory of his sister, with the purpose of fighting leukemia. He is also a supporter of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation where he is a honorary board member.
I remember standing on that podium, … and for the first time probably before or since, wishing our national anthem had more verses.

14. Martina Navratilova (CZE/USA) - Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. Navratilova is involved with various charities that benefit animal rights, underprivileged children, and gay rights. Navratilova Vs Evert video .
The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are their worst.

15. Chris Evert (USA) - Evert also won 18 grand slam titles including three Wimbledons, seven French Opens, two Australian Opens and six U.S. Opens. Evert’s graceful appearance, quiet demeanor, outward appearance of gracious sportsmanship, and positive public image made her a favorite with the media and fans. Evert currently operates a tennis academy bearing her name in Boca Raton, Florida where she lives with husband and golfer Greg Norman.
I was very, very shy as a younger girl, just petrified of people. Tennis helped give me an identity and made me feel like somebody.

16. Arnold Schwarzenegger (AUT/USA) - Arny’s sheer size , action-hero movie roles and great accent has seen him transcend sport. Schwarzenegger, the current Governor of California, is also among the richest in the list with as much as $200 million in assets on conservative estimates. He donates his Governor’s salary of $175,000 per year to charities.
For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.

17. John Maclean (AUS) - The first athlete in a wheelchair to swim the English channel, complete the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon and the Molokai Challenge (ocean kayaking). He also rowed at the Beijing Paralympics (Silver medal), completed a Sydney-Hobart yacht race and was in the Australian Olympic Team in 2000 where he was a finalist in the 1500m wheelchair race. Maclean puts back into sport with gusto as well, especially via his John Maclean Foundation which provides support and assistance to Australian wheelchair users under the age of 18.
From thinking there was no way I could go on, I was now thinking there was no way I could not.

18. Dara Torres (USA) - Torres won three Silver Medals in the pool at the Beijing Olympics. Unremarkable in this field, but she was 41 years old and the mother of a two-year old. In total, Torres is a nine-time Olympic medalist (four gold, four silver, four bronze), first taking gold in the 4 x 100m at the 1984 Olympics in LA. She has also won at least one medal in each of the five Olympics in which she has competed, making her one of only a handful of Olympians to earn medals in five different Games.
I feel like I have so many middle-aged women who look up to me. I want them to feel proud, and feel like they can do what they set out to do.  I would never do anything to disappoint these women.

19. Jenny Thompson (USA) - The 10-Time Olympic Swimming Medalist and has won the most medals by any U.S. female Olympic athlete. Of late, Thompson received her medical degree and now works as an anesthesiologist in Boston.

20. Annika Sorenstam (SWE) - The most dominant player in women’s golf. Throughout her career , she has established new records in the LPGA (72 wins) and Ladies European Tour, won countless awards and events, and brought unprecedented attention to women’s golf. Her achievements have changed how women’s golf is played, covered and viewed, and in her rise to mainstream athlete and celebrity, she has had a positive impact on all women’s sports. Her Annika Foundation is "dedicated to providing inspirational experiences, and educational and financial resources that will help children in need to realize their full potential".
If you think about it, the golf ball doesn’t know which country you’re in.

21. Wayne Gretsky (CAN) - Called the greatest player of all time and despite his unimpressive stature, strength, and speed, Gretzky’s intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled. He was adept at dodging checks from opposing players, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. His current activities include TV and movie appearances, endorsements, a restaurant in his own name and the Wayne Gretzky Foundation which had raised over $1 million dollars in support of youth in hockey.
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.

22. Dean Karnazes (USA) - This ultra-fit man most recently made big news for running 50 marathons in 50 states of the US in 50 days. He used the runs to send the message to Americans to get off the couch and reclaim their health . His charity, Karno Kids, aims to improve youths’ health and wellness and preserve the environment and open spaces.
Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.

23. Tiger Woods (USA) - Just saying his first name is enough to know who. Tiger demands respect - so far he’s won 14 majors and been the No 1 golfer the longest. His list of achievements is longer than his drive and which, in turn, has driven massive earnings. Hence, his charitable actions include the Tiger Woods Foundation (focusing on youth development), the Tiger Woods Learning Center (a school in California), and contributions through golf events and a concert which bears his name. And when all his activities tire him, there’s his sports drink, Gatorade Tiger. Listen to Earl Woods talk about Tiger.
Tiger is no longer a candidate for this list due to his indiscretions.

24.  Erik Weihenmayer (USA) - The first blind person to climb Mt Everest in 2001, Weihenmayer has since climbed the seven tallest peaks on each continent. Erik’s feats have earned him an ESPY award, recognition by Time Magazine for one of the greatest sporting achievements of 2001, an ARETE Award for the superlative athletic performance of the year, the Helen Keller Lifetime Achievement award, Nike’s Casey Martin Award, and the Freedom Foundation’s Free Spirit Award. He speaks to audiences on harnessing the power of adversity, the importance of a "rope team," and the daily struggle to pursue your dreams.
People get trapped into thinking about just one way of doing things.

25. Rocky Balboa (USA) - Ok, ok, the Sylvester Stallone character in these six movies is fictional, but Rocky’s rugged tenacity has inspired millions to fight with their heart. Who can’t remember the running up the stairs montage!
Yo Adrian!

How’d we go? Did we leave out your favorite inspirational athlete? Your comments are also welcome.

I was trying to think of nice by-lines for this blog and just before I thought of ‘Preparing for Real Competition’, the play on words, ‘Train Like a Locomotive’ came to me.

Train big, strong, powerfully.

I love such short, powerful sayings - you know, the kind you see dotted around the gym walls, designed to inspire and motivate.

A great use of such terms can be during the execution of skills. These cue words, which can be as simple as ‘drive’ or ‘push’, serve to focus attention and lead the effort.

When doing a bench press I’d think to ‘drive it through the ceiling’ - obviously, a fairly lofty goal, but it provides a solid directive.

I came up with another set of words - ‘roll, dash, hike, trim’ to key me into the actions needed to so a tack while sailing. Sailing’s a sport where there is a lot going on and then suddenly you have to execute a different skill. So, it can help to have these words to cue up the necessary actions in your mind just before doing it.

Go ahead and think now of a word that creates positive images or feelings in your mind that might help you with a specific task in your sport. You could ‘float like a butterfly’ or ’sting like a bee’, to quote boxing great Ali.

Here’s a list which might help:

To increase effort: Strong, Drive, Push, Explode, Pump, Kick, Lift, C’mon!

To focus skills and technique: Follow through, Strreeettch, Feel.

To settle and improve efficiency: Smooth, Relax, Steady, Breathe.

Cue words will help anchor your mind, but they’re personal, so choose a combination which will work best for yourself.

The impact of cue words may also wear off after a while, so it’ll pay once a year to decide whether a refresh is needed.

For a few years you’ve been able to download and listen to MP3 audio tracks that take you through a running or gym session. Now, with the increasing development of applications for the iPhone there are a whole lot more ‘wow’ tools for athletes and coaches to help you plan, carry out and record sessions. Here are the main players.

PumpOne.com has hundreds of workouts, including exercises for strength training, weight loss, flexibility and endurance that you can download to your iPhone or iPod. There are plenty of sample videos on the site which give you a feel for the product. Once downloaded, press play on device and the video will guide you in a series of exercises. You watch, then pause and do it yourself. There’s no sport-specific workouts, but if you’re fairly new to formalized training you may well value the opportunity to be lead through hotel room, core strength, swiss ball, pilates or yoga routines.

iTrain.com has over 200 workouts in their library by personal trainers plus Olympic swimming Champion Natalie Coughlin. Each of the categories of cycle, treadmill, climber, boxing, swimming, stretching, sculpting and cardio has a long sample you can download and try yourself. Tracks are in MP3 format and run from 20-60 mins. There’s no video, so you have to use your imagination a little more than with PumpOne.

RunKeeper.com allows you to track your runs and map and view your progress in your running history. The App uses the built-in GPS in the 3G iPhone to track your performance. You’d wear your iPhone on your arm and you can cycle, or dance or whatever with it. There’s no mapping, per se, on the phone, but you can send your data to the website to save and map it there.

iFitness is available through the iTunes App Store for just $2.49 and has over 110 fully illustrated exercises with accompanying text. You can make a list of favorite exercise to create your own custom routine. You can use preset routines that their experts have made for reaching different goals. The exercises, illustrated with written descriptions are organized by the muscles they target.

iMapMyRun and iMapMyRide are powered by the popular site MapMyRun.com and, clearly, uses the iPhone’s GPS to track your outdoor activities. You can record distance, speed, pace, etc. and load the data back to their website or view it on Google Maps. With Google having just released the iPhone version of Google Maps, expect the application to be upgraded to allow you to view your run overlayed on google maps on the iPhone. However , at this stage you can’t change your tunes and run the App. Arrg!

TrailGuru is another iPhone App and does much the same thing as iMapMyRun, only better, according to users. You can also post your activity to the www.trailguru.com site and boast about your endurance. The developer updates the App often. It’s free too.

GymGoal Lite on the iPhone is another App available through the iTunes Store that provides prompting for your weigh training, but, significantly, also allows you to record what you’ve done - reps, sets and weight. You can also create a custom routine in which it’s real easy to add, delete or re-order exercises. There’s an inbuilt list of 210 illustrated exercises and you can add your own. Just don’t sweat too much on the phone. GymGoal Lite is $5.99.

iWorkOut , for your $2.99, gets you a pretty slick App featuring 100+ exercise videos narrated by a certified fitness and exercise expert. You can sample the videos on YouTube and you’ll see they focus on technique, which is good if you need help in this area. However, for regular athletes, it lacks the session recording functionality of GymGoal Lite.

Fit Phone is just a little more pricey at $5.99, but the developers boast about its recording and reporting ability, which are of most use to regular athletes. You can set your own workouts, add new exercises, enter actual weights lifted, and even email the data to your coach. Worth a look.

The summary: If you want something that tells you what to do, review PumpOne.com ; if you want something that will help you keep track of your gym workouts, check out GymGoal Lite or Fit Phone .

Success means different things to different people.  But I think you win when you get absorbed in a contest and perform well, regardless of the outcome.

Every Saturday in summer when I was 16 I felt nervous and excited while getting my boat ready for a club race on small lake in Australia. The nerves came about because sometimes it seemed the outcome of the race was more important than participating and having fun.

Still today, there is the perennial post-race question ‘How did you go?’, almost as if your value as a person is influenced by your performance in the pretty arbitrary task of maneuvering a boat with sails around a course. For ages I hated hearing that question because what I was learning at Uni about Sports Psychology taught me to focus on the process rather than the outcome. “Focus on the elements of completing the task and the outcome will take care of itself.” If I kept thinking about ‘winning’, (or worse, ‘loosing’) how could my mind be free enough to sort out the complex set of variables that must be considered when deciding tactics and strategy?

The mind can only do so much at one time and if it’s clouded with unnecessary thoughts, or too many ideas, performance will suffer. However, it’s not easy to stop thinking about something; just as the more you try to go to sleep, the less likely you’ll nod off – you just have to relax and let it happen. Rather than trying not to think about being anxious, I started to try filling my mind with the things that mattered, and gradually, there was less room in my head for distractions. I could be relieved in the fact that I didn’t have to consciously try to win a sailing race in order to do well. But I did have to consciously try to fill my mind with good thoughts about what needed to be done at each stage of a race.

So my advice is that during the contest you simply need to get absorbed in the experience, be in the present and trust your body. You’ve sailed and raced a bit before, no doubt, so use what you have learnt and let your body do what you’ve trained it to do (assuming your training is on target!).

Accordingly, before a race try to occupy your mind with information which has to do with performing your best. Make all the normal checks – the bias on the line, wind direction, transits from both ends of the start line, current, wave effects, top mark position, the position of other marks and starting mark laylines.

Set up your boat for those conditions – vang, outhaul, cunningham, traveller and so on. At the same time keep assessing the wind and what it is likely to do during the race. Start to get a feel for what is happening and try to fill your mind with the relevant information. In particular, try to identify what will enable you to get clear air at the start, sail fast and look around in the first 100m to confirm the best way to go up the first beat.

Now this may sound pretty easy now you’re sitting down reading this blog. But putting it in practice on the water is a bigger challenge when you can be distracted by the range of things you have to consider. Then there are the indeterminable factors like what the wind is going to do next and who’s going to stuff you up.

Of course, the point I’m getting to is that your mental performance – decision making, the execution of skills, arousal control and so on – contributes most to the outcome of a race. So what mental training do you do?

Studies on elite athletes found that they felt they could have reached the top much sooner if they had worked on strengthening their mental skills earlier in their careers. Some mentioned they had had the same technical and physical skills honed to perfection four years before becoming world champions, but they had not yet learned how to hold their best focus in important competitions. These athletes said that it was not until their focusing skills were refined and enhanced that their dreams became a reality.

Mental preparation needn’t take a lot of time, maybe a few minutes a week. You may already do some ad-hoc training of your mind skills. For instance, when you think about tacking, you might naturally see and feel yourself going through the actions. However, some systematic work will really see you advance.

Mental preparation truly starts to pay off when a big regatta is just around the corner. There are many things you can do to prepare yourself mentally for a big event and with some trial and error you’ll find a process that puts you in a good frame of mind more often than it doesn’t.

Something I did years ago was to voice a series of tracks onto audio cassette. The tracks led me through things like imagery of racing, reminders about dealing with distractions, arousal control as well as some dialogue on the outcome versus performance focus. I took this tape overseas and it really helped my focus in the weeks and days before big events.

I get sick of listening to myself after a while, so I mixed in some favorite music as well. You can listen to much more refined samples of the mental preparation tracks I’m talking about over at Sports Mind Skills .

As Dr Stuart Walker says, above all, aim to do the simple things in sailboat racing well. Consider that just five things matter: strategy, boat speed, boat-handling, tactics and psychology. A desire to do these five things well often results in winning. The desire to win rarely results in sailing well. So, at the end of a race ask yourself, “How well did I sail?”