Realistic Ainslie ready to start his London 2012 challenge

By Ben Ainslie

LAST week I spent sometime sailing the Finn in Lymington. It was hard work and the body suffered a bit. However, it has enabled me to get enough training in to be able to confirm I'll be competing at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy next month.

CHALLENGE: Ben Ainslie will take time out of his Team Origin schedule to start his bid for a fourth Olympic gold in London 2012 at next month's Skandia Sail for Gold regatta (onEdition)

I've not raced a Finn since Beijing 2008 so it's will be almost two years to the day. Still, doing this year's Sail for Gold was on the cards as long as it fitted in with the rest of our Team Origin schedule.  

I think Sail for Gold is a really important regatta for me to attend. Not only to check in with where the rest of the Finn fleet are, and what developments have taken place since I've been away, but also to familiarise myself with the venue and conditions as I've actually not raced an Olympic Class boat at Weymouth and Portland for about five or six years.

I have to accept I'm not going to be 100 percent race ready, 100 percent Finn fit and at my ideal racing weight, and I'm sure it will be frustrating for me at times not being able to do things I'd normally take for granted.

However, the benefits of competing far outweigh any frustrations I may experience. as long as I'm realistic, and possibly more importantly, other people are realistic ,about what I can achieve on such limited preparation.

The prospect of racing the Finn again is really exciting to me and that counts for a lot. 

An Olympic cycle is a long, long road, which can get quite tedious, and many of the Finn guys will also have one eye on the Worlds, which take place in San Francisco just after Sail for Gold. 

I'll enjoy getting to grips with the boat in racing conditions again. The lack of preparation time means I'll have to concentrate on getting the basics, like starts and tactics, right as I'll be lacking boat speed in other areas and probably won't take as many chances as I would if I had the speed elsewhere.

My experience is going to be really important and I know I'm going to find it difficult at times but as you get older you generally get a bit more philosophical about things; I don't have to prove myself in the Finn class and there are too many positives to doing the event to worry about 'What if I don't win?'

Any result inside the top ten would be a good result.

Racing any Olympic class boat is a unique physical challenge. You use muscles which are so hard to replicate in a gym. 

You have to get your body used to racing again and all the aches and pains that go with it.  

Apart from the Lymington training days, I had a week with the Skandia Team GBR Finn squad this winter. I did a few days training in Valencia during the spring and I've got three days with the British Finn guys at WPNSA the week before Sail for Gold. 

All Finn sailing I do between now and the regatta will be about re-familiarising my body with that feeling and boat handling. 

I've left all the boat development work to my coach David 'Sid' Howlett and that's been going well, although I haven't had the chance to use the boat in anger yet. We'll make the decision on whether we use the new boat at Sail for Gold in the next couple of weeks as there may be some things we want to keep under wraps.

For more from Ben Ainslie, visit benainslie.com