Flying – Page 3 – Serenity Through Sweat

Alternative Facts

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. We have officially crossed the one year mark, and I’m grateful for all of you who have followed along. I especially appreciate your readership because I know sometimes I can get lost in the woods or have a wonky perspective. With that in mind I want to talk about alternative facts.

The phrase coined in 2017 during Trump administration, alternative facts, are a fancy way of rebranding a falsehood. But I will use the phrase in a different and I think more appropriate way.

I have been searching through running world archives for one of my favorite running stories, and have been unable to find the article so forgive me for paraphrasing and not citing. The story goes something like this:

A husband and wife are competing in the same ultra distance trail running event. At the end of the event each of them is interviewed. In the husband’s interview he recalls memories from his time on the trail, winning the race, helping his wife cross a creek that was too deep for her, and his wife eventually coming in dead last. In the wife’s interview she recalls memories from her time on the trail, being the first female finisher, and her husband finishing next to last.

The husband and wife were the only two people racing. So while both interviews were factual, the tell two very different stories. Now this could be called perception, or connotation, but I think alternative facts is actually a great descriptor.

The husband won the race, that is a fact. He also finished next to last, that is an alternative fact. They are both real and true and describe the same event. The order of which is the “fact” and which is the “alternative fact”, is interchangeable depending on the message you are trying to communicate.

I read this story a few years back and it stuck with me. It stuck with me because of: how zany ultra runners, especially when married to each other are, the fun and interesting ways we can present the same information, and how we choose to present the same facts, especially when we are motivated by competition.

Switching gears to my work peers, (feel free to skip ahead three paragraphs if this doesn’t apply to you) I think we find ourselves in a similar situation looking at the current LOA vote. I am not nearly smart enough to find all the easter eggs and “what if’s” in this deal, but the main issue seams to be the TLV reduction.

The TLV reduction, just like the ultra runners, is either a quality of life win, or a concession to the company, depending on where you sit and what your message is. They are both true concurrently, and our individual competitive need to be right, further fueled by being “fact” (or alternative fact) based, is why we are seeing the high level of division within our ranks.

El Duderino digging in to some Deer Poop (chocolate covered raisins)

It is important to remember that like the runners, we are married to each other and running the race together. We each have a vote, and it is not in the scope of this publication nor is it my personal desire to sway you one way or the other. I would seek only to remind us all that we are on the same team, and the “alternative facts” of the LOA based on your perception, should not diminish our enjoyment for this race we embark upon together.

When forming an argument, the facts are obviously important and essential, but the message, intent and tone, take a close second. In cases where “alternative facts” are present those secondary factors are further amplified.

A couple good runs since the arrival of friendlier Florida temps

Being a zany endurance althete, and a competitor by nature, I often find myself alternating between “fact” and “alternative fact” as it suits my message and desire to win an argument. It is a bad habit that results in compromised communication and added angst in my relationships.

As we move through a contentious election season, a potentially dividing LOA, and a tumultuous 2020, I ask that we all consider the facts, and the alternative facts, and then engage each other as colleagues, peers, and friends.

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)

Under Pressure

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I’m sitting post run in my hotel room in Asheville on what could be my last layover in a while, and I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

I was drifting in and out of attention on the van ride to the hotel last night. I was on my phone trying to plan out my running route, when I caught the tail end of that familiar Queen and Bowie bass beet over the van radio. The words washed over me knowing this could be me last trip, and expecting a furlough notice any day, “this is our last dance, this is ourselves under pressure”

First off, I love my job, I’m grateful to be here, and I’m even more grateful that I knew this could be my last dance. Back in March, I got in an argument with the captain I flew with right at the end of the last rotation I would fly before lockdown. I didn’t know at the time that I would be out of the cockpit for an uncertain length of time, but I probably could have been a better version of myself if I had known.

Going in to this trip knowing that there is a good chance I don’t fly next month, and a good chance I get furloughed in October (I received my furlough notice along with 1940 other pilots a few minutes ago) I was primed to appreciate all of it (good and bad) with that knowledge ahead of time.

The way I feel hurtling towards the October 1st furlough date

It’s hard to see past the built in endings in anything. I remember crying while hugging my coach and my mother after my last wrestling match, not so much because I was sad, but because there is an emptiness left in the wake of mission completion. I remember the same emotions, crying alone in my hotel room after I finished Ironman FL.

I went on to coach wrestling and started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I continue training for and competing in triathlons, so they weren’t true endings, more like page breaks. But, there is still an emptiness especially in the immediate aftermath that is, I believe, unavoidable.

I’m fighting those same emotions and fighting back tears writing this now. I know (or strongly believe anyhow) that as a relatively young man this is not an ending, but just a page break in my career. Objectively, I understand this, but it provides little comfort to my short term feelings of emptiness.

If you’ve followed the blog for any length of time (thank you), I’ve been a preacher (for lack off a better term) of strengthening mental, physical, and emotional well-being, as a way to be better prepared no matter what situations you encounter. I feel blessed that my biggest concern is how much I will miss flying and how it has become a part of me, rather than my ability through flying to fulfill more base needs for my family (ie food on the table, and a roof over head)

Meal prep on the Z Grills pellet grill. Smoked turkey, brussel sprouts, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and beer bread

My family and I will be fine. In the grand scheme of things this will be a story we tell years from now in cockpits and at dinner parties. But in the short term, where page breaks seem like cliffs, emotions can run high, molehills can be turned into mountains.

Whatever may come over the next few months or years, I hope that I have prepared myself and my family to the best of my ability, for the challenges ahead. I hope that new passion and warmth fills in the emptiness that these events leave in their wake. I hope I am able to have the same appreciation throughout my career, as I have for this potential last(for a while anyway) flight. I hope that I can enjoy what may be my last dance, and that my family and I can live well, under pressure.

Morning miles along the French broad river in Asheville

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

Briefings

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about briefings, what they are, why they are useful, and some pitfalls I commonly find myself in with my own briefings.

As is often the case in life and in the blog, taxonomy is important to understanding. Briefing as a noun is a meeting for giving information or instructions, and as a verb, it is the act of informing or instructing.

Laugh sessions with Speedy

As mundane as those definitions sound, briefings affect the way we manage our families, our businesses, and our country. Good briefings can set us up for success just as much as bad briefings can leave us exposed to unmitigated risk.

I am constantly briefing. Pilots brief everything. Takeoff, departure, weather, maintenance, passengers, arrival, landing, expected threats, you get the idea. We do a lot of briefing. Those briefings (especially my own) have a tendency to get repetitive and monotonous, and like most things that are repetitive and monotonous, they tend to slip into a state of complacency.

As pilots, we know this, (and are constantly reminded of it by, oddly enough, by union, company and third party briefings) yet we all too often slip into a laissez faire attitude to our fellow aviators’ briefings. I recently had a captain brief me saying “we’re gonna do that stuff”. Does that sound like a professional giving information or instructions?

Briefings should of course be brief. As someone who likes to talk (and write), I know the tendency is to expound and leave no stone unturned. But, these aren’t thesis defenses, and no one wants to be lectured past the bullet points.

Shapes, colors, and numbers with El Duderino

Remembering that briefings are a form of instruction or a passing of information, it helps to know what you are talking about on more than just a surface level. Instruction requires a familiarity with the intricacies of the material in order to effectively brief.

As we said early taxonomy is important and so is diction. Understanding the material and keeping your message short, means that your word choices are critical. How many times have you listened to a politician who speaks a lot of words without saying anything?

These are relatively simple rules, but it is not hard to find examples (including in this blog) of briefings running afoul. In a time where information is so readily available we still struggle mightily with the effective transfer of it.

Transferring ideas means more than just slingshotting 280 characters into the void. It demands careful contemplation of your communiqué and curation of you channel of delivery. All alliteration aside, transferring ideas equals effective briefings. Like most things discussed in this blog, it is a difficult and valuable skill that can be practiced, and improved, and one we could all benefit from.

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