About
New International exists to proclaim Christ and make disciples globally. Let us join with God as He continues to make all things new; He gives us new vision of new ways to reach new communities with the Good News of Christ, bringing new light to hearts that have previously been lost.
Connect
- 03/22/2022
- new international
Cycling and My Spiritual Journey
Every ride presents its own challenges
This blog thing is a challenge every couple weeks. I try to figure out how to tell different testimonies each and every time I write something new. This blog is different however. I want to go into detail about my rides and training for events and how it pertains to my spiritual journey.
I try to ride 3-4 days a week. Day one of the four is a recovery day from last week’s mileage and is generally about twenty-five miles in zone one or two (my heart rate zones), with no accelerations. My average pace is fourteen to fifteen miles per hour. This ride is primarily on trails.
The second of the four rides is a group ride that is forty-two miles in length and we ride out and back. This ride averages seventeen to nineteen miles per hour and is heavy drafting with a paceline formation. This ride also can be very spirited with egos being crushed on bridges. If you know anything about Southwest Florida, it’s flatter than most kitchen tables. So suficit to say when this northerner sees a hill, his legs instantly get excited and decide to race up the bridge! I typically drift through zone two to zone three with some zone four efforts (my heart rate zones).
The third ride is a recovery ride with some ladies who are retired. We don’t often push the pace, which means I don’t generally look at my heart rate. This ride is about forty miles.
The last ride for the week is 62-65 miles and is ridden with the same group as my Thursday morning ride. The pace is generally around eighteen miles per hour and yes, we absolutely will crush egos on the hills! The two harder rides are spirited, but we know when to rally around one another when a cyclist is struggling!
The two harder rides I equate to my struggles with consistency of being in the word on a daily basis! Some days I’m right in the fight…other days I’m way in the back of the pace line. The easier rides are like reading a familiar passage with friends and talking about how it relates to your everyday journey. Each ride presents its own challenges that's for sure, but I’m thankful for every mile!
