Post frontal fatigue
I’m going to call the feeling I had yesterday post frontal fatigue. It's when every dial in your body is on empty, your muscles ache, you are damp and slightly chilled, your mind and your body are out of fuel and the best remedy is to spend a lazy day, eating soup and reading a book by an open fire. It's not a bad feeling, I quite like that depleted sense when you have done a lot of exercise, but there is no book reading for me. The thing about ocean racing is that time is not defined by the passage of the sun but the passage of weather. Our rest is not just based on our own needs but the needs of the giant machines we are driving and yesterday, though we had some slightly more stable conditions during the day, my rest time was taken up with maintenance tasks and troubleshooting to ensure me and Medallia made it cleanly through this next weather system.
Pip Hare onboard Medallia; Route Du Rhum 2022
As any endurance athlete will tell you, when you are tired and at the bottom of your energy levels your mind is your most powerful weapon and talking yourself through each step of the way will get your through the tough times. Yesterday I made a list. I love a list. I wrote down all of the things I needed to do, including navigating, boat checks, repairs, maintenance, sail manoeuvre, making water, sleeping, eating etc… I then went through my list triaging everything by the same three questions I always use to prioritise my work load, Am I safe? Am I going in the right direction? Am I going as fast as I can.
One of my tasks could have escalated to the ‘Am I safe’ category so I sacrificed speed, course and sleep to get the job done. It took a couple of hours to identify and fix and all the time I told myself I could sleep after it was done. Sleeping then became a priority, I took a short nap before doing anything else. Then each new task was to be agreed in the order of safety, direction, speed and completed and between each one I considered if sleeping was an essential or a nice to have. In the end you can go on deck and grind in a sail when you are tired. All you need to do is apply force, not quickly just one arm at a time and it will come. But you can’t make good decisions on an exhausted mind. For this a 20 min nap can make the world of difference.
Medallia; Route du Rhum 2022
And now we are back at it again. bashing upwind into another system. Just existing in these conditions is hard work, moving around takes thought, every muscle is used to brace against the slamming, my whole body is always working off one side, against the lean of the boat, it’s no wonder my muscles hurt. But Medallia feels good and I feel good for having done my chores. When you are on top the things you can control you have confidence and strength and yes, the pounding upwind will continue for a few more days, the job list will grow again and again. But when you have worked your way through each task with patience and diligence then a 20-minute nap feels like a full night of sleep.
Pip x