Trail run – Serenity Through Sweat

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This week, I want to introduce a concept from aviation that I think has great crossover into the health and wellness space.

Things fall apart. Things break. Murphy’s law says, “whatever can go wrong, will”. The correllary, is that murphy was an optimist.

This is something we deal with in aviation all the time. Parts break. It is then up to us as pilots to decide what is an acceptable level of breakage.

Christmas half marathon and roanoke layover run (i know I’m a little behind on the blog schedule)

That might sound scary, but we all make similar decisons everyday. The check engine light or tire pressure light in our cars. A toilet that doesnt quite work right you just have to jiggle the handle.

Things that aren’t operating quite as they should but we find work arounds to complete the task with a not pefectly functioning piece of equipment.

Whenever something is broken on and airplane we consult a Minimum Equipment List or MEL. The MEL, in its simplest form, is a list of all the stuff that can be broken and we will still be safe to fly.

Enjoying the local layover hotel

Again this might sound scary, but think about all of the non-essential functions in your car. Would you drive if the automatic windows didnt work? What about cruise control? The middle seat belt in the back seat?

The answer is probably a yes, but… Or maybe the answer is, it depends on where we were driving, how many people, what the weather was, etc…

Now you are thinking like a pilot. Our MEL gives us the same type of information. Depending on what is broken, the type of operations we are allowed to conduct may be limited, and the type of maintenance that must be performed is prescribed.

You wouldnt want to drive with bad winshield wipers if the forecast called for rain, but maybe thise wipers can be replaced another day if there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

This isnt about ignoring malfunctions, but rather acknowledging them and taking appropriate risk mitigation strategies when considering both the likelihood and severity of the malfunctioning equipment having an adverse effect on the operation that day.

The aviation MEL has M and O procedures. M for maintenance, and O for operational.

The maintenance section lists actions that must be performed on the broken equipment or system prior to the flight commencing. It also specifies when a final long term repair must be completed by for the priginal broken equipment.

The operations section places any limits on the types of operations you can conduct while the equipment is broken and remains unrepaired.

I think that same idea can play really well into the health and welness space, but I have never really heard it explicitly described in that way.

Back to Murphy again, there is no such thing as a perfect training day. There are too many variables and something will always be a little bit off. Sleep, nutrition, training volume, weather, equipment, lack of motivation, something is going to try and throw a wrench in your training plan and your day in general.

But, you definitely don’t need to feel perfect in order to train, or even just to function. And, even if you do have some sort of legitimate issue, (known injury or illness, bad weather, fragmented sleep, missing or broken equipment) you can still use the idea of an MEL to protect your plan.

Maybe you didnt sleep well last night. Consulting the health and wellness MEL might say your operational limits are to reduce volume by 20%. It might also say to avoid high intensity or heavy weights for that session to reduce injury risk.

The maintenance procedure might be to take an extended warm up and stretching prior to getting into your main set.

Trip to port canaveral launch pads and museum

Maybe you’re stressed out from work/family/relationship/etc that day. The operational section of the MEL might say zone 2 cardio or a shorter HIIT session is ok, but make sure it is an activity you enjoy. Stay away from something grueling or unappealing.

The maintenance procedure might have you try to gamify your warmup rather than something monotonous. It might also require you to have a pre workout energy drink or special playlist.

Maybe you are dealing with a knee injury. The MEL might say you have to wear a brace and do specific warmups prior to starting your activity.

Your operations might be limited to low intensity, lower miles, or lower impact activites only.

You might give yourself a week or two under those limits and then reevaluate the MEL for the knee injury to see if it still applies.

I think this type of framework is extremely useful to maintain activity levels as we age and deal with the inevitable hurdles to activity like, stress, illness, and injury.

Having an idea of, I can still do something as long as I take the right precautions, is way better than doing nothing because there is a problem.

Using the MEL framework, recognizes the problem, mitigates the risk, and tries to push forward on the path towards serenity.

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

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. My toddler said something interesting to me this week that got me thinking about learning.

While burning off some extra energy jumping in his bed, El Duderino decided that I needed to jump with him. I told him I was too big to jump on his bed to which he replied,

“Don’t worry daddy I can teach you, Just bend your knees then stand in the sky that’s how you jump”

Super adorable I know, kids say the darndest things. But, what caught my attention more was the interplay between teaching and learning. In order to teach something, it needs to be broken down into manageable sections.

For my toddler, jumping comes in two manageable sections, and while academically unspecific, it is a significant step from the “this is how you do it watch me” approach.

He had to break down the two different steps and then articulate them to me, the learner, pretty good for a a three year old.

I’ve gone through this same process with a number of activities but specifically grappling and flying. In order to teach something you need to be able to dissect it. Teaching effectively often times leads to more learning, because you are forced to analyze in a process oriented way that you might have omitted before.

Teaching someone how to land an airplane requires a mechanistic understanding of weather, aerodynamics, momentum, gravity, mechanical engineering, and the interplay between them all.

Teaching a double leg takedown requires an understanding of physiology, center of gravity, physics, momentum, defensive counters and reactions. Breaking down the process for others often improves your own technique.

Like any skill though, these data points all get recognized and processed almost automatically after a while. So going back and teaching them can be a refresher in what is happening at a subconscious level.

Not only does teaching then promote more learning (for the teacher as well as obviously the student) but it also enhances neuroplasticity and fights aging in the brain.

Any time we learn something new (even if it is a relatively small nuance to an already known process or technique) new neural connections are formed and old ones are strengthened. This is why the mechanistic breakdown required of teaching helps the teacher learn.

Getting zwifty before race season starts

Even though you already know how to do a double leg takedown, you create new neural connections and synapses and strengthen old ones by breaking down your technique. Creating new connections and strengthening old ones keeps the brain plastic, just like keeping your muscles supple.

Life long learning can help fight cognitive decline as we age, and teaching can help promote new learning, even for already known skills. So teaching El Duderino how to jump a little more eloquently than “stand in the sky” will help me age gracefully and find serenity. (So long as there are no major tumbles off the bed)

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

Tag: Trail run

MEL

Learning