JRE – Serenity Through Sweat

COVID-19 Engineering

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I can’t remember where I heard (a good chance it was a JRE podcast) that engineering is finding a way to do what you want with what you have. At the time, I thought about ways to stay in shape with the things I have at home (before the pandemic, but knowing how hard it is to get out of the house with a newborn) COVID-19 is showing us how deep that idea really goes.

One month side by side of El Duderino and Speedy

From a fitness standpoint, most people’s routine has been turned upside down. Grapplers, crossfitters, gym goers have all had to adjust. But garage gym athletes, folks who favor the kettlebell or sandbag, and bodyweight or calisthenic practitioners have already found a way to stay fit when what they have. Running, biking, hiking, jumping rope, are all great ways to get outside and engineer your fitness with things you probably already have.

El Duderino approves of the shrimp and grits, grilled broccoli, and Amish friendship bread.

With restaurants closed and some grocery store staples picked clean, I know I have certainly gotten more creative in the kitchen. From modifying recipes to make meat last longer, scratch baking, and catering to the sensitive, yet discerning, palette of a toddler, the kitchen has become a laboratory of experimentation and family fun with COVID-19 changing our eating and shopping patterns. Finding new and different ways to keep the family eating a healthy diet has been an interesting challenge in doing what I want with what is available.

Parenting and family activities sure look a lot different when you can’t touch public surfaces. Keeping a toddler interested in anything for more than fifteen minutes is a challenge, but removing some of our usual routine activities (library, playground, science center, pool/splash pad) has made us dig deep as parents to provide entertainment and education. The resources made available from organizations as well as individuals helping each other provide a nurturing environment for their children is heart warming and incredible.

I think one of the biggest silver linings to this pandemic is our collective ability to adapt and overcome. To engineer our way through a problem. A lot of us have become teachers, IT managers, personal trainers, and chefs, in addition to any other hats we might have already worn beforehand. All of those skills have been there all along, they just needed a little nudge to find their way to the surface. With a little ingenuity, and a can do attitude, we can still do most of the things we want with what we already have, and engineer our way towards Serenity.

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

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, some solo miles in the midday Florida sun and my phone shut down from over temp mid workout with the sandbag and the training mask.

The Trinity Nature of Serenity Through Sweat

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about what SerenityThroughSweat means to me or realistically all of the different things it means to me.

I grew up Roman Catholic and one of the main tenants and most difficult to fully comprehend is the nature of the Holy Trinity. Without getting into to much Dogma, Catholics believe in three essences with the same being of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but all one God.

I feel very similarly about Serenity Through Sweat. To me the Trinity of Serenity Through Sweat is a momentary feeling, a journey, and a destination.

The momentary feeling can show itself in a lot of different forms. Some might call it a runners high. For others it might be the quiet solitude and mental clarity after a workout. It might be a PR or a technique you hit in a roll for the first time. The point is, it is fleeting feeling. Part of the beauty and the allure is that it is fleeting and it leaves you chasing more.

Which leads us to the journey. If you chase enough of those fleeting moments, you can eventually find an appreciation for journey. The habits and relationships formed while seeking the moments, become a source of pleasure, especially if you can already them in the present, and not just in retrospect. Finding joy in the journey also helps deepen the appreciation of the moments.

Finally, we have Serenity as a destination. This idea constantly eludes me and I find it a bit ethereal and hard to pin down a definition. The characteristics of the destination tend to shift and change with my mood as I think about it. Most of the time I think about a mental state of peace (hence Serenity through Sweat). I should clarify this doesn’t mean a state without struggle, but rather a state that embraces and appreciates, rather than laments the struggle. I think about a mental state of Zen whereby the path to the mental state of serenity is paved with our sweat, physically mentally and emotionally. I’m not sure if this is a mental state or destination that is actually achievable, or if it is more of a “shoot for the moon and you’ll land in the stars” type of destination.

All three parts are separate and have their own important place, but all three parts also build off of each other to make the whole idea greater.

Today’s Serenity Through Sweat was an 8 mile hike in the Bay’s Mountain recreation area. Last night I stayed up to watch the UFC card and ate at Buffalo wild wings while watching. As a result, I spent the better part of the hike doing some epic butt clenching to avoid what would have otherwise been an explosive situation.

I did have a really cool moment where I stumbled upon some friends. I say stumbled because I hiked with one headphone in and one ear open. This let me catch up on some JRE as well as be somewhat in tune with my surroundings. I had just finished listening to Adam Curry, and had just queued up Gary Clark Jr and Suzzane Santo who were jamming when I heard a very faint rustling.

There were seven of them in total and they weren’t the least but phased by me being there. I took a few moments to appreciate how lucky I am to have these cool experiences, especially while at work on a layover. Another moment of Serenity, another brick laid on the path.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

Redefine the relationship

With New year’s right around the corner I’m thinking about New year’s resolutions. Most perennial gym members hate this time of year. The gym is full of fresh faces that often lack gym knowledge and/or etiquette and will most likely be short lived members. And while this is a real source of frustration, I would urge you to use this time to redefine your relationship, not just with your gym, but across many areas of your life.

The idea of redefining the relationship came to me earlier this year while participating with Joe Rogan and his buddies in Sober October. If you aren’t familiar with that tradition, basically abstain from booze for the month of October and then generally make better choices about your health and well being. The idea being at the end of the month you can look back and redefine your relationship with booze, food, fitness, etc…

For my sober October I decided to refrain from drinking but also anything with added sugar for the month. I then called off the month with a 24 hour fasting period.

For me it’s not uncommon to have a beer with dinner and another while winding down after my son goes to bed. It’s also not uncommon to have a small piece of chocolate or a mini Klondike bar for dessert (I know they are garbage calories but they are so good, and as the saying goes there is a long list of things I would do for a Klondike bar). The first 10 days or so without beer or sugar I felt somewhat grumpy and irritable at night. Like I was entitled to something for making it through the day and now it was being taken away.

The beer I would normally have wile winding down after my son went to bed I replaced with hot tea, this gave me something of a nightly ritual and something to look forward to, instead of just removing items I was replacing them. I also noticed I was sleeping better, and my resting heart rate was about 2-4 beats per minute lower on average over the course of the month.

October came and went (the 24 hour fast was not a great idea but more on that later) but at the end of the month I no longer felt like I was owed a couple of beers and dessert every night for successfully adulting through the day. I still enjoy craft beer, and my wonderful wife made me an advent craft beer calendar, but celebrating and counting down to Christmas feels different than popping a top because I finished a day. I still enjoy dessert (probably more often then I ought too especially during the holidays), but it feels like my relationship with both has changed after taking some time away from them.

Back to New year’s resolutions. They are what you make of them, and even if you only stick to something for a short time, maybe it can help you redefine your relationship with it.

Hate exercise but made a resolution to get in shape, maybe you can find an activity you enjoy and change your relationship with fitness. Have a sweet tooth and want to stay off sugar for a week, a month, a year. Maybe you don’t make it all the way or you slip up occasionally, but redefining your relationship with sugar is progress.

Maybe you you are that perennial gym goer who is angry at the world because someone is doing curls at the squat rack. Can you redefine your relationship with your gym peers. Maybe take someone under your wing in a helpful and non-condescending manner (I know that’s a tough ask if they are curling in the squat rack but come on we are all trying to get better around New year’s)

I hope the new year brings all of you happiness, health, success, obviously some serenity through sweat, and a positive paradigm progression. All alliteration aside thanks for joining me, happy new year, and stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s Serenity through sweat, 4 miles on the sand in Panama City beach.

Mastery of the Aircraft

Whenever training on a new aircraft, pilots are put through a rigorous training program consisting of aircraft systems knowledge, training procedures and flows, and ultimately both normal and emergency operations in a simulator. There is a whole slew of things that evaluators look for including ; knowledge, skill, good judgement, proficiency, and mastery of the aircraft. That last item, mastery of the aircraft, is obviously a subjective term, but I think we all know it when we see it, someone who is calm and in control regardless of the scenario, and who can think a few steps ahead.

I was listening to JRE episode #1392 the other day with ultra runner Zach Bitter and it got me thinking about this concept as it applies to athletes. How much training and experience does it take for a pilot to be the master of an aircraft, and how much time do we devote as athletes to being masters of our own bodies?

On the podcast zach talked about his recent 12 hour and 100 mile record breaking performance, as well as his diet and training plan leading up to it. The thing that surprised me the most about Zach was his training based on perceived effort which is an arguably more subjective criteria as opposed to something more objective (like heart rate zone training)

The difference of course is that Zach has put in the time, energy, and effort, and has the discipline to be a master of his body and can honestly and accurately assess his training based on perceived effort. How many of us age group traithloners, or casual BJJ practitioners, can say we have the discipline and understanding to do that?

Yoga practices often remind us to be aware of our breathing and tune in to what our body needs. I’m relatively new to yoga and after about twenty minutes in the hot room the only thing I feel tuned in to, is how much longer I can hold chair pose before my yoga mat has transformed into a slip’n’slide. (Incase the blog title didn’t give it away I’m a pretty sweaty dude) I can’t tell you how many interval runs or rides I’ve done where I’m unable to maintain my interval pace through the final interval. Even with a wrestling background and a lot of competition experience, I still remember going out way too hard in my first BJJ tournament match and almost running out of steam.

Part of the journey towards Serenity through Sweat is being aware of our lack of knowledge of our own body and working to better understand this vehicle we have through life. Working to develop the discipline and putting in the effort to become masters of our “craft”. For me anyway, that journey makes me a better husband, father and friend, and it’s a journey I’m happy to share with all of you. Stay sweaty my friends.