Fitness – Page 6 – Serenity Through Sweat

Tradition

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. With Christmas behind us, I was thinking about all of the things I did growing up with my family, and the things I want to do with my family now. I started to wonder, what makes a tradition?

By definition, a tradition is “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior”. Basically anything we pass on to the next generation is a tradition.

Upper thigh parade in the new shorts for the 2020 Christmas Half Marathon

The creation of, and passing on of tradition is a powerful responsibility. I think it is important to not only explore the actions and behaviors that we are passing down themselves, but also the why behind them.

This year marked the ninth annual Christmas half marathon. What started out as an excursion in masochism and mindfulness to combat being alone on Christmas, has turned into something more.

Speedy and El Duderino ready to get the festivities started.

In 2012, after signing up for Ironman Florida to take place the following November, I ran 14.5 miles on Christmas day. While keeping my training volume up after a recent half iron triathlon and a century ride, the run was really about being on call over Christmas and not being able to see family.

As a charter pilot and particularly one junior at the company, I spent the next several years running half marathons on or around Christmas, either in different cities or on hotel treadmills. Finding solace in street, and comfort on the concrete, I pounded the pavement to combat the rising tide of frustration, emotion, and solitude that went hand in hand with professions that work through holidays, especially away from home.

Milk, cookies, carrots, and our letter to Santa

This pattern continued from 2012-2016. Five years, five half marathons, mostly a steam pipe venting pent up holiday emotions while working away from home. Then in 2017, El Duderino was born at the beginning of December. In addition, my grandmother passed right around Christmas in 2017.

I was planning on being home for Christmas 2017 one way or the other. But that year I was home with my wife and newborn son. I was in-between jobs on a sick time paid paternity leave from my prior charter job, and getting ready to start at a new airline that would be my career dream job. With a three week old baby, a well accumulated sleep debt, and the emotional toll of a lost family member very fresh, the pavement was calling for a whole host of new reasons.

2 is 1, and 1 is none, has never been truer than when your toddler takes your roller after you’re done running 13 miles. Thank God for backups

What started as an escape from solitude and an outlet for frustration, had changed with my growing family. There is a clarity that endurance challenges offer in a way nothing else can quite match. Whatever stresses or anxieties you lay on the alter of repetitive cardiovascular motion can be alleviated with the proper offering.

Over the past few years, managing my holiday schedule has become as much about being home with my growing family, as it is about making time to log those miles. My physical, mental, and emotional state has been different each year, and what I needed to get out of the run has been a little different as well.

A bold strategy for the days preceding the half marathon.

One aspect of SerenityThroughSweat is the process of working through those demons out on the pavement, in search of being a better person. The tradition of a Christmas half marathon, has helped me in what can be, despite it’s many joys, a stressful season.

Long distance running during the holidays has become an established pattern of behavior for me. While I would love to see my boys pick up and ultimately pass on that tradition, the run is just the mechanism and the reasons behind it, serenity, clarity, solace, relief, are what is truly important. I hope that those are the thoughts, behaviors, and actions, that are passed down through generations. In the end, I hope that I can raise young men who are capable of finding their own path to serenity, and making their own traditions

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

Escape

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I spent the last few days in a tree stand in the woods behind my dad’s house. With all of the craziness of election day I was very glad to have an escape.

This was my first real experience hunting. I think I had followed along as a youngster but never actively participated. The idea of sharing a meal with my family from an animal I harvested has been increasingly appealing to me. Not only as a more reliable means of obtaining and knowing where my food comes from, but also as a connection with our most base self and a new challenge.

Like a lot of things discussed in this blog, (endurance events and parenting) the romanticized idea is much easier to digest than the actual event itself. My ideas of parenting before hand was helping with homework, or teaching the boys to wrestle. A lot of my parenting time is really spent keeping El Duderino from reaching things on the counter and washing out Speedy’s cloth diapers. Hunting followed very much along the same lines.

There is a lot of ground to cover between suiting up and walking to the tree stand and pulling that tenderloin of the grill. The romanticized ideas ask to often omitt the grind, but there is beauty to be found in that grind.

There is a very distinct beauty to sitting still and silent anywhere, but especially out in nature. Appreciating that beauty is not automatic, but rather requires mindfulness. The requirement for mindfulness is only accentuated by those things that would otherwise distract you; cold weather and wind, restlessness, first world problems communicated by an electronic device in your pocket.

My experience hunting in the woods was magical. One of the things I’m most appreciative of when it comes to my fitness and well-being routine, is the place those activities take me to. I can get out of my head and out of my own way finding a place of serenity, if only for the briefest of moments. Sitting in a tree stand watching the sun rise, the multicolor leaves fall, and the animals of the woods come alive took me to a very similar place.

Helping my dad drag his deer up a ravine and back to the house, cleaning, butchering and eating it all in the same night was a very powerful and fortunate experience. I felt transported to that same place of serenity I so often seek, but also felt a sense that others have been there before.

Running, grappling, and triathlon are largely solo pursuits, and while there is surely serenity to be found, it is largely a lonely endeavor. Hunting, cleaning, butchering, and learning from my father, who learned from his father, gave me the same escape but with a greater sense of all those others who seek serenity through that path.

Speedy’s first taste of meat, and El Duderino days go get some more

I couldn’t have asked for a better hunt, or hunting partner. I will be forever grateful for the knowledge passed on, as well as the experience and the escape it provided. I hope that you reader, can find your own much needed escape in this chaotic time, and the serenity that comes with it.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe, (warm if you are in the stand), and stay sweaty my friends.

Managed to get 3 runs in this week too with the travel and the hunting

Demons

Happy Halloween! Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I’m writing this after a nice 10 mile sunrise run while enjoying my first beer in a month. Halloween, sober October, and my post run afterglow have me thinking about demons.

Cheers to the final workout and Sober October celebration

This October I abstained from alcohol and sugar as well as completed the 10,000 kettlebell swing challenge. This proved to be a interesting combination in regards to how I typically quell my inner demons.

I am very fortunate to lead a life where most if not all of my demons are personal and internal. I’m not struggling to eat or find shelter, my family and I are healthy and secure. Most of my demons are the result of my own weaknesses; insecurity, jealousy, self doubt, self pity. SerenityThroughSweat is in large part, my journey of exorcising demons through exercise.

My personal weaknesses often lead to the creation of mountains out of molehills in otherwise benign human interactions. These have only been amplified by reduced social contact and the other stresses that come with Covid.

For me, alcohol often becomes a crutch to either dull, avoid, or replace addressing those personal inadequacies and interactions. Some demons are more or less benign and good to let go of, in college I was fond of the phrase ” nothing a shower beer can’t fix”. Others are more insidious, especially when left to fester when covered up with alcohol.

another sunrise smoke on the Z grill, brisket pork butt sweet potatoes broccoli and corn

Physical exertion and later on formal exercise has always been a tool I’ve used to exorcise those same personal demons. I remember one particular instance when I was probably around 10 years old. I have no recollection of what I was mad at my step brother about, but I remember that my solution was putting on my snow gear, and marching circles in the snow around the cabin we were staying in for hours.

I’m not advocating for exercise as an alternative to dealing with your problems. Rather, literally running from them (and then back) can be a means to clear your head and face them with a fresh perspective.

This month’s challenge was particularly interesting because neither of those options were available. Without alcohol those small things that I would otherwise shirk off with a beer at the end of the night were nagging until they were attended to. The kettlebell swing workouts, despite their intensity and benefits, coming in most days at just over 30 minutes failed to squash my more stubborn personal demons the way endurance cardio sessions have.

I didn’t realize how much I had been holding on to until finishing my run and then later sitting down to write with a beer (and a doughnut). This month was less a challenge of abstaining and swinging, and more a challenge of managing stress without my favorite tools. I have never lacked for discipline and perseverance in the face of a challenge, but I struggle constantly with my inherent character flaws.

15 in the final cluster on the way to 10,000

Sweating, in all of its various forms, and then being able to analyze and share my thoughts has been and continues to be extremely therapeutic. This platform has been a tool I can use to hold myself accountable and exorcise my demons, and for that I’m a grateful to you my reader. I’m also very happy to be done with Sober October and the 10,000 kettlebell swing challenge, so that I have my full arsenal of tools available to exorcise my demons.

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

Better Humans

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. As I draw to the close of my Sober October physical challenge, I’m reminded of a pro cyclist interview I read from the 2019 Tour de France.

The article was published here in Business Insider on July 9th, 2019 and is an interview of Canadian professional cyclist Michael Woods. Woods, at the time was competing in his first TDF and is now the only person to have ever completed the race and also have run a sub 4 minute mile.

The point in the article that stuck out to me is the prioritization required to get through the tour. A grueling 21 day event, the tour demands all of your energy and focus.

“When you finish a three-week race, you’re a better bike racer but a worse human being. Over this Tour I’m probably going to walk 5 kilometers over the course of the month — that’s it. And that’s not healthy. That’s not healthy from an impact-adaptation perspective. Humans are meant to walk — they’re meant to move around.”

I’m not trying to imply that swinging a 54lb kettlebell is in anyway the same as riding Le Tour, but I empathize with the singular focus and lack of fitness diversity in this challenge.

There have been a number of benefits to be sure. My core looks and feels stronger, my grip has gotten some much needed and often ignored attention, my posterior chain is firing better and stronger, and my posture seems improved and more natural, rather than something I am fixating on to keep correct.

All of those things are tangible, but my running has definitely suffered, and despite twice daily mobility sessions, there is a tightness that I can’t seem to escape because the challenge presses on in monotony. Beyond that, this challenge has not been particularly stimulating, but rather more of a trudge through the reps.

In addition to the sheer volume of reps, part of the challenge is maintaining focus and determination throughout a task that is mundane and monotonous.

Just as Woods said, and despite the benefits I have experienced, as I approach the end of 4 weeks and 10,000 kettlebell swings, I feel like I’m better at swinging a kettlebell but a worse human. I miss the diversity of jui jitsu, triathlon, archery, and other kettlebell and sandbag lifting. The combination of these activities together serve to be both mentally and physically challenging and invigorating.

I appreciate the 10,000 kettlebell swing challenge and it’s likeness to other monotonous and mundane life tasks, but I am excited to be done and get back to work on being a more diverse and better human.

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

Questions

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Election season is upon us, my work group is in the middle of a contract amendment vote, and all of us are analyzing how we adjust to COVID-19 measures in our day to day life. To be successful in any of these or many another endeavors requires asking questions, specifically, asking the right questions.

I just finished reading Freakonomics, the book by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. For a book that claims to have no underlying theme, it is really a book about asking the right questions before accepting information that is provided.

The various topics themselves (while interesting) are really the backdrop for the true value in the book, which illuminates why we act the way we do. Most topics start with some assumption of the outcome, and then examine the incentives in place that help shape human behavior. The authors write, “Incentive is a tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation”.

As the book goes on, the questions asked generally challenge the conventional wisdom on a particular topic. After positing a question that challenges a typically held belief, the authors then go in search of data, that is run through unemotional regression analysis to isolate variables that are correlated. The results often clash head on with the conventional wisdom

There are several examples in the book that studied early learning test scores (K-5) and various parenting statistics both active and passive (age before kids were born, education level, spanking, screen time, one parent home between age 0-5). As a parent I was very interested to find out that the most highly correlated factors affecting test scores were either genetic or socio-economic, prior to your child’s birth. In other words, your life prior to becoming a parent has more impact on your child’s early test scores, than any of the at home pre-K educational work you can do. (Not that it hurts at all, it just isn’t statistically significant)

While this information is both fascinating and relieving (my boys aren’t doomed because I travel for work), it is the question that is far more valuable. The question being, what can I do as a parent to help my children be successful?

El Duderino helping out with the post workout shake, “Ma, where’s the protein?”

The answer is well beyond the scope of this blog, (although I believe being a role model for general well-being is a great start). Asking the right questions and searching for answers, not accepting what is thrust forth against the data, is another great place to start.

The same applies to the personal well-being, diet and exercise world. There are plenty of conventional wisdom trends that have recently been upended, from high fat low carb eating, to high intensity interval training, to intermittent fasting and fat adapted endurance athletes, the data show a myriad of possibilities that were shunned just a few years ago. Again, for the scope of this blog the individual programs are less important than the questions, what am I doing to be a better version of myself? Does the data support those decisions/programs?

For all of my colleagues voting on the contract amendment, I urge you to ask yourself, what is my incentive, and have I examined the data, rather than the popular narrative?

For all of us approaching election season I urge you to ask yourself, have I researched the issues and the positions rather than the popular sound bytes?

For your own personal growth are you doing the things you can to be better than you were yesterday? I hope you will join me on the path of asking ourselves the tough questions, and maybe even getting a little sweaty along the way.

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

Show Up and Put In

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about this year’s Sober October challenge.

I debated at first about my participation in Sober October this year. Eventually I realized that as much as I didn’t want to do it, that all of the reasons I could think of not to participate, were really just as compelling reasons that I needed to.

“Oh Hi there, I’m 6 months old” (*Speedy said as he popped out from his hiding place)

So this year’s Sober October challenge is no alcohol, no added sugar, and 10,000 kettlebell swings.

There are plenty of things written about the 10,000 kettlebell swing program and nothing I can say will add to it, especially before I have even completed it. You can find the original program here.

Kettlebell swings in and of themselves are not especially challenging. As a triathlete and an Ironman, I can certainly find beauty and serenity in suffering through repetitive motion. That said, I’m 3 days and 1,500 swings in and my forearms are shot and my glutes are on fire.

My Garmin watch died and is being replaced, so rocking the 2013 Suunto Ambit for this week’s running in-between kettlebell days.

I think the biggest hurdle when it comes to taking on a challenge of this kind, or any kind for that matter, is first just to show up, and then put in the work.

500 swings a day, 2 days on followed by 1 day off, for the month, until you reach 10,000. The beauty of the challenge is that it is binary, you either show up and put in the work, or you don’t, there isn’t really an in-between.

On day two of the challenge, speedy decided to wake up at 3:50, and El Duderino followed suit some time after 5 am. My wife was in desperate need of catching up on sleep, so it was on me to show up and put in the work as a dad. Not the ideal prelude to my 1:00pm cast iron rendezvous, but again, this month’s challenge is about showing up and putting in the work, regardless of what circumstances might arise.

Often times fatherhood feels eerily similar to these physical, mental, and emotional challenges we are faced with. Suffering through repetitive motion, with beauty and serenity to be found for those who can appreciate the struggle.

Beautiful FL fall day for some smoked picanaha and veggies on the Z grill

After all the excuses and the doubt, what Sober October is really about, is showing up and putting in the work through the repetitive motions of the day. Showing up for your spouse, showing up for your kids, and showing up for yourself. Putting in the work to be a better husband, father, and person, and maybe find some serenity along the way.

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

My new best friend for the month, a 54lb cannonball

Galanin to the Rescue

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about galanin, what it is and some of the many ways it helps us.

Galanin is a neuropeptide, which is fancy word for a protein produced by neurons. (don’t worry I had to look it up because it sounded more like one of king arthur’s knights to me). Galanin is found in many different parts of our brain as well as our GI tract.

A recent article in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows an increased galanin level (derived from unfettered access to cardiovascular exercise) was correlated with a conferred resilience to stress in mice.

Two groups of mice were observed after a stressful event (foot shock). The respective galanin levels were measured in each group, with the experimental group having access to a running wheel in their cage and the control group having none. After three weeks there was a correlation between the elevated galanin levels, the amount of time exercising, and the degree of stress resilience, in the group of mice who used the running wheel. (After building in the first week they were averaging 10-16km per day, if you needed some motivation for your own running)

The test then went on to elevate galanin levels in otherwise sedentary mice and the observed the same stress resilience effects. It is obvious but worth stating that people are not mice, but we do have very similar galanin receptors. This experiment shows that repeated cardiovascular exercise increases galanin, and increased galanin helps us deal with stress.

Doing further research on galanin, I found this article in Nature, which shows that increased galanin levels are responsible for regulating aggression toward pups in male mice, and increasing their tendency towards parental behavior.

I’ve always felt that I’m a better father, husband, and overall person after a good sweat session. There are obviously multiple chemicals in play there, but galanin has a big role to play. This is especially true as stress levels have been elevated these past few months, as has time with my sons without daycare.

Increasing galanin levels seems like a great thing to do no matter what, but an especially great thing with all the stresses of Covid life, and the best way to do that is some good old fashioned SerenityThroughSweat.

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

Shut Up Legs

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Albeit a little later with all of the craziness that is 2020, this is one of my favorite stretches of the year, Le Tour. Hundreds of riders hammering the pedals across miles of the world’s most spectacular countryside is awe inspiring and motivating in a way that is hard to compare.

One of the color commentators on the broadcast, a former pro cyclist Jen’s Voigt, is famous in the cycling community for his remark Shut Up Legs! It is his brand, the title of his book and the name of his company and website. It is also something that all cyclists at some point or another can relate to.

Music man on our visit to Grammy’s house

SerenityThroughSweat for me has always been about finding peace, in large part through exercise. I think the ability to feel discomfort and then push through it. To realize the discomfort is only temporary and it is superceded by whatever the goal is, is a gift given to us by exercise. It is also what Jens so eloquently states in much fewer words when he says, shut up legs.

Anyone who has found themselves in the saddle, legs burning, and contemplating quitting knows the internal struggle that goes on. There are always an endless number of good reasons why calling it a day is a justifiable decision. Miles already ridden, lack of proper sleep/nutrition/hydration, inclement weather, other obligations at home. Honest self assessment, especially in times of discomfort, is a true virtue.

Getting ready for our upcoming mountain adventure

I try to think about it like Tyler durden would. “These are your burning legs, don’t go to your cave and find your power animal, what you are feeling is premature enlightenment.” Recognize the source of your discomfort, stay with it, not blaming it or hiding from it, and then say shut up legs.

The uncertainty I (and much of my aviation family) face is no different. Our metaphorical legs are burning with the threat of furlough and a long arduous climb of industry recovery looms on the horizon. We can unclip our pedals and call it a day, or we can say shut up legs, and take on the long hard climb ahead.

It doesn’t make the climb ahead any less daunting, or the burning feelings of uncertainty any less scary, but facing it head on saying Shut up legs! and progressing forward is the only sure path I can see for my family.

I hope that all of my brothers and sisters in the industry, as well as anyone else who is facing Covid related job loss, will join me in saying Shut Up Legs, and hammering forward in a way that would put the peloton to shame.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends. (And Vive Le Tour)

Routine

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about the value of routine, and the power that it holds especially in these uncertain times.

Three months ago I purchased a membership to The Ready State for myself as a birthday gift. I had already started to read Becoming a Supple Leopard, and I was starting to develop a morning mobility/yoga routine, and the 14 day mobility challenge they offered drew me in as a perfect evening wind down routine.

Some of the first 14 day mobility challenge, working on the bottom of the squat position

I started waking up about 10 minutes earlier in hotel rooms to make sure I could do some breath work and mobilize first thing in the morning. I made the mobility challenge part of my night time down regulation to help me get better sleep in those same hotels. (With the exception of some mobility work after particularly long runs instead of before bed)

When I was at home I would mobilize at night after El Duderino was down and my wife and I were watching TV before bed. First thing after waking up I would do my morning flow routine and drink a liter of water before anything else.

Overhead mobilization with banded shoulder distraction

I did most of the first 14 day mobility challenge in hotels since I was trying to fly a lot at the beginning of March. At ist completion, I am incredibly grateful for the improved squat position, not only for it’s impact on my running, cycling and Jiu Jitsu, but especially since it puts me at eye level with El Duderino. (A place I’m spending more and more time as the terrible twos progress)

As a pilot my schedule changes day to day and month to month. Bedtime, wake time, what city I’m in, what time I workout, what food I have access to, the only constant is change. So, controlling variables that I can, in order to make some semblance of a routine helps me maintain good habits and keep my sanity.

Simple and sinister followed by some overhead mobilization with the lacrosse ball

What a difference three months makes. The second 14 day mobility challenge from The Ready State started a few days ago on June 1. I haven’t flown an airplane, been to a hotel, or for the most part even left the house since completing the first mobility challenge. My sleep is wrecked, (although that’s mostly due to newborn Speedy and stress, rather than hotels and travel).

I’m pleased that I put in some of the upfront legwork to develop a mobility routine before the pandemic wreaked havock on everyone’s plans and schedules. I’m grateful to The Ready State for providing a platform and motivation to further my routine. I’m indebted to my routine for the stability, sanity, and serenity it provides.

Deputy Dad, laying down the laws of the sandbox

Without a mission around which to set a schedule, it is easy for routine to devolve into disarray. While establishing and maintaining a routine takes dedication and commitment, I believe a good routine breaks the laws of physics, in that it gives back more than what is put in. There is no better time than now to start your own routine, and as an added bonus, it’s hard to be stressed about Covid-19 with a toddler on your chest and a lacrosse ball in your back.

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

This week in SerenityThroughSweat, a couple of rainy runs, some S&S kettlebell work, the 14 day mobility challenge working on overhead position, and grandma comes to visit Speedy and El Duderino.

Multisport Social

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. As we continue through various forms of social distancing and reduced contact I want to talk about my appreciation for the social interaction of multisport athletes.

The triathlon community is one that I have found to be incredibly welcoming. Everyone likes to talk shop and compare gear, training plans, nutrition etc… But, it is also a largely solo sport. Yes there are teams, and yes you can run or ride together, but drafting rules and the nature of training time required ensure that a lot of miles are covered alone.

Quarantine baking Irish soda bread and naan

This solitude can be a blessing for the large number of type A personality multisport athletes. It can be a place of self reflection and you guessed it, serenity. It can also be a little lonely. Intervals and miles can tick by with no other contact than your own thoughts.

Especially in Florida, we have not only a very robust multisport population but also large number of runners and cyclists. So at any given time you can have countless athletes all on their own training sessions and individual journeys.

Speedy and El Duderino 2 month comparison

Here is where we find my favorite part of the multisport social interaction. Next time you are out shopping or running errands see how many people wave, nod, or otherwise acknowledge you. Now keep that same count on your next training activity.

The nod, wave, smile, salute, or general acknowledgement, while a simple gesture, is a powerful proclamation. It is the recognition from one athlete to another. An endorsement and an affirmation of two different but parallel purposes. A support system that strengthens spirit on even the dreariest of training days.

Isn’t that what we need as a country and as a species in these troubling times? A simple and quiet acknowledgement of parallel purposes. Running already brings us towards Serenity, the simple acknowledgement can help us pass it on.

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

This week in SerenityThroughSweat, Speedy turns 2 months old, El Duderino “helps” with quarantine baking, team TriGoodBeer puts on a virtual Covid-19km run, and some much needed mobility work and projectile meditation.