Tacking

Back when I first moved to the Chicago area I crewed on a J24 racing sailboat for a couple of summers. For a while I played the role of rail monkey (which essentially involves scrambling from side to side as the boat tacks in order to counterbalance - everyone starts here) before "graduating" to managing jib and finally the spinnaker (the big and often colorful sail used when running with the wind - takes a ton of concentration and skill to deploy, fly, and recover).

In order to navigate swiftly around a course it's necessary to periodically perform a maneuver called tacking. This is essentially a combination of changing the heading of the sailboat, redistributing weight, and readjusting the sails to maximize the amount of air they're catching. It's a frantic time - the helmsman steering and shouting orders, the rail monkeys scrambling across to the opposite side rails and trying to avoid getting whacked by the boom as it swings across, the sail owners (those assigned to manage particular sails on the sailboat) adjusting any sails that need to be adjusted, getting them up, getting them down, etc. But once the tack is complete and the sails are trimmed the sailboat leaps forward like a greyhound after a rabbit.

During a tack there's always a point where the sails go slack. The air that once filled them and propelled the sailboat forward is dumped as the sailboat angles head on to the wind at the midway point of the tack. Once the tack is complete the sails are quickly trimmed up by the crew to maximize the amount of air in the sail for the new heading. Failure to properly trim the sails will turn you into a bobber - bouncing up and down on the waves until the sailboat can swing around and pick up the wind again.

I was reminded of all this during today's workouts. The last few weeks I've been midway between a tack. Surprisingly I've gotten in a lot of my "planned" workouts but I've kept them at an easy, relaxed pace, and didn't sweat it when I missed a workout or overindulged a bit at dinner. My sails ruffled in the air and my momentum slowed.

But now I'm on a new heading - my prep period. I've completed the tack and I'm trimming the sails by committing to my plan and bringing the right amount of intensity and seriousness to my workouts and my nutrition. Everything I do from now until July is in preparation for Ironman USA. I can see that particular buoy bobbing up and down in the distance. There will be several tacks needed in order to reach it. From prep, to base, to build phases. During each transition there will be an ever so brief period of slack in the sails as I readjust the heading. But once the tack is complete the sails will be quickly trimmed and I'll be off - running with the wind as alternating splashes of pleasure and pain wash over me.