Continued from yesterday’s musings about training for endurance events, in this case my bike ride across the Great State of Oklahoma, specifically what you can learn for living successfully in an “endurance” sort of role.
KNOWING THE ROUTE AND BEING PREPARED:
When planning for a bike ride, there are some things you can count on. Look at the race route and you will see hills, newly paved roads versus old country lanes. You can’t just hope that those difficulties will not be there when you get to them. So train for hills. When plan out how far you will be going on a certain day, make allowance for the slower speed caused by big hills.
If your group is planning some days that are 80 miles long, don’t be surprised when they are actually that long! Ride some long rides, ration your strength on those days. Likewise, in our work, we know there are seasons that will be more intense each year: budget time, board meetings, training events, whatever. We shouldn’t be surprised by them.
PLAN FOR UNSCHEDULED THINGS:
The hills you can plan for. But there are other factors you don’t know in advance: Sometimes it will be raining. And sometimes you will get a flat tire. And unless you are in the Tour de France, where someone just sweeps in and switches your tire in 2 seconds, you will have to stop. And then there is
THE WIND:
The wind is what can so radically change an easy course into a hard one, without notice. Sometimes you are out riding and exalting in how fast you are going. Then you turn around to come home and realize the wind has been at your back and is now in your face!
It truly is a wild card, especially in Oklahoma, “where the wind comes sweeping down the plain”. They didn’t include that line in the song just because it rhymes nicely. It’s TRUE.
Yesterday, I was out for a ride with a friend and we chose to alter our course to cut across the wind, since the prevailing wind was one of those winds where you think you could actually WALK faster than biking. Unfortunately, in life, you can’t often change your course. And you can’t always assume you will have the wind at your back. Sometimes it is full in your face.
In life’s journey, the wind in your face represents the “opposition from sinful men” that causes you to grow “weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3) Likewise, it is the spiritual opposition that we do not see but certainly feel.
I think we also can extend the metaphor to include the wind at our backs which is the strength of the Spirit and the prayers of the saints. We need those and are so often unaware of them when they are there pushing us along.
STOP IN THE SHADE
On the long rides, when the sun is beating down and sweat pouring down from under the sweatband into your eyes, you will need to stop to rest. These may be scheduled “gatorade, cookie and fruit stops” on an organized ride (compare with an organized retreat) but also might be just an unscheduled stop under a nice shady tree for whatever snacks you have brought along.
A rider might make the mistake of hitting the 10-mile rest stop and thinking, “I’m doing fine and feel strong, I’ll just go on and hit the next one.” But eventually he will wear himself out sooner than those who stopped and got refueled.
I remember my first furlough working at our headquarters in Dallas for 3 months or so. They had a “spiritual emphasis week” and I didn’t feel free somehow to “not work” that week and so I skipped the retreat. What was I thinking?
CROSS-TRAINING, STRENGTHENING YOUR CORE
Cross-training has for some time been all the rage in sports. It means simply that if you are training for one sport, you should also do exercises from other disciplines to strengthen the muscles that are secondary for your sport. A runner might do some swimming, and a gymnast might run and lift weights. Why? Because those muscles provide strength and stability to the primary ones you are using.
You will hear a lot of talk these days about “strengthening your core”. Your CORE is made up of the abdominal muscles, hip muscles and lower back muscles that stabilize your spine, and keep you upright.
All this to say that for a cyclist, it’s not just about your legs!
I’ve been doing a lot of core exercise to strengthen my abs and lower back which will keep me from having a sore back on the ride and also help with balance. I’m also working on my arms and shoulders which take a lot of punishment holding on to handlebars.
So how does the metaphor extend to life? We obviously need to keep strong spiritual disciplines to endure in a stressful job. But ‘cross-training for life” would mean also staying disciplined in other areas: diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, good relationships with friends and family. These things will give us the endurance to keep "stablized" when we really hit a rough patch.
Ministry-wise, I think this would include being involved in some activities outside your main ministry and also working on developing spiritual gifts in areas that are not your primary one.
TOMORROW: Part III: Nutrition, Fuel, Hydration and stretching!
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