My day almost always starts early. I don’t wanna say that it’s always 6.30, because it can happen that it’s 7.30 but I’m trying to keep it at that first option. I’d start with a short 20-30 minute workout, which depending on the day can consist of strength exercises (don’t do them while competing), balance and coordination once, or stretching. Why so short? Not to loose any weight of course! Lately here I’ve been meditating a bit as well, but I’m not gonna write about something as a routine if I’ve only been doing for a couple of weeks. So let’s say that after training I have breakfast. Usually it’s oatmeal or millet or quinoa flakes or something like that. Add fruit and some nuts and stuff and 3-4 eggs on the side and it makes for a complete meal.



I often eat breakfast in front of the computer or with the phone in my hand, checking mails, forecasts, social media etc, so that I don’t have to look at any screen for the rest of the day if I don’t want to. And here any sort of repetitiveness in my day ends. This small morning routine helps me stay disciplined in a profession that allows you to be turbolazy. After all only a couple of weeks a year I have to get up and be places at a given hour, meaning contests. And this year I’m actually competing less, so I could really not even get off the couch if I wanted to. And as you know once you hit that patch of not doing much and stagnation it’s pretty hard to get out of it so that morning routine helps me a lot to be ready for action every day around 8-8.30. After that I just do what the conditions and the place I’m at call for.


f it’s windy I’m obviously gonna head to the beach, if it’s not I have a diversified workout plan for the day. Priority for me is muscle mass, so gym will have the first priority along with prioperception training (what I like to call Jedi training), which I believe helps windsurfing at a high level a lot. On top of that at least once every 3-4 days I would do some sort of cardio training – 4-5km run, a spinning class and recently I got an SUP board so that could be a good alternative as well. I’m trying to have every workout as different from one another as possible to stimulate the body from every side possible – that’s when it develops the best. Golden rule – at least 3 hours of activity a day.



If I’m sailing it sometimes even gets up to 6, if there’s no wind it would porbably be around 3 but I’m working on it ;). On the water I also try to do as much different stuff as possible. Priority goes to testing and trying to get my gear better every day, but a lot the times I would also set my watch to 5minutes and just jibe every 20seconds, or put a mark and jibe it or train timing for the starts. Also I try to diversify the conditions I sail in as much as possible. If I’m at home I rarely sail the same spot 2 days in a row. My closest spot is Ustka, a beach with a big harbour so on the leeward side  of the harbor you get only rolling swell, whereas on the windward you get swell and chop. 10 kilometers away in a town called Rowy the coast turns so if it’s sideshore in Ustka it’s side-onshore there – perfect if I wann train for Sylt for example. And then there’s a lake with perfectly flat water and a bit more gusty wind so that’s a really good mixup as well.



Coming back to my rhythm I like to eat 4 times a day as well. Probably 12-1pm lunch, 4-5pm dinner 8-9pm supper, but the time on the water is absolutely untouchable so a lot of the times I find myself playing with those hours a bit to fit more watertime in. Only after supper I have something what most would call “time for myself”. I don’t see it that way because everything I do during the day is for me and my development as a sailor and a human being, so it is for myself, isn’t it? Anyway after that time I just see some friends or just chill out with a movie or something before bed. Sometimes I’ll motivate myself to take the computer in bed and maybe write a piece like this one, or edit a clip ro something, but usually I last 5 minutes and just crash. Alarm clock 6:30 and same thing all over again… Maciek Rutkowski POL-23