Ep. 7 - I Had the Nightmare, Billy Took the Plunge (For Special Olympics)

Elliott: This is the Maine responder podcast, real conversations about work, the pressure and the lives shaped by service. There's no single lane here, no script, just honest talk. Let's get into it. What's been going on? Couple things. Yeah. I'm hitting off, I guess, ⁓ the course correction episode will touch lightly a health check-in with me. I know I was a little off the rails, ⁓ to speak, on that episode with my findings, but I took it to heart ⁓ decided really ⁓ in stone my ways. ⁓ better. taking all my supplements that I need to take ⁓ I've been solidifying my workouts. I'm getting three to five cardio sessions a week. to strength workouts a week and it's been going good. Big thing. I've noticed my mood has improved. My energy's improved. I don't have an afternoon crash anymore. My afternoon nap that I usually hit when I get home no longer exists. my sleep quality. and recovery has also vastly improved. Very rarely am I in the yellow unless I really put myself through a workout a little too hard, too late in the day or too late at night. a metric that I see is that I'm down 2 % body fat. That's pretty fast. I feel pretty good about it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, as usual, I got something. had a damn nightmare ⁓ and It's one of those infidelity nightmares have ever had those yeah, know where you wake up ⁓ and you're pissed off at your wife Because in the in nightmare, she cheated on you I had that making eyes, glances across the room. Yeah, yeah. In the dream shore. Yeah. And who is this fella? You know what I mean? Where did he come from? It's a figment of my imagination. well, it pissed me off. You know, I even think I woke up, went back to sleep and just picked up where I left off. But that might have been part of the whole dream, too. I'm not really sure. But man. It pisses you off. You know what mean? You wake up hot. You wake up like, ugh. this time I actually didn't, didn't wake up as hot and angry as I typically do. It's all in good fun because obviously it didn't happen. But I'm usually the first one up in the house. And so I go downstairs, I sit down, I pop on the news So I'm just sitting there and I'm of course, I'm going down this rabbit hole. I do the same thing every time. I already kind of know what it is. What does this dream mean? You know what mean? Like, please let me, let's, let me be a doctor of dreams now and interpret what, what the hell this means. And with the help of, know, ⁓ the internet ⁓ and maybe AI, ⁓ put your feet up, get the pillow, ⁓ get the pipe. Yeah. So ⁓ But there was a difference in this dream. Well, nightmare, guess, right? Because I keep calling it a dream, but that's a nightmare. That's a nightmare situation. Everybody wants that. in the nightmare, towards the end, I was kind of like, yeah, all right, whatever. I'm out. you do you, see ya. And that kind of felt good. I feel I came out victorious. And every single time I go down the, down the rabbit hole, I end up like on some kind of woo woo website that's basically also telling me what my spirit animal is. none of it is really, trustworthy information. But I always find that I have a lot going on. that's my default. I've got like a speaking engagement coming up, which is on my mind, you know, and there's always a little bit of stress, anxiety and ⁓ insecurity around, what I'm going to deliver in that message, So yeah, then I'm thinking that the weight of some of the stuff that I have going in, none of it's that bad. It's just a lot of stuff. Some interesting situations in my personal life, whatever, not a big deal. ⁓ Life is good. But I'm on the couch, having a coffee. My wife comes downstairs she's wearing a red shirt. I think it was like a sweatshirt that we got for like Valentine's Day, just kind of a cutesy little thing. And it's a red sweatshirt and I couldn't help but call her Freddie. like you're a Freddy Krueger. ⁓ I was like, so the red made me think of that, red and stripe. you're Freddy Krueger. You were in my, ⁓ you were my nightmare. So I had to explain to her what the hell I meant about that. I've talked about having those types of nightmares, dreams, whatever in the past. well, I'm pissed off at my wife. She cheated on me in my in my dreams, You know, kind of a kind of a funny way to start the day, but. It also for me, of gives me that, sort of a signal about, distress and what's going on in my life and things like that. there's definitely something to that, it is what it is. it's just one of those funny things that happens in life, but I will take the signal that some things maybe have to slow down a little bit. I'm always into so much stuff, not hobbies. Like we talked about, just really busy with stuff. I've started adding like some blog stuff to the website. Yeah, the blogs on the website have been I think a fantastic follow-up. Yeah So good job with those. Yeah. No, I appreciate it just like the podcast. It's been fun to get some of my thoughts out there, and just see what you know where they go, but the one of the things that I wanted to bring up today number one, you are probably as close to, if not an expert, I've seen you do some speaking on this You've gotten me to crazily do this, the cold water plunges. And the reason I wanna talk about it is because you're involved in something pretty cool. Yeah, we got something coming up here. We got selected. So we, meaning myself and Bobby Gavone, got selected to be a part of the Special Olympics Super Plunge. And that's just what it seems to be, like an extreme fundraising event. You get your extreme sports, you do different things to go to the next level. Fundraising at the next level. It's 24 dips and 24 hours. think we have 16 maybe participants in it. And we're looking to raise about 80 grand for this event, which is a pretty big, it's pretty hefty lift, I'd say. So not only is it an extreme in the fundraising aspect, but it's also an extreme in the event. We're gonna be doing, you know, every hour on the hour for 24 hours jumping into the Atlantic Ocean in March. So we're... You know, just a few weeks away from that March 21st, 22nd, ⁓ it looks like the Norseman resort in a gun quit is graciously hosting us, providing us with everything we need to kind of make it through this event. I about it and I'm like, this is tough. I understand cold exposure, the psychological component of it, the physical component of it. We talked about sleep. I'm going to say we're not sleeping. ⁓ that's, that's extreme. ⁓ it's all for a good cause. You know, it's a mission with a purpose, as they say, 24 dips and 24 hours. ⁓ think there's it's Maine, Maryland, Ohio, Washington state, Oregon, and Illinois that I know of that all have a super plunge going on ⁓ within the next couple months here. So in March, Atlantic Ocean, Maine, what's an estimate of what the temp of the of the water right now? The temp. So right now the temp is. 37 to 39 degrees. Yikes, OK. It's not going to warm up. Yeah, so I'm going to say 39. OK. That's cold. Yep. what really it that much more challenging is it's the ocean. There's the surf, you've got to run a distance from the resort to the water's edge. ⁓ And if there's surf, you got to through some of it to get in. I guess that's, that's going to be the challenge, my own personal challenge. is just not to do a dip and dive, you know, roll in the surf. I want to get in there and get my whole body body in and make sure that I'm getting a good solid plunge in for my own personal. Right. you've been, my coach, the journey of ⁓ cold plunging, which has definitely on and off for me. I feel immediate benefits when I do it. So it's one of these things why don't I keep doing it? It's because every single time is a challenge. So 24 on 24 is gonna be the real deal. But you bring up something that was the most challenging time when I went into the ocean. You were there, we had some other people after one of the conferences, maybe before one of the conferences. And one of our speakers, Scott Medlin was gonna, come over. He wanted to try the cold because he had talked to you about it. He wanted to get in there and ⁓ do it. And exactly right, man. We went to the ocean and it was very different ⁓ than jumping into tub in your backyard. That gradual, slow ⁓ walk you're just feeling, talk about mindset. you really have to be in the right mindset, When I finally got to man right about my nipple line, let's say I felt like I got hit by a baseball bat. That's how I describe it. Cause it was not, not physical pain, but it was just like, Whoa, it was a true, true shock, which is also what I love about it because it's like you're checking in with how you can withstand and how you can, hold up and recover from that type of a shock in a sense of mental toughness. Yeah. But, ⁓ I remember man, I think you had looked at me, kind of guided me through it and saved my ass when I was out there. And then it was enjoyable. once I got it together and you put me back, I guess centered me right in a sense, It was fine. But whoa, ⁓ it is just, ⁓ it hard, but it ended up being great. And I just, it was a reminder of like, this is still a hard thing to do. but the benefits man, I love it. Yeah, that was ⁓ man was a very, that was a challenging plunge for me too. Because never have I ever walked that far to get in the water. Yeah. And it wasn't like the mean the beach, was low, low tide. And it was York Beach, I can't remember which one it was, they've got long sand, short sands, all the sands. But we walked, we walked for sand for a little bit. But then it was ankle deep water for what felt like forever. Then knee deep. And finally we got to waist deep. I'm like, I feel like I'm a mile from the shore right now. Let's we're going in. We're getting in. So that, that too, that was a struggle for me. Plus the challenge of, you know, newcomer Scott, the Southern kid coming up North here ⁓ in winter time. Nonetheless. I felt like I had a lot on my plate at that time as far as keeping him safe, keeping you safe, and making sure that everybody still had a good experience. And I wanted to get the point across that it was beneficial and it was safe. And here we are, snowing, windy. mean, it was a cold day. was a cold day. There was no sun to help us at all. And a lot of times that's what I look forward to on the sunny days of winter, to jump in the water. get cold and get out and just let that sun beat on you. feels really good. But we had no... comfort coming whatsoever. It was just all cold. you ⁓ Help me understand this because I I keep going to different sources and getting different answers. But, I've done it in the summer, And I can't quite get enough ice into it. I guess what I'm getting at here is like temperature and time. in the middle of August, I want to I want to do a dip. And I can't seem to get it down to. You know, 40 degrees, let's say What am I looking for? Sometimes I'm like 30 something degrees. It's crazy. It's crazy. That takes a lot of ice or a mechanism to get it down that low. I go by and I've heard this before. I want to say I heard it on Huberman. but the rule of threes and fives. So between three to five minutes in the 30s to 50s, the lower the temperature, the lower the duration, I also look at it as a dose of Advil or Tylenol. So what do you need to accomplish your desired outcome? So for summertime, Even if you get it into 60 degrees, that's still cold. You're still dropping your internal temperature, because that's what you're looking to do is to drop your core, internal core temperature, right? But the time, you're right, it's going to be a lot longer. You're looking at 15 to 20 minutes for that temperature So bang for your buck. 42 degrees I think is optimal for me. I like 42 degrees even 50 degrees is good But you're stay in for five ten minutes, you know, you really want to get it But you also if you're staying in that long you want to move the water around so you got to move your arms You got to move your legs got to open and close your legs to get that water circulating So it doesn't maintain that bubble around you. There is a Thermal barrier that's created if you just sit still in water it'll create a little barrier around you and you won't be as cold so you have to have something circulating that water ⁓ just keep it moving. So what would you give what would you give for a tip? for a newbie, somebody that wanted to give this a shot, on their own or somebody who's going to do this super plunge and has never done it before. You know, they're in for ⁓ a bit bit of a shock. mean, I think the beauty of it is you're going to there's going to be the camaraderie. going to be a lot of people there watching out for one another So that's going to be the fun of it. take some time to warm up a little bit, do some movement. Wim Hof has a great horse dance that you do back and forth rocking, breathing with it. You're not doing any kind of breath holds or any rapid, rapid breathing. It's just a slow and steady controlled forceful breath to stimulate circulation. Just breathe into it and relax. And it just allows that cold to wrap around you, the sorape effect. It just comes around and grabs you around your body and settles you. So camaraderie of it, of doing the horse dance, getting the rhythm, getting in sync with everybody, and then getting in the water. there's, yes, circulation, increased movement, getting a good breathing pattern going. Increasing your temperature, your body temperature a little bit. Boosting your adrenaline. Encouraging camaraderie and no ego. We go is what we would say. So in this super plunge, are you going to get everybody together and do a horse dance? Man, that's ⁓ it be bad. I ⁓ mean, if could just, you know, I'm sure there's going to be some people like, what is this? What is this noise? This nonsense? And I'm telling you, and I can imagine if you have a good size group, it's probably pretty powerful and pretty cool. ⁓ But let me ask you this, your story why you started doing this. it's a cool story because it's kind of a generational story, but also because of pain that kind of brought you right into The cold water. Yeah. you know, there's going to be some people out there that, that listen to this, That have heard me speak at conferences that have heard me on other podcasts. I don't know if that's plural or singular. think it might just be singular. can't remember how many, I've done other podcasts, two people, two people, guys know, blew out my back. had two blown discs in my back. Really struggling. Lots of pain. Couldn't feel my left leg from my knee down. And the sciatic pain that was going through was unbearable to the point where I was always laying on the floor. laying on my stomach was my ⁓ rest position. pain free. I could sit there, could scroll on my phone, I could read a book, I could watch TV, hang out with my kids. my youngest daughter was five. And this was the pivotal moment for me. Just giggling and laughing. I'm laying on the floor on my stomach. I'm like, what are you doing back there? And I look down, I look back behind me over my shoulder. And there she is with scissors cutting the hair on my left leg. And I had no clue she was touching my leg. And she's just laughing hysterical. And I said, what am I going to do? She's five and already, you know, taking advantage of poor old dad laying on the floor in pain. What's it going to be like when she gets older? And that really was my turning point where... I went to the ocean. said, I thought about my pop and. and I how good we felt. Even as a kid coming out of the water out of the cold and I'm saying, you Long Island in the spring ⁓ water temp was probably 5055. you felt great. So I thought about that and thought about some of my, research that I did in college, doing sports fitness management, being in the athletic training room ⁓ with the cold And so I just walked into the went down to the beach, walked into the ocean. And it just consumed me. It was cold, walked in, went up to my neck and just sat there, looked out at the fishing rocks. in Kennebunkport just sat in the water and just relaxed my breathing and just sat there and it was probably about nine minutes. ⁓ ⁓ behind it really, just knew that it was a thing and I was going to give it a try and see what would happen with it. And I walked out of the water and the first thing I noticed was even though I was cold, was I was wiggling my toes and I could tell I was wiggling my toes. ⁓ So right there, the inflammation, that me that most of my pain was due to inflammation and that just brief little bit. nine minutes in the water was enough to reduce the inflammation enough to allow proper transfer my nervous system to transmit pain and movement. ⁓ that's I always I always like to hear that story because it's a cool it is a cool story really that started off as kind of just a cool thing you and your grandfather did, Yeah, yeah. So that's great. And look at it now. mean, now it's, I mean, who would have thought, right? It's something that you are passionate about, speak about, are able to share, the benefits of it. I think that's great. ⁓ you actually did a great presentation at the wellness conference up in rumford. ⁓ It was well received it was well done it right there watching it and I don't not saying that because because I you it was it It was really cool to do it and also you know people that are willing to get you know get involved right. All right, I'll try you know which is courageous and a lot of fun because they don't know what to expect. that mental strength and I love that you know that's that's where I think ⁓ I just love to test that and that's what I love. probably most about the cold water plungers. But I wanna just say before we wrap up here, you're doing this super plunge, which is a Special Olympics fundraiser. And Special Olympics, man, such a cool connection between the Special Olympics and law enforcement, and ⁓ this is just evolving I think right and another cool thing to bring awareness and and Help raise some money and I know these are always really successful I on the site last night and I forget where they were far as raising money, they're doing pretty well, but not quite there. And I know you, ⁓ the members that, ⁓ that we have that are doing this also looking to raise some money. And ⁓ we'll put those links in the description the podcast. Hey, no, ⁓ no pressure, if you're looking to some money, in special Olympics is just such a great organization. ⁓ ⁓ All right, man, what else anything before we close out? This is this has been a cool I've been wanting to do this right and I know we'll hit it because I want to go deeper, but I really wanted to add that ⁓ just the Special Olympics element. Do know how many agencies are involved? So we have, I want to say Brunswick, Old Orchard, Agunquit, York, Kittery. I think the York County Sheriff might have. people there too. Windham. So there are several agencies across that are, that are coming from far and wide because they do hold something similar, like the, another, another plunge up North as well, where they cut a big hole in the ice, which I think they were supposed to do that last week or the week before. But one of the things that I did want to mention too, real quick about the special Olympics is this a full circle turn for me before I became part of law enforcement. I was a strength coach and it was Enfield, Connecticut. I trained a special Olympian. Really? He was a thrower and a big solid kid worked really hard. No matter what exercise I gave him, no matter how many reps I told him, okay, you got it. And he would just do it. I can do 10 more. Okay. Do 10 more. You're done. Okay, what's next? Just a go getter. He is grit and determination. And I know he won medals. He just was a performer. He worked hard. He loved what he did and he loved coming in and working out with us. And just seeing his face on successful completion of a workout, it was very prideful. So for me, this is a prideful moment for me to give back in another way to Special Olympics. So that kind of full circle for me now seeing it. mean, this is we're talking, you know, almost 20 years ago now. That's a long time. warms my heart, even though I'm going to be getting cold. Yeah. I'm looking forward to coaching people if they, if they so desire. know I'm going to have to coach myself. is 24 dips in 24 hours. I'm not sleeping. it is gonna take a lot of ⁓ to get in that water. And I'm gonna compel some people to some things that they normally wouldn't do during this timeframe to really ⁓ embrace the plunge. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's gonna be fun. Well, if I you, you're gonna be able to offer some really good tips that will help people ⁓ if they end up in that. strange situation I was in where I was like whoa yeah man I could have just been taken out to sea at that point. But I do remember you look at your face yeah, I just kind of glanced over you as like oh yeah, you need to tell it's a feeling I remember it is a feeling that I remember but that's my take away from right I mean that's like yeah a little bit more of my strength is remembering that I can kind of call back to that. I love the feeling. haven't, I plunged maybe I think last week got in the river. I'm doing three minutes. That's all I got. ⁓ And was a long three minutes. But as soon as I got out, you know, was luckily it was a sunny day. Just put my arms out by, you know, out to the side outstretched and I allowed that sun just beat on me. And I remember, you know, I would do that with my buddy Sam We would get out at the beach, the full sunshine and just look up at the sun and just be like, ⁓ and you could just feel those rays penetrating you and just getting you like, it just felt awesome. the energy that I felt. It was good. And if it was an accomplishment too, So to come into it with that mindset and to come out of it with, thank you. I'm glad I did this. ⁓ That's, that's the goal. That's the goal. I want everybody to feel that way. ⁓ Awesome, man. Well, see you on the next one. everyone who ⁓ is listening ⁓ and stay safe. Be