This summer I’ve added cycling to my list of activities aimed at getting and keeping me in shape. Jumping into it with a passion I’ve read several pieces on training and, true to my long distance running instincts, I've been studying how to plan and execute a long ride. Eventually I’d like to do a “century” ride, a ride that goes for one hundred miles. It takes training and a lot of advanced planning if you want to make a ride of that length and still be able to walk after the event.
As I’ve been reading and practicing a variety of things that should help me improve as a cyclist – diet, getting the right sleep, having the right gear to ride safely, doing the sprints and time trials, etc., I came across something I didn’t anticipate – “Cadence Training”. In its simplest form “cadence” is the number of revolutions per minute that a cyclist turns the crankshaft (the pedal) one full revolution. Cadence, it turns out, is something most competitive cyclists pay a lot of attention to, and now that I understand the principle I pay a lot of attention to it as well.
It turns out that most of us weekend riders pedal at around 60 rpm while a serious competitor will typically crank out 90 rpm. And, the extremely good ones, like Lance Armstrong, ride at 110 rpm! And, oh did I mention Lance rides 100-150 miles a day for three solid weeks in the Tour De France at that rate?
I immediately realized I was not a Lance Armstrong, he like Tiger Woods in golf, or Michael Jordan in basketball, is an extremely gifted athlete so I know that attaining 110 rpm is probably not a realistic training goal for me, but clearly getting my 60 rpm up to or close to 90 rpm is certainly attainable if I work at it.
The other training insight I’ve gotten is that it’s better to cycle up a hill using a lot of lower gears and keeping your cadence high then trying to hammer up a hill in a real high gear. You might take the first couple of hills faster than everyone else, but by the end of a 25 or 50 mile race you probably will finish last as your legs and energy level will have all been spent. And it turns out if you practice keeping your cadence up while climbing you’ll actually climb the hill faster using less energy, especially if it’s the fifth or sixth hill in the past thirty minutes.
Lately I’ve come to realize several applications of this training to our Christian walk. First, when I realized I hadn’t really focused on my cadence and did some further studying it turns out there’s a couple different types of people – those who try to overcome the hills in life by powering up them as hard and fast as they can and burn out early, and those who don’t try to improve their cadence and become satisfied with simply keeping pace with the pack. I realized I had been both at one time or another.
Second, clearly as Christians we are commanded not just to run the race God has set before us, but we are to run that race with intentionality, with the express purpose of winning that race. In Hebrews 12:1 it reads: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Paul in his writings talks of running so that we are to win the race, he writes in Philippians 3:13-15, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”
And again in 1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul writes, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” If we are to take our Christian walk seriously, if we are to be the Ambassadors Christ calls us to be, then we should be doing it with intentionality, with purpose – we should be running the race to win, not just to get the T-Shirt. Are you?
As you consider your answer to that question consider your cadence, are you trying to hammer up and over every hill, are you trying to keep pace with the faster runner rather than set your own pace, are you allowing Christ to lead you in this race or are you trying to do it all on your own strength? Or, perhaps you’ve been content staying with the pack, running along with the group rather than running to win, do you even think about winning, or is your focus simply completing the race?
I’ve come to realize at various stages in the race Christ has set before me that I’ve been both a power runner – running very hard in my Christian walk and then being so burned out I couldn’t complete the next lap, and I’ve had times in my life when simply keeping pace with the pack was my only goal.
Neither are good, neither are what Christ intends for us. We need to be working constantly on our pace, our strategy, overcoming the next obstacle, and enjoying those times when the wind’s at our backs – all with the express purpose of running to win, not simply to finish.
So here’s a piece of wisdom from a newbie cyclist: “pedal faster, not harder” and work on getting your cadence up – don’t be satisfied being one of the “average” weekend riders. It will make the hills come and go much faster and easier, and the level ground will simply fly by.
May Christ begin a new work in you today that will increase your cadence and bring you the victory that awaits each of us through Him.
In Christ,
Wes
