Roz – Page 11 – Serenity Through Sweat

Reason

Thanks for joining me for the 100th edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This past week has seen a dramatic uptick in tantrums from El Duderino, and the following quote from Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah seemed especially fitting.

“Reason is the first victim of strong emotion”. If that doesn’t sum up a toddler tantrum terrifically, I don’t know what does.

It doesn’t matter what set it off, or what he was or wasn’t allowed to do/have/play with/ etc. Once he is in tantrum mode there us no reasoning with him.

A toddler temper tantrum is a pretty obvious example of reason giving way to strong emotion, but I started thinking about how often I’m guilty of the same thing, (and without the excuse of an underdeveloped frontal lobe)

The past year, with stresses from work, family, and everything COVID, how many times has my reason been the victim of my emotios? The answer is probably too many.

SerenityThroughSweat, breathing, exertion, perspiration, all help tremendously in processing, deciphering, and managing that emotion in order to return me to a reasonable state.

Tantrums lead to boo-boos, boo-boos lead to bandaid mustaches

Sometimes that’s not a viable option for me, and telling El Duderino to go take a lap doesn’t seem like the best parenting for a three year old, so my wife provided some much needed guidance.

From the Harvard Health Blog, the three steps to parenting a tantrum are to validate the emotion, ignore the dandelions, and praise good behavior.

Validating the emotion yelled your toddler you are listening to them and even if you don’t agree, you understand what the are feeling.

Dandelions, are the bad behaviors that pop up as a result of the tantrum. The blog equates giving them attention to watering them in your garden. What you water grows, or the behaviors you respond to persist.

Assuming alternate forms isn’t always result of a tantrum

Likewise, praising cooperative and good behavior will help the toddler come out of the tantrum and back into a reasonable state, or at least as reasonable as a three year old can be.

I think these same principles can serve adults with some sense of emotional awareness. Validate your own emotions. Be aware of them and feel them, but beyond awareness, only spend your time and energy on the emotions and actions that you want to grow, otherwise you’ll get stuck in the weeds.

And if all else fails, go take a lap and sweat your way to serenity.

Windy runs this week, intervals, tempo, and a 10k

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Tangible

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about something I struggle with both personally and professionally, the nature of a tangible finished product.

I think all of us feel a sense of pride and purpose from a completed project. There is something about our own creation, something new where before there was something old, or even nothing, that fills a hole inside all of us.

Even the simplest of tasks can produce a spectrum of emotion inside and generate the momentum necessary for a positive day. But it is easy to overlook so many of our tasks because the world we live in has moved away from the tangible.

An early birthday celebration for Speedy

As a pilot I struggle with this concept. On a given three or four day trip I will fly hundreds if not a few thousand people. Each of them have a story, a reason for traveling, and connecting them from point A to point B is an important and fulfilling endeavor.

But, at the end of a long day of flying sometimes it is hard to remember where I even went. There is nothing to show for my day’s work, just another hotel room and another day’s worth of missions ahead. The service I provide is very real and valuable, but it lacks a tangible nature that serves as a validation and a reminder of worth.

Fitness has a lot of the same characteristics. Miles run or biked, kettlebells swung, pull-ups rep’d, they are all valuable and worthy endeavors. Oftentimes though we are left only with a puddle of sweat and delayed onset muscle soreness as our only reminder of the work that was done.

I think that is why I feel a special sense of fulfillment when I complete a project around the house. To build, to create, to progress through a planned project, producing something new, scratches an itch that is left unattended by my other endeavors.

My wife requested a new bench for our kitchen table. The project was a relatively simple one, and we were able to involve the whole family in one way or another. The result is nothing special, but it is functional, matches the existing table, and is more resilient than it’s predecessor.

Beyond that it is a tangible creation, a useful household item shaped by family hands, and a reminder of the fruits of our labor. The bench project has been a nice change of pace from a expiration based service job and a a fitness journey that is mostly solo (especially during covid).

I hope that we are all able to find serenity in both the tangible and the intangible as they ebb and flow through our lives.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Time

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I celebrated my birthday this week, and I’m thinking about how we measure time, especially with the unusual events of the past year.

The traditionally accepted secular calendar we are all used to is the Gregorian calendar, and it is predated by the Romulus calendar, and the Julian calendar.

The Romulus calendar had ten months from March through December. The year started with the spring equinox and ended 304 days later at the end of December, leaving a no man’s land of winter until the next year began anew.

The second Roman empire Numa, decided to change the system to a lunar based year, and give names to the nameless period of winter. January and February were added and the year, based on lunar cycles, resulted in 355 days.

At the time in Rome, even numbers were considered unlucky, so every month had either 29 or 31 days except February which had to have 28 in order to round out the Lunar year at 355 days.

Measuring the passage of time by lunar cycles is as good a way as any, except if you are a farmer trying to plant your crops based on the Earth’s relative position in orbit of the Sun.

A 355 day lunar year, after a few years, resulted in mismatched seasonality for the crop growing population. This was corrected by inserting a 27 day leap month called Mercedonious every few years. Starting on February 24th, the month would be added, or not, at the discretion of the roman high priests.

El Duderino kicked his undies all the way up to the chandelier as part of his new pre potty ritual

This obviously resulted in significant confusion not knowing whether an entire month would be added, or being able to plan ahead for agrarian lifestyles.

Julius Caesar changed the calendar back to a Solar based calendar with 365 days, (and a single leap day when appropriate) but maintained the 28 day month of February. In order to realign the correct seasonality of the months with the new calendar, the year 46 BC was 445 solar days long.

I think we can all sympathize with our ancient ancestors, as 2020 (and especially that past 12 months from March to March) has seemed like a 445 day year with mismatched seasonality and no predictability.

Virtual high school reunion with scotch tasting

Still, the sun rose and set, the moon changed phases, and the requisite number of calendar pages were flipped. The year passed by, but how did you measure it?

For me, (and I would venture for most of us) the year brought a level of stress and uncertainty that I had not previously known. That necessitated a shift in focus and an awareness of my emotions, and the habits that feed them.

A lot of my plans and my ambitions were put on hold, and that energy needed an outlet. I find myself restless, angry, frustrated, and overwhelmed. I think more than anything the last twelve months presented an opportunity to confront these things in my life, rather than occupy myself with other things.

When everything is shut down, the internal struggle is amplified. The struggle continues, but I have an awareness and an appreciation for it that I don’t think would have been possible without the last year.

Seasons of love tells us there are 525,600 minutes and asks us how we measure a year. Regardless of the calendar you subscribe to, I hope the last twelve months have brought you an awareness and an appreciation like only a pandemic can.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Attitude

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I’ve been working my way through Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland while also sharing the the original Disney film from 1951 and the 2010 remake with El Duderino.

There is enough whimsy in Carroll’s works to make them enjoyable for readers of all ages, but also an engaging wordplay that adds an invigorating layer for more adept readers.

El Duderino getting in on the heavy bag training

Alice has just fallen down the rabbit hole and finally reached the bottom. She has spied the most beautiful garden through a small door but is much to big to fit through. She thinks that she ought to be able to collapse herself like a telescope, and that if she could just begin to, she would know how to do the rest.

Carroll narrates Alice’s mood early in the book saying “For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.”

I find myself often reciting my own version of Carroll’s message to my wife and El Duderino saying “not with that attitude” after they have decided that something or other can’t be done.

“I don’t think that bite will fit in your mouth”, or “you can’t carry all those toys in one trip”

A very merry birthday to the best wife and mother

Most of the time this is done in jest, or poking fun at my wife, since El Duderino still lacks the finer understanding of sarcasm. Nonetheless, the truth in Carroll’s words and my own version remain. Our attitude can go a long way in determining what is in fact possible.

All kidding aside, attitude plays a huge part in determining what we are capable of. Whether it is a physical project, a problem you need to think your way out of, or an emotional battle, the right attitude can make all the difference.

Some running with El Duderino to explore new playgrounds

This is especially true with toddlers, and a lesson I’m trying to improve in myself and model for my boys. The range of things that three year old boys are capable of with the right attitude versus the wrong attitude is staggering. The same goes for thirty something year old men.

Just as Alice discovers throughout her adventures, very few things are indeed impossible, but only if you have the right attitude.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Lost in Translation

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I’m working my way through The Immortality Key by Brian C Muraresku, and a recurring theme is the true message of some ancient text being lost in translation.

Muraresku is a modern day Indiana Jones and his book walks you through his years long quest for an understanding of the world’s oldest religion.

It’s easy to get lost in the swagger and swashbuckling that Harrison Ford portrays on screen, and forget that behind every adventure in a lost temple, were hours buried in a book studying the ancient languages.

Muraresku embarks on an adventure that only he can, because in the end he is the only one able to read the treasure map. A student of the classics, he meticulously follows breadcrumbs left in a mixture of Latin, ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Castellan, German, and English.

What he finds are the clues that have been hiding in plain sight, in large part due to translation gaffes, either unwitting or intentional.

Following Muraresku’s story I’m reminded how fragile our communication really is. There are so many opportunities for our message to be “lost in translation” on a day to day basis, even without the perils of centuries old dead language.

Muraresku demonstrates, in sometimes hard to follow detail, the effort and energy required to find the intended message through translation. What we are left with is a different message entirely. Which begs the question why don’t we put that same effort into our everyday communication? After all, we are mostly speaking the same language not trying to revive the original content from a centuries forgotten dialect.

From inadequate ability to encode our feelings into a message, transmitting that message through a faulty medium, or improper decoding of the message, everyday communication is a minefield that demands precise navigation.

A value has been placed on instantaneous data transmission, at the expense of verification, which is a much more time and labor intensive process. Who cares what you felt, how you’ve grown and changed, and what message you wanted to disseminate, when the 140 characters you tweeted a decade ago are readily available for instant scrutiny?

The desire to be understood, to clearly communicate our wants and desires to others, is universal, and begins as soon as we are born. Yet somehow the same desire to understand, and to properly translate the incoming message has been left lagging behind.

Whether it is a frustrated child, a tired spouse, or a centuries old prophet, we could all find a little more serenity, by taking the time to translate the message and communicate better.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Hiking with my favorite adventure partner

Grind

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This week I want to talk about an article from trail runner magazine I recently came across, and it’s scientifically backed message to embrace the grind.

The article (found here) references a 2019 study (found here) published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research on the training predictors of success in elite long distance runners. The cliff notes version, is that there is no magic workout, the greatest predictor of success is volume of easy runs.

As with any scientific experiment, it is important to understand what was being measured and tested, and what the limitations of the study were, in order to draw any reasonable conclusions about the results and what they mean for our own training.

The study only looked at male elite athletes, and categorized their training as: short intervals, long intervals, tempo running, easy running, and racing. The intervals and the tempo categories were differentiated by distance and percentage of max heart rate.

The athletes reported their training regimens as well as their results at events and the data was analyzed at the three, five, and seven year mark.

As David Roche from trail runner points out, every athlete is an N=1 experiment. For those of you not academically or scientifically inclined, N is the sample size in a controlled study. Roche makes the important distinction that even though 85 male athletes from the same sport were in the study, each one has his own biodiversity and variables which are important to acknowledge.

With all that annoying science and reading stuff out of the way, what this study really means for average joe athletes, is embrace the grind. The most significantly correlated predictor of success is volume of easy runs. In other words… Just go run.

It’s not the maximum effort, is not tabata or HIIT, it’s not a new pair of shoes or an altitude mask, it’s repetition of the most basic and fundamental motion that will ultimately predict success.

I think that is true of almost all endeavors, grind out the repetitive volume of the fundamentals, and the results will follow. SerenityThroughSweat is an ultra, and serenity is found in the grind.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Investing

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This week has seen a flurry of activity in the stock market surrounding a few select companies and a “short squeeze”. With no intention of turning this blog financial, I wanted to talk about investing.

In my crusade away from mindless social media scrolling and towards productivity, I decided to read John Maynard Keynes General Theory of Employment Interest and Money, last year around this time. Despite what was a painfully dry reminder of why I am a pilot and not a mathematician, economist, or theorist, I found some unconventional wisdom in Keynes that applies decades later. You can find that post here. This past week reminded me of my headfirst flop into economics and investing.

What we saw in the stock market over the last week was more about making a quick buck, than it was about an appreciation of value. Without picking sides, or evaluating the morals and ethics involved, both those with short positions, and those who applied the squeeze, were trying to make money without any concern for what that meant for the other parties involved, including the companies they were buying. This was more like gambling than investing.

Speedy standing up, and El Duderino inciting the house of bounce

Investing was always meant to be a rising tide to lift all boats. A way of getting resources to those that need them, as a means to increase production, efficiency, value, etc… Not a game where money flows in and out of accounts despite no tangible change in value to the core business being invested in.

See if that type of “investing” works anywhere else. Fitness, parenting, your job, your education, your marriage. “I had call options on our marriage so you have to stay with me for a few more years even though I’ve been neglecting you.” Or maybe “I shorted my weight position at new year’s but was forced to close the position after the super bowl party artificially influenced the scale”. It just doesn’t work.

Anniversary dinner on the Zgrill. Pork belly burnt ends, pulled pork and smoked green beans, with a skillet cookie for dessert

Yet we find ourselves with an incredible amount of fiat currency changing hands, without any real change or production of value.

Investing is intended to increase value. Invest money in a business and it can grow. Invest time and energy in yourself and you can become stronger, faster, smarter, healthier. Invest time and energy in your relationships and you will be a better parent, partner, or friend.

A beautiful Fl winter day for some rounds on the heavy bag

Real investing, whether it is in the market, or in yourself requires doing the work, day in and day out, and patiently attending to those positions, while they appreciate and mature.

So the real question is, what are you investing in these days?

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

My pace seems to have stabilized and returned back to normal with nasal breathing feeling more natural

Dependance

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This week I want to talk about an interesting theory on exercise I came across in my reading, and why fitness becomes habit forming and can become

We talked a few weeks back about Breath, the book covering the science behind the lost art if breathing by James Nestor. After finishing his work, I followed the path to that of his research partner, Anderson Olsson and his book Conscious Breathing, and continued my own journey towards breathing better.

There is a lot of overlap in their respective work, and there is only so much innovation to be had in a bodily function that literally everyone does unconsciously. Olsson, differentiates himself in his obsession with CO², carbon dioxide.

heavy bag hangar and pull-up bar with my helper Bob the builder

Carbon dioxide is a simple gas that is the waste product of aerobic respiration. Olsson’s work is filled with all sorts of fun facts about the gas, that are interesting, enlightening, and perception altering.

For example, for those of you who haven’t abandoned your new year’s resolutions yet, weight loss is mostly in the form of CO². As your cells burn fat and carbohydrates for energy, you might lose some water weight in sweat, but the primary waste is your breath. (If you really want to nerd out, CO² is heavier than H²O).

Now try holding your breath. That hunger for air, those alarm bells blaring in your mind urging you to breathe, are controlled not by a lack of oxygen, but rather by an excess of CO². As CO² builds up in the bloodstream it alters the pH of the blood. Chemoreceptors in the brain measure these changes and regulate your breath to maintain appropriate levels of both gases.

First time on the heavy bag in over a year, felt good after seven 3 min rounds

The chemoreceptors, sensing an increased level of CO², will dilate blood vessels, and increase oxygen absorption, in order to regain balance. Exposure to higher levels of CO², will result in higher levels of oxygenation. Higher levels of oxygenation result in feelings of calm, content, and euphoria. This has been commonly referred to as a runners high, or in the case of this blog, SerenityThroughSweat

This is where Olsson’s theories become interesting. Exercise increases our metabolic rate, increasing the relative amount of CO². Olsson theorizes that many athletes have subpar breathing habits both during workouts, and in their everyday life. This leads to a condition where the athlete becomes dependent on the workout, as a means to increase CO², thereby increasing oxygenation potential afterwards, and the beneficial feelings that come with it.

Athletes become addicted to working out because it makes them feel better in a way that is possible by just breathing better. We become dependant, on our own waste byproduct.

All nasal breathing, and trying to consciously lengthen my exhale

This blog has been a forum for me to explore the many ways in which routinely increasing my own metabolic processes brings about a certain level headedness that then permeates to all the other facets of my life. The idea that this makes me an addict, chasing my next fix of CO², is a bit simplistic for my taste, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting.

It also means, that there are other ways to achieve that same sense of serenity, if Olsson is to be believed. Breath work, if done properly, can produce the same CO² imbalance, without all that pesky running and lifting heavy things getting in the way.

The lungs, intercostal muscles, and the diaphragm, can all be trained just like anything else. Just like you wouldn’t train your chest muscles while running in order to improve your bench press, you should train your breathing independent from your cardio. Breath work done on it’s own is important, and can help fill that gnawing ever present dependence we feel as athletes for a good CO² imbalance.

Breath work has provided me with a welcome new challenge, and an extra dose of CO² especially on those days when I can’t fit training in or I need some recovery. We all have our dependence on something, here’s to finding constructive ways to satiate the habit.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

I’ve been doing this with the boys in the stroller and it is a doozy

Awakening

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Last week, I talked about appreciating the metaphorical mountains of fatherhood based on a Frank Herbert quote from his magnum opus DUNE. This week I want to talk about another fatherhood theme of the book.

The book contains many layers each of which can be dissected individually and discussed at length in their own merit. The central storyline though follows Paul Atreides and his awakening from adolescence into the role of prophet and leader.

Early on in the book, before his own sci-fi training and psychedelic fueled prescient awakening, Paul has an awakening of a different sort, watching his father command and battle plan.

“There is probably no more terrible instant if enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man-with human flesh.” This quote is attributed to Paul, though much later on in his story and after years of reflection.

As is often the case word choice and perspective are critical for the message sent as well as the message received. “Terrible instant of enlightenment”, conjures up a scene in the life of a young man that is as powerful as it is pivotal. The word terrible commands the readers attention, and dictates the connotation of the scene imagined by the reader.

Rather than imagining a tragic scene of innocence lost, I prefer to think of this instant of enlightenment like a door that has never before been opened. You don’t know what is on the other side, and you can continue on in that blissful ignorance for as long as you like. But once the door is opened, you can never revert to your state of unawareness.

I remember my own awakening and the realization that my father was just another good man trying to do the best he could with the hand he was dealt. That is a story for another time, but it makes me think about what I can do to shape and guide the journey my own sons will have to that day of their own awakening.

I say shape and guide the journey because I don’t think there is anything that can be done to control or schedule it. A young man’s awakening might be delayed, preserving boyish innocence, but like an infant who hasn’t yet mastered the concept of object permanence, they will eventually see the door and become curious. My sons will go on until that fateful day under the same magical trance that engulfs all children.

They will face their own terrible instant of enlightenment, transitioning into manhood upon this realization, walking through their own door that will close forever behind them. I can prepare myself, that I may be the best version I am capable of being. And, I can guide them, that they are prepared for the world waiting beyond that closed door.

Some windy runs, especially the 5k with a jogging stroller wind anchor/running buddy

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Mountains

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I have spent a lot of the last week (and the last nine months) snuggling a sleeping Speedy. I’ve tried to be productive with that time while also enjoying and appreciating the one on one time in his first year.

Productivity, with a sleeping infant strapped to your chest, and a rambunctious toddler in the other room who has a new found habit of screeching like an underfed seagull, is a relative term.

It mostly involves trying to stay away from social media or news feeds, and reading books, blogs, or otherwise useful forms of information. My most recent literary journey is Frank Herbert’s Sci-fi classic DUNE.

Published in 1965 Herbert transports you to a political and economic struggle between great houses on a desert planet called Arrakis. As the major players in the realm jockey for power, Herbert weaves in some unconventional wisdom that retains relevance decades past publishing.

“Any road followed precisely to it’s end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it’s a mountain. From the top of the mountain you cannot see the mountain”

This cold open quote at the beginning of a chapter brought to mind so much of what the last nine months has been like. A road to nowhere, inability to see the mountain we’ve been climbing, and it made me think about being a father in the time of a pandemic.

The runs this week all nasal breathing. It’s not natural yet, but it is starting to get easier.

I have been very blessed to be able to spend much of this time with my family. Watching my boys grow and learn, day in and day out is a privilege that many fathers forfeit in the name of financial responsibilities. Day in and day out growth and change is a bit like the mountain, you can appreciate other peaks and valleys from the top but not really the mountain itself. It is only from the starting point and during the ascent that you can really see the mountain.

Speedy was born at home at the beginning of all of the Covid craziness. Now, nine months later, he is crawling across the house and starting to pull himself up on low surfaces, despite his precarious lack of balance. He babbles loudly and often enough to make himself heard in an already loud family, and much to his mother’s chagrin, has become quite adept at using the few teeth he has cut.

I’ve watched El Duderino grow into his role as a big brother in a way that is as tragically humorous as it is inevitable, mimicking the relationship I had with my younger brother at that age. I’m sure my mother warned me about this, something or other about karma, I was too busy practicing wrestling moves on my brother to pay close attention.

El Duderino flips effortlessly between roles as his brother’s keeper and a toddler adjusting to sharing. He can be heard screaming “no he’ll choke on that”, snatching up small toys out of his brothers grasp, and also “stop that man!” As Speedy crawls towards him, eyes filled with a curiosity and wonder only seen in a newly mobile child.

Looking back across nine months, the mountain is tall, and the climb has been as exhilerating as it has been arduous. That perspective only applies when thinking back to the beginning. Each day examined on its own, seems more like a comedic rerun of the last, rather than an integral part of the mountain trail.

I hope I can maintain mindfulness and appreciation for the many mountains I will climb alongside my family. I hope that I can instill the importance of that perspective into my sons’ young minds. I hope that we all acknowledge the view from the top without forgetting to recognize the trials and triumphs of the climb.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.