What I've Learned from Cycling

Have you ever asked yourself if all of the knowledge and techniques that you’ve learned through cycling could ever be translated to other areas of your life? This might be surprising but I use techniques and skills that I’ve learned in cycling to help me get through church almost every Sunday.

The church I attend meets for a 3 hour block on Sunday mornings. If three hours of Church at one time isn’t an endurance event I’m not sure what is. Don’t get me wrong, I benefit from it but it’s a long time to sit in one place with only two breaks.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

1. When I go for a long distance ride I’ve found that it’s important to change my grip on the handlebars quite often. This prevents my hands from going numb. When I’m sitting in church it’s important to change the way I’m sitting quite often. The routine is:
* Sit straight up
* Bend over with elbows on knees
* Sit back up again and put arm around wife
* Cross your legs with left foot up
* Cross your legs with right foot up
* Repeat.

If I follow this routine this keeps my rear end from going to sleep and it probably entertains the people sitting behind me.

2. When I ride centuries I configure my cycle computer to not show the distance on the first screen. I’ve found if I don’t do this I constantly look at how many miles I’ve ridden and calculate how many I’ve got left. This ends up ruining the ride for me.

The second hour of Church is Sunday School and depending on the topic this could be a mind numbingly long hour. In fact, if it’s possible for a clock to seem like it’s going backwards this would be the one hour of the week it actually does. Here’s my solution. If I force myself to not look at the clock on the wall every 3 minutes the time goes by a lot faster and sometimes the lesson is enjoyable. Sometimes!

3. In cycling I’ve learned it’s important to hydrate regularly and to take advantage of rest stops where available. At church this is my silver bullet. If I’m really struggling with a tired rear end or I just can’t concentrate I get up and walk down the hall to get a drink. I don’t use the option very often but it’s a life saver.

I’m sure there are a lot of other techniques I could be using but these seem to get me by in a pinch.