diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/llama2-c/training.rs b/candle-examples/examples/llama2-c/training.rs
index 92aa90e6..e55c686c 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/llama2-c/training.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/llama2-c/training.rs
@@ -150,12 +150,16 @@ pub fn run(args: &crate::TrainingCmd, common_args: &crate::Args) -> Result<()> {
 
     let cache = Cache::new(false, &config, vb.pp("rot"))?;
     let model = Llama::load(vb, &cache, config)?;
-    let sgd = candle_nn::SGD::new(varmap.all_vars(), args.learning_rate);
+    let params = candle_nn::ParamsAdamW {
+        lr: args.learning_rate,
+        ..Default::default()
+    };
+    let mut opt = candle_nn::AdamW::new(varmap.all_vars(), params)?;
     for (batch_index, batch) in batch_iter.enumerate() {
         let (inp, tgt) = batch?;
         let logits = model.forward(&inp, 0)?;
         let loss = candle_nn::loss::cross_entropy(&logits.flatten_to(1)?, &tgt.flatten_to(1)?)?;
-        sgd.backward_step(&loss)?;
+        opt.backward_step(&loss)?;
 
         if batch_index > 0 && batch_index % 100 == 0 {
             // TODO: Add a way to deactivate the backprop graph tracking when computing the
@@ -163,6 +167,9 @@ pub fn run(args: &crate::TrainingCmd, common_args: &crate::Args) -> Result<()> {
             let loss = valid_loss(&dataset, &model, args, &device)?;
             println!("{batch_index} {loss}");
         }
+        if batch_index > 0 && batch_index % 1000 == 0 {
+            varmap.save("checkpoint.safetensors")?
+        }
     }
     Ok(())
 }