Recently our family got new bikes. To be honest, it's been years since I've done any serious biking. Sure, I've rented a bike or rode around with the kids, but the past few weeks we've been biking 10 miles several days a week. We're training to do a two day biking trip in the fall. When I was just biking with the kids, or tooling around on a rented bike, I never really learned how to use the gears. Now that we're biking for miles at a time and going up and down hills, I've learned the beauty of gears. The other day, when I was flying down a hill and shifting into a higher gear to take advantage of the momentum, Phil looked at me and said something profound: "You know, we could probably learn alot about how to live life from riding these bikes!".
So I've been thinking about that as I have geared up and down, climbing hills and breezing down inclines. I've thought about how easy the first mile feels and how difficul the last 1/4 mile can be. Here's what I've learned from biking:
- Don't push to hard at the beginning if you want to finish well. In other words, pace yourself.
- Take advantage of the downhill momentum to prepare for the next uphill climb.
- Sometimes the moment it really burns and you're tempted to stop is the moment when it levels out and eases up a bit.
- The hill you can handle when you're fresh and life is good will seem impossible when you are tired and exhausted. The hill hasn't changed, but your ability to climb it has - your reserves are depleted.
- Therefore there are moments when the best thing you can do is get off the bike and walk a bit or sit down and rest and get a drink. There is no shame in this. Sometimes a little rest is all it takes to finish strongly.
- If the terrain was the same all the time and all the roads of life were paved and flat it would indeed be easier, but it would also be more boring. Without the strain of climbing the hills we'd never know the thrill of flying down the other side.
- Momentum makes all obstacles seem easier to overcome than they really are. Climbing uphill makes each obstacle seem harder to overcome than it really is.
- The more I bike, the more I am able to bike. Endurance is built up over time and takes discipline. The ability to stick with it for the long haul is borne out of experience and being in shape. If I'm not healthy and strong, I won't be able to go the distance. If I don't learn from my experiences, I will make mistakes that disqualify me. If I don't stop and rest when needed, I will not be able to finish the course at all.
- If you get distracted and take your eyes off the trail you could have a wreck. And your wreck could hurt others and not just yourself.
- It's always more fun to bike with a friend. And their company is sometimes what motivates you to keep pushing on.
Bet you didn't know there was so much to be learned from riding a bike!
What steps are you taking to be able to "finish well"?
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